Latest / Be Amazed / Archeological Finds That Shouldn’t Exist
Transcript
- 0:00[SPEAKER_01]: For the 4 and a half billion years our planet has existed, we humans have only been around for between 2 to 300,000 of them.
- 0:09[SPEAKER_01]: But in that time, we've left our mark all over the world.
- 0:13[SPEAKER_01]: Often, in the most perplexing and mysterious of ways.
- 0:18[SPEAKER_01]: From inexplicable architecture to unfathomable attire, you'd better grab your fedora and whip, because we're gonna dig up some of the most confusing archaeological finds that shouldn't exist.
- 0:43[SPEAKER_01]: Deep in the desert of Algeria rests a vast sea of dunes, floating in the midst of them the ruins of a fortified village called Zardra.
- 0:53[SPEAKER_01]: The supremely unstructured remains a complete mystery to archaeologists, it just doesn't make sense.
- 1:00[SPEAKER_01]: Why would it be built here in the middle of nowhere?
- 1:03[SPEAKER_01]: When was it built?
- 1:05[SPEAKER_01]: How were its inhabitants connected to civilization?
- 1:08[SPEAKER_01]: All questions that nobody has any solid answers to.
- 1:13[SPEAKER_01]: We do know the structure was built with the fence and mine made clear by its 6.6 foot walls.
- 1:20[SPEAKER_01]: What the inhabitants needed to protect themselves from though isn't so clear.
- 1:25[SPEAKER_01]: A single lone jewish symbol resides on one wall, leading some to say Algerian Jews may have lived there once, potentially to escape prejudice or just live in secluded study.
- 1:35[SPEAKER_01]: But we can be sure.
- 1:43[SPEAKER_01]: One tells of a group of Americans who traveled there with the help of some guides back in the 1980s.
- 1:50[SPEAKER_01]: When they arrived they asked the guides to leave them alone for a week.
- 1:54[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody knows what they were looking for or what they found inside, but apparently when the guides returned the Americans were nowhere to be found.
- 2:01[SPEAKER_01]: Creepy!
- 2:03[SPEAKER_01]: Zardrad does kind of give you the weird horror movie vibes, doesn't it?
- 2:08[SPEAKER_01]: It definitely freaks me out.
- 2:10[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's a collusion.
- 2:12[SPEAKER_01]: Huh, would you visit?
- 2:13[SPEAKER_01]: The world wasn't widely accepted as round until about the 15th century.
- 2:18[SPEAKER_01]: Since then millions of globes have been created to illustrate the fact.
- 2:22[SPEAKER_01]: But what was the very first?
- 2:24[SPEAKER_01]: Well, author and historians to fawn the scene says an ostrich laid it back in 1502.
- 2:30[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, love what?
- 2:33[SPEAKER_01]: Found at a London map fair in 2012, this extraordinary globe and fur seems like some kind of impossible biological enigma.
- 2:41[SPEAKER_01]: But it's actually made from the conjoined lower halves of two ostrich eggs, so I'm afraid it didn't pop out pre-painted.
- 2:48[SPEAKER_01]: Humans have used ostrich eggs for decorative purposes for millennia, and they were very expensive items at the time, so the globe would have been a coveted possession.
- 2:58[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, experts agree the unique and highly detailed map is probably the oldest globe depicting the new world.
- 3:05[SPEAKER_01]: That's the Americas we've ever discovered.
- 3:07[SPEAKER_01]: Machine, who now owns the ostrich globe, goes a step further.
- 3:12[SPEAKER_01]: He says it was made by the famous Renaissance artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci himself.
- 3:19[SPEAKER_01]: If so, it would be one of the most significant finds of the 21st century.
- 3:23[SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, there are clues it was crafted by the big da Vinci.
- 3:27[SPEAKER_01]: It's believed to have originated in Florence, where he spent much of his life, and the engraving style is also characteristic of da Vinci's.
- 3:35[SPEAKER_01]: What's more, DaVinci actually implied that he'd created a globe in some of his writings.
- 3:40[SPEAKER_01]: Game set, Mesh, right?
- 3:43[SPEAKER_01]: Well, some choreographers point out that the engravings present on the globe are beyond DaVinci's skill.
- 3:50[SPEAKER_01]: And that there isn't enough mention of the new world in his writings to suggest he'd bother making a whole globe to represent it.
- 3:57[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.
- 3:58[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, it's still a remarkable find.
- 4:01[SPEAKER_01]: Even if it's origins remain a bit of an egg nigma.
- 4:04[SPEAKER_01]: Are you an Indiana Jones fan?
- 4:06[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've got good news for you.
- 4:09[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just like him.
- 4:11[SPEAKER_01]: Only instead of old tombs, I plunder the internet for lost treasures.
- 4:15[SPEAKER_01]: Night crystal skulls.
- 4:17[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, they're very real.
- 4:19[SPEAKER_01]: The most famous is the Mitchell Hedge's skull.
- 4:22[SPEAKER_01]: It was allegedly discovered by Anna Mitchell Hedge's adopted daughter of Daring Explorer Frederick Mitchell Hedge's in the ancient Mayan city of Lubanton.
- 4:32[SPEAKER_01]: in the 1920s.
- 4:33[SPEAKER_01]: Excquisitely carved from 11 pounds of clear quartz, the artifact implies that ancient mines had access to far more advanced stone cutting skills than was previously thought.
- 4:45[SPEAKER_01]: What's more, the skull is said to possess a number of magical properties.
- 4:49[SPEAKER_01]: According to Mitchell Hedge is it can cure cancer, bring on intense visions, and even uh, unaligned people.
- 4:55[SPEAKER_01]: Because of this, it's not the spooky nickname, The Skull of Doom.
- 5:01[SPEAKER_01]: How did it end up in an ancient Mayan ruin then?
- 5:05[SPEAKER_01]: While some people believe the Mayans were far more advanced than we realized, or even that the skull proves they could use ancient magic while lost in the ages.
- 5:15[SPEAKER_01]: While that's a fun idea, the claims that the skull has strange powers are largely unsubstantiated.
- 5:21[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, we're not even sure it was found in Lubin, too.
- 5:25[SPEAKER_01]: There was an expedition there in the 1920s, but nobody else that went on it recalled seeing the skull.
- 5:31[SPEAKER_01]: And for good reason, it turns out Project Mitchell had just actually purchased it at an auction in 1943 for $18,000 in today's money.
- 5:41[SPEAKER_01]: Damn!
- 5:42[SPEAKER_01]: So Anna and Frederick had lied about it being an ancient mine artifact, bringing into question all of their other fantastical claims.
- 5:51[SPEAKER_01]: Indeed, an examination of the skull in 2008 revealed it was carved using diamond tools unavailable to artisans in the pre-Colombian era.
- 6:00[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than suggesting the mine's had some secret knowledge, this is more likely to mean it was just created for later, probably around the 1930s.
- 6:08[SPEAKER_01]: No ancient magic here, then.
- 6:10[SPEAKER_01]: But I gotta say, they'd make a great paperweight.
- 6:14[SPEAKER_01]: Despite the name, the NASCAR lines have nothing to do with NASCAR racing.
- 6:19[SPEAKER_01]: The Heroculation of Strange 2000-year-old lines carved into the Peruvian landscape near the city of NASCAR.
- 6:25[SPEAKER_01]: Covering a colossal area of 190 square miles, the lines depict huge animals, plants,
- 6:39[SPEAKER_01]: We know how they were made by removing about a dozen inches of rusty, oxidized rocks to reveal a brighter sand beneath, but why they exist?
- 6:48[SPEAKER_01]: We have no idea.
- 6:50[SPEAKER_01]: Since being spotted by pilots at the start of the 20th century, theories have ranged wildly.
- 6:56[SPEAKER_01]: Some say they're there for astronomical purposes, but astrophysicists have found no correlation between the markings and celestial bodies.
- 7:04[SPEAKER_01]: Others have even claimed that they're landing strips for extraterrestrial life forms.
- 7:10[SPEAKER_01]: Sadly, though, even if this is true, it seems no aliens took the bait.
- 7:14[SPEAKER_01]: such a dramatic historical event would have had a tremendous impact on the mythology of indigenous Peruvians, which wasn't the case, and would UFOs capable of traveling across space really need a landing strip anyway?
- 7:29[SPEAKER_01]: Probably not.
- 7:31[SPEAKER_01]: Instead experts reckon they were probably made to be seen from the heavens by the gods of the Peruvian people.
- 7:38[SPEAKER_01]: Equally, they could have played a role in pilgrimages where people followed the lines to reach a sacred place.
- 7:44[SPEAKER_01]: Because Naska culture was prehistoric though, we have no written records to give us any clues.
- 7:50[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever their purpose, they're an unbelievable example of human ingenuity, and you never know.
- 7:56[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe at some point aliens will show up.
- 8:00[SPEAKER_01]: Boy, well, they'd be disappointed when they don't get the welcome party they expected at their empty landing strips.
- 8:06[SPEAKER_01]: In 2021, archaeologists from the National University of San Marcos were exploring an underground Peruvian tomb when they made a spine-chilling discovery.
- 8:16[SPEAKER_01]: A deeply unsettling mummy pound in the fetal position with its hands covering its face.
- 8:22[SPEAKER_01]: As if the person had been terrified, who
- 8:24[SPEAKER_01]: The image sent the internet into a frenzy.
- 8:28[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what the heck could possibly have happened to the poor person?
- 8:32[SPEAKER_01]: Despite how creepy it seems, though, there's a reasonable explanation.
- 8:37[SPEAKER_01]: The person lived somewhere between 800 to 1200 years ago, predating the Inc.
- 8:43[SPEAKER_01]: Empire that ruled large portions of South America prior to European colonization.
- 8:49[SPEAKER_01]: That implies the odd arrangement of the mummy is an outcome of a belief in reincarnation.
- 8:54[SPEAKER_01]: See, in pre-inken Peruvian culture, bearing someone in the fetal position prepared them for birth in the next life as it was believed to make rebirth easier.
- 9:05[SPEAKER_01]: The person was covered in cloth and bound with rope as a way to prevent decay, and the incredible condition of the mummy means it clearly worked.
- 9:13[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not really as unusual as it first seems.
- 9:17[SPEAKER_01]: But from creepy the mummy's positioning is likely the result of a loving community taking care of its past.
- 9:24[SPEAKER_01]: more wholesome than you thought, right?
- 9:27[SPEAKER_01]: In 2011, after a series of publicity-centered photo shoots then included the leader horse riding and putting out four swires in a plane, Vladimir Putin went scuba diving off the Tumman peninsula on the coast of the Black Sea.
- 9:41[SPEAKER_01]: On this adventure of his E.S.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E
- 9:52[SPEAKER_01]: Plonaguria was the largest ancient Greek city and is known as Russian Atlantis due to being partly submerged underwater.
- 9:59[SPEAKER_01]: The problem?
- 10:00[SPEAKER_01]: While Russian State TV promoted the incredible find everywhere else was quick to point out that the two jugs lived suspiciously clean with no traces of moss on them, despite supposedly being underwater for centuries.
- 10:15[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't make any sense, right?
- 10:17[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the President's own spokesman, Demetri Pascava eventually came out and admitted the whole thing was staged.
- 10:25[SPEAKER_01]: The boss had been found some weeks earlier, cleaned up, then planted for Putin to pretend to find as part of a propaganda push.
- 10:33[SPEAKER_01]: Stay classy, Vlad.
- 10:35[SPEAKER_01]: With many credit inventor Charles Babbage with creating the first computer in 1871.
- 10:40[SPEAKER_01]: Simply called the analytical engine, Babbage's device was just powerful enough to perform simple mathematical calculations.
- 10:49[SPEAKER_01]: But, what if I told you that a computer much much older exists?
- 10:54[SPEAKER_01]: This strange device dates way back to the first century BCE and was pulled from a shipwreck off the Greek coast of Antikothera 20 centuries later.
- 11:04[SPEAKER_01]: Known as the Antikothera mechanism, its discovery sent the scientific and historical communities into an absolute frenzy.
- 11:13[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, it's not a MacBook, but it is a highly complex geared mechanism, the likes of which wouldn't be seen again until medieval cathedral clocks were built many centuries later.
- 11:25[SPEAKER_01]: It was most likely used by the ancient Greeks to predict astronomical positions and lunar and solar eclipses decades in advance.
- 11:34[SPEAKER_01]: Inscriptions on the device reveal the 12 signs of the zodiac as well as the months and days of the ancient Egyptian calendar transcribed in Greek.
- 11:42[SPEAKER_01]: The front of the device seems to have had a display of the Cosmos on it, a hand-powered crank would have turned the gears spinning the dials.
- 11:51[SPEAKER_01]: This made it possible to find out the position of the Sun and Moon on any given day, as well as accurately calculate the dates of a clip's.
- 12:00[SPEAKER_01]: which is pretty damn wild, especially because no other devices like it have ever been found.
- 12:07[SPEAKER_01]: All fragments of the antique theorem mechanism are now held at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, where a reconstruction of what it would have looked like is also displayed.
- 12:18[SPEAKER_01]: But despite being thoroughly studied, the strange computer still holds many secrets.
- 12:24[SPEAKER_01]: Who built it?
- 12:26[SPEAKER_01]: Why are there no others?
- 12:28[SPEAKER_01]: Could it run Mario Kart?
- 12:30[SPEAKER_01]: Italian explorer Christopher Columbus is widely credited as the first European to have made contact with the Americas back in 1492.
- 12:38[SPEAKER_01]: Scandinavian Vikings actually visited the western continent centuries before, but they never went any further than Newfoundland.
- 12:46[SPEAKER_01]: or at least that's what we thought.
- 12:49[SPEAKER_01]: Let me introduce you to the main penny.
- 12:52[SPEAKER_01]: This unremarkable looking coin was uncovered during an archaeological dig at Gauder Point Main by amateur archaeologist Dr.
- 13:00[SPEAKER_01]: Guy Melgren in 1957.
- 13:03[SPEAKER_01]: Only it was soon clear it was anything but unremarkable.
- 13:08[SPEAKER_01]: The penny dates back to the 11th century and bears the crown figure of King Olaf III of Norway.
- 13:15[SPEAKER_01]: That makes it a Viking coin.
- 13:18[SPEAKER_01]: But wait, they're not only ever been evidence that the Vikings landed in Newfoundland, some 400 miles from Maine.
- 13:26[SPEAKER_01]: So how the heck could the coin have gotten there?
- 13:29[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if the Vikings actually explored more of the Newworld than we thought, it'd change our whole idea of history as we know it.
- 13:37[SPEAKER_01]: However, it's not that simple, boring paper, skeptics think it was brought to main by later European settlers and not the Vikings themselves.
- 13:48[SPEAKER_01]: And as much as I don't want to believe that in the absence of any other Viking artifacts in the area, it's probably true.
- 13:55[SPEAKER_01]: That being said, we just don't know for sure.
- 13:58[SPEAKER_01]: The coin is a mystery.
- 14:00[SPEAKER_01]: One thing is for sure, though.
- 14:02[SPEAKER_01]: It's a real illustration of how complex the history of North America really is.
- 14:08[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Bible, God gave Moses 10 commandments inscribed upon two stone tablets, and to house these tablets a grand chest was made from wood and gold.
- 14:18[SPEAKER_01]: This chest became known as the Ark of the Covenant, one of the most sacred relics ever.
- 14:24[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing is, the arc went missing, and nobody knows where it went.
- 14:29[SPEAKER_01]: If it even existed at all.
- 14:31[SPEAKER_01]: Unless you believe the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that is, who say they know where it is.
- 14:38[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, according to Ethiopian National Epic, the Khebronagast, the arc was brought to Ethiopia by King Menelig, the first son of King Solomon and the Queen of Shiba.
- 14:54[SPEAKER_01]: Mary of Zion.
- 14:56[SPEAKER_01]: The only issue is verifying this is nion impossible.
- 15:00[SPEAKER_01]: The Ethiopian church man's anybody but the assigned guardian of the art from saying it.
- 15:05[SPEAKER_01]: That said, during World War two British historians Edward Ulendorf was able to gain access when he entered the church with a band of soldiers.
- 15:14[SPEAKER_01]: His report is sadly unpromising.
- 15:17[SPEAKER_01]: Apparently the church does have a wooden box that looks like the art.
- 15:21[SPEAKER_01]: However, Ulendorf believed it was most likely a medieval creation, similar to Ark replicas and other Ethiopian churches.
- 15:28[SPEAKER_01]: But what do you guys think?
- 15:30[SPEAKER_01]: Could it Ulendorf have been wrong?
- 15:32[SPEAKER_01]: Back in 1944, a German immigrant called Voldemort Yulzrood was outwriting in his hometown of Uncombatom, Mexico, when he stumbled across a strange find.
- 15:43[SPEAKER_01]: A small ceramic figure of a human.
- 15:46[SPEAKER_01]: Intrigued by the unique appearance of the figurine, he was rude to pay to the local farmer to help search the land in case they were more of them.
- 15:55[SPEAKER_01]: And boy, there were about 33,000 more.
- 15:59[SPEAKER_01]: What?
- 16:01[SPEAKER_01]: The insanely vast collection of figurines was uncovered from an underground pit and included far more than just humanoids.
- 16:09[SPEAKER_01]: They were also animals, dinosaurs, and even what appeared to be UFOs.
- 16:14[SPEAKER_01]: So, what gives?
- 16:16[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Yulzrewd was convinced the ceramics were ancient and thus proved the coexistence of humans with dinosaurs, and may even prove we've had alien visitors.
- 16:28[SPEAKER_01]: Young Earth creationists were also excited by the models using them as evidence that the Earth is only a few thousand years old.
- 16:36[SPEAKER_01]: If the ceramic figurines really are ancient, they blow the lid off history as we know it.
- 16:42[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing is, they're not.
- 16:45[SPEAKER_01]: Archaeologists studying the figurines found they displayed no telltale signs of age.
- 16:50[SPEAKER_01]: There was no dirt in their crevices and despite some being broken none of them had any missing pieces.
- 16:56[SPEAKER_01]: Most damningly of all though, the pit they'd been discovered in was revealed to have been recently dug.
- 17:03[SPEAKER_01]: And it was suspiciously closed to where a family had been selling similar figures for a peso uphease.
- 17:10[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, it's pretty clear to me that Yulz Root was just an opportunist looking for a slice of fame.
- 17:17[SPEAKER_01]: Then he got it.
- 17:18[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to draw your own conclusions, though, you can go to Akamato today and visit Yulz Root's Museum where many of the figurines are still on display.
- 17:28[SPEAKER_01]: Though, don't expect any mind-blowing revelations regarding the age of the earth.
- 17:33[SPEAKER_01]: Please.
- 17:34[SPEAKER_01]: When you think Viking, you're probably think big, bearded, strong men.
- 17:38[SPEAKER_01]: You might also think of the sea, or the awesome gods of Norse mythology.
- 17:43[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the Vikings did worship the Old Norse gods, right?
- 17:47[SPEAKER_01]: While some mind-blowing vines suggest that some were actually muzzle-ups.
- 17:52[SPEAKER_01]: Huh?
- 17:53[SPEAKER_01]: From Viking funeral clothes embroidered with the Islamic god-alot, to evidence that Arabic coins were used as currency in Viking Britain.
- 18:01[SPEAKER_01]: It's becoming clear that there was a complicated Viking Muslim relationship.
- 18:06[SPEAKER_01]: One of the most fascinating items was found back in March 2015.
- 18:10[SPEAKER_01]: This ring was uncovered in the grave of a ninth-century Viking woman in Berkha Sweden.
- 18:16[SPEAKER_01]: It's made from colored glass of rare and valuable material in Sweden at the time.
- 18:21[SPEAKER_01]: But that's not what's most interesting about it.
- 18:24[SPEAKER_01]: It's in remarkable condition, meaning the woman was probably the only owner.
- 18:29[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, Scandinavian Vikings must have had direct contact with Muslims in the Middle East.
- 18:35[SPEAKER_01]: The ringzone could have even been one of the very first northern European converts to Islam.
- 18:42[SPEAKER_01]: Wow!
- 18:43[SPEAKER_01]: It just goes to show the Vikings weren't all about drinking meat and pillaging villages.
- 18:49[SPEAKER_01]: The holy lands, the lands of Longeonus, the spear of destiny.
- 18:55[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever name you know it by, this legendary artifact is most famous for supposedly piercing Jesus Christ in the side after his crucifixion.
- 19:05[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and it's also said to Gran it's bearer the ability to rule the world.
- 19:10[SPEAKER_01]: Nice.
- 19:11[SPEAKER_01]: But even if the Lance really did exist, there's no way it does now, right?
- 19:16[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've got news for you.
- 19:18[SPEAKER_01]: There are actually four, yes four, relics that have all been named as parts of the Lance.
- 19:25[SPEAKER_01]: The first is an alleged fragmented respanete this statue at St. Petersburg's Basilica in Vatican City.
- 19:32[SPEAKER_01]: Though the Catholic Church doesn't formally recognize its authenticity, Pope Benedict the 14th claim to have seen a drawing of the original landscape in the mid-18th century, and he said the fragment matched up with it.
- 19:46[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.
- 19:47[SPEAKER_01]: The second contender lies in the imperial treasury in Vienna.
- 19:50[SPEAKER_01]: This legendary lance is an incredible condition and was once highly revered as the spear of destiny itself.
- 19:57[SPEAKER_01]: But it can be disqualified.
- 20:00[SPEAKER_01]: Special technology has been used to date it to the 8th century long after Christ's crucifixion.
- 20:06[SPEAKER_01]: Then there's a Lance Head and Varker Shopper, Armenia.
- 20:10[SPEAKER_01]: Said to have been brought there by one of Jesus' disciples, that is, it now sits in a museum on open display.
- 20:17[SPEAKER_01]: The earliest evidence we have supporting its claims, though, is from the 12th century, so I'm convinced.
- 20:24[SPEAKER_01]: The last relic is in the ancient Turkish city of Antioch.
- 20:28[SPEAKER_01]: It said that in 1098 during the first crusade, a monk called Peter Bartholomew was visited by St. Andrew in a vision.
- 20:36[SPEAKER_01]: He revealed to Peter that the lance was buried in the Antioch church, and incredibly when Peter searched there, he found it and took the lance into battle to secure a Christian victory.
- 20:47[SPEAKER_01]: How much of this is true we can't be sure, but it's likely there was a lance of some guy.
- 20:54[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately though, we have no idea what happened to it.
- 20:57[SPEAKER_01]: Man, and there I was thinking world domination would finally be within my grasp.
- 21:03[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening to the podcast, we'll see you again next time you want to be amazed.