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Reality is more disturbing than fiction... Join us as we dig up the most chilling archeological findings ever uncovered! Our countdown includes vampire burials with stakes through the heart, sacrificed children left to die on mountaintops, mummies frozen in eternal screams, and pits filled with severed hands. These grisly discoveries will make your favorite horror films seem tame by comparison!
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00:00Primary domestic areas, there's also some indication of the ceremonial uses.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 archaeological finds so chilling they rival any horror film.
00:18The Staked Man.
00:20Archaeologists in Bulgaria discover an unusual find.
00:24Two so-called vampire skeletons, 700-year-old remains stabbed through the chest with iron rods.
00:31Vampires may be fictional, but in Bulgaria, there was a time people believed they were all too real.
00:37At Perperikon, archaeologists discovered a 13th century corpse pinned with a steel stake to stop him from rising.
00:44This was often done to those who died unusually and who were feared to return as the undead.
00:49This staked corpse was treated with extra caution.
00:51Locals didn't just pin him, they severed his left leg and placed it beside his body.
00:57Fear of vampires was so strong that vampire hunters reportedly existed.
01:01And the superstition lasted well into the 20th century.
01:04Taking on a vampire at night is a mission for morons and fools.
01:08Which are you?
01:12Just imagining the level of hysteria that drove people in Eastern Europe to this is scary enough.
01:17Few horror films feel as unsettling as this discovery.
01:21You cannot love.
01:25I cannot.
01:30Yet I cannot be sated without you.
01:35The man-eating animals of Teotihuacan.
01:38In the pyramids of Teotihuacan, archaeologists found evidence that ancient people kept dangerous animals like pumas, wolves, jaguars, and eagles over a thousand years ago.
01:48There is a fundamental change in human animal dynamics.
01:51These animals were held in captivity for rituals and displays of power, often controlled through brutal methods.
01:58But the scariest discovery is that human remains were buried right alongside these apex predators.
02:04Findings show that these animals fed on creatures such as dogs, rabbits, and possibly humans.
02:09These animals were real, they were kept in captivity, relationships were formed.
02:14A Teotihuacan artwork even depicts animals consuming human hearts and participating in rituals, sometimes portrayed like warriors.
02:22The thought of being placed in the same pit with these beasts for some twisted sacrifice is utterly terrifying.
02:27Shackled Skeletons
02:36Yet another eerie discovery.
02:43This points to a violent chapter in ancient Athenian history.
02:46In 2016, archaeologists uncovered a shocking mass grave containing about 80 skeletons, many bound in shackles.
02:54Dating back to around 650 to 625 BCE, the bones belonged mostly to young, healthy men, suggesting they weren't ordinary burials.
03:02In fact, researchers believe it may be evidence of a brutal political massacre linked to a failed coup in Athens.
03:09According to legend, an athlete named Cylon rose to seize power with his followers, but that coup wasn't successful.
03:15After fleeing and being promised safe passage by the city's archon, Megacles, they were ultimately killed.
03:21Though the truth remains uncertain, whatever happened to those shackled corpses reveals a dark and unsettling moment in history.
03:28Hurry!
03:29Hurry!
03:29Hurry!
03:31Hurry!
03:32Oh my god!
03:36What?
03:37Oh my god!
03:38I'm so sorry, Paul.
03:40What is it?
03:41I'm sorry.
03:41What is it?
03:42It's Mark White.
03:43He brought us to Mark White.
03:47Pit full of severed hands.
03:49Horror movies can terrify us, but at least we watch them from the safety of our homes.
03:54For enemies of ancient Egyptians, there was no escape from real horror.
03:58I lost my hand!
03:59In 2011, archaeologists uncovered pits just outside the palace of the Hyksos King, believed to be King Kian, containing severed right hands.
04:07These supposedly belonged to defeated enemies, collected by commanders as trophies to count the number of enemies slain in battles.
04:14Placed in front of the palace, the hands carried deep symbolic meaning, showing power and dominance.
04:20To be an enemy of these kingdoms wasn't just death, it meant facing humiliating and brutal mutilation.
04:37Honestly, it's a real-life horror no movie could ever match.
04:41People really should learn to keep their hands to themselves.
04:44Here's yours.
04:45The Book of the Dead
04:46Remember that scene in The Mummy, where Evelyn reads from the Book of the Dead, and accidentally wakes the mummies?
04:52No!
04:53You must not read from the book!
04:57Well, it's even scarier knowing that the book actually exists.
05:01It's not a single book, but a collection of funerary texts, prayers, and spells written on papyrus.
05:06A well-preserved copy of The Book of the Dead was just uncovered in Egypt.
05:11Rather than summoning spirits, it was meant to guide the dead safely through the underworld and help them reach final judgment.
05:18Archaeologists have found various of these books, usually of impressive heights, in tombs dating back over 3,500 years.
05:24The Book of the Dead contains ancient rituals for the living to perform, in order to help the deceased on their journeys to their deities.
05:32Since the teams behind these discoveries often keep mum about the details of the book's content, who knows what terrifying secrets it holds?
05:40Sacrificed bog people.
05:42Silent witnesses to ancient cruelty.
05:44Bog bodies are human remains preserved for thousands of years in peat bogs across northern and eastern Europe.
05:51Officials named the body the Lindoman, and determined that he'd suffered serious injuries, including blunt trauma and strangulation.
05:59But the most shocking thing about this gruesome story was that they were able to determine these details from a body over 2,000 years old.
06:09At first glance, you might not realize they've been dead for ages, since the low oxygen environment tends to keep the skin, hair, and internal organs intact.
06:17Yet these bodies, frozen in time, were often victims of violent deaths.
06:21While no one can tell why they were subjected to such brutality, some researchers believe this was done as a form of sacrifice or punishment.
06:28But his corpse is otherwise so well preserved, that we can determine he was healthy, mid-twenties, and potentially wealthy, as his body shows few signs of hard labor.
06:38We even know the Lindoman's last meal, a still, undigested piece of charred bread.
06:44Some were probably left in the water as a sacrifice to the gods.
06:48Discovered in 1984, the Lindoman's fate is a frightening example of what people went through in the ancient times.
06:55Genocide Pit
07:01Between 2002 and 2005, archaeologists studied Sacred Ridge in Durango, Colorado, and what they discovered is deeply unsettling.
07:10A massive pit contained nearly 15,000 human bone fragments, belonging to about 35 people, roughly half of the settlement's population.
07:18Here's where it gets more disturbing.
07:20These victims weren't just killed.
07:26They were tortured, mutilated, and subject to other brutal forms of suffering.
07:31Scholars believe this wasn't a random raid, but a targeted attack aimed to wipe out a distinct group.
07:37Not even women or children were spared, marking it as a horrific act of ethnic cleansing, likely fueled by anger, suspicion of witchcraft, or food shortages.
07:45Whatever the reason, it's frightening to realize that this was someone's reality, and not a scene from a horror flick.
07:51So that we can take the data we need, excavate them carefully and respectfully, and then we're removing them, and we'll ultimately rebury them.
08:01The Screaming Mummies
08:02He was condemned to endure the homedai, the worst of all ancient curses, one so horrible it had never before been bestowed.
08:12Eternally screaming mummy?
08:13Even Imhotep's fate can't match the level of this traumatic death.
08:17In 1886, Egyptologist Gaston Maspero discovered a corpse with its mouth frozen wide open, as if caught in an eternal scream.
08:26No jewelry, no inscriptions, just a body twisted in agony.
08:30Scholars believe it was Prince Pentawe, the son of Ramesses III, who joined his mother in a conspiracy to murder the pharaoh.
08:44Ancient records say he was forced to take his own life, but this mummy appeared to have suffered worse, with hands and feet bound and body improperly embalmed.
08:52In 1935, an expedition team found the Screaming Woman, who may have endured a similarly painful death, leaving her frozen in a silent scream.
09:02My brother!
09:06Field of Vampire Mummies
09:08It's the kind of image you'd expect from the horror film The Nun, a body forcibly gagged or decapitated to prevent it from returning.
09:15That's exactly how skeletons were found in Poland during roadway construction, near Gluwice.
09:21Archaeologists found what appeared to be a medieval anti-vampire burial.
09:25To ensure these corpses wouldn't rise, their heads were cut off and placed between their legs.
09:50In Italy, one woman was even buried with a wedge in her mouth to prevent her from feeding on the living.
09:55In 2023, a mass burial site of 450 individuals subjected to similar anti-vampiric rituals was discovered.
10:03Please.
10:04Even sadder, unexplainable disasters often led people to be falsely accused of vampirism, condemning them to these humiliating burials.
10:20Why? Because generally, when it comes to children, they were treated in a way that they were less careful, but it's also known that children were afraid of themselves, especially children who died in a violent way, or in a tragic way, like they died or buried themselves.
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10:54The Death Mountain
10:56Sadly, not even miners were safe from the harsh realities of ancient times.
11:00In 1999, Johan Reinhardt and his archaeological team discovered perfectly preserved child mummies on the Argentina-Chile border.
11:08They had discovered the highest tomb on Earth.
11:12It appears that these miners were sacrificed around the year 1500, for ritual purposes.
11:16Apparently, these Inca rituals were often performed to ask the gods for protection in times of famine, or to mark important events.
11:24It was as if we were afraid, at some level, that we might wake this mummy up, because she seemed just so alive.
11:30Many of these miners were sent to mountaintops, and left to die there.
11:34The mummies discovered by Reinhardt were found inside a small chamber beneath the ground, and were likely drugged during the process.
11:41They might look peaceful, but it's downright creepy, especially considering the awful death they were subjected to.
11:47Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to bury this girl in an extraordinary place.
11:52What's the creepiest archaeological discovery you've ever heard about?
11:56Let us know in the comments section.
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