--- title: The Most Mysterious Ancient Technologies Lost to Time description: "Technology has a tendency to move forward. Even if the entire world doesn't reach the same point at the same time, as a whole humanity's technological achievements have continued to improve and build upon one another. When the Sumerians invented the wheel in roughly 4000 BC, society didn't then forget about it for a thousand years only to need to invent it all over again.\n\nEven if that had happened, people would likely have been able to reverse engineer the wheel from the stories they heard. If epic tales were being told of people carrying heavy carts with ease thanks to round, stone wheels, it wouldn't take that long for somebody to carve a stone into something resembling a wheel.\n\nBut every once in a while, we encounter something that can't be easily replicated. There may exist reliable documentation that a technology existed, but even after 2,000 years of technological advancement we have been unable to figure out exactly what some things were or how they were created. It need not just be written testimonials, either. In some of these cases we still have the actual thing that was made, but despite science's best efforts we either can't reproduce it or can't explain how it was made in the first place.\n\n## Greek Fire\n\nOne of the most well known lost technologies is Greek fire. It was also one of the most feared, as the term \"Greek fire\" became synonymous with any incendiary weapon. Such weapons were commonplace, and primitive grenades date all the way back to the 3rd century AD. These grenades would use chemicals that would ignite when exposed to enough heat or sunlight, but they were a far cry from the actual Greek fire.\n\nFirst developed in roughly 672 AD, by the Eastern Roman Empire rather than the Greeks, Greek fire was much more like napalm. It was given the name Greek fire by European Crusaders, but its creators simply named it liquid fire.\n\nIt was heavily used in naval battles because it could easily spread and continue to burn even when on top of the water. Not only did the Byzantines use the compound to thwart the crusaders at sea, but they also built pressurized nozzles that could spray the self-igniting liquid on their enemies. For all intents and purposes, they had invented flamethrowers.\n\nThis liquid was extremely dangerous and would stick to anything it touch, be it a ship's hull or a person's skin. Once the liquid chemical was on something, it was nearly impossible to put out. It clearly couldn't be put out by water since it burned on top of the sea, and some sources even indicate that it was ignited by the water. The only substances that were known to be able to extinguish the flames were sand, strong vinegar, and old urine.\n\nThe composition of Greek fire was a closely guarded state secret at the time, and one that nobody was able to replicate. Arabs managed to capture an entire Byzantine fireship full of Greek fire in 827, but they could not reproduce the compound. They were able to create a mostly similar incendiary weapon, but it wasn't quite the same. Despite having also captured some of the siphons, the flamethrower-like devices used to deploy the weapon, they were unable to reproduce the deployment system. Instead, the Arabs used catapults and grenades as the delivery system for their weapon.\n\nIt is unclear exactly when the formula for Greek fire was lost. There are some accounts of it being used during the 11th through 13th centuries, but it is strongly believed that all or most of these are just other incendiary weapons.\n\nTo this date, we haven't been able to figure out exactly what Greek fire was. Early theories suggested that the primary ingredient was either saltpeter or quicklime, but these have since been refuted. The most promising current theory is that the primary ingredient used was what the Persians called naphtha, better known to us as crude oil.\n\nGiven that the description of Greek fire is very similar to that of napalm, this makes a lot of sense. Napalm is just gasoline combined with naphthalene and palmitate to turn it into a sticky substance. It is believed that a similar effect may have been achieved using resins as a thickening agent, but the exact formula continues to elude us.\n\n## Flexible Glass\n\nGlass naturally occurs in nature, but humans have been making our own glass for about 4,000 years. Glassmaking was a major trade, and when glassblowing was invented in approximately the 1st century BC it led to a lot of advancements with glass. One of the chief endeavors of glassmakers was to try to create higher quality glass than their competitors.\n\nThe year was around 20 AD, and a humble glassmaker was fortunate enough to gain an audience with Emperor Tiberius Caesar. He had been hard at work trying to develop the finest glass, and he had finally created his masterpiece: *vitrium flexile*, or flexible glass. He brought a drinking bowl to Tiberius who inspected it, and then handed it back to the man, unimpressed.\n\nThe glassmaker then threw the bowl at the ground with all his might, except it didn't shatter. With the bowl suffering little more than a dent, the glassmaker picked it up off the ground, pulled a small hammer out of his apron, and banged the glass back to its original shape. He was sure that this display of his craftsmanship would win him the emperor's favour, but he could not have been more wrong.\n\nTiberius asked the man if he had shared the formula with anyone else. When the man answered no, he was promptly beheaded. This flexible glass would have been far too important an invention, and Tiberius feared that its discovery would lead to the devaluation of gold, silver, and other precious metals.\n\nAt the very least, that's how the story is told by Petronius, a known satirist. Pliny the Elder's telling of the tale is far more subdued, and it ends with the emperor merely shutting down the glassmaker's workshop to prevent him from making more rather than executing him. Both historians were alive at the time this tale allegedly took place, though Pliny made sure to add that the story was \"more widely spread than well authenticated\".\n\nThat just leaves us with one simple question: did this even ever happen? Was flexible glass a real invention of Roman times? We unfortunately can't say with any certainty that it really happened, but we can say that it was possible with the technology available at the time.\n\nThe secret ingredient could have been borax, a compound that was known to the Romans and would have been available at the time. If borax was added to glass and heated to extremely high temperatures, it would have created something similar to modern day borosilicate glass. This glass is much stronger than traditional glass, and is often referred to as being unbreakable or shatterproof. While it is definitely not unbreakable if you are actively trying to break it, it can survive a simple drop on the floor.\n\nSo we know that it is possible for flexible glass to have been invented in Ancient Roman times, but if it had been no pieces of this glassware have survived the millennia. Without access to a time machine, there may never be a way for us to know if flexible glass was indeed a form of borosilicate, if it was created using a different process, or if it was just an urban legend that stumbled its way into some history books.\n\n## Damascus Steel\n\nOriginating in the 9th century, Damascus Steel was a type of steel used to create some of the most incredible swords ever forged. While the most common explanation for the name is that they were named after Damascus, the capital city of Syria where these swords were bought and sold, this is actually a matter of debate. It is possible that their name came from the sword-smith Damasqui, who is mentioned by the Islamic historian al-Biruni. It may also come from the Arabic word \"damas\" meaning \"watered\", as a description of the distinct patterns that the steel blades possessed.\n\nDamascus steel was said to be incredible durable and strong, able to cut through rocks or to slice in half a single hair that fell on the blade. There are a few surviving Damascus steel blades, most of which are showcased in museums, and testing on the extant swords has shown the claims to be more than a bit exaggerated. Still, the blades were definitely extremely strong, especially for the time period.\n\nThe key to the strength of Damascus steel was to accidentally perform science that was over 1,000 years ahead of its time. The steel used for these blades was wootz steel. Wootz steel was manufactured in South India and ingots were shipped to Syria where there was a thriving weapons industry. Multiple ores were used in the smelting process, and woody biomass, particularly bamboo, was added to enrich the steel with carbon. The result was a form of steel that was both superplastic and extremely hard, thanks to the exceptionally high carbon content.\n\nBut the metallurgists at the time didn't have any idea why they were getting the result that they were. They clearly learned through trial and error that it was the most effective means of smelting their steel, but there was no way for them to know just how important using plant biomass was in their process. That wouldn't be discovered until 2006 thanks to a research team out of Germany.\n\nAccording to their paper that was published in *Nature*, one of the top scientific journals, the researchers discovered cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes in the blades forged with Damascus steel. That sounds incredible, if not impossible, but later research showed that carbon nanotubes can be derived from plant fibers. Obviously nobody at the time these swords were made had any idea what carbon nanotubes were, but by using plants as a carburizing additive in the swords they had unknowingly created weapons that truly were ahead of their time.\n\nYou may be thinking, \"That's all fascinating, Fact Boy, but clearly we understand what these swords are made of and can make more.\" Logically it certainly seems like we should be able to reproduce the blades, especially since we understand what's happening better than the people who actually made them did. But surprisingly, we can't.\n\nMany attempts have been made in modern times to replicate Damascus steel, but none have been completely successful. It is speculated that the problems lie in differences with either the manufacturing process or the raw materials. That's hardly a bold claim since those are the only two components, but it's a little more complicated than that. It's believed that differences in the quality of the ores being used may prevent the creation of authentic Damascus steel, with there being some evidence that its production ended because India simply ran out of the ore they had been using.\n\nAs for the manufacturing process, while we know a lot about the process itself, we don't have every single detail. This is a big deal, because everything would need to be recreated almost perfectly. While the creation of carbon nanotubes in their steel would not have been known to the smelters, the quality of the steel was still the result of a highly refined process.\n\nEven small changes to the quality of ores being used, the exact proportions of different ores, the amount of biomass used, the temperatures to which the crucibles were heated, or any other minor variation may be enough to prevent the formation of carbon nanotubes in the steel. Without having access to the same raw materials or knowing exactly what techniques were used, we may never be able to recreate authentic Damascus steel.\n\nOf course, we can always just settle for cheap knockoffs. \"Damascus steel\" has become a bit of a catch all term for any knife that features a similar banding pattern on the blade to those that appeared on the famous swords. They may not be as good as the originals, but they still look pretty cool and it's almost certainly going to be good enough for anything you would actually need it for.\n\n## Panjagān\n\nThe *panjagān* was a weapon developed by the late Sasanian Empire. At least, it probably was. It might have just been an archery technique and there is some debate over which it was, but the prevailing opinion is that it was more likely a weapon rather than a technique. Whatever it was, the *panjagān* was instrumental in the Sasanian's victory over the Gokturks and their famous cavalry during the three Perso-Turkik Wars.\n\nThe name *panjagān* comes from the Middle Persian for \"five-fold\", and it was described as a device that could fire five arrows at once. It is unlikely this was simply a technique for firing arrows rather than an actual weapon, as firing five arrows at the same time with a traditional bow would be absolutely useless. Thanks to basic physics, each arrow would only have one fifth the power of a single arrow resulting in them weakly flying a very short distance; they would also be impossible to aim in any meaningful way.\n\nNo examples of the *panjagān* have survived to present day, and the Sasanians didn't leave us behind any blueprints for these devices, at least none that we have found. The descriptions of the weapon and its devastating effects came almost exclusively from Islamic authors who wrote about the *panjagān* after conquering the Sasanian Empire. There are some artist depictions of the battles in which they were used as well.\n\nIt seems most likely that the *panjagān* was some sort of repeating crossbow. The Chinese had repeating crossbows as far back as 200 AD, a solid 400 years before the Sasanians and their weapon, but their performance was nothing compared to the historians' descriptions of the *panjagān*. Even if it was a repeating crossbow as is strongly believed, the most consistent detail of the weapon is its ability to simultaneously fire five arrows. This created a \"kill zone\" that was difficult even for adept cavalrymen to avoid. In one description from the Second Islamic Civil War, a group of Sasanian archers were described as firing \"2,000 arrows in one burst\", forcing the opposing spearmen to retreat.\n\nWhile we have some solid ideas based on the evidence, without a single surviving *panjagān*, we'll never know for sure how they worked and there's honestly little reason to attempt to recreate them. From a historical standpoint, even if someone built a repeating crossbow that could launch five arrows simultaneously using only period appropriate materials, we'd have no way to know whether or not it was an accurate recreation. And from a utility standpoint, we don't need *panjagāns* anymore because we have guns now.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- Greek fire, a potent incendiary weapon, remains a mystery despite extensive research.\n- Flexible glass, a Roman invention, may have been made using borax, but no examples survive.\n- Damascus steel's strength came from carbon nanotubes, a discovery made over a thousand years later.\n- The panjagān, a Sasanian weapon, likely fired five arrows simultaneously, but no examples exist today.\n- Ancient technologies like Greek fire and Damascus steel highlight the limits of modern replication efforts.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is Greek fire?\n\nGreek fire was an incendiary weapon developed by the Eastern Roman Empire around 672 AD. It was a liquid that could burn on water and was nearly impossible to extinguish. It was used in naval battles and deployed using pressurized nozzles, making it one of the earliest forms of flamethrowers.\n\n### What were the known extinguishers for Greek fire?\n\nThe only substances known to extinguish Greek fire were sand, strong vinegar, and old urine.\n\n### What is the most promising theory about the composition of Greek fire?\n\nThe most promising theory suggests that the primary ingredient of Greek fire was naphtha, better known as crude oil. This is similar to the composition of modern napalm, which uses gasoline combined with naphthalene and palmitate to create a sticky, flammable substance.\n\n### What is flexible glass?\n\nFlexible glass, also known as vitrium flexile, was reportedly a type of glass created by a Roman glassmaker around 20 AD. It was said to be unbreakable and could be bent back into shape after being dented. However, the existence of this glass is debated, and no pieces have survived to the present day.\n\n### What is Damascus steel?\n\nDamascus steel was a type of steel used to create highly durable and strong swords, originating in the 9th century. It was known for its distinctive patterns and exceptional strength, but the exact process of its creation has been lost to time.\n\n### What makes Damascus steel unique?\n\nDamascus steel was unique due to the presence of cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes, which were created by accident through the use of plant biomass in the smelting process. This made the steel both superplastic and extremely hard.\n\n### What is the panjagān?\n\nThe panjagān was a weapon or archery technique developed by the late Sasanian Empire. It was described as a device that could fire five arrows at once, creating a deadly 'kill zone'. However, no examples of the panjagān have survived, and its exact nature remains uncertain.\n\n### What is the most likely theory about the panjagān?\n\nThe most likely theory is that the panjagān was a type of repeating crossbow, similar to those used by the Chinese but with the unique ability to fire five arrows simultaneously.\n\n### Why is it difficult to recreate Damascus steel today?\n\nIt is difficult to recreate Damascus steel today because the exact manufacturing process and raw materials used are unknown. Even small variations in the quality of ores, the proportions of different ores, the amount of biomass used, or the temperatures involved may prevent the formation of carbon nanotubes in the steel.\n\n### What is the origin of the name 'Damascus steel'?\n\nThe name 'Damascus steel' likely comes from Damascus, the capital city of Syria where these swords were bought and sold. However, it is also possible that the name comes from the sword-smith Damasqui or the Arabic word 'damas' meaning 'watered', describing the distinct patterns on the blades.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: The Most Mysterious Ancient Technologies Lost to Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq5Gsw38apc)\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-mysterious-ancient-technologies-lost-to-time.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-mysterious-ancient-technologies-lost-to-time datePublished: 2026-06-25 dateModified: 2026-06-25 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/hq5Gsw38apc/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 378f834631f0556db25444bc0be09e82db995bf2d159584c79991403a51f315a tokens: 4559 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-mysterious-ancient-technologies-lost-to-time.md.summary.md --- Technology has a tendency to move forward. Even if the entire world doesn't reach the same point at the same time, as a whole humanity's technological achievements have continued to improve and build upon one another. When the Sumerians invented the wheel in roughly 4000 BC, society didn't then forget about it for a thousand years only to need to invent it all over again. Even if that had happened, people would likely have been able to reverse engineer the wheel from the stories they heard. If epic tales were being told of people carrying heavy carts with ease thanks to round, stone wheels, it wouldn't take that long for somebody to carve a stone into something resembling a wheel. But every once in a while, we encounter something that can't be easily replicated. There may exist reliable documentation that a technology existed, but even after 2,000 years of technological advancement we have been unable to figure out exactly what some things were or how they were created. It need not just be written testimonials, either. In some of these cases we still have the actual thing that was made, but despite science's best efforts we either can't reproduce it or can't explain how it was made in the first place. ## Greek Fire One of the most well known lost technologies is Greek fire. It was also one of the most feared, as the term "Greek fire" became synonymous with any incendiary weapon. Such weapons were commonplace, and primitive grenades date all the way back to the 3rd century AD. These grenades would use chemicals that would ignite when exposed to enough heat or sunlight, but they were a far cry from the actual Greek fire. First developed in roughly 672 AD, by the Eastern Roman Empire rather than the Greeks, Greek fire was much more like napalm. It was given the name Greek fire by European Crusaders, but its creators simply named it liquid fire. It was heavily used in naval battles because it could easily spread and continue to burn even when on top of the water. Not only did the Byzantines use the compound to thwart the crusaders at sea, but they also built pressurized nozzles that could spray the self-igniting liquid on their enemies. For all intents and purposes, they had invented flamethrowers. This liquid was extremely dangerous and would stick to anything it touch, be it a ship's hull or a person's skin. Once the liquid chemical was on something, it was nearly impossible to put out. It clearly couldn't be put out by water since it burned on top of the sea, and some sources even indicate that it was ignited by the water. The only substances that were known to be able to extinguish the flames were sand, strong vinegar, and old urine. The composition of Greek fire was a closely guarded state secret at the time, and one that nobody was able to replicate. Arabs managed to capture an entire Byzantine fireship full of Greek fire in 827, but they could not reproduce the compound. They were able to create a mostly similar incendiary weapon, but it wasn't quite the same. Despite having also captured some of the siphons, the flamethrower-like devices used to deploy the weapon, they were unable to reproduce the deployment system. Instead, the Arabs used catapults and grenades as the delivery system for their weapon. It is unclear exactly when the formula for Greek fire was lost. There are some accounts of it being used during the 11th through 13th centuries, but it is strongly believed that all or most of these are just other incendiary weapons. To this date, we haven't been able to figure out exactly what Greek fire was. Early theories suggested that the primary ingredient was either saltpeter or quicklime, but these have since been refuted. The most promising current theory is that the primary ingredient used was what the Persians called naphtha, better known to us as crude oil. Given that the description of Greek fire is very similar to that of napalm, this makes a lot of sense. Napalm is just gasoline combined with naphthalene and palmitate to turn it into a sticky substance. It is believed that a similar effect may have been achieved using resins as a thickening agent, but the exact formula continues to elude us. ## Flexible Glass Glass naturally occurs in nature, but humans have been making our own glass for about 4,000 years. Glassmaking was a major trade, and when glassblowing was invented in approximately the 1st century BC it led to a lot of advancements with glass. One of the chief endeavors of glassmakers was to try to create higher quality glass than their competitors. The year was around 20 AD, and a humble glassmaker was fortunate enough to gain an audience with Emperor Tiberius Caesar. He had been hard at work trying to develop the finest glass, and he had finally created his masterpiece: *vitrium flexile*, or flexible glass. He brought a drinking bowl to Tiberius who inspected it, and then handed it back to the man, unimpressed. The glassmaker then threw the bowl at the ground with all his might, except it didn't shatter. With the bowl suffering little more than a dent, the glassmaker picked it up off the ground, pulled a small hammer out of his apron, and banged the glass back to its original shape. He was sure that this display of his craftsmanship would win him the emperor's favour, but he could not have been more wrong. Tiberius asked the man if he had shared the formula with anyone else. When the man answered no, he was promptly beheaded. This flexible glass would have been far too important an invention, and Tiberius feared that its discovery would lead to the devaluation of gold, silver, and other precious metals. At the very least, that's how the story is told by Petronius, a known satirist. Pliny the Elder's telling of the tale is far more subdued, and it ends with the emperor merely shutting down the glassmaker's workshop to prevent him from making more rather than executing him. Both historians were alive at the time this tale allegedly took place, though Pliny made sure to add that the story was "more widely spread than well authenticated". That just leaves us with one simple question: did this even ever happen? Was flexible glass a real invention of Roman times? We unfortunately can't say with any certainty that it really happened, but we can say that it was possible with the technology available at the time. The secret ingredient could have been borax, a compound that was known to the Romans and would have been available at the time. If borax was added to glass and heated to extremely high temperatures, it would have created something similar to modern day borosilicate glass. This glass is much stronger than traditional glass, and is often referred to as being unbreakable or shatterproof. While it is definitely not unbreakable if you are actively trying to break it, it can survive a simple drop on the floor. So we know that it is possible for flexible glass to have been invented in Ancient Roman times, but if it had been no pieces of this glassware have survived the millennia. Without access to a time machine, there may never be a way for us to know if flexible glass was indeed a form of borosilicate, if it was created using a different process, or if it was just an urban legend that stumbled its way into some history books. ## Damascus Steel Originating in the 9th century, Damascus Steel was a type of steel used to create some of the most incredible swords ever forged. While the most common explanation for the name is that they were named after Damascus, the capital city of Syria where these swords were bought and sold, this is actually a matter of debate. It is possible that their name came from the sword-smith Damasqui, who is mentioned by the Islamic historian al-Biruni. It may also come from the Arabic word "damas" meaning "watered", as a description of the distinct patterns that the steel blades possessed. Damascus steel was said to be incredible durable and strong, able to cut through rocks or to slice in half a single hair that fell on the blade. There are a few surviving Damascus steel blades, most of which are showcased in museums, and testing on the extant swords has shown the claims to be more than a bit exaggerated. Still, the blades were definitely extremely strong, especially for the time period. The key to the strength of Damascus steel was to accidentally perform science that was over 1,000 years ahead of its time. The steel used for these blades was wootz steel. Wootz steel was manufactured in South India and ingots were shipped to Syria where there was a thriving weapons industry. Multiple ores were used in the smelting process, and woody biomass, particularly bamboo, was added to enrich the steel with carbon. The result was a form of steel that was both superplastic and extremely hard, thanks to the exceptionally high carbon content. But the metallurgists at the time didn't have any idea why they were getting the result that they were. They clearly learned through trial and error that it was the most effective means of smelting their steel, but there was no way for them to know just how important using plant biomass was in their process. That wouldn't be discovered until 2006 thanks to a research team out of Germany. According to their paper that was published in *Nature*, one of the top scientific journals, the researchers discovered cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes in the blades forged with Damascus steel. That sounds incredible, if not impossible, but later research showed that carbon nanotubes can be derived from plant fibers. Obviously nobody at the time these swords were made had any idea what carbon nanotubes were, but by using plants as a carburizing additive in the swords they had unknowingly created weapons that truly were ahead of their time. You may be thinking, "That's all fascinating, Fact Boy, but clearly we understand what these swords are made of and can make more." Logically it certainly seems like we should be able to reproduce the blades, especially since we understand what's happening better than the people who actually made them did. But surprisingly, we can't. Many attempts have been made in modern times to replicate Damascus steel, but none have been completely successful. It is speculated that the problems lie in differences with either the manufacturing process or the raw materials. That's hardly a bold claim since those are the only two components, but it's a little more complicated than that. It's believed that differences in the quality of the ores being used may prevent the creation of authentic Damascus steel, with there being some evidence that its production ended because India simply ran out of the ore they had been using. As for the manufacturing process, while we know a lot about the process itself, we don't have every single detail. This is a big deal, because everything would need to be recreated almost perfectly. While the creation of carbon nanotubes in their steel would not have been known to the smelters, the quality of the steel was still the result of a highly refined process. Even small changes to the quality of ores being used, the exact proportions of different ores, the amount of biomass used, the temperatures to which the crucibles were heated, or any other minor variation may be enough to prevent the formation of carbon nanotubes in the steel. Without having access to the same raw materials or knowing exactly what techniques were used, we may never be able to recreate authentic Damascus steel. Of course, we can always just settle for cheap knockoffs. "Damascus steel" has become a bit of a catch all term for any knife that features a similar banding pattern on the blade to those that appeared on the famous swords. They may not be as good as the originals, but they still look pretty cool and it's almost certainly going to be good enough for anything you would actually need it for. ## Panjagān The *panjagān* was a weapon developed by the late Sasanian Empire. At least, it probably was. It might have just been an archery technique and there is some debate over which it was, but the prevailing opinion is that it was more likely a weapon rather than a technique. Whatever it was, the *panjagān* was instrumental in the Sasanian's victory over the Gokturks and their famous cavalry during the three Perso-Turkik Wars. The name *panjagān* comes from the Middle Persian for "five-fold", and it was described as a device that could fire five arrows at once. It is unlikely this was simply a technique for firing arrows rather than an actual weapon, as firing five arrows at the same time with a traditional bow would be absolutely useless. Thanks to basic physics, each arrow would only have one fifth the power of a single arrow resulting in them weakly flying a very short distance; they would also be impossible to aim in any meaningful way. No examples of the *panjagān* have survived to present day, and the Sasanians didn't leave us behind any blueprints for these devices, at least none that we have found. The descriptions of the weapon and its devastating effects came almost exclusively from Islamic authors who wrote about the *panjagān* after conquering the Sasanian Empire. There are some artist depictions of the battles in which they were used as well. It seems most likely that the *panjagān* was some sort of repeating crossbow. The Chinese had repeating crossbows as far back as 200 AD, a solid 400 years before the Sasanians and their weapon, but their performance was nothing compared to the historians' descriptions of the *panjagān*. Even if it was a repeating crossbow as is strongly believed, the most consistent detail of the weapon is its ability to simultaneously fire five arrows. This created a "kill zone" that was difficult even for adept cavalrymen to avoid. In one description from the Second Islamic Civil War, a group of Sasanian archers were described as firing "2,000 arrows in one burst", forcing the opposing spearmen to retreat. While we have some solid ideas based on the evidence, without a single surviving *panjagān*, we'll never know for sure how they worked and there's honestly little reason to attempt to recreate them. From a historical standpoint, even if someone built a repeating crossbow that could launch five arrows simultaneously using only period appropriate materials, we'd have no way to know whether or not it was an accurate recreation. And from a utility standpoint, we don't need *panjagāns* anymore because we have guns now. ## Key Takeaways - Greek fire, a potent incendiary weapon, remains a mystery despite extensive research. - Flexible glass, a Roman invention, may have been made using borax, but no examples survive. - Damascus steel's strength came from carbon nanotubes, a discovery made over a thousand years later. - The panjagān, a Sasanian weapon, likely fired five arrows simultaneously, but no examples exist today. - Ancient technologies like Greek fire and Damascus steel highlight the limits of modern replication efforts. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Greek fire? Greek fire was an incendiary weapon developed by the Eastern Roman Empire around 672 AD. It was a liquid that could burn on water and was nearly impossible to extinguish. It was used in naval battles and deployed using pressurized nozzles, making it one of the earliest forms of flamethrowers. ### What were the known extinguishers for Greek fire? The only substances known to extinguish Greek fire were sand, strong vinegar, and old urine. ### What is the most promising theory about the composition of Greek fire? The most promising theory suggests that the primary ingredient of Greek fire was naphtha, better known as crude oil. This is similar to the composition of modern napalm, which uses gasoline combined with naphthalene and palmitate to create a sticky, flammable substance. ### What is flexible glass? Flexible glass, also known as vitrium flexile, was reportedly a type of glass created by a Roman glassmaker around 20 AD. It was said to be unbreakable and could be bent back into shape after being dented. However, the existence of this glass is debated, and no pieces have survived to the present day. ### What is Damascus steel? Damascus steel was a type of steel used to create highly durable and strong swords, originating in the 9th century. It was known for its distinctive patterns and exceptional strength, but the exact process of its creation has been lost to time. ### What makes Damascus steel unique? Damascus steel was unique due to the presence of cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes, which were created by accident through the use of plant biomass in the smelting process. This made the steel both superplastic and extremely hard. ### What is the panjagān? The panjagān was a weapon or archery technique developed by the late Sasanian Empire. It was described as a device that could fire five arrows at once, creating a deadly 'kill zone'. However, no examples of the panjagān have survived, and its exact nature remains uncertain. ### What is the most likely theory about the panjagān? The most likely theory is that the panjagān was a type of repeating crossbow, similar to those used by the Chinese but with the unique ability to fire five arrows simultaneously. ### Why is it difficult to recreate Damascus steel today? It is difficult to recreate Damascus steel today because the exact manufacturing process and raw materials used are unknown. Even small variations in the quality of ores, the proportions of different ores, the amount of biomass used, or the temperatures involved may prevent the formation of carbon nanotubes in the steel. ### What is the origin of the name 'Damascus steel'? The name 'Damascus steel' likely comes from Damascus, the capital city of Syria where these swords were bought and sold. However, it is also possible that the name comes from the sword-smith Damasqui or the Arabic word 'damas' meaning 'watered', describing the distinct patterns on the blades. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: The Most Mysterious Ancient Technologies Lost to Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq5Gsw38apc) ## Related Coverage