100 Discoveries That Made Scientists Rethink the Age of Ancient Civilizations

KirTop Top 100

Ready to have your mind blown? Dive into 100 jaw-dropping discoveries that turned history on its head—from ancient beer to lost cities, mysterious artifacts, and even a meteorite older than Earth! Science just got a lot more fun. Hit subscribe for more epic finds, and drop a comment telling us which discovery amazed you most from this video! #history #archeology #science #ancient #discoveries  👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-100samyh  0:00:00 - Ancient Artefacts and Preservation 0:01:53 - Extraordinary Burials and Structures 0:06:16 - Mysterious Constructions and Lost Civilizations 0:11:20 - Wonders, Rituals, and Colonial Histories 0:17:06 - Unusual Finds, Legends, and Science 0:26:33 - Artifacts, Rituals, and Science Changing Discoveries 0:33:55 - Ancient Civilizations, Natural Mysteries, and Hoaxes 0:44:47 - Lost Cities, Buried Treasures, and Archaeological Surprises  We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446rMw7NEQKZvD764T3X

Transcript

00:00:00I'm Keir Top and these are 100 discoveries that made scientists reconsider the age of ancient civilizations.

00:00:10A pleasant surprise for scientists.

00:00:13In the tomb of the Qin state at the Shangjabao Cemetery in the Ningxiahui Autonomous Region of China,

00:00:20archaeologists opened a sealed bronze vessel.

00:00:23And inside there wasn't just a couple of drops or a dried residue on the walls,

00:00:27but a full 3.74 liters of liquid.

00:00:30The vessel had been buried in the ground for more than 2,200 years since the Warring States period,

00:00:36even before China was unified into a single state.

00:00:40The liquid was clear, with a bluish-green tint, and almost odorless.

00:00:44There was a light sediment at the bottom.

00:00:47And that raises an obvious question.

00:00:49What is this strange liquid?

00:00:51The answer had to be found in the laboratory.

00:00:53Researcher Zhuzhu Chen from Northwestern University in Xi'an and her colleagues studied starch grains,

00:01:00yeast residues, and a whole set of organic compounds.

00:01:03It turned out that the main raw material was millet,

00:01:06and in smaller amounts, also wheat and possibly barley.

00:01:09So, judging by everything, we're looking at a fermented millet drink, something like beer.

00:01:13In any case, it definitely didn't resemble hard liquor.

00:01:17According to Chen, for a sample of this age, such preservation is extremely rare.

00:01:22This is one of the largest volumes of such liquid ever found in tombs from the Warring States period.

00:01:28But how exactly almost 4 liters of liquid survived for more than 2,000 years is still unclear.

00:01:34Although personally, it's much harder for me to understand how a good bottle of alcohol

00:01:38could have stood untouched for more than 2,000 years.

00:01:41But seriously, the dry local climate surely played its part.

00:01:45But researchers suspect that the vessel itself, the way it was sealed, and the conditions inside the tomb were also

00:01:51important.

00:01:53The Red Princess of the Silk Road.

00:01:56Archaeologists made the first ever discovery of the remains of a woman with teeth stained with cinnabar,

00:02:00a rare and toxic mineral.

00:02:02This unique discovery was made at the Shenzhenian Cemetery in Turfan, in northwest China,

00:02:09and dates back to between 2,200 and 2,050 years ago.

00:02:13Researchers nicknamed her the Red Princess of the Silk Road.

00:02:17Cinnabar, which contains mercury sulfides, is known for its poisonous properties.

00:02:21However, in ancient times this bright red mineral was used in rituals and ceremonies.

00:02:26Data analysis showed that the pigment was applied using a binder made from animal protein,

00:02:30which makes the discovery even more unusual.

00:02:32It's noteworthy that there were no cinnabar mines in the surrounding area.

00:02:35This leads scientists to believe that the mineral was brought from other regions

00:02:39through the trade networks of the Silk Road.

00:02:42At that time, Turfan was an important hub connecting China and the West.

00:02:45The red color played an important role in local shamanic practices

00:02:49and symbolized immortality.

00:02:51It was believed that a person's soul could reside in the teeth,

00:02:54and coloring them might have been a ritual for communicating with spirits

00:02:57or protecting against evil forces.

00:02:59A RARE GIANT BOOK

00:03:01In front of you is one of the twelve giant books,

00:03:05from the 18th century written in Spanish.

00:03:07Its size is impressive, almost a meter in length.

00:03:11These books were created for religious ceremonies

00:03:13and contained detailed scripts of worship services.

00:03:16Leather binding, wooden covers, pages made from tanned animal skin,

00:03:20all this made the book not only durable but also a symbol of the church's grandeur.

00:03:24Such manuscripts were intended for use in churches,

00:03:27where clergy and the choir could read the text from a distance.

00:03:30That's why the letters are so large.

00:03:32Today, this rarity is kept at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

00:03:36Restoration scientists are carefully studying it,

00:03:39trying to preserve it in its original form.

00:03:41These books are a real window into the past,

00:03:43allowing us to see what liturgical texts looked like

00:03:46and what the attitude toward writing was in the era of colonial Latin America.

00:03:50A first of its kind, Bronze Age Fortress.

00:03:54In the Romanian forests of Nemde County,

00:03:57archaeologists discovered an ancient fortress about 5000 years old,

00:04:01and modern LiDAR technology helped them with this.

00:04:05Thanks to drones, equipped with laser scanners,

00:04:08it was possible to penetrate the dense vegetation

00:04:10and get a clear image of the structure that had been hidden from human eyes for centuries.

00:04:15The fortress dates back to the period of transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age,

00:04:19a time when people had just begun to build fortified settlements.

00:04:22The LiDAR revealed that it was a well-designed and powerful structure.

00:04:25Moats hundreds of meters long, earthen ramparts,

00:04:29a strategically advantageous location on high ground.

00:04:31Everything points to substantial expertise and organized labor among the ancient builders.

00:04:36Only with the help of modern technology can we truly understand the scale and structure of ancient monuments.

00:04:41These are not just ruins.

00:04:42They are traces of a complex and well-thought-out civilization that we are only beginning to rediscover.

00:04:47Traces of the Gods in the Temple of Ain Dara

00:04:50In northern Syria, in arid lands, lies the unique archaeological site of Ain Dara.

00:04:56The complex consists of structures surrounding the majestic central temple, which is unmatched in its features.

00:05:03One of its remarkable features is the giant footprints on the threshold,

00:05:07each measuring up to one meter in length, clearly indicating their non-human origin.

00:05:13According to the locals, the footprints were left by a deity,

00:05:17and the temple resembles the biblical description of Solomon's temple.

00:05:20The temple, dating back to the Iron Age Syro-Hittite kingdoms,

00:05:24which emerged after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC,

00:05:29and lasted until 700 BC was discovered in 1955.

00:05:33Archaeological excavations made it possible to study its structure and decorations in more detail.

00:05:39The temple stands on a mount and is surrounded by a gallery.

00:05:42Its foundation consists of massive basalt blocks.

00:05:45The walls are decorated with intricate carvings depicting geometric patterns and mythical animals,

00:05:50which testifies to the high skill of its creators.

00:05:52The entrance is guarded by lions and sphinxes.

00:05:55The interior is made of stone.

00:05:57Nevertheless, it is still not known exactly to whom the temple was dedicated.

00:06:02There is a theory that it might have been dedicated to the goddess Ishtar,

00:06:06but there is no exact information.

00:06:07The giant human footprints not only confirm the connection of the structure with ancient myths and deities,

00:06:13but also emphasize its cultural, religious and mystical significance.

00:06:17However, in 2018, a large part of this temple was destroyed by airstrikes.

00:06:23These ruins are older than the Egyptian pyramids.

00:06:27Archaeologists found a mysterious complex from the Neolithic near Prague,

00:06:31which turned out to be older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.

00:06:34The uncovered circular structure, built about 7000 years ago,

00:06:38could have served as a meeting place for local farmers.

00:06:41Its diameter is about 55 meters, which would be enough to fit the leaning tower of Pisa inside.

00:06:47Miroslav Krauss, the head of the excavation, claims that the structure belonged to the pottery culture

00:06:52that existed between 4900 and 4400 BC.

00:06:58The first mention of the Wiener Circle appeared in the 1980s,

00:07:01when it was partially uncovered during the installation of utilities.

00:07:06Modern excavations made it possible to see it in its entirety,

00:07:10and uncovered clay pottery, animal bones and stone tools.

00:07:14The analysis of organic remains will help determine the exact time of construction

00:07:18and possibly link it to the nearby Neolithic settlement.

00:07:21The study of the circular structure shows that the culture of its builders spread throughout Central Europe,

00:07:26affecting the territories of modern Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic,

00:07:31where people lived in longhouses that could accommodate up to 30 people,

00:07:35a head from another universe.

00:07:38In northern Mexico, in the archaeological zone of Balcon de Montezuma,

00:07:42employees of the National Institute of Anthropology and History

00:07:46found the skull of a man over 40 years old who lived between 400 and 900 BC.

00:07:51The upper part of the skull was so flat that the whole shape was close to an almost perfect cube.

00:07:59Anthropologists call this form tabular vertical deformation.

00:08:02It was done in early childhood using boards, bandages or special cradles.

00:08:07Such a practice was known and widely spread in Mesoamerica.

00:08:10But it was in this part of the region, at Wistik, that a square skull was found for the first

00:08:15time,

00:08:15and here a fairly logical explanation for its origin emerges.

00:08:19Perhaps a person with such an unusual skull shape for these places actually came from other lands,

00:08:24for example, from somewhere in the central regions where such deformation is more common.

00:08:29However, archaeologists disputed this opinion after conducting isotopic analysis of the teeth and bones.

00:08:34And they are sure that the person was born, lived his whole life,

00:08:38and died right here in the mountains of the eastern Sierra Madre.

00:08:41And he never moved anywhere.

00:08:43Although, of course, with a head shape like that, for some reason the first thing that comes to mind is

00:08:47Minecraft.

00:08:48It turns out that it wasn't the person who reached these places, but the custom itself.

00:08:52Someone learned about this head shape through trade, through neighbors, through stories,

00:08:56and decided to repeat it themselves.

00:08:58We still don't really know why they did this.

00:09:00But even today, we can see how things and ideas sometimes travel much farther than we do ourselves.

00:09:07The Sword of Islam.

00:09:08This sword, known as the Sword of Islam, was created as a symbolic ceremonial weapon,

00:09:14and was presented to Benito Mussolini in 1937 in Tripoli.

00:09:18The goal was to demonstrate support for his regime from the Muslims of Libya,

00:09:22which was then under Italian control.

00:09:25Mussolini readily accepted this gift, and even used it in propaganda,

00:09:29portraying himself as a defender of Islam.

00:09:31It was an attempt to strengthen Italy's influence in North Africa and the Middle East.

00:09:34The sword was distinguished by its luxurious design.

00:09:38Inlays, intricate engraving, and oriental motifs emphasized its status not as a weapon,

00:09:43but as a political symbol.

00:09:45However, the fate of this sword turned out to be dramatic.

00:09:47In July 1943, when Mussolini's residence in the Rocca delle Caminati

00:09:51was destroyed and looted by fighters of the Italian resistance movement,

00:09:55the sword disappeared without a trace.

00:09:57It is still unknown whether it was destroyed, hidden, or taken away.

00:10:01The sword of Islam remains in history as a rare example of how a weapon can be used not for

00:10:06war,

00:10:06but as an instrument of ideology, and as an artifact that disappeared along with the fall of the regime

00:10:11that tried to use it to secure its power.

00:10:15The Forgotten Stone

00:10:16Right in the center of Lebanon, not far from the ancient temple complex of Baalbek,

00:10:21lies one of the largest hewn stone blocks in history.

00:10:24This gigantic monolith, known as the Forgotten Stone, impresses with its size

00:10:2919.6 meters in length, 6 meters in width, and at least 5.5 meters in height.

00:10:36Its weight is estimated at about 1.5 thousand tons.

00:10:39That's equivalent to 200 African elephants.

00:10:41Some researchers believe that the stone was intended for an even more grandiose structure than Baalbek itself.

00:10:48However, for unknown reasons, it was never delivered to the construction site.

00:10:52The temple complex of Baalbek, known for its colossal megaliths,

00:10:56was built during the Roman rule from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD.

00:11:00However, the mysterious platforms made of giant blocks, including the famous Trilithon,

00:11:05may have appeared much earlier.

00:11:06Who were those ancient builders who shaped and tried to move such massive stones?

00:11:11Perhaps Baalbek is the legacy of a more ancient and highly developed civilization,

00:11:16whose traces remain unexplained for now.

00:11:19An ancient fortress city?

00:11:21In the Chinese city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province.

00:11:25Archaeologists have discovered a fortress city over 600 years old.

00:11:29The discovery sheds light on the defensive systems of the South China Sea during the Ming Dynasty.

00:11:34The excavations revealed massive fortress walls about 100 meters long and 7.6 meters thick,

00:11:40as well as remains of roads, drains, foundations and wells.

00:11:44The total area of the research was 3,000 square meters,

00:11:48making the project the largest in the region in recent years.

00:11:50The fortress was the first line of defense for the province against sea invasions.

00:11:54Scientists planned to reconstruct the layout of the city

00:11:57and create an archaeological park to better understand the military architecture of that time.

00:12:01Meanwhile, on Mount Helan in the Yinchuan area,

00:12:05archaeologists have found an ancient porcelain production center about 1,000 years old.

00:12:09The ceramics found there are surprisingly similar to those from Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital.

00:12:15This discovery confirms the high level of cultural integration in medieval China.

00:12:20Dinosaurs walked upwards.

00:12:22In the fall, Italian amateur photographer Elio della Ferreira was walking through Stelvio National Park

00:12:28in the north of the country and suddenly noticed something very strange on an almost vertical cliff.

00:12:34Raws of some kind of marks resembling footprints stretched upward for hundreds of meters.

00:12:39And the first thought that comes to mind is, how could any living creature possibly walk on a vertical wall?

00:12:46However, they didn't walk on the wall here.

00:12:48210 million years ago, during the Triassic period, this place was an ordinary plain.

00:12:53Then the Elves began to rise.

00:12:55And along with the mountains, this piece of land was simply lifted up.

00:12:59The horizontal plain turned it into a vertical wall.

00:13:02And the dinosaur tracks remained on it.

00:13:04Only before they were facing upwards towards the sky.

00:13:07And now they're looking right at you.

00:13:09From a height of several dozen meters.

00:13:11And there weren't just a few prints there, but thousands.

00:13:13Some of them are up to 40 centimeters.

00:13:15And you can clearly see the toes and claws in them.

00:13:17They form trackways, side by side.

00:13:20Scientists believe these are the tracks of prosaeropods.

00:13:23Herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and small heads.

00:13:26And since the tracks are parallel, it most likely means the herd was moving together and in an organized way.

00:13:32Some researchers suggest that the animals sometimes gathered in a circle.

00:13:35Possibly for protection.

00:13:37But no one has been able to prove this yet.

00:13:39It's just one of the theories.

00:13:40And no, dinosaurs still didn't learn how to climb vertical walls.

00:13:44It's just that many millions of years are enough to change the surface of the earth beyond recognition.

00:13:49It's funny that the paleontologist Cristiano del Sasso, who studied all this, works in Milan.

00:13:54That is, practically next to this place.

00:13:56He later admitted himself that he least expected to stumble upon such a find literally right under his nose.

00:14:03The Witch, the Dwarf and the Pyramid of the Magician.

00:14:06The ancient Mayan city of Uxmal, located on the Yucatan Peninsula, is a place where unique architecture and the mythology

00:14:13of ancient peoples merge with otherworldly landscapes.

00:14:16One of the most mysterious structures on earth here is the Pyramid of the Magician, an amazing building both in

00:14:21its shape and significance.

00:14:23This place is surrounded by magical legends.

00:14:26In particular, the story of the Dwarf and the Witch, who are said to have built the Pyramid of the

00:14:31Magician.

00:14:31This legend exists only in the oral retellings of the local people, as it is not recorded in ancient texts.

00:14:37Different variations of this story are passed down from generation to generation.

00:14:41The story was first recorded in the 19th century by John Lloyd Stevens, an American explorer, who published his observations

00:14:48in a book about his travels in Yucatan.

00:14:50One day he heard this story from a local resident.

00:14:53According to the legend, on the side where the pyramid now stands, there once was a hut belonging to an

00:14:58old witch who wished to have an heir.

00:15:00With the help of magic, she created a creature from an egg that resembled a child.

00:15:04This little one quickly grew to the size of an adult, but remained as short as a gnome.

00:15:09The witch was proud of him and dreamed that he would become a great ruler.

00:15:13At her command, the gnome challenged the local king to a duel.

00:15:16The challenges proposed by the king seemed impossible, but each time the gnome managed to overcome them, using cunning and

00:15:22his mother's magic.

00:15:23For example, the king demanded that the gnome build a house taller than all the buildings in the city in

00:15:28a single night.

00:15:29By morning a majestic pyramid stood where the old hut used to be.

00:15:33The final challenge was that the king, the gnome, had to break firewood over each other's heads.

00:15:38The witch prepared her son by placing a protective spell on his head.

00:15:42The king couldn't harm the gnome, but in turn, with his blow, the gnome took the king's life.

00:15:46Thus the gnome became the new ruler of Aksmal.

00:15:49In some versions of this legend, the gnome is the god Itsama, who built the pyramid with the help of

00:15:55magic.

00:15:55These stories may have appeared as an attempt to explain the unusual shape and structure of the pyramid of the

00:16:00magician,

00:16:01which, according to archaeologists, was built over the course of three centuries.

00:16:05He tried to hide it from the government.

00:16:08During the construction of a house in the village of Mukamatpur-Baghanki, Haryana State, India,

00:16:14ancient bronze idols about 400 years old were found.

00:16:17The statues depicting the Hindu deities Vishnu and Mata Lakshmi are distinguished by their elegant carvings and patterns.

00:16:23The owner of the plot tried to hide the discovery by offering money to the builder who found the artifacts

00:16:28in exchange for silence.

00:16:30However, the builder went to the police, and that is how the authorities learned about the existence of the idols.

00:16:36The local residents, considering the idols as a divine blessing, expressed their desire to build a temple at this site.

00:16:41But the Department of Archaeology denied their request, stating that the artifacts are state property

00:16:46and must be preserved for study and subsequent storage in a museum.

00:16:50At the moment, the statues are undergoing scientific analysis to determine their exact age and history.

00:16:55Preliminary findings by scientists confirm that the idols are about 400 years old.

00:17:00Researchers are also looking for inscriptions or markings on the idols that could shed light on their origin.

00:17:06How did England manage to conquer vast India?

00:17:10For centuries, India was a coveted prize for many European powers.

00:17:14The Portuguese, the Dutch and the French tried to establish themselves on its lands.

00:17:19But it was Britain that truly became the ruler of the country.

00:17:22In the 18th century, India was a vast territory of 3 million square kilometers with a population of about 100

00:17:28million people.

00:17:29For comparison, England at that time had no more than 10 million people, it would seem.

00:17:34How could a small island subdue such a powerful country?

00:17:37The answer is simple.

00:17:38The industrial revolution, the political fragmentation of India and the art of British diplomacy, mixed with intrigue and military power.

00:17:45At that time, the Empire of the Great Monarchs was in decline and the numerous principalities were at odds with

00:17:50each other.

00:17:51Britain skillfully took advantage of this situation through the East India Company.

00:17:55The trading corporation bought or leased land from local princes and built fortified trading posts.

00:18:01There, sepoi units were formed mercenaries from among the Indians, armed and trained by the British, but commanded exclusively by

00:18:08English officers.

00:18:09When a prince refused to cooperate, the British would incite internal conflicts.

00:18:14The rival rulers would get drawn into wars and the English would act as arbiters, supporting one of the sides.

00:18:20Then they would demand compensation for their help, land and resources.

00:18:24If the prince couldn't pay, his territories would simply fall under British control.

00:18:27The numerical superiority of the Indians didn't help.

00:18:30There were never more than 100,000 Englishmen in the country and only half of them were military personnel.

00:18:36However, thanks to political intrigue, skillful diplomacy and fighting wars by proxy, Britain managed to conquer the entire peninsula.

00:18:43That's how India became the most valuable colony and the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.

00:18:47Even centuries later Britain acts the same way. It foments civil wars to colonize new territories.

00:18:55A luxurious, meaningless event.

00:18:58Balingham is a small village in England, but it was here, 500 years ago that one of the most lavish

00:19:04meetings in history took place.

00:19:05The King of England, Henry VIII and the French monarch, Francis I, held a grand celebration that went down in

00:19:11history as the field of the cloth of gold.

00:19:13The official meeting was supposed to strengthen the alliance between the two kings against Emperor Charles V, but in reality

00:19:20it turned into a competition in extravagance.

00:19:22Henry built a giant tent palace, covering 10,000 square meters, with walls that were brick at the base and

00:19:29painted to look like stone above.

00:19:31The roof resembled tiles, and at the entrance there were fountains pouring red wine.

00:19:35The celebration lasted for 18 days accompanied by feasts, tournaments and masquerades.

00:19:41Each king was accompanied by 3,500 members of their retinue, for whom they prepared eggs, 2,200 sheep and

00:19:49even exotic dishes like guinea pig and dolphin.

00:19:51But even amid the luxury, rivalry prevailed. Henry challenged Francis to a wrestling match and lost.

00:19:57Soon after, he formed an alliance with Charles V, and a year later England was at war with France.

00:20:03The field of the cloth of gold became a symbol of incredible extravagance that bankrupted the treasuries of both kingdoms.

00:20:09He found something other than what he was looking for.

00:20:13Another metal detector enthusiast named David Hall Hall tried his luck where the gold rush once raged.

00:20:21Namely, in Maryborough Park, in the Australian state of Victoria.

00:20:25And very quickly, the device reacted to an unusually heavy stone lying in the yellow clay.

00:20:29For someone with a metal detector, it was the obvious place to look.

00:20:33Where else would you look for gold if not where there was an immeasurable amount of it?

00:20:37Already at home, like any curious guy, he decided to find out for himself what was inside it.

00:20:43Kule cut the stone with an angle grinder, drilled it, dried acid.

00:20:46In the end, he took a hammer. The stone didn't want to reveal its contents.

00:20:51It didn't crack, didn't crumble, it remained dense and solid.

00:20:54Over time, the curiosity to find out what was inside turned almost into an obsession.

00:20:59He was puzzled by this strange material, which was so resistant to modern tools.

00:21:04But when the guy's patience ran out, he took it to the museum in Millenburn.

00:21:09Geologist Durman Henry and his colleagues had already seen dozens of similar finds by that time.

00:21:13For many years, people regularly brought them slag, ore and strange fragments, convinced that these were meteorites.

00:21:20According to Henry, out of thousands of such samples, only two turned out to be real visitors from space.

00:21:26The Howlstone was one of them.

00:21:28The first thing that caught the specialists' attention was its surface.

00:21:31It was dark, covered in round dents, as if something had melted it.

00:21:36When a meteorite flies through the atmosphere, its surface melts from the heat, and the air carves small pits into

00:21:41that crust.

00:21:42When they finally managed to open the stone and look at the cut under a microscope,

00:21:47inside they found a dense iron-nickel mass with light, rounded inclusions.

00:21:52Chondrules. Tiny, frozen droplets of minerals that formed in the earliest stages of the solar system's existence.

00:21:58The sample was classified as an ordinary chondrite H5.

00:22:02The age of its minerals was estimated at about 4.6 billion years.

00:22:07So you understand, it's almost as old as the solar system itself.

00:22:11At the same time, according to radiocarbon analysis, the stone has only been on Earth for about 100 to 1000

00:22:16years.

00:22:17By geological standards, that's a huge difference.

00:22:21Coal came for gold, but took home a piece of matter older than our planet,

00:22:24and maybe at that moment a piece of gold would have been more valuable to the guy.

00:22:28But for science, a piece of ancient meteorite looks much more appealing.

00:22:34Silk Road Beads.

00:22:36Archaeologists studied unique beads from the tomb of a mysterious woman known as the Red Princess of the Silk Road.

00:22:42The burial was found in China's Xinjiang about 15 years ago,

00:22:46but it only recently attracted special attention because of its unusual jewelry.

00:22:51The find is over 2000 years old.

00:22:54Experts studied eight bright red beads and found that they were made from rare Mediterranean corals.

00:23:00Analysis showed that the material was brought from the shores of the western Mediterranean.

00:23:05This points to the distant and remarkable trade connections of ancient China.

00:23:08After all, in those times, corals were considered a luxury and valued almost as highly as gold and precious stones.

00:23:15Researchers believe that these ornaments made their way to Central Asia via the Silk Road,

00:23:19the trade route that connected east and west.

00:23:22Apparently the beads were not just ornaments, but a symbol of a woman's wealth, prestige or power.

00:23:28The first pharaoh's tomb in 100 years in 2022 archaeologists made an incredible discovery.

00:23:35They found the first burial chamber of an Egyptian pharaoh, Thutmose II, in a century.

00:23:41He ruled about 3500 years ago and was the fourth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.

00:23:46The burial site is located in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of Luxor,

00:23:51in the same place where the famous tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922.

00:23:56The entrance to the tomb was found in 2022,

00:23:59and archaeologists immediately noticed fragments of vessels with inscriptions that identified Thutmose II as the deceased king.

00:24:06On these vessels was also the name of his wife, the great queen Hatshepsut.

00:24:12Soon scientists discovered that the remains of the pharaoh had been moved to another place several centuries after the tomb

00:24:17was looted.

00:24:18The tomb is in poor condition as it was flooded shortly after Thutmose II's death.

00:24:23Inside they found fragments of blue inscriptions, yellow stars and parts of religious texts which indicates the importance of rituals

00:24:30associated with burial.

00:24:32Thutmose II was known for suppressing uprisings in Nubia and the Levant.

00:24:37His reign lasted from 1492 to 1479 BC, was relatively short compared to his predecessors, and his tomb was considered

00:24:46less significant.

00:24:47This discovery was an important contribution to the study of ancient Egyptian culture and the reign of Thutmose II.

00:24:53Archaeologists call it one of the most significant archaeological achievements of recent years.

00:24:58Bees in the bones.

00:25:00For everyone who is afraid of a large number of holes and bees,

00:25:04I would ask you to skip ahead in this video by at least one minute.

00:25:08Because here comes a combo that even makes me uncomfortable.

00:25:11In a cave on the island of Española in the Caribbean region,

00:25:15paleontologists were studying a stone jaw.

00:25:17Apparently it belonged to a rodent similar to a capybara.

00:25:20There is an opinion that the bone was brought into the cave by an owl.

00:25:24It ate the animal hole and then regurgitated what it couldn't digest.

00:25:28Over time, the rodent's jaw lost its teeth.

00:25:31And empty holes remained in the bone.

00:25:33Exactly. These holes attracted the attention of scientists.

00:25:36One of them turned out to be smooth and polished inside, which couldn't have happened after the tooth fell out.

00:25:41And this seemed especially strange to the paleontologist.

00:25:43It turned out that solitary bees settled in the empty tooth sockets.

00:25:47Moreover, it was a recently described species.

00:25:50And they lived there in families, nest after nest, for several generations in a row.

00:25:55A kind of bee hostile.

00:25:56After this discovery, scientists began to re-examine other bones from the same layer.

00:26:01And they found a similar pattern more than once.

00:26:03The same smooth sockets were found in the sloth's jaw and also in several nearby bones.

00:26:08It turns out that the bees didn't just choose one bone by chance.

00:26:12They literally made themselves an entire neighborhood.

00:26:14Of course, no one found the bees themselves, only traces of their activity remained there.

00:26:19But for science, that's already enough to understand that bees are capable of building homes for generations in unusual places.

00:26:26Previously, no one could have even imagined that ancient bees could settle in ready-made holes in the remains of

00:26:32mammals.

00:26:33A 2,500-year-old helmet and Dacian treasures.

00:26:38This golden helmet is one of the most famous artifacts of Dacian culture.

00:26:42It is dated to around 450 BC.

00:26:45It is known as the Helmet from Kotofenishti and is considered not only a work of ancient jewelry craftsmanship, but

00:26:51also a symbol of power and ritual strength.

00:26:54Adorned with eyes, snakes, and mythological scenes, it may have belonged to a priest or a leader who played a

00:26:59sacred role in Dacian society.

00:27:01The helmet seems to gaze at enemies, instilling fear and protecting its owner.

00:27:05On January 25, 2025, this helmet became the victim of a daring robbery.

00:27:10It was stolen from the Drenthe Museum in Assen, the Netherlands, where the Dacia exhibition was being held.

00:27:15The Land of Gold and Silver, several unique exhibits, were stolen, including this helmet and three Royal Dacian bracelets.

00:27:23All the items came from the National History Museum of Romania.

00:27:26The loss of these artifacts was a real blow to cultural heritage.

00:27:31The Mysterious Harpy

00:27:33The Queen of the Night Relief, created around 1800 BC, is one of the most mysterious artifacts in Mesopotamia.

00:27:40Also known as the Bernier Relief, it depicts a winged goddess with bird talons instead of feet, standing on the

00:27:48backs of two lions.

00:27:49On either side of her are owls, symbolizing power over the night, darkness, and the spirit world.

00:27:54The identity of the depicted goddess remains a subject of debate.

00:27:57Some researchers believe that this is Ishtar and Anna, the Babylonian goddess of love, war, and fertility.

00:28:03Others suggest that the relief depicts Ereshkigal, the grim mistress of the underworld, sister of Ishtar.

00:28:09The symbolism of the relief points to the being and supernatural power of the goddess.

00:28:14The relief was probably a cult object associated with religious rituals or magical practices.

00:28:20Its rich detail and monumentality indicate the importance of the deity's image in the beliefs of that era.

00:28:25Today, this artifact is kept in the British Museum.

00:28:30A ritual during a change of power.

00:28:33Archaeological excavations at the Yukanal settlement in northern Guatemala have uncovered traces of an ancient ritual that may have symbolized

00:28:40the public transition from the old regime of the Maya civilization.

00:28:44In the upper part of the temple pyramid, charred human bones and royal ornaments were found.

00:28:51These artifacts may indicate special burial rites or ceremonies.

00:28:55Analysis showed that the bones belonged to at least four adults, with three of them identified as men.

00:29:01One of the skeletons was exposed to high temperatures above 800 degrees.

00:29:06The study confirms that the remains found could have been members of the royal family, originally buried elsewhere,

00:29:12and centuries later burned as part of a ritual connected to their transfer to the pyramid.

00:29:17Among the items found were one and a half thousand fragments of various ornaments.

00:29:22Pendants, beads, plates, and mosaics made of green stone, obsidian objects, blades,

00:29:2710,000 beads made from seashells, as well as pendants made from mammal teeth.

00:29:32Fragments of a mosaic funerary mask made of green stone were also discovered,

00:29:37which is typical for royal burials from that period.

00:29:40Robocarbon analysis indicates that the deaths of the people occurred about 100 years before the burning.

00:29:46This confirms the theory that the burial could have been part of a ritual marking the symbolic and literal destruction

00:29:52of the previous dynasty of the Convitznal line.

00:29:55This could have been a highly ceremonial event associated with a change in the political order in the region.

00:30:02A Cache of Tools

00:30:04In the west of the Australian state of Queensland, archaeologists excavated a pit on the shore of a drying reservoir.

00:30:10The pit was shallow, but inside there were 600 stone adzes. An adze is a traditional tool of desert aboriginal

00:30:18people, something like a chisel.

00:30:20They were large and made quite well. And most interestingly, they were completely unused.

00:30:26A sharp piece of stone was glued with resin to a wooden handle, and with this they worked hard wood.

00:30:32They made shields, boomerangs, and bowls. The blade wore down quickly, so high-quality new blanks were highly valued.

00:30:38And the three pairs of adzes that were found fit together perfectly. It turns out they were chipped from the

00:30:44same stone and immediately hidden in a cache.

00:30:46Apparently, this was not a supply for personal use.

00:30:49Most likely, they were specially prepared for exchange for trade with other people.

00:30:54For centuries, a large aboriginal trade network passed through these places.

00:30:59Along it, stone tools and other aboriginal goods traveled hundreds of kilometers.

00:31:04The cache was studied in two ways.

00:31:06Radiocarbon analysis and sediment dating.

00:31:09And both showed the same thing. The tools were hidden between 1823 and 1883.

00:31:16This was exactly the time when European colonists came to these lands and began conflicts with the local inhabitants.

00:31:21Near the pit, they also found a cartridge case from a Snyder-Infield carbon.

00:31:26Such weapons were used by the Australian native police, units under the command of white officers who were known for

00:31:31punitive raids against the indigenous population.

00:31:34It was these European conquerors who destroyed almost the entire indigenous population of Australia.

00:31:40And the adzes remained buried in the ground. The master who made them was never able to return for them.

00:31:45The casket with the relics of Polish monarchs.

00:31:49This elegant casket inscribed with the name Isabella Czartoryska is not just an antique item, but a true symbol of

00:31:56Polish history.

00:31:57In 1800, Princess Isabella Czartoryska gathered a unique collection of relics related to Polish kings and great historical events into

00:32:05it.

00:32:05A total of 73 items were kept in the casket, from personal belongings of monarchs to fragments of skin and

00:32:12clothing, symbolizing national heritage and the spirit of resistance.

00:32:16Isabella considered it her mission to preserve Polish identity during the difficult times of the country's partitions.

00:32:22Her casket became part of Poland's first museum, the Temple of the Sybil, created in Palawi, where she invited guests

00:32:27to remind them of the glory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

00:32:30Unfortunately, like many national treasures, the casket did not escape a tragic fate.

00:32:36In 1939, during the Nazi invasion of Poland, it was looted, and some of the relics are still considered lost

00:32:42to this day.

00:32:44The flood helped the archaeologists

00:32:47A recent powerful flood in Libya unexpectedly helped the archaeologists.

00:32:52After Storm Daniel flooded the ancient city of Shahat, the water washed away the soil and revealed an amazing artifact,

00:32:59an ancient Greek tombstone.

00:33:01It is made of limestone and has been perfectly preserved to this day.

00:33:05This discovery has become a real gift for archaeologists, since Shahat's ancient Cyrene was a major scientific and cultural center

00:33:12of the Hellenistic and later Roman world.

00:33:14The philosopher Eratosthenes, who was the first to measure the circumference of the earth, once taught here, and the city

00:33:20itself was famous for its temples, theaters and libraries.

00:33:23Immediately after the discovery, the Libyan Department of Antiquities assembled a team of specialists to protect and study the valuable

00:33:29monument.

00:33:30The slab is now in the hands of experts, who have already confirmed its authenticity.

00:33:35In the near future, archaeologists plan to find out the details of the inscriptions, which may reveal more about the

00:33:40life and people of ancient Cyrene.

00:33:43Pocket computer from the 11th century?

00:33:45Historian from the United Kingdom, Federico Gigante, discovered in an Italian museum one of the oldest 11th century astrolabes with

00:33:53inscriptions in Arabic and Hebrew.

00:33:54This astronomical instrument, used for measuring angles and determining the positions of stars, became an important find at the museum

00:34:02in Verona.

00:34:03This artifact is so multifunctional that by modern standards, it could easily be considered a pocket computer.

00:34:10Federico Gigante came across the device while browsing the museum's catalog online and requested additional information, but was told that

00:34:16the object had not yet been studied.

00:34:18Upon arriving at the museum, the scientists discovered not only Arabic but also barely noticeable Hebrew inscriptions on the astrolabe,

00:34:26which in her opinion indicate scientific exchange between the Arab, Jewish and Christian worlds over the centuries.

00:34:32Research showed that the astrolabe could have been made in Al-Andalus, the Muslim region in Spain.

00:34:38Muslim prayers and Hebrew lines have been preserved on the instrument, highlighting its cultural and religious significance.

00:34:44The similarity of the discovered astrolabe to Byzantine and early European models supports the hypothesis of its Iberian origin.

00:34:52This unique artifact is believed to have first entered the collection of the Italian aristocrat Ludovico Mascardo in the 17th

00:34:59century, and later passed to the Menescalchi family, who established a museum in 1990 to preserve their private collection.

00:35:09Changed the course of time, in 1962, French geologist Michel Seifer decided to spend two months underground.

00:35:18Complete darkness, no clocks, no contact with the outside world, at a depth of 130 meters in an icy cave,

00:35:26where the temperature stayed below zero and the humidity reached 98%.

00:35:31He later recalled that his feet were constantly wet, and his body temperature dropped to 34 degrees.

00:35:38It was an experiment, and it was intended as a test of how a person would cope with complete isolation.

00:35:43But it turned out to be something much more.

00:35:45A whole new field of science grew out of this experiment, chronobiology.

00:35:50The thing is, Seifer's body began to keep track of time on its own, and it did this very differently

00:35:54from the clocks above.

00:35:55In psychological tests, he was given the task to count to 120, and it took him about five minutes.

00:36:02That's about two and a half times longer than it would take an ordinary person.

00:36:06But the most interesting thing happened at the very end.

00:36:08He went down into the cave on July 16, and expected to finish the experiment on September 14.

00:36:14When the team above told him that the day had finally come, Seifer was absolutely sure that it was around

00:36:20August 20.

00:36:21He sincerely thought he still had a whole month left.

00:36:24Even his circadian rhythm had changed.

00:36:26His days stretched from 24 to 24 and a half hours.

00:36:29And years later, when he repeated the experiment, his cycle had grown to 48 hours.

00:36:3436 hours of wakefulness were followed by 12 hours of sleep.

00:36:37And the man simply couldn't tell the difference between a long day and a regular one anymore.

00:36:42It took Seifer only two months to reach this point.

00:36:46Even he was surprised at how much he had lost track of time.

00:36:49And this makes you wonder, what about people who, thousands of years ago, hid in caves for months or even

00:36:55years, not for science, but simply to survive?

00:36:58To wade out the cold and danger inside.

00:37:00After all, they didn't have the sun or clocks either.

00:37:03So, they could have easily lost track of the days just like Seifer did.

00:37:07It's just that none of them ever told us about it.

00:37:09And we are unlikely to ever find out.

00:37:12Trilithon.

00:37:13In Baalbek, in the foundation of the Temple of Jupiter, there are three huge stone blocks that still amaze even

00:37:20experienced archaeologists.

00:37:21They are called the Trilithon.

00:37:23Just imagine the scale.

00:37:24Each of these blocks weighs almost 800 tons.

00:37:27And the dimensions are impressive.

00:37:29About 19 meters long, a little over 4 meters high and about 3.6 meters wide.

00:37:34Even today, lifting and moving such gigantic stones would not be easy.

00:37:39And yet, the ancient builders didn't have cranes or special equipment at their disposal.

00:37:43It is still not entirely clear how exactly these gigantic stones were transported and laid.

00:37:48It is believed that the stone blocks were moved on special wooden sledges, using logs and a hundred workers.

00:37:53Some have even suggested that aliens were involved in the construction.

00:37:56But serious scholars reject such hypotheses.

00:37:59The Trilithon is not just the foundation of the Temple, but a vivid example of how advanced the engineering knowledge

00:38:05of ancient civilizations was.

00:38:07Perhaps future discoveries will help unravel the mystery of how such massive structures appeared in antiquity.

00:38:13Hominid footprints dating back 350,000 years, in the Italian province of Caserta, not far from the extinct volcano Rocca

00:38:21Monfina,

00:38:21there is a mysterious place called Ciampate del Diavolo, or the Devil's Footprints.

00:38:27And ancient footprints can be seen on the solidified lava, which the locals consider proof of the presence of demons,

00:38:32because in their opinion, only evil forces could walk on the scorching surface.

00:38:36However, in 2003 archaeologists, led by Professor Paolo Mieto from the University of Padua,

00:38:41prove that these are the footprints of Homo heidelbergensis, ancient ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens,

00:38:48who lived 350,000 years ago.

00:38:51They belong to a group of three people who were descending a steep slope of still warm lava,

00:38:55probably escaping from an eruption.

00:38:57The first footprints form a zigzag route, indicating careful movement.

00:39:01The second section is winding, with pits and clear signs of slipping.

00:39:05The third path is more direct.

00:39:07Nearby, there are animal tracks, possibly from a wolf or a large dog.

00:39:10In some places, handprints left from falling are visible.

00:39:13Scientists counted 56 footprints, about 20 centimeters in size, which corresponds to a shoe size of 36.

00:39:20According to their estimates, the height of these people was about 1.55 meters.

00:39:25The footprints were preserved, thanks to volcanic ash, and were later uncovered by erosion.

00:39:30These prints are among the oldest found outside of Africa.

00:39:32However, their value lies not only in their age, but also in their exceptionally rare detail.

00:39:37Usually hominid footprints are found on flat surfaces, but here you can see movement, haste, and the struggle with the

00:39:43terrain.

00:39:43This site has become a source of pride for the region, and a unique testament to the life of ancient

00:39:48humans.

00:39:48The tomb of an officer's wife.

00:39:52Excavations in northwest China took place from 2022 to 2024, but the discovery was only announced now.

00:39:59Inside the tomb from the Tang Dynasty, and surprisingly, it is well preserved.

00:40:04Researchers believe that the wife of an officer was buried here, presumably in the year 698.

00:40:11Right at the time when the Empire was at the height of its power.

00:40:14A total of 19 burial items were found in the tomb.

00:40:17Ceramics, bronze, and iron.

00:40:20And separately gold and silver.

00:40:22Apparently these are personal ornaments that the woman wore on her head.

00:40:25Two items stand out in particular.

00:40:28A silver jug and a stamped cup, decorated with a grapevine pattern.

00:40:33The Tang Empire was one of the longest periods in Chinese history.

00:40:36And the beginning of the 8th century is considered the time of its flourishing.

00:40:40Contemporary said that in those years the whole world looked up to the Tang.

00:40:44Because of frequent looting, tombs rarely managed to preserve what was originally placed there.

00:40:50The Tomb of an Unknown Pharaoh.

00:40:51In Egypt, near the city of Abidos, archaeologists found the tomb of a pharaoh that is about 3,600 years

00:40:58old.

00:40:59It is located 7 meters deep in the ancient necropolis known as the Mountain of Anubis.

00:41:04The tomb turned out to be almost empty.

00:41:06It was most likely looted back in ancient times.

00:41:09The name of the pharaoh was written on the plaster at the entrance.

00:41:12But it has not survived to this day.

00:41:15Scientists suggest that it could be one of the lesser known rulers,

00:41:18for example, Sinaibe or Pantageni, who are mentioned in other sources,

00:41:22but whose tombs have not yet been found.

00:41:25The tomb dates back to the Second Intermediate Period,

00:41:28a difficult time in Egypt's history when the country was divided into several kingdoms,

00:41:33and was in political chaos.

00:41:35One of these regional kingdoms was the Abidos dynasty, whose representatives could have been buried in this area.

00:41:41Interestingly, the new tomb is built into the complex of an earlier and more influential pharaoh,

00:41:47Neferhotep Persent, and its architecture resembles both the tombs of the Middle Kingdom and those of later periods.

00:41:53A brewery from the time of Egypt's first rulers.

00:41:57Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest brewery,

00:42:00located in the Abidos necropolis, Egypt.

00:42:03This discovery not only sheds light on early brewing technologies,

00:42:06but also helps us understand how resources were managed during the construction of the pyramids.

00:42:11The complex consists of eight massive installations, each up to 20 meters long.

00:42:15Each of them contains two rows of 40 vessels, which were used to heat a mixture of grain and water,

00:42:20a classic beer brewing process.

00:42:23Scientists date the brewery to the era of Pharaoh Narmer,

00:42:27who is considered the founder of the First Dynasty.

00:42:29Dr. Adams, the lead researcher, called this discovery an example of industrial scale production,

00:42:35and noted that it shows a high level of labor organization in ancient Egypt.

00:42:39The ability to manage the mass distribution of resources and organize the workforce

00:42:43allowed the Egyptians to build grand structures, including the pyramids.

00:42:47In addition, beer played an important role in rituals.

00:42:50The large scale production in Abidos indicates its use in sacrifices, ceremonies and rituals,

00:42:56which confirms its significance in the development of Egyptian royal power.

00:43:01The discovery caused legal problems.

00:43:05A sword, dated to around 850 AD, sheds light on the turbulent period of conflict between the Anglo-Saxons and

00:43:12Vikings in Great Britain.

00:43:14One day, while exploring the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, Treville Penny expected to find metal debris, but his magnet caught

00:43:22something else.

00:43:23An ancient Viking sword, dated to around 850 AD.

00:43:27The relic was retrieved from the river in November of last year.

00:43:31Covered in corrosion and deposits, the sword regained its original appearance thanks to the joint efforts of Penny and local

00:43:37archaeologists.

00:43:37This discovery takes us back to the turbulent times in England's history, when the country became a battlefield between the

00:43:44Anglo-Saxon conquerors and the Danish Vikings.

00:43:47The era was full of battles including the Viking raid at Plymouth and their defeat by Anglo-Saxon forces led

00:43:53by King Athelwolf of Wessex and his son Athelstan.

00:43:57Later, Penny faced questions about the legality of using magnets for searching and the ownership rights to the artifact.

00:44:04Issues arose with the landowner and the river trust, which prohibits the use of magnets for fishing.

00:44:09To avoid going to jail, Penny agreed to hand the sword over to the museum.

00:44:13This raises the question, did the amateur archaeologist actually break any laws, or did the authorities just want to take

00:44:19the ancient artifact away from him?

00:44:21Write your opinion in the comments below the video.

00:44:24The wrestler from Aspendos.

00:44:26In the ancient city of Aspendos, in what is now Turkey, during the excavation of the eastern necropolis, archaeologists found

00:44:33a hoard of silver coins.

00:44:35The age is about 2,400 years, and what's interesting is that on the coins, wrestlers are depicted in different

00:44:41holds, by the arms, by the legs, by the neck, and even by the waist.

00:44:45The hoard was found in a tomb shaped like a stone chest. It is dated to approximately between 425 and

00:44:51300 BC.

00:44:52By that time, Aspendos was already one of the prosperous cities of the ancient world, combining Greek traditions and elements

00:44:58of Persian culture.

00:44:59And the person buried here had clear traces of a certain lifestyle left on their bones.

00:45:03A healed, broken nose, joint injuries, signs of repeated trauma. In general, not the most peaceful way of life.

00:45:10Such things don't appear in people who spend their days sitting at a computer.

00:45:14By comparing coins with images of wrestlers and the injuries on the bones, researchers suggested that this person might have

00:45:20been involved in sports.

00:45:21Even here, scientists phrase everything very cautiously.

00:45:25There are coins with wrestlers, a broken nose, and damaged joints, but they still say only a possible connection.

00:45:31Perhaps the person buried there really was a wrestler from Aspendos.

00:45:34And to be honest, given his broken nose, it's pretty easy to believe.

00:45:40However, it's still unclear whether such coins were used as regular payment or served some other purpose.

00:45:45For example, they might have been something like tokens, a wooden sculpture of Christ.

00:45:50In the Belarusian village of Nesutiki, in the semi-ruined chapel of the Church of Saint Archangel Michael,

00:45:57restorers discovered a wooden sculpture of the crucified Christ.

00:46:00The find is more than 250 years old, and experts call it a real miracle.

00:46:05After so many years, it has hardly suffered any damage.

00:46:09Studies have shown that the sculpture was carved from Perwood, presumably in the 17th century.

00:46:13The exact origin is still unknown, but there are theories that it could have been made in Italy or Prussia.

00:46:20Finds like this are rare.

00:46:21They remind us how many secrets might still be hidden even in forgotten corners.

00:46:26Noah's Ark has been found, according to the Bible, Noah's Ark saved people and animals from the Great Flood.

00:46:32And now, after 5,000 years, researchers have once again turned their attention to one of the most mysterious places,

00:46:39the Durupinar Formation in Turkey.

00:46:41This 163-meter structure surprisingly matches the biblical description of the legendary vessel in size.

00:46:47Scientists, scientists from Istanbul Technical University and Ari Ibrahim Shechen University, have been studying the area since 2021.

00:46:55A recent analysis of 30 soil samples revealed clay, marine deposits and mollusk remains aged between 3,500 and 5

00:47:02,000 years.

00:47:03This suggests that the region really did experience a massive flood.

00:47:06The formation is located just 30 kilometers from Mount Ararat, where, according to the Bible, the Ark came to rest

00:47:11after the flood.

00:47:12The size of the structure is also close to the biblical description.

00:47:15The estimated length of the Ark is 157 meters, while the Durupinar site measures 163 meters.

00:47:21However, many geologists are skeptical of the hypothesis.

00:47:25They believe that the Durupinar site is just a natural formation.

00:47:28Despite this, the discovery continues to attract interest and new research.

00:47:33The mysterious petroglyphs of Dighton Rock.

00:47:36On the banks of the Taunton River in Massachusetts, there is a small museum with a single, but very unusual

00:47:41exhibit.

00:47:42A 40-ton boulder that was taken out of the water and placed here in 1963.

00:47:47This stone, known as Dighton Rock, has long puzzled researchers with its mysterious inscriptions,

00:47:53the origin of which has remained a mystery for several centuries.

00:47:56The rock is about 1.5 meters high, 3.5 meters long and 3 meters wide.

00:48:01Its surface, covered with petroglyphs, was once slanted toward the water and probably served as a kind of message from

00:48:08a seafarer.

00:48:08The symbols engraved on the stone consist of straight lines, geometric shapes, primitive images of people and strange writings.

00:48:15The first written mention of the Dighton Rock dates back to 1680.

00:48:20The English colonist John Danforth drew the symbols and ten years later Reverend Cotton Matter described them in his book,

00:48:27calling them strange signs left by unknown ancient peoples.

00:48:30The rock gave rise to many hypotheses.

00:48:33In 1837, the Danish researcher Karl Christian Raffen claimed that the inscriptions were made by Vikings and were connected to

00:48:40the journey of Thorfinn Karsefni,

00:48:42who, according to Scandinavian sagas, reached the shores of North America in the 11th century.

00:48:47His theory caused a sensation, but in 1916 Professor Edmund Delabar from Brown University proved that Raffen had forged the

00:48:55image by adding lines that supported his hypothesis.

00:48:59Delabar himself proposed a new version. He saw the name Miguel Cartirial and the date 1511 in the inscriptions.

00:49:06In his opinion, this message was left by a Portuguese explorer who went missing in America.

00:49:11In 1502 Cartirial set out to search for his brother, who had gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, but

00:49:16he disappeared himself.

00:49:17Perhaps he was forced to stay among the Native Americans, and nine years later he carved a message about his

00:49:22fate on a rock.

00:49:23Delabar's theory found support in Portugal, but it was received with caution around the world.

00:49:28Some believe that the authors of the inscription were ancient Phoenicians, others say it was the Chinese who reached America

00:49:34long before Columbus.

00:49:36Despite centuries of research, the Ditan Rock remains one of the most mysterious archaeological finds in the United States, continuing

00:49:42to inspire researchers to search for its true history.

00:49:49In southern Spain, archaeologists were excavating before the construction of a solar power plant and came across a Copper Age

00:49:56fortress.

00:49:57It was built around 3000 BC. The layout there is quite complex for something that ancient.

00:50:03A nine-sided outer wall, rounded bastions at the corners, and an entire system of internal fortifications.

00:50:10It's so well thought out that similar defense systems will only reappear in military affairs after thousands of years.

00:50:16But the strangest thing was not the architecture itself.

00:50:19Inside this long abandoned fortress, archaeologists found a human body.

00:50:23The age was between 25 and 35 years old.

00:50:26He had a pugio with him, a short dagger, the standard weapon of the Roman legions.

00:50:31The very ones that conquered Spain back in 218 BC.

00:50:34And here's where the question arises.

00:50:37Between the time the fortress was built and when this man ended up there, about 2500 years had passed.

00:50:43By that time, the fortress had long been abandoned.

00:50:45The first thing that might come to mind when you see the remains of a young man with a weapon

00:50:49is that he was a soldier.

00:50:50That makes perfect sense.

00:50:52But researchers honestly admit that they don't have a definite answer.

00:50:55Maybe he was a deserter, or maybe just a traveler who wandered in and decided to wait it out among

00:51:00the old ruins.

00:51:01There are no signs of violent death on the bones.

00:51:03So the person could very well have died a natural death, or from illness.

00:51:08And if you think about it, there's nothing surprising about that.

00:51:11The Romans quite often used such ancient structures as temporary shelters or burial places.

00:51:17The Tiara of Cytophernes.

00:51:19For many years, the Louvre proudly displayed a golden tiara that supposedly belonged to the Scythian king Cytophernes.

00:51:26The inscription on the artifact indicated that it was presented to the king by the inhabitants of ancient Greek Olbia,

00:51:32and it looked quite credible.

00:51:33However, behind its brilliant appearance was one of the most notorious hoaxes in the history of archaeology.

00:51:39The story began in 1894 in Odessa, when two antique dealers, the Gokman brothers, convinced the talented jeweler Israel Rukamovsky

00:51:47to make for their archaeologist friend, a diadem in the ancient Greek style.

00:51:51Rukamovsky, not knowing ancient mythology, relied on illustrations from the books that were given to him.

00:51:56The resulting masterpiece, weighing half a kilogram, looked like a genuine artifact.

00:52:01Scenes from the Iliad, carefully engraved figures, and a solemn inscription praising the king.

00:52:05The Gokmans sold the item to the Louvre at a profit, where it was purchased for 200,000 francs.

00:52:11The deal was made, as people later joked, on April 1, 1896.

00:52:15However, soon some archaeologists, particularly Adolf Furtwengler, began to doubt the authenticity of the artifact.

00:52:22The Louvre, however, insisted otherwise, attributing the criticism to envy and political motives.

00:52:27The truth was revealed only in 1903, when Rukamovsky learned that his creation had become a museum relic.

00:52:33He came to Paris, personally reproduced a fragment of the diadem, and proved that it was a modern forgery.

00:52:38The Louvre had no choice but to admit its mistake.

00:52:42After that, the tiara entered the Hall of Forgeries, and Rukamovsky himself became famous.

00:52:46His works became sought after, and the tiara incident became an important lesson for museums around the world.

00:52:51The ancient necropolis of Persian kings.

00:52:54Before you is one of the most impressive bas-reliefs of ancient Persia,

00:52:58depicting the victory of Shahansha, Shapur the Srend over the Roman emperor Valerian.

00:53:03This monument is located in Naqsh-e-Rostam, the ancient necropolis of Persian kings in Iran.

00:53:10On the beige relief, Shapur the First is sitting on a horse in luxurious armor,

00:53:14and before him kneeling is Philip the Arab, the Roman emperor who made peace with the Persians.

00:53:18But most importantly, he is holding Valerian himself captive.

00:53:22This was the only case in history when a Roman emperor was taken captive.

00:53:26After the defeat at the Battle of Edessa in 260, Valerian was never able to return.

00:53:32According to different versions, he died in captivity or was killed.

00:53:35This bas-relief is not just a historical monument, but a symbol of the greatness of the Persian Empire.

00:53:40It reminded everyone who passed by that the Romans, the main power of that time, suffered a humiliating defeat.

00:53:47The Takakori mummies.

00:53:49In the Takakori rock shelter in Libya, archaeologists found the remains of two women.

00:53:55The age is about 7,000 years.

00:53:57The bodies were preserved naturally, with no embalming whatsoever.

00:54:01Simply thanks to the conditions of the cave itself.

00:54:03These women lived in an era known as the African Humid Period.

00:54:07Back then, the Sahara looked completely different from how it does now.

00:54:10There were rivers flowing there, and grass was growing.

00:54:13And apparently, these women were engaged in raising livestock.

00:54:16But the main surprise was not in the bodies themselves, but in what the DNA analysis revealed.

00:54:21Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology studied samples from teeth and bones.

00:54:27And they found out that most of these women's ancestry traces back to a previously unknown genetic lineage,

00:54:33specifically, a lineage characteristic of ancient North Africa.

00:54:37So, we're not talking about some other species of humans.

00:54:40These were the same modern humans.

00:54:42It's just that scientists didn't know before that a separate group existed in North Africa for so long.

00:54:47It seems this lineage split off from the population south of the Sahara a very long time ago,

00:54:52around the same time that other groups of people began leaving Africa altogether.

00:54:56And that's what's really interesting.

00:54:57So, while some groups of people were leaving Africa and mixing with other populations,

00:55:02here, their own separate branch could have been preserved, almost isolated for tens of thousands of years.

00:55:08And apparently, it has no direct connection to the people who live in this region today.

00:55:12The researcher was especially surprised by the amount of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes.

00:55:17Only about 0.15%.

00:55:19And this also fits well into the overall picture.

00:55:22The Neanderthal legacy was mainly inherited by those groups of Homo sapiens who left Africa

00:55:27and met Neanderthals already in Eurasia.

00:55:29And these women had very little of that admixture.

00:55:33Mini Stonehenge.

00:55:35In the English county of Derbyshire, not far from the town of Matlock,

00:55:39archaeologists discovered an ancient ceremonial complex from the Bronze Age, about 3,700 years old.

00:55:45This place turned out to be part of a large stone circle that had been hidden in the forest for

00:55:49a long time.

00:55:50And it all started with the curiosity of a 24-year-old student, George Bird,

00:55:55who became interested in a lone standing stone in the forest near his home.

00:55:58The stone, known as the Farley Moor Standing Stone, about 2 meters high,

00:56:02was previously considered a solitary monument.

00:56:05But at Bird's urging, researchers decided to take a closer look at the surrounding area.

00:56:09It turned out that the stone stands on top of a natural spring,

00:56:12whose water flows into the Bentley Stream and then into the Derwent River.

00:56:16Traces of an ancient platform were found nearby,

00:56:19which was probably used for rituals long before the stone itself was erected.

00:56:24This suggests that the site was revered for centuries and held great significance for Bronze Age communities,

00:56:29especially in connection with water.

00:56:31Archaeologists also discovered five more stones that once stood upright.

00:56:35Together, they formed an oval circle about 25 meters wide.

00:56:40This discovery added to the list of 25 known Bronze Age stone circles found in the Peak District

00:56:45an area rich in ancient monuments and confirms that ritual life in those times was far more widespread than Stonehenge

00:56:52alone suggests.

00:56:55Memorable marks on the bricks of history.

00:56:58Merengar Fort in Jodhpur is one of the most magnificent structures in India.

00:57:02But behind its beauty lie dark pages of history.

00:57:06On the inner gates, 15 women's handprints are still visible, silent witnesses to the tragic tradition of Sati.

00:57:13Sati is an ancient Hindu ritual in which widows were expected to burn themselves on their husband's funeral pyre.

00:57:19Sometimes women did this voluntarily, but more often they were forced.

00:57:24This practice was officially banned by the British in 1829, but in India it persisted until the 20th century.

00:57:31In 1843, after the death of Maharaja Mansingh, his wives left handprints on the wall before stepping into the fire.

00:57:38However, this was not the only such case in the history of the fort.

00:57:43In 1731, six wives and 58 concubines of Maharaja Ajit Singh also ended their lives in the flames.

00:57:49The tragedies began from the very founding of the fortress.

00:57:53In the 15th century, the saint Chityavali Baba cursed Rao Jodha, declaring that his lands would suffer from eternal droughts.

00:58:00To lift the curse, the king ordered a resident, Rajaramigwal, to be walled up alive in the fort's walls.

00:58:06But the curse still seems to be in effect.

00:58:08Here, Maharajas have perished, tourists have fallen, and in 2008, during a stampede at the Chamunda Devi temple, hundreds of

00:58:16people died or were injured.

00:58:18Strange patterns in the stone.

00:58:20In some of the driest corners of the planet, geologists have noticed a strange pattern on the stone.

00:58:26In marble from Namibia, in limestone from Oman, and in black marble from Saudi Arabia.

00:58:31At first glance, it's just ordinary rock. Ordinary, weathered by erosion and time.

00:58:36But if you look under magnification, you can see narrow channels on the surface.

00:58:41They're arranged too evenly to be a coincidence.

00:58:43They were first noticed more than ten years ago in Namibia, during fieldwork led by a professor from Johannes Gutenberg

00:58:50University in Mainz.

00:58:52And then similar structures were found in two more countries.

00:58:55And it became clear that this phenomenon was not a coincidence.

00:58:58Each of these tunnels is about half a millimeter wide, and up to three centimeters deep.

00:59:03They are arranged parallel to each other, vertically along cracks in the rock, and sometimes they stretch for ten meters

00:59:09or more.

00:59:09It doesn't really look like ordinary weathering or tectonic shifts. It's just too orderly.

00:59:15One of the theories scientists are currently considering goes like this.

00:59:19A colony of microorganisms that live right inside the stone gradually moved forward.

00:59:24They secreted organic acids that dissolved the mineral, and behind them they left a white carbonate trail,

00:59:29which is what we can see today as a fossilized trace.

00:59:32But there is still no definite answer. The mechanism is still being studied.

00:59:36Are these findings, really, 300 million years old?

00:59:41From time to time, miners find strange artifacts in coal seams that apparently were created by intelligent beings.

00:59:47This raises uncomfortable questions for science.

00:59:50After all, the age of these layers is estimated at 300 million years.

00:59:54How could objects clearly made by hand end up there?

00:59:57After all, at that time, the Earth was inhabited only by giant insects and the first reptiles.

01:00:02Humans, dinosaurs, let alone advanced technologies, were out of the question.

01:00:07However, the discoveries continue to amaze.

01:00:10In 1912, an iron kettle was extracted from a coal seam in the state of Oklahoma.

01:00:14And in 1851, a vase made of zinc and silver was discovered in Massachusetts,

01:00:20and the rock it was found in is 534 million years old.

01:00:24In Russia, a metal rod resembling a gear rack was found, made of aluminum with a mixture of magnesium.

01:00:30Its origin is even more mysterious.

01:00:33Aluminum was only discovered in 1825, but the coal in which it was found is over 300 million years old.

01:00:41Scientists found that the metal was impregnated with carbon, which confirms its incredible age.

01:00:46But is that so? Who made it?

01:00:48Some believe that these discoveries are traces of a vanished civilization that existed long before us,

01:00:54but was wiped from the face of the planet by a global cataclysm.

01:00:57Others suggest that the objects could have been left by aliens or even time travelers.

01:01:03Skeptics, in turn, are convinced that these are hoaxes or dating errors.

01:01:07There is also a theory that coal was formed not millions, but only a few thousand years ago,

01:01:13under the influence of deep gases and pressure.

01:01:15If that's the case, then the artifacts may not be as ancient as we think.

01:01:217000-year-old plough marks.

01:01:23Archaeologists from France and Switzerland discovered them during excavations in the city of Sion,

01:01:28at the Arsena site.

01:01:30The oldest traces of a primitive plough in Europe are dated between 5100 and 4700 BC.

01:01:39This discovery made in 2017 indicates that as early as the early Neolithic period in Europe,

01:01:44people began using draft animals to work the land.

01:01:48Similar artifacts indicating ploughing of the land during the Neolithic period are extremely rare and difficult to date precisely.

01:01:55For example, in Northern Italy, archaeologists discovered traces of a primitive plough and hoof prints of animals dating back to

01:02:024300-4000 BC.

01:02:05Before that, the earliest evidence of plough use in Switzerland was considered to be finds dated to the first half

01:02:12of the 4th millennium BC.

01:02:15Three amazing artifacts!

01:02:17Archaeologists have made a discovery that could change our understanding of the history of ancient Egypt.

01:02:22Recently, the lost tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose II was found, an event comparable to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in

01:02:301922.

01:02:31However, unlike the famous tomb of the Golden Boy, the tomb of Thutmose II was found to be heavily damaged.

01:02:37After the Pharaoh's death, the chamber was flooded and most of the relics were probably moved elsewhere.

01:02:43One of the key artifacts is fragments of alabaster vessels decorated with the name of Thutmose II.

01:02:50These vessels, made in the shape of a duck, were used in rituals and indicated the high status of their

01:02:55owner.

01:02:56The inscription on them helped confirm that the tomb really belonged to this Pharaoh.

01:03:00Another important find, fragments of paintings that fell from the ceiling and walls.

01:03:06Researchers discovered that the ceiling was once painted blue and covered with stars,

01:03:10while the walls were decorated with texts from the Book of Amduat,

01:03:13an ancient Egyptian text that tells about the journey of the Sunday god Ra in the afterlife.

01:03:17Such images were found only in the tombs of pharaohs and their closest nobles.

01:03:22Another artifact found was a wooden rod, which could have been part of a spear or a ceremonial fan used

01:03:29to fan the pharaoh.

01:03:30An inscription with the king's title was preserved on the shaft, which became further evidence that the tomb belonged to

01:03:36Thutmose II.

01:03:38Arcticciuski Giga

01:03:40In 1948, a British expedition climbed to the top of the Arctic island of Bear Island and found the heavily

01:03:48damaged remains of some large fossil creature.

01:03:52It was not possible to take the entire find.

01:03:54The members of the expedition photographed it, took several bones, and left the rest there, at the mercy of the

01:04:01polar winds and rains.

01:04:02For a long time, it was believed that nothing much remained of the find over the years.

01:04:07It was almost forgotten.

01:04:08Thirty-seven years passed, and in 1984, a Norwegian field group accidentally came across those same remains.

01:04:15Over the past ten years in the open air, the bones had cracked, some had disappeared completely, what remained could

01:04:21only be recovered after a week of excavation.

01:04:24And even after that, the find remained almost unstudied for many years.

01:04:28It was only recently that it could be properly prepared for research at the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History.

01:04:34And only now has it become clear what exactly was found on the island 80 years ago.

01:04:38The scientists were faced with a huge ancient predator, resembling a very strange amphibian.

01:04:44Such creatures are called Plagiosaurids.

01:04:47They lived at the bottom of rivers, lakes and seas during the Triassic period, from 251 to 201 million years

01:04:54ago.

01:04:54They simply waited for prey at the bottom, and then sucked it in with their wide-open jaws lined with

01:04:59small teeth.

01:05:00When scientists reconstructed the shape of the skull, it turned out that it was about 70 centimeters wide, and only

01:05:0521 centimeters long.

01:05:06That is, more than three times wider than it is long.

01:05:10Because of the shape, its outline resembles an almost perfect semicircle, or as one paleontologist described it, a boomerang.

01:05:17In general, it looks as if someone deliberately crossed a catfish, a tadpole's head, and a crocodile.

01:05:23And perhaps it's for the best that such experiments of nature stayed back in the Triassic period.

01:05:28The new species was named Arthrobatrocus urdensis, and the animal itself reached about 2.7 meters in length.

01:05:36And so far, it's the largest Plagiosaurid ever discovered.

01:05:40The oldest child of Thailand, in the Tham Thamdin cave in Thailand, archaeologists made an incredible discovery.

01:05:48They found the remains of a child who lived about 29,000 years ago.

01:05:52This find became the oldest human burial in the country, and opens up an entirely new chapter in the history

01:05:58of ancient Thailand.

01:06:00Excavations in the cave began back in 2020, but only recently were they able to discover a fully preserved skeleton

01:06:06of a child, buried in a special ritual pose.

01:06:09The arms and legs are tightly pressed to the body, which indicates the use of bandages or ropes.

01:06:14Traces of a campfire were found nearby. Ancient people would light a fire during the burial ritual, probably believing in

01:06:21its purifying power.

01:06:22Interestingly, archaeologists found ancient cave paintings, animal bones, and stone tools near the burial site.

01:06:28This suggests that the cave was an important place not only for burials, but also as a place where prehistoric

01:06:34people lived for thousands of years.

01:06:36It is possible that the first cultural traditions of the ancient inhabitants of Southeast Asia originated right here.

01:06:42A strange long stone.

01:06:44In the history of archaeology, there are discoveries made not only by scientists, but also by ordinary people. Often quite

01:06:51unexpectedly.

01:06:53So, a farmer from Michigan, James Brissell stumbled upon an archaeological sensation when he decided to lay a gas pipeline

01:06:59through his ranch.

01:07:00When he started digging, James didn't expect any surprises, since the soil here was fertile and free of stones.

01:07:06But soon, the excavator hit something. Worried about damaging the rented machine, the farmer stopped and decided to check the

01:07:13obstacle with a shovel.

01:07:15It turned out it wasn't a stone, but something smooth and hard.

01:07:18Digging by hand, James soon realized that he had found a huge bone.

01:07:22He called his neighbors for help, and soon they managed to find several more large bones.

01:07:27At first, no one could say for sure which animal they belonged to.

01:07:30After a few hours, the amateur archaeologists dug down to a place where the bones joined into one large skull

01:07:36with tusks.

01:07:38Initially, the farmers assumed it was an elephant, but to be sure they called real scientists from the University of

01:07:43Michigan.

01:07:44Professor Fisher, upon arriving at the site, immediately determined that these were mammoth remains and in excellent condition.

01:07:51He wanted to take the bones for study, but James refused to give them up, citing laws that allowed the

01:07:56landowner to dispose of the finds at their own discretion.

01:07:59As a result, the farmer displayed the remains in his store, attracting tourists and scientists from all over the country,

01:08:06and additionally selling his products.

01:08:08A unique discovery underwater.

01:08:11At the bottom of Lake Bolsena in central Italy,

01:08:15Underwater researchers found the remains of an entire settlement.

01:08:18The age is about 3000 years. The place is called Gran Carro di Bolsena.

01:08:23They brought up Bronze Age ceramics and pieces of wooden structures up to the surface.

01:08:28And later, they came across something completely unexpected.

01:08:31I've talked about underwater discoveries many times, but this one really amazed me.

01:08:36Inside the clay vessels were whole ears of the ancient grain crops pelt.

01:08:39Not just scattered grains, but whole ears that had lain underwater for 3000 years and hadn't fallen apart.

01:08:45By examining the ceramics, scientists determined that people of the Proto-Vilinovan culture lived here.

01:08:51This was even before the Etruscans, literally their predecessors, and it turns out that on the shores of this lake,

01:08:56people lived continuously for a very long time, even witnessing the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

01:09:01On land, all this wood, fabric and plants would have long since turned to dust.

01:09:05But here, everything was preserved only thanks to the water. More precisely, because of the lack of oxygen at the

01:09:11bottom.

01:09:11In the underwater complex called Aiola, divers found not only grain, but also objects that looked like ritual equipment.

01:09:17And under the stones of the sacred mound, they discovered large, processed wooden beams.

01:09:21What it was is still unclear. It could have been part of a house or a pier. Or even a

01:09:27bridge.

01:09:28The Great Bell of Damazedi. The Great Bell of Damazedi is considered the largest bell ever made.

01:09:36It was cast in 1484 by order of the King of Myanmar, Damazedi, and installed at the famous Shritagon Pagoda

01:09:43in Yangon, one of the most sacred places for Buddhists in the country.

01:09:48According to historical records, the bell weighed over 290 tons, making it a record holder among such structures.

01:09:54However, the fate of the bell turned out to be tragic.

01:09:58In 1608, the Portuguese mercenary and adventurer Filipe de Bretto captured Yangon and decided to take the bell out to

01:10:04melt it down for weapons.

01:10:05While transporting it across the Bago River, he miscalculated the weight of the structure.

01:10:10The bell capsized the barge and sank to the bottom. Since then, it has never been found despite numerous attempts.

01:10:17Today, the Great Damazedi Bell remains a legendary symbol of Myanmar's national pride.

01:10:22Its story is a reminder of how culture, spirituality, and greed can intertwine in a single artifact, the fate of

01:10:29which remains a mystery to this day.

01:10:32Sunken logs. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, rivers in the United States were often used instead of roads

01:10:38to transport timber.

01:10:39The felled trees were tied into huge rafts, or simply floated downstream to sawmills.

01:10:45However, not all of them made it to their destination.

01:10:49Logs would break free from the bundles, get stuck between rocks, or simply sink.

01:10:53According to Florida authorities, about 10% of all the timber floated downriver may have remained at the bottom of

01:10:58some rivers.

01:10:59Back then, no one really planned to go back for such logs.

01:11:03At that time, it cost more to lift them from the bottom than to just cut down another tree.

01:11:07That's why thousands of logs remained lying in the rivers for 100, and sometimes even 150 years.

01:11:13But today, the situation is completely different.

01:11:16Divers specifically dive for these logs. They search for them using sonar.

01:11:20And sometimes, pretty serious equipment has to be used to lift them.

01:11:23And all this is for the sake of an old log that once wasn't even considered worth pulling up from

01:11:28the bottom.

01:11:28The reason is where these trees came from. Many of them grew in ancient forests that have almost completely disappeared

01:11:35today.

01:11:36The trees there managed to reach enormous sizes, they grew slowly, and the wood developed very dense annual rings and

01:11:42large areas without knots.

01:11:44That's why some of these logs can be quite valuable today.

01:11:47The bottom silt and lack of oxygen help preserve them, which greatly slows down the decay of the wood.

01:11:53However, raising a huge beautiful log from the bottom doesn't necessarily mean you've hit the jackpot.

01:11:59Inside, there may be cracks, rot, and softened areas that only become visible after the log is cut.

01:12:05It's kind of funny, really.

01:12:07150 years ago, this log was so cheap that no one even bothered to come back for it.

01:12:12But today, people put on waders and comb the riverbed with sonar just to find it.

01:12:18A metal rod. How can we explain this mysterious artifact?

01:12:23Inside a mazong stone found in the Chinese mountains, collector Zhilingwang discovered a metal rod with threads resembling a screw.

01:12:31So what's strange is that solid rock formed around it?

01:12:35Which suggests that the find could be millions of years old.

01:12:38Some have suggested that it's a meteorite with an alien artifact inside.

01:12:42Others believe that it's an ancient man-made artifact, which for unknown reasons ended up in the ground and turned

01:12:48into a fossil.

01:12:48Skeptics, however, think that it's simply a rare natural formation.

01:12:52And the screw is just a fossilized marine organism.

01:12:55But what's most interesting is that similar finds have already been discovered in different parts of the world.

01:13:00Is it a coincidence or evidence of an ancient unknown technology?

01:13:04For now, this artifact remains one of the most mysterious archaeological enigmas.

01:13:10Researchers have deciphered the Voynich manuscript.

01:13:13The Voynich manuscript has been intriguing scientists and cryptographers for more than 600 years.

01:13:19This document, filled with encrypted texts and unusual illustrations, gives rise to many hypotheses.

01:13:24From magical spells to obscene texts.

01:13:27But researchers from Macquarie University have concluded that the contents of the manuscript are not only decent,

01:13:33but also contain information that in the early 15th century was not meant for everyone.

01:13:39Dr. Keegan Brewer, the lead author of the study, claims that the manuscript is a medieval guide to gynecology,

01:13:45including information about sex, contraception and the treatment of gynecological diseases.

01:13:51The encrypted nature of the text suggests that women's access to this information was deliberately restricted,

01:13:57which is a vivid example of gender censorship.

01:14:01The manuscript contains numerous illustrations depicting plants, animals and people,

01:14:05but researchers were particularly drawn to the drawings of naked women pointing to their genitals.

01:14:11These images clearly hint at the gynecological focus of the text.

01:14:15Women's secrets, as women's health was called in the Middle Ages, were subject to strict censorship, despite active study.

01:14:22The patriarchal culture of that era feared the female body and its functions, which was reflected in the medical texts

01:14:28of the time.

01:14:29One of the largest and most mysterious illustrations, known as the Rosettes,

01:14:33may symbolize the commonly accepted views on sex and contraception of that time.

01:14:37According to the beliefs of that time, the uterus consisted of seven chambers, and the vagina had two openings.

01:14:43Perhaps the nine circles in the illustration symbolize these anatomical details.

01:14:49Thus, the Voynich manuscript may not just be a collection of meaningless symbols or a joke, as some have suggested,

01:14:55but an important historical document revealing approaches to women's health in medieval Europe.

01:15:09On the stone there are elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippos, crocodiles, long-horned cattle being herded by people.

01:15:17Today, this is one of the driest places on the planet.

01:15:20The gap between what is depicted there and what is there now seems almost absurd.

01:15:25How could hippos and crocodiles even live where today there is one of the driest deserts on the planet?

01:15:31The answer is connected to a period known as the African Humid Period or the Green Sahara.

01:15:35It lasted from about 11,000 to 5,500 years ago.

01:15:38Monsoon rains in those millennia reached much farther north than they do now, and the territories of present-day Libya,

01:15:46Niger, Chad and Mali were covered with wooded savannas, swamps, rivers and lakes.

01:15:52Data from sedimentary rocks show that the transition from the green savanna to the current desert in most of the

01:15:57region happened quite abruptly.

01:15:59So abruptly that drawings of hippos outlasted the hippos themselves in these places by thousands of years.

01:16:05But where the people themselves could have contributed, even a little, to the Sahara turning into a desert is still

01:16:11a matter of debate.

01:16:12There's a theory that earlier herders burned vegetation and overused pastures, thus accelerating the changes.

01:16:18But for now, that's just a hypothesis.

01:16:20The main reason was still much larger climate changes.

01:16:25Where was the oldest forest on the planet found?

01:16:29Until 2024, the whole world was sure that the oldest forest on the planet was in America, in New York

01:16:36State, and it was 386 million years old.

01:16:41But it turned out that the record had been in a different place all this time.

01:16:45On the coast of England, in the counties of Somerset and Devon, people had long known about ancient fossilized rocks,

01:16:52but it was believed that few plants had been preserved there.

01:16:55Scientists from Cambridge and Cardiff universities decided to check this again, and found much more there than they expected.

01:17:03Entire fossilized tree trunks, as well as remains of strange plants, distant relatives of modern ferns and horsetails.

01:17:10When the trees were dated, it turned out they were 390 million years old.

01:17:15That's several million more than the American record holder.

01:17:18And the forest in England unexpectedly became the oldest known forest on the planet.

01:17:22The trees themselves were not tall, only about 2 to 4 meters, but in terms of age, they surpassed all

01:17:29others.

01:17:29Dr. Christopher Berry from Cardiff said that traces of other ancient plants were found near the trees, and even imprints

01:17:35of animals on the ground from that time.

01:17:37And Professor Neil Davis from Cambridge explained why this discovery is important for more than just the record books.

01:17:43It was at that time, 390 million years ago, that real forests first appeared on Earth.

01:17:49And it was then that rivers began to reshape their banks just as they do to this day.

01:17:54And here is what is most surprising.

01:17:56There is still a living tree growing on the planet that is about 5,400 years old.

01:18:02This is the oldest living tree known, but even this long-lived tree is still quite young compared to the

01:18:07fossil forest in England.

01:18:10The difference between them is almost 390 million years.

01:18:14That means since that ancient forest grew, countless generations of trees have come and gone on Earth.

01:18:21Yet it still holds the record.

01:18:2516 mummies, including a dog, at the Theban necropolis.

01:18:28On the opposite bank of the Nile from Luxor, Spanish researchers studied one of the chambers of tomb TT 209.

01:18:35It was built back in the time of the 25th dynasty around the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, but it

01:18:42continued to be used for several more centuries.

01:18:44Right up to the Ptolemaic era, inside they found 16 mummies, a mummified dog, and the remains of at least

01:18:504 more people.

01:18:51In the photographs, all of this looks like complete chaos. The bodies are literally lying on top of each other.

01:18:56So at first, researchers thought that over the centuries the tomb simply became overcrowded, and that newly deceased people were

01:19:03placed wherever there was still space.

01:19:04But when the researchers carefully recorded the position of each mummy, it turned out that everything was much more complicated.

01:19:11People returned to this tomb years later, and sometimes after several generations, and they still remembered where the deceased were

01:19:17already lying.

01:19:18New bodies were placed so as not to disturb the old burials.

01:19:22Researchers call this funerary memory.

01:19:24It turns out that even after decades, people somehow remembered who had already been buried here and where.

01:19:29Over time, everything changed.

01:19:31The earliest mummies lay separately from each other.

01:19:34In coffins.

01:19:35Next to amulets and other valuable items.

01:19:38But there was less and less space in the chamber.

01:19:40And later, bodies began to be literally stacked on top of each other.

01:19:44That's how almost two-thirds of all the mummies in this part of the tomb were laid.

01:19:47And the strangest thing was found among the later burials.

01:19:51There, four well-preserved mummies were lying on top of each other, and right on top of a man and

01:19:56a woman, a mummified dog was placed.

01:19:58No one knows for sure why it was placed there.

01:20:01Perhaps the dog belonged to one of these people during their lifetime.

01:20:05And maybe it was meant to serve as a guide, who would accompany the deceased to the afterlife.

01:20:10So, if the second version is correct, it turns out that even in the afterlife, these people had a four

01:20:15-legged companion with them.

01:20:17But why the dog was placed exactly on top of the two mummies remains a mystery.

01:20:22A silver artifact from Celtic times.

01:20:26In 1991, a peasant named Jens Sorensen was digging peat in a bog near the Danish village of Gundestrup.

01:20:35At that time, peat was used as fuel, so it was just an ordinary job.

01:20:40But suddenly, the shovel hit something metallic.

01:20:43Sorensen kept digging, and pulled the round silver object out of the ground.

01:20:48And then another thirteen plates made of the same material, with a total weight of about nine kilograms.

01:20:54The plates had embossed images of bulls, fantastic beasts, and human figures that Sorensen had never seen before.

01:21:02The object that looked like a cauldron had been taken apart before it ended up in the bog.

01:21:07Scientists believe that it was deliberately disassembled into plates rather than thrown in whole.

01:21:11Although why this was done is still not exactly known.

01:21:14The cauldron itself was not made in Denmark.

01:21:17According to one version, it was made by Celtic craftsmen.

01:21:20According to another, it was made in Thrace, in the territory of present-day Bulgaria and Romania.

01:21:25The style of the images resembles Celtic art, but the manufacturing technique is much closer to the Thracian tradition.

01:21:30There is also an unexpected twist in this story.

01:21:33One of the images on the cauldron almost exactly repeats a motif from a seal of the vanished Indus Valley

01:21:38civilization.

01:21:39And that's thousands of kilometers to the east and thousands of years earlier.

01:21:43Some researchers believe this is just a coincidence of style.

01:21:46Others see here traces of ancient cultural connections across the entire continent.

01:21:50The age of the cauldron is estimated to be around the 2nd century BC.

01:21:54But by the time it was buried in the bog, the artifact was already at least 200 years old.

01:21:58And it was repaired several times, not as professionally as it was originally made, as if over time the secret

01:22:04of the previous level of craftsmanship was simply lost.

01:22:07Now the cauldron is kept in the National Museum of Copenhagen.

01:22:10More than 130 years have passed, and the debate about who made it and why it ended up in a

01:22:14Danish bog is still not settled.

01:22:16What if such things were deliberately hidden in water and in bogs as gifts to the gods, and not lost

01:22:22by accident?

01:22:23A similar story happened with a bronze dagger that was found in a completely different part of Europe.

01:22:27And there, behind a modest looking object, was hidden masterful craftsmanship that could not be replicated for centuries.

01:22:34A find in the wall. After this story I still wouldn't rush to grab a sledgehammer and start breaking down

01:22:39the walls in my own home.

01:22:40The chance of finding something like that there is extremely small.

01:22:43But one 18-year-old Belgian student really got lucky.

01:22:47In the summer, a young guy named Kobe was working part-time at a construction site in Dendermonde, not far

01:22:52from Brussels.

01:22:53On the evening of August 10th, he was digging a trench for sewer pipes.

01:22:57And then the workers stumbled upon a bag hidden in a walled-up niche in the basement of a former

01:23:02brewery.

01:23:02At first, Kobe thought there were just coins inside. But then he pulled out a gold bar.

01:23:07Besides the gold bar, there were also gold coins and nuggets in the stash.

01:23:11Some of the bars still had stamps with dates.

01:23:131,957, 1,957, 1960, and 1961 years. And now for the most interesting part.

01:23:23The total value of the find was estimated at about 9 million euros.

01:23:27Not a bad shift at the construction site for an 18-year-old student.

01:23:30The niche was located in the wall of the villa, which was built back in the 19th century for the

01:23:35owner of a brewery.

01:23:36The brewery itself operated here from 1899 to 1970.

01:23:40The historian and former mayor of Dendermonde suggested that the Brewer's family might have hidden the gold.

01:23:45In the mid-20th century, people often converted part of their savings into gold on their own in case of

01:23:50an economic crisis.

01:23:51And now the police have to determine the origin of the treasure.

01:23:55The descendants of the Brewer's family have the right to claim the find within five years.

01:23:59And Coby himself, who immediately handed the bag over to the police, hopes at least for a reward.

01:24:05And here I'm really curious, what would you do if one day at work you found 9 million euros worth

01:24:11of gold in a wall?

01:24:12Write in the comments, but be honest.

01:24:15A dagger with unique inlay.

01:24:19In 1876, archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated shaft graves in Mycenae, where they found many gold ornaments and bronze weapons.

01:24:30Among the finds was an ordinary-looking bronze dagger, darkened and dirty with age.

01:24:36Only later, when museum staff began cleaning the finds, an image appeared on the surface of the dagger.

01:24:42It turned out to be a scene of a lion hunt.

01:24:44The inlay was made of gold, silver, and other materials directly on the bronze.

01:24:50Five hunters with spears and bows are chasing an enraged beast.

01:24:54And all of this fit on a blade just over 20 centimeters long.

01:24:58This kind of inlay requires a jeweler's precision.

01:25:01The craftsmen had to carve the finest grooves in the bronze, and fill them with precious metal,

01:25:06so that the pattern would last for centuries and not lose its sharp lines.

01:25:10For a long time, this item was considered just a weapon, not a work of art.

01:25:15And only cleaning revealed to researchers a miniature painting,

01:25:18carved in metal many centuries before classical Greece.

01:25:22Schliemann was convinced that they had found the tombs of homeless heroes,

01:25:25since the bodies were literally covered in gold.

01:25:28Modern scholars are more cautious about this version,

01:25:31but the level of skill of Mycenaean jewelers is impressive even today.

01:25:34This find is called the Lion Hunt Dagger.

01:25:37Today it is kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

01:25:41The craftsmen filled the engraved lines with gold, silver, and a darker alloy.

01:25:46That's why the figures of the Five Hunters and the lion on the bronze blade are almost like an ink

01:25:50drawing.

01:25:51Such fine inlay work is not found anywhere else among Mycenaean discoveries at this level of quality.

01:25:59Mysterious Vilcabamba

01:26:00In 1911, the American scholar Hiram Bingham set out for Peru to search for Vilcabamba,

01:26:06the last refuge of the Incas after the arrival of the Spanish.

01:26:10At the same time, he was not a professional archaeologist.

01:26:13Bingham taught Latin American history at Yale University,

01:26:16and later he himself admitted that he knew rather little about the Incas at that time.

01:26:20Before the expedition, he even read a book with advice for travelers on what to do if you accidentally come

01:26:26across ancient ruins.

01:26:28In short, he prepared for the search for the lost city more like a tourist than Indiana Jones.

01:26:33During the journey, the locals told him about some ruins high up in the mountains.

01:26:38Bingham went up there with a guide and saw a city that almost everyone today knows as Machu Picchu,

01:26:42but Bingham himself was sure that he had found exactly the Vilcabamba he was looking for.

01:26:48The last capital of the Incas, where the ruler Manco Inca went after he failed to take back Cusco from

01:26:53the Spanish in 1536.

01:26:55According to old stories, the Incas also took gold, idols, and the mummies of their ancestors there.

01:27:00One Spanish chronicler from the 16th century wrote that even in exile,

01:27:04they continued to live almost as luxuriously as they had before in Cusco.

01:27:08But in 1572, the Spanish army approached Vilcabamba.

01:27:12The Incas left the city, some of the buildings were destroyed, the ruins were gradually overgrown by the jungle,

01:27:18and the exact location was forgotten over time.

01:27:20And this is where it gets interesting.

01:27:22If Machu Picchu turned out not to be Vilcabamba, then where was the real capital of the Incas?

01:27:28More than 50 years passed.

01:27:30In 1964, the American researcher Gene Savoy, together with his Peruvian colleague Antonio Santander Cascali,

01:27:37set out on a search again.

01:27:38At first, the guides refused to take them any further, because according to local legends,

01:27:42those who revealed the location of the ancient city could be punished by the gods.

01:27:46But in the end, the group still reached the ruins about 60 kilometers northwest of Machu Picchu.

01:27:51Today, this place is known as Espiritu Pampa, and the ruins turned out to be enormous.

01:27:56They were scattered across three mountain plateaus.

01:27:59In fact, just the first of them was about four times larger than Machu Picchu in area.

01:28:04There they found the remains of a palace, stone buildings, fountains and other structures.

01:28:08But as you can imagine, simply finding huge ruins was not enough.

01:28:11It was still necessary to prove that this was indeed Vilca Vilcabamba.

01:28:15And one of the most important pieces of evidence turned out to be a rather unremarkable thing.

01:28:19Roof tiles.

01:28:20Usually, the Incas covered their buildings with straw.

01:28:23But here they found roof tiles that combined local Incan and Spanish features.

01:28:27Later, researchers compared the findings with descriptions of Vilca Vilcabamba in Old Spanish Chronicles.

01:28:32There, a palace with a tiled roof was mentioned.

01:28:35Together with the city's location and other details, this became one of the key pieces of evidence

01:28:39that Espiritu Pampa was indeed the real Vilcabamba.

01:28:43It turns out that Bingham, at the time, passed literally just a few dozen kilometers away from the city he

01:28:48was searching for.

01:28:49But instead, he found Machu Picchu and became famous thanks to a completely different discovery.

01:28:54If only he had known during his lifetime that the real Vilcabamba had been right under his nose all along.

01:29:00But the treasures of Vilcabamba were never found.

01:29:02Savoy later suggested that the Incas might have thrown the jewels and gold into lakes

01:29:06or hidden them in sealed rooms, just so they wouldn't fall into the hands of the Spanish.

01:29:10But no one has been able to confirm this theory so far.

01:29:13The real Vilcabamba was eventually found, but the gold, around which legends have circulated for several centuries,

01:29:19still hasn't been found to this day.

01:29:20Which discovery from this selection surprised you the most?

01:29:24Be sure to write about it in the comments.

01:29:26If you enjoyed the video, support it with a like and subscribe to the channel.

01:29:30Click the bell so you'll know when a new video comes out.

01:29:32And it's coming very soon.

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