DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY

One of the oldest races in the galaxy. They are the builders of the stargate system. The Ancients were part of an age-old alliance between the Asgard, the Furlings, the Nox and themselves.

The Ancients also attempted a form of time travel by creating a device that activated fourteen stargate destinations simultaneously. The device failed to work properly and only managed to cause a time loop that endlessly repeated itself on the fourteen worlds.

A living Ancient was thought to have been uncovered encased in ice near the location of Earth's Antarctic stargate. She was determined to have been over four million years old, around the time the stargate system was created.

Later, a device belonging to the Ancients was used by Anubis in order to use one stargate to destroy another by over-loading it. This device was destroyed by Rya'c, Teal'c son, and no other is rumored to exist.

Nirrti apparently discovered a DNA-altering device and used it to modify the genetic structure of a planet's population in order to give them(an eventually herself) advanced psychic powers. The device was destroyed after Nirrti's death and the restoration of the local population.

The fate of the Ancients' race remains unknown to this date. But speculation from the episode "Frozen" might suggest that the Ancients succumbed to a devastating plague.

Ayianna
Thought to be an Ancient, she was discovered encased in ice near Earth's Antarctic stargate. After having been revived, it became apparent that she was the carrier of a mortal disease that was theorised to have wiped out the Ancients' race. She finally died of the illness after curing SG-1, save Jack O'Neill who accepted blending with a Tok'ra as a last ditch effort to save himself.