Did the Ancient Egyptians use electric lights? Consider the evidence. Well, I'm reading this book, and so far they haven't made the connection, and they probably won't at all, but accordingly: the Greeks worshiped Osiris but also worshiped an "encoffined Osiris", or "Osiris in a box/jar", also called "Osiris in Canopus". By an extrapolation then, the Egyptians also worshiped Osiris in a box (least, if not directly via the Canopus connection, then indirectly through the hints of electricity as I will show). But if I sort of cross reference this to another book I have, which suggests the electricity component (accept they don't conversely link it to this "Osiris in a Box", then this may lead to weird conclusion.

So here goes. Bare in mind that I haven't read this other book for a while and am just going off the pictures. Basically there's a relief-picture at the Temple of Hathor at Dendera that seems to depict two Egyptian guys holding up these really gigantic light bulbs connected by what looks like an electric cable (and the inner filament that makes the light is represented by a serpent, which may or may not suggest serpents are symbols are electricity - which gives another idea to "flying serpents" but that's another possible story I don't really care much about for the moment). It's almost kind of funny looking and I've always wondered if it was a hoax. However, there's more to this story than just the picture of the bulbs. What I'm interested in is a relief symbol called the Djed pillar. Of separate note for my purposes, though it's connected in the picture, the bulbs are suspended on the Djed pillars. Again, I'm not focusing on the "bulbs" though. The focus is on Djed pillars in general, whether or not there are any in the picture, so noted.

There are two relief-pictures that suggest that the power of Osiris is in, and actually radiates from the Djed pillar (not the light bulbs exactly in the other, separate relief).

The first one shows baboons and priests, with upraised hands (e.g. resembling the ka symbol of upraised arms/hands) worshiping a Djed column with an ankh with hands holding up an orb. A power clearly is shown radiating from the pillar. The book doesn't reduce the individual symbols per se, but to me it's obvious: the orb is the sun and is that which gives animation/life to the pillar. These pillars basically resemble a Van de Graaff generator or Wimshurst generator - or a static electricity generator.

The second one shows the figure of a Negroid-ish looking Osiris. The guy wears a "hat" that is basically the Djed pillar with an orb at the top. This is related to another picture that takes this a step further. The head itself is transformed (or replaced) into the pillar, so that the eyes and the mouth are on the pillar. These pictures coincide to the descriptions of the funerary canopy jars, where four organs (I believe) are placed into four jars, along with the mummy. The term, however, is probably incorrectly named. The term does not so much refer to dead organs as it does "Osiris in a Box" (btw, recall the myth of Osiris being murdered and put in a coffin/box - any connection?).

Basically the Greeks so named the jars because they they were personifications of Osiris, and they were used in rituals to Osiris in the Greek town of Canopus - "factual evidence of the connection between Osiris and the town". These weren't simply symbolic of various other gods but personifications of Osiris (or they are other gods if these other gods are simply personificational expressions of Osiris). First clue comes from the fact that these jars are human-headed shaped, even though they resemble the four sons of Horus. This would suggest the shapes (e.g. bearded man, ape, jackal, and sparrow-hawk) are actually Shamanic masks. But more direct evidence comes from the roof of the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I (1300 BC). On the roof are representations of the planets and the stars or Isis and Osiris. The deities are on a boat/barge, preceded by four figures who are "clearly identified" with the canopic gods. In the Ramesseum, (built by Ramses II), these four are shown in the north of the sky; the Osiris-figure was doubled, with one Osiris taking the place of the foure canopic gods in Seti's tomb.

Anyways, this leads to the possible conclusion that "Osiris was in box/jar". And if you further attribute the Osiris Djed pillar to the matter, it radiated light. Hence, Osiris or rather Osiris' power was in the box or Djed pillar (or perhaps to some extent his power was captured by Set and placed in an ark or box, as the myth might actually go). And indeed, according to the reliefs so noted, the head of Osiris is actually found or contained in the Djed pillar (either as a "hat", which I think actually depicts an idea/thought, or as the actual head).

Then you can consider two other clues.

First, how come there is no torch-smoke-residue found in the walls of the pyramids? Did they...use...electric lights? That answer is almost humorous if not for the other linking of clues. Of course one might simply say because the pyramid was simply a tomb and nothing more. Well they still had to use torches to find the tomb-coffin to know where to put the body? I beg to differ though. The pyramid was used as a temple with mystery rituals inside. This seems evident from another of factors. For example, common in mystery themes (or at least it can be predicted), guardians watch for intruders trying to gain access into the heaven unauthorized. The sphinx fits that role nicely, and is also symbolic of another guardian as the three famous pyramids also represent Orion's belt. Secondly, recall the baboons and priests noted above with upraised arms - these actually symbolize two things, in my estimation: worship and ritual embrace of mystery rituals. The ka symbolizes, not simply worship with upraised arms, but ritualized embrace common to mystery rituals. This would suggest that electricity was used in the pyramids where they performed mystery rituals. Once completed the initiate would bare the ankh. His eternal life was no guaranteed per se; he simply possessed the key that would lead to that salvation after death.

Secondly, recall the archaeological uncovering of the Bagdad battery-jars. What did they use these jars for? Some would say simply to plate metal with some particular lace of other metal. This might be so, yet, the working of metal anciently called alchemy I think, um, originated in Egypt. Furthermore, where did the knowledge of this electricity come from? Who knows. Egypt? I'm sure as the batteries are concerned, speculation abounds.

Lastly, as a sort of side note, I haven't read books on the matter, but some seem to attribute this knowledge of electricity to the Hebraic Ark of the Covenant. I'm not so sure, but wouldn't it be interesting if the Ark lighted the inner sanctum of the Hebraic tabernacle? And this last piece of information is more weird than coincidental, but I saw a show on TV where some African tribe supposedly might posses the Ark, supposedly through Solomon's wife (doubtful since Revelations says the Ark is in heaven, but whatever). They have to replace the guardian of some weird artifact because they like die every two years and start to go blind before that (forget from what, from a sort of fire or something). Something like that anyways. Kind of spooky. Whatever it is, if it's true, it's probably some other artifact than the supposed Ark.

Put it all together though one can see that this electric-Osiris was used to gain worship and followers. How do you build a pyramid anyways? Maybe you gather a bunch of people and show them the Djed pillar, the "head of Osiris" in a jar, the electric light that resembles the blinding glare of the sun?

Of course that could never be true could it? I wonder what atheists would think of this? This could never be because it's too outlandish. On the other hand...it does explain God as a natural force. You see the blinding light; lo and behold it's Ra! Or you could simply touch and feel the electric power of Ra. I doubt it's so simply with the Ark of the Covenant. While it may resemble the Djed pillar, one gets more an impression of electricity powered from pure spirit energy. Speaking of that, I saw this weird On-Demand cable show of a haunted house. They showed a bunch of these orb things flying around and some of was "ecto-plasm" which actually resembled wisps of smoke that moved more like a flying snake. Looked kind of like floating electricity, a stringing out of ball lighting sort of. And I'm gonna stop right there before it gets too weird and that Fortean Times (whatever it's called) calls and asks to publish this stuff. Lol!

But on the more serious side of things, those Djed pillars in the reliefs are just too weirdly coincidental to electric generators, and I'm not talking about the relief-picture of the light bulbs. One need only take the two of the many reliefs available to make the connection: the one where a radiance emits from a Djed pillar and the one where Osiris' head is a Djed pillar (plus the relation of the Canopy jars to the "Osiris in a box").

"The second one shows the figure of a Negroid-ish looking Osiris."

Is he painted black?

"While it may resemble the Djed pillar, one gets more an impression of electricity powered from pure spirit energy. "

It's actually kind of weird that I would say that. Osiris was a god of the dead. Was the the Djed pillar (and maybe the Hebraic Ark) powered by spirit energy also? Of course it's easier just to postulate static electricity (and who knows, maybe sand had something to do with the build up of that electricity). Aside from the laughing and finger pointing, what could that mean if anything! Maybe I'm just going in circles? Well, hopefully this has been entertaining anyways. Don't laugh too hard though, unless you want to think of the Baghdad batteries, 2000+ years ago as hoaxes. Heck, maybe they had this prehistoric, Flintstone type of walkman to power? Just kidding. Wonder what they used it for - really? To lace things with metal seems...contrived, but if real, then...it's alchemy - metal work - from Egypt.

No, he simply wears a leopard skin but had the classic "big lips". I'm not trying to be racist here; it's obvious the guy is black, racially (not in the picture), and I've seen the same relief in other professional works as labeling it "Negroid".

Btw, the filament in the Baghdad battery looks just like a serpent.

Patrick:

No, he simply wears a leopard skin but had the classic "big lips". I'm not trying to be racist here; it's obvious the guy is black, racially (not in the picture), and I've seen the same relief in other professional works as labeling it "Negroid".

Btw, the filament in the Baghdad battery looks just like a serpent.

You can be racist if you want. Just asking because black was sometimes used as a color for Gods, as was blue. If he had big lips and a leopard skin, that might date the work to a Nubian period within maybe the second intermediary period. Osiris was usually shown as a mummy, so alternative costume and appearance also suggests an intermediary period when central authority had broken down and regional traits entered into the art works. It also might suggest an extremely Upper Egyptian provenance where the Egyptian and Nubian influences sometimes conflated in trading communities or border temples. It could also be from Nubia itself, as they adopted many elements of Egyptian culture over the millenia of trade and occupation.

1. Scanned this book a little more. An esoteric flame known as the "Shekinah" glory rests upon the Hebraic Ark, a sort of spirit fire. So there IS something that eminates from it.

2. There another picture of a snake that is basically the Pharaoh, it's a sort of reverse Osiris in my opinion. That's because the snake wears the typical dual Pharaoh hat, which combines the two hats of the Southern and Northern kingdom, as unified. The snake could represent electricity. Hence, Osiris as manifest through electricity. Probably stretching it.

3. Not an observation per se, but it kind of reminds me of the All Seeing eye above the pyramid apex depicted in the U.S. One Dollar Bill. It'd be weird if you placed the Djed column there on the apex so that it looked like the All Seeing eye.

4. Speaking of that Canopus stuff, Canopus is also known as the eye of Osiris I think it was (an eye anyways). Don't recall too much about a Ben Ben stone, but I tend to think (probably erroneously) that the Ben Ben stone was made out of meteoric iron but sort of shaped like a phallus. Why a phallus I don't know. Why a meteor I don't know (could just mean "from the gods", which the stars represented). And what shape EXACTLY I don't know, but what if you simply placed the Ben Ben on top of the pyramid apex and you placed the Osiris in a box or the Djed pillar, which radiated light, on top of that? Instant all seeing eye? But then again, who knows if there's anything to this stuff and how much I'm stretching it (probably not much when recalling the batteries). I keep wondering if someone is going to post a 5th observation where the recipe for Lemon Aid came from Egypt too. (lol)

"You can be racist if you want. Just asking because black was sometimes used as a color for Gods, as was blue."

Nah, the face is like white (i.e. clear via the background). But it has obvious Negroid features. I'm not trying to point out racial features as much as being "matter of fact" here. (What's also weird is that there are Olmec heads in South America that have similar "negroid" features, such as the big lips. And then you consider that some of the Pharaohs have traces of marajuna from South America and it gets weird - and you start wondering about stuff like Atlantis. That seems too outlandish right now but it DOES suggest some sort of trans-Atlantic trading service via ships - both the link to the marajuna, which I obviously forget how to spell, and the Negroidish heads - it's not like Tongan or Islander facial features but the classic big lips)

"If he had big lips and a leopard skin, that might date the work to a Nubian period within maybe the second intermediary period."

Don't know much about that. I just know two things. There was an original people who ruled Egypt with larger skeletons, and then these were replaced by shorter people as the ruling body. And I'm not sure, but later on whites came to rule Egypt - definitely not sure about that one, but I think like the family of Ramses was white, which is why Moses could so easily be adopted. Plus two kingdoms became united so you probably have a new ruling body about that time. But I don't know much about the Nubian. For sure though, the guy wore the leopard skin (not so noted in the book but obvious in the picture) and had big lips (i.e. more like fat lips).

"Osiris was usually shown as a mummy, so alternative costume and appearance also suggests an intermediary period when central authority had broken down and regional traits entered into the art works."

The combining of Upper and Lower Egypt?

That's weird that just before I posted this stuff, you spoke of Obama and racism (didn't read the post per se, have things to do right now, but scanned it). Guess that's the theme right now.

If we really wanted to have fun, we could just say that Obama has ties to Egypt. Or that he's Masonic and the Masons have ties (not sure if they do, just speculating). (DUM, Dum, dummmmmm...!!!)

They positioned entrances in such away as to catch the sun at different times of the year, and then used reflectors, mirrors to light inside.

Just to point it out, I graduated with a degree Electrical engineering so I may be able to provide some input here.

First off the Baghdad battery - Modern reconstruction of the Baghdad battery show that it can only produce about 1-2Volts. This makes it highly implractical and highly unlikely that it was used for very much of anything electrical in the sense that most people commonly mean. Just as a few examples.

The lights in your home operate at 120V, The washing machine in your home operates at 230V, and most low voltage industrial equipment up to 1000Hp operates off of 460V. The 40Watt bulb in your bathroom would require around 20-40 Amps of current in order to provide the same light using the Baghdad battery. Which would mean that it would have to use a very large copper conductor. So, it isn't real likely.

Several people have shown that this is quite enough to electroplate gold onto base materials in a liguid solution. Since electroplating has been around for far longer than any real understanding of electricity.

As far as the lights in the drawing you mentioned. I found a few photos of what appear to be the bas-reliefs that you are mentioning. Most of them show someone holding the lights in question. None of them show any electrical wires which you would almost certainly have to have in order to power the lights in question, aside from what are conjectured to be filaments. Also, I would not want to hold on to any light bulb that had more than 1Amp going through it and we have already established that these bulbs would have had to have much more than that. Some of them even show what one author believes is arc lighting. Again, there is not way that you would see people regularly holding these lights, as is shown in the carvings that I saw. Furthermore, the filaments shown in many of these carvings are shown crossing over one another. A big, big no-no in regular electrical filaments.

So, the short answer: No, the ancients did not have electric lights or other modern electric devices.

"There was an original people who ruled Egypt with larger skeletons, and then these were replaced by shorter people as the ruling body."

The thousands of mummies disagree on that and show similar racial characteristics from Naqada through the following thousands of years, the exceptions being from the Nubian period.

"And I'm not sure, but later on whites came to rule Egypt - definitely not sure about that one, but I think like the family of Ramses was white, which is why Moses could so easily be adopted."

Moses wasn't a Ramasid and Egyptians were predominantly western Semitic in bloodline for thousands of years, with some intermingling from slaves and conquerors.

"Plus two kingdoms became united so you probably have a new ruling body about that time."

Menes, who was Upper Egyptian, as I remember.

"But I don't know much about the Nubian. For sure though, the guy wore the leopard skin (not so noted in the book but obvious in the picture) and had big lips (i.e. more like fat lips)."

Nubians were negroid and the leopard is not indigenous to Egypt, rather was native in the south. Nubia was a transit point for trade goods from subSaharan Africa to Egypt and tended to be a cultural conflation of Egypt and subSaharan Africa.

"The combining of Upper and Lower Egypt?"

The second intermediary period was right before the Ahmosids threw out the Hyksos, the time of the first Exodus. Unification was nearly 2,000 years earlier.

I think you have the right answer but for the wrong reasons.

Certainly 1-2 volts IS enough to produce a usable light-- you can build a flashlight using an incandescent bulb that will run off 1 AA battery (or several batteries in series to produce more amps) at 1.5 volts and I see no reason to see that as a lower limit.

However, the real problems in lighbulb manufacturing occur elsewhere. Generating an electric light requires a very specific set of technologies which copper-age civilizations simply would not have had. Most metals, for example, are not useful as filiments in electric bulbs. Creating filliments of tungsten metal is well beyond the metalworking capabilities of ancient cultures. Tungsten is needed because of its high melting point, and the fact you can get decent resistance (needed to produce heat), light (due to it glowing) etc. Tungsten isn't the only possibility-- one can use platinum or carbon but the light output is considerably less and carbon, particularly, has other requirements due to oxidation potential. However, for a low-voltage bulb, I cannot think of any substitute for tungsten.

Add also the necessary glassworking skills to make a light bulb..... Incandescant bulbs are basically vacuum tubes with filiment inside. The vacuum prevents oxidation (particularly important with carbon-filiment bulbs) and thus increases the life of the light. If you can't make a glass vacuum tube, you can't make a usable lightbulb especially when tungsten is not an option.

The final issue has to do with the load characteristics of the Bagdad battery. While it is POSSIBLE that one might be able to get sufficient current (mA) to power a modern light bulb, I think this is somewhat doubtful. Current is needed because the current is what heats the filiment up and creates the light. Now, this could be worked around by putting many batteries in series, but still low-voltage incandescant light-bulbs are out of reach due to the factors mentioned above, so......

I would say rule it out too, but for reasons of metal/glass-working capabilities rather than voltage.

Hmmm,

I never like to say :"early man couldn't possibly do X" as I often feel that it is just a variation of"I couldn't possibly do X so there is no way some dumb cave man could do X". But, in this case I think you are probably right.

I would point out that, while you can use a few 1.5V batteries to power the system, the resulting light would not be really worth it compared with other available sources. Especially as you pointed out, that the technology to make the actual bulb would be very difficult and would not likely yield anything close to what you see in a modern flashlight bulb. So, you would have to have a series of batteries which would need to be regularly re-filled with solution, a filament that would only last a few minutes to a few hours at best and would probably be best called a 'trick' rather than a functioning bulb.

One thing I would point out is that It is relatively easy to make an airless glass chamber. I am no expert on glass but even I could think of a few ways of evacuating a Glass aparatus through a small tube and then sealing off the tube with heat.

It is possible to conceive that the ancients had some other item to use as a filament. Edison went through hundreds of materials searching for the right one. He was what is refered to as a BFI inventor(brute force and ignorance). So, I do not as quickly as you discard the idea that the ancients could have manufactured a bulb. I would dismiss it more on the grounds that, without a decent generation system, there really isn't much practical use for it and the manufacturing would make producing it relatively prohibitive.

I never like to say :"early man couldn't possibly do X" as I often feel that it is just a variation of"I couldn't possibly do X so there is no way some dumb cave man could do X". But, in this case I think you are probably right.

In general, that's true but in certain cases it is rather demonstrable. For example, wheeled vehicles didn't appear until the use of bronze was reasonably well established. The fairly clear reason for thisis that the tolerances of a wheeled vehicle made out of wood are simply too tight to accomplish with wooden, stone, or copper tools. In short you have to have certain types of tools to accomplish certain types of tasks.

(This also explains why although wheels appear on new-world figurines, the wheel doesn't seem to have had practical use in the new world prior to the coming of the Europeans. Merely understanding a mechanism doesn't necessarily provide a useful solution.)

A couple points though about glass bulbs.....

Edison eventually settled on carbon filiments. For obvious reasons, carbon filiments are not suitable to use in an environment with oxygen gas..... Edison's solution to this was to pump as much of the air out of the bulb as possible. While it is relatively easy to make a blown glass bulb, doing so while controlling the atmosphere such as as a vacuum environment inside the bulb is another matter together. Edison's bulbs were basically carbon-filiments in a vacuum tube. It is the vacuum process that is really the difficult element here.

Now I do agree that most folks vastly underrate ancient technological know-how. However, a lot of things get played around with and abandoned simply because in the world they are in, they are impractical. One simple example is the experimentation of iron tools in mid-bronze-age Yamnaya finds. These represent the earliest uses of iron we know of but the technology was never widely adopted. On the other hand, once the iron age hits, you seem some really fascinating developments occur very quickly. Some of these developments are difficult to believe were possible, such as differnetial carbon content in a controlled fashion through a sword (later this technique was abandoned in favor of phosporous differentiation which is FAR easier to control). Often times it is AMAZING to see what ancient folk did with the tools of their day.

One area which is of interest regarding Egypt though is the possibility that the pyramids were made of blocks of an artificial rock similar to poured concrete as well as the granite slabs which line the inner areas. This theory actually has a lot of support and I actually subscribe to it. It also neatly solves a lot of problems regarding how the pyramids were built.

einhverfr:

One area which is of interest regarding Egypt though is the possibility that the pyramids were made of blocks of an artificial rock similar to poured concrete as well as the granite slabs which line the inner areas. This theory actually has a lot of support and I actually subscribe to it. It also neatly solves a lot of problems regarding how the pyramids were built.

I saw something about this years ago. But, I am not entirely sure that this would really be an advantage. You would still have to mix and move the weight of the individual elements and of the pour. You could carry it up by hand but then you might get uneven drying of the material. I.E. one part is hard and solid and another is still drying. I am not a materials expert but it doesn't seem like it would give you a very solid form. Especially as you got to the top. I think it may be a possibility but I am still not sold on the idea.

I have seen video of a guy moving enormout blocks, and in one case his whole garage, by himself using just some basic levers and pivots. I believe the tech in question was used to prove stonehenge could have been built by humans but you can see how it could be applied to the pyramids