When we picture the food chain, modern humans often sit comfortably at the top, yet the reality is that 10 animals hunted our ancestors long before we mastered fire and tools. From massive felines to cunning birds of prey, these predators made early humans a regular menu item. Let’s embark on a wild walk through time and meet the ten most notorious hunters of our lineage.

10 Toothed Cat

Saber‑toothed cats never hesitated to sink their massive canines into early humans whenever the chance presented itself.

In 2015, researchers uncovered 300,000‑year‑old teeth and bone fragments belonging to two saber‑toothed cats in Schoningen, Germany. Tests showed that a member of Homo heidelbergensis, a likely predecessor of modern humans, repurposed one of those bones as a hammer.

Homo heidelbergensis proved to be a capable hunter, wielding wooden spears to bring down large prey such as rhinos, bison, and giant deer. Nonetheless, they wisely avoided direct clashes with saber‑toothed cats, only confronting them in self‑defense.

Another discovery in the Djurab Desert of Chad revealed that Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a much older possible ancestor of humans and chimpanzees dating between 6.5 and 7.5 million years ago, co‑existed with at least three saber‑toothed cat species, including the gigantic Machairodus kabir.

M. kabir tipped the scales at 350‑490 kilograms (770‑1,018 lb), outweighing today’s biggest tigers, which max out around 300 kg (660 lb). Fossils of S. tchadensis were found alongside crocodiles, monkeys, horses, hyenas, and honey badgers, leading historians to conclude that the saber‑toothed cat hunted this early hominin just as it did the other fauna.

9 Haast’s Eagle

Maori legends speak of a colossal bird that preyed on human infants centuries ago. The Maori called this creature Te Hokioi (or Pouakai), but scientists identify it as the fearsome Haast’s eagle.

Just as the legends describe, Haast’s eagle could snatch up children with ease and likely could have dispatched an adult human without much trouble. Its primary target, however, was the moa—a massive, flightless bird that dwarfed even a human.

Standing 0.9 meters (3 ft) tall and measuring 1.5 meters (5 ft) in length, the eagle weighed 14 kg (31 lb) and boasted a 3‑meter (9.8 ft) wingspan. Its beak and talons were twice the size of those of today’s largest eagles.

The Maori unintentionally sealed the eagle’s fate by hunting the moa to extinction. With its main food source gone, Haast’s eagle vanished around 1400 CE, unable to find prey large enough to satisfy its appetite.

8 Crocodylus Anthropophagus

Crocodylus anthropophagus was a massive extinct crocodile that stalked early humans and hominins roughly 1.84 million years ago. Its very name—”anthropophagus”—means “human‑eater.”

Scientists unearthed the first fossil of C. anthropophagus in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge in 2007. At that time, both Homo habilis and Australopithecus boisei roamed the same waters, and several fossils bear unmistakable crocodile bite marks.

Researchers believe the croc would lie submerged, leaping up to snatch unsuspecting prey that came to drink. The consensus is that early humans and hominins formed a regular part of its diet.

7 Snakes

Humans possess an innate ophidiophobia—a deep‑rooted fear of snakes—that helped shape our evolution. For the past 100 million years, snakes and primates have shared ecosystems, with snakes viewing primates as another food source.

According to Lynne Isbell of the University of California, the terror of ending up in a snake’s belly drove early primates to develop larger brains and sharper vision. While primates could already spot distant predators, snakes moved stealthily along the ground, making them hard to detect. They would creep close before coiling around their victims, suffocating them.

Early primates evolved trichromatic vision and depth perception to better spot snakes. Around 60 million years ago, venomous snakes emerged, using toxins to counteract primates’ improved eyesight. In turn, primates further enhanced brain processing speed. Today, humans still share a mortal rivalry with snakes, though we now hold the upper hand.

6 Crocodylus Thorbjarnarsoni

Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni was another ancient crocodile that likely preyed upon early humans. It inhabited Lake Turkana in Kenya between two and four million years ago, lurking underwater and ambushing any creature that approached for a drink.

Reaching an astounding 8.3 meters (27.2 ft) in length, it holds the record as the largest crocodile ever discovered. By comparison, the biggest crocodile kept in captivity measures 6.1 meters (20.3 ft). Early humans faced a huge disadvantage: size.

At the time, early humans stood just 1.2 meters (4 ft) tall, making them easily swallowed whole by the massive reptile. While historians cannot confirm definitive cases of C. thorbjarnarsoni eating humans, the sheer size disparity suggests it could have done so, though any remains would have been completely digested.

5 Cave Bear

The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) emerged around 100,000 years ago and vanished roughly 25,000 years ago. Native to Europe, it spent winters hibernating deep within caves, leaving many of those caverns littered with its skeletal remains. Medieval peoples even mistook these fossils for dragons.

Cave bears coexisted with Neanderthals until modern humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Both groups shared the same shelter spaces, leading to violent clashes over territory, as cave bears were primarily herbivorous. Humans rarely hunted them outright due to their size and danger, but opportunistic kills did occur.

Sometimes bears left one cave for another, while humans would occupy a cave during summer and vacate when bears returned to hibernate. Unavoidable encounters happened when an unsuspecting human wandered into a bear‑occupied cave, provoking a fierce confrontation.

4 Unidentified Eagle

In 1924, scientists excavated a two‑million‑year‑old skull of a young Australopithecus africanus—the famed Taung child—in South Africa. This fossil, considered a missing link in human evolution, was found alongside remains of several other animals, hinting at a predator’s involvement.

Initially, researchers suspected a saber‑toothed cat or leopard, but closer inspection of the skull revealed marks consistent with an unidentified eagle. The injuries matched talon punctures and beak bite marks typical of an eagle’s hunting technique.

The eagle likely resembled the modern African crowned eagle, known for removing the eyes of its prey with talons and beak to access the brain. While larger predators would have simply shattered the skull, the precise damage points to an avian attacker. Given the child’s size—roughly three and a half years old—it would have been within the prey size range of such eagles, which occasionally prey on human infants today.

3 Ancient Hyenas

In 1994, researchers uncovered a 500,000‑year‑old femur belonging to Homo rhodesiensis within a Moroccan cave. This subspecies of Homo heidelbergensis is thought to be a common ancestor of both Neanderthals and modern humans. The bone showed extensive chewing marks, indicating it had been gnawed by an extinct hyena.

Scientists confirmed that both early humans and ancient hyenas occupied the same cave, though timing overlap remains uncertain. While it’s plausible that hyenas preyed upon the hominin, definitive proof is lacking; the human could have died from other causes, with hyenas scavenging the remains later.

Homo rhodesiensis was a capable hunter, capable of taking down large game and possibly even confronting hyenas. Conversely, hyenas were equally adept at hunting humans. The discovery offers a rare glimpse into predator‑prey dynamics involving our ancestors.

2 Other Humans

Scientists have identified several fossil sites across Europe where Neanderthals appear to have been cannibalized. While evidence points to flesh consumption, researchers do not believe Neanderthals habitually hunted their own kind for sustenance.

A human body yields roughly 32,000 calories, far less than a horse’s 200,000 calories. However, Neanderthals possessed greater muscle mass, potentially offering a higher caloric return. Some fossil assemblages contain multiple individuals, suggesting episodes of mass consumption, possibly driven by famine, ritual practices, or defensive actions.

1 Almost Every Carnivore

Proconsul, one of our earliest ape ancestors, fell prey to virtually every meat‑eating creature of its time. Living roughly 20 million years ago in Africa, it is considered the first true ape and the common ancestor of both apes and monkeys.

Measuring 0.9‑1.5 meters (3‑5 ft) in length and weighing 11‑45 kilograms (25‑100 lb), Proconsul lacked a tail and moved on all fours, much like a monkey. Its intelligence matched that of modern monkeys, making it a tempting target for a wide array of carnivores—from birds of prey to mammalian hunters.

Fossil evidence shows that creodonts—an extinct group of mammalian carnivores—regularly consumed Proconsul. Multiple 16‑ to 20‑million‑year‑old specimens bear clear signs of predation, underscoring how this early ape was on the menu for almost every carnivorous species of its era.

When you think about the weird ways our forebears entertained themselves, the list reads like something out of a gothic novel. From cat‑burning spectacles to competitive walking marathons, the 10 bizarre things they tried will make you wonder how far humanity has come. Our ancestors did some strange things out of boredom that we today would have trouble getting our heads around. Once upon a time, people burned cats for fun and thought competitive walking was the height of entertainment. No matter how hard we try, we may never be as crazy as our grandparents.

10 Bizarre Things: A Quick Overview

10 Cat Burning

In today’s world, the killing of any animal provokes immediate outrage, but back in 17th‑century France, cat burning was treated as a public amusement. Every midsummer, Parisians flocked to the Place de Greve for a bonfire, music, and dancing. To add a macabre twist, they gathered live cats in sacks, hoisted them over the flames from a mast, and watched the helpless creatures perish slowly.

The cats were thought to be linked to the devil and witches, and occasionally a fox was tossed into the fire for extra spectacle. While the poor animals shrieked, the crowd continued to party, singing and reveling in the grim display.

Even French royalty got involved; kings and dignitaries sometimes had the honor of lighting the bonfire. Similar midsummer fire rituals occurred across Europe, and after the flames died down, attendees collected the ashes, believing they brought good luck.

9 Incubated Babies Fairs

Before the 20th century, premature infants faced almost certain death. Dr. Martin Corney’s invention of the incubator promised hope, yet hospitals shunned it and investors balked. To keep his invention alive and win over skeptics, Dr. Couney devised a wildly unconventional solution: he turned his incubators into a sideshow attraction.

His “child hatchery” opened in Berlin in 1896, later moving to Coney Island in the United States. The exhibit resembled a normal hospital ward, complete with doctors and nurses, but one wall was made of glass so curious onlookers could peer inside and watch the tiny patients.

The show proved a massive success. Parents brought their premature babies, receiving free medical care, while visitors paid up to 25 cents to watch. The revenue covered all expenses, and most of the displayed infants survived. By the time the fairs ended after four decades, Couney had convinced the public that incubators were safe and effective.

8 Blackened Teeth

Today we obsess over whitening our smiles, but in 16th‑ and 17th‑century England, a very different dental trend took hold. Sugar was a luxury import, affordable only to the upper‑class Elizabethans, and its overuse rotted teeth spectacularly.

Queen Elizabeth I herself suffered severe dental decay from her sweet tooth, leaving her with only a few blackened, crumbling teeth. Strangely, these darkened chompers became a status symbol among the elite. Those whose teeth weren’t black enough resorted to cosmetic tricks—applying coal or other dark substances to achieve the fashionable shade.

Despite the grim appearance, Victorians were meticulous about bad breath, fearing that foul odors could spread the plague. They used vinegar, anise seeds, and other herbs to mask odors, showing a paradoxical concern for hygiene amid a macabre fashion.

7 Pedestrianism

In the 19th‑century United States, competitive walking—known as pedestrianism—reigned as the hottest spectator sport. After the Civil War, city‑dwelling crowds craved new entertainment, and arenas filled with walkers who paced nonstop from Monday through Saturday, Sundays being off‑limits for public amusements.

Racers tried to cover the greatest distance within a set time, some astonishingly logging up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) in a single 24‑hour stint. Celebrities, including future President Chester Arthur, flocked to the events, and the sport generated fierce rivalries, lucrative prize money, and even scandals involving match‑fixing and performance‑enhancing substances.

Pedestrianism eventually faded when the safety bicycle, invented by John Starley in 1885, captured the public’s imagination, ushering in a new era of competitive cycling.

6 The Alexandra Limp

From the moment she married the Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra of Denmark captured the British public’s adoration, earning a reputation akin to a 19th‑century Princess Diana. Her charitable spirit and vivacious personality inspired countless imitators.

Following the birth of her third child in 1867, Alexandra contracted rheumatic fever, which left her with a noticeable limp. This sparked a peculiar fashion craze: women in London and Edinburgh began limping deliberately to emulate the princess. To make their gait appear authentic, many purchased mismatched shoes, prompting cobblers to craft deliberately uneven footwear. Walking canes, once reserved for the infirm, surged in popularity among able‑bodied ladies.

The trend drew sharp criticism from leading newspapers, which decried it as mockery of the royal figure. Fortunately, the fad burned out relatively quickly, leaving only a curious footnote in fashion history.

5 Headless Portraits

When photography burst onto the scene, it birthed a slew of odd trends. Beyond the well‑known post‑mortem photos that reflected Victorian fascination with death, Oscar Rejlander introduced an even more unsettling genre in 1853: headless portraits.

Rejlander, often hailed as a pioneer of artistic photography, ingeniously combined negatives to produce images where subjects appeared beside their own decapitated heads. The novelty proved wildly popular, prompting other photographers to adopt the technique.

People of all ages posed with their severed heads—some cradling them, others displaying them on platters, and a few even dangling them from their hands while brandishing a knife. The macabre fashion spread far and wide, with children joining the eerie fun.

4 Fasting Girls

Anorexia nervosa, a modern‑day eating disorder marked by self‑starvation, is often viewed as a contemporary issue. Yet its roots stretch back centuries, most famously to the late 19th‑century phenomenon of the “fasting girls.”

These young women claimed to survive for extended periods without consuming any food, a condition dubbed anorexia mirabilis. Their alleged miracles turned them into celebrities, drawing crowds from around the globe who offered gifts and prayers, hoping to secure divine favor.

Their fame highlighted society’s fascination with extreme self‑denial, and the media of the era amplified their stories, cementing their place in the annals of bizarre historical curiosities.

3 Tear Catching

The origins of tear catching are murky, but the earliest reference appears in the Bible. The practice resurfaced during the Roman era, when mourners collected their own tears in tiny glass bottles—known as lachrymatory bottles—and placed them in tombs as a sign of respect.

In some cases, women were even hired to weep into these vessels during funeral processions, as the volume of tears was thought to reflect the deceased’s worth. The custom experienced a Victorian revival, with mourners using specially‑designed vials equipped with stoppers that allowed evaporation; once the tears vanished, the mourning period was considered complete.

Across the Atlantic, Civil‑War‑era American women filled tear vials while awaiting the return of their husbands, believing that the more tears they collected, the deeper their longing and devotion.

2 Ant Farms

Fast forward to the 1950s, when Milton Levine turned a simple observation at a Fourth of July picnic into a nationwide craze: the ant farm. Captivated by the bustling colonies he saw, Levine imagined a transparent plastic “farm” where people could watch ants at work.

He marketed the product as “Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm,” pricing it at $1.98 and promoting it through newspaper ads. The novelty sparked an immediate frenzy, with orders pouring in from coast to coast.

Ants were harvested by “ant rustlers” who earned a penny per insect. Customers first bought the farm, then ordered the live ants, which arrived in vials the next day, accompanied by a manual, special sand, and a liquid dropper. By the time Levine passed away in 2011 at age 97, he had sold over 20 million ant farms, cementing his legacy as a master of mid‑century novelty toys.

1 Uranium Sitting

In 1953, a Texas dairy farm became the epicenter of a bizarre health fad known as uranium sitting. Owner Jesse Reese claimed his leg had healed after burying it in soil that scientists had recently identified as containing traces of uranium. Believing the radioactive earth possessed curative powers, people with ailments ranging from colds to cancer flocked to his farm.

Reese sold his herd and transformed the property into a “uranium dirt house,” where patrons buried sick body parts in the soil. The craze spread, spawning similar dirt houses across the state that charged up to $20 per session and added amenities like trailer camps and even landing strips to accommodate the influx.

In 1955, entrepreneurs R.E. Hight and Walter Miller opened a facility in Corydon, leasing 1.5 tons of the touted radioactive soil from Reese. They required customers to sign waivers stating no miracles were guaranteed. However, a local newspaper soon exposed that the Corydon sand was virtually non‑radioactive. A hired geological engineer confirmed the soil contained negligible uranium, shattering the illusion of healing power and causing the fad to collapse.

When we ask why 10 reasons believe humans could trace their lineage back to the water, the answer lies in a parade of quirks that set us apart from our primate cousins.

10 reasons believe: The Aquatic Evidence

10 Bigger Brain

The architecture of the human brain is strikingly distinct from that of other apes, especially when you look at the cerebral cortex. Our cortex is considerably larger, granting us the capacities for language, sophisticated tool‑making, and fine‑motor precision.

This enlargement mirrors the pattern observed in marine mammals such as seals and dolphins, whose diets are packed with brain‑specific polyunsaturated fats—most notably docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a crucial omega‑3 that fuels neural growth.

By contrast, a strictly terrestrial diet on the savanna simply cannot supply the nutrients required for such cerebral expansion. As land‑based mammals increase in size, their brains tend to shrink—picture a horse with a walnut‑sized brain.

In the ocean, the opposite holds true. Dolphins, for example, carry a 1.8 kg (4 lb) brain thanks to a seafood‑rich diet, and the sperm whale tops the chart with a massive 7–8 kg (15–18 lb) brain, underscoring how marine foods can drive brain development.

9 Large Sinuses

Our noses are among the most unusual structures in the animal kingdom. The expansive sinus cavities nestled between the cheek, nose, and forehead are not shared with any other ape or terrestrial mammal.

If we entertain an aquatic lineage, those air‑filled chambers could act as natural buoyancy aids, helping keep our heads above water while also shielding the upper airway in a watery environment.

Ever notice how our nostrils tilt downward? That orientation would help keep water out when we submerge, much like the reduced olfactory sense seen in diving mammals, which rely less on smell underwater.

Humans, despite possessing these large sinuses, have a relatively poor sense of smell—an adaptation that makes sense if our ancestors spent significant time beneath the surface.

8 Bipedal Shift

Our species has been striding on two legs for roughly two million years, give or take a few million depending on the source.

Traditional accounts linked this bipedal transition to a move from arboreal life to open grasslands. Yet, when baboons venture onto the savanna, they stubbornly remain quadrupedal.

The twist? Baboons only stand upright when they need to wade through water for food. David Attenborough observed numerous primates adopting a bipedal stance while crossing shallow streams, only to drop back onto all fours once back on land.

Studies comparing water‑based walking to terrestrial locomotion suggest that the buoyancy of water made upright walking easier for our ancestors, gradually shaping our elongated legs and distinctive gait.

7 A Subcutaneous Fat Layer

Human newborns arrive looking like cherubic bundles of chubby cheeks and soft rolls of fat—unlike other primates, which tend to appear wrinkled and gaunt at birth.

This pervasive layer of subcutaneous fat blankets almost our entire body, enabling us to accumulate far more adipose tissue than any other primate and providing a vital energy reserve.

Marine mammals such as whales, seals, walruses, and manatees also sport thick blubber. In water, that fat supplies buoyancy, insulation against rapid heat loss, and streamlines the body for more efficient swimming—key advantages for an aquatic lifestyle.

6 Curiosities From Birth

When a human infant is briefly submerged, an instinctual response kicks in: they hold their breath, open their eyes, and their heart rate slows—a reflex known as the bradycardic response.

This mechanism shunts blood away from peripheral muscles toward vital organs, conserving oxygen for the brain and heart. Such a reflex would be unnecessary for a child raised solely on the savanna.

Newborns are also coated in a greasy, cheese‑like substance called vernix caseosa. While once thought unique to humans, researchers discovered that seal pups are born with the same protective layer, hinting at a broader marine mammal pattern.

5 Sweat And Tears

Living near salty water demands a way to expel excess salt. While sweating cools us down, it also releases salt; however, tears provide a supplementary route for salt excretion.

Humans are the only mammals that regularly shed visible tears. Other animals may produce lacrimal secretions, but they don’t flow out as distinct drops.

This heightened ability to release salty fluid may reflect an adaptation to a semi‑aquatic environment where managing salt balance is crucial.

4 Breath Control

Gorillas can’t speak not because of teeth or vocal cords, but because they lack the conscious mastery of breath that humans possess.

Diving mammals hold their breath to keep water out of the lungs and regulate pressure while submerged. This refined control over the airway likely pre‑adapted our species for complex speech.

Our soft palate can lift to seal off the nasopharynx, a feature shared with seals and sea lions, preventing water from entering the respiratory tract.

Additionally, humans have a uniquely descended larynx, positioning it nearer the lungs. This anatomy, also seen in marine mammals, enables us to gulp large volumes of air, a prerequisite for extended vocalization.

3 Fossils And Observation Of Behavior

Lucy’s remains and many other early hominin fossils were uncovered near the shores of massive lakes, areas known for periodic flooding.

Researchers analyzing twenty East and South African fossil sites found evidence suggesting our ancestors lived in lakeside or flood‑prone grasslands.

Observations of baboons in Botswana’s Okavango Delta reveal that, during the rainy season, they turn to water‑lily roots when fruit becomes scarce, indicating a willingness to exploit aquatic resources.

Early humans also harvested water‑lily nuts, which required diving five to seven meters to collect before roasting them over fire—much like popcorn. Moreover, fossilized catfish bones bearing stone‑cut marks demonstrate that seafood consumption dates back at least two million years.

2 Pruney Fingers

Ever notice how fingers wrinkle after a long soak? This automatic response, governed by the autonomic nervous system, may have once given our ancestors a better grip on wet objects.

Neurobiologist Mark Changizi proposes that the pruney pattern functions like tire treads, improving traction in watery conditions. A study from Newcastle University confirmed that participants could pick up wet marbles faster with wrinkled fingertips than with smooth ones.

The advantage vanished when the marbles were dry, suggesting the adaptation is specifically suited to an aquatic environment where handling slippery prey or tools would be essential.

1 Nakedness

Humans are the only primates with largely hairless bodies, a trait that reduces drag and lets us glide through water with minimal resistance.

We retain hair on the scalp, shoulders, and upper arms, likely for protection against sun exposure. The remaining hair grows in a diagonal pattern that points inward, further streamlining the body for swimming.

Many aquatic mammals—hippos, dolphins, manatees—have shed most body hair. Even traditionally non‑aquatic giants like elephants and rhinos have ancestors that lived in water, underscoring a deep evolutionary link between hair loss and aquatic habitats.

When you think about the 10 mundane jobs that shape our modern world, you probably picture dull office cubicles or repetitive factory lines. Yet, those very occupations once haunted the imaginations of ancient peoples, turning everyday labor into nightmarish spectacles. From Roman banquet servitude to deadly match factories, each role carried its own brand of horror that would make today’s most boring gig seem like a walk in the park.

Why These 10 Mundane Jobs Matter

Understanding the grisly past of these seemingly ordinary professions helps us appreciate how far workplace safety has come—and reminds us that even the most routine tasks can have a dark history.

10 Waiting Tables

Waiting tables has long been the domain of struggling actors and those working on their screenplays; it’s sort of a holding-pattern profession, not something you aspire to. But the ancient world somehow found a way to make this most humble of professions even less profitable and even more degrading.

The wealthy of ancient Rome were fond of a good feast. They would attend lavish banquets and gorge themselves on wine and various delicacies, all served by slaves, until they simply couldn’t eat another bite. But what was a Roman aristocrat to do when a full belly came a little too early in the evening? They made some room.

Excusing themselves from the party, diners would occasionally force themselves to vomit in order to rejoin the feast (in a not-too-dissimilar manner to some of our own size 0 models and actresses). The downtrodden waitstaff—slaves—would then mop up the last course before returning to serve up the next. And they didn’t even get a tip. Incidentally, contrary to popular belief, the Romans did not purge themselves in rooms called vomitoria or vomitoriums—those were simply passages in an amphitheater.

9 Cutting Hair

Between sweeping up other people’s hair and forcing boring small talk, the duties of a modern barber aren’t exactly glamorous. But luckily for those aspiring stylists out there, the last few centuries have done a great job filtering the unbridled horror out of a job that once left our ancestors scarred in more ways than one.

In addition to trimming hair, the barbers of medieval Europe held a host of other job titles. They dabbled in dentistry by extracting the rotten teeth of their clients. They played doctor by selling various primitive medicines, performing bloodletting, and even giving enemas. Though most shocking were the duties of the notorious barber-surgeons.

As the terrifying title suggests, these barbers made a living hacking open their customers. Barely trained and almost never literate, these maniacs’ attempts at medicine were little more than butchery.

It was common for bloodstained rags to be seen hanging from the walls of the barbershop, inspiring the iconic red-and-white poles we still see today. Luckily, barbers were forbidden to do anything but cut hair by King George II in 1745.

8 Bartending

The gravest dangers facing barkeeps today are bad tips and the occasional drunken brawl. Other than that, it’s pretty cut-and-dried. Even if a mistake is made, the worst that can be expected is a demanded refund. But that wasn’t the case in 17th-century Europe.

During the Tudor era, it was common for brewers to sell their products directly to the alcohol-crazed masses. The ale went bad in a matter of days, so alehouses—or taverns—brewed their ale on-site to serve it as quickly as possible. This was a pretty efficient system, but the fact that nonprofessionals were handling the brewing often led to bad batches. People didn’t like bad batches.

Punishments for inferior ale were swift and bizarrely severe. In addition to fines, the offending brewer, which was traditionally a woman, would have her entire stock confiscated and distributed for free to the poor.

But strangest of all was the use of the “ducking-stool.” The “alewife” in question would be tied to a chair on the end of a long pole and submerged in dirty water. This primitive waterboarding was used on countless women whose only crimes were making a few bad drinks.

7 Making Musical Instruments

Modern instrument manufacturing is typically carried out like any other kind of modern manufacturing—on a cold, monotonous assembly line. Workers are essentially soulless living machinery, but the experience still beats the methods used in ages past.

Violin strings were, and occasionally still are, made of only the finest sheep intestines. Violin manufacturers would often set up shop right next door to the local slaughterhouse to get their hands on the grisly guts the moment they were cut from the sheep.

Then the manufacturers would cart their haul back to the factory and set about scraping out the feces, blood, fat, and slime. This would all be done by hand as the intestines were too delicate for machinery to handle.

After cleaning, the guts were wound up and dried to produce the violin strings. Ironically, this gruesome process was said to result in the most beautiful-sounding strings. If they were cleaned properly, that is. If not, they were known to begin rotting on the violin.

6 Hairdressing

Modern hairdressing may be looked down upon by some, but the stylists of the ancient world were the targets of almost universal disgust. Far from their chatty, hairspray-blasted modern counterparts, hairdressers in ancient Rome were slaves who reeked of several less pleasant substances.

Called ornatrixes, these pitiable professionals spent their lives catering to the whims of the ultra-vain elite. The pressure was intense as a mistake meant a brutal whipping, but that still wasn’t the worst part of the job.

There were no hair products back in the day, forcing the dedicated ornatrix to improvise. Bile, cuttlefish ink, and even decomposed leeches were mixed to produce dark hair dye, but bleaching was even worse. Pigeon droppings and ash were slathered onto the scalp and then rinsed out with human urine.

However, the ornatrix’s worst days came from dandruff sufferers as the Romans believed that a flaky scalp could be cured with human feces.

5 Washing Clothes

Aside from dry cleaners, you would be hard-pressed to find a laundry washing professional in modern society. Washing machines and detergents have made the task so easy that there really isn’t a need for a dedicated laundry person. But there used to be, and his job was truly disgusting.

Again, ancient Rome is to blame for the foulness of what should be a squeaky-clean profession. Large vats were a common sight on Roman streets, which acted as primitive public restrooms. Citizens would wander by, urinate into them, and go about their business. When the vats were full, they were hauled off to the local fullonica.

This building was the ancient equivalent of a laundromat. Workers would pour the massive jugs of strangers’ urine into large tubs with the dirty laundry. But that was only step one.

Next, they would stand knee-deep in the urine-filled tubs and stomp around to agitate the clothes. Ironically, the ammonia in urine is great for breaking down dirt and grease, making this a surprisingly effective process.

4 Party Planning

Whether it’s a graduation party, wedding reception, or just a weekend house party, a lot goes into crafting the perfect get-together—so much that many people choose to make their living coordinating such events. But odds are that none of them have ever been asked to plan a night of group sex.

As you may have guessed by now, this extremely dirty job comes to us from ancient Rome. Emperors had their own personal orgy planners committed to throwing the largest and filthiest sex parties imaginable. Often lasting multiple days, Rome’s elite would meet at these carnal carnivals to indulge in acts so legendarily lurid that they would be painted on public walls for all to enjoy.

While this may sound like a dream job to some, it comes with a catch. Humiliated family members of partygoers sometimes “vented their frustrations” on the orgy planner or his employer. That’s a diplomatic way of saying that the family brutally tortured and murdered the orgy planner.

3 Working In A Carnival

Working in a carnival is by no means a pleasant experience. Sitting outside, listening to screaming kids, and huffing fumes from the Tilt-A-Whirl isn’t exactly paradise. Luckily, today’s carnival goer is a bit more squeamish than his early-20th-century counterpart or it would be so much worse.

The word “geek” is usually used to describe the socially awkward, but it began as the title for a carnival performer. This performer did only one thing: He bit the heads off things, including snakes and rats but usually live chickens. Playing the role of a savage “wild man,” the carny shocked crowds with his gruesome and bloody displays.

But it gets worse. Obviously, very few would volunteer for this position, so carnival owners were notorious for finding homeless drug addicts for the part. The owners would simply offer the addicts their fix in exchange for a performance.

The addict was given a razor blade to sneakily cut the neck of the animal, making his job easier—at first. Once the “performer” was completely dependent on the owner, the razor was taken away, leaving the carnival with a brand-new geek.

2 Making Hats

Like so many professions, the job of hatmaking has been simplified to the point of being phased out. Machines have replaced most of the workers, making modern hatters little more than glorified factory equipment. But that may not be such a bad thing.

The 17th century gave us one of the worst manufacturing innovations in history. “Carroting” was a hatmaking shortcut that allowed hatters to work their stiff materials into complex shapes more easily. By simply washing the fabric with mercury nitrate—which temporarily turned it orange, hence the name—the fabric was much more workable, cutting down production time. It seemed like a miracle—until hatters started losing their minds.

As it turns out, holding a mercury-soaked wad of cloth inches from your face for years isn’t the healthiest pastime. Breathing mercury fumes allows the deadly metal to build up in the body and attack the nervous system as well as the teeth and gums.

This led to a rash of “mad hatters.” Their poisoning led them to drool, lose teeth, shake uncontrollably, and eventually suffer permanent brain damage. This is actually where we get the phrase “mad as a hatter.”

1 Making Matchsticks

No one would argue that matches are dangerous. But barring a freak fire, how could making the tiny, innocuous sticks possibly be harmful? Just dip a few pieces of wood into some incendiary sludge, and call it a day. Sure, it would be tedious, but it’s easy money. Right?

Well, no. It turns out that one of the most gruesome workplace epidemics of the 19th and 20th centuries was suffered by workers producing “strike anywhere” matches. Yellow phosphorus—which we now call white phosphorus—was needed to produce these matches, and factory workers spent 10–15 hours a day handling the dangerous substance. However, its danger came not from the potential for burns but from the fumes it produced.

In 1838, the first case of “phossy jaw” was recorded. After breathing poisonous phosphorus fumes in a matchstick factory, workers began to experience intense pain and swelling in their lower faces. They started to lose teeth, and large, open sores appeared along their jawlines.

Both skin and bone rotted and fell away, leaving the hapless employee permanently disfigured. The only course of action was a complete removal of the jaw. Luckily, the early 20th century saw strict regulations, if not outright bans, placed on phosphorus match production.

Ian is a struggling writer who suddenly doesn’t feel so bad about that.

With a couple of recent exceptions, cosmic phenomena (often hyped up in the media) tend to be underwhelming. Which, to be fair, is probably a good thing. But history has recorded plenty of genuinely spectacular events in the centuries and millennia before modern astronomy.

10 The Julian Star

Caesar’s Comet, also known as the Julian Star, burst onto the heavens just after Julius Caesar met his tragic end in the Senate. It lingered after sunset for a full week during the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris games, quickly becoming an object of reverence. Roman chronicler Pliny the Elder tells us that Augustus, Caesar’s heir and the first emperor, interpreted the comet as a divine endorsement of his reign.

For Augustus, the comet was a political lifesaver. His claim to power was hotly contested—especially by Mark Antony, who insinuated that Augustus’s ascent was the result of some scandalous liaison with his great‑uncle. Seizing the moment, Augustus declared the “new star” to be Caesar’s soul ascending to the gods, thereby cementing his own semi‑divine status in the public imagination.

Skeptics have wondered whether Augustus fabricated the sighting, pointing to oddities like a 26‑year gap between the comet’s reported appearance and its depiction on contemporary coins. Yet Chinese astronomical records corroborate the Roman accounts, and because comets were generally viewed as bad omens, Augustus’s spin on the event as a positive sign would have required genuine celestial timing.

9 The Supernova of 1054

In the year 1054, a super‑exploding star flashed so brightly it could be seen in daylight across the globe. Chinese astronomers labeled it a “guest star,” likening its brilliance to Venus, the “morning star,” yet noting that it radiated rays in all directions. In the Levant, this celestial fireball was linked to a devastating epidemic that claimed 14,000 lives in Constantinople before sweeping south to Cairo.

The radiant burst lingered for 23 days before fading, while its afterglow persisted for 21 months during night‑time observations. Modern scientists now recognize the remnant as the Crab Nebula—the brightest supernova remnant visible to the naked eye. For decades the exact mechanism remained a mystery; it didn’t fit neatly into the classic iron‑core collapse or thermonuclear categories.

It wasn’t until 2018 that researchers identified a third class—electron‑capture supernovae—matching the 1054 event. These occur in stars 8‑10 times the Sun’s mass when extreme pressures force electrons to merge with atomic nuclei, causing the core to implode and explode. Unlike the 2018 supernova, which detonated 30‑40 million light‑years away in galaxy NGC 2146, the 1054 blast erupted a mere 6,500 light‑years from Earth, making it a truly local cosmic fireworks display.

8 The Total Solar Eclipse of 585 BC

The total solar eclipse on May 28, 585 BC stands out as one of the earliest predicted celestial events. Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, studying ancient sky‑watching records, successfully forecasted the darkening of the Sun.

On that fateful day, the Medes and Lydians were locked in a fierce battle. As the Moon slipped between Earth and Sun, turning day into night, combatants halted their swords, interpreting the sudden darkness as a divine warning. The armies swiftly negotiated a peace treaty, even arranging a marriage between a Median prince and a Lydian princess.

Beyond its immediate diplomatic impact, the eclipse marked a watershed moment for rational astronomy. Thales’s successful prediction demonstrated that celestial motions obeyed natural laws, not capricious deities, paving the way for systematic scientific inquiry.

7 Halley’s Comet (1066)

Perhaps the most culturally resonant comet, Halley’s Comet made a dramatic appearance in 1066, just before the Battle of Hastings. The comet’s ominous glow was recorded on the famed Bayeux Tapestry, where it looms above a crowd of onlookers.

While the English viewed the celestial harbinger as a sign of impending doom, William the Conqueror and his Norman forces interpreted it as a divine endorsement of their conquest. The comet thus became a symbolic crossroads where astronomy, art, and political destiny intersected.

Halley’s 1066 passage exemplifies how a single astronomical event can shape cultural narratives, influencing both contemporary belief systems and centuries‑long artistic legacy.

6 The Great Fireball of 1783

On the night of August 18, 1783, a colossal fireball streaked across Britain’s night sky. Roughly the size of the Moon’s disc, the object spanned about half a mile and hurtled at 20 miles per second, illuminating the heavens for a fleeting minute before fragmenting.

Astronomers such as Charles Blagden rallied observers worldwide, gathering reports to pinpoint its origin. At that time, meteors were still thought to be atmospheric electrical phenomena, not solid rocks from space, so few imagined the planet had narrowly avoided a catastrophic impact.

The fireball’s brief but brilliant display sparked a paradigm shift, helping scientists reclassify meteors as extraterrestrial bodies and laying groundwork for modern meteoritics.

5 The Great Comet of 1744

Also called de Chéseaux’s Comet, the Great Comet of 1744 first appeared on November 29, 1743. Initially faint, it grew brighter as it approached the Sun, eventually sporting a tail that stretched seven degrees—about four finger‑widths at arm’s length—by mid‑January.

By early February, the comet rivaled Sirius in brilliance, its curved tail extending 15 degrees (the span between an outstretched hand’s thumb and pinky). It kept intensifying, reaching Venus‑like brightness and developing two distinct tails by February 18. Its peak on February 27 hit an apparent magnitude of ‑7, making it visible even in daylight despite being only 12 degrees from the Sun.

After perihelion on March 1, the comet re‑emerged on March 6, displaying six brilliant “tails” that fanned out like a Japanese hand‑fan across 60 degrees of sky. In reality, these were the most visible sections of a single, massive dust tail, creating a spectacular multi‑tail illusion.

4 The Great September Comet of 1882

Often hailed as the brightest comet ever recorded, the Great September Comet of 1882 was first sighted by Italian sailors. By mid‑month, it had drawn so close to the Sun—just 264,000 miles from its surface—that it shone brightly enough to be seen in broad daylight.

Classified as a Kreutz Sungrazer, the comet’s proximity to the Sun amplified its brilliance to roughly 1,000 times that of the full Moon. Observers dubbed it a “blazing star” or “super comet,” watching in awe as its nucleus fragmented into multiple pieces, creating a weeks‑long celestial spectacle visible worldwide.

3 The Great Meteor Procession of 1913

On February 9, 1913, a bizarre meteor procession dazzled observers across North America, the North Atlantic, and even Brazil. Unlike typical meteor showers, these fireballs crawled slowly across the sky in a coordinated line, each lingering for up to a minute, while the whole procession lasted several minutes.

Witnesses described two glowing bars trailing sparks, followed by a bright, star‑like ball of fire. Canadian astronomer Clarence Chant collected over 100 eyewitness accounts, noting the meteors’ nearly horizontal trajectory and the absence of a single radiant point.

Theories abound—from fragments of a temporary second moon to unknown debris—but despite extensive study, the Great Meteor Procession remains one of astronomy’s lingering mysteries.

2 The 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm

If you’ve ever stayed up for a meteor shower only to be underwhelmed, the 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm rewrites the script. While most showers deliver a modest 50 meteors per hour—hardly one per minute—the 1833 event unleashed a torrent of roughly 20 meteors per second, amounting to 72,000 streaks per hour.

The sky over America transformed into an “umbrella of falling lights” centered on the constellation Leo. The sudden deluge sparked panic; people described the cascade as “thick as snow in a snowstorm.” Many fell to their knees in prayer, while others rushed to churches to ring bells frantically.

Beyond the awe, the storm marked the birth of meteor astronomy. Scientists later linked the phenomenon to the comet Tempel‑Tuttle, successfully predicting its return 33 years later. The subsequent 1866 Leonid storm over Europe confirmed the periodic nature of these spectacular displays.

1 The Carrington Event

The Carrington Event of September 1‑2, 1859, still holds the record as the most powerful geomagnetic storm ever documented. Triggered by a massive coronal mass ejection—a blistering cloud of solar plasma— the Sun effectively fired a magnetic cannon at Earth.

When the solar blast slammed into Earth’s magnetic field, auroras normally confined to the far north danced as far south as the Caribbean. Simultaneously, telegraph networks worldwide went haywire: operators received electric shocks, sparks leapt from equipment, papers ignited, and some messages were transmitted without any external power source.

If a Carrington‑scale storm struck today, our hyper‑connected infrastructure would face catastrophic disruption. A near‑miss in 2012 demonstrated that a similar solar tempest could inflict trillions of dollars in damage, underscoring the lingering vulnerability of modern society to ancient cosmic forces.

When we think about modern medicine, we often picture sleek labs, high‑tech imaging, and evidence‑based treatments. Yet the path to today’s knowledge was paved with a parade of wildly imaginative explanations. In this roundup we’ll explore 10 bizarre ways our forebears tried to make sense of illness, from spooky superstitions to dubious science. Grab a cup of tea and prepare to be both amused and astonished.

10 Bizarre Ways That Shaped Early Medicine

10 Spread Of Diseases Caused By Night Air

During the medieval era a prevailing theory called miasma held sway. Proponents argued that “bad air” – a poisonous vapour rising from rotting organic matter – was the hidden culprit behind scourges such as cholera, chlamydia, and the Black Death. This noxious breeze seemed to intensify around swamps and, oddly enough, after dark. Consequently, people habitually shut their windows and stayed indoors after sunset to escape the alleged threat.

Even towering figures of the American Revolution were not immune to the fear. In 1776, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin found themselves sharing a cramped inn room. Adams, describing his condition in his autobiography, wrote that he “shut the window close” because he dreaded the night air blowing upon him. Franklin, however, persuaded him to reopen it. The fact that a future president could be convinced by the miasma doctrine illustrates how deeply the idea had penetrated educated circles, not just the unlettered masses. Doctors and scholars alike defended the theory for more than a century.

Curiously, while the logic was flawed, keeping windows shut did confer some incidental health benefits. Closed windows reduced exposure to malaria‑carrying mosquitoes and kept out dampness that could chill the body, thereby averting certain fevers. So there was a grain of accidental wisdom amid the misconception.

By the latter half of the 19th century, the germ theory – championed by pioneers like Pasteur and Koch – finally displaced the miasma model, ushering in a new era of microbiological understanding.

9 Epilepsy Caused By Divine Visitation

In ancient Greece, the condition we now call epilepsy was believed to be a direct message from the gods. The very term stems from the Greek verb epilambanein, meaning “to seize or possess.” Physicians labeled it a “sacred disease,” and it wore many aliases: “seliniasmos,” “Herculian disease” (because it supposedly afflicted the demigod Hercules), and “demonism.”

Greek scholars thought the disorder was a form of miasma – a polluted, harmful air – that settled upon the soul. They interpreted seizures as divine punishment, linking the affliction to Selene, the moon goddess, and insisting that offending her could summon the fits.

The Greeks even assigned specific deities to particular seizure characteristics. A fit that featured teeth‑grinding was attributed to Cybele, the nature goddess, while a seizure accompanied by a horse‑like scream was blamed on Poseidon, ruler of the sea, earthquakes, and horses. Healing rituals involved purification ceremonies and the chanting of protective hymns.

8 Leprosy Caused By Divine Retribution

In the Middle Ages, leprosy was widely interpreted as a sign of divine wrath. Those afflicted were thought to be paying for personal sinfulness, a belief reinforced by numerous biblical passages that portrayed the disease as a punishment from God. Leprosy thus became a dual stigma: a physical ailment and a moral indictment.

Society reacted harshly. Lepers were ostracized, forced to wear clanging bells that warned passersby of their approach, and sometimes even attended a funeral mass that officially declared them dead to the community. The combination of spiritual fear and physical revulsion made leprosy one of the most dreaded conditions of the era.

7 Colds Caused By Waste Matter

Hippocrates, often hailed as the father of medicine, made a surprising claim about the common cold. While he famously rejected supernatural explanations for disease, he nonetheless posited that colds resulted from a buildup of waste matter in the brain. According to his view, when this excess overflowed, it manifested as a runny nose and other sniffly symptoms.

The Greek word for the cold, catarrh, literally means “flow,” reflecting the idea of bodily fluids spilling over. This linguistic legacy persists in modern medical terminology, even though Hippocrates’ waste‑matter hypothesis has long been debunked.

6 Mental Illness Caused By Witchcraft

During the medieval period, anyone displaying signs of mental disturbance was often blamed on witchcraft or demonic possession. Exorcism became the go‑to treatment, and during the Renaissance, burning the afflicted was sometimes considered a “cure.”

Women bore the brunt of this suspicion. The prevailing belief was that women, being physically weaker, were more prone to demonic influence. The uterus, in particular, was singled out as a source of evil; it was thought that during menstruation a woman’s blood turned into a venomous substance capable of contaminating others.

Adding another layer of mystique, physicians argued that imagination itself could produce physical changes, equating it with witchcraft. They claimed that the uterus could receive harmful images, while the spleen generated them. Consequently, both organs were deemed potential conduits of pathological visions, giving women a “double source” of supernatural danger compared to men, whose spleen alone was implicated.

5 Hysteria Caused By A Wandering Womb

In ancient Greek medicine, women who exhibited any form of mental distress were diagnosed with hysteria, a condition thought to arise from a “wandering” uterus. The physician Aretaeus described the womb as capable of shifting up, down, left, or right within the body, each direction producing distinct symptoms. An upward migration caused lethargy and vertigo, while a downward drift led to choking sensations, loss of speech, and even sudden death.

Treatments were as inventive as the theory. Physicians applied pleasant aromas, such as honey, to the vagina, hoping the sweet scent would lure the womb back to its proper place. Conversely, foul smells were used to push the organ away from the upper body. Other remedies included chewing garlic cloves, alternating hot and cold baths, frequent sexual activity, and encouraging regular pregnancies to keep the uterus “occupied” and prevent it from roaming.

4 Porphyria Explained As Vampirism

Legends of vampires have haunted humanity for centuries, but modern medicine suggests that a rare genetic disorder called porphyria may have seeded many of these stories. In the Middle Ages, limited scientific knowledge meant that the striking symptoms of porphyria were easily misread as supernatural.

Patients with porphyria are extremely sensitive to sunlight; exposure can cause severe disfigurements to the hands, feet, or face, sometimes resulting in mutilated features, receded noses, ears, or lips, and excessive hair growth that made sufferers resemble wolves or other beasts. The disease can also produce erythrodontia – a reddish hue to the teeth – and gum recession that mimics fangs, reinforcing the vampire image.

Because treatments like heme injections were unavailable, afflicted individuals may have instinctively sought the blood of others to relieve symptoms, inadvertently giving rise to the myth that vampires crave blood. The hereditary nature of porphyria could also explain why “vampire bites” were thought to turn victims into new blood‑suckers.

3 Ulcers Caused By Stress

In the mid‑19th century, William Brinton was among the first physicians to describe peptic ulcers, yet without modern diagnostics the cause remained a mystery. Lacking a bacterial culprit, doctors turned to lifestyle and psychological factors, concluding that poor diet, smoking, and especially stress drove excess stomach acid, leading to ulcers.

Prominent clinicians like Arvey Rogers and Donna Hoel even suggested that an ulcer was a badge of hard work, implying that those who didn’t develop one weren’t stressing enough. Treatments centered on antacids and lifestyle changes, while severe cases sometimes required stomach removal or fatal bleeding.

The tide turned in the early 1980s when Robin Warren identified the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and Barry Marshall, his colleague, boldly ingested the organism to prove causation. Within days Marshall developed gastritis, the precursor to an ulcer, and his self‑experiments finally convinced the medical world that bacteria—not stress—were the true cause, paving the way for antibiotic therapy.

2 Autism Caused By The Lack Of Maternal Warmth

When child psychiatrist Leo Kanner first described autism in a 1943 paper, he went beyond cataloguing symptoms and turned his gaze toward parents. Observing a small group of highly intelligent families, Kanner concluded that autistic children were raised in emotionally frigid households, where mothers and fathers offered little warmth.

He famously claimed that these parents were “just happening to defrost enough to produce a child,” and the notion quickly morphed into the infamous “refrigerator mother” theory. Influential figures like Bruno Bettelheim reinforced the idea, suggesting that parental coldness was the root cause of autism.

By the early 1960s, advocates for autistic families began to challenge the theory, and Kanner eventually softened his stance. Nonetheless, the refrigerator mother hypothesis lingered into the 1970s, and remnants of it can still be found in some corners of the world, including parts of Europe and South Korea.

1 Birth Defects Caused By Maternal Impressions

The theory of maternal impressions held that a pregnant woman’s strong emotions, fears, or desires could imprint themselves onto the developing fetus, shaping its physical appearance. Popular in the 18th century, this idea was employed to explain a variety of birth defects. For instance, a child born deaf might be blamed on the mother having been startled by a loud noise during pregnancy.

The concept traced back even further. Ancient Greek physician Galen asserted that if a mother gazed at a particular statue, her child could inherit its likeness. Consequently, expectant mothers were encouraged to view beautiful artworks, hoping to produce attractive offspring.

Beyond facial features, the theory claimed that a mother’s cravings could dictate birthmark patterns. A woman with a penchant for strawberries might give birth to a child bearing a strawberry‑shaped mark on its skin.

The maternal impressions doctrine persisted through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and into the 18th century before being rigorously challenged by anatomist William Hunter. By the late 19th century the idea was finally discarded, leaving behind a fascinating footnote in the history of medical thought.

When an archaeological site is uncovered, the burning question becomes “what did these people eat?” While that may not sound as thrilling as hidden chambers or cursed treasure, the answer unlocks the very way our ancestors survived, adapted, and reshaped their world. By peeling back the layers of time with 10 amazing ways, researchers piece together subsistence strategies, environmental relationships, and even the spread of agriculture itself.

10 Teeth Marks

Teeth are built from exceptionally durable tissue, which means they often survive the ravages of time. As we chew, microscopic scratches are etched onto enamel, and the size and direction of those scratches tell a story about the diet. Modern Inuit, whose meals are dominated by meat, exhibit primarily vertical scratches on the side surfaces of their teeth, whereas groups that subsist almost entirely on plants show a mixture of shorter vertical and horizontal marks.

By cataloguing these wear patterns, scientists can not only decide whether a population leaned toward meat, vegetables, or a balanced mix, but they can also draw broader conclusions about dietary evolution. Fossil teeth dating from the early Stone Age (about 2.7 million to 200,000 years ago) reveal a clear trend: newer specimens display fewer long vertical scratches and a rise in shorter, more horizontal marks, indicating that over millennia our ancestors diversified their menus and relied less exclusively on meat.

9 Remains Of Individual Meals

On rare and extraordinarily lucky occasions, archaeologists stumble upon meals that have survived almost untouched for centuries. Pompeii provides the most famous showcase: volcanic ash froze dining tables in place, preserving plates of food exactly as they were served. Likewise, entire ancient market stalls have been uncovered, complete with their original wares ready for cataloguing.

Feasting also played a pivotal role in burial customs across cultures. Egyptian tombs, for instance, contain not just basic provisions like fish and fruit but also elaborate dishes such as cakes, cheese, and wine. In Han‑dynasty China (206 BC–AD 220), excavated tombs reveal banquet spreads with labels attached to each dish, detailing their composition and offering a vivid snapshot of elite culinary practices.

8 Animal Remains

Bones, antlers, shells and the like are treasure troves of dietary data. By scrutinising animal bone assemblages, specialists can calculate the age, sex, and season of death for the creatures, painting a picture of hunting or herding cycles. Statistical analyses also reveal whether the animals were wild or domesticated; domesticated specimens often bear tell‑tale signs of use, such as osteoarthritis in the lower limbs of draft animals like camels, cattle, or horses.

Some domesticated species, such as alpacas and llamas, display a higher mortality rate among juveniles compared with their wild relatives, hinting at selective breeding pressures or different management strategies. These subtle skeletal clues help reconstruct the complex relationship between people and the animals they relied upon.

7 Digestive Tract Contents

The soft tissues of the stomach and intestines are notoriously fragile, surviving only under exceptional conditions—think bone‑dry deserts or icy tombs. When preservation does occur, researchers can extract remnants of the last meals directly from the digestive system, offering a literal snapshot of what someone ate moments before death.

Take the Danish Tollund Man, whose stomach contents consisted exclusively of plant matter, indicating a vegetarian diet in his final days. Meanwhile, forensic analysis of Lady Dai, a second‑century BC Chinese noblewoman, uncovered 138 sweet‑melon seeds, confirming not only her appetite for the fruit but also that she perished during the summer season when melons were ripe.

6 Tooth Decay

Dietary shifts have left unmistakable marks on dental health. The introduction of refined sugars and starchy foods dramatically increased the prevalence of cavities, carving a distinct pattern of decay and tooth loss. Starchy diets, in particular, erode enamel more quickly, meaning societies that relied heavily on cereals suffered higher rates of dental disease.

Archaeologists can even differentiate between hunter‑gatherers and early farmers by tallying missing teeth. Around 30,000 BC, adults averaged 2.2 missing teeth; by 6500 BC that number rose to 3.5, and in the Roman era it climbed to 6.6. The takeaway? The fierce Stone Age hunters boasted brighter smiles than their later, cereal‑eating Roman counterparts.

5 Fecal Material

Even after food has traveled the entire alimentary tract, traces can linger in ancient poo. Specialists who brave the study of desiccated paleofecal matter—sometimes dubbed “ancient poop analysts”—unlock a cornucopia of dietary clues. Human feces carry unique chemical signatures that set them apart from animal droppings, and they can preserve a smorgasbord of remnants: pollen, plant fibers, seeds, bone shards, egg fragments, nuts, mollusk shells, and even tiny insects.

These microscopic treasures are often retrieved from forgotten cesspits, latrines, or ancient sewers, where daring researchers extract the material for analysis. By examining the composition, scientists can reconstruct the full spectrum of foods consumed by past populations.

4 Food Processing Tools And Equipment

Food acquisition and preparation rarely happen unaided; tools leave behind unmistakable fingerprints of culinary practice. Fishing gear—hooks, spears, traps, and nets—survives in the archaeological record, indicating reliance on aquatic resources. Likewise, stone blades used to butcher animals bear microscopic wear patterns that match specific cutting tasks.

Hunting evidence emerges not only from weapons like bows and arrows but also from tiny arrowheads embedded in animal bones. Agricultural activity, on the other hand, reveals itself through stone grinding stones, sickles, and pottery that sometimes retain microscopic food residues, confirming the processing of cereals and other plant foods.

3 Isotopic Methods

We truly are what we eat, and isotopic analysis proves it. By measuring the ratio of nitrogen‑15 to nitrogen‑14 in bone collagen, scientists can infer an individual’s position in the food chain. Higher nitrogen‑15 levels signal a diet rich in animal protein, while lower ratios point to plant‑based consumption.

Marine diets push the nitrogen‑15 signal even higher because oceanic food webs contain more trophic levels than terrestrial ones. Thus, coastal populations leave a distinct isotopic fingerprint compared with inland farmers.

Intriguingly, nursing infants exhibit the highest nitrogen‑15 ratios of all, as they effectively “eat” their mothers’ tissues, placing them at the apex of the dietary chain during early life.

2 Botanical Remains

Plant micro‑fossils such as phytoliths act like botanical fingerprints, each shape unique to a particular species. These silica bodies can be recovered from sediments, pottery shards, tooth surfaces, or the edges of stone tools, allowing researchers to pinpoint exactly which plants were processed or eaten and whether they were wild or domesticated.

Pollen grains, another resilient botanical residue, survive in soils, feces, and even on teeth. By comparing pollen assemblages from different occupation layers at a site, archaeologists can track shifts in plant exploitation over time, revealing changes in agricultural practices or foraging strategies.

1 Tartar

Tartar, the calcified buildup on teeth, acts like a time capsule for diet. As it accumulates, tiny food particles become trapped within its layers. Modern dentists scrape tartar away, but ancient peoples often sported thick deposits, preserving a detailed record of what they ate.

Because pollen grains survive well in tartar, scientists can identify specific plant species consumed. Moreover, the stratigraphy of tartar—inner layers representing early life and outer layers reflecting later years—offers a chronological food biography. Recent studies have even detected plant and bone fragments in tartar from two‑million‑year‑old hominids, showcasing the method’s incredible potential.

11 Further Reading

Now that we’ve uncovered the ancient culinary world, why not dive into some quirky modern lists? Check out these tasty follow‑ups: “10 Bizarre Modern Diets You Won’t Believe Exist,” “Top 10 Craziest Diets Ever,” “10 Eccentric Eating Habits Of Influential Figures,” and “Top 10 Food Facts and Fallacies.” Happy reading!

People living in the 19th and early‑20th centuries were a curious bunch, driven by the roar of the Industrial Revolution and a flood of scientific breakthroughs. The typical household head became an enthusiastic tinkerer, eager to “improve” daily life with the newest, often untested, gadgets and methods—whether it was a new way to heat water, store food, or keep a tidy home. Little did they know that many of these seemingly harmless conveniences were secretly lethal.

10 Going To The Bathroom

Stepping into a Victorian lavatory might have felt routine, but the very act was riddled with hidden hazards. The water heaters of the day ran on gas and were prone to sudden explosions, especially when candles or oil lamps were used for illumination during a night‑time visit, creating a volatile mix of flame and gas.

Beyond the heaters, the toilets themselves were a nightmare. Before the famed Great Stink of 1858 forced a redesign, most privies dumped waste directly into the sewers without the modern S‑bend trap we rely on today. This meant foul odors rose unimpeded, and the underground channels were a cocktail of human waste, decaying bodies from poorly regulated cemeteries, and other refuse.

The decomposition of organic matter released methane and carbon dioxide. Methane, when it encountered an open flame from a candle or a malfunctioning heater, could ignite with a violent explosion that traveled straight up through the plumbing and into the bathroom itself.

To combat the methane buildup, engineers installed sewer‑gas lamps, attempting a clever early form of green energy by using the gas to power streetlights. While only partially successful, the eventual widespread adoption of S‑bend toilets after the Great Stink did make bathroom visits a tad safer, though the danger lingered for many years.

9 Eating A Sandwich

Victorian-era foodstuffs were often laced with a cocktail of hazardous additives. A 1877 report revealed that ten percent of butter, eight percent of bread, and half of all gin contained added copper, while red lead was sprayed onto cheese to give it a falsely “healthy” hue. Other contaminants ranged from strychnine in beer to mercury in chocolate, creating a toxic pantry for the unsuspecting public.

Bread, the staple for the poor, suffered a particular fate. Most low‑income families could not bake at home and instead bought daily loaves from street vendors. These loaves were frequently padded with alum, a substance not poisonous on its own but one that interfered with the body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients.

The alum made the bread appear larger and more filling, a deceptive trick that helped sellers market a bigger‑looking loaf. Unfortunately, those who relied on such sandwiched meals often developed rickets and other deficiency‑related illnesses because their bodies could not extract the vitamins and minerals they needed.

8 Walking Down The Stairs

Descending a staircase might seem harmless, yet Victorians faced a perilous climb—or rather, a perilous fall. Building codes were sparse, and modest homes were often constructed without any standardized measurements for stairs.

Staircases were notoriously narrow, packed with steep turns, and frequently featured steps of uneven height and depth within the same flight, turning a simple descent into a treacherous obstacle course.

Adding insult to injury, many homes lacked basic safety features such as handrails. Some staircases resembled glorified ladders, forcing women in long, flowing dresses to scramble upward while balancing children on their hips, a recipe for disaster.

Consequently, injuries and even fatalities from falls down these ill‑designed stairways were alarmingly common, highlighting a glaring oversight in everyday domestic architecture.

7 Playing Billiards

Snooker and billiards, once the exclusive pastime of gentlemen, underwent a dramatic transformation when ivory balls were replaced with celluloid—a cheaper, more accessible material. This shift promised a democratization of the game for the masses.

However, celluloid carried a dangerous flaw: it was highly volatile and exceptionally flammable. The friction generated when two balls struck each other could ignite the material, sometimes producing a small explosion that sounded startlingly like a gunshot.

Such a volatile playing surface was enough to make many players think twice before taking a shot, turning a leisurely game into a potentially hazardous activity.

6 Wearing Makeup

During the early 20th century, radium was hailed as a miracle element, and cosmetics manufacturers seized the opportunity to market glowing skin as a sign of health and beauty. Face creams, soaps, and even energy tablets were infused with the radioactive metal, promising a luminous complexion.

Radium also found its way into other everyday products: butter, chocolate, and even clock‑face paint. Women who painted luminous dials were instructed to lick their brushes after dipping them in radium‑laden paint to sharpen the tip, unknowingly exposing themselves to deadly radiation.

The consequences were grim. Regular contact with radium caused severe, painful illnesses, and the infamous “Radium Girls” who painted watch faces suffered from necrosis of the jaw and other debilitating conditions.

When the bodies of some of these workers were exhumed years later, their remains were reported to still emit a faint glow, a haunting reminder of the hidden danger lurking in everyday beauty routines.

5 Cleaning Out The Gutters

The Victorian fascination with scientific progress extended to home maintenance, and when asbestos was discovered, its cheap, non‑flammable nature made it a popular choice for a myriad of applications.

Beyond its use in insulation and floor tiles, asbestos was commonly installed in guttering systems, offering a fire‑resistant solution for rainwater management. It even appeared in children’s toys, a testament to the era’s unbridled optimism about the material.

Unfortunately, while asbestos excelled at preventing fires, prolonged exposure led to severe respiratory illnesses and cancers, turning an apparently benign household material into a silent, deadly threat.

4 Waking Up To A Nice Cup Of Tea

Victorians and Edwardians prided themselves on inventiveness, often devising clever shortcuts for even the simplest chores. Some creations were brilliant, while others bordered on the absurd—and occasionally downright perilous.

One such invention was Albert E. Richardson’s Automatic Tea‑Making Machine, a contraption that combined an alarm clock with a spirit‑burner kettle. At the set hour, a match struck automatically to ignite the burner, boiling the water; a second alarm signaled completion, prompting a spring‑loaded lever to pour the hot liquid into a waiting cup.

If the match failed to ignite or sparked at the wrong moment, the device could cause a fire or explosion, making what should have been a comforting morning ritual a potentially lethal gamble.

3 Setting The Table

In 1902, the inventive (or perhaps overly ambitious) Henry Cooper unveiled a self‑illuminating tablecloth, a novelty that combined a decorative cloth with built‑in electric lighting.

The design featured two layers of felt sandwiching an electrical circuit, with six miniature bulbs poking through the fabric. When plugged in, the cloth bathed the dining surface in a warm glow, eliminating the need for separate lamps and saving a few seconds of setup time.

However, the novelty turned hazardous the moment a guest tipped over a glass of wine, short‑circuiting the embedded bulbs and sending the entire tablecloth into a spectacular, fire‑cracker‑like display.

2 Stocking The Fridge

Preserving food was a perpetual challenge, and while early attempts like Jacob Perkins’s 1834 vapor‑compression refrigerator demonstrated the concept, the machines were costly, unreliable, and out of reach for most households.

By the 1890s, engineers tried to boost cooling efficiency by employing methyl chloride gas. Though this chemical dramatically lowered temperatures, it was also highly toxic; a leak in a factory setting led to multiple fatal exposures, prompting the abandonment of the method.

Despite the early setbacks, the drive for a reliable domestic refrigerator persisted. By the onset of World War II, fewer than two percent of British homes owned a fridge, but later, safer refrigerants and mass production finally made the appliance a household staple.

1 Doing A Bit Of Light Ironing

Victorian laundry work was grueling: heavy iron implements were heated over open fires, cooled, and then pressed onto damp fabrics, a process that demanded both physical strength and careful timing.

In 1882, New York inventor Henry W. Seely patented a functional electric iron, wiring the device directly into a power source to eliminate the need for a fire‑heated iron. However, the early model lacked temperature regulation, making it easy to scorch garments and presenting a clear fire hazard.

Even with its shortcomings, this early electric iron paved the way for the safe, temperature‑controlled appliances we rely on today. The perseverance of innovators like Seely shows how dangerous experiments can eventually yield indispensable household tools.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels, and an occasional travel writer.

Ever feel like modern life has everything under control, yet somehow we’re missing something essential? You’re not alone. Here are 10 things your ancestors nailed far better than we do today, spanning everything from sustainability to genuine enjoyment. Dive in and see how the past can inspire a brighter, smarter present.

10 Save The Planet

While the most common plastic today (polyethylene) was actually invented in 1898, it didn’t go into general production until the 1930s. It was then that ICI opened the world’s first manufacturing plant—on the same day Adolf Hitler invaded Poland: September 1st, 1939.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the production of plastic on a mammoth scale became truly viable. Since then . . . well, you know what happens next because you’re living in it. Ubiquitous products like straws, bags, mass‑produced trinkets, and the many objects used in our daily lives, have led to a pollution nightmare. And the stuff we don’t just toss in the trash ends up in the dump anyway because of the high cost of recycling.

So what did our ancestors do? They stored their goods in glass containers which were then re‑used. Most food was produced at home so waste was almost non‑existent. We seem to be perpetually trying to find solutions to our modern problems with only one caveat: it must make someone a lot of money and it must not imply that things in days gone by were good. The way we once lived has many solutions to our modern problems but we seem dead‑set against them.

This might also be a good time to correct an error from a previous list written in 2010: Top 10 Places You Don’t Want To Visit. On that list I discuss the great pacific garbage patch. Since writing that list, much information has come out about the patch. The reality is: it is basically a myth. Yes there is a concentration of micro‑plastic under the surface, but it turns out the definition used to describe the “extremely high” concentration of plastic was somewhat open to interpretation and in our eagerness to point out the evil we had done to the ocean, no one seemed to notice that the “highest concentration of microplastic is around three pieces of plastic the size of a pencil eraser in a cubic meter.” Oops. The photo of a giant patch of trash with men in boats is actually taken off the coast of the Philippines.

9 Live Within Their Means

In 1944 the Bretton Woods system was created in which instead of countries redeeming their money for Gold, they would redeem for US dollars. This made the US dollar the new form of gold in a sense. The US dollar was pegged to the value of gold still and that was meant to keep the system stable while allowing things like the newly invented International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to have a little more flexibility in the creation of money. And then in 1971 it all fell apart. President Nixon ended the connection between gold and the US dollar and the printing presses began to roll full steam ahead.

From that moment on, we began living off the earnings of the future. The reason our lives today don’t look like pages out of a book on the Great Depression is that we have all been made artificially rich. The terrifying thing is that it is all going to come crashing down—we just don’t know when.

So in the times before these systems were put in place, people earned money from their labour, and they saved that money. And when they needed to buy something, they used the money they had saved. They did not use a Visa to pay for it with income from the future. They didn’t use installment plans, and they didn’t use equity in their homes to buy new drapes! At the very most they may have done a lay‑away which allows you to buy something on time payments, but unlike an installment plan, you didn’t get the goods until you had paid in full. Delayed gratification is a far better thing than the instant type we are all used to now. Funnily enough, even layaway was considered bad until the newly created Federal Reserve bank (a private company in the US) caused the Great Depression; it was then that layaway emerged.

The long and short of it is this: if you revert to the old ways of spending, you will be far richer than your neighbors. Use a system like the snowball method of debt reduction to eradicate your credit cards and installment plans and start living in the now. You can learn how to do that on Top 10 Tips For Achieving Financial Freedom which I wrote in 2007.

8 Improve Their Mind

Books. Simple as that. We all have access to them—but instead of reading we stare at glowing pieces of glass all day. It is all well and good to fill your phone with apps like Google Books and Kindle, but it is hard to resist the pull of the thumbs‑up on a photo of your latest cafe lunch or clothing purchase at The Gap. Why bother reading about “shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many‑colored disarray” when you might get 15 likes on your photo of that funky political tee‑shirt you wore today? “O quantum est in rebus inane!”

There are many ways we can mimic our ancestors in terms of improving our minds; the first is to abolish the use of our electronic devices for at least a small part of the day. Set aside an hour to read a book—any book will do, though obviously I recommend The Ultimate Book Of Top 10 Lists by us! When you become engrossed in a good book, your mind opens up in a myriad of ways. Your rational and emotional minds need to be tended but more importantly perhaps is your imagination. It is from the imagination that so many great creations of man have come, and movies and social media posts prevent the use of the imagination, replacing it instead with the ideas from another’s mind. You might be in possession of the brain that will invent the next great concept in human development, but you’re too busy scrolling through pics of incredibly hilarious sports photos to notice.

7 Eat

I might be sounding like a broken record at this stage, but in brief: the US government made everyone fat by advocating a ridiculous pro‑vegetarian anti‑fat diet in the 1960s and 1970s. Now that that is out of the way, the history of eating: breakfast didn’t exist as anything more than a drink or snack until the 19th century and luncheon was the main meal of the day for most (this is all in reference to European culture of course). Then the Seventh Day Adventists got us eating cereal every day, the government got us eating chemical margarines instead of butter and fat, and the media (fake news long before the president used the term) sold us on coke and other delights. It is not to say there weren’t fat people before these things occurred, but, frankly, these days obesity seems to be less the thing to avoid and more the goal.

How do we fix this? When virtually everything the media promotes or says is to enrich someone… we should certainly not advocate for anything recommended or endorsed by them. That means no diet fads. There is one place the media hates: the past. The answer to eating right is to mimic the behavior of our ancestors (and I am not meaning restrictive Paleolithic diets). Edwardians were similar to us. They had grocery stores, cars, and other fairly modern trappings of life. Perhaps the answer is to simply reject any dietary advice from beyond 1940 until someone without an ulterior motive funds some genuine studies into the ideal human diet. Just say no to diet myths.

6 Exercise

So you need to lose a few pounds or improve your health. What do you do? Sign up for a decade‑long membership (“it was the best price!”) at a fancy gym and then attend one session. Yup: just the one. We have somehow been programmed with this awful notion that exercise is best done indoors and intensely for a short period of time. But our thinner (and probably longer‑lived—if we exclude child mortality from age of death statistics) ancestors knew better.

While the photo above is incontrovertible proof that some evil madman in the Victorian times took inspiration from the tools of the Spanish Inquisition to devise the most horrific of all torture devices man would ever know: gym equipment, don’t be fooled! Our predecessors didn’t, as a general rule, take their exercise in this rigid manner. They simply walked everywhere they went and did the hard jobs themselves. Doing the laundry took all day and the average housewife (unless she could afford a maid) would call upon her friends to assist. My own father as a child was required once a week to jump up and down on the sheets in a copper kettle full of boiled water and soap (I’m not a boomer: my parents were old when they had me).

How can we learn from our ancestors and ditch the gym membership? Add an hour a day (in addition to your daily reading hour as mentioned above) to walk around your neighborhood. Smell the flowers. Say hi to the guy with the Trump 2020 sign in his yard. Help an old lady across the street. You will find that not only does your health improve, but so does your relationship with your neighbors and you may even find it makes you a nicer person online! If you are particularly courageous, you might want to consider doing some shopping at the same time. It is certainly better to carry a can of beans around for an hour than spend 10 minutes sweating indoors with a dumbbell.

5 Have Manners

Long gone are the days of writing thank you notes for gifts. In some cases people don’t even bother with thank you notes for wedding gifts which was, for most people, the last remnant in society of formal thank yous. Once upon a time (not so long ago), a thank you note was issued for a million different reasons. If someone gave you a gift, you wrote a note. If someone had you to dinner, you wrote a note. It was the height of bad manners not to make the effort to thank a person for the effort they had gone to for your pleasure. It makes a lot of sense really. But alas, out comes those shiny bits of glass again and the most you can expect these days is a “thanks!” on Instagram or Snapchat (or Facebook if you are elderly).

In other areas of society manners were also far better than now. If you were invited to a meal at someone’s house, you always reciprocated at a later date by inviting them to your own home or a restaurant. And if you did invite them to a restaurant, the person who invited the guests paid for everyone’s meal. That’s right! You didn’t split the bill when you were the host. Just as you don’t charge your friends for the cost of the food when you cook at home, you shouldn’t in a restaurant. Admittedly things were a little different then: if you hosted you might also have ordered a particular menu for everyone at the table so you could plan for the cost, but there is no reason you couldn’t follow this nice old rule of good manners these days with real friends who you can presume won’t take advantage of you.

4 Build

New construction regulations coupled with new building materials (such as styrofoam, plastics, and various metals) have meant that we can build houses much faster and more unconventionally than we have in the past. But the end result is sometimes buildings which can simply not stand up to age, the weather, or natural disasters in the same way as old construction built with stone and timber.

One good example of this was the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. In that old city, 60% of the deaths were the result of the collapse of the modern CTV building, and while many of the old buildings were later condemned, they stood up to the quake better than those built with strict earthquake guidelines but new building codes. Next time there’s a big one, I sure as heck hope I’m in an old Victorian building.

And don’t even get me started on how hideous a lot of modern buildings look in contrast to the beautiful neoclassical facades that came to be the dominant form of buildings in London and Paris, and the inspiration for much of the beauty in American Colonial construction. Granted there are some occasional modern buildings that are quite beautiful in their own unique way, but by and large giant concrete towers filled with glass can’t really compete with the likes of Buckingham Palace (pictured).

3 Teach and Learn

The moment that colleges began to teach that there is no objective truth, they revoked their own remit to educate. If there is no objective truth, there is no reason to teach. You can now watch video after video on YouTube of young university students who don’t know who Adolf Hitler was (but will call you a Nazi if they don’t like your opinion). Feelings surpass facts and the entire history of western civilization is rendered down to, and described as, “white male patriarchy”, in a tone that is palpably hateful.

I am not even going to begin to describe a solution to that mess. It simply needs to be abolished. But when that day comes perhaps we can think about the classical education that was given to those who came not so long ago. A modern education system but grounded in the Trivium and Quadrivium of the ancients. Not only did the ancients themselves come up with some of the greatest notions in man’s history, the successive generations through the Middle Ages expounded upon them. And then in the late 20th century we burnt it to the ground. Perhaps it is time to bring it back.

2 Create Art

There will be, in time, a list about modern art and its decline (some would obviously not agree that it is indeed a decline). But until then we shall content ourselves with this brief declaration: modern people don’t know how to “art”. What passes as fine art these days is astonishingly bad. Bottles of human urine with sacred objects in them, excrement smeared on canvases, and even an unmade bed are lauded as fine things.

Pretty much all art up until the 1900s is beautiful (and some beyond into the early stages of the 20th century). But at some point we got sidetracked and art ceased to be about beauty and became an expression of novelty or shock. Aristotle’s concept of mimesis (artistic mimicry) states that “art is not only imitation but also the use of mathematical ideas and symmetry in the search for the perfect, the timeless.” We now live in a post‑mimetic world in which the ruination of the perfect is sought. And judging by some of the dreck we see on social media and in the news, Oscar Wilde rather presciently said “life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

1 Have Fun

If future generations looked at an Apple advertisement, they would believe that we lived in one of the most fun‑filled times. The ads are full of laughing groups of divers friends exploring all manner of fun hobbies. But the whole thing is contrived; the reality of our time is that we dutifully go to work, earn the money needed to take the occasional holiday, and spend a lot of time online getting rather upset at other people’s opinions and feelings. And then we lap up mainstream movie interpretations of the likes of Charles Dickens’ books filled with dour and ugly old women beating children or crippled men with misery in every line drawn across their face.

But life for the Victorians (and the generations before them) was anything but bleak. They lived in a time of discovery and invention. Museums opened to the public for the first time and the great exhibition was held in a glittering crystal palace. The delightful fairy tales that Disney so loves to wreck were penned and adored by happy children. The ghoulish tales of goblins and ghosts thrilled even the strongest of men. The homes were filled with the smells of exotic fruits and spices from mysterious lands newly colonized, and optimism filled the air like the clouds of incense that filled their churches. Those were the days.

Why Look Back?

Understanding how our ancestors managed daily life, finances, education, and even leisure can give us fresh perspectives for today’s challenges. By borrowing a few timeless habits, we can improve sustainability, financial health, mental sharpness, and genuine enjoyment. So, next time you feel overwhelmed by modern complexities, remember: sometimes the best solution is simply a step back into history.

When someone does something outrageous, people often rush to use the phrase, “What is the world coming to?” But the fact of the matter is, human beings have always been weird. They were doing strange things long before you and I were born, and they will carry on being odd long after we are gone.

Archaeologists are constantly uncovering all kinds of bizarre artifacts and discoveries from the crazy civilizations of yore. Here are ten of the most ludicrous things they have found out about our absurd ancestors.

Related: 10 Intriguing Cases Involving Rare Ancient Art And Writing

10 The Cannabis Smokers of Ancient China

In the mountains of ancient China, more than 2,500 years ago, people smoked cannabis to get high. Archaeologists have found evidence of long-gone stoners during an excavation of Jirzankal Cemetery. Jirzankal is a historic burial place in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia—an area now in China. Scientists studied incense burners from the site and found marijuana residue that they believe dates back centuries. The samples are rich in THC, the psychoactive substance found in weed.

Scientists found the residue on the pipes had a higher concentration of THC than the wild cannabis in the region. Researchers suspect that, in ancient times, locals would gather or even domesticate certain strains of cannabis for their mind-altering properties.

The excavation of Jirzankal threw up some interesting discoveries. Scientists analyzed the bones buried at the site and found that many of them were not native to the region. These immigrant remains support the theory that the Pamir Mountains used to be connected to an ancient Silk Road-type trade network. According to co-author Robert Spengler, this suggests that marijuana may have been exchanged along the pathway.^[1]

9 Peruvian Paint Contains Human Blood

Before the Incas, many civilizations lived in the area of South America we now know as Peru. For around 500 years, the Sicán culture occupied the region. Unfortunately, much of their history has since been erased, which means historians know relatively little about the ancient peoples.

In the 1990s, archaeologists uncovered a thousand-year-old Sicán tomb secreted under the Huaca Loro temple. The excavation turned up various bizarre objects, including an upside-down skeleton painted red and surrounded by the bodies of two women and two children, with a gold mask placed on the man’s disembodied skull.

The mask, just like his remains, had been painted red using cinnabar. Historians believe that the Sicáns only used the mineral for respected people. This suggests the skeleton was once someone of high status.

However, there was one mystery that left the scientists scratching their heads. How had the cinnabar stuck to the gold for such a long time? It took until 2021 for researchers at Oxford University to solve that conundrum. Infrared analysis revealed that the paint was bound using human blood and egg whites. Scientists believe that this had some cultural significance to the Sicáns, possibly something to do with reincarnation.^[2]

8 European Salt Miners Loved Beer and Blue Cheese

It doesn’t sound like the most pleasant job, analyzing the excrement of 2,700-year-old miners. But scientists have learned a lot about the diets of ancient workers in the salt mines of the Alps.

Human feces tend not to last very long before starting to decompose. The excreta found in the Alps were only preserved due to the cool, dry atmosphere and the high level of salt.

Microbiologist Frank Maixner was stunned to see that the miners had the knowledge and the ability to ferment their food. Maixner, who works at the Eurac Research Institute in Bolzano, Italy, described it as “very sophisticated.” Throw in some Buffalo wings, and they’d be ready for this century!^[3]

7 The Mysterious Mummies of the Silk Road

In the Tarim Basin, an area of desert in northwest China, lie hundreds of human corpses. The dry climate of the desert has preserved these bodies for thousands of years. The oldest is thought to date back to 2,000 BC, while the youngest arrived in AD 200.

Although they are buried in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, only a short distance from the Silk Road, the Tarim Basin mummies look nothing like the locals. Instead, they have features that historians have described as “Western.” They were buried in boat-like wooden coffins, which were covered in cowhide. And evidence found at the site suggests they farmed sheep and goats, grew wheat and barley, and even made cheese.

For years the origins of these mummies have been something of a mystery. But in 2021, genetic analysis revealed that the oldest are directly descended from the Ancient North Eurasians, who lived in the vast plains of North Eurasia (Northern Steppe and Siberia) many thousands of years ago.^[4]

6 Remains Found of Non-Binary Finnish Leader

In 1968, archaeologists in Finland unearthed a 900-year-old grave containing a person in women’s clothing with a sword. They were lying on a soft feather blanket alongside other grave goods and furs, indicating they were likely a well-respected individual in the community. But scientists struggled to agree on the remains found within. Some argued that the body was that of a female warrior. Others disagreed, asserting that the tomb contained a man and a woman.

In 2021, over half a century after the grave was excavated, researchers finally learned the identity of the mysterious remains. DNA analysis revealed the body to be gender non-binary, meaning they were born with an unusual set of chromosomes.

Chromosomes play a vital role in determining the sex of a child. Girls are usually born with two X chromosomes, and boys with an X and a Y. But scientists believe the deceased Finn had two X chromosomes and one Y—a condition known as Klinefelter syndrome. People with Klinefelter syndrome generally have male characteristics, but many contend with low testosterone levels, enlarged breasts, and infertility.

As lead author Ulla Moilanen explained, “If the characteristics of the Klinefelter syndrome [had] been evident on the person, they might not have been considered strictly a female or a male in the early Middle Ages community.” ^[5]

5 Neanderthals Caught Birds with Their Bare Hands

Neanderthals were fascinating people. Scientists believed that prehistoric humans ate, among other things, raven-like birds known as choughs. But this led scientists to wonder how the primates caught their dinner without the help of modern technology. How do you chow down on a chough if all you have to catch it with is your bare hands?

To investigate further, a team of researchers decided to test it for themselves. Evolutionary ecologists from Estacion Biologica de Donana in Spain ventured into dim-lit caves and, without any tools to help them, managed to catch over 5,500 choughs. On a good night, the group could capture 200 birds. At other times, they only managed to grab a few dozen. All they needed to trap their feathered targets was a small source of light.

This might sound like something only a mad scientist would attempt, but the team says they found the experiment illuminating. Literally. Scientists now believe that Neanderthals could generate fire to light up their surroundings. It also points to them having had much higher cognitive abilities than we once thought.^[6]

4 Did Humans Hibernate During Winter?

Half a million years ago, our human-like ancestors would survive harsh winters by curling up in caves and hibernating. Or at least they might have, according to a 2020 research paper by two European paleoanthropologists. Fossil evidence suggests that our long-gone forebears used to lie dormant during the winter months, although scientists doubt they were any good at it.

Archaeologists have turned over at least 1,600 human fossils from the caves of Atapuerca in Spain. By studying bone structure and growth, the study’s authors determined how people lived at the time. Records indicate an annual drop in nutrition and vitamin D from the sun. Scientists say this suggests our ancestors possibly spent the winter in hibernation.^[4]

3 The Ancient Act of Exorcism

Deep in the British Museum lies a 3,500-year-old tablet. Drawn on it is what researchers believe to be the oldest ever depiction of a ghost, along with instructions on how to conduct an exorcism.

Dr. Irving Finkel, an expert in ancient civilizations, only discovered the image in 2021 on a tablet in one of the museum’s vaults. It shows, Finkel explains, a young man accompanying the ghost of a middle-aged woman back to the underworld. On the back are instructions for helping dead spirits out of the realm of the living.

The scribe recommends making two figurines, one male, one female. According to the tablet, they must be dressed and given various useful items, including a comb and a bed. The ritual involves waiting until sunrise to prepare two beer vessels and reciting an incantation to Shamash, the Mesopotamian god of the sun. The instructions end with one final piece of advice: “Do not look behind you.” ^[8]

2 The Iron Age Skiers of Norway

In the mountains of Norway, as the ice sheets melt away, strange discoveries rise to the surface. It was there that glacier archaeologists uncovered a remarkable pair of 1,300-year-old skis. The first of the two skis was found in 2014 on Digervarden Mountain in the southern county of Innlandet. The second turned up seven years later, only 5 meters (16 feet) from the first.

It took a lot of effort to free the second artifact from the ice. The team decided to return to Digervarden after spotting satellite images showing the receding ice sheets. Their first attempt to retrieve the ski left them empty-handed, but a mix of mild weather, pickaxes, and boiling water helped pry it loose.

This discovery is particularly noteworthy due to skis being in such astonishing condition. Secrets of the Ice, the treasure-hunting researchers who uncovered both skis, reckon they could be the best-preserved prehistoric skis ever seen.^[9]

1 The Prehistoric Origins of Genital Herpes

In 2017, scientists discovered the ancient human ancestor responsible for genital herpes. The genital herpes virus, also known as HSV2, dates back millions of years. It is a close relative of HSV1—the cold sore virus. For much of that time, genital herpes was only an issue for chimps and similar primates. Our ancestors were lucky enough that it did not affect them. But at some point in history, around 3 to 1.4 million years ago, the viral blisters jumped the species barrier and began infecting early humans as well.

Researchers in Britain used data modeling to pinpoint the primate that caused HSV2 to leap across species. It turns out the guilty party is Paranthropus boisei. They are a stocky, human-like species with small brains and dish-like faces. Scientists predict that these robust primates picked up the virus while scavenging for chimps to eat. At some point, early humans likely ate the infected P. boisei, at which point they would have started contracting genital herpes too.

“Herpes infect everything from humans to coral, with each species having its own specific set of viruses,” explained University of Cambridge researcher Dr. Charlotte Houldcroft. “For these viruses to jump species barriers, they need a lucky genetic mutation combined with a significant fluid exchange. In the case of early hominins, this means through consumption or intercourse—or possibly both.”^[10]