Ancient technology (Stargate)

Encyclopedia : A : AN : ANC : Ancient technology (Stargate)

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This article provides a more exhaustive list of the fictional technologies used by the Ancient race in the Stargate universe.

For a listing of their more prominent technologies see the main technology article.

The Ancients—also known as the "Alterans"—are the most advanced race to be discovered by the SGC. Among their many achievements, their transportational methods deserve a lot of praise, having built extremely advanced ships, flying cities, and the entire Stargate Network. Much of the Ancients' weapons technology was used or designed for use in the centuries-long war with the Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy. They were also extremely advanced in the areas of healing, power generation, and biology. All known Ancient technology was created prior to ascension with the exception of the Velona weapon assisted by Orlin and the weapon created by Merlin to destroy ascended beings. The superiority of Ancient technology is challenged by Replicator's technology which is a combination of cultures (including the Ancients) and Ori technology (created with ascended knowledge by the Priors).

Ancient city-ship (Atlantis)

The city of Atlantis, as the centre of the civilization of the Ancients, holds many secrets and technology far in advance of that mastered by the human expedition. The city has a shield capable of withstanding any form of attack, but Atlantis only recently obtained the energy resources necessary to power the shield ("The Siege (Part 3)", with the arrival of the Daedalus). The entire city also has the ability to travel through space, or submerge itself beneath an ocean; it has recently been shown that the expedition knows how to activate the inertial dampeners and star drive, but a single ZPM presumably cannot provide the necessary power to use them.

The city also possesses internal sensors capable of locating power sources and life forms inside the city, as well as long range and deep space sensors. It is also capable of sensing threats, including chemical and biological ones, and can automatically seal or open sections of the city to secure its population.

There are other ancient city-ships, as demonstrated in "The Tower." Presumably named Lemuria after the ancient civilization of Lemuria which existed before and during the time of Atlantis according to legend.#redirect As well as the Season 3 episode "Progeny" which is named Asuras, although it is inhabited by android form unascended Ancients whom broke off from the Ancients in Atlantis 10000 years ago when they disapproved of the Atlantean council's handling of the war with the Wraith. Whether more exist is currently unknown.

Ancient Technology Activation (ATA)

This is a particular gene present in all Ancients, one of the factors that differentiates them from humans. Whether or not this gene was natural in them remains unknown. This specific gene expression generates a specific biochemical transmitter that is released through the skin and detected by nearly all Ancient technology. If the user does not possess the gene, the technology will either not activate or will be useless. Since a small percentage of humans from Earth are more directly descended from the Ancients, some of them already have this gene (e.g. Jack O'Neill).

Once a person with this gene "activates" an Ancient machine, it generally remains usable by those without the gene afterward. Exceptions to this include puddle jumpers.

The Atlantis expedition team began to employ in vivo retroviral gene therapy to transfer the Ancient gene expression into humans, however only around half of those who undergo the procedure are rewarded with the ATA gene.

Ancient mainframe

A highly advanced computer the Atlantis team has interfaced with, capable of making many automated decisions such as alerting users to threats from long-range sensors, quarantining appropriate sections of the city as necessary, and making smart decisions such as the selective prioritization of certain sections of the city when shields are failing and raising the city from a submerged position to the surface when necessary. This latter function was not present until after the "first" expedition to Atlantis was sent back in time and the "first" Elizabeth Weir helped to reprogram the computer so that the expedition would not be killed.

Arthur's Mantle

A console that, when properly activated will transport you to an alternate dimension. Invented by Myrrdin (known to history as Merlin), a de-ascended Ancient who used it to keep his research on the anti-Ori weapon secret.

Atlantis main shield

A massive dome-like force field that protects the city from enemy attacks, extreme weather (such as cyclones and tsunamis), and the water pressure when submerged in an epipelagic ocean depth. The power required to operate the shield depends heavily on what the shield is doing at the time. When interfaced with a puddle jumper's cloak generator, it draws much less power than it normally would, though it offers absolutely no protection other than that of invisibility. During normal operation with no strain, the shield can be sustained by a single ZPM nearly indefinitely. Under the pressure of thousands of feet of water, a single ZPM will sustain the city shield for a little over three thousand years. The shield draws a substantial amount of power when under heavy strain. Under attack from several Wraith ships, a single ZPM with a reduced power level was only able to maintain the shield for a short period of time (days).

Aurora-class battleship

The Aurora was an Ancient battlecruiser built to fight the Wraith. It out-masses the Daedalus-class battlecruiser by at least four times, and could stand toe-to-toe with a Wraith hive-ship. It has cryogenic suspension systems to keep its crew alive for an extended period of time. The Aurora was destroyed by the Atlantis team to keep it from falling into the hands of the Wraith.

A second Aurora-class vessel - nicknamed the Orion by John Sheppard as he did not like its real name, the "Hippafaralcus" (named for a great Ancient General) - was discovered on a planet about to be destroyed by a supervolcano. It was in far better repair than its sister ship, and while still unable to fly using its sublight engines, it was able to open a hyperspace window on the planet's surface and escape into orbit. The ship was still undergoing repairs when it was pressed into action prematurely in order to stop two Wraith hive ships headed for Earth. Though it managed to destroy one of the hive ships, the Orion was also destroyed in the battle.

Dakara superweapon

Enclosed within a mountain, the actual size of it cannot be known. Only the console is visible. This console is used to calibrate the weapon. Once activated, the weapon releases a disruption field that reduces any compounds matching the console's calibration into their basic atoms. At its most general settings, the weapon is capable of causing anything in its blast-radius to cease to exist. The blast is also able to extend its radius by passing through the Stargate Network; if a local gate is set to dial every other gate in the galaxy, the blast radius can extend indefinitely, and as such can be used to destroy all life in the galaxy.

This weapon was used to eliminate the entire Replicator threat in the episode "Reckoning (Parts 1 and 2)", by calibrating the disruption wave to match that emitted by the Replicator Disruptor.

The weapon was destroyed by the newly formed Free Jaffa Nation in the episode "Threads", to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands (such as the hands of Anubis, who had intended to wipe out all life in the galaxy so that he could remake everything to his own design).

It was later revealed that this was never created as a weapon but was used by the Ancients to bioform the galaxy, to seed human life across the whole galaxy simultaneously after their return from the Pegasus galaxy.

It is later revealed that the Jaffa never actually destroyed the weapon on Dakarra. They use it in Season 10 to strike against and wipe out Ori-controlled planets.

DNA Resequencer

The DNA Resequencer was a device used by the Ancients to biologically alter people into a more advanced state. It may be the reason that some (if not all) Ancients have the powers of telekinesis, telepathy, super-human senses and strength, supernatural health and self healing, perfect memories, and the power to heal by touch. It also may be one of the contributing factors to Ascension.

Drone weapon

The weapon itself comes in two parts, a Control Chair and the projectiles fired and targeted using the Chair. It is the projectiles that are called the 'drones'. They are a hybrid between projectile and energy weapons, and are shaped like a meter-long jellyfish, capable of autonomously targeting and destroying a small vessel, even if the vessel is moving extremely quickly. If several of these drones work together, they can even destroy a large vessel like a Ha'tak, as demonstrated in the episode "Lost City (Part 2)" when they destroyed Anubis’ mothership, which was preparing to attack Earth. If guided very precisely, only two drones are in fact needed to achieve this, as shown in the episode "It's Good to Be King" when SG-1 destroyed the mothership of Aries. The drones are also able to penetrate energy shields.

Hand weapon

The crew of the Aurora carried these weapons, and they can be assumed to be a standard issue hand-weapon among Ancients. They have a slim handle attached to a larger section, and are capable of stunning enemies. Whether the weapon can be set to be fatal remains unknown. It should be noted that this weapon has a design similar to the transporter generator on Wraith darts.

Healing Device

Although the Ancients possessed the ability to heal each other naturally, (See DNA Resequencer for an explanation of the Ancient's natural abilities) they created a healing device which is capable of healing far more extreme injuries, also capable of reviving the dead, even if the corpse is in horrible shape, and even capable of giving life to something which was never alive. This technology was never fully refined for use by non-Ancients. After at least one prototype was left on Earth, it appears that the Goa'uld Telchak used the design as a base for the Goa'uld Sarcophagus device.

Lagrangian Point defense satellite

A giant satellite floating in deep space, the only remaining of a network of possibly five or more, placed at the Lagrangian points, it is equipped with an energy beam weapon powerful enough to cut a Wraith Hive-Ship in half. The Atlantis Expedition attempted to repair the last satellite to use it to destroy the Wraith fleet en-route to attack Atlantis (The Siege, part 1). The repairs allowed the weapon to fire once, destroying one Hive-Ship, but the repairs did not hold and the weapon went offline - the satellite was then destroyed by a massive barrage of fire from the remaining ships.

Life signs detector

A PDA-shaped device of Ancient design that can detect and locate life signs of humans, Wraiths, and some signs of radiation and power. It also seems to have other functions that only a person with the ATA gene can access. When used in combination with another, smaller, hand held device, it serves as a medical scanner. The name was introduced by the character Lieutenant Aiden Ford.

Personal shield

An Ancient artifact about the size of an apple that sticks to a person when pressed onto them, and then projects a defensive forcefield around them which also dampens inertia, making the wearer practically invulnerable.

The shield is activated by ATA, and, like most Ancient technology, the personal shield is controlled by the user's mind, although the user must be trained in the mind-control lest his subconscious override his conscious desires in the use of the device. For example, the user may believe he does not need the shield, but his subconscious mind may realize the shield is needed, and therefore the shield will stay active until the danger has passed. In addition, if the subconscious mind realizes that wearing the device places the wearer in a situation that is disliked, the shield will go down. Once a person has activated a shield, only that person can use it in the future.

It should be noted that the shield prevents all matter, including food and drink, from passing through, with the exception of air.

Project Arcturus

This was the plan of the Ancients to produce a new energy source, more powerful than the ZPM. They encountered numerous problems and had to abandon the project. The remains of the project were encountered by the Atlantis expedition and Dr. McKay tried to finish the project. His (failed) efforts resulted in the destruction of five-sixths of the solar system in which the project was stored.

Puddle Jumper

A cylindrical-shaped spacecraft developed by the Ancients for quick transportation and reconnaissance missions through the Stargate. It has high maneuverability and hovering vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. The vehicle is equipped with Ancient Drone weapons, inertial dampeners, a cloaking device, and a DHD. Unlike the Goa'uld cargo ship or Wraith dart, it does not possess beaming technology, requiring it to land in order to allow its occupants to disembark. In once instance the cloaking device was modified to function as a defense shield, and at least two Puddle Jumpers were outfitted with a time travel device

Replicator disruptor

The most effective weapon for the combat of Replicators, when fired any replicator in its blast-radius has its individual cells blocked out from each other, causing the robot to fall apart (more specifically, the 'Keron Pathways' within the replicator cells are interfered with). Whereas standard replicators could be stopped or halted by the use of projectile weapons, only the Disruptor could stop and kill a human-form-Replicator. The weapon was created by Jack O'Neill, who had had the entire Ancient Database downloaded into his mind at the time, in conjunction with an Asgard computer.

Repository of the Ancients

A device that stores the collective knowledge of the Ancients, that is, holds a backup of the Ancient Database. It is seen in the episodes "The Fifth Race" and "Lost City (Part 1)". These devices are usually attached to a wall and prove impossible to remove, leading some to suggest that the visible devices are merely the consoles for larger devices hidden behind the wall. The console is designed to allow a human to place his head into it, whereupon the device grabs them by the temples and downloads the entire database into their mind, thus expunging itself of energy. The transfer of knowledge from this device can cause serious problems for beings whose physiology is not prepared to take the mental strain.

Ring transporter

A teleportation system in use today by the Goa'uld and Tok'ra, and used by humans aboard the Prometheus. Although not explicitly stated, the abundance of these devices suggests that the Goa'uld are capable of manufacturing them. The devices come with "platforms". When activated, a set of five rings descend onto the platform to form a cylinder; anything inside the cylinder is then transported to a complementary platform somewhere else, or otherwise the rings themselves move to the destination. It must be noted that anything partially under the rings will teleport without the rest of the item. This happened to one of Ra's warriors in the original movie, where only his head was within the cylinder and thus appeared without the body attached on Ra's ship.

The Ori also use ring transporters. Their ring transporters are a brilliant white color, but otherwise function exactly the same. It is likely that they possess other technologies similar to Ancient technologies, as they are an offshoot of the Ancients.

Ship shields

Ship shields used by the Ancients were placed aboard their warships. The Orion's shields were able to withstand a supervolcano's eruption for 4.1 seconds (note that the Orion was not operating at full power and the shields were not receiving much power, so if the shields were at full strength the Orion would presumably have been able to withstand the explosion for considerably longer) while using the eruption to propel it out of its hangar. Unlike Asgard shields (which appear as a giant bubble around the ship), the shield was contoured around the ship, like an extra hull.

Stargate

The Stargates were created and distributed by the Ancients across several galaxies, along with DHDs (Dial Home Devices) to control them. They comprise the Stargate Network. A traveller may use any Stargate to travel instantaneously to any other Stargate in the system, so long as he knows that Stargate's 'address,' a combination of at least seven symbols (six for the 3D position and one for the point of origin) that must be entered on the DHD.

Because the Goa'uld are scavengers, they claimed that they were the builders of the Stargates to make the populations of the planets they enslaved worship them as gods.

Stargate iris shield

Much like the iris back at Stargate Command, the Atlantean Stargate is protected by an energy shield that can be activated at the touch of a button to prevent any matter from materializing beyond the event horizon.

Teleporters

There are several matter teleporters in Atlantis, housed in chambers resembling elevators (though originally confused with storage closets by the expedition). Judging from their function of transposing objects in two separate locations, the teleporters are probably an advancement of the ring platform.

Time Dilation Device

A device capable of altering the speed at which time passes in an area around itself. It was used by the Asgard to trap the Replicator threat in a time bubble where time slowed down significantly enough to let the Asgard have more time to think of an effective strategy for how they were going to eliminate them. However, the Replicators were able to modify the device so it sped up time instead, leading to their eventual rise to total power in Season 8. In Stargate Atlantis, another similar device was seen in the episode "Epiphany", where an area was temporally cordoned off to allow the inhabitants on the inside greater amounts of time to enlighten themselves towards Ascension.

Time travel machine

The Ancients attempted to make a time travel device to save themselves from the Wraith threat, and although Janus, one of the Ancients seen on Stargate Atlantis, perfected it, the project was abandoned. SG-1 found his time machine and used it to go back to 3000 BC when Ra was alive and the Goa'uld ruled Earth, in the Season 8 finale "Moebius (Parts 1 and 2)".

A similar device was seen in the episode "Window of Opportunity". This was a much larger time machine, which dialed several planets through the Stargate Network to form a subspace bubble; however, it was faulty, and instead of travelling back in time, it created a short-term time loop, which forced the planets that the device dialed to relive the same 10 hours over and over again.

Zero Point Module (ZPM)

The Zero-Point Module is an Ancient power source, used to power their cities and outposts using zero-point energy. It is more powerful and efficient than any energy source on Earth, and can last for thousands of years. While the energy output is huge - significantly larger than that of Naqahdah generators - it appears that the ZPM is based on an irreversible thermodynamic process and will ultimately reach its maximum entropy limit, at which point it becomes practically useless.

Each ZPM contains a separate self-contained time-space continuum. The concept of the ZPM is derived from the physical concept of zero-point energy, which appears in quantum field theoretical calculations as infinite, and that of vacuum energy. In reality, however, as the concept of infinities arising within physical calculations is not unusual and even appears in calculations of classical mechanics that are well known not to be infinite in their energy, most field theorists believe this to be an artifact of the calculation itself. Furthermore, because of the equation E = mc², the equivalency of energy and mass, the vacuum energy content has been measured in the universe to be extremely small and unlikely to be a useful power source. This has led some to classify the ZPM as a MacGuffin.

Jack O'Neill managed to obtain one at an abandoned Ancient outpost and used it to power Ancient weaponry left behind on Earth to repel Anubis’ attack on Earth at the climax of Season 7. It was the same ZPM that allowed Stargate Command to open a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy and the city of Atlantis, in the premiere episode of Stargate Atlantis, "Rising". Another ZPM was found on Earth when SG-1 traveled back in time in the episode "Moebius". This allowed them to send supplies and reinforcements to Atlantis.

References

Technology in the Stargate universe		[http://encycl.opentopia.com/ Edit]
Tau'ri technology	GDO | IDC | Stargate Iris | Kull Disruptor | P90 | MALP | Naqahdah Generator F-302 | Prometheus (BC-303) | Daedalus (BC-304)-class Battlecruiser
Goa'uld / Tok'ra technology	Al'kesh | Death Glider | Ha'tak Mothership | Hand Device | Healing Device | Intar | Sarcophagus | Staff Weapon | Tel'tak | TER | Tunnel Crystals | Zat | Zatarc detector
Ancient technology	ATA Gene | Atlantis | Aurora-class Battleship | Dakara Weapon | DHD | DNA Resequencer Drone Weapon | Healing Device | Project Arcturus | Puddle Jumper | Repository of Knowledge Ring Transporter | Stargate | Time Dilation Device | Zero Point Module
Other races' technology	Beliskner-class ship | Daniel Jackson-class ship | O'Neill-class ship | Thor's Hammer | Ion Cannon | Wraith Dart | Wraith Hive-Ship | Supergate | Ori Battlecruiser
Technology by Race	All | Tau'ri | Ancient | Goa'uld | Tok'ra | Asgard | Tollan | Wraith | Ori | Other

 

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