[NoraSpinnor]

Ancient Technology researcher William Sosa has spent three decades reverse-engineering the Dendera Light from a sequence of reliefs in the Hathor Temple at Dendera that depict a large, bulb-like vessel emerging from a lotus, supported by a djed pillar and “handled” by attendants with wands/knives. Rather than treating it as a room lamp, Sosa read the scene as a functional diagram: a gas-discharge (plasma) tube energized by a high-voltage oscillating source, with geometry and “hand positions” standing in for electrical controls.

What the mechanism is: In Sosa’s reconstruction, the “bulb” is a sealed plasma tube filled with gas (he has used mercury vapor among other mixes). When the gas is ionized by a high-voltage, alternating field, the tube self-organizes into a bright filament—the “snake”—that can form a head, neck, and body inside the glass. This is standard plasma behavior: under the right field, charged particles align into filaments and nodes.

How it’s powered: The reliefs show a box (which Sosa calls the Heh box) with a line leading to the lotus “socket,” plus a second line that seems to run up the back of an attendant. In the lab, Sosa replaces that iconography with a neon sign power supply and a flyback transformer to generate the necessary high voltage. Crucially, plasma tubes don’t run from simple DC (a battery); they require an oscillating field. Here Sosa took inspiration from two Egyptian implements depicted widely: the sistrum/crotalum (a rattle) and the was-scepter. He uses them as the conceptual ancestors of a mechanical buzzer/oscillator—an on-off, high-frequency interrupter that steps the voltage up and couples it capacitively into the tube (no internal wire needed), just as the reliefs show no obvious filament leads.

How it’s tuned and “focused”: In the carvings, the bulb is cradled by a djed pillar with “arms,” flanked by “knife” elements, and a giant figure behind touching the lotus. Sosa reads these as field-shaping electrodes—the two plates of a variable capacitor and adjustable “nozzle” elements for the plasma stream. In practice, he surrounds the tube with grounded and energized plates/rings that he can move minutely. Changing these capacitances alters the electric field geometry, which moves and sharpens the filament—exactly like adjusting a hose nozzle from diffuse spray to tight jet. With the right settings, the filament “snake” can be raised, lowered, widened, or pinched; bring a hand near the tube and the human body’s capacitance perturbs the field and the filament wiggles away, just as shown by attendants interacting with the device in the reliefs.

Why the lotus and cosmology matter: The inscriptions around these scenes emphasize emergence: creation from the lotus, “birth of the sun,” and cycles of day/night. Sosa’s reading is that the reliefs are both cosmological and technical: a ritual “how/when to use it” wrapped around a schematic “how it works.” In lab terms, the “eye/head of the snake” resembles a plasma node (a bright, stable region), and the broader assembly acts like a structured sheath forming around a central “sun.” Whether you see that as symbolism or ancient field physics, the dual language is there.

What the demo shows: In darkness, the tube first glows green (unfocused discharge). As he brings the “focus” plate toward the lotus ring (mimicking the giant’s thumb on the petals), the glow collapses into a clear filament. Additional “knife” adjustments draw the filament down or up; the head can be broadened; the whole “serpent” becomes highly responsive to people moving within ~25–30 feet (ambient capacitive changes). It’s hypnotic and reproducible with modern bench parts.

What this means: We can’t say for sure what was actually happening inside Ancient Egyptian temples, but there is an overwhelming amount of evidence, just in their architecture alone, that suggests they had technology at some point. While later eras in Egypt really were stone and chisel tech, earlier eras show signs of technology we struggle to understand today. We are missing a massive amount of ancient literature that can never be recovered. What we can do is reassess what is carved in stone with a mind more open to technology.

Do you think the Ancient Egyptians had electricity?
What do you think this device was used for?

I highly recommend watching the full video; it’s fascinating.

[MaddieXO]

What? I gotta check this out now!

[Ty_Verse]

Now this is cool. Honestly I’d have no idea what that was by looking at the picture but this guy did. Right on!

[Matt]

wow I have 2 admit I totally wulda read that one wrong like this is a fertility symbol right? just look at that slong! nope! I was wrong, waay wrong lmao!

[joshchen]

mind = blown

[Author]

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