Archaeologists Thought a 2,200-Year-Old Artifact Might Be an Egyptian Flying Machine. Then Science Got Involved.

3 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:The Saqqara Bird, an Egyptian artifact from around 200 B.C.E., sparked a debate about ancient Egyptians’ knowledge of flight.Resembling a bird, the artifact’s structure and style is in line with a modern glider, making it unusual for its era.Research into the artifact focused on whether the Saqqara bird reflected Egyptian understanding of winged flight. Archaeologists entered the tomb of Pa-di-Imen in Saqqara, Egypt, in 1898, and they walked out with a wooden artifact that has puzzled experts ever since. Dubbed the Saqqara Bird, the piece from about 200 B.C.E. looks as much like a modern glider as anything in the ancient world. Could the ancient Egyptians have understood the properties of flight or was this a happenstance creation that excited experts? For much of the following century, theories mostly came down to conjecture. But a handful of times since 1970, science has weighed in.The artifact in question was pulled from the tomb and added to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. Made of sycamore wood, with a 7.1-inch wingspan and a total weight of 1.38 ounces, it really does look like a modern glider at first glance. The head clearly resembles a bird with the beak and eyes of a falcon (quite possibly in homage to the god Horus), but the body is glider-like, as are the wings, which get progressively thinner toward the wingtips. With no feather detailing or painting, and no feet, this is part bird and part—well, proof of ancient Egyptian aerodynamic knowledge, right?One lover of gliders thought so. Modern science said not so fast, even if it took a while to get there. By 1970, the Saqqara bird was sitting unnoticed in a museum back room alongside other bird artifacts. But Kahlil Messiha, an Egyptologist, archaeologist, and model plane enthusiast, noticed it and convinced the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to give it a more detailed examination. The professor at Helwan University wrote a 1980 paper in the Journal of African Civilizations claiming that the Saqqara Bird embodied flight know-how. “The body is made of the same wood as the wings and has an aerofoil shape beautifully carved and smooth,” he wrote.Messiha gets the credit for championing the artifact as proof of ancient Egyptian flight knowledge. Others took up the mantle too, including an example of the piece reconstructed in a much lighter balsa wood that was indeed able to glide. And if you added a tailplane, you might really have something.A 2002 recreation, still without the tailplane, showed the item wasn’t in any position to fly, however. “In my opinion,” wrote glider designer Martin Gregoire, “the Saqqara Bird was probably made as a child’s toy or a weathervane. As such it is an interesting artifact and is certainly not an example of Pharaonic high-tech or ancient lost knowledge.”A modern simulation in 2023 proved that the artifact’s glide properties are insufficient for flight—perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the bird’s aviation dreams. It has an unstable pitch, an asymmetric lift, and would roll uncontrollably, all with the center of gravity behind the neutral point. “Within the scope of this work, the connection between the Bird of Saqqara and an alleged knowledge of aerodynamics in ancient Egypt could not be confirmed,” the authors wrote.While some still stick to the idea that the ancient Egyptians had somehow found the secret to flying—and this is the only remaining example ever discovered—science debunks the concept. Evidence from the Khonsu Temple suggests this type of artifact could have been a weathervane on a boat, even if the relatively small size makes that theory implausible. Another theory keeps the hope of gliding alive by proposing that the bird was a stylized boomerang. Of course, the Saqqara Bird could simply be a 2,200-year-old toy—one that’s sparked imaginations far beyond a few children.Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.