Claims of Advanced Tech Recovered from UFOs

[Ann K]

This too:
https://www.space.com/yellow-egyptian-glass-made-by-meteorite-impact.html

Also Tut possibly inherited meteoric iron dagger. Was originally gift from Mitanni or something

I didn't know that. Thanks!
There are also fulgurites, glass formed from sand vitrified by a lightning strike.

Sand, of course, is in plentiful supply in Egypt, and the absence of covering vegetation means that meteorites are easily visible, at least until the sand hides them. That lack of vegetation is also responsible for the relative ease in finding meteorites in Antarctica.

 

[purpleivan]

There are also fulgurites, glass formed from sand vitrified by a lightning strike.

Sand, of course, is in plentiful supply in Egypt, and the absence of covering vegetation means that meteorites are easily visible, at least until the sand hides them. That lack of vegetation is also responsible for the relative ease in finding meteorites in Antarctica.

Thanks for that. I was trying to remember the kind of glass formed by natural vitrification, used in a scarab pendant, found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

 

[Todd Feinman]

Pity almost all the other pharaohs' tombs were looted. Hard to imagine the wonderful things that must have been in some of them.

 

[Ann K]

Thanks for that. I was trying to remember the kind of glass formed by natural vitrification, used in a scarab pendant, found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Take a look at the article referenced in @Todd Feinman 's post. It's believed to have been caused by a meteorite's air burst.

 

[Andreas]

Honestly, TTSA was just following in their footsteps.

Yeah, I mean, materials "recovered from flying saucers" have long been an important part of the lore. To be a real contactee, one needs to have at least one artifact from a flying saucer. Here's an extraterrestrial ring and a "staff" kindly given to Swedish contactee Gösta Carlsson. (And to protect himself from the "radiation"—or just to be on the safe side—he kept the items in a tin box marked "Dangerous".)

This is just the same story, with the same ingredients, taking place in a slightly different context. But just because you're a former intelligence officer (or a former rock star), the story you tell and the object you find don't become any more authentic than the artifacts shown to us by people like Carlsson.

 

[John J.]

The idea that material from crashed UFOs can be recovered and used goes back possibly to the late 19th century. The idea of using material from supposed crashed UFOs for financial gain goes back at least to the late '40s.

Musing along those lines,
Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's 1972 novel Roadside Picnic has characters retrieving ETI artefacts scattered at a small number of areas, "zones", which had experienced simultaneous alien visitations some years earlier. The items are sometimes useful, although poorly understood; some offer the promise of breakthrough technologies. Some are dangerous.
The authorities have cordoned off the now hazardous, and depopulated, zones. Access is restricted, but cautious research continues.
A few people, called stalkers, earn a living by entering the zones illegally in search of alien artefacts. This is exceptionally risky but potential rewards are high.

I like the premise, which I think is more original than many first contact scenarios in fiction.

It seems that at the time of the Visitation, any humans in the zones were overcome with confusion and chaos, perhaps worse.
There are no surviving descriptions of aliens or their craft, or any records of communication. There is no clue as to why the aliens were here.
A scientist draws an analogy with young people having a roadside picnic in the countryside: They arrive in their cars, light a bonfire, play music and drink while the local wildlife hides and cowers. After the picnickers have left, the animals emerge to find detritus: bottles, some coins, a discarded sparkplug, a wrench, flowers picked in a different meadow. Their functions or meaning are of course incomprehensible.

...the Visitors may not have paid any attention to or even noticed Earth's inhabitants during their visit, just as many humans do not notice or pay attention to insects and wildlife during a picnic. The artifacts and phenomena that are left behind by the Visitors in the Zones were garbage, which are discarded and forgotten without any intentions to advance or damage humanity.

Wikipedia, Roadside Picnic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic

Probably not well-known in popular culture but reasonably well-known amongst SF fans; the first US edition* of Roadside Picnic in 1977 had a forward by acclaimed SF author Theodore Sturgeon.
Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)) is based on Roadside Picnic, and is highly regarded by film critics.


*The Strugatsky brothers were Russian, the novel was first published in Russia. The novel appears to be set in Canada (maybe Australia, New Zealand).
I remember being struck by how often the various characters drank vodka; the authors, in early 70s Russia, might have had little exposure to information about habits in Western countries.