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Early Adopters · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Southern Chile is a miracle
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  Speaker 1: of nature. Bordered by the Bio Bio River and the
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  Speaker 1: Andes Mountains. The Zona Sir the Southern Zone, runs along
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  Speaker 1: Chile's lower western coast. It's home to lakes as blue
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  Speaker 1: as the sky, steaming hot springs, and dense rainforests. It's
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  Speaker 1: idyllic northern area is known to be well suited for
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  Speaker 1: raising livestock, and cattle can often be seen grazing in
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  Speaker 1: green fields with snow capped mountains off in the distance.
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, idyllic. As for the human population, Chile
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  Speaker 1: is made up of people from all over. Many come
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  Speaker 1: from Europe, including Italy, Germany and Spain. There is also
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  Speaker 1: an extensive indigenous population consisting of nine different groups, the
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  Speaker 1: largest being the Mapuche, who have lived there since six BC.
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  Speaker 1: But they weren't the first. The prevailing theory among historians
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  Speaker 1: and archaeologists has been that humans first came to the
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  Speaker 1: Americas through the bearing straight roughly thirteen thousand, five hundred
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  Speaker 1: years ago, Following packs of big game like mastodon and bison,
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  Speaker 1: they traveled down through North America and spread out across Canada,
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  Speaker 1: the United States, and down into South America. These early
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  Speaker 1: travelers were known as the Clovis, and we have evidence
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  Speaker 1: of their presence by way of the spearheads they left behind.
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  Speaker 1: But the problem with any theory is that it can
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  Speaker 1: be easily challenged, which is exactly what happened. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: a veterinary student visiting Chile was explored in an area
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  Speaker 1: known as Monte Verde, on the banks of the Chinchwapee Creek,
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  Speaker 1: not far from the Pacific Ocean. Some locals showed the
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  Speaker 1: student a bone fragment they discovered after logging in the
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  Speaker 1: area had eroded much of the soil away. They thought
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  Speaker 1: it was a cow bone, The student, though, I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: so sure. After being tested and verified, the fragment was
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  Speaker 1: determined to be far more unique than a simple cowbone.
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  Speaker 1: It belonged to a gompher there, a prehistoric animal bearing
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  Speaker 1: a strong resemblance to modern day elephants. But unrelated news
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  Speaker 1: of the discovery made it back to American professor Tom
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  Speaker 1: de la Haye, who happened to be teaching at a
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  Speaker 1: university in Chile. He had a feeling there was something
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  Speaker 1: bigger brewing under the soil, so he and a team
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  Speaker 1: of archaeologists organized a dig, and they found a lot
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  Speaker 1: more than just one bone. Surprisingly, everything below the surface
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  Speaker 1: was preserved better than they had expected. The environment had
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  Speaker 1: flooded thousands of years ago, and the peat or decaying
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  Speaker 1: the agetation that filled the area had prevented bacteria from
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  Speaker 1: eating away at the artifacts. As they dug, hearts, both
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  Speaker 1: large and small, began to appear. Little by little, the
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  Speaker 1: soil was brushed away and the remains of other animals
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  Speaker 1: saw sunlight for the first time in millennia. Large wooden
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  Speaker 1: posts from about a dozen huts were unearthed, as well
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  Speaker 1: as a footprint, hides used for clothing, and a piece
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  Speaker 1: of meat with d n A still preserved inside. That
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  Speaker 1: was how scientists were able to tell the kind of
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  Speaker 1: game that had been hunted and consumed in the area,
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  Speaker 1: But the site's contents didn't align with the current theory
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  Speaker 1: on how humans had migrated to Monteverde and other parts
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  Speaker 1: of the coast. The roughly people who had lived there
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  Speaker 1: on that site hadn't come through the bearing straight and
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  Speaker 1: worked their way south to Chile. They had traveled by
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  Speaker 1: boat down the west coast until finally stopping at Monteverde.
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  Speaker 1: These early settlers built tools from rocks and clamshells. They
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  Speaker 1: thrived in a way other cultures could not, well, in
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  Speaker 1: a way modern scientists and anthropologists couldn't conceive of. Because,
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  Speaker 1: of course, humans have always been resourceful and adaptive, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: taking the harder route for a greater payoff, and this
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  Speaker 1: culture was old. The settlement and items found under the
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  Speaker 1: soil predate the Mapuche in the area by almost sixteen
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  Speaker 1: thousand years. They predate the original North American settlers by
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  Speaker 1: over a thousand. Their existence turns everything we thought we
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  Speaker 1: knew about human migration on its head. Who were these
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  Speaker 1: travelers and what happened to them? We may never know.
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  Speaker 1: Some curiosities, it seems, have yet to be answered. Germany
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  Speaker 1: and nearby Austria have produced some of the most brilliant
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  Speaker 1: minds of all time. Albert Einstein, mathematician Carl Frederick Gouss,
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  Speaker 1: and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts are among the region's most
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  Speaker 1: influential and revered individuals. Within their time on Earth, they
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  Speaker 1: each made immeasurable contributions to science, math, and the arts,
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  Speaker 1: and those contributions have gone on to inspire others to
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  Speaker 1: continue their work. However, some of the more intelligent folks
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  Speaker 1: from that part of Europe did not go on to
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  Speaker 1: great acclaim. They did not change the face of music
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  Speaker 1: or make earth shattering discoveries, but that didn't mean they
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  Speaker 1: weren't extraordinary in their own right. These people were able
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  Speaker 1: to capitalize on that intelligence and go far in life
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  Speaker 1: as scholars rather than creators. One such scholar was Jean
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  Speaker 1: Philippe Barattier. He was born near Nuremberg in seventeen twenty
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  Speaker 1: one and seemed destined to lead a life dedicated to learning.
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  Speaker 1: His father, a French Protestant minister, only spoke Latin to him,
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  Speaker 1: his mother only spoke French, and their evan's communicated only
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  Speaker 1: in High Dutch. He spent his time reading the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Well reading
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  Speaker 1: is putting it lightly. He read them in Greek, then
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  Speaker 1: spent years translating them into Latin and Hebrew. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: due to his upbringing and his passion for learning, he
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  Speaker 1: was able to speak all of those languages fluently. His
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  Speaker 1: translation work earned him recognition among his contemporaries, including English
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  Speaker 1: dictionary author Dr Samuel Johnson, as well as the prolific
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  Speaker 1: writer and philosopher Voltaire. There wasn't a subject Jean Philippe
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  Speaker 1: couldn't conquer, and that thirst for knowledge earned him a
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  Speaker 1: Master's of Arts when he was only fourteen years old.
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  Speaker 1: A prodigy, if there ever was one, he'd lived a
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  Speaker 1: life fuller than most. Unfortunately, poor Jean Philippe suffered from
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  Speaker 1: a condition that had rendered his body frail, though his
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  Speaker 1: mind only grew sharper with each passing day. Those translations
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  Speaker 1: of the Greek Bible, he completed them when he was
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  Speaker 1: only eight years old. He was even inducted as a
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  Speaker 1: life member of the Berlin Royal Academy, where he studied
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  Speaker 1: nautical longitude. However, the pressure of his numerous studies proved
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  Speaker 1: too much for his system to take, and at nineteen
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  Speaker 1: years of age, he passed away. The nature of his
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  Speaker 1: condition was never known. Jean Philippe was not the only
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  Speaker 1: young genius of the era. There was another just like
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  Speaker 1: him named Christian Heinrich Heineken, also known as the infant
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  Speaker 1: scholar of Luebeck. Born the same year as John Philippe,
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  Speaker 1: Christian spoke perfect German at only ten months of age.
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  Speaker 1: By the time he was one, he was reading the
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  Speaker 1: Pentateuch or the first five books of the Torah. He
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  Speaker 1: started reading the Old and New Testaments when he turned two,
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  Speaker 1: and by the time he turned three he'd finished them
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  Speaker 1: in Latin. Not unlike Jean Philippe. At three years old,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote his own history of Denmark. The King of
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  Speaker 1: Denmark invited him to read it before the courts, which
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  Speaker 1: he accepted graciously. Everyone loved him. They were charmed by
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  Speaker 1: his intelligence as such young age, and spread word of
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  Speaker 1: his talents all over Europe. He became what some might
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  Speaker 1: call a minor celebrity. Christians family decided to tour Europe
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  Speaker 1: with their son as their star attraction. It was around
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  Speaker 1: this time when his mother began to wean him off breastfeeding,
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  Speaker 1: and christians health problems bubbled to the surface. As he
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  Speaker 1: gave up his mother's milk, he started eating more grains,
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  Speaker 1: unknowingly corrupting his tiny system. Christian suffered from Celiac disease
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  Speaker 1: before anyone knew what it was. Without a proper diagnosis.
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  Speaker 1: He passed away at only four years old, a tragic
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  Speaker 1: end to an incredible little boy with limitless potential. But
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  Speaker 1: don't feel too bad. Christian saw his death coming. True
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  Speaker 1: to his sharp wit, he predicted it would happen months
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  Speaker 1: before it finally did. But knowing him, I wouldn't expect
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  Speaker 1: anything less. I hope you've enjoyed today's guide, a tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.