Art forgery is a real menace museums have to contend with. Every now and then, a museum ends up with a fake artifact that can end up being on display for a number of years before they realize it is a fake. For the forgers, the high price tags attached to these fakes are often enough incentives to keep creating forgeries.

Forgers often go to extreme lengths to fool museums into buying their work. Some fakes are so good that historians and archaeologists have a hard time telling them apart from the real thing. Many museums have fallen victim to forgers, including the famous Louvre, which exhibited a fake artwork for several years without realizing it.

10 The Three Etruscan Warriors

In 1933, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka the Met) in New York City added three new pieces of art to its exhibition. They were the sculptures of three warriors from the ancient Etruscan civilization. The seller, an art dealer named Pietro Stettiner, claimed the sculptures were made in the fifth century BC.

Italian archaeologists were the first to raise concerns that the statues could be forgeries. However, the museum curators refused to heed the warning because they believed they had gotten the artworks at a bargain and did not want to lose them to another museum.

Other archaeologists later noted that the statues had unusual shapes and sizes for artworks created at their time. The body parts were also sculpted at unequal proportions, and the entire collection had little damage. The museum only discovered the truth in 1960, when archaeologist Joseph V. Noble recreated sample statues using the same techniques as the Etruscans and determined that the statues in the Met could not have been made by them.

Investigations revealed that Stettiner was part of a larger group of forgers that had conspired to create the statues. The team copied the sculptures from collections held by several museums, including the Met itself. One of the warriors was copied from a picture of a Greek statue in a book from the Berlin Museum.

The head of another warrior was copied from the drawing on a real Etruscan vase held by the Met. The sculptures also had unequal body parts because they were too big for the studio, forcing the forgers to reduce the size of some parts. One of the sculptures was also missing an arm because the forgers couldn’t decide on a pose for said arm.^[1]

9 The Persian Mummy

In 2000, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan almost engaged in a diplomatic row over the mummy and coffin of an unidentified 2,600-year-old princess. The mummy, often referred to as the Persian Mummy, was discovered when Pakistani police officers raided a home in Kharan after receiving a tip-off that the owner was illegally trying to sell antiquities.

The owner was Sardar Wali Reeki, who was trying to sell the mummy to an unidentified buyer for £35 million. Reeki claimed he had found the mummy and coffin after an earthquake. Iran soon claimed ownership of the mummy, considering that Reeki’s village was right at its border. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time, later joined the fray to contest ownership of the mummy.

The mummy was sent to Pakistan’s National Museum and put on display. However, several archaeologists discovered that several parts of the coffin were too modern. On top of that, there was no evidence that any of the tribes in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan ever mummified their dead. Further analysis revealed that the mummy was actually the remains of a 21-year-old woman who may well have been a murder victim. It was sent to a morgue, and police arrested Reeki and his family.^[2]

8 Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of handwritten scrolls containing Jewish religious text. They were written in the rough vicinity of 2,000 years ago and are among the oldest recorded writings of Hebrew biblical passages. Most of the scrolls and fragments are stored at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, while a few are in the hands of private collectors and museums.

This includes the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, which had five fragments of the scrolls on display. However, that changed in 2018, when the fragments were revealed to be forgeries. The ruse was discovered after the museum sent the fragments to Germany for analysis.

The museum sent the scrolls for examination after experts raised the alarm that they may have been fakes. These concerns were first raised months before the museum opened in November 2017. Speculators claim that the museum spent millions of dollars to acquire the fake scroll fragments. However, that remains unconfirmed, considering that the museum is not talking.^[3]

7 Several Artworks At The Brooklyn Museum

In 1932, the Brooklyn Museum received 926 works of art from the estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, who had died a year earlier. The artworks were a mix of paintings, jewelry, woodworks, and pottery from ancient Rome, the Chinese Qing dynasty, and the Renaissance.

Colonel Friedsam gifted the museum the art on the condition that they received permission from his estate before selling or decommissioning any of it. That condition became a problem decades later, when the museum discovered that 229 of the artworks were forgeries.

The Brooklyn Museum could not decommission the art because the last of Colonel Friedsam’s descendants died half a century ago. The museum cannot throw them away, either, because the Association of American Museums has strict rules guiding the storage and disposal of art by member museums.

In 2010, the Brooklyn museum approached a court to allow it to decommission these forgeries. According to the petition submitted to the court, the museum would spend an initial $403,000 to furnish a warehouse to store the artifacts if the court refused its request. Then it would spend another $286,000 per year on rent and workers to care for the artworks.^[4]

6 The Henlein Pocket Watch

Peter Henlein was a locksmith and inventor who lived in Germany between 1485 and 1542. We might not know him, but we all know and use his invention: the watch. Henlein invented the watch when he replaced the heavy weights used in clocks with a lighter mainspring, which allowed him make smaller clocks. Clocks were made by locksmiths and blacksmiths at the time.

One of Henlein’s supposed early creations has been held at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Germany since 1897. The pocket watch resembles a small tin and fits in the palm of one’s hand. However, it became the center of a controversy soon after it was added to the museum’s collection.

Several historians claimed the so-called Henlein watch was a forgery and not an original. This was even though the signature in the inside back cover of the watch proclaimed it to have been made by Peter Henlein in 1510. A 1930 report stated that the signature was added years after the watch was supposedly built.

The experts reached their conclusion after determining that the signature went over—instead of under—the scratch marks inside the back cover. More recent tests revealed that most parts of the watch were manufactured in the 19th century, indicating it could be a forgery. However, other experts suggest the parts were made during an attempt to repair the watch.^[5]

5 Almost Everything At San Francisco’s Mexican Museum

In 2012, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco achieved affiliate status with the Smithsonian Institution. The status allows the museum to borrow and loan artworks from over 200 partner museums and institutions with the affiliate status. However, the Smithsonian requires member museums to authenticate their collections before they can start loaning or borrowing artworks.

In 2017, the Mexican Museum discovered that only 83 of the first 2,000 artworks it evaluated were authentic. This was troubling, considering that the museum has 16,000 artworks in its collection. Experts estimate that half of the museum’s inventory is fake.

Some of the forgeries were deliberately created to be passed off as original, while others were originally intended as decorations. Some weren’t even linked to Mexican culture at all. The huge amount of forgeries is not surprising, considering that the museum received most of its collections from donors and hadn’t bothered to confirm their authenticity.^[6]

4 The Amarna Princess

In 2003, the Bolton, Manchester, city council decided to acquire some new artworks for their local museum. They settled for a supposedly 3,300-year-old statue called the Amarma Princess, which depicts a relative of Pharaoh Tutankhamun of ancient Egypt.

The sellers of the statue claimed it was excavated from an Egyptian site. This claim was backed by the British Museum, which found no signs of foul play after examining the statue. Satisfied, the Bolton city council paid £440,000 for the statue, which went on display at the museum.

A few years later, the Bolton Museum discovered that the British Museum was wrong. The statue was a forgery, the handiwork of Shaun Greenhalgh, an infamous forger who made fake artworks which he sold to museums as originals. In a twist of irony, Greenhalgh lived in Bolton and had created the sculpture there.

His parents, George and Olive Greenhalgh, acted as his salespeople and sold the forgeries to the museums. In 2007, Shaun was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail for his crime. His parents received suspended jail terms for their part.^[7]

3 A Golden Crown At The Louvre

In the 1800s, two men contacted goldsmith Israel Rouchomovsky in today’s Odessa, Ukraine, to commission a Greek-styled gold crown as a gift for an archaeologist friend. In truth, the men had no archaeologist friend and only wanted to sell the crown as an original artwork from ancient Greece.

Schapschelle Hochmann, the more cunning of the duo, claimed the crown was a gift from a Greek king to the king of Scythia sometime in the third century BC. Several British and Austrian museums turned down offers to purchase the crown. However, Hochmann found luck when the Louvre purchased it for 200,000 francs.

Some archaeologists raised concerns that the crown could be fake soon after it went on exhibition at the Louvre. However, no one listened to them because they weren’t French. The Louvre considered their statements an act of jealously since they probably wanted the crown for their own museums.

The archaeologists were proven right in 1903, when a man named Lifschitz, a friend who had seen Rouchomovsky make the crown, informed Rouchomovsky that his work was being exhibited as an original at the Louvre. Rouchomovsky traveled to France with a reproduction to prove he really made the crown.

The revelation was bad news for the Louvre and good news for Rouchomovsky, who hit instant fame. A century later, the Israel Museum borrowed the crown from the Louvre and exhibited it as an original artwork of Rouchomovsky.^[8]

2 Over Half Of The Paintings At Etienne Terrus Museum

The Etienne Terrus Museum is a little-known museum in Elne, France. It belongs to the city of Elne and exhibits the works of Etienne Terrus, a French artist who was born in Elne in 1857. In 2018, the museum added 80 new paintings to its collection. However, things quickly went south when an historian contracted to help arrange the new paintings discovered that around 60 percent of the entire museum’s collection were forgeries.

The historian had no difficulty in determining the artworks to be fakes. His gloved hand wiped the signature off one painting in a single stroke. Several paintings also contained buildings that had not been built at the time Terrus was alive.

Further analysis revealed that 82 of the 140 paintings held at the museum were forgeries.^[9] The city council had purchased most of the paintings between 1990 and 2010. The forgeries were moved to the local police station while police opened an investigation.

1 Everything At The Museum Of Art Fakes

The Museum of Art Fakes is a real museum dedicated to art forgeries. Located in Vienna, Austria, the museum only collects fake artifacts and artworks. Parts of its collections includes pages from a diary supposedly owned by Adolf Hitler. In truth, the diary was forged by one Konrad Kujau.

The museum categorizes its collections into forgeries intended to mimic the style of a more famous artist, forgeries intended to be sold as previously undiscovered artwork of a famous artist, and forgeries intended to be passed off as originals of already famous artworks.

The museum includes a category for artworks it considers replicas. Replicas are made by artists after the death of the original artist. They were often labeled and sold as such, never having been claimed to be originals.

The Museum of Art Fakes also dedicates some exhibition space to infamous forgers like Tom Keating, who created over 2,000 fake artworks during his lifetime. Keating deliberately made errors in his art so that they could be revealed as fake long after he had been paid. He called these deliberate errors “time-bombs.”

The museum also exhibits the work of Edgar Mrugalla, who created over 3,500 fake pieces of art which he sold as originals. Mrugalla’s career as a forger ended after he received a two-year sentence for art forgery. He was only released on the condition that he take on a new career that required him to help authorities reveal fake artworks.^[10]

The European Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, running roughly from AD 500 to AD 1500. A lot of history took place during this time, but textbooks often fail to reconnect the living with the past as much as artifacts do.

Some items prove that certain things never change—people cheated at games, carried deadly weapons, and were addicted to cheese. Medieval artifacts also preserved the era’s weirder moments, like the three-person toilet and the nun who escaped her convent by faking her own death.

10 Medieval Peasant Diet

When it comes to medieval munchies, the diets of the English nobility are well-known. The menu of the peasantry, however, was so poorly recorded that researchers were not sure what people ate. Their mainstay was probably pottages and stews, but there was no direct evidence to prove this.

In 2019, 73 cooking pots underwent chemical analysis to test for food residues. The 500-year-old vessels came from a medieval village called West Cotton. Fat showed up in many of the jars, confirming that ceramics were important in the medieval kitchen and that peasants did rely on stews and pottages as a staple.

Ingredients included meat like mutton and beef. There were also traces of leafy vegetables such as cabbage and leek. The meat-cabbage stew was an important find. Nothing similar had shown up in elite kitchens.

Although the greatest surprise was a lack of fish, the vessels did betray the villagers’ love of dairy. Almost a quarter of all the pots were used for milk-derived products. When this new information was consolidated with animal remains at West Cotton, scientists were able to compile a “cookbook,” which described meals, butchery and preparation techniques, and the disposal of scraps.^[1]

9 The Aberdeenshire Game Board

The oldest Scottish manuscript is believed to be the Book of Deer. Written by monks during the 10th century, the illuminated book contains the earliest Gaelic writing from Scotland. Archaeologists have been looking for the authors’ monastery since 2008. It was fittingly called the Monastery of Deer and was located somewhere in Aberdeenshire.

In 2018, a team were excavating newly discovered ruins when they found a gaming board. In itself, the artifact was a scarce find. It was shaped from stone to resemble a disk, and its motifs suggested that it was used to play a range of games popular in medieval Ireland and Scandinavia.

What got archaeologists excited were the layers beneath the artifact. They dated to the seventh and eighth centuries, the same as pieces of charcoal found at the site. This proved that at least some of the ruins were in use—with people playing a game—during that time.^[2]

8 The Missing Nun

In recent times, historians riffled through the Registers of the Archbishops of York. The tomes recorded the dealings of archbishops from 1304 to 1405. A new project aimed to create an online version of the registers, and during the process, researchers encountered a letter.

Dated 1318, it was written by Archbishop William Melton who recounted a “scandalous rumor” he had been told. Apparently, a nun named Joan had escaped her convent. Not only did she run, but she tried to fake her own death. Apparently, she created a body double to take her place at a funeral.

Since people were buried in shrouds back then, Joan might have stuffed a shroud and shaped it like a corpse. The reason for her escape was given as “carnal lust,” which could have been anything from a desire to live in the outside world to wanting to get married.

The letter was addressed to the Dean of Beverley, who was stationed in Yorkshire about 64 kilometers (40 mi) away from York. The dean was asked to find and return the wayward nun to her convent in York. Thus far, there is no clue about whether Joan managed to dodge the dean.^[3]

7 The Sewer Sword

Early in 2019, engineers and construction workers toiled within a sewer. The idea was to install pipes in the city of Aalborg, Denmark. Instead, workers found a double-edged sword. The artifact was taken to archaeologists, who inspected the 1.1-meter-long (3.6 ft) weapon.

The verdict was a happy one. Not only was it found in an unusual place, but it also likely belonged to an elite soldier. During the 1300s from whence it came, only the nobility could afford to commission these expensive weapons.

The odd place it was discovered had nothing to do with the sewer. It was found on some of Aalborg’s oldest pavement. The sword, which was still sharp and deadly, showed signs of at least three battles. This suggested that it might have been forged centuries before ending up on the pavement.

Its exact age has not been agreed upon—only that an elite warrior owned it in the 1300s. Aalborg saw its fair share of storming hordes, and the weapon was probably lost when its owner attacked or defended the city.^[4]

6 The Bergen Dice

In 2018, archaeologists explored Bergen in Norway. While excavating in the Vagsbunnen district, they found a wooden cube next to a street from the Middle Ages. Since each side of the cube had dots, the block was quickly identified as a dice (aka die).

Bergen had already produced over 30 dice from medieval times, so nobody was stunned—at first. Before long, it became clear that the dice was abnormal. The 600-year-old artifact lacked the sides for 1 and 2. There were sides with 3 to 6 dots, but in the place of the missing numbers were an extra 4 and 5.

The area once hosted many pubs and inns, and their clientele probably enjoyed gambling. In a game of chance, this dice would have given its owner an unfair advantage. Alternatively, it could have been thrown during a game that never used 1 and 2. However, archaeologists are almost certain that somebody crafted the cube to help them cheat.^[5]

5 A Lewis Warder

In 1831, the pieces of four medieval chess sets were found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. Carved from walrus tusk, the collection became known as the “Lewis hoard.” The tiny figures’ clothing and gestures offered researchers valuable glimpses into medieval society, but there was something else that would have made them even happier.

The chess sets are not complete. Five pieces had never been found. In 1964, an antique business purchased a small statue. The owner described the acquisition in his records as an “antique walrus tusk warrior chessman.” He ought to have known. However, the piece was passed down in the Edinburgh family for 55 years and recently brought to the auction house Sotheby’s for appraisal.

It was positively identified as one of the missing Lewis artifacts. It was a warder, which in modern chess would be a rook or castle. The figure wore a frown, brandished a sword, and, for some reason, was darker than the rest of the Lewis pieces. Incredibly, the antique dealer bought it for £5 but the real worth is almost £1 million ($1.3 million).^[6]

4 Three-Person Toilet

One might not consider a toilet rare, but one 12th-century example fits the bill. Around 900 years ago, somebody took an axe and hacked three holes into a large oak plank. This three-person toilet seat was then positioned over a cesspit near the Thames. Back in the day, it stood behind—and probably served—a building that was located at the modern-day Ludgate Hill.

Researchers managed to track down some of the names of the people who lived and worked at the building, which contained a mixture of homes and businesses. Among the names were Cassandra de Flete and her husband, John, a capmaker.

The building itself was called Helle when the loo was in use. Adventurous scientists decided to sit on the seat, which was discovered in the 1980s. Although they found the axe-hewn holes comfortable, personal space was an issue. The holes were close together, and three people using the facilities would have sat shoulder to shoulder.^[7]

3 Lost Govan Stones

Between the 10th and 11th centuries, gravestones were carved in the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The latter was one of several powers that fought to gain control over the British Isles when Scotland did not yet exist.

The stones were large and beautifully decorated. In the 19th century, 46 were unearthed in Glasgow and became known as the Govan Stones. Eventually, 31 were relocated to the Govan Old Parish Church. This included a stone-carved sarcophagus that was said to have held the remains of a saint-king called Constantine.

The rest were displayed for years against a churchyard wall but vanished when a nearby shipyard was demolished. For over 40 years, historians feared the valuable stones had been destroyed.^[8]

In 2019, an archaeological dig brought experts and volunteers together to search for the missing gravestones. A 14-year-old schoolboy struck gold. While digging near the Govan Parish Church, he found a Govan Stone. This led to a more intensive search, and two more were found. The discovery offers some hope that the rest of the missing sculptures will surface in the future.

2 Traveling Book Coffer

These days, bookworms can carry a library on their phones. Since medieval readers did not have the luxury of .pdf files, travelers often used a book coffer. Today, only about 100 of these rare artifacts remain.

In 2019, Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries acquired one from a private buyer. The case came from France and had been constructed of wood and leather during the 1400s. It also had metal clasps and hand straps for carrying.

The box was exceptionally valuable for two reasons. Most surviving book coffers date from the 1500s, which makes this one of the oldest ever found. The most exciting find was a woodcut attached to the inside of the lid. It was a piece called “God the Father in Majesty,” a draft that originated from a liturgical book in Paris.

The Bodleian suspect that the print was used as spiritual protection for the coffer’s content. Overall, the woodcut was incredibly rare. Not only was it found in its original context and dated to Europe’s earliest attempts at printing, but only four of its type are known to exist.^[9]

1 Royal Marriage Bed

Almost a decade ago, an antique dealer bought a bed online. Ian Coulson from England liked the catalog’s description of a “profusely carved Victorian four-poster bed with armorial shields.” After Coulson brought it home, he realized the description was inaccurate. Luckily, he had not been fleeced.

Instead, the dealer had stumbled upon what could be the most important furniture in England. Moreover, the most important royal artifact—the “armorial shields”—was the English royal coat of arms.

Along with Coulson, several experts believe that the bed is not Victorian at all. The timber was worked with hand tools, which placed it in a medieval workshop and not the mechanized factories of the industrialized Victorians. The bed also had traces of ultramarine, a medieval pigment more expensive than gold. This proved the bed belonged to a high-status couple sometime during the 15th century.^[10]

Since the bed’s carvings included the roses of the houses of York and Lancashire, the couple was likely King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Their bed was commissioned before the wedding, and it vanished during the English Civil War when parliamentarians destroyed all royal furnishings.

Islands remain a mainstay for vacationers and romance novelists. Beyond stress relief and imaginary heroes, islands are complex worlds. There are mysterious places that challenge experts with artificial islands and unknown rituals.

Islands are also mass graves and the ocean’s trash bins—to a horrifying degree. Then there are the hills where sheep carry cameras for Google, an island with ancient Bitcoin, and one of the most visited places on Earth that does not exist.

10 Rabbit Island

In the past, Okunoshima was rabbit hell. The island was used by the Japanese to test poisonous gases during World War II. The laboratory rabbits were gassed with substances that went on to kill up to 80,000 Chinese during the 1930s and ’40s.

Today, the scene looks different. Rabbits hop everywhere on Okunoshima. People adore them. Tourists spoil the bunnies with food and photo sessions. Predators such as dogs, cats, and hunters are banned from the island.

Mysteriously, nobody knows where the rabbits came from. The original test rabbits were euthanized by US personnel when they took the island during the occupation.

There is a rumor that schoolchildren released eight bunnies in 1971. Eight was enough. Without predators, the prolific creatures’ population grew. These days, hundreds of feral rabbits crowd around people for snacks.

As idyllic as it seems, things are not perfect. Living on treats has shortened the rabbits’ life span to two years. Their numbers have also destroyed the ecosystem. With no natural food left, they depend on visitors to feed them.^[1]

9 Anglesey’s Monuments

Anglesey is a British island famously linked to the Druids. The latter were an order of priests with magical powers who supposedly existed around 2,000 years ago. There is no evidence that the Druids were real, but Anglesey’s Neolithic and Bronze Age buildings are tangible and older to boot.

The star is a Neolithic monument known as Bryn Celli Ddu. Excavated between 1928 and 1929, the 5,000-year-old tomb’s entrance tunnel aligns with the midsummer Sun at dawn.^[2]

In 2019, archaeologists started excavations on a burial mound located 46 meters (150 ft) away. The hope was to find out more about the builders. Interestingly, the mound was added to the landscape 1,000 years after Bryn Celli Ddu.

Other finds included a circle of pits, artifacts, and structures placed around the passage tomb. Although personal information on the builders was lacking, it became clear that successive generations returned for thousands of years to add to the complex.

8 The Cat-Fox

An unusual animal lives in the forests of Corsica, a French island. Locals call it a cat-fox. The felines are bigger than the average house cat, and their tails have two to four rings. The critters have doglike teeth, unusually short whiskers, and broad ears.

In 2012, wildlife rangers received their first chance to do DNA tests. Researchers coated a stick with a scent the cats would hopefully find attractive and left it in the wilderness. When the team collected the staff, it had been so affectionately rubbed by cat-foxes that they left their fur behind.

The hair confirmed suspicions that the animals were an undocumented species and not feral domestic cats. Indeed, their DNA matched no other species on the planet. However, it was similar to the African forest cat (Felis silvestris lybica).

A plausible theory suggests that farmers brought the cats to Corsica around 6500 BC. If the theory is proven, the cat-fox could be viewed as an ancient feline species that survived for thousands of years but only recently came to the world’s attention.^[3]

7 Neolithic Artificial Islands

Scotland’s Outer Hebrides are dotted with over 600 artificial islets called crannogs. For some reason, people felt the need to drag stones to the middle of lakes and waterways and make their own islands. Most are Iron Age relics, but a few were recently dated to an earlier Neolithic Britain (4000-2500 BC).

This is a hazy time period. Although people built intriguing monuments like Stonehenge, they left no written records. Neolithic crannogs proved that the artificial structures were 3,000 years older than previously thought. This surprising leap back in time did not come from the islets but from a mysterious ritual.

In 2012, a diver found Neolithic pottery around the Outer Hebrides’ crannogs. Thanks to the vessels, archaeologists eventually identified five islands from this time.^[4]

Demonstrating a behavior unknown to British archaeology, people went to the crannogs to throw their best vessels into the water. The crannogs likely had ritualistic significance, but the details are lost to time.

6 World’s Most Plastic-Polluted Place

Henderson Island in the South Pacific is uninhabited. There are no people or factories discarding plastic trash everywhere. Despite this, when researchers went to the island in 2017, they were shocked by the pollution.

The sheer volume was enough to traumatize any conservationist. The team counted up to 671 pieces of plastic per square meter. This was the highest number ever recorded anywhere in the world. Overall, Henderson creaked under an estimated total weight of over 17 tons. This amount balloons daily. On just one of the island’s several beaches, over 3,500 new plastic pieces wash ashore every day.

There is a reason why trash makes a beeline for this remote island. Henderson lies inside the swirling currents known as the South Pacific Gyre. Debris collected elsewhere rides the currents until they connect with the island. Indeed, the researchers found plastic manufactured in 24 countries.^[5]

5 Google Sheep View

Google Street View has visited nearly every place on Earth. This did not sit well with the residents of Denmark’s Faroe Islands. For years, they waited for their beautiful islands to be added to the 360-degree viewing service. Finally, the islanders’ patience ran out.

The Faroe Islands are small, but they have a dedicated tourism bureau. Staff member Durita Dahl Andreassen came up with a novel idea. She got her hands on 360-degree cameras and, with a shepherd’s blessing, attached the devices to local sheep.

The creatures meandered all over the 18 islands and recorded the landscapes. The footage from the project, called “Sheep View 360,” was uploaded to the official Street View service. The islands are known for their sheep, which outnumber the human population, but this was surely the strangest camera crew that ever contributed to Google Street View.^[6]

4 The Rai Stones

There are curious artifacts on the Pacific Island of Yap. A rai stone is a limestone disk with a hole in the center. Some are bigger than a person. That’s a cumbersome thought, considering that the wheels were used as currency. They were exchanged as wedding gifts, used for political reasons, paid as ransoms, and kept as inheritances.

Due to their size and fragility, a new owner could not always move the stone closer to home. For this reason, the community had an oral system so that everyone knew the names of stone owners and the details of any trades.^[7]

Although the rai stones date back hundreds of years before European contact, this oral tradition is similar to the blockchain of modern cryptocurrencies. The blockchain is an open ledger of cryptocurrency ownership that provides the same transparency that the Yapese islanders used to maintain community control over information and security.

Although rai stones and cryptocurrencies could not be more different, archaeologists were surprised by how the ancient “oral ledger” and today’s blockchain performed the same duty for their respective currencies.

3 Hart Island’s Body Problem

New York City’s Island of the Dead came by its name honestly. Its real name is Hart Island. Since 1868, it has served as the city’s cemetery for the less fortunate.

When nobody claims a body or the family cannot afford a funeral, the deceased is taken to the 101-acre island for burial. Around one million bodies line mass graves, with pine coffins stacked on top of each other. The body count grows by roughly 1,000 every year.

In 2018, things began to spill over. Erosion revealed so many skeletons along the shoreline that police called it “bones beach.” Forensic anthropologists collected or marked most of the exposed bones with flags, but the problem is far from solved.^[8]

Powerful weather such as floodwaters and storms continue to tear at the island’s older burial grounds. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took the spillage so seriously that it gave $13 million toward a project to stabilize the island’s shorelines.

2 Canada’s Record-Holding Islands

Here is a weird geography fact. There are things called an island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island. For years, the biggest one was an island in a lake on Volcano Island. The latter itself stood in Lake Taal on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

In 2012, fans of the strange phenomenon took to Google Earth to find out if there was an even bigger stack of islands and lakes out there. After an exhaustive search, they found a new winner in Canada. At the center was a strip of land so small and nameless that no human had probably ever been there.

The minuscule island is inside a lake surrounded by an island. This island hunkers within a long lake around 120 kilometers (75 mi) from Victoria Island’s coast. It is perhaps fitting that the title for the world’s largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island should go to Canada. The country already hosts similar island-related records. It holds both the world’s biggest island-in-a-lake and lake-on-an-island.^[9]

1 Null Island

When users search for a coffee shop or tourist attraction, Google Maps uses a geographic information system (GIS) to plot coordinates on a map. GIS is responsible for that icon marking the exact location of a destination.

This system has a ghost in the machine. Glitches can cause GIS systems to revert to 0°N 0°E on the map. This happens so often that geographers have named the spot Null Island. Thanks to technological errors, it is one of the most “visited” places in the world.

When a GIS system reverts to those coordinates, it brings along the location the user searched for. As a result, the imaginary Null island is packed with street addresses and attractions.

To the fans of Null Island, it does not matter that none of these things is really there. They designed a national flag and a detailed history for the island. The coordinates 0°N 0°E are a real place in the South Atlantic Ocean. However, instead of an island, the spot holds a buoy used by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to gather climate data.^[10]

Ancient burials can release a lot of information about the past. However, the rare ones often highlight the incompleteness of our known history. For some reason, the ancients mummified mice, wore bird beak collars, and put horses in boats.

When rare burials do reveal tangible information, the stories can range from the unexpected—like the Europeans who became the biblical Philistines—to the familiar urban violence of the world’s first cities.

10 The Sohag Tomb

During 2018, smugglers were caught red-handed breaking into a tomb in Egypt. Give credit where it is due—the thieves were the first to find the chamber. Located near the Egyptian town of Sohag, it was described as beautiful and colorful.

The tomb itself was created around 2,000 years ago and was painted in great detail to show funeral processions and workers toiling in the field. Although it still needs to be confirmed, the tomb originally could have belonged to a married couple. The husband was thought to be a high-ranking official called Tutu.^[1]

Two mummies were found inside, but they were not a couple. The woman, aged 35 to 50, was interred with a boy aged 12 to 14. They were surrounded by a menagerie of animal mummies, including cats and birds. For some inexplicable reason, there were also over 50 mummified mice.

9 Double Burial At Rakhigarhi

The Indus Valley produced several ancient and mysterious cities, the most famous being Mohenjo Daro. In 2016, excavations focused on a cemetery at Rakhigarhi. Located in the Indian state of Haryana, this was the biggest of the Indus settlements. The graveyard surrendered 70 burials, but one was striking enough to stand out.

The shallow grave held a man and a woman. The two skeletons were turned so that they faced each other in an intimate way. This led to the suggestion that the pair had been married in life.^[2]

They died around 4,500 years ago, but the cause of death remains mysterious. Both were in good health, and their bones showed no injuries or signs of disease. They were also young. The man was around 35, and the woman, 25.

Despite appearing in their prime, both seemingly passed away within a short time of each other. This could have prompted the community to bury the couple together, but it remains exceptionally unusual for the time.

8 An Explorer’s Grave

When Captain Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the coast of Australia, it helped to identify the landmass as a continent. In 1814, the English explorer died young at 40 and was buried close to Euston Station in London.

During 1849, the grave’s location vanished when the railway expanded and Flinders’s tombstone went missing. Given the large number of people buried there, many doubted that Flinders would ever be found again.

In 2019, the construction of a high-speed rail reached within the St. James burial ground where Flinders was interred along with 40,000 other people. Working alongside the builders, archaeologists kept an eye out for the explorer. They were lucky. One coffin had a lead plate—a good choice if you want to avoid corrosion—which identified the remains of Matthew Flinders.^[3]

7 The Siberian Birdman

In 2019, archaeologists unearthed a grave in Siberia’s Novosibirsk region. Bronze Age skeletons have been found in Siberia before, but this one stumped the experts. The man was buried 5,000 years ago with an unusual garment—a collar of bird beaks and skulls.

With the number of skulls and beaks estimated to be as high as 50, it seemed natural to name the skeleton “Birdman.” The purpose of the piece remains mysterious.^[4]

The bony parts could have protected his chest like armor. It might have been a ritual requirement, or maybe the guy just liked birds. The collar could even have been a headdress.

The Birdman was not alone. A nearby grave was divided by a wooden partition. The top part held two children who died below the age of 10. The lower part held a man buried with an unusual bronze mask. The mask and collar suggested that the two men might have been shamans.

6 A Family Murder

In 2011, a mass grave was opened near the Polish village of Koszyce. At first, it seemed like just another Bronze Age massacre. Around 5,000 years ago, 15 adults and children had their skulls bashed in.

A recent study revealed the heartbreaking story. It started when researchers realized that somebody had buried the victims with care. Soon, their DNA revealed that it was an extended family. There were few men, either very young or old for the time. Most were women and children.

Tests showed that each of the four mothers was buried next to her own children and that the fathers were not in the grave. Whoever buried the women, lovingly between grave goods and their children, knew how everyone was related.

It is thought that the strongest men, the fathers, left the homestead for the day—something the attackers were waiting for. When the men came home, they were met with the horrifying sight of their slaughtered wives, sons, and daughters.

The reason for the massacre will never be known, but it could have been intercultural violence. This group belonged to the Globular Amphora culture who was in conflict at the time with the Corded Ware people.^[5]

5 The First City Was Violent

Catalhoyuk in Turkey is viewed by many as one of the world’s first cities. Around 8,000 people crowded together during the peak of its occupation, and in 2019, archaeologists found that the close living conditions were a vector for disease and violence.

The study combed through 25 years’ worth of research done on the 32-acre site. More specifically, they reviewed the remains of 742 citizens. People lived there for around 1,000 years (7100 BC to 5950 BC). At one point, houses became so closely stacked that going home meant climbing through the roof.^[6]

The skeletons dating to Catalhoyuk’s highest population days showed an increase in violence. Women suffered more brutal blows to the head and skull fractures. The researchers felt that the switch from foraging to farming and then living in cramped conditions with disease outbreaks and people everywhere turned tempers more vicious.

4 Europe’s Record-Breaking Graves

The Sedlec Ossuary is a chapel in Czechia that dates back to around AD 1400. The site is grimly decorated with up to 70,000 skeletons. In 2017, repair work led archaeologists to 30 mass graves underneath the chapel. They contained 1,500 skeletons, which was a record for the region’s High Middle Ages and the biggest grave cluster in Europe.

The new pits were older than the chapel. Dating tests placed the remains in the 14th century, but from two different periods. The oldest marked burials from AD 1318 when famine razed the region. Younger pits from AD 1348–1350 marked the peak of the Black Plague.

All the signs suggested that the people were hastily buried, probably due to the corpses piling up and the fear of infection. Tombstones are not practical during such disasters, which was why the builders of Sedlec Ossuary likely never knew the mass graves were there.^[7]

3 Rare Boat Burials

In 2019, archaeologists worked at medieval ruins at Uppsala in Sweden. They were not looking for one of the rarest burials in existence—boats serving as coffins. Boat burials date from 550 to 1050 and were reserved for the upper crust of society.

They discovered two. The excitement hit the roof when one was found to be intact. It carried the skeleton of a man in the stern, while those of a horse and dog were arranged within the bow. The other boat was badly crushed, probably when the 16th-century well and cellar were constructed.

In Sweden, only around 10 of these boats have been recovered. A few were in terrible condition. The rest were mere soil impressions with the vessel long since destroyed by rot. This made the pristine Uppsala boat a unique and valuable find.^[8]

2 Ancestors Of The Philistines

The Philistines were often the bad guys in the Bible. The giant Goliath (whom David killed) and Delilah (who betrayed Samson) were both Philistines. Historians tried for decades to find the mysterious group’s origins, and genetic tests cracked the case in 2019.

The DNA was pulled from 10 skeletons in a Philistine cemetery in Ashkelon in Israel. These individuals, who lived around 3,600 and 2,800 years ago, revealed that the Philistines were not originally locals. Their ancestors came from seafaring cultures who crossed the Mediterranean, including people from Sardinia, Greece, and possibly Spain and Portugal.

Their southern European genes were undeniable. The different ages of the skeletons also showed that they arrived around 3,000 years ago and that their genes thinned out fast. They intermarried with the locals and were completely assimilated into the population within 200 years.^[9]

1 Britain’s Tutankhamen

In 2003, a road was expanded in Prittlewell in Essex. This led to the discovery of what archaeologists are calling “Britain’s Tutankhamen.” It was a burial chamber from the late sixth century filled with exquisite details. Unfortunately, all the organic stuff was gone. However, there was enough to understand how the chamber was crafted and that the occupant was a high-status male who had been rich and powerful in life.

The main candidate is an Anglo-Saxon prince named Seaxa. When the man died, about 13 oak trees were felled to create the tomb. It required the strength of teams, numbering up to 25 and working in shifts, to complete it.

Among the grave goods was a musical instrument called a lyre. This particular lyre had parts connecting it to Sri Lanka or the Indian subcontinent. There were also gold foil crosses, a surprisingly early mark of Christianity for the region.

Both crushed the belief that Essex was the Anglo-Saxon backwater of its time. Instead, Essex likely had long-reaching trade routes and was at the forefront of religious and cultural changes.^[10]

There is no denying that flashy or highly unusual artifacts are fascinating. As the world of archaeology turns more glitzy, these items hit the headlines more than their dull, unglamorous counterparts.

But history holds no such prejudice. Sometimes, it’s the more mundane artifacts that tell us the most about our ancestors and how they lived. A lump of tar, an erased page, or a dead bee can change what we know in an instant. No glitter required.

10 The Glue Caves

For decades, caves in Germany yielded what appeared to be lowly tar lumps. Although they were indeed tar lumps, they were far from lowly. Researchers have always known that the ancients used tar as an adhesive and sealant. But these 200,000-year-old globs were found in caves and on tools where Neanderthals lived.

Recent times have painted a new picture of this extinct human cousin. Instead of spending the day brainlessly clubbing anything that moved, Neanderthals are now credited with a complex culture. The tar proves that they also invented the world’s first glue, a feat previously attributed to anatomically modern humans.

Not only did Neanderthals beat humans to this high-tech skill, but they created up to three sophisticated ways to process tar from birch bark.^[1] Each produced different amounts, which was smart. A Neanderthal hunter, quickly needing to fix a weapon, could choose the fastest technique that made the least.

Homo sapiens, on the other hand, began using adhesives only 70,000 years ago. While these early Africans probably invented glue independently, it is quite plausible that they could have learned the birch bark techniques from Neanderthals.

9 Library Of Languages

Religious manuscripts are nothing new, but those at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt have pedigree. They belong to one of the world’s oldest operational libraries. Among Saint Catherine’s thousands of books were about 130 manuscripts known as palimpsests. A palimpsest was a manuscript with its original pages erased and written over.

During the seventh century, Saint Catherine’s did so out of necessity. The spread of Islam throughout the Sinai Desert isolated the monks. When paper became scarce, they reused the older books. Starting in 2011, some 6,800 pages from palimpsests were photographed in special light to reveal the invisible words.

The manuscripts delivered. The recovered literature was dated between the 4th to the 12th centuries. Astonishing finds from known languages included 108 pages of new Greek poems and the oldest recipe credited to Hippocrates, the Greek physician.

Even more priceless were the rare, extinct languages of Caucasian Albanian and Christian Palestinian Aramaic. The discovery helped broaden the scant vocabulary of Caucasian Albanian, known from only a few stone inscriptions and once spoken by Christians in what is now Azerbaijan.^[2]

8 Monte Kronio

Remnants of mankind’s love affair with alcohol litter archaeological sites. Jars and equipment containing traces of ancient wine are not uncommon. In this case, US researchers were spelunking in Italy when they found brewers’ pots in a cave.

The dull containers were quite large, but nothing about them hinted that they were about to tweak Italy’s wine history. Tests identified tartaric acid and its sodium salt on the inside, something that grapes carry naturally and release during winemaking.

The ground-shifting element is the age of the pots’ location.^[3] Monte Kronio, off the coast of Sicily, is a site from the Copper Age (early fourth millennium BC). Conventional belief dated the beginning of winemaking on the Italian peninsula to the Middle Bronze Age. Considering that this was around 1300–1100 BC, the leap is quite a dramatic one.

7 Etruscan Boat Bees

A dead bee does not sound like much, but honeybees found in an ancient Etruscan workshop had a surprising story to share. Around 2,500 years ago, the building burned down in Milan, Italy. After archaeologists opened the workshop in 2017, they found flame-warped honeycombs, carbonized bees, and honey-related products.

Tests extracted a surprise. The honey produced was a unique variety derived from semi-wild grapevines. The insects also fed on water lilies and other aquatic plants. Some of the pollen belonged to plants not even native to the area. The far-off nectar and watery nature of the plants meant that the bees had reached their feeding grounds by boat.^[4]

This revealed the remarkable beekeeping skills of the Etruscans and also provided the first physical evidence for an ancient report. Four centuries after the shop collapsed, Pliny the Elder, the Roman scholar, wrote about the honey farmers of Ostiglia 32 kilometers (20 mi) away.

Pliny described how villagers ferried hives far upstream during the night. When dawn broke, the honeybees left the boats and returned later in the day. Once the hives arrived back in Ostiglia, the villagers gathered the honey.

6 The Tel Tsaf Silo

The shift when society became unequal may have been found in a small clay object. Tel Tsaf in Israel’s Jordan Valley was a prehistoric village that existed around 5200–4700 BC. In 2015, a clay vessel surfaced. The unique artifact appeared to be a miniature replica of large silos nearby, of which only the bases remained.

During this period, scholars once believed that everybody had roughly the same amount of livestock and that food stored in the home met each family’s yearly needs. In other words, society was equal. But the huge number of silos here meant that grain was being gathered in a different way for different reasons.

The model silo, which was found with other ritual artifacts, could indicate that food storage in Tel Tsaf occurred with political and religious elements. The silos were a means to accumulate wealth and not in equal measures for everyone.

Surplus grain would have ensured that somebody had more power, currency, and influence. The 7,200-year-old tiny silo forces experts to reconsider how prehistoric society organized itself.^[5]

5 Arrival Of Australian Aborigines

Art crayons and stone axes make for an odd couple. But under normal circumstances, they are nothing to write home about. When the artifacts were found at the Madjedbebe shelter in Australia’s Northern Territory, they were anything but normal. These are the world’s oldest ochre crayons and stone axes.

The age of the collection is what is changing Australia’s human history. Its first nation, the Australian Aborigines, remains the most ancient civilization in existence today. They were also the creators of the newly discovered tools.

Previously, the general time frame for when they first came ashore was around 47,000–60,000 years ago. The Madjedbebe toolkit proves that the Aboriginal people arrived up to 18,000 years earlier, had a higher level of toolmaking than previously thought, and lived with some of Australia’s extinct megafauna.^[6]

The repercussions go beyond the continent. Another big debate concerns the departure of humans from Africa. The time proposed for this event falls somewhere between 60,000–100,000 years ago. The newly dated tools shorten the lower end of that bracket to 65,000 years.

4 Extinct Architecture

Usually, archaeologists don’t waste time on holes in rocks. But when the holes are clearly ancient and man-made, things get interesting. Artificial holes came to light when archaeologists investigated the west bank of the Nile River.

Located in central Sudan, the mysterious dents were drilled as far back as 5000 BC. Whoever produced the cavities used an unknown method without metal and placed them at a height of 1.3–3.2 meters (4.3–10.5 ft) in granite walls.^[7]

The sheer effort of the task would have been immense and called for a long-term commitment. The cylindrical shapes were smooth on the inside, measured 4–5 centimeters (1.6–2.0 in) in diameter, and tapered down to a point.

During a hypothetical attempt to reconstruct the unknown architecture based on the holes and data from the surrounding area, the results suggested a shelter-type structure made with wooden poles. The design brought stability to the homes by anchoring one end of the support beams within the holes.

The unusual features and effort that went into their creation revealed the ingenuity of a group who was most likely settling permanently next to the Nile.

3 Origins Of Peruvian Culture

For decades, the roots of Peru’s complex ancient civilizations remained hidden. Experts cannot agree if they emerged with farmers from the highlands or the coastal communities.

A recent study suggests that Peru’s amazing cultures were born near the sea. A six-year excavation at the ruins of Huaca Prieta in coastal Peru partially focused on what most consider a boring subject—baskets.

They were woven by hand nearly 15,000 years ago and are among the oldest found in the New World. As such, they offer a valuable look into the cultural aspects of these early inhabitants of Peru. One might expect practical, plain baskets, but what archaeologists found were groundbreaking.

Instead of simple crafts, they encountered fashion statements made with unexpected effort and skill.^[8] Weavers used a huge range of materials, including dyed cotton that needed complicated preparation beforehand. The baskets’ bling was symptomatic of a highly developed society in Huaca Prieta not considered before.

Other discoveries at the site support the notion that culture boomed along the coast at a rapid pace, including specialized tools for deep-sea fishing, textiles, flourishing crops, and religion.

2 Plimpton 322

In the early 1900s, an unassuming clay tablet was unearthed in what is now Iraq. The surface of the tablet was divided into four columns filled with cuneiform script. The 3,700-year-old Babylonian artifact carried a number pattern called Pythagorean triples.

For almost a century, mathematicians could not understand why Plimpton 322 was created. What was the reason behind this record where the complex numbers had to be calculated in a time-consuming manner?

In 2017, scientists found the tablet’s purpose. It turned out to be the world’s most accurate trigonometric table. Remarkably, it also predated the Greeks’ invention of trigonometry by over a millennium.^[9]

Apart from stealing the first trigonometry prize, Plimpton 322 displays a new, ingenious approach to this mathematical field by using ratios rather than circles and angles to describe right-angle triangles. It is simpler but more effective than today’s system.

The discovery also disproved the previous belief that the tablet was simply a teacher’s sheet to check students’ math results. Instead, Plimpton 322 was powerful enough to assist with building major architectural feats such as palaces and pyramids.

1 Catholics At Jamestown

The English settlers of Jamestown, Virginia, were decidedly anti-Catholic. One reason for moving to the New World was to claim it for the Protestants. They even executed one of their leaders upon discovering that he was a Catholic spy. Clearly, it was dangerous to be a Catholic in Jamestown.

For this reason, archaeologists investigating the settlement found the many rosaries that they encountered to be somewhat confusing. The Church of England was a new concept, and some proposed that the rosaries were transitional relics between the old and the new belief systems.

In 2015, another discovery suggested the opposite—a previously unknown Catholic cell in Jamestown. Underneath the town’s Protestant church was the grave of Gabriel Archer. When he died sometime between 1608 and 1610, somebody placed a silver box on his coffin.

Sealed with rust, the hexagonal artifact risked damage if conventionally opened. Instead, CT scans revealed a collection inside that was common in Catholic burials. Called a reliquary, it contained bone fragments and a vial.

While nothing is definite, it is possible that Jamestown had hidden Catholics.^[10] The king of Spain desired the New World for the papacy and had spies everywhere in London. Jamestown had fortifications against a Spanish sea invasion, but perhaps the king intended to take over the colony from within.

History books often fail to sync the living with the tragedy of slavery. On the other hand, artifacts can instantly bridge that gap. When we’re faced with a wrecked slave ship, graves, and personal artifacts, a history lesson becomes reality.

Unique photos, autobiographies, and workplaces also invite an intimate look into what it was like to be enslaved. Slavery artifacts have a weird side, too—like the Bible designed to make workers more obedient and the reverse engineering of an escaped slave’s DNA.

10 Mystery Foundations And Box

Virginia’s College of William & Mary is centuries old. In 2011, an excavation was launched south of the college’s iconic Christopher Wren Building. Historic documents recorded nothing in that area. However, after shoveling through a shallow amount of dirt, the team unearthed mysterious foundations.

The brick layer once supported a building 4.9 meters (16 ft) wide and over 6 meters (20 ft) long. A relatively small size for a building today, this one dated to the colonial era when it was considered large.

The structure was likely the living quarters or workplace of the 18th-century enslaved staff. If not lodgings, the building could have been a laundry room or kitchen. Additionally, near the foundations was a box buried for unknown reasons. Made of slate, it measured 15 by 10 centimeters (6 by 4 in) and was empty, save for deteriorated grains that could have been anything.^[1]

9 The Last Slave Ship

The Clotilda was the last slave ship of the United States. Her human cargo was not even legal. By the time the vessel sneaked into Alabama waters, the importation of slaves was banned.

Timothy Meaher was a plantation owner who did not care for humanitarian laws. He made a $100,000 bet that he could bring a boatload of African slaves into the country without being detected.

In 1860, Meaher employed William Foster to sail over to the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Benin) and kidnap 110 people. Meaher and Foster succeeded and burned the Clotilda to destroy the evidence. Historians have looked for the vessel ever since. In 2018, the strongest candidate was tracked down by a journalist. The shipwreck was near Mobile, Alabama, which was already a thumbs-up.

When the Dahomey captives were freed five years after their capture, they built their own town north of Mobile. Structural clues also placed the vessel’s age in the mid-1800s. (Clotilda‘s construction year was 1855.) Additionally, the 38-meter-long (124 ft) ship showed fire damage, but more research is needed to confirm its identity.^[2]

8 A Crucified Slave (Maybe)

In 2007, archaeologists excavated at Gavello, a site outside Venice, Italy. They found a skeleton buried in an unusual way. At the time of his death around 2,000 years ago, Romans buried their dead in tombs and with grave goods. This man was plonked into the ground with neither.

When researchers examined his feet, they found one ankle was missing. The other had unhealed fractures, suggesting the injury occurred right before death. The nature of the wounds strongly suggested that a metal spike had been forced into the foot. One possibility was that his heels had been nailed to a cross.^[3]

Ancient Romans reserved crucifixion mostly for slaves as well as some criminals and those who threatened the status quo (Jesus). Even though the Romans crucified people for centuries, the Gavello grave is only the second time that evidence of the practice turned up in the archaeological record.

The skeleton belonged to a man in his thirties. His small body suggested that he was an undernourished slave. The unceremonious burial also matched the disdain shown for those who were executed.

7 Heming’s Kitchen

Former US president Thomas Jefferson loved French cooking. At the time, French meals needed a certain stove that was exceptionally rare in the United States. In 2017, a kitchen with the right stew stoves was found. Discovered at Monticello (Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia), the room was undoubtedly the realm of James Hemings.

Born into slavery, Hemings was taken to France with Jefferson when the latter served as the US minister to France (1784–89). The 19-year-old Hemings trained as a French chef and, upon his return, introduced macaroni and cheese, meringues, and creme brulee into American culture.

The first thing archaeologists found was the kitchen’s original brick floor in a cellar. As the work continued, the ruins extended to a partial fireplace and the four stew stoves, which would have stood waist-high during Heming’s time. Sadly, only their foundations were left. Even so, the find marked a rare time when a workplace was linked to an enslaved person whose name was known.^[4]

6 The Sierra Leone Smoker

Around 200 years ago, a slave smoked a pipe at Maryland’s Belvoir plantation. The pipe was one of four among other artifacts that remained at the site until archaeologists unearthed them in 2015.

The pipe was made of clay, a fortuitous choice for researchers. Clay is porous and can retain bodily fluids such as saliva from a smoker. DNA tests soon identified that the person who enjoyed tobacco in this case was a woman.

Experts did a deeper analysis and found that she shared strong genetic links to modern-day Sierra Leone—more specifically, to the Mende people of West Africa. Indeed, old records revealed that a slavery route once existed between Sierra Leone and Annapolis, where the Belvoir plantation was situated.^[5]

The smoker was either abducted from West Africa or born in America to parents taken from Sierra Leone. The pipe proved that artifacts could identify slave quarters, which often cannot be separated from small housing for white families. The item is also part of an initiative to use artifacts’ DNA remnants to return to descendants their ancestral heritage, which was erased the moment their ancestors landed in America.

5 A Young Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then risked her life to free hundreds through the Underground Railroad. All of Tubman’s photos showed an older lady, stooped and fragile. When researchers recently uncovered an unknown portrait of a young Harriet, they were stunned. Not only did it depict her in earlier years, but her famous grit shone through.

The picture was taken in her forties around 1868 or 1869, with Tubman’s gaze as the most striking feature. It burned with a tangible mix of strength and suffering. For the first time, scholars could see why people called her “Moses,” for leading her people to safety, and “General Tubman,” after she helped to free over 700 African-Americans in a Union raid.

The image came from an album that once belonged to abolitionist Emily Howland, who was Tubman’s friend. All 49 portraits were of men and women, black and white, who fought for the freedom and education of enslaved individuals. The album contained another gem—the only known image of John Willis Menard, the first African-American elected to the US Congress.^[6]

4 Unique Slave Narrative

Omar Ibn Said was a wealthy young Muslim in the 19th century. Living in West Africa, he dedicated himself to being an Islamic scholar. One day, he was plucked from his routine and transported halfway across the world. Said was sold into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina.

His first owner was cruel, and after an escape attempt, Said was imprisoned in North Carolina. Contrary to popular belief, slaves were not uniformly illiterate. Said carved Arabic script on the only surface available—the cell’s walls. It was also his autobiography, which ensured his personal story would survive.

The Owen family purchased Said, and he lived with them until he died. He experienced a relatively good life, during which he produced the 15 pages that described his abduction and enslavement.

Today, the document is invaluable as a rare story sourced directly from the victim. (As it was penned in Arabic, his owners could not edit it.) It remains the only known Arabic slave narrative created in the United States. In 2019, the Library of Congress digitized Said’s pages to bring them to a wider audience.^[7]

3 George Washington’s Teeth

One of the wackiest myths surrounding George Washington is that he wore wooden dentures. However, Washington never chewed his corn with timber teeth. By the time he was president, he had already lost most of his own teeth and had several sets of dentures—some sporting other people’s pearly whites. Evidence seems to suggest that they came from slaves.

In 1784, he recorded the purchase of human teeth for his own private use—“By Cash pd Negroes for 9 Teeth on Acct of Dr. Lemoire.” The latter was a dentist who treated Washington and also paid premium prices for people to part with their front teeth.

Slaves could also sell their teeth but for much less. While it is impossible to know if the nine snappers became dentures, they were almost certainly pulled from Washington’s slaves. It is believed that the two men struck a deal to use Washington’s own slaves to drive the price down.^[8]

2 Hans Jonatan’s Genome

In 1784, Hans Jonatan was born in the Caribbean. His family was enslaved on a sugar plantation in St. Croix, which was a colony of Denmark. When Hans was old enough, he was shipped to Denmark and ordered to fight for the Danish navy. At one point, he was told to go back to the colony, but the 18-year-old made a bid for freedom.

In 1802, he fled to Iceland and became the first person with African heritage to reach the region. In recent years, scientists performed the first study using DNA from descendants and genealogical records to partially recreate the genome of an ancestor whose body was not available.

They analyzed 182 of his descendants and reverse engineered their genes until they completed 38 percent of the genome on his mother’s side. It showed that she was originally from Cameroon, Nigeria, or Benin. After comparing the genes to world databases, they also revealed when things changed drastically for the family. Hans’s mother or her parents were captured in West Africa between 1760 and 1790.^[9]

1 Rare Slave Bible

When slaves in the Caribbean opened their first Bible, it was not a regular edition. What British missionaries brought in the 19th century was a version so snipped that it shocked modern people.

In 2019, one of the last three remaining slave Bibles went on display in Washington, DC. Visitors were so stunned by the abridged book that officials soon made it the centerpiece of the exhibition.

Roman Catholics can page through 73 books, the Protestant edition holds 66, and 78 books knit together the Eastern Orthodox translation. The Caribbean version was pruned to 14 books.^[10]

The missionaries wanted to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity. However, they first had to get permission from the sugar plantation owners who did not want their workers reading about rebellions and uprisings. For this reason, related passages were removed.

In this version, the enslaved Israelites never left Egypt. Lines that condemn slave owners are gone. Even though “their” Bible praised obedience to a master, the Caribbean’s enslaved people constantly rebelled and finally gained freedom in 1834.

The British Empire was easily the largest empire in human history, encompassing about one fourth of the world’s total land area and population at the peak of its power. Throughout that time, numerous priceless cultural artifacts from around the world were seized and taken back to be displayed in British museums or sold to private collectors, where they remain to this day.

10. Gweagal Shield

The Gweagal shield is a traditional shield made by the aboriginal Gweagal people of Australia. It’s believed to have been used in ceremonial and defensive contexts, before it was captured from a native fighter during James Cook’s 1770 expedition to Australia’s southeastern coast. According to some accounts of the encounter, a group of Gweagal warriors were confronted and defeated by Cook’s landing party on the beach. Other reports, however, claim that Cook ordered his men to open fire after they were attacked, forcing them to retaliate.

Whatever might have happened that day, the shield – along with spears and a few other items – was seized by Cook and brought back to England. It’s still held in the British Museum’s collection in London, along with several other objects stolen by Cook and his men from indigenous Australians during their early voyages to the continent.

9. Benin Bronzes

Before the British expedition to Benin in West Africa in 1897, it was one of the oldest and most developed regions in the world. The capital, Benin City, is said to have been larger and better-built than most European cities of the time, with city walls four times longer than even the Great Wall of China. The empire was particularly known for its sophisticated art, including the famous Benin bronzes – a collection of thousands of works of art made using the lost-wax casting technique. It’s estimated that there were around 4,000 of these objects made by skilled craftsmen from across the region, including sculptures, plaques, and other decorative items.

Sadly, all that would come to an abrupt end In February, 1897, when the city was invaded and sacked by a 1,200-strong British force commanded by Sir Henry Rawson. It was a brutal, punitive campaign, resulting in the looting of almost all of the royal palace’s priceless artifacts, including the bronzes. They were taken back to Britain and sold to museums and collectors around the world, with most of them now residing in private and state collections in Europe.

8. Moai

The Moai statues are monolithic sculptures made by natives of Easter Island – a Chilean territory located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Sculpted with compressed lava ash, these pieces are believed to represent deceased ancestors and occupy an important place in the culture of the Rapa Nui people.

One of the most famous of these statues is the Hoa Hakananai’a, which translates to ‘the stolen or hidden friend’. Measuring almost 2.5 meters – or 8 feet – in height and about four tons in weight, it was taken by the British navy and brought to the British Museum in London during an 1868 campaign, where it remains until today. Despite being on display in London for over 150 years, the Hoa Hakananai’a remains an irreplaceable artifact in Rapa Nui culture. 

7. Hevea Brasiliensis Seeds

This one is mixing things up a little bit, because we’re not talking about a specific artifact. We are, however, talking about taking away something monumentally important to another part of the world. You see, demand for rubber was rapidly increasing around the world in the late 1800s, especially in Europe and the United States, where it was used to manufacture tires, clothing, and various other products. The rubber industry in Brazil and the larger Amazon region was booming, as the government strictly controlled the trade and prohibited the export of the rubber-producing Hevea Brasiliensis seeds out of the region. 

In 1876, an explorer and naturalist named Henry Wickham was hired by the British government to do something about it. After months of preparation and backdoor deals with local tribes, Wickham managed to smuggle about 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and back to England. It was a turning point in the history of the global rubber trade, as it allowed British planters and traders to plant the seeds in colonies like Ceylon and Malaysia. By 1913, Britain would overtake Brazil as the primary exporter of rubber around the world.

6. Parthenon Marbles

Parthenon Marbles – also called Ergin Marbles – are a collection of sculptures and architectural features that once adorned the Parthenon – a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena in Athens, Greece. Made some time in the 5th century BC with Pentelic marble and limestone, the artifacts depict various scenes from Greek mythology, including battles, religious ceremonies, and the birth of Athena.

The marbles were originally owned by the city of Athens, though in 1801, Lord Elgin, a British diplomat, received permission from the ruling Ottoman Empire to remove and ship them to England. They were then purchased by the British government, and are now on display in the British Museum. That’s despite several calls by the Greek government to return them, as they were allegedly taken from Athens without their consent, while the British Museum maintains that they’re part of their collection and are better preserved in London.

5. Tipu’s Tiger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GefplfGGUM

Tipu’s Tiger refers to an automaton made for Tipu Sultan – the ruler of Mysore in south India from 1782 to 1799. Built in 1793 in the form of a life-sized tiger attacking a European soldier, it was both an impressive automaton and a powerful symbol of local resistance against the British. According to accounts, the tiger could even produce realistic growls and roars, while the man screamed in agony.

The tiger remained in Tipu’s possession until 1799, when British forces defeated and killed him during a military campaign. It remains on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London today, along with many other prized possessions taken from Tipu’s palaces across south India. 

4. Maori Heads

From 1769 to the 1970s, thousands of ancestral remains belonging to the Maori and Moriori people of New Zealand were taken out of the country and sold to private collectors, museums, and medical institutions around the world. The most prized of these are the toi moko, or tattooed heads of notable leaders, family members, or defeated enemies preserved by native communities as souvenirs. 

According to the records, the first ever trade of a toi moko was done by a member of James Cook’s party, Sir Joseph Banks, some time in 1769. Soon, they were in demand across Europe and beyond for their detailed artwork and cultural value, resulting in a kind of a gold rush but for mummified tattooed heads instead of gold. The ever-rising global demand for the artifacts – peaking during the 1800s and 1820s – directly led to several conflicts and violent confrontations between the settlers and natives. While many of them have been returned to New Zealand as a part of the government’s efforts to repatriate national treasures, thousands still remain hidden in private collections around the world. 

3. Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele created during the Ptolemaic Period of Ancient Egypt. At its most basic, a stele was a large ornate stone slab used in Egypt to commemorate significant events or individuals. In this case, the Rosetta Stone was a part of a larger collection of stelae issued by a council of priests in 196 BC. 

The Rosetta Stone is unique for many reasons, including the fact that the information inscribed on it is written in two languages – Egyptian and Greek – and three other writing systems – hieroglyphics, the demotic script, and the Greek alphabet. Specifically, the text refers to a royal decree of benefactions issued by King Ptolemy V in honor of his coronation. 

It was discovered by a French soldier called Pierre-Francois Bouchard during the French occupation of Egypt in 1799, and then seized by the British in 1801 following their victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The Rosetta Stone was eventually transported to England and donated to the British Museum in London, where it remains on display today. 

2. Ethiopian Tabots

Ethiopian tabots – or plaques – are sacred objects made of wood or stone that represent the Ark of the Covenant. They’re an important part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church – an institution that predates the European colonization of Africa – and are only meant to be viewed or handled by their priests. According to the stories, there are believed to be 44 tabots in total, each representing a different church or region in Ethiopia.

11 of them, however, now sit in the British Museum as a part of its vast collection of historical and cultural items from around the world. They were taken during the British expedition to Abyssinia in 1868, when British soldiers looted a number of valuable artifacts from the Emperor’s treasury and transported them back to London. There have been a number of attempts by the Ethiopian government to return them back to the country in the years since, though to little success. 

1. Great Star Of Africa

At 3,106 carats and about 4 X 2.5 X 2.3 inches in dimensions, the Cullinan diamond was the largest clear-cut diamond ever found. It’s named after Sir Thomas Cullinan – the owner of the Premier Mine near Pretoria, South Africa – where it was discovered back in 1905. The Cullinan diamond was later split into several smaller stones, the largest of which was the Great Star of Africa at 530 carats, also known as the Cullinan I. 

Currently, the Great Star of Africa – along with other pieces from the Cullinan set – is mounted on the Sovereign’s Scepter as a part of the British royal family’s crown jewels. South Africa has made several demands for the diamond’s return over the years, but the British government has refused all of them, usually citing legal and historical reasons.

To the victor go the spoils. Throughout history, many conquerors or colonizers have taken treasures back to their homelands as part of their expansions. Sometimes, it was done to fund their wars. Other times, these items were just considered novelties.

Regrettably, many of these objects were lost or ruined. For example, thousands of mummies were unwrapped for entertainment at parties in 19th-century England. But other items found their way from one owner to the next until landing in a museum.

Though acquired through questionable methods, these cultural treasures remain on display in foreign lands hundreds or thousands of years after their thefts. Here are 10 such stolen treasures on display at museums.

10 Stolen Ancient Artifacts That Carried Curses

10 The Elgin Marbles
Taken From Greece And Displayed In England

The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Greek sculptures and architectural details that were originally part of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the ambassador to the empire, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, arranged to have the marbles removed and taken back to England.

He was concerned about the damage being done to them and hoped to safeguard them from being destroyed by Ottoman indifference. So, in the early 19th century, the collection was packaged and sent to England. Mostly, it arrived safely. (The cargo on one ship sank into the water during a storm, but the sculptures were eventually recovered from the seafloor.)^[1]

The removal of these treasures was met with an outcry from the people of Greece and even Lord Elgin’s countrymen, including the famous poet and politician Lord Byron. Within a few short years, the entire collection was purchased from Elgin by the English Crown and eventually displayed in the British Museum in London.

Lord Elgin’s original concerns about damage under Ottoman rule became a moot point in 1832 when the Ottomans recognized Greece as an independent nation. As a result, Greece could control the marbles and ensure that they were protected by people who appreciated Greek cultural heritage.

Yet the collection was not returned. For some time, the British argued that no adequate facilities existed in Greece to display Elgin’s Marbles. But in 2009, a $200 million, 21,000-square-meter (226,000 ft²) museum was constructed near the base of the Acropolis.

At one point, the British Museum offered to loan the marbles to the Acropolis Museum on the condition that they acknowledge England’s ownership of the artifacts. This proposal was rejected, and the marbles remain on display at the British Museum in London.

9 Priam’s Treasure
Taken From The Ottoman Empire And Displayed In Russia

The ancient city of Troy (in what is now the country of Turkey) was excavated by a German man named Heinrich Schliemann when archaeology was in its infancy. Schliemann was obsessed with finding objects mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey, ancient epic poems by Homer that centered around events associated with a legendary war between Greece and Troy.

Ultimately, Schliemann succeeded. He found the ancient city of Troy and a forgotten treasure trove that included precious jewelry, gold headdresses, masks, and other artifacts.^[2]

Since then, Schliemann’s methods have been condemned by archaeologists as an insult to their work. While digging for treasure, he irreparably destroyed layers of the ancient city. In addition, Schliemann had no intention of sharing his discovery with the Ottoman Empire, from whose land he smuggled the artifacts.

After a few years on exhibit in London, the treasure trove went to Berlin, Germany, in 1881. The items were displayed at Kunstgewerbe Museum and then at the Ethnological Museum. However, after the end of World War II and the defeat of Germany, the artifacts disappeared.

Eventually, in 1993, it was revealed that the collection had fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union’s Red Army. They had taken the artifacts as spoils of war. Later that decade, they were again displayed—in Russian possession. Today, the majority of Priam’s Treasure is on exhibit at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

8 Ishtar Gate
Taken From Iraq And Displayed In Germany

The Ishtar Gate is an imposing structure that was once one of the many entrances to the inner city of Babylon in what is present-day Iraq. Constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar II, the gate was dedicated to Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war.

It was made with blue glazed bricks assembled in a mosaic that included lion, aurochs, and dragon reliefs. Between 1899 and 1917, the structure was excavated and moved to Germany. Eventually, part of the gate was reconstructed and displayed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.^[3]

Like so many archaeological treasures taken from their homelands, the Ishtar Gate is a disputed piece of history. Although requests for its return have been made by the Iraqi government over the years, it remains in Berlin because it was taken legally at the time.

Between 1533 and 1918, the country now known as Iraq was under Ottoman rule. Then the area was under British control for some decades. During that time, many artifacts were taken back to Europe freely under the laws of the Ottoman and British Empires.

However, when Iraq gained its independence, the laws governing its cultural heritage changed. By 1936, the laws allowed foreign archaeologists to excavate and to publish research based on what they found, but all recovered artifacts were owned by Iraq.

In 2013, an Iraqi man protested at the Pergamon Museum by holding a sign in front of the Ishtar Gate that read, “This belongs to Iraq.” The Ishtar gate and associated artifacts are on display in many museums around the world.

7 Rosetta Stone
Taken From Egypt And Displayed In England

The Rosetta Stone is a slab of granitoid rock that has the same message written on it in three languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, mainly used by priests; Egyptian demotic, used for everyday purposes; and ancient Greek.

Before the Rosetta Stone’s discovery, hieroglyphics were a mystery to scholars. However, as the artifact had the same message inscribed in a language that scholars already understood, they were able to break the code and finally decipher the hieroglyphics.^[4]

This unique artifact was discovered in 1799 during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign near the town of Rashid (Rosetta), which explains the name. It came into the possession of the British when they defeated Napoleon in Egypt two years later. Then they took the Rosetta Stone to England.

Egyptian officials have demanded its repatriation for decades. Egyptian archaeologists have also tried to convince the British Museum in London to return the artifact but to no avail. It is still displayed in London to this day.

6 Hoa Hakananai’a
Taken From Rapa Nui (Easter Island) And Displayed In England

Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) is famous for its giant carved figures called moai that were made from 1100 to 1600. During those 500 years, the moai became increasingly complex and whole crowds of them were constructed and erected—approximately 900 in total. With their backs to the ocean, they watched over their island home.

Most were carved from the island’s tuff, but a few were made from basalt. One basalt figure considered a masterpiece is called Hoa Hakananai’a, which aptly translates to “stolen friend.”^[5]

Believed to have been created sometime around AD 1000 to AD 1200, Hoa Hakananai’a remained on Rapa Nui for hundreds of years. Then, in 1869, it was carried to a different island named England and presented to Queen Victoria. From there, Hoa Hakananai’a was given to the British Museum in London where it remains to this day.

However, the moai are more than art made of basalt and tuff. The people of Rapa Nui believe that the moai contain the spirits of their ancestors. In 2018, the governor of Rapa Nui visited England and tried to negotiate the return of Hoa Hakananai’a, even if only as part of a loan. She said, “We all came here, but we are just the body—England people have our soul.”

10 Stolen Pieces Of Art That Have Never Been Found

5 The Gweagal Shield
Taken From Australia And Displayed In England

About 250 years ago, British explorer James Cook arrived in what later became known as Botany Bay in Australia. He was met by two local men carrying shields and spears. In his journal, Cook reported being attacked by these men with stones and spears. This forced his crew to discharge their firearms and wound the attackers, who fled and left behind some of their equipment.

From the Gweagal clan’s perspective, though, Cook’s crew were unannounced visitors and needed to negotiate permission to enter the clan’s country. Sometimes, this would happen through dialogue. Other times, it would occur through spiritual ceremony.

However, Cook didn’t know about or understand the local customs. So this meeting ended in hostilities during which the Gweagal Shield was dropped. Eventually, this shield made it back to James Cook’s homeland and was displayed alongside many other artifacts in the British Museum.^[6]

Since 2016, Rodney Kelly, a possible descendant of the man who dropped the shield during the skirmish with James Cook, has rallied for the shield’s return to Australia. In the last four years, he has made repeated visits to England to advocate for the shield’s repatriation.

As of this writing, his calls have landed on deaf ears and that seems unlikely to change. According to British law, it would be illegal to return this artifact and many others. The British Museum Act of 1963 forbids the museum from permanently disposing of its holdings with only rare exceptions.

4 The Koh-i-Noor Diamond
Taken From India And Displayed In England

Until diamonds were discovered in Brazil in 1725, India was the only real source of them throughout the world. Often sifted from riverbeds in alluvial mining, gemstones held a prominent place in Indian culture.

The world’s oldest texts on gemology originate in India. Jewels were the most important indicators of status in ancient Indian courts, with different gems representing distinct levels of hierarchy.

From this golden age of gems came the diamond that would eventually be known as Koh-i-Noor. Originally a magnificent 793 carats, it was trimmed to 186 carats while owned by the Kakatiya Dynasty and finally to 105.6 carats when cut and polished in England.^[7]

When India was under Mughal rule, the Koh-i-Noor diamond was used as part of a jewel-encrusted throne that took seven years to build and cost four times as much as the Taj Mahal. Later, the throne and the Koh-i-Noor were taken to the region now known as Afghanistan.

For ages, the diamond shuffled between owners in bloody conflicts until it finally landed in sight of the British Empire in 1849. The empire signed a treaty that included the Koh-i-Noor becoming its property. The treaty was signed with a 10-year-old boy king, who also gave up his sovereignty.

From there, Queen Victoria took possession of the Koh-i-Noor. The diamond was put on display for the British public, but they were underwhelmed. Many people couldn’t believe that it was anything more than a simple piece of glass. So the diamond was cut and polished, losing over 80 carats in the process. Eventually, it was included in the crown jewels of England, where it remains to this day.

India, Pakistan, and even the Taliban have all make claims to this unparalleled diamond.

3 Bust Of Nefertiti
Taken From Egypt And Displayed In Germany

Ancient items usually show their age. Over time, colors fade, cracks develop, and repeated use or neglect damages what was once perfect. For at least one artifact, though, time seems to have had relatively little effect.

Around 1340 BC, a bust of Queen Nefertiti was constructed of limestone, gypsum, and wax in Egypt. Unlike so many artifacts of the time, this bust of Queen Nefertiti has aged gracefully. Its shape remains largely undamaged, its colors are intact, and the face of the queen appears unsullied by age.

It is rare to find so pristine an ancient figure in the modern era. The bust was unearthed by German archaeologists in 1912. The following year, it found its way to Germany and has stayed there ever since.^[8]

In 2011, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities sent a request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for the artifact’s return. The foundation runs the museum in which the bust is now displayed. They replied that the bust was obtained legally and Egypt has no grounds to reclaim it.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities explained, “This request is a natural consequence of Egypt’s long-standing policy of seeking the restitution of all archaeological and historical artifacts that have been taken illicitly out of the country.”

The foundation’s president disagreed: “[The bust of Nefertiti] is and remains the ambassador of Egypt in Berlin.”

2 Kumluca Treasure
Taken From Turkey And Displayed In The United States

This collection of over 50 pieces consists mostly of silver religious artifacts such as crosses, candlesticks, and dishes. It is thought to have all originated from a single church. However, the collection was excavated in a clandestine and likely illegal way which makes an exact dating of the artifacts difficult. Nevertheless, they are of Byzantine origin.

Uncovered in the 1960s, these relics were smuggled out of the country and into the United States. However, a 1906 Ottoman law dictates that all antiquities discovered in Turkey’s territory remain the property of the government. It is not legally clear if modern-day Turkey can use this version of its cultural property protection law to regain these items in an international setting.

The collection has been split apart and is now displayed in several different museums. These include the Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection at Harvard University.^[9]

As early as 1970, the Turkish government requested the return of the Kumluca Silver, but they were ignored. Since then, many requests have been made. As of this writing, no museum holding any pieces of the Kumluca Silver has returned their holdings to Turkey. In 2012, Dumbarton Oaks asserted in a press statement that they have the legal rights to the artifacts in their possession.

1 Old Fisherman From Aphrodisias
Taken From Turkey And Displayed In Germany

So much art celebrates the incredible. Statues of heroes from mythology look down on us from atop their perches in many museums, but one valued statue, the Old Fisherman, is a more down-to-earth consideration of humanity.

Created around 200 BC, this artifact has a complex history, and what the marble statue represents is far from mythological. The gaunt muscles and tired eyes of the Old Fisherman capture the story of his ancient life in stone.

In 1904, only the fisherman’s torso (wearing a loincloth) was discovered by French engineer and amateur archaeologist Paul Gaudin. This occurred during an excavation of the public baths of the ancient Greek Hellenistic city of Aphrodisias (in what is now Turkey).

Eventually, Gaudin’s heirs sold the torso to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The head of the statue was discovered in a subsequent dig in 1989. However, it remains in Turkey. So a plaster cast of the head was added to the marble torso in the Berlin museum.^[10]

Though repeated calls have been made for its repatriation, the Old Fisherman is still in Berlin. It has been displayed at the Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum. Ertugrul Gunay, Turkey’s cultural minister until 2013, once said, “Artifacts—just like people, animals, or plants—have souls and historical memories. When they are repatriated to their countries, the balance of nature will be restored.”

10 Stolen Cultural Artifacts That Were Recovered

Gold is a magical element. It is one of the few metals that can be found in nature without the need to purify it. This means humans have been spotting this glittering material for millennia just by looking down. It is so soft and malleable that it can be beaten into thin sheets, and gold never tarnishes. Something made of gold will still look as stunning 1,000 years after it was originally made. No wonder many ancient cultures had myths about gold belonging to the divine.

Because gold is so good at withstanding the ravages of time, many of the most stunning ancient artifacts are made from it. Here are ten golden objects that show the glories of the ancient world.

Related: Top 10 Ridiculously Expensive Golden Objects

10 Priam’s Treasure

Heinrich Schliemann is one of the most extraordinary figures in archaeology. He is also one of the most controversial. Most people in the 19th century thought that The Iliad, which described the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, was all pure myth. Schliemann thought it was based on actual events—and set out to find the proof.

Using his self-made fortune, Schliemann funded a dig in modern Turkey at a site called Hissarlik. Almost immediately, he found the ruins of a great city. Schliemann had found ancient Troy. Well, at least he was convinced. What he actually found were the remains of nine cities, each built atop the ruins of the preceding city. One of them had to be the Troy mentioned in the famed work by Homer, so Schliemann dug straight down, hunting for treasure to prove his theory correct and destroying much valuable archaeology on the way.

But Schliemann did strike gold. He found a cache of golden and silver objects, which he named the Treasure of Priam, after the king of Troy in TThe Iliad. Among the most spectacular discoveries were diadems made of hundreds of pieces of hammered gold. These were smuggled out of Turkey (some say in Mrs. Schliemann’s underwear) and taken to Germany. The treasure did not get to rest in peace for long. After the Second World War, it was looted by the Soviets and taken to Russia, where it remains to this day.^[1]

9 Orphic Gold Tablets

Understanding ancient religious practices around burial can be incredibly difficult. Often all archaeologists have to work with are a few scraps of bone and maybe some grave goods left with the body. In the Classical world, however, sometimes writing was left with the corpse that helps make things explicit.

Sometimes these little texts, called Totenpass (German for “Passport for the Dead”), are written on sheets of gold. The writings they contain are meant to help guide the dead person into the afterlife of their choice. These are found in several religions and cults of the ancient world but are all designed to ensure an eternal and happy life.

One of these strange texts has been described as the world’s oldest book. Made from six sheets of decorated gold that were joined together, it was discovered in Bulgaria and dates from around 500 BC. The writing in the book is in Etruscan, a culture that lived in Italy before the rise of the Romans.^[2]

8 Muisca Raft

Many European explorers and conquerors were drawn to South America because they dreamed of fabulous golden treasures waiting to be discovered. Most were disappointed. But there were glorious artworks to be found, and gold-working by Pre-Columbian civilizations was among the most sophisticated in the world. Unfortunately, much was lost to the conquistadors and later grave robbers.

However, in the Gold Museum in Bogota, one small object tells an interesting tale. The Muisca Raft, also known as the El Dorado raft, shows several figures riding on a raft. The intricately sculpted piece is thought to model the rites that gave rise to the legend of El Dorado—the Golden One.

The chief of the Muisca people was initiated into his position by being coated in gold dust. He was then rowed into the middle of a lake, where he washed the gold from his body. Further offerings were made of gold and emeralds. The model of this ceremony was found by farmers in 1969.^[3]

7 The Broighter Hoard

Boats had a special meaning in the ancient world. With boats, humans were able to conquer the rough and terrifying elements of the ocean. It is no wonder then that several boats have been immortalized in gold.

The Broighter Hoard dates from the 1st century AD and was found in Northern Ireland in 1896 when the objects were plowed up in a field. After they were given a quick wash in the sink at the farmhouse, where it is possible some smaller pieces were lost down the drain, they were sold to the British Museum. It soon became clear the golden objects that were recovered were truly remarkable. Among the finds were a golden torc, a bowl, and a necklace made from three strands of gold. The most interesting piece was a boat made of gold, complete with oars and seats for rowers.

The presence of the boat among the hoard has led to suggestions that it was an offering to Manannán mac Lir—a sea god and lord of the underworld in Irish mythology.^[4]

6 The Staffordshire Hoard

Some hoards were deposited as ritual offerings to the gods, but some served a more practical purpose. In an emergency, it was often handy to hide your treasures in the ground for safety. You could then come back later and retrieve them. Or not, as the case may be. Many hoards are found when the ancient owners never returned for them. And this can allow us to piece together their histories.

The Staffordshire Hoard from England is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever discovered. In total, it contains over 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of gold and thousands of objects. Many are richly decorated with inlaid garnets. Dating from the 7th or 8th century, all the objects, except for three religious items, are all related to the military. The one golden sword fitting found at Sutton Hoo was remarkable, but the Staffordshire Hoard contains 50 of them. So, where did all this treasure come from?

Given the quality of the objects and their military nature that were uncovered, it looks like they were looted from defeated enemies following a battle.^[5]

5 Saka Gold

Nomadic tribes are often thought of as living hard and poor lives. However, the Saka people of the 1st millenium BC were horse lords of the Eurasian steppes who prized their horses above all else. But they also left some of the richest material behind them, especially if one considers the amount of gold found in their tombs.

Over the tombs of their dead rulers, the Saka constructed large mounds that dominated their landscape. Archaeologists sometimes come across vast hoards of golden objects when they open these tombs. When one tomb, known as Arzhan 2, was excavated, they found two human skeletons in the center, 33 other people probably executed to follow the leader into the afterlife, and 9,300 golden objects weighing nearly 44 pounds (20 kilograms).

Other Saka tombs are almost as rich in their grave offerings. It seems people in the ancient world were not immune to the idea of a little grave robbing. When Arzhan 2 was dug up, archaeologists were able to see where an ancient attempt had been made to find the gold—but the early robbers gave up just shy of their prize.^[6]

4 Ram in a Thicket

The civilizations of Mesopotamia were among the first to develop cities and writing anywhere on Earth. The city of Eridu was founded around 5400 BC. Over the millennia which followed, the cities between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers developed into powerful states through trade and war. They also became famously wealthy and showed their wealth through a love of gold.

In the British Museum, there is a startling gold, shell, and lapis lazuli object that peers out at visitors. Known as the Ram in a Thicket, it is actually a goat standing against a flowering shrub. It was discovered in the ancient city of Ur and is thought to date from around 2500 BC.

The Ram was found inside the royal cemetery of Ur, inside what is colorfully known as the Great Death Pit, and no one can say for certain what it represents. A pair of these objects were found in the tomb and may have acted as supports for a bowl.^[7]

3 Varna Man

The Varna culture of Bulgaria flourished around 4500 BC and is best known from a single site. The Varna Necropolis was discovered by accident in 1972 and was immediately recognized as a very important ancient monument. The 300 graves of the Varna were the oldest known, where large amounts of gold were deposited with the dead.

Just one of the graves, Grave 43, contains more gold objects than are known from the rest of the world combined for this date. Known as Varna Man, this person was buried with gold disks sewn to his clothes, thick golden pendants, glittering bracelets, axes with handles of gold, and even a golden sheath to put over his penis.

Opinion differs as to who Varna Man may have been. The richness of his goods makes some think he was a ruler. Others think he may have been a goldsmith himself, which may also have been a highly valued position.^[8]

2 Gold Curse Tablets

Curse tablets are some of the strangest texts from the ancient world. Romans and Greeks were known to engrave their prayers and curses onto pieces of metal, curl them up, and deposit them at special religious sites so that the gods may read them and bring them to fruition. Most of these are written on lead, but some people tried to tempt the gods to do their work by using gold.

In Serbia, examples of curses written on gold and silver were discovered in 2016. Most curse tablets are written in Latin or Greek and say things like “May he who carried off Vilbia from me become as liquid as water,” or “May your penis hurt when you make love.” But these Serbian golden curses are more complex magical charms that are harder to read. The language appears to be Aramaic, but the words are written in the Greek alphabet.^[9]

1 Gold Wizard Hats

Hats have always been a way to make a fashion statement or mark someone as important. What bolder statement could one make than to make a hat out of gold? Maybe it would be more spectacular if you made it 2 feet (70 centimeters) tall.

Several large conical headpieces made of gold have been found in Europe that date from around 1400 to 800 BC. Their extraordinary size is matched by their intricate decoration, which also hints at their role in rites and religion. Some of the gold hats were carefully buried in antiquity, so they must have had some importance to the people who owned them.

The Berlin Gold Hat is the largest known and acts as a calendar. The golden rays of the sun are mimicked at the top, but in bands running around its length are images of the moon. For those who knew how to interpret these symbols, the hat functions as a 19-year lunar calendar and predicts lunar eclipses.^[10]

Out-of-place artifacts, called OOPARTS for short, are a popular source of evidence among those who support theories of ancient aliens’ visitation, creationists, paranormal activities believers, and other forms of pseudoscience and fringe science. What are they? They can be evidence of technological achievements centuries before such ability was known to exist. Or they can present “evidence” of human habitation prior to the accepted emergence of humanity. Or they can present evidence of human emigration centuries earlier than believed.

An important part of an OOPART is its ability to baffle experts, seemingly unable to explain the evidence before their eyes. According to Act for Libraries.org the term is “rarely used by historians and scientists”, and OOPARTS are instead cited, often erroneously and sometimes fraudulently, as evidence supporting fringe theories. Here are 10 such OOPARTS which have been debunked by mainstream science, though they still have their supporters.

10. The Tamil Bell

In 1836 a Christian missionary to New Zealand named William Colenso discovered Maori women boiling potatoes in a bronze vessel, which he recognized as a damaged bell. Further examination by Colenso, who was also botanist and explorer of note, revealed the bell was manufactured of bronze, and bore an inscription in ancient Tamil, using characters which had long before fallen out of use. The inscription identified the Maori cooking pot as a ship’s bell.

Since its discovery by Colenso, numerous theories developed as to how a Tamil bell arrived in New Zealand from Asia, when no previous evidence of Tamil contact with the Maori had been unearthed, as well as none since. The bell is an OOPART because of its inscription linking it to a Tamil ship, though that in itself does not mean the Tamil made contact with the Maori several centuries before its discovery. The waters of the region were plied with numerous vessels, including the Portuguese, French, English, and Spanish. Pirates roamed the area as well. Any number of plausible explanations for the bell’s presence are thus available.

It could have been recovered from a derelict vessel which washed ashore in New Zealand. It could have been taken as a prize by sailors from one ship or another, and traded to the Maori. Before the New Zealand coast and adjacent waters were charted by Captain James Cook in the late 18th century, the unknown shoals and currents of the region claimed many an unwary ship. How the Tamil Bell arrived in New Zealand remains undetermined, but it was likely more due to accident than exploration.

9. The Shroud of Turin

Few Christian relics are more controversial than the Shroud of Turin, claimed by believers to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, marked with a negative photographic image of His body by unknown, but miraculous means. To others it is a deliberate hoax, created by an unknown artist or artists during the Medieval period. Carbon dating supports the latter theory, despite claims by believers which state the carbon dating is inaccurate, and other means of measuring its age dates it to the time of Christ.

The Shroud did not appear in any documented record until 1353 AD, which corresponds to the window established by carbon dating as to the time of its creation, more than 1300 years after the events some believe it proves. Subsequent legends and folklore placed the Shroud in the hands of Byzantine invaders and others during the period when its existence, at least the existence of the Shroud of Turin known today, was hidden. Since the 14th century appearance of the Shroud, the Catholic Church has carefully noted its existence, but has never confirmed its authenticity.

Recently DNA testing has been conducted on the cloth, with inconclusive results, as would be expected from an artifact which has passed through so many hands, tests, examinations, and studies for over six centuries. To the faithful, the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. To those who follow science, it’s a carefully created forgery, so skillfully done the means of doing so remain hidden. To them, it is an OOPART, formed in the 14th century, and not an ancient relic of Biblical times.

8. The Dendera Lamps of Ancient Egypt

The Dendera Lamps stem from a collection of motifs in the temple at Dendera, Egypt. Supporters of ancient alien visitation theories claim the motifs depict the use of projecting electric lights a la cathode ray tubes, or arc lamps. Influential support of the theory came from Erich von Daniken, author of numerous books citing alien visitations among the ancients, including Chariots of the Gods? Science widely disregards his theories, yet his books continue to sell and have spawned a growing number of believers that the Ancient Egyptians, as well as the Hindu, Tamil, Incan, and Mayan civilizations, benefited from alien technology.

The theories of Daniken and his supporters make the Dendera Lamps, also called the Dendera Lights, an OOPART since they clearly show the use of technology previously believed to have been unknown by the Egyptians of the day. To them, anyway. Mainstream science and archaeology disagree. To them, the portions of the motif which ufologists claim represents light beams are actually depictions of the rising sun emerging from a lotus flower, in accordance with Egyptian legend.

The Dendera Lamps remain controversial among pseudoscientists and ufologists, some of whom cite them as irrefutable proof of alien intervention in Ancient Egypt. They ignore the inscriptions which appear along with the motif, which describe each panel. The inscriptions link each panel of the motif with a corresponding scene from the Ancient Egyptian creation myth, rather than depicting the use of electric light, as all too many believe.

7. Piltdown Man

In a 1912 meeting of the Geological Society of London, Charles Dawson claimed he had received a portion of a skull discovered four years earlier in a gravel pit at Piltdown. Dawson informed the meeting he had visited the site several times, and discovered several pieces of fossilized bone in the spoil pits surrounding the gravel pit. Arthur Smith Woodward of the reputable British Museum joined Dawson on some of his diggings. In 1915 portions of additional bone fragments were discovered at a similar site in Sheffield.

Piltdown Man, as the bones came to be called, was claimed by its discoverers to be a previously unknown hominid, the so-called missing link of evolution from ape to man. Almost from the beginning, scientists and anthropologists disputed the findings, and the subject became one of dispute for several decades. In 1953 a group of scientists and researchers provided TIME Magazine with information which established Piltdown Man as a forgery from the outset, a composite of fossils from at least three different hominids. The discussions over Piltdown Man shifted to speculation over who perpetrated the hoax.

That has never been determined with certainty, though Charles Dawson remains a prime suspect, as do many others. Among them was Arthur Conan Doyle. Named as the hoaxer in 1997, more recent scholarship exonerates him. Piltdown Man was an OOPART which has been clearly debunked. There has never been a final determination of who created Piltdown Man, nor why, but there is general consensus the entire scheme was a fraud.

6. The Iron Pillar of Delhi

It’s difficult to determine just how out of place the artifact known as the Iron Pillar of Delhi actually is, since it has been moved numerous times. Its origin is debated, as is the authenticity of various inscriptions on the pillar, as least as far as its chronological history is concerned. Conflicts between Muslims and Hindi led to the artifact being relocated several times, with aspects of its history etched into the metal of which it is made. It is the metal itself which qualifies it as an OOPART, at least to some. To others it stands (literally) as a 1,600 year old monument to ancient knowledge and craftsmanship.

The pillar is of wrought iron, forge-welded, and unusually resistant to corrosion. The protection from rust appears to have been deliberately achieved by its creators, and represents a knowledge of metallurgy which far exceeds that accomplished in the 4th century, when it appears to have been made. This advanced knowledge has led to speculation that the ancients who created the pillar had the assistance of alien intelligence and skills when creating the artifact. In truth, the pillar is not completely rust-free, as proponents of ancient intervention suggest. Yet its origin remains uncertain, its purpose unknown.

Recent scholarship has speculated the column reflects known metallurgical skills of the time, albeit practiced by highly advanced artisans, and is thus no mystery at all. At least as regards its manufacture. Yet ancient alien intervention proponents continue to cite it as “evidence” of ancient man interacting with advanced beings from other worlds. Their interpretation of some of the inscriptions on the artifact support their thesis. The chemical and mineral composition of the artifact, and the means of its manufacture, do not.

5. The Decalogue Stone

About 35 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a large boulder with a flat face, bearing an inscription in Hebrew. It is known as the Decalogue Stone, as well as the Commandment Stone and other names (Decalogue is a reference to the 10 Commandments). First reported to the public in 1933, the stone bears the abridged inscriptions of the Commandments, though in modern Hebrew. The stone is cited by some as proof of Semitic contact with North America prior to the arrival of Columbus in the New World.

Researchers have discovered numerous flaws which raise questions over the stone’s authenticity as an ancient artifact. There are grammatical errors, and the use of Hebrew letters which are inappropriate to the message. There have also never been unearthed other artifacts in the region which support the presence of Semitic peoples, which would certainly have been left behind given the length of time necessary to inscribe the stone.

There are also Greek letters interspersed within the Hebrew inscription. And finally, though all of these flaws are explained away by proponents of the stone’s ancient authenticity, it appears to be signed. An inscription on the bedrock of the stone reads, “Eva and Hobe 3-13-30”. The debate about the authenticity of the Decalogue Stone near Los Lunas continues between believers and the scientific community who generally regards it as a hoax.

4. The New Hampshire mystery stone

In 1872 a mysterious stone was reported to have been found near Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It is described as egg-shaped, with a hole running through its center from top to bottom. It appears to have been bored from both ends, since the diameter of the bore is different at the top than bottom (3.2 mm at the top, 9.5 mm at the bottom).

Several carvings appear on the stone, on opposite sides, which include an ear of corn, arrows, a lunar phase, and others. An 1872 report in The American Naturalist described the stone as, “…of a higher grade of art than usual in Indian workmanship”. It also presented the stone as an artifact which “…commemorates a treaty between two tribes”. The stone changed hands several times over the years, and is today held by the New Hampshire Historical Society.

The 1872 article also speculated the bore through the stone appeared to have been cut with the precision of power tools, not available to the Native tribes which created it. But that was mere speculation. In 1994 New Hampshire officials had the stone examined by archaeologists, who determined the stone’s bore was created with modern power tools of the late 19th or early 20th century.

3. Minnesota runestone

Also known as the Kensington Runestone, it first appeared in 1898, when Olof Ohman claimed he found the stone covered with Norse runes while clearing land of brush and trees. The inscriptions recorded in runes in the stone are alleged to date from the 14th century, implying the stone was left behind by Norse explorers from that period. By 1910, scientific examinations had led to the stone being labeled a hoax by American scholars at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Swedish and Norwegian experts who received a copy of the transcription.

All determined the inscription to be a fake, and of fairly recent origin. Further frauds followed. Several writers published articles claiming the stone to be a legitimate artifact, and public interest in the stone, with its repercussions of the Vikings, grew. The runes have even been linked, by those prone to such things, with the Knights Templar of Malta, and other longstanding conspiracy theories.

Though the stone was almost universally rejected as a fake by the mainstream scientific community, it continues to generate supporters of its authenticity. To them, the runes stand as proof of the early Norse settlements in the central region of today’s United States, though their arguments bear little weight within the scientific and scholarly community.

2. The Holy Stones of Newark, Ohio

The Hopewell culture of Ohio are known to posterity as the Moundbuilders. They built earthworks and mounds for religious purposes, defenses around their villages, and for burials. Among their greatest is the Serpent Mound near Ft. Ancient, and the Great Mound in Miamisburg, both in Ohio. Among their burial mounds near Newark, Ohio, about a half an hour’s drive east of Columbus, was found what are known as the Holy Stones of Newark. They have been called “…one of the most infamous frauds in Ohio archaeology” by the Ohio Archaeological Council.

Like the massive inscribed rock near Los Lunas, their supporters offer them as “proof” of the Semitic occupation of the Ohio country during the Pre-Columbian era. The stones began turning up just as the United States was about to devolve into Civil War, largely over the issue of slavery. They purported to be evidence of all humanity descending from Adam and Eve and the Biblical creation story related in Genesis. Thus, to the abolitionists in America, slavery was evil as Genesis clearly stated all humans were descended from the same parents. The stones included Hebrew letters; one stone contained the Decalogue, and they also contain carvings of various symbols associated with Freemasonry.

Regardless of being almost universally rejected as fakes, the five Newark stones remain a source of debate over their authenticity. In 2019, the Center for the Future of Museums, through its annual publication TrendsWatch Report, described the stones, “Fraudulent artifacts, bearing Hebrew inscriptions planted in Ohio mounds in the 1800s to promote a combined political, scientific, and religious agenda”. Despite being thoroughly debunked, there are those who continue to use the stones for similar reasons.

1. The Face on Mars

In 1976 NASA’s Viking 1 explorer mission sent back photographs of the surface of Mars. Viking’s primary mission was to obtain photographs to help NASA mission planners determine a suitable location for the landing of the subsequent Viking 2 mission. In July Viking 1 transmitted the photograph which appeared to be of a human face, in the midst of a rocky field, clearly (to some) fashioned by something other than natural conditions. The Face of the Man on Mars became a widely referenced topic in books, magazine articles, television programs, and even films. Those were the pre-internet days, and social media did not exist to make it go viral. But it became famous.

Officially NASA claimed the resemblance to a face was a mere illusion, caused by lighting anomalies, or obstructions. In 1998 a more sophisticated orbiter took further photographs of the area where the face was seen, and additional photographs have been taken since. The face does not appear in any of them, substantiating NASA’s contention the face was an illusion in the first photograph. Light and shadow created the face, which from other angles simply does not exist. It was a mirage, of sorts.

Debunked? Not according to some. At least one intrepid seeker of truth insisted NASA covered up evidence of life on Mars, including the Face on Mars. Some claim at least one more alien face has been uncovered by robotic explorers of the Red Planet. No matter how thoroughly some “facts” are debunked, there will still be people to support their existence, claiming they have “proof” governments are covering up the truth from the public they serve.