100 Amazing Archaeological Finds Discovered Behind Walls and Under Floors

KirTop Top 100

Dive into 100 mind-blowing archaeological discoveries found behind walls, under floors, and everywhere in between! From ancient boomerangs and lost cities to meteorite rings and the world's weirdest turtle rescue, this episode is packed with surprises you won't find in textbooks. Hit subscribe so you never miss our next adventure and drop a comment telling us which find blew your mind the most! #history #archaeology #discovery #ancient #science  👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-100samyh  0:00:00 - Relics and Forgeries in Church History 0:02:17 - Ancient Artifacts Unearthed 0:08:08 - Lost Places and Preserved Cities 0:14:41 - Burials, Gold Hoards, and Ancient Technologies 0:22:48 - Prehistoric Creatures, Human Origins, and Burial Mysteries 0:29:01 - Civilizations Underground and Unsolved Archaeological Puzzles 0:42:37 - Breakthroughs in Archaeology and Human History 0:56:00 - Unexpected Finds and Ancient Innovations  We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446rMw7NEQKZvD764T3X

Transcript

00:00:00I'm Kirtop, and these are 100 archaeological finds discovered behind walls and under floors.

00:00:09How many bodies does one saint have?

00:00:12Back in the 19th century, French historian Ludovic Lalanne, while studying church archives,

00:00:18compiled statistics on duplicate relics across Europe.

00:00:21Around 30 whole bodies of St. George the Victorious were venerated simultaneously in different churches,

00:00:27just as many for St. Gregory and St. Pancras.

00:00:31For John the Baptist, seven bodies were exhibited simultaneously in various parts of Europe,

00:00:36along with eight heads and eleven index fingers.

00:00:39Fingers.

00:00:40One French abbot, venerating yet another head of the Baptist in Amiens Cathedral,

00:00:45could not take it anymore and wrote down,

00:00:47Thank God this is the fifth or sixth head of John the Baptist that I have touched in my life.

00:00:51Where did so many bodies come from for a single man?

00:00:54Historians name several reasons, and some of them are entirely legitimate.

00:00:59Catholic and Orthodox traditions allow the division of relics into parts.

00:01:03A hand goes to one church, a part to another, and the head to a third.

00:01:07But there is also a less pleasant reason. It is a simple substitution.

00:01:11In 1671, the abbot of the Makariev Monastery passed off the bones of an ordinary monk

00:01:15as the relics of Makarius of Zeltavodsk.

00:01:17And for four years, believers venerated the fake until the fraud was exposed.

00:01:22The most striking exposures occurred in Soviet Russia in 1919 and 1922,

00:01:27when the authorities opened relics on a massive scale.

00:01:30In the shrine of Tikhon of Zadonsk, instead of incorruptible remains,

00:01:33they found rags, cotton wool, and ladies' stockings.

00:01:35And in the Alexander Zvirsky Monastery, instead of relics, just ordinary wax.

00:01:40And this didn't stay in the past.

00:01:41In 2025, journalists uncovered an entire market for relics on online auctions.

00:01:47A reliquary with the relics of St. Juforsain of Polotsk was being sold for $1,600,

00:01:52while a bandage allegedly from Padre Pio's wound went for almost $4,000.

00:01:57And at this occasion that same year,

00:01:59uncovered an international ring of counterfeit relic traffickers tied to an Italian citizen.

00:02:03Almost every other online ad selling holy relics led back to him or his middlemen.

00:02:09Yet experts believe that a relic market doesn't exist.

00:02:12What is being sold is 99.9% fake.

00:02:16An ancient weapon of perfect form.

00:02:19In the Obazowa cave in southern Poland,

00:02:22they found a boomerang carved from a mammoth tusk.

00:02:25It's about 40,000 years old,

00:02:27and this is one of the oldest boomerangs in the world.

00:02:30It lay next to a human finger.

00:02:33More precisely, what was left of it also found nearby were arctic fox and shell ornaments.

00:02:38And red ochre, which at that time was only used in rituals.

00:02:42In shape, the object resembles real throwing boomerangs that do not return to the hunter,

00:02:46but fly in a straight line.

00:02:48But here is the question.

00:02:49It's one thing to carve a similar shape.

00:02:52It's quite another to actually make it fly.

00:02:54Of course, no one would risk testing the original.

00:02:58It's just too valuable.

00:02:59They made exact copies out of resin and started throwing them.

00:03:02And the boomerang flew, stably, without tumbling in the air.

00:03:06And noticeably farther than just a curved stick of the same size.

00:03:10So 40,000 years ago, someone didn't just carve a pretty shape out of a tusk.

00:03:14They managed to calculate its profile,

00:03:15so that it would fly perfectly.

00:03:17An ancient engineer, you could say.

00:03:19Only relying on intuition and experience instead of blueprints.

00:03:23A secret underground city in England.

00:03:26Beneath a quiet English countryside shrouded in mystery,

00:03:29lies one of the most famous underground cities.

00:03:32Built in the late 1950s at the height of the Cold War,

00:03:35this secret bunker is known as Burlington.

00:03:39It was designed to shelter the British government in the event of a nuclear attack,

00:03:43covering an area of 35 acres and plunging about 60 meters underground.

00:03:50Burlington could accommodate and support 4,000 government officials and staff for up to three months.

00:03:57It housed communication centers, hospitals, a broadcasting studio,

00:04:01and even an underground lake to provide fresh water.

00:04:05Although the facility was decommissioned in the early 2000s,

00:04:08it remains a fascinating example of Cold War planning and secrecy.

00:04:14A Sanctuary Inside the Rocks.

00:04:17Deep in the heart of the Iranian mountains lie hidden sites that remained invisible to the uninitiated for centuries.

00:04:22These are temples to the god Mithra.

00:04:24A mysterious underground sanctuary, where rituals were performed thousands of years ago,

00:04:29the details of which still baffle scientists today.

00:04:32Mithraism was a religion of warriors and the elite,

00:04:34and its main requirement was absolute secrecy.

00:04:37That is why Mithra, as these temples were called,

00:04:40were always built either entirely underground or carved inside rocks.

00:04:44The most impressive example of such a structure is located near the city of Maraghe.

00:04:48This is the Mer Temple, which is a gigantic hall carved inside a massive hill.

00:04:52When you step inside, your perception of space changes.

00:04:55It is not just a cave, but a perfectly calibrated geometric structure.

00:05:00The enormous dome, carved into monolithic rock, astonishes with its precision.

00:05:04The ancient builders used no supporting columns or external pillars.

00:05:08The entire vault holds itself up thanks to engineering calculations and the strength of the rock itself.

00:05:13In the center of the dome, a single opening is cut through which a thin beam of sunlight streams in.

00:05:18At different times of the year, this beam falls on specific areas of the floor,

00:05:22serving as a kind of astronomical calendar for the priests.

00:05:25The atmosphere inside such temples was oppressive and majestic at the same time.

00:05:29There were no windows here, and the only source of light besides the sun were oil torches.

00:05:34The walls of the temples were often adorned with reliefs depicting constellations and mythological scenes.

00:05:40Scholars still debate how the craftsmen managed to execute such fine detailed carvings in conditions of almost total darkness.

00:05:47They probably used a system of bronze mirrors that relayed sunlight down the line into the deepest recesses of the

00:05:52sanctuary.

00:05:53But the most fascinating thing is the acoustics.

00:05:55Due to the unique shape of the vaults, even the faintest whisper at one end of the hall is clearly

00:06:00audible at the other.

00:06:01This created the effect of a divine presence and heightened the psychological impact during initiation rites.

00:06:08Warriors who underwent initiation here took an oath of allegiance that could not be broken on pain of death.

00:06:13This tradition of profound devotion and discipline permeated the stones of the Iranian mountains for centuries to come.

00:06:19Today, many of these temples are abandoned or converted into mosques, but their underground structure remains unchanged.

00:06:25They remind us that for the ancient inhabitants of Iran, the underworld was not a place of fear, but a

00:06:30realm of supreme, genuine power.

00:06:32While empires and religions succeeded one another on the surface, the darkness of the rocks kept alive the ancient knowledge

00:06:38that even today makes us stand in awe of the mastery of those who knew how to bend stone itself

00:06:43to their will.

00:06:43So whose tooth is this?

00:06:46This find gathered dust for years in a museum in Serbia, known simply as an animal tooth bead.

00:06:51But it was yet another museum mistake spanning several decades.

00:06:56The object was found during a routine field survey at the Neolithic settlement of Jablanica.

00:07:01During agricultural work, the artifact was damaged and part of the crown broke off.

00:07:06It was processed according to regulations and sent to the museum.

00:07:10And only recently did researchers Nemanja Markovic and Anna Maricic decide to examine it under x-ray and microscope, and

00:07:17it turned out there was no animal tooth there at all.

00:07:20It was a human upper canine, about 23mm long and neatly perforated.

00:07:25The first thought that comes to mind, and frankly mine as well, was that the tooth was pulled from a

00:07:30living person.

00:07:31Dramatic, terrifying, a ready-made horror plot.

00:07:34But there are none of the tell-tale marks that should have been left behind.

00:07:38In such a scenario, the tooth would show marks.

00:07:40Instead, the inside of the hole is smooth, polished by years of friction, as if from a core.

00:07:45It turns out the tooth was taken from a person who was already dead.

00:07:48And then they wore it around their neck. For literally years.

00:07:52Sounds a bit creepy.

00:07:53And in the modern world, it smacks of Satanism.

00:07:55And hardly anyone would want to wear a dead person's tooth around their neck as an amulet.

00:07:59This pendant is over 6,500 years old.

00:08:03And it's actually the only confirmed example of such jewelry in the entire Balkans.

00:08:08A bit creepy.

00:08:09But teeth aren't the strangest thing people in the past walked around with.

00:08:12There are even darker things that I'll talk about in future videos.

00:08:17A turtle under the floor.

00:08:19And now we've reached what I promised right at the beginning.

00:08:23The most recent find of them all.

00:08:25And seemingly the strangest.

00:08:27February 2025, the Brazilian town of Itakambira.

00:08:30In the house of a woman named Luisa, a handyman rips up the floor in an extension to check for

00:08:36dampness.

00:08:36He chisels away the tile.

00:08:38And underneath, in a tight gap between the concrete and the dirt, sits a live turtle.

00:08:43According to the homeowner, the floor in the extension was poured with concrete ten years ago.

00:08:47That was when the turtle got trapped.

00:08:50All this time it was stuck right there in the dark, under the concrete, buried alive.

00:08:55What saved it is that turtles can slow their metabolism down to a near complete halt.

00:09:00The heart barely beats at all.

00:09:02They need barely any oxygen at all, so the animal lies dormant for months, expending virtually no energy.

00:09:07It survived by eating insects that crawled under the floor.

00:09:10Air and moisture seeped in through the soil.

00:09:13That's how it clung to the brink of life, surviving in that stone trap for ten years.

00:09:17But that survival came at a cost.

00:09:19From the constant darkness and confinement, its shell became deformed.

00:09:22The concrete pressed down from above, forcing its body to grow crooked against the slab.

00:09:26Its eyes grew so unaccustomed to the light, that normal daylight now causes it pain.

00:09:31Right now, they're hydrating it, feeding it fruit, and slowly, carefully, redempting it to the sun.

00:09:37She defeated death.

00:09:38But that victory crippled her.

00:09:40Ten years in total darkness took their toll.

00:09:43The turtle survived.

00:09:44But she didn't come out into the light the same as she was when she got trapped under the floor.

00:09:48Something alive beyond the Great Wall of China.

00:09:52The Great Wall of China, built during the Ming Dynasty, between 1368 and 1644, stretching over 21,000 km, continues

00:10:02to amaze scientists.

00:10:04Over the last five centuries, about a third of the wall has been destroyed.

00:10:09But a significant part of the structure is still standing.

00:10:12Research has shown that living cement plays a key role in maintaining its strength.

00:10:17Ramped earth, including soil and gravel, was used during construction.

00:10:21New research has revealed that the wall's durability is influenced by a biocrust, a layer created by the growth of

00:10:27cyanobacteria, mosses, and lichens.

00:10:29These organisms form a structure similar to cement, increasing the wall's resistance to erosion and damage.

00:10:35Of the eight Ming-era wall sections studied, 67% contained biocrusts.

00:10:41Comparing the strength and stability of rammed earth with biocrust, scientists found that it significantly reduces porosity and salinity,

00:10:48decreasing erosion and increasing compressive and shear strength.

00:10:53This living cement apparently makes the Great Wall of China more resilient to climate change and natural wear,

00:10:58underscoring the importance of biological processes in preserving historical monuments.

00:11:05Hidden voids in the pyramids.

00:11:07The Great Pyramid of Giza has been studied for over 200 years, and it feels like every single meter has

00:11:13been crawled over.

00:11:14And yet, in the 21st century, a space was discovered inside it that no one had even suspected.

00:11:21Right above the Grand Gallery, a hidden void about 30 meters long was discovered.

00:11:26Not a single known shaft or passage leads to it.

00:11:29Just a room hidden inside millions of tons of stone, four and a half thousand years ago.

00:11:34And no one knows why.

00:11:35They spotted it, by the way, not with a shovel or a drill, but using muons.

00:11:39Particles that come to earth from space and pass through the thickness of the stone.

00:11:44By how they scatter, you can tell where there is a void inside.

00:11:48The international project is called Scan Pyramids.

00:11:50It has been running since 2015.

00:11:53What's inside?

00:11:54I wish I knew.

00:11:55Nothing.

00:11:55So far.

00:11:56No information.

00:11:57Just the very fact that the room is there.

00:11:59In the pyramid of Menkor, by the way, they found two more similar cavities, near the eastern facade.

00:12:04Moreover, the blocks there are polished so well that scientists are seriously considering

00:12:09the theory of a second secret entrance.

00:12:12So, if you thought that all the secrets of the pyramids had long been solved, as you can see, they

00:12:17haven't.

00:12:17Pompeii managed to preserve history.

00:12:21In 79 AD the city of Pompeii, a flourishing hub of trade and culture on the shores of the Tyrrhenian

00:12:26Sea, met its doom.

00:12:27The city's inhabitants were caught off guard by a powerful eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

00:12:31A volcano that, until then, had seemed like a sleeping giant for many years.

00:12:37This eruption is shrouded in mystery and mystical omens.

00:12:41After all, even the very day of the catastrophe, as some studies claim, was marked by an unusual atmosphere.

00:12:47Early in the morning, the volcano began spewing a colossal cloud of ash and gas that rose to a height

00:12:51of more than 30 kilometers.

00:12:53Pyroclastic flows, a deadly combination of burning gas, ash and volcanic bombs, instantly engulfed the city.

00:13:00Claiming lives and freezing the world around them in the final second of their existence.

00:13:05It is estimated that between 10 to 25 thousand people died as a result of the volcanic eruption.

00:13:11The central areas of Pompeii were hit particularly hard, where houses and public buildings were buried under meters of ash

00:13:17and pumice.

00:13:18The volcanic ash that covered the city played a decisive role in the preservation of Pompeii.

00:13:22This thick layer restricted the access of air and microorganisms, which led to the astonishing preservation of buildings, mosaics, frescoes

00:13:31and even organic materials such as wood, fabrics and food.

00:13:34Frozen in time, the streets and houses of Pompeii offer an invaluable snapshot of ancient life preserved for millennia.

00:13:41The excavations of the villa of the Papyre in Herculaneum revealed remarkable artifacts, including mosaics, statues and more than 1

00:13:49,800 papyrus scrolls, which belong to the library of the famous philosopher Philodemus.

00:13:54These scrolls are a true treasure trove for historians and archaeologists, as they contain works on philosophy, ethics, rhetoric and

00:14:01poetry.

00:14:02Written from the 1st century BC to 79 AD, the study of these documents opens new avenues for understanding of

00:14:09the culture and spiritual life of the ancient Greece.

00:14:11and Romans, illustrating the refinement of their thought and breadth of their knowledge.

00:14:16Modern technologies play a key role in the study of these ancient texts, methods such as virtual unwrapping and X

00:14:23-ray scanning.

00:14:25Allow scientists to read papyrus scrolls without physical intervention, eliminating the risk of damaging these fragile materials.

00:14:32Thus, Pompeii continues to stand as a testament to tragedy.

00:14:35And at the same time, a time capsule providing a unique window into the past.

00:14:41A lost fragment of a Bible translation.

00:14:44Austrian scientists made a remarkable discovery in the Vatican Library.

00:14:49A new chapter of the Bible in a translation of the Gospel of Matthew dating back 1750 years.

00:14:55Invisible to the naked eye, the text was discovered using ultraviolet photography.

00:15:01This discovery was part of a research project aimed at recovering texts that were erased or rewritten by scribes between

00:15:08the 4th and 12th centuries AD.

00:15:11Manuscripts of this kind, called palimpsests, were recreated on already used material.

00:15:16This was due to a shortage of writing materials.

00:15:19With the help of ultraviolet light, they managed to uncover the lost texts.

00:15:23Among the 74 recovered manuscripts, one particularly valuable manuscript was found.

00:15:27An ancient version of the Bible, 100 years older than the earliest Greek translations, including the Codex Sinaiticus.

00:15:33The new text expands on the well-known verse about Jesus' disciples plucking heads of grain, adding that they rubbed

00:15:39them in their hands and ate them.

00:15:41This discovery is an important contribution to the understanding of ancient Syriac texts and the study of ancient writing.

00:15:48Mythical creatures in the tomb.

00:15:50The dragon and the phoenix are such a familiar pair in China that today they can be seen anywhere.

00:15:57In painting, architecture, jewelry, even in wedding symbolism.

00:16:01That is why it feels especially strange to see them together in a tomb that is roughly 4,300 years

00:16:07old.

00:16:07This burial was found in Inner Mongolia at the Chaijiata site.

00:16:11The person was lying on his back and on either side of him, archaeologists discovered two clay figurines.

00:16:16On one side, a dragon.

00:16:18On the other, a phoenix.

00:16:20And this is the oldest pair of its kind ever found in northern China.

00:16:25That is, these two symbols were placed beside a person over 2,000 years BC.

00:16:29And this is where I really want to say.

00:16:31It turns out the famous Chinese tradition already existed back then.

00:16:35But we actually need to be a bit more careful with that.

00:16:38No one has yet proven a direct connection between this grave and the much later symbolism.

00:16:44The gap in time is just too vast.

00:16:46But you have to admit the coincidence itself looks very interesting.

00:16:49And next to the deceased's body also lay a jade disc decorated with turquoise.

00:16:54So by all appearances, the man held quite a high status.

00:16:58And now for the main question.

00:16:59It's not just about why a dragon and a phoenix were placed beside him.

00:17:03But what this pair could have actually meant to people 4,300 years ago.

00:17:07What was found after the looters?

00:17:11June 21, 1971, 2 in the afternoon.

00:17:16In southern Ukraine, in the Dnepropetrovsk region,

00:17:19archaeologist Boris Mosolevsky climbs down into the dig at a huge Scythian burial mound

00:17:23with the not so promising name of Tovsta Mohila.

00:17:26Everyone's in a rather down mood.

00:17:28The mound is gigantic and work has been going on for a long time.

00:17:32And ancient looters have already visited almost everywhere.

00:17:35You can tell by the shattered vessels, by the ransacked burials.

00:17:38And most importantly, by the emptiness where the gold was supposed to be.

00:17:41The looters beat the archaeologists to it by more than 2,000 years.

00:17:45Mosolevsky himself was an unusual man, a historian, archaeologist and poet,

00:17:50having excavated around 150 mounds throughout his lifetime.

00:17:53A man who literally lived for this step.

00:17:55They say that before heading out to the dig,

00:17:57he left a note with a bold promise to find something big and shiny.

00:18:01And there he is, crawling through a narrow passage,

00:18:03dug out by those very same looters, following in their footsteps into the main chamber,

00:18:08toward the burial of the king himself.

00:18:10And then, the very moment an archaeologist lives for happens.

00:18:13In the chamber, the thieves never manage to reach.

00:18:16Something glints in the flashlight's beam.

00:18:18Gold.

00:18:18A massive object, lying in the exact spot where it was left 2,500 years ago.

00:18:23Mosolevsky himself later admitted that for a moment he was just numb with shock.

00:18:28A massive golden pectoral of a Scythian king.

00:18:31Over a kilogram of pure gold.

00:18:34Almost as pure as the gold in a wedding ring.

00:18:37Over 30 centimeters in diameter,

00:18:39with about a hundred tiny figures crafted with jewel-like precision.

00:18:42Men milking sheep, griffins tearing horses to shreds,

00:18:45lions chasing wild boars,

00:18:47an entire frozen world of the Scythians cast in gold by Greek masters commissioned by the steppe nobility.

00:18:52What follows is almost like a detective story.

00:18:54They wanted to take a find of this caliber to Moscow, to the center.

00:18:57According to a romantic legend,

00:18:59Mosolevsky brought the priceless gold to Kyiv, hidden under an ordinary quilted jacket.

00:19:03In reality, it was much more serious.

00:19:06The pectoral was transported by train,

00:19:08under the protection of armed police officers in a private compartment.

00:19:11They managed to keep the treasure in Kyiv.

00:19:13And it was practically for its sake that an entire treasury was created,

00:19:17called the Golden Treasury.

00:19:18And that's where the pectoral remains to this day.

00:19:20Currently, it is kept in the Museum of Historical Treasures in Kyiv.

00:19:24And it is considered priceless, in the literal sense of the word.

00:19:27But if you really want to hear some kind of figure,

00:19:30over the years it's been valued at up to 200 million dollars.

00:19:35200 million for a piece of metal that spent two and a half thousand years in the ground.

00:19:39And miraculously, it eluded both ancient looters

00:19:42and those who later wanted to take it far away from home.

00:19:45An underground temple in Malta.

00:19:48The title Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta,

00:19:51is an ancient underground complex built around 4000 BC.

00:19:55It's one of the world's finest prehistoric religious sites.

00:19:59In 1980, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

00:20:05This incredible structure has multiple levels and chambers carved out of limestone rock,

00:20:10and was used as a site for burials and ritual ceremonies.

00:20:14The remains of over 7000 people were found here,

00:20:17but the most mesmerizing thing about the Hypogeum is its unique acoustic properties.

00:20:21In the oracle chamber sound resonates at astonishing frequencies,

00:20:25creating a unique acoustic effect.

00:20:29Gold Jewelry of Generals

00:20:31In 2020, a massive horde of gold artifacts was found in Windelef, Denmark,

00:20:37dating back to the migration period which preceded the Viking Age.

00:20:42Among the finds were 23 gold items,

00:20:45including 13 5th century bracteats, gold fittings,

00:20:48possibly from weapons, and 4 4th century Roman medallions.

00:20:52Who particularly interest is a bracteat with a runic inscription,

00:20:56the largest one ever found.

00:20:58It contains a mention of Odin, a key figure in Norse mythology.

00:21:03Studies of these medallions shed light on possible cultural and social ties

00:21:07between Windelef and other regions of Europe.

00:21:10It is assumed that the medallions could have served as a bride price

00:21:13or high status gifts among elite circles.

00:21:16These gold medallions were probably worn by women as pendants,

00:21:19which indicates the high status of their owner,

00:21:22who carried weight both locally and internationally.

00:21:25The uniqueness of these medallions lies in the fact

00:21:28that they were gifted to prominent Roman figures,

00:21:30such as senators and generals,

00:21:32and their presence in Windelef, far from the Roman Empire,

00:21:35highlights the importance of this find.

00:21:37A tomb, with servants, filled with gold.

00:21:42The man was buried literally in gold.

00:21:45Pectorals, bracelets, earrings, depicting crocodiles and bats, from head to toe.

00:21:51But he did not depart for the afterlife alone.

00:21:54Beside him, the remains of other people were found,

00:21:57apparently his servants, who were sacrificed to accompany their master into the next world.

00:22:02This is Panama, the El Caño Archaeological Park.

00:22:06An elite burial over 2000 years old.

00:22:09The site had been known since 2009, but it was fully cleared only this year.

00:22:14For local cultures, death was not the end.

00:22:16It was a transition, where one simply had to maintain their status there as well.

00:22:20The display of wealth in the grave was not a whim either,

00:22:23but rather a sort of political burial.

00:22:26A statement for centuries to come.

00:22:27Project leader, Julia Mayo, notes that the finds from El Caño

00:22:31are strikingly similar to artifacts from the neighboring site of Sitio Conte.

00:22:35It turns out that a thousand years ago,

00:22:37a whole network of trade and political ties was operating here between different communities.

00:22:41And judging by the craftsmanship of the metalwork,

00:22:44the local blacksmiths were on par with the best masters in the world at that time.

00:22:48Less oxygen is even better.

00:22:51And here is a creature whose extinction I'm personally glad about.

00:22:55Around 300 million years ago, Meganora flew over ancient forests.

00:23:00A huge dragonfly-like creature with a wingspan of about 65 to 70 centimeters,

00:23:05that's larger than some medium-sized birds.

00:23:08In short, seeing something like that over my head,

00:23:11I definitely wouldn't stick around to find out whether it bites or not.

00:23:16But how could an insect grow to such a size?

00:23:19It's all about how they breathe.

00:23:21Insects don't have lungs.

00:23:22Oxygen reaches their tissues through a network of tiny tubes inside their bodies.

00:23:27And the bigger the insect, the harder it is to deliver oxygen to all of its parts.

00:23:31And 300 million years ago, the atmosphere was completely different.

00:23:35It had about 35% oxygen compared to today's 21%.

00:23:38That's why this breeding system worked much more efficiently.

00:23:43And arthropods could grow to sizes that are simply impossible today.

00:23:46What's more, Meganora was far from the only giant.

00:23:50In those same forests crawled a millipede 2.6 meters long.

00:23:55So after that, an insect with a 70 centimeter wingspan doesn't even seem like the biggest problem anymore.

00:24:03Tiara made of human bone.

00:24:06Archaeologists in the Altai have discovered ancient jewelry that is about 40,000 years old.

00:24:11It was found in Denisova Cave.

00:24:14One of the unique finds was a tiara made from the bone of a large mammal.

00:24:18Preliminarily identified as human.

00:24:20Previously, no such artifacts had been found in the sites of the Denisovan culture.

00:24:24Besides the tiara, archaeologists found beads and pendants of various shapes in the cave.

00:24:29Made of stone, shells, bones, animal teeth and mammoth tusks.

00:24:33Denisova Cave, a famous archaeological site, where, between 1977 and 1984,

00:24:41numerous artifacts and remains of ancient animals were discovered.

00:24:45It was also there that the remains of Denisovans were found, a species of human related to Neanderthals.

00:24:50Denisovans branched off from a common ancestor with Neanderthals about 640,000 years ago.

00:24:55Interestingly, Neanderthals, Denisovans and Cro-Magnons, the ancestors of modern humans,

00:25:02coexisted and even interbred Denisovan DNA is present in the genomes of many peoples of Asia and Oceania.

00:25:08What other secrets do you think Denisova Cave holds? Let me know in the comments below the video.

00:25:15A fragment of the multiplication table.

00:25:18An archaeological find made in the city of Jingzhou, in China's Hubei province,

00:25:23turned out to be a real discovery for the history of mathematics.

00:25:27In one of the ancient tombs, which is over 2,300 years old,

00:25:31thousands of bamboo slips were found with records related to mathematics,

00:25:35literature, medicine and animal husbandry.

00:25:39These slips used for writing before the invention of paper contained over 30,000 characters,

00:25:44among the most significant discoveries were fragments containing the oldest known multiplication table.

00:25:49The bamboo texts demonstrate basic mathematical operations.

00:25:535 x 7, 5 x 7 equals 35, 4 x 7 equals 28 and 3 x 7 equals 21.

00:26:01This cheat sheet stayed back to the Warring States period,

00:26:04which preceded the unification of China under Emperor Qin Shi Huang and the founding of the Qin dynasty.

00:26:1037 corpses in one jar.

00:26:14Northern Laos.

00:26:15Mountain forests on the Qin Huang Plateau.

00:26:18There is a place there literally called the Plain of Jars.

00:26:22Hundreds of giant stone vessels are scattered across the valley,

00:26:25and most of them stand empty.

00:26:27For a long time, scientists couldn't understand what they were even used for,

00:26:31and then an international team opened up one jar codenamed Object 75,

00:26:35as tall as a man and more than 2 meters wide.

00:26:39Picture a stone vessel the size of a small car, stood on end.

00:26:42And it wasn't empty.

00:26:44Inside lay the remains of 37 people radiocarbon dating, revealed something even stranger.

00:26:50The jar was used for 270 years, meaning people came back here again and again,

00:26:55generation after generation.

00:26:57Placing their dead into the very same vessel.

00:26:59Grandfathers, fathers, children.

00:27:01All into a single jar.

00:27:03This was happening roughly from the 9th to the 12th century AD.

00:27:07Back when the Chinese Song dynasty was developing nearby,

00:27:09along with the Khmer Empire in Cambodia.

00:27:12But the bones weren't placed in there right after death.

00:27:14It turned out this was done in two stages.

00:27:17First, the body was left to decompose.

00:27:19Only then were the individual bones transferred into the jar.

00:27:22The small jars nearby most likely served as a temporary place where the body decayed.

00:27:26And once only bones remained of the person, they were moved in with the rest.

00:27:30Perhaps that is why most of the jars on the plain stand empty.

00:27:34They weren't graves but way stations.

00:27:36As one of the excavation leaders put it,

00:27:38in many cultures decomposition is a transitional phase between death and the world of the ancestors.

00:27:44And the transfer of the bones meant that the transformation was complete.

00:27:47I wonder who these 37 people were.

00:27:49Relatives?

00:27:50A single community?

00:27:51Nobody knows yet.

00:27:53Beads were found nearby.

00:27:54And the analysis showed that the material was brought all the way from southern India and Mesopotamia.

00:27:58Which means this place was connected to trade routes across half of Asia.

00:28:02And getting there is tough even today.

00:28:04Dense forest, mountains and unexploded bombs.

00:28:07Left over from the Vietnam War.

00:28:09Who do you think those 37 people in that single jar were?

00:28:13One family or something else entirely?

00:28:16Drop it in the comments.

00:28:17I'd love to read your theories.

00:28:19Viking girls clothes.

00:28:21In Denmark, near the town of Varde, archaeologists unearthed the Viking age necropolis of Skanaga.

00:28:27And for this region, it's a pretty rare find.

00:28:30Graves like this haven't been found here in over 40 years.

00:28:33In one of the graves, a child was buried.

00:28:35Next to the body lay two metal clasps, brooches, and it was precisely thanks to them that the archaeologists got

00:28:41very lucky.

00:28:42Usually, after more than a thousand years, all that remains of Viking clothing is just a few stray fibers.

00:28:48But here, the metal helped preserve actual pieces of wool and linen.

00:28:52What's more, the fabric survived both above the clasps and beneath them.

00:28:55That means we can now figure out not only what the clothing was made of,

00:28:58but even how its different layers were arranged on the body.

00:29:02But one of the fibulae turned out to be interesting in its own right.

00:29:05They found traces of an old repair on it.

00:29:07And now researchers want to find out how much older it actually is than the clothing itself.

00:29:11Because if the difference turns out to be significant, the clasp might not have been worn just by this girl.

00:29:17Perhaps the piece was passed down in the family from one person to another,

00:29:21and only years later did it end up in the grave with her.

00:29:24Ancient calendars in the U.S.

00:29:26At Castle Rock Pueblo on the Mesa Verde Plateau in the U.S.

00:29:30Where Colorado and Utah meet, archaeologists made a startling discovery.

00:29:34In an area known for its unusual rock formations and ancient rock art,

00:29:39scientists have discovered numerous new petroglyphs.

00:29:42The new stone carvings, which are around 3,000 years old,

00:29:46could change our understanding of the culture and history of this area.

00:29:50Archaeologist Radoslav Palonka from Jagiellonian University said that

00:29:54at an altitude of about 800 meters above known settlements,

00:29:57numerous lines and spirals were found carved into the walls.

00:30:01The spirals, which reach up to 1 meter in diameter,

00:30:04could have been used as calendars to mark important dates and conduct astronomical observations.

00:30:10These discoveries could fundamentally change the perception of this era,

00:30:14when the Pueblo people led an agricultural lifestyle and engaged in making baskets and mats.

00:30:21An ancient piggy bank.

00:30:23Archaeologists working in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis in the Eskipazar district of Turkey,

00:30:28have made a unique find, a collection of 10 coins that are approximately 1,400 years old.

00:30:34These coins were presumably kept in an ancient piggy bank.

00:30:38The city of Hadrianopolis, also known as the Zugma of the Black Sea for its mosaics depicting various animals,

00:30:44has been studied since 2003 by Ersin Celikbas's team from Karabuk University.

00:30:49This ancient hill is famous for its churches, with mosaics and significant findings,

00:30:54including defensive structures, rock-cut tombs and arched buildings.

00:30:58During excavations in one of the buildings, a surprising discovery was made.

00:31:02Coins from the era of Constance II spanning the period from 641 to 666 AD.

00:31:08According to Celikbas, these coins might have been used as an ancient piggy bank,

00:31:13likely by a woman of that era.

00:31:17German ships in the Danube.

00:31:19Due to severe heat and drought, the Danube in Serbia has dropped so low

00:31:23that German World War II warships have begun emerging from the water.

00:31:29Moreover, they didn't end up there by accident.

00:31:32In 1944, as German forces were retreating from the Red Army,

00:31:35the crews were ordered not to leave any operational equipment to the enemy.

00:31:39So, near the Serbian village of Prahovo, they decided to scuttle the ships right in the Danube.

00:31:45At the same time, they hoped the wreckage would block the shipping channel

00:31:48and delay the advance at least a bit.

00:31:50About 80 years have passed since then, yet some of those vessels are still lying on the bottom.

00:31:54In especially dry years, they emerge from the water once again.

00:31:58Now, the ships are gradually being raised, and the job is far from pleasant.

00:32:02Some might still have ammunition inside, so every such vessel has to be treated as potentially hazardous.

00:32:09But that isn't even the most surprising thing for me here.

00:32:12The old ships still obstruct modern shipping.

00:32:15According to European Investment Bank estimates,

00:32:18Serbia was losing about 5 million euros a year due to delays on this stretch.

00:32:23The ships were scuttled in 1944, yet they still continue to impact the country's economy to this day.

00:32:29Unique gold jewelry!

00:32:31In Saudi Arabia, archaeologists found more than 100 gold jewelry pieces that are over 1,100 years old.

00:32:40And these aren't scattered fragments, but a complete set.

00:32:43Pendants, patterned discs, colorful beads, and delicate gold spacers that were once, most likely, strung together into necklaces.

00:32:50Among the finds, a large disc stands out with colored stones, arranged in even rows around a central pattern.

00:32:57The pieces are surprisingly expertly crafted.

00:33:00The craftsmen of that era rolled gold into the thinnest sheets by hand, applied embossed patterns, and set stones into

00:33:07gold bezels,

00:33:08with a precision that was truly ahead of its time.

00:33:11All of this dates back to the era of the Abbasid Caliphate, a state that ruled most of the Muslim

00:33:15world,

00:33:16and gave history the so-called Golden Age of Islam, with its science, crafts, and art.

00:33:21It was no coincidence that the treasure was found in this exact spot.

00:33:24The settlement where the archaeologists were digging stood on an ancient pilgrimage route,

00:33:29that people had traveled for centuries from Iraq to Mecca.

00:33:32Not only believers, but also merchants, goods, and money passed through such hubs.

00:33:36That is why the place was rich and bustling.

00:33:39Alongside the gold, they also unearthed the remains of the settlement itself, stone foundations,

00:33:44plastered rooms, hearts, pottery, and shards of glass.

00:33:47And the colored stones in the jewelry revealed the main thing.

00:33:50They could not have been of local origin.

00:33:52They were brought from afar.

00:33:53This means that this stop on the pilgrimage route was tightly woven into a vast trade network,

00:33:58through which, more than a thousand years ago, gold and gems were transported across half the old world.

00:34:05A medieval smartphone app.

00:34:07Did you know that the predecessor to modern smartphone apps was invented in the Middle Ages?

00:34:13It was the Volvel, an interactive paper device that performed a multitude of functions,

00:34:18from calculating the positions of celestial bodies to medical diagnostics and maritime navigation.

00:34:22The Volvel consisted of one or more rotating paper disks,

00:34:27inscribed with data which the user could align to perform calculations or find answers.

00:34:32This invention was similar to the astrolabe,

00:34:34an ancient instrument used for observing the positions of the stars.

00:34:38The first volvelas were created by Ramon Lull of Mallorca,

00:34:41a great philosopher and scholar of the 13th and 14th centuries.

00:34:44Lull called them volvelas, from the Latin word volver, meaning to turn.

00:34:50He used this device to resolve religious disputes,

00:34:53combining different elements of thought and language with the help of complex geometric shapes.

00:34:59Volvelas were also used to tell time at night, which was essential for administering medicine properly.

00:35:04In the Middle Ages, volvelas were often associated with magic and fortune-telling,

00:35:08but over time they became a valuable tool for accumulating and generating knowledge.

00:35:12Today, volvelas can be found in educational settings,

00:35:16demonstrating the historical roots of calculation and visualization principles.

00:35:21An untouched Maya burial.

00:35:23In a mysterious cave in Tulum, located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo,

00:35:28archaeologists discovered an untouched Maya burial.

00:35:31The discovery was made while laying a path between two ancient temples.

00:35:35Researchers unexpectedly stumbled upon a cave where, beneath a massive rock, human remains were found.

00:35:41The unusual burial situation raised many questions.

00:35:45Some skeletons were separated by the rock, as if a person had tried to reach a hidden chamber,

00:35:50but ended up trapped. Eight burials were found in a cave just half a meter high.

00:35:54The dry environment helped preserve the remains in pristine condition.

00:35:58Two small chambers containing animal remains were discovered in the cave,

00:36:02with some of the bones worked into artifacts.

00:36:05The finds date back to the late post-classic period.

00:36:07The challenging excavation conditions haven't stopped the archaeologists,

00:36:11who are planning a 3D scan of the area.

00:36:15Italian underground city.

00:36:17Purged atop a volcanic cliff in Umbria, Italy,

00:36:20the city of Orvieto captivates visitors with its underground wonders.

00:36:24Beneath the city streets lies a complex network of over 1,200 caves, wells, tunnels and galleries,

00:36:31revealing Orvieto's rich history.

00:36:34As early as the 9th century BC, the Etruscans inhabited this place,

00:36:38and many underground features, such as cisterns and tombs, date back to that era.

00:36:42Of particular note is the impressive St. Patrick's Well Pozzo di San Patrizio, built in 1537.

00:36:50It plunges to a depth of 62 meters and stands as a striking example of Renaissance engineering.

00:36:57From ancient wineries to pigeon breeding sites,

00:37:01the underground city of Orvieto offers an incredible journey through time.

00:37:05A tomb they tried to steal.

00:37:07Summer of 2023 Abkhazia.

00:37:10The Markula settlement site.

00:37:11An ordinary plot of land.

00:37:13And a ruined ancient crypt.

00:37:15It was broken into by looters.

00:37:17The robbers tried to carry off a bronze situla, but they were caught red-handed.

00:37:21The landowner took back the artifacts and called the archaeologists.

00:37:25What they uncovered astonished even the most seasoned experts.

00:37:28The 3rd century BC crypt turned out to be a real golden tomb.

00:37:3270 items made of the purest gold, plaques, beads, clothing and jewelry elements.

00:37:37Rosettes, flowers, lunulae, twisted threads, foil.

00:37:41The craftsmanship was exquisite, done with almost jewel-like precision.

00:37:45In some places the gold resembled the Seto-Sarmatian style, while other elements showed classical influence.

00:37:50It might be the work of local craftsmen who were operating at the crossroads of cultures and trade routes.

00:37:55Archaeologists even found the remains of sacrificial animals, traces of a ritual important for the burial of a noble person.

00:38:01Judging by the artifacts, bones, glass beads and bronze bracelets, the deceased was not just wealthy.

00:38:06He was a representative of the elite, perhaps a priest or a chieftain.

00:38:10The irony is that the crypt was destroyed not by time or nature, but by people just like those who

00:38:15once built it.

00:38:16Two sensational discoveries on a single stone.

00:38:20An astonishing archaeological discovery took place in the village of Yelabuga, Russia.

00:38:25A basalt boulder was found with petroglyphs, resembling the famous Sicachialian rock drawings.

00:38:31An image of a praying mantis was also discovered on this stone, which is a rarity for this region.

00:38:37An expedition of scientists from Moscow arrived in the region to study the find.

00:38:41Initially archaeologists were skeptical about the report of the petroglyphs, but on site they confirmed the authenticity of the artifact.

00:38:48Various figures are depicted on the stone, including a rare image of a praying mantis, which is unique worldwide.

00:38:55Scientists continue to explore the area, launching quadcopters to record coordinates and create a digital map of the petroglyphs.

00:39:03The main question that remains open is the origin of the boulder with such unique drawings.

00:39:07There are hypotheses suggesting that the stone could have been carried there by drifting ice or brought there some other

00:39:13way.

00:39:143D models made from the drawings allow archaeologists to present the public with exact copies of the Yelabuga finds, confirming

00:39:21their importance and uniqueness.

00:39:23This find not only confirms the region's rich history, but also opens up new perspectives for the study of ancient

00:39:28civilizations.

00:39:31The oldest amber paleontologists have discovered 385 million year old amber in the Huja-Jakun formation in China.

00:39:41That is the middle of the Devonian period.

00:39:44Previously the oldest known amber was considered to be 320 million years old from the Carboniferous deposits in the USA.

00:39:51So the new find immediately pushes the history of amber back by 65 million years.

00:39:56The fragments themselves are tiny, from one to five tenths of a millimeter.

00:40:01The largest are no more than one and a half millimeters.

00:40:04And no trapped insects were found in them.

00:40:06But what's truly strange here is something else.

00:40:09Chemical analysis showed that the resin's composition resembles that of modern conifers, like pines and arucarias.

00:40:15The problem is that in the middle Devonian, no modern plants, including conifers, existed yet.

00:40:20They only appeared at the end of the Devonian period.

00:40:23In other words, resin similar in composition to pine resin was produced by plants that weren't even related to pines.

00:40:30Researchers suggest that these could have been some early seedless vascular plants or tree-like club mosses,

00:40:36ancestors far more primitive than anything that produces resin today.

00:40:40It turns out that the ability to secrete protective resin evolved more than once.

00:40:45It arose independently in completely different, unrelated plant groups.

00:40:50Apparently, it was to seal damage after fires and protect against fungi.

00:40:53Scientists believe that in the middle of the Devonian, arthropods did not yet cause serious damage to plants.

00:40:59So back then, resin was used not so much against insects, but rather as a first aid kit for the

00:41:05plant itself.

00:41:07Man on a Leopard

00:41:08Man on a Leopard

00:41:09In Karahantepe, southeastern Turkey, not far from the famous Gobekli Tepe, geologists unearthed a stone structure 11,000 years old.

00:41:18It is nearly 70 centimeters tall.

00:41:20But what's interesting, of course, isn't the size, but what is depicted on it.

00:41:24A man is sitting right on the back of a leopard.

00:41:27And that, you've got to admit, is a pretty odd pairing.

00:41:30A leopard isn't a horse, after all.

00:41:33So the first thought is that this clearly isn't an ordinary everyday scene.

00:41:36No depictions like this had ever been found at Karahantepe before.

00:41:39The sculpture itself stood on a stone bench along the wall of a round structure, about three meters in diameter.

00:41:45In other words, it probably wasn't just carved and tossed somewhere.

00:41:48It was part of a specific space.

00:41:50And this is where the age of the find becomes especially interesting.

00:41:54Karahantepe belongs to the same large, ancient group of sites as Gobekli Tepe.

00:42:00This was a time when people in this region were just beginning to transition from the nomadic life of hunter

00:42:05-gatherers to more permanent settlements.

00:42:07It was still 4,000 years before the cities and writing systems familiar to us would emerge.

00:42:11Yet here, they were already carving monumental figures and creating quite intricate depictions of humans and animals.

00:42:18But what exactly did the man on the leopard mean?

00:42:21A hunter? Some kind of hero? Man's power over a dangerous animal?

00:42:26Or perhaps a ritual scene whose meaning was obvious to people 11,000 years ago, but completely lost to us?

00:42:33There's no answer yet.

00:42:35And honestly, that's what I like most about this place.

00:42:38The image itself looks so specific, as if it's meant to tell a story.

00:42:42It's just that the language it speaks is one we no longer understand.

00:42:47Life inside a volcano.

00:42:48If the previous sites were built exclusively for war or supplies, this place proves that underground in Iran, you could

00:42:54not just survive, but live a full life for centuries.

00:42:57We are heading to the foot of Mount Sahand, to the unique village of Kandavan.

00:43:02From a distance, this place resembles a giant anthill, or a set from a sci-fi movie.

00:43:08Here, people didn't build houses out of bricks. They literally carved out their dwellings inside the hardened lava.

00:43:13These unusual cone-shaped rocks are called karans. They were formed millions of years ago after a powerful eruption, when

00:43:20flows of molten mass mixed with ash and mud.

00:43:23Over time, wind and water turned these boulders into sharp peaks, the height of a five-story building.

00:43:28But the most fascinating part began about 700 years ago.

00:43:31Legends say that the first residents came here to escape the advancing Mongol army.

00:43:36They discovered that volcanic tuff is soft to work with, but upon contact with air, it becomes as hard as

00:43:41granite.

00:43:43Inside each of these stone cones lies a fully-fledged multi-level home.

00:43:47Usually, the first floor is used as an animal pen, the second and third floors as living spaces, and the

00:43:52very top serves as storage.

00:43:54The walls are up to three meters thick.

00:43:57This creates a unique insulating effect when freezing winds rage outside and the temperature drops to minus 20.

00:44:03Inside, it stays pleasantly warm. In summer, when the sun literally melts stone, these caves stay refreshingly cool.

00:44:10The engineering of Kandon impresses with its simplicity and efficiency.

00:44:14Every window and every niche is carved to maximize sunlight throughout the day.

00:44:18Inside the rocks, stairs are carved connecting the floors, and the walls are polished smooth.

00:44:24The most amazing thing is that Kendovan isn't just a museum exhibit. People still live here.

00:44:28Today, inside these ancient caves, you can see modern TVs, refrigerators, and even high-speed internet.

00:44:35The residents have adapted ancient technology to the needs of the 21st century, creating perhaps the most eco-friendly and

00:44:41secure housing on the planet.

00:44:43Kendovan clearly demonstrates an important trait of Iranian culture, the ability to use the features of the landscape for protection

00:44:49in everyday life.

00:44:50It is living proof that humans are capable of turning even harsh volcanic rocks into a cozy home that cannot

00:44:56be destroyed by time or war.

00:44:59Found something more valuable than what he was looking for.

00:45:03Very often the most valuable discoveries are made not by professional archaeologists, but by people who weren't even planning to

00:45:09find anything.

00:45:10On a beach in Ashdod, Israel.

00:45:13Avi Sheprak, deputy head of the Municipal Beaches Administration, was searching the shoreline to help beachgoers look for lost jewelry

00:45:20and other valuables.

00:45:21And amid this routine, he stumbled upon an ancient coin.

00:45:26Around 2,500 years old, Sheprak handed the find over to the Israel Antiquities Authority,

00:45:32where it turned out to be the very first coin of its kind ever found in Israel.

00:45:38Specialists identified it as a Persian period coin, minted in the mid-5th century BC, a siglos coin originating from

00:45:45the ancient city of Salamis in Cyprus.

00:45:49Tests revealed that the coin wasn't made of solid silver, but of a metal plated with silver, which is typical

00:45:55for Cypriot coins of that period.

00:45:57One side depicts a reclining ram, while the other shows a ram's head beside a laurel branch and characters that

00:46:04were likely written in the Cypriot syllabary.

00:46:07What makes the find especially valuable is that the coin survived intact.

00:46:10Coins like this were usually cut into pieces during trade transactions back then, but for some reason this one wasn't.

00:46:16According to researchers, the location itself and the circumstances of the find could help us better understand the maritime trade

00:46:22routes between Cyprus and the territory of modern-day Israel 2,500 years ago.

00:46:27And Avi Cheprak was even awarded a certificate of honor for the find.

00:46:31It was clear that the coin was part of public and historical heritage, so he immediately handed it over to

00:46:36specialists instead of keeping it for himself.

00:46:38What is written in the ancient scrolls?

00:46:42In Herculaneum, that very city buried in ash during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, an entire ancient library

00:46:50was found in a luxurious villa.

00:46:52Over 1,800 scrolls!

00:46:54It is the only major library of antiquity that has survived to this day at all.

00:47:00You would think it's any historian's dream.

00:47:03There was just one small problem.

00:47:05Reading it was virtually impossible.

00:47:07From the terrible heat, the papyri were charred and fused into black, rolled-up cylinders.

00:47:13And as soon as you tried to unroll such a scroll by hand, it would literally start to crumble.

00:47:17Moreover, people had been trying to access the text since the 8th century.

00:47:22They used special mechanisms, chemicals, and various unrolling methods.

00:47:26As a result, some of the papyri were destroyed this way.

00:47:29I don't blame the researchers at all here.

00:47:32An unknown text has been sitting in front of you for 2,000 years.

00:47:35Naturally, you'd want to see what's written there.

00:47:37But at some point, it became clear.

00:47:39So, we had to learn how to read it without opening it.

00:47:42They scan it with a CT scanner.

00:47:44Then, on a computer, they virtually unroll each layer.

00:47:47A special algorithm searched for traces of ink on the blackened surface.

00:47:51And the results already sound a bit like science fiction.

00:47:55In 2023, they managed to read the first whole word in one of the scrolls.

00:47:59Purple.

00:48:00A year later, they recovered over a thousand words from another one.

00:48:04And now it's time for Papyrus Ferk, 1667,

00:48:09which they attempted to open the conventional way back in the 1980s

00:48:13and deemed virtually illegible.

00:48:15Recently, it was successfully unwrapped virtually for the first time.

00:48:19It resulted in almost 5 feet of text across 20 columns.

00:48:22And inside was a philosophical treatise over 2,000 years old.

00:48:26Probably likely related to Stoic philosophy.

00:48:28The author reflects on human behavior, desires,

00:48:31and the importance of not deviating from one's own nature.

00:48:35So, a scroll that couldn't even be opened until recently

00:48:38can now be read without touching it at all.

00:48:40And the most interesting thing is that there are still hundreds of such charred scrolls in this library.

00:48:46And as soon as the scientists are able to read another scroll,

00:48:49I'll definitely tell you about it right away.

00:48:51So don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

00:48:55The Night Who Never Was

00:48:57Barcelona

00:48:57Pedralbe's Monastery

00:49:00For the monastery's 700th anniversary archaeologists opened several 14th century tombs.

00:49:04They wanted to learn more about the life of the monastery's first community of nuns.

00:49:08And among these tombs was the grave of Queen Elisenda de Moncada.

00:49:13At the age of 30, this woman married the 50-year-old King of Aragon.

00:49:17She became his fourth wife and stepmother to his 10 children.

00:49:21And one of the most powerful queens of medieval Europe.

00:49:24After being widowed, she founded this monastery and lived there until she was 70.

00:49:29By the way, they confirmed it.

00:49:31They show signs of age-related arthrosis.

00:49:33Everything matches up with history.

00:49:35She was buried modestly in monastic robes in a simple wooden box.

00:49:39But inside the tomb, they found traces of gold-embroidered silk and fragrant herbs,

00:49:43rosemary and myrtle.

00:49:44So far, everything's normal.

00:49:45But what comes next is something science can't explain.

00:49:48In the tomb of the convent's first abbess, they discovered a puncture in the skull.

00:49:52A stab wound from a knife.

00:49:54In another grave, where according to all records, a knight should have been buried,

00:49:57there were no male bones at all.

00:49:59Instead of a knight, there were two adult women and three children.

00:50:02And in the third tomb were the bones of at least nine people, buried at different times.

00:50:06Among them, four male skulls with stab wounds,

00:50:09and the mummified torso of a pregnant woman with the remains of an unborn child inside.

00:50:14Let's go over that again, just to take it in.

00:50:16The mother superior of a nunnery with a knife wound to the skull.

00:50:20Four men stabbed with knives within the walls of a cloister where men shouldn't have been at all.

00:50:24A pregnant woman with an infant, right next to the tomb of the queen herself.

00:50:28This is not an ancient battlefield, nor an unlooted cemetery.

00:50:32It's a quiet nunnery that the queen founded for prayer.

00:50:34And still no one can answer who these people were, how they ended up here, and why they were killed.

00:50:40Right now, DNA is being extracted from the bones and teeth to figure out who these people were,

00:50:45whether they were related, and if they carried traces of ancient diseases.

00:50:49Maybe they'll find an answer.

00:50:50Or maybe the mystery of this quiet convent will remain sealed forever.

00:50:56A new Maya city with a giant pyramid.

00:50:59In the Mexican reserve of Calakmul, archaeologists have discovered an entire Maya city.

00:51:04And they didn't find it on the ground at first, but from the air using laser scanning,

00:51:10which reveals structures hidden beneath the dense jungle.

00:51:13This technology still amazes me.

00:51:16It looks and sounds like science fiction.

00:51:18But spotting a city on scans is one thing.

00:51:21Actually reaching it is another.

00:51:23The researchers had to hack their way through the forest for 5 kilometers.

00:51:27The city was named Minanbe, which roughly translates to there is no path,

00:51:31and in this case the name turned out to be as fitting as it gets.

00:51:34When the archaeologists finally reached the ruins, another surprise awaited them.

00:51:38The city had been hidden in the jungle for over a thousand years,

00:51:41and there were virtually no traces of looters.

00:51:44For archaeologists, this is a huge stroke of luck.

00:51:46You can study the site almost exactly as it was left by its last inhabitants,

00:51:50rather than scavenging through the scraps left behind by those who already managed to carry off everything of value.

00:51:55And there is plenty to see there.

00:51:57A pyramid about 13 meters high palaces, a system of water canals, and stone stele with inscriptions.

00:52:04One of them depicts a rather brutal scene of a prisoner's decapitation.

00:52:08According to the calendar inscriptions, the city flourished around the 9th century AD,

00:52:13just shortly before the collapse of many major centers of the classic Maya civilization.

00:52:18And considering how recently researchers even got here,

00:52:21most of Minanbe's history is likely still waiting to be excavated.

00:52:26A cap from the other side of the world!

00:52:28Leather, the least reliable material for archaeologists.

00:52:31In the ground, it's one of the first things to rot away,

00:52:34and after a couple thousand years, usually nothing is left of it.

00:52:38That is why what was found in a female burial near the ancient settlement of Bilsk in Ukraine

00:52:43is almost a miracle in itself.

00:52:45In a grave that is about two and a half thousand years old,

00:52:48they found a leather cap, intact, with ornaments.

00:52:52It has survived to this day, although not a single trace of it should have remained.

00:52:55It barely survived at all.

00:52:57When the leather was lifted from the ground, it began to crumble right before their eyes.

00:53:02And the conservators had to save the find right there in the field,

00:53:05otherwise it would have simply crumbled to dust in their hands.

00:53:08The cap turned out to be low, with a flat top, and was completely covered with small bronze plates.

00:53:13Nearby in the grave lay a bronze mirror, a black burnished bowl, and dice.

00:53:18They buried not just an ordinary woman here, but someone from the local nobility.

00:53:21Very young, about 18 to 20 years old.

00:53:25Archaeologist Irina Schramko, who studied the find, noticed an anomaly.

00:53:29Scythians did not make hats this way.

00:53:31This technique, where small bronze plates are sewn onto leather,

00:53:34is not typical of the Scythians at all.

00:53:36However, it is well known thousands of kilometers away from here, in central Europe,

00:53:40and when the DNA analysis was done, everything fell into place.

00:53:43The woman's roots led far to the west, to a people who lived in the region of modern-day Croatia.

00:53:48Even the shape of the hat itself resembles traditional Croatian headwear.

00:53:53It turns out that a woman whose ancestors came from the other side of Europe,

00:53:56was buried in the Scythian steppe.

00:53:58And the only thing that told her story 2,500 years later,

00:54:02was a fragile leather hat, which by all rights, should have ceased to exist long ago.

00:54:08Infant warriors.

00:54:09In southern Italy, in the municipality of Ponte Cagnano Faiano,

00:54:13construction workers started digging a pit at a former tobacco factory,

00:54:17and called in archaeologists.

00:54:19They arrived and discovered 34 tombs dating from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC,

00:54:24left behind by the Samnites, an ancient Italian people who fought Rome for several centuries,

00:54:29and were ultimately absorbed by it.

00:54:31In and of themselves, Samnite tombs are found regularly in Campania,

00:54:34and there's nothing sensational about it.

00:54:36But when they started examining the contents, one detail was unsettling.

00:54:4015 out of the 34 tombs belong to children, from newborns up to 10 years old,

00:54:45which is a rarity in itself.

00:54:46Children's graves don't preserve as well, but that's not the main point.

00:54:50In several children's tombs, they found bronze belts, wide and well-preserved.

00:54:55Among the Samnites, such belts were the symbol of an adult male warrior.

00:54:58They wore them as a sign of status and belonging to the military class,

00:55:01for a 5-year-old child such a belt is neither the right size nor the right age,

00:55:05nor does it make any sense.

00:55:07So why was it in a child's grave?

00:55:09Scientists offered two explanations.

00:55:11First, the belt was a symbol of who this child was supposed to become.

00:55:15He died before his time, but his parents buried him as a warrior,

00:55:18as if granting him in death what he didn't live long enough to achieve in life.

00:55:22The second explanation is even more intriguing.

00:55:25Perhaps the Samnites had a custom of initiating children as warriors,

00:55:29from a very early age, long before the child could even wield a weapon.

00:55:32I don't like taking an oath from the cradle, neither version is proven.

00:55:36But both point to one thing.

00:55:38These people view childhood very differently than we do.

00:55:41Spearheads and dart points lie in the men's tombs.

00:55:44In the women's rings and jewelry, all the burials are arranged in family groups next to each other,

00:55:4934 tombs and in half of them children with the belts of adult warriors on their little bones.

00:55:55It helped with swallowing, breathing and speaking.

00:56:00Polish archaeologists have discovered a unique medical prosthesis

00:56:03designed for a person with a cleft palate, dating back approximately 300 years.

00:56:09This defect occurs when the roof of the mouth doesn't close properly during development,

00:56:14and nowadays it can be corrected surgically.

00:56:17However, three centuries ago people had to look for other solutions.

00:56:20The prosthesis was found in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Kraków,

00:56:25and is the first of its kind ever discovered in Poland.

00:56:28It was likely custom made for a specific individual with a cleft palate,

00:56:32to make his life more comfortable.

00:56:35The device was inserted into the mouth and filled the gap in the palate,

00:56:39performing the functions necessary for a normal life.

00:56:41The uniqueness of this prosthesis lies in its design.

00:56:45It consists of two parts, a metal plate that serves as the hard palate,

00:56:49and a woolen pad to ensure a snug fit in the mouth.

00:56:52The hard palate helps with swallowing, breathing and speaking,

00:56:56as well as keeping things in the mouth, preventing them from entering the nasal cavity.

00:56:59This small device, measuring about 3 cm in length and weighing just 6 grams,

00:57:05was quite sophisticated for its time.

00:57:07To examine the prosthesis in more detail,

00:57:10scientists used a special microscope and x-ray analysis.

00:57:13They discovered that the metal parts were made of copper with traces of gold and silver.

00:57:19The wool pad contained traces of silver iodide,

00:57:22likely to protect against germs and maintain cleanliness.

00:57:26The grandfather of the T-Rex on the shelf.

00:57:2974 million years old.

00:57:31In a museum's storeroom in New Mexico,

00:57:33a nearly meter-long bone had been gathering dust for 7 years.

00:57:37A tibia, heavy, with that distinctive curve any paleontologist would recognize at first glance.

00:57:42It lay in a crate labeled with an inventory number among hundreds just like it,

00:57:46and nobody really looked at it because there are thousands of bones in places like that,

00:57:49and at some point it all just turns into background noise.

00:57:52Paleontologist Nicholas Longridge from the University of Bath picked it up,

00:57:56and something just didn't add up.

00:57:57The rock from which the bone was extracted dated back 74 million years,

00:58:02whereas the classic Tyrannosaurus rex lived 66 million years ago.

00:58:07An 8 million year difference.

00:58:09That's kind of like finding a smartphone in a geological layer where flip phones should be.

00:58:14Everything looks familiar, but something is fundamentally wrong.

00:58:17When Longridge started crunching the numbers, they turned out to be even more interesting.

00:58:20The bone is only 16% shorter than the corresponding bone in Sue,

00:58:25the largest known Tyrannosaurus skeleton,

00:58:27and recalculating the proportions yielded an estimated weight of 4.7 tons.

00:58:31In other words, this animal was 50% heavier than any of its contemporaries.

00:58:36To put that into perspective, take a textbook Tyrannosaurus

00:58:40and imagine adding another half of its own body weight on top of it.

00:58:43That is what roamed the North American Southwest 8 million years before T-Rex even entered the scene.

00:58:50Longridge states this directly.

00:58:52It is an exact replica of Tyrannosaurus.

00:58:55If this bone had been found in the same strat as the classic T-Rex,

00:58:59no one would have doubted what it was.

00:59:00But it was found earlier.

00:59:02And this overturns one of the most firmly held beliefs in dinosaur science.

00:59:06Until now, it was believed that the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus came from Asia.

00:59:09Yet several large, very ancient forms are concentrated right in the American Southwest,

00:59:14millions of years before T-Rex ever appeared further north in Montana and Canada.

00:59:18The picture just comes together on its own.

00:59:20The king of the dinosaurs grew up right here.

00:59:23Asia had nothing to do with it.

00:59:24Without a complete skeleton, there's no name yet.

00:59:27Longridge keeps on excavating, hoping above all for teeth.

00:59:30They preserve in stone far better than large bones.

00:59:33But the main thing has already happened.

00:59:35The bone sat on a shelf for seven years, forgotten and unwanted.

00:59:38And the entire time, it held a story that rewrites the origin of the most famous predator

00:59:42in the entire history of life on earth.

00:59:45How many more stories like that are still lying around in crates with inventory numbers?

00:59:49Beneath the church where it all began.

00:59:52Jerusalem.

00:59:53The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

00:59:55One of the most venerated sites in the Christian world.

00:59:57It's believed that Jesus was buried right here.

01:00:00But for a long time, archaeologists argued just how much this actually matched the biblical

01:00:05account.

01:00:05Everything changed when scientists from the University of Rome began digging beneath the

01:00:09church's floor.

01:00:10They didn't find a tomb or an artifact, but the remains of an ancient garden.

01:00:13Layers of soil between stone walls.

01:00:16Traces of a terrace and a cultural layer.

01:00:18And most importantly, pollen from grapevines and olive trees.

01:00:21All of this matches the text from the Gospel of John.

01:00:24At the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.

01:00:26If radiocarbon dating confirms the age of the find, it will be the first direct archaeological

01:00:31confirmation of the New Testament account.

01:00:34Exactly so.

01:00:35Not theological.

01:00:36Not symbolic.

01:00:36But physical.

01:00:37In addition, during the excavations, an ancient marble altar was found, which had disappeared

01:00:41during a fire in the 19th century.

01:00:43It had been standing in the church all this time, just turned toward the wall.

01:00:47There was tourist graffiti on the front side.

01:00:49On the reverse, a unique mosaic made using a technique known only to Vatican masters.

01:00:53No sensationalism.

01:00:55No mysticism.

01:00:56Just the facts.

01:00:57But sometimes they speak louder than any legends.

01:01:00Five skeletons were found in the wolf's lair.

01:01:05During excavations at the wolf's lair in Poland, Adolf Hitler's headquarters, archaeologists

01:01:10found five human skeletons.

01:01:13The discovery included the remains of three adults and two children, one of whom was a

01:01:18newborn.

01:01:19A peculiar detail of the burial is that the bodies were stripped naked and missing their

01:01:23extremities, pointing to an unusual manner of interment.

01:01:27The wolf's lair, hidden in a dense forest and protected by barbed wire, watchtowers and

01:01:32minefields, served as the place where Nazi leaders planned their military operations.

01:01:37This base was destroyed by the Nazis as they retreated before the Red Army in January 1945.

01:01:43Among the artifacts found near the bodies were thunderstones, the fossils of ancient marine

01:01:48creatures, which in antiquity were considered magical talismans capable of bringing good luck

01:01:53in battles or protecting against lightning.

01:01:56Octavian Bartoszewski, one of the excavators, suggested that the bodies might have been buried

01:02:01as a ritual sacrifice to ensure success and prosperity for those occupying the building.

01:02:07Hermann Göring, the building's previous owner, was known for his interest in the occult,

01:02:11which might explain the presence of such an unusual burial in his residence.

01:02:15The Nazis, including Hitler, were known for their obsession with the supernatural, which

01:02:20was reflected in their penchant for various occult practices and theories.

01:02:23This discovery not only confirms the dark legacy of the Nazi regime, but also once again demonstrates

01:02:29its willingness to use any means, including occultism and sacrifice, to achieve its goals.

01:02:36Rings falling from the sky. A strange thing. The Bronze Age, yet the local nobility wear iron rings

01:02:42on their fingers. And by all accounts, this iron wasn't smelted by humans.

01:02:46It fell from the sky with meteorites. Researchers examined over a hundred ancient metal artifacts

01:02:52from Greece, dating back roughly from 3,800 to 3,000 years ago.

01:02:57Rings, bracelets, and knives. And in 13 of them, they found so much nickel that they immediately

01:03:02suspected the iron had a meteoritic origin. But it gets even more interesting from here.

01:03:07All 13 artifacts turned out to be rings. Not a single knife or bracelet. What's more,

01:03:12they were combined with gold and silver. Some of them had bezels for seals, and most were found

01:03:16in wealthy burials. One such ring remained on the finger of a man whom researchers consider

01:03:21a possible high priest. It seems that iron, which literally fell from the sky, was prized

01:03:27as something more than just a rare metal. Perhaps these rings emphasize the owner's status.

01:03:31And meteoritic iron could have reached Greece from Egypt, where the dry climate preserves

01:03:36fallen meteorites much better. Sometime after 1,200 BC, such rings practically disappear.

01:03:43Why? It's unknown. Maybe there were issues with the supply of meteoritic iron. Or maybe

01:03:49tastes simply changed. Funny that more than 3,000 years later, this trend reached me too.

01:03:55I really liked the idea of wearing a piece of an ancient meteorite on my finger. After this

01:03:59story, I even decided that I definitely need to buy myself a meteorite ring soon.

01:04:03A tunnel to nowhere. Beneath Jerusalem. Before the construction of a new neighborhood.

01:04:10Archaeologists were conducting a routine site inspection to see if there was anything ancient

01:04:14underground. It was routine, practically everyday work, until they fell through, literally stumbling

01:04:19into a natural void in the rock. And that turned out to be the entrance to a long underground tunnel.

01:04:24The tunnel stretches for more than 50 meters, the height is about 5 meters, in some places the

01:04:29width reaches up to 3 meters. It's not just a natural crevice. You can walk through it upright.

01:04:33Part of it has collapsed, and part is clogged with earth that had accumulated there for hundreds,

01:04:37or maybe even thousands of years. And most importantly, scientists are certain this isn't natural.

01:04:43Humans dug this tunnel by hand. And now archaeologists and historians once again have tons of questions.

01:04:48Who made it, when, and why, no one knows. At first they thought it was an ancient aqueduct leading to

01:04:53a spring.

01:04:53But they didn't find any water sources nearby. And the walls aren't plastered. You wouldn't build it like

01:04:59that for water, otherwise it would all seep into the rock. Later, another theory emerged that it was a mine

01:05:05dug for the chalk layer, for building stone or lime. But that's also just a theory, there's no proof.

01:05:11It's impossible to determine the age, either. They haven't found a single object inside that could be used for dating.

01:05:16Not a potsherd, not a coin, nothing. There's only one clue so far. Nearby are the ruins of an Iron

01:05:22Age settlement.

01:05:22If the tunnel was dug back then, it means it's between two and a half to three thousand years old.

01:05:28Just imagine, someone carved a passage into the rock half the length of a football field.

01:05:32And about nine feet high. Moved tons of rock by hand. Spent months, if not years, doing it.

01:05:38And then this passage was forgotten so completely that thousands of years later we stumbled upon it by accident.

01:05:44And we still don't know what it was for. An entire structure without a single clue about who built it

01:05:49and why.

01:05:51An ancient code of laws? For over a hundred years, fifty fragments of ancient parchment were kept in the Penn

01:05:58Museum.

01:06:00They were bought back in 1911 from an antiquities dealer in Egypt.

01:06:04After that, the fragments just stayed in the museum's collection until historian Matthias Weiber decided to try and piece together

01:06:11anything intelligible from them.

01:06:13Essentially, he had to put together an ancient book like a jigsaw puzzle made of dozens of scraps.

01:06:19He took seven of the largest fragments, illuminated the text with ultraviolet light, matched the red markings,

01:06:23and even examined the surface of the parchment itself to figure out which side was the front and which was

01:06:28the back.

01:06:28And it turned out that they were once part of a small book containing imperial decrees from the late 4th

01:06:34century.

01:06:35Moreover, this text doesn't correspond to any known Roman codices.

01:06:39It turns out that more than a millennium and a half later, a completely separate collection of laws was discovered,

01:06:45the existence of which no one had known about before.

01:06:48Judging by its size, the book could have been pocket-sized.

01:06:51Perhaps it was carried around by an official who constantly had to deal with the laws.

01:06:56Although, researchers admit it could have belonged to a wealthy taxpayer or his lawyer.

01:07:01The contents of this book turned out to be painfully familiar.

01:07:04Taxes, roads, public buildings.

01:07:07One law forced wealthy citizens to pay for road maintenance.

01:07:10Another forbade treating city property as one's own.

01:07:14Historian Matthias Weiber himself even joked about this.

01:07:18To circumvent the law, you first have to know it.

01:07:21And right here, it becomes clear why someone might have needed such a pocket-sized book.

01:07:25So, reading laws between the lines is something people learned back in ancient Rome.

01:07:30Due discoveries in Egypt.

01:07:32Since we're in Egypt, one more story.

01:07:35And it's important not so much for what was found, but for how it was found.

01:07:39Bouto, or Tel Elferin, the hill of the Pharaoh's northern Nile Delta.

01:07:44A place with a 6000 year history.

01:07:47It was one of the main religious centers of pre-dynastic Egypt.

01:07:51Here they worshiped the cobra goddess Wajet, patroness of lower Egypt.

01:07:55The very cobra that the Pharaoh wore on his crown.

01:07:58The problem with Bouto is that it's almost impossible to excavate this place using conventional methods.

01:08:04Over 6000 years new buildings were built on top of old ones.

01:08:07It turned into a layer cake of cultural deposits flooded with ground water.

01:08:11And sticking a shovel in means not knowing which layer you'll hit and what you'll destroy.

01:08:15Egyptian scientists decided not to dig blind, but first to see what was actually there.

01:08:20They used satellites and special equipment that scans the ground like an x-ray and reveals hidden objects without disturbing

01:08:26the soil.

01:08:26The image turned out crystal clear.

01:08:29At a depth of several meters stands a building measuring roughly 25 by 25 meters.

01:08:34So they made a small test trench in one specific spot and saw exactly what they had expected.

01:08:38Brick walls, amulets, and ritual objects.

01:08:41Based on the finds, the building was dated to around the 7th century BC.

01:08:45The main takeaway here isn't just the discovery itself, but that we can now map everything lying beneath Bouto before

01:08:51even breaking ground.

01:08:52Instead of digging to see what's there, we look first and then decide where to dig.

01:08:56And that changes everything, because there are thousands of sites like these beneath the Nile Delta,

01:09:01most of which are being destroyed right now by rising ground water and construction.

01:09:07History you won't find in textbooks.

01:09:09Not long ago archaeologists found evidence that wine was already being consumed in ancient Troy long before the Iliad was

01:09:16written.

01:09:16This isn't just a theory or a guess, but genuine chemical evidence confirming that even ordinary

01:09:22people in the territory of Troy not only drank wine, but also used it in their everyday lives.

01:09:28For researchers this was a sensation, since in antiquity usually only the elite could afford the luxury of drinking wine,

01:09:35whereas in Troy it was accessible to all social strata.

01:09:38Research showed that the cult of wine was so important to the people of Troy

01:09:41that the vessels used for drinking it were found all over the city, from wealthy palaces to humble residential quarters.

01:09:47But what is even more interesting, the fermentation method itself used in Troy was so unique

01:09:53that it is reminiscent of more complex and advanced civilizations of that time.

01:09:57And now, thanks to this research, we can confidently state that Troy was not merely a legend, it was real,

01:10:03and its culture was far more complex and advanced than we could have ever imagined.

01:10:09They found a treasure using their grandfather's old map.

01:10:12Two brothers from Germany discovered a treasure in Lubomierz, Poland, using a map.

01:10:17Drawn by their grandfather in 1952, they went on vacation to Poland, and one of their stops was Lubomierz,

01:10:23where their grandfather, who had worked as a gardener, buried valuables before leaving.

01:10:28The map found in the family archives helped them locate the spot their relative had described.

01:10:32Upon arriving in Lubomierz, the brothers asked locals for a shovel to dig, but their actions seemed suspicious

01:10:39and the local woman reported them to the police.

01:10:41The excavations were temporarily halted until the brothers obtained the necessary permit.

01:10:46Once the formalities were settled, archaeologists joined the dig.

01:10:50The grandfather's map turned out not to be just a simple map, but a letter indicating where the treasure was

01:10:55buried.

01:10:55At the indicated spot, the brothers found two antique jugs with valuable discoveries, including watches, jewelry,

01:11:0219th century coins and cigarette cases dating back to 1935.

01:11:06Apparently, these items were wartime trophies.

01:11:09The discovered artifacts were sent for expert analysis to assess their historical significance.

01:11:14If they turn out to be valuable, by law they can be seized and transferred to a museum.

01:11:19Otherwise, the treasures will be returned to the brothers.

01:11:22A rattle in a child's grave During excavations of the ancient city of Huacas de Moche in Peru,

01:11:28archaeologists found a small grave dating back about 1,500 years.

01:11:33A child was buried in it, who was about a year and a half old at the time of death.

01:11:36The body was positioned with the head pointing south and the feet pointing north.

01:11:40This was the customary burial orientation for the Moche culture, but right beside it,

01:11:44they discovered items that immediately caught their attention.

01:11:47Two small whistles, a rattle, and a ceramic vessel.

01:11:50What's more, the grave was not near a temple or in some separate necropolis,

01:11:54but right in the residential part of the city among the houses.

01:11:57Child burials are quite rare here in and of themselves.

01:11:59That is why archaeologists are still trying to understand why the child was buried in this exact spot,

01:12:04and it is especially intriguing what the items beside him signified.

01:12:08The whistles and the rattle might have been toys during his lifetime,

01:12:11or they could have been items placed in the grave during the funeral itself.

01:12:16Leather shoes from the tomb.

01:12:18Chinese archaeologists are restoring 1,400 year old leather shoes,

01:12:23found in the Astana tombs, in the capital of the ancient kingdom of Gaucheng.

01:12:28German experts are assisting with the restoration.

01:12:31Finding such old leather or textiles is a rarity,

01:12:34as they decompose quickly upon contact with air.

01:12:37The shoes, retrieved from an archive of artifacts excavated since the 1950s are 24 cm long,

01:12:44and consist of the upper, shaft and sole sections stitched from goatskin using animal sinew.

01:12:50Archaeologists have been exploring the tombs for more than a century.

01:12:53Since the 1950s 456 tombs across 14 excavations have been studied,

01:12:58yielding about 10,000 to 100,000 valuable relics,

01:13:02The hot dry climate preserved many items that would have otherwise decayed,

01:13:07including 300 leather goods.

01:13:08Ancient shoes have also been found at other archaeological sites around the world.

01:13:13For example, hundreds of shoes or moccasins were found in a cave in Utah,

01:13:18inhabited about 850 years ago.

01:13:20On the shores of the Great Salt Lake,

01:13:23207 moccasins made of animal hides were found,

01:13:25mostly belonging to children.

01:13:27The soles of the shoes were made of solid bison hide,

01:13:30lined with fur and stitched at the heel,

01:13:32which is typical of the Canadian subarctic style.

01:13:35The presence of so many children's shoes points to a thriving population,

01:13:39despite people leaving the region due to drought.

01:13:41These shoes were crafted by the promontory culture.

01:13:44In May 2014, the world's oldest pair of trousers was discovered in China.

01:13:50In Western China, archaeologists found the remains of two nomads

01:13:53and 3,000-year-old patterned trousers,

01:13:56confirming the theory that switching from tunics to trousers

01:13:58was a practical solution for horse riders.

01:14:01It's impossible to say for sure when humans began making clothes

01:14:04due to the rapid decomposition of fabrics,

01:14:06but estimates range from 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.

01:14:10The first clothing was made of hides, fur, grasses,

01:14:13leaves, bones and shells.

01:14:15The oldest dyed fibers were found in a cave in Georgia.

01:14:19They are 36,000 years old.

01:14:21The first, Maya filling.

01:14:23In a pre-Hispanic burial, they found a molar,

01:14:26a lower, bequan, one of those located deep in the mouth.

01:14:29A small cavity had been carefully carved into the tooth's surface

01:14:33and sitting inside it was a green jaded stone.

01:14:36The Maya civilization was known for the practice of dental decoration.

01:14:39They inlaid jade, turquoise and hematite into their front teeth.

01:14:42This was visible when speaking and showed a person standing in society.

01:14:46A molar in the back of the mouth is never visible under any circumstances,

01:14:50so this couldn't have been a decoration.

01:14:52The scientists performed a CT scan of the tooth,

01:14:55just like the ones done in dental clinics,

01:14:58only far more powerful and peered inside without disturbing the find.

01:15:02Inside the pulp chamber, they discovered mineral deposits that only form in a living tooth

01:15:06in response to trauma or prolonged tissue irritation.

01:15:08The tooth had responded to the intervention while its owner was still alive.

01:15:12The owner of the tooth was between 20, 24 and 30 years old.

01:15:16Someone carved a cavity into a living tooth, placed jadeite inside and secured it,

01:15:20presumably using natural plant resins that the Maya used for medicinal purposes

01:15:24and which have antibacterial properties.

01:15:26The stone was inserted in such a way that it wouldn't interfere with chewing.

01:15:30In other words, whoever did this made sure the tooth would continue to function normally after the procedure.

01:15:34This is the first dental filling in human history supported by physical evidence.

01:15:38In other regions of the world, traces of dental drilling have also been found in ancient remains.

01:15:42For example, in Pakistan, drilled teeth dating back around 9,000 years were discovered.

01:15:47But in that case, it was just drilling.

01:15:50Here, the tooth was drilled, the damaged tissue was removed

01:15:53and the cavity was sealed with a permanent material.

01:15:55In other words, this was a full-fledged filling, not just a hole.

01:15:58For the Maya, jadeite also had a sacred meaning as a symbol of life and water.

01:16:02Therefore, the procedure could have carried a ritual significance in addition to a medical one.

01:16:06This is the first such discovery in world archaeology.

01:16:09The Maya performed dental operations starting around 300 AD using tubular drills made of jade or quartz

01:16:15combined with an abrasive powder made from crushed minerals.

01:16:19Judging by the findings, the patients survived the operations.

01:16:22There are no signs of widespread inflammation around the modified teeth in the burials.

01:16:26A jadeite filling in a molar shows that their skills were also applied where the tooth wasn't visible from the

01:16:31outside.

01:16:31This means it was about treatment, not decoration.

01:16:36Forgot where he hid the coins?

01:16:38In 1988, American engineer and oceanographer Tommy Thompson did what all treasure hunters around the world dream of.

01:16:47Found a sunken ship with gold.

01:16:50A steamship SS Central America sank in 1857 during a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina.

01:16:58On board were tons of gold mined from the California gold fields during the gold rush and sent to the

01:17:03east coast of the country.

01:17:05The total value of the cargo today is estimated at about half a billion dollars.

01:17:09Thompson developed a deep sea robot specifically for this search.

01:17:13He found the wreck site at a depth of over 2 kilometers, recovered most of the treasure and in 2000

01:17:19sold a batch of gold for 52 million dollars.

01:17:21And then it turned out that 161 investors who poured over 22 million dollars into the project didn't get a

01:17:27single cent and that 500 extremely rare gold coins were missing from the inventory.

01:17:32Which collectors value at tens of millions of dollars.

01:17:36Because the gold from a 19th century shipwreck isn't just gold.

01:17:40It's history and rarity for which people pay tens of times more at auction than the melt value.

01:17:46In 2012, when a trial was looming, Thompson vanished.

01:17:49They searched for him for 3 years and found him in a Florida hotel.

01:17:52To every question about the coins whereabouts, he had only one answer.

01:17:55He didn't remember where they were.

01:17:57He claimed he'd registered them under someone else's name in Belize.

01:18:00And that due to memory issues, he had long lost track of them.

01:18:03The court took a rare measure.

01:18:04He was jailed not for a crime, but for refusing to answer the question.

01:18:08With no set term and no release date.

01:18:10You just sit there until you talk.

01:18:12Thompson spent 10 years in jail, paying a $1,000 fine every day.

01:18:17His health got worse and worse.

01:18:19But he kept quiet.

01:18:20In March 2026, he was released for medical reasons.

01:18:23Because keeping the old man any longer was simply impossible.

01:18:27He's 74 years old.

01:18:28The 500 coins were never found.

01:18:31And by all accounts, from the very start, he figured that 10 years of silence was better than any other

01:18:36option.

01:18:37And it looks like he was right.

01:18:40A mysterious tablet.

01:18:42In Northern Italy, near Lake Garda, archaeologists have found an intact clay tablet dating back 4,000 years.

01:18:49It has lines, circles, dots, triangles, and other geometric shapes pressed into it.

01:18:55At first, it all looks like some kind of very ancient writing system.

01:18:59But the catch is that no one can actually call these symbols writing yet.

01:19:04We don't even know if they're meant to form words or sentences.

01:19:07And the mystery gets even more interesting if you look beyond this single tablet.

01:19:11Very similar marks have been found hundreds of kilometers apart.

01:19:14In Northern Italy and Central and Southeastern Europe.

01:19:17It turns out that about 4,000 years ago, people from pretty distant regions were using the exact same set

01:19:23of symbols.

01:19:24Or at least something remarkably similar.

01:19:27Why?

01:19:27Nobody knows.

01:19:28Maybe they were keeping some kind of record that way.

01:19:31Maybe they were marking dates or events.

01:19:33There are theories linking them to rituals and the exchange of goods between different settlements.

01:19:37But for now, it's not even clear what we're looking at.

01:19:40A message?

01:19:41A reminder?

01:19:42An account?

01:19:43Or something that wasn't even meant to be read?

01:19:45Mythical Figurines

01:19:47In ancient Pompeii, archaeologists found 13 terracotta figurines possibly depicting the myth of the goddess Cybele and Attis, known for

01:19:55their tragic love story, jealousy and the theme of rebirth.

01:19:59These figurines were discovered in a house named after the fresco of Leda and the Swan, which depicts Zeus disguised

01:20:05as a swan and Leda.

01:20:07The figurines were found beneath a 2-meter layer of pumice, and scholars suggest they might depict the ancient myth

01:20:12of Cybele and Attis, which originated in Phrygia, present-day Turkey, and was popular in ancient Greek and Roman cultures.

01:20:19In this story, Cybele falls in love with young Attis, but his love for another triggers her jealousy, driving Attis

01:20:26into madness and leading to his death beneath a pine tree.

01:20:30After this, Cybele asks the gods to turn Attis into a pine tree with violets, symbolizing eternal life and renewal.

01:20:36This myth is often interpreted as a symbol of the cyclical nature of life.

01:20:41A ring with someone else's name.

01:20:43England, Lincolnshire.

01:20:45A man with a metal detector is walking across a field.

01:20:48The device detects something.

01:20:50He digs and pulls out a gilded silver signet ring from the ground, which, as it turned out later, had

01:20:55lain buried for a thousand years, just over 2 centimeters in diameter, 4.5 grams.

01:21:00And along the edge, 16 runic symbols are engraved.

01:21:03And this is where things get weird.

01:21:05The gilding covers the whole ring except for the runes themselves.

01:21:08That means the inscription was added after the ring was made.

01:21:11Someone took a finished piece of jewelry and later scratched the runes onto it separately, and rubbed the dark inlay

01:21:17into the grooves to make the symbols visible.

01:21:19Researchers from the University of Nottingham have deciphered part of the inscription.

01:21:23It might encode the name Udnan, and the word resembling the ancient word for ring.

01:21:27But no one understands the exact meaning.

01:21:30Even now, runes were the writing system of the Germanic peoples before the Latin alphabet arrived.

01:21:35But they weren't always used for writing in the way we understand it.

01:21:37They were often symbols imbued with special meaning.

01:21:40Protective, ritualistic, and magical.

01:21:42Similar rings with the very same unreadable inscriptions have been found before.

01:21:46And now they sit in the British Museum.

01:21:48But the meaning behind these inscriptions has never been deciphered.

01:21:51That is precisely why investigators seriously think these might have been protective amulets.

01:21:56You wear on your finger not just a piece of jewelry, but a spell intended to keep you safe.

01:22:00The ring is finely and neatly crafted.

01:22:02Archaeologists explicitly called it one of the most remarkable discoveries of its kind.

01:22:06Such a thing was worn by someone of wealth.

01:22:08And nearby, at the very same site, an Anglo-Saxon buckle was also found.

01:22:12This means there was an entire settlement here that no one knew about before.

01:22:16And people who knew how to write lived in it.

01:22:18In an era referred to as the Dark Ages, when literate people were few and far between,

01:22:22someone wore a ring on their finger with a secret inscription.

01:22:25And what it means, we still haven't found out after a thousand years.

01:22:29The Giant's Tomb

01:22:31In Sardinia, near the town of Macamer, at an altitude of 740 meters,

01:22:36they found a so-called Giant's Tomb, dating back 3,800 years.

01:22:42The two-level structure is built of trachyte blocks and was completely hidden by thickets for many years.

01:22:46Spotting it from the trail is simply impossible.

01:22:49Inside, a burial chamber and a monumental semicircular etc. in front of the entrance have been preserved.

01:22:54Something like a ceremonial area.

01:22:56The special feature of this particular tomb is that the space near the entrance is divided into two levels.

01:23:02Such a design is found extremely rarely.

01:23:04And it could change our understanding of the construction technologies of the Nuragic civilization

01:23:09that existed in Sardinia before the arrival of the Romans.

01:23:11The Giant's Graves themselves appeared around 1800 BC as an evolution of ancient dolmens,

01:23:18and they served as a collective burial site.

01:23:20That is, not just one person was buried here, but many at once.

01:23:24And the semicircular area in front of the entrance was used for ceremonies in honor of the ancestors.

01:23:30Scientists have found ceramics confirming that people lived in this area from the earliest periods,

01:23:35and around the tomb there are traces of human presence from prehistoric times to the Roman era.

01:23:40But along with this, the experts noticed something unpleasant.

01:23:44Clear signs of illegal excavations.

01:23:46That means someone reached the tomb before the archaeologists,

01:23:49and possibly took something out of there already.

01:23:51And the name Giant's Tomb itself is not an archaeological term, but a local legend.

01:23:56The Nuragic people who built these structures were, according to legend, tall people.

01:24:01It's impossible to verify this.

01:24:03Simply because their remains haven't survived.

01:24:07560 servants for the afterlife.

01:24:10With ancient burials, everything would seem more or less clear.

01:24:14Mummies, amulets, vessels, ushabti.

01:24:17But the more you try to understand why this was placed in the grave,

01:24:21the more you realize how seriously the Egyptians took life after death.

01:24:26Take ushabti, for instance.

01:24:28These are small figurines that were supposed to do the work,

01:24:31instead of the deceased in the afterlife.

01:24:33And over time, the Egyptians turned this concept into a practically full-fledged work schedule.

01:24:39A wealthy burial could contain a set of 365 worker ushabtis,

01:24:44one for each day of the year, plus another 36 overseers,

01:24:47one boss for every 10 workers,

01:24:49apparently even after death, you can't get by without management.

01:24:52That is, the Egyptians planned ahead.

01:24:55And they didn't just assign roles to the figurines and hope for the best.

01:24:59The ushabti were depicted with hoes and grain baskets.

01:25:01And special spells from the Book of the Dead

01:25:04were inscribed right on the bodies of some of them.

01:25:06The idea was roughly this.

01:25:08If the master is called upon in the afterlife

01:25:10to plow a field, hold sand, or do any other work,

01:25:14the figurine must answer and do it all in his place.

01:25:17So the Egyptians even planned ahead for a way

01:25:19to skip work after death.

01:25:22And now, we move to Tel al-Quesna in the Nile Delta.

01:25:26There, archaeologists uncovered a new burial complex

01:25:28and found two clusters of ushabti at once in one of the chambers.

01:25:31A total of 560 figurines, they were of different sizes.

01:25:35Some were inscribed with texts from the Book of the Dead.

01:25:38Why there were exactly 560 of them, and who specifically owned all these figurines

01:25:43is not yet easy to determine.

01:25:44The cemeteries were used across different periods.

01:25:47So, researchers still have to figure out which finds belong to which burials.

01:25:51But besides the ushabti, they found plenty of other interesting things there.

01:25:55Amulets with the eye of Horus and the knot of Isis.

01:25:58Depictions of deities and thousands of blue and green beads.

01:26:02Most likely, a whole beadnet was once made from these beads to cover the deceased.

01:26:07And amidst all this typically Egyptian history, pottery from the Greek island of Rhodes was suddenly found.

01:26:11In fact, the handle of one vessel even preserved the craftsman's name.

01:26:15In other words, this piece was made hundreds of kilometers away from here.

01:26:18It was then somehow brought to Egypt, where it ended its journey in a tomb.

01:26:23And that's what makes you wonder.

01:26:25Was it just an expensive imported item, or did it hold special meaning for the person buried here?

01:26:30And these are the kinds of details I love the most.

01:26:33You start with an Egyptian tomb, Ushabti, and the Book of the Dead.

01:26:36And a minute later, you find yourself on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.

01:26:41Because someone once made this vessel in Rhodes.

01:26:44Then, somehow, it was brought to Egypt.

01:26:46And in the end, it ended up in a tomb along with local burial goods.

01:26:50And so, after hundreds of figurines, magical amulets, and imported pottery,

01:26:55what puzzled the archaeologists most was a few completely ordinary plates.

01:26:59One of the deceased was buried in such a way that ceramic dishes were intentionally placed under both hands.

01:27:03And another one was between the thighs.

01:27:06What's more, the remains of an unknown substance were preserved in some of the vessels.

01:27:10It is presumed that they could have been used during mummification or in some funerary rite.

01:27:14But the exact composition and purpose are still being studied.

01:27:18But Tel Kuisna itself, this method of placing pottery hadn't been properly documented before.

01:27:23Frankly, out of all the ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, this is the one I understand best.

01:27:29If I have to go back to work even after death, I want an Ushabti too.

01:27:35After this episode, I realized two very important things.

01:27:38I want a ring made from a real meteorite, and I completely don't want to work after death.

01:27:42I'll somehow manage to sort out the first thing.

01:27:44And for the second one, it looks like it's time to stock up on Ushabtis.

01:27:49Let me know in the comments which of the finds surprised you the most.

01:27:52Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already, because a new video is coming soon.

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