We all love chocolate, most of us probably eat it every day, or at least several times a week. It is one of the most beloved food products in the world and many would say that they cannot live without it. Most of us probably feel we know chocolate pretty well by now, as it is a regular part of our lives. However, there are many fascinating facts about the world of chocolate that most do not know. Below are ten interesting facts about chocolate, some of these facts are bizarre, some are saddening and others are just downright silly.

Fact: Chocolate farmers are basically slaves.

As we mentioned, many of us enjoy chocolate every day. Unfortunately, we are about to make you feel really guilty about it. Have you ever wondered where your chocolate comes from? Most of it comes from the labor of children, it is believed that in Africa alone, somewhere in the range of 56–72 million children work on chocolate farms. These children are often tricked into working or sold into slavery outright and end up living out their lives working on these farms for the profit of others. The children who have it better live on bananas and corn paste. The unlucky ones are regularly flogged like animals.

One child interviewed said that he was tricked into believing he would be earning money to help his family, but that the closest he gets to compensation are the days he is not beaten with a bicycle chain or the branch from a Cacao tree. The child has never even had occasion to try the food he spends his life slaving away to produce. Some would suggest that we buy Fair Trade, the problem is that Fair Trade does little if anything to help.

Fact: Many chocolate confections only contain a very small percentage of actual chocolate.

According to Hershey there is no standard in the United States for Dark Chocolate, however, there are standards for Milk Chocolate and Semisweet chocolate. In some countries the standards are different. The UK is said to have slightly higher chocolate contents in most of their confections. In the USA, however, Milk Chocolate only has to contain about ten percent chocolate liquor, whereas Semisweet chocolate has to contain at least thirty-five percent chocolate liquor. Milk chocolate, which has slightly different rules, must contain at least twenty percent Cocoa Butter.

Fact: Milk chocolate is a fairly recent invention.

Dark chocolate has gained popularity in recent years; however, it is still not nearly as popular as the milk variety. We are often exposed to semisweet chocolate when baking delicious cookies, but milk chocolate is still by far the most popular. The interesting thing about it is that milk chocolate wasn’t even invented until 1875. The first European invention in regards to chocolate involved removing about half of the Cocoa Butter, then crushing what remained and mixing it with salts to mitigate the bitter taste, this was known as Dutch Cocoa. Milk chocolate was discovered by taking this powder and mixing it with sweetened condensed milk, which had recently been invented by a man named Nestle. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fact: The Aztecs and Maya’s used chocolate as currency.

The history of chocolate pretty much begins with the Mayans. Cacao beans were so valuable to them that they were used as currency. It is said that ten beans could buy a rabbit, or even a prostitute. And one hundred beans were enough to buy a slave, though slavery in those days was a much different institution in many ways. When the Aztecs came along they adopted these traditions and continued using cacao beans as currency. People would buy everything from livestock, to food and tools with the beans and some people actually created counterfeit beans using clay. Generally only the richer people drank chocolate regularly though, because drinking your money is expensive.

Fact: Chocolate is high in antioxidants and is actually really good for you.

Recent research has shown that chocolate contains flavonoids. The particular flavonoids contained in chocolate are called flavonols and procyanidins, which are good for your heart and assist in preventing the onset of cancer. However, it is important to note that the higher the chocolate content the better it is for you, some studies have shown that only dark chocolate really give you a significant boost in antioxidants in moderate doses. Researchers found that dark chocolate was great for reducing blood pressure, but that washing it down with milk, even if you didn’t eat milk chocolate, would mess with the beneficial effects.

Fact: Chocolate doesn’t just contain caffeine but also a lesser known drug called Theobromine.

Chocolate contains a higher portion of Theobromine than anything in nature. Theobromine is similar to Caffeine, but it has a milder stimulant effect. Some preliminary research has shown that it may also be helpful for suppressing coughs. While Theobromine has long been used to treat issues such as blood pressure, and is being tested for its use in fighting cancer, you can have too much of a good thing. At high levels Theobromine can cause poisoning, though animals and the elderly are more susceptible to this. A healthy person would have to eat a lot of chocolate before they would be in any danger.

Fact: The Aztec rulers drank tens of cups of hot chocolate a day.

The opulent Aztec rulers and higher class drank a ton of hot chocolate; Montezuma himself was reported to have drunk about fifty cups of chocolate a day. While a normal cup of chocolate wouldn’t contain too much caffeine, the chocolate the Aztecs drank was extremely dark, combine that with the sheer intake and he must have been incredibly wired. What is truly fascinating though is that they did not drink hot chocolate, they drank it cold. They did not drink it with sugar, and it was actually the Spaniards who first added sugar to the drink. The Aztecs would pour the mixture back and forth from pitchers until it got really foamy and believed the foam was the best part.

Fact: The chocolate manufacturing companies tried to get approval to call a substitute real chocolate.

A few years ago in a move that had chocolate lovers up in arms, the American chocolate manufacturers tried to petition for approval from the FDA to replace cocoa butter with Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil and call it chocolate. This sort of move is something you would expect to see in a bad move, but a spokeswoman from Nestle actually tried to claim that it was okay because consumers didn’t really know what they wanted and didn’t understand things like “manufacturing efficiencies” and “technical improvements”. While the FDA chose not to agree to the demands of the chocolate industry, it is incredible that they even entertained the petition at all.

Fact: The world is facing a serious chocolate shortage.

The world is facing a chocolate shortage due to serious diseases that are affecting trees in Latin America where much of the worlds cacao is produced. Not only that but the demand for chocolate is increasing all the time, which makes keeping enough supply to satisfy people extremely difficult. Luckily, the diseases that are affecting chocolate production have not spread to Africa. However, these shortages still could lead to eventual price increases if the farmers are unable to get the diseases under control. While Africa has not had diseases, they have dealt with some droughts recently, which made matters even worse.

Fact: The biggest chocolate bar ever created weighed almost six tons.

In September, 2011, a chocolate bar was created that weighed close to twelve thousand pounds. The bar required roughly seventeen hundred pounds of cocoa butter and about fourteen hundred pounds of chocolate liquor. The bar is supposed to tour around the country in an effort to get kids to “think big” and “eat smart”. We aren’t sure exactly how a gigantic confection will help kids eat smart. More recently in England, the record was broken with an even bigger chocolate bar. The bar took more than fifty people to make and was inspired by the story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Fortunately, all of that chocolate is not going to go to waste. This particular bar is slated to be broken up into pieces and sold, with the proceeds all going to charity.

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Widespread reports of ISIS selling illicitly obtained artifacts have brought to light the importance of ensuring the legality of purchased items. Museums, and to a lesser extent private collectors, often claim to have followed the letter of the law. More often than should be acceptable, their claims have been proven false. Here are 10 interesting cases of archaeological or artistic theft.

10 Italian Conquest Of Ethiopia

In 1937, just before the onset of World War II, Italian soldiers under the direction of Benito Mussolini came to the town of Aksum (or Axum), which housed one of Ethiopia’s most revered treasures—the Obelisk of Aksum, a monument which dates back to the fourth century AD. (Technically, it’s a stele, as it doesn’t have a pyramid at the top.) The city of Aksum was of the holiest places in Ethiopia and a central figure in the rise of Coptic Christianity in the country.

The Italians were pushed out of Ethiopia at the end the war and signed a peace treaty just a few years later, which included the condition that they return any looted artifacts within 18 months. While many items were repatriated, the stele remained outside a United Nations building in Rome. Two more treaties were signed over the coming decades, each with the condition of repatriation, but it never budged. It was finally returned in 2005, though it had to be broken into three pieces for the voyage, as it stands over 24 meters (79 ft) tall and weighs 160 tons. (It was rebuilt when it arrived in Ethiopia.) The stele was described as the largest and heaviest object to ever be transported by air.

One of the main concerns that the Italians raised (one commonly raised by countries asked to return stolen goods) was that the Ethiopians would not take care of it. Italy’s deputy minister of culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, said at the time: “Italy cannot give its consent for a monument well kept and restored to be taken to a war zone, and leave it there with the risk of having it destroyed.” He even threatened to resign if the stele was ever returned, though he didn’t follow through with it. When it was damaged in a severe thunderstorm, he finally relented, saying, “After all, it has already been damaged, so we might as well give it back.”

9 Looting Of The Old Summer Palace

Following the defeat of Chinese forces in the Second Opium War, the United Kingdom found itself in Beijing and also in need of, shall we say, “compensation.” To that end, British forces, with a little help from the French, descended on the city and made a beeline straight to Yuanmingyuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness). Since looting had been a recognized byproduct of war for millennia as well as the fact that they need to pay their soldiers and defer the cost of the dead, the Europeans began to take anything they could lay their hands on, while an envoy went to the Chinese to discuss peace talks.

However, the envoy never reached its goal, as they were taken prisoner by the Chinese and tortured until they were dead. Angered beyond belief and out for vengeance, the commander of the British forces, the eighth earl of Elgin, ordered his army to burn Yuanmingyuan to the ground. (If the name Elgin sounds familiar, it’s because his father was the same Lord Elgin who “acquired” the Parthenon [aka Elgin] Marbles.) One of the items stolen was a Pekinese dog, which was given to Queen Victoria and named “Looty.”

Chinese officials estimate that about 1.5 million items were pilfered from the site by the end of the war, with nothing but rubble left behind. Its looting is still a sore spot for the Chinese. Yuanmingyuan was purported to be the greatest collection of art and architecture in the entire country, and virtually nothing survived the British destruction. Even the British recognized its beauty, as a participating officer said at the time: “You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them.”

Investigators have spent decades trying to recover the artifacts, with most of their requests falling on deaf ears. One of Elgin’s descendants, showing a complete lack of understanding, said, “These things happen. It’s important to go ahead, rather than look back all the time.”

8 Russo-Japanese War

Fought between two countries with imperialistic ambitions in Manchuria and Korea, the Russo-Japanese war lasted for nearly two years just after the beginning of the 20th century. In the end, Japan emerged victorious, and it was the first major military conflict in modern times in which an Asian country defeated a European nation. As the area known as Manchuria spans territory both in Russia as well as in China, Japanese forces often found themselves on Chinese land.

Though an estimated 3.6 million artifacts were looted in the time between the First Sino-Japanese War and the end of WWII, one of the most sought after relics was stolen during the Russo-Japanese War—the Honglujing Stele. With its construction dating back nearly 1,300 years, the stele is believed to be of the utmost importance in the study of the Bohai Kingdom. Very few people, even Japanese researchers, have been allowed to look at it.

Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace for over a century, the Japanese consider the 9-ton Honglujing Stele to be a “trophy” of their victory in the war as well as the property of the emperor. Thus, they’ve rebuffed Chinese demands to return it.

7 Construction Of The East Indian Railway

Much like the more famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, the Sultanganj Buddha has been a point of contention between the Indian and British governments since its removal from India in 1861. It was discovered by E.B. Harris, the local engineer for the British, during the construction of a station yard at the North Indian town of Sultanganj. It was believed to have been buried in an effort to hide it. Harris himself said, “From these discoveries I conclude that the resident monks had only just time to bury the colossal copper statue of Buddha before making their escape from the Vihar.” The Sultanganj Buddha was whisked away to Britain in the following months and brought to Birmingham by an industrialist involved in the construction of the railway.

Atop a list of stolen treasures that the Indian government would like returned, the statue, which dates back as far as AD 500, has remained in Birmingham. Like all British museums, the Birmingham Museum has steadfastly refused to return it, standing by laws which forbid it from returning major artifacts. (Small, in other words less valuable, items are routinely returned, however.) The British maintain that they have proper ownership of the bronze Buddha, claiming that Harris was the only one who realized its value and saved it from being melted down by the locals.

6 The Morean War

Though the Republic of Venice longer exists, and its naval commander, Franceso Morosini, is more well-known for his destruction and subsequent looting of the Parthenon in Athens, they were also responsible for the theft of a number of artifacts, chief among them being the Piraeus Lion. Thanks to their veneration of Saint Mark, their patron saint, the Venetians would often search for depictions of lions to loot during their conquests.

During the Great Turkish War, a conflict waged between the Ottoman Empire and a collection of European nations collectively known as the Holy League. Various smaller wars between the countries broke out as well. One of them was known as the Morean War, and it was basically between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. As the war raged on, the Venetians and Morosini found themselves in Athens and were determined to take the city. Once they succeeded, the looting began, with the most valuable monument being the white marble lion located in Piraeus, the Athenian harbor.

With its construction dating back to the fourth century BC, the Piraeus Lion had stood in the Greek city for nearly 1,500 years before Morosini and his Venetian soldiers looted it and brought it to the Venetian Arsenal, where it remains to this day.

5 Napoleon’s Conquest Of Italy

Setting an example for future dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, Napoleon Bonaparte wished to fill his newly constructed Louvre museum with a virtual encyclopedia of artistic history. He, and much of France’s elite, believed that the French people had better taste and would appreciate the plundered artifacts better than anyone else. Setting themselves apart from most entries on this list, however, they actually stole from fellow Europeans.

First on Napoleon’s long list of victims, which included one of the first coordinated lootings of Egypt, was Italy. The Louvre, briefly known as the Musee Napoleon, was to be the home for the spoils of war, an idea which owes its origins to the Convention Nationale, which deemed valuable works of art as viable for payment for war debts. Some of Italy’s greatest works, including Correggio’s Madonna of St. Jerome and Raphael’s Transfiguration, found their way to France thanks to that decision.

When he was done looting, Napoleon referred to the plundered art as harvest, saying that they would have “all that there is of the beautiful in Italy.” Although they initially felt the legality of their acquisition to be beyond reproach, the French government returned many of the paintings after Napoleon’s abdication and subsequent exile. Some, however still remain in Paris.

4 Excavation Of The Karun Treasure

While they weren’t personally involved in the excavation and eventual theft and export of nearly 200 pieces from the Karun Treasure, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art was well aware that they were illicitly obtained and are just as culpable. In fact, they knew from the beginning. Thomas Hoving, the director of the Met, said in his memoirs, “If the Turks come up with the proof from there side, we’ll give the East Greek treasure back. [ . . . ]We took our chances when we bought the material.” (This was very much in the middle of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” period for US museums.)

Collectively known as the Karun Treasure or the Lydian Hoard, the pieces were discovered in 1965, looted from Iron Age burial mounds in western Turkey. Nearly 2,500 years old, the 363 artifacts were unearthed by local treasure hunters and smuggled out of the country over the following two years. Though they were briefly displayed at the Met during the 1980s, the pieces were eventually returned to Turkey in 1993.

To add even more intrigue to this story, one of the most prized pieces in the collection, a hippocamp brooch purported to belong to King Croesus of Lydia, was found to be a replica in 2006. The director of the museum in which they were held later admitted to swapping out the real one in order to settle gambling debts. (He blamed his bad luck on an ancient curse said to reside in the brooch.) It was eventually found a few years later and returned to the museum.

3 Looting Of Berlin During WWII

Though Russia has since returned a handful of the artifacts that their armed forces looted during the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s surrender, many of them still remain locked away in Russian museums and private collections. (However, if you ask Russia, they’ll say that over 90 percent of them have been returned.) Chief among them is Priam’s Treasure, a collection of artifacts discovered at Hisarlik, which is generally accepted to be site of ancient Troy.

Unearthed by an amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann, the find dates back 4,500 years, centuries before the originally purported owner, King Priam of Troy, was said to have lived. Originally illegally smuggled out of Turkey, the collection of copper artifacts, which includes an exquisite diadem known as the “Jewels of Helen,” found their way to Berlin, where they remained until the Soviets looted them in 1945. Seen by the Russians as the spoils of war (or “trophy art”) the very existence of Priam’s Treasure was denied for decades before it finally turned up in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1993.

The artifacts’ return, either to Germany or Turkey, seems unlikely, as the Russian government has deemed the artwork and artifacts that they’ve kept as payment for the “moral crimes” which Nazi Germany perpetrated on the Russian people. To sum up their attitude, the longtime director of the Pushkin Museum said in an interview in 2012: “A country is liable, with its own cultural treasures, for the damage it inflicts on the cultural heritage of another nation.”

2 Amarna Excavation

Dating back 3,500 years, the bust of Queen Nefertiti, wife of the infamous pharaoh Akhenaten, was discovered by a German archaeologist named Ludwig Borchardt on December 6, 1912. Found in the remains of Thutmose’s workshop in the dig site known as Amarna, the bust was smuggled out of the country and hidden from Egyptian authorities, who had agreed to split the found artifacts. Germany disputes this version of events, claiming that everything was legal and aboveboard.

Recognizing the value of the piece, which has since gone on to gain a reputation as an icon of feminine beauty, Borchardt was said to have “wanted to save the bust for us,” according to a secretary in the German Oriental Company, who was present at the time. It was initially kept in the private residence of the excavation’s financier. Later, it was displayed as a counterpoint to Tutankhamun’s funerary mask, which had brought worldwide acclaim to the British when it was showcased.

Egyptian efforts to repatriate the bust have proved fruitless over the decades, as countless German officials have refused to give the notion a second glance. Adolf Hitler himself declared: “I will never relinquish the head of the Queen,” as it was one of his favorite pieces.

1 Benin Expedition Of 1897

A punitive expedition in retaliation for an attack on the British military known as the Benin Massacre, the Benin Expedition of 1897 was led by Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, and it had the express intent of destroying every Benin town or village and plundering anything of value along the way as reparations. By the end of Britain’s reign of destruction, the Kingdom of Benin was no more, wiped off the face of the Earth.

When Benin artifacts finally made their way to London, their reception was incredible, with every museum from Europe and the United States hoping to get their hands on a piece of the treasure. (Germany was especially enamored with the looted artwork.) Perhaps the most noteworthy of all the artwork are the Benin Bronzes, a collection of more than 1,000 metal plaques which commemorate the battles, kings, queens, and mythology of the Edo people. They date back to the 13th century AD. Europeans became enamored with African culture after their “discovery,” astonished that a culture so “primitive” and “savage” could have produced something of such high quality.

Between 1276 and 1178 BC, a confederation of pirates known collectively as the Sea Peoples terrorized the coastal cities and civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean. For the most part, these pirates, who were the Bronze Age precursors to the Vikings of Scandinavia, preyed upon Egypt, which at that time was in its New Kingdom period.

What followed was a series of destructive raids that culminated in two major battles—the Battle of Djahy and the Battle of the Delta. The former, a land battle, was won by the army of Pharaoh Ramses III. The latter, a naval battle, not only repulsed one of the last major invasions by the Sea Peoples but may very well have saved ancient Egyptian civilization.

Despite their important role in history and the widely held notion that they were responsible for the Late Bronze Age Collapse, a near-catastrophic decline in civilization throughout the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, the Sea Peoples remain the subject of controversy.

Although there are many areas of consensus, some historians and archaeologists continue to discover new interpretations. The following 10 theories present a spectrum of the many different theories regarding the Sea Peoples.

10 The Philistines

Depicted as the archvillains of the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament, the Philistines settled the southern coast of Israel (which today includes the Gaza Strip). After establishing settlements, the Philistines formed a confederation of city-states that included Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron.

The Philistines came into conflict with the Israelites once they started expanding their power beyond their coastal domains. Because of this conflict, the Israelites not only demonized the Philistines but made actual demons out of their gods, including the fish god Dagon. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Philistines were synthesized in the form of the giant Goliath, a proud, loutish warrior who is bested by the small and humble fighter David.

Outside of the Bible, the Philistines are mentioned in several Syrian, Phoenician, and Egyptian letters. While it is generally considered that the Philistines were a group of Sea Peoples who settled the area, not everyone agrees on their exact origins.

One of the more common theories is that the Philistines were originally from the Aegean Sea region, with many more people claiming that the Philistines were Mycenaean Greeks. Archaeological digs near the ancient Philistine city of Gath uncovered pieces of pottery that bear close similarities to ancient Greek objects. Furthermore, a red-and-black ceramic bear taken from one of the excavations almost certainly points to the influence of the Mycenaean culture.

9 The Sardinian Connection

In the Medinet Habu, a mortuary temple dedicated to Ramses III, there is carved into the stone the most famous depiction of the Sea Peoples. Showing several battles, the relief closely identifies the Sea Peoples with several different types of headwear.

The most striking group is depicted wearing horned helmets. It is commonly believed that these fighters belong to the Sherden, one of nine groups named by Egyptian records. Again, because the ancient Egyptians were mostly interested in fighting and defeating the Sea Peoples, they did not keep detailed records concerning their origins.

However, several researchers have concluded that the Sherden people were from Sardinia. Specifically, the Sherden are considered part of the island’s Nuragic civilization, a little-known civilization that left behind numerous stone sites, including towers, houses, and burial complexes. The Nuragic people (so named because of their stone structures, or “nuraghe”) also left behind statues, including Bronze Age figurines showing Sardinian warriors wearing horned helmets.

8 The Sicilian Connection

Following the age of the Sea Peoples, the island of Sicily was divided between three major tribes—the Elymians, the Sicani, and the Siculi (sometimes referred to as the Sicels). While the Sicani were indigenous to the island, the Elymians are believed to have originally come from Asia Minor and had deep connections to the Greek city-states of the Aegean Sea.

The Sicels, on the other hand, were likely an Italic tribe from the mainland. All three tribes may have connections to the Sea Peoples, but it is believed that marauders from Sicily were part of the invasions by the Sea Peoples. Specifically, these Sicilian pirates were called the Shekelesh by the Egyptians.

For their part, the later Greek conquerors of ancient Sicily believed that the Sicels had fled to Troy after being defeated by the Egyptians. From there, they traveled to southern Italy and finally to Sicily. Modern historians seem to corroborate this belief that the Sicels and the Elymians were both defeated members of the Sea Peoples confederation who found shelter in Sicily.

7 The Etruscans

Few European civilizations remain as mysterious as the Etruscans. These inhabitants of northern and central Italy left behind a still mostly indecipherable alphabet and language, thereby forcing historians to rely for further information on Roman records as well as the colorful tombs that the Etruscans built for one another. The question of Etruscan origins is far from new because the ancient Greeks pondered the issue themselves.

While some ancient Greeks believed that the Etruscans were related to the Pelasgians, an Aegean tribe who spoke a dialect of Mycenaean Greek, Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that the Etruscans were in fact the native inhabitants of Italy. The most often repeated assertion comes from Herodotus, however. Herodotus (and later Virgil) believed that the Etruscans came from the Anatolian region of Lydia and were led to Italy by King Tyrrhenus.

Interestingly enough, one of the Sea Peoples were the Teresh, whom some ancient historians also called the Tyrrhenians. According to this theory, the forefathers of the Etruscans were originally Greek pirates who sacked and settled Lydia before being pushed out of Anatolia by a famine. This origin might explain the similarities between Etruscan and Greek religions.

6 Connection To The Balkans

While most of the Sea Peoples came from either the Aegean or the wider Mediterranean, many historians argue that groups from the Adriatic Sea also joined the migration. Specifically, Austrian historian Fritz Schachermeyr asserted in 1982 that the Sherden and Shekelesh were originally from the Adriatic and had connections to the ancient Illyrians.

Today, little is known about the Illyrians besides the fact that they were a tribal confederation that ruled much of modern-day Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, and Albania. Furthermore, it is also believed that certain Illyrian tribes settled the Italian peninsula and intermixed with local Italic tribes. Recently, two researchers with Vienna University dispelled another notion about the Illyrians—that their language directly influenced modern Albanian.

Although Schachermeyr’s theory is not commonly held among students of the Sea Peoples, there are those who continue to believe that a famine in the Balkans drove several tribes, including the Illyrians, to migrate over land and over water.

5 The Battle Of Troy

The Battle of Troy is the heart of The Iliad, one of the Western world’s oldest works of literature. The epic poem describes the protracted siege of Troy by several armies representing the many different tribes of Greece. Three of these tribes—the Danoi, the Teucrians, and the Achaeans—may have participated in the Sea Peoples invasions.

In the Great Karnak Inscription and the Merneptah Stele, these Greek tribes are called the Denyen, the Tjeker, and the Ekwesh, respectively. However, none of this is set in stone, even though the Aegean region certainly provided a majority of the pirates involved in the Sea Peoples confederation.

Insofar as the Trojan War is concerned, many believed that Homer’s poem was a fictional rendering of a real confrontation between a Greek confederation and the native inhabitants of Troy (who may be the ancestors of the Etruscans). Tantalizingly, the Tawagalawa letter, which was written by an unnamed Hittite king (generally believed to be Hattusili III) to the king of Ahhiyawa (an ancient Anatolia kingdom just south of Troy), speaks of an incident involving Wilusa.

Specifically, the letter tells of a recent war between the Hittites and Ahhiyawa over Wilusa. Many believe that Wilusa, which belonged to the kingdom of Arzawa, was the Hittite name for Troy while Ahhiyawa was the name the Hittites gave to the Mycenaean Greek civilization of Asia Minor. This isn’t mere speculation because archaeological evidence recovered from western Turkey certainly points to the fact that Bronze Age Greeks developed city-states not far from lands claimed by the Hittites.

4 The Minoan Connection

Although a majority of the Sea Peoples may have come from the Greek mainland, it has been speculated that the island of Crete, which was then home to the powerful Minoan civilization, also produced raiders who participated in the conquests of the Sea Peoples. At times, Crete has been connected to the Tjeker and Peleset peoples, both of whom were lumped in with the Sea Peoples confederation by ancient Egyptian authors.

Prior to the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Minoans traded widely with the Egyptians and the civilizations of the Levant. Furthermore, in the Amarna Letters, Crete, which is called Caphtor, is included as one of the great regional powers that suffered under the constant attacks of the Sea Peoples. That being said, Minoan pirates, along with Mycenaean colonists who had settled both Crete and Cyprus, may have joined the Sea Peoples to capture livestock, booty, and slaves.

3 The Dorian Invasion

Although it has been argued that the Sea Peoples undertook their voyages for plunder, some historians have claimed that the Sea Peoples were fleeing from invasions in their own homelands.

Regarding Mycenaean Greece, Carl Blegen of the University of Cincinnati proposed the idea that the Greek people of the central coast were forced to flee their homes due to the Dorian invasion from the mountainous south. While most contend that the various Mycenaean city-states collapsed due to natural disasters, there are many who still contend that Mycenaean Greeks fled burning city-states and joined the Sea Peoples confederation to find new homes.

The entire concept of the Dorian invasion comes from ancient Greek legend, specifically the Heracleidae, or the sons of Hercules. In the story, the exiled descendants of Hercules, who had been promised all of Greece, started a war to recapture their father’s lost land.

From this, certain historians proposed a theory concerning the successful conquest of Mycenaean Greece by Greek-speaking tribes from Laconia. Accordingly, Doric Greek, which was spoken by the inhabitants of Sparta and Pylos, became the ruling language of post-Mycenaean Greece, better known as the Greek Dark Age.

There are many problems with this theory, especially considering the dearth of archaeological evidence supporting it. But it does offer an interesting answer as to why the once-powerful city-states of Mycenaean Greece collapsed.

2 A Greater Indo-European East

Considering that most of the Sea Peoples came from Europe, it has been proposed that their incursions into the eastern Mediterranean form a sort of Indo-European migration period. Although it is not certain, it is likely that most of the Sea Peoples spoke different Indo-European languages, from Mycenaean Greek to the various Italic languages of Italy and Sicily.

Similarly, the degree to which the Sea Peoples created permanent settlements in the eastern Mediterranean is in dispute, but they were likely joined by a concurrent land migration coming from both Europe and Asia Minor. Some have proposed the dubious theory that “Land Peoples” from as far north as the Carpathian Mountains joined this migration, while others have noticed that the Lukka, one of the named Sea Peoples, seem similar to the Lydians or Luwians, two Indo-European peoples from western and central Asia Minor.

Indeed, the Anatolian kingdom of Kizzuwatna, which is today located in southwestern Turkey, may have included settlers from both Phoenicia and Mycenaean Greece. Furthermore, Hittite records may point to some Indo-European migrations predating the Sea Peoples, such as the conquests of Attarsiya, a Mycenaean Greek general who not only helped to establish the Greek kingdom of Ahhiya but also invaded Cyprus and various Hittite vassal states, including Arzawa.

1 Outsized Influence On Greek Mythology

As previously mentioned, some scholars believe that The Iliad recalls an ancient war between the Mycenaean Greek state of Ahhiyawa and the Hittite Empire. Similarly, The Odyssey details the attempts of the Greek general Odysseus to return to the island of Ithaca after serving in the Trojan War. Although these are the most famous examples of Greek legends dealing with the eastern Mediterranean, other legends point to a possible Greek memory of settlement in the Near East.

For instance, the story of Zeus, the chief god of the Olympians, and his battle with the monster Typhon likely comes from Cilicia, a kingdom in southern Anatolia controlled by the Hittites. Before the collapse of Mycenae, Greeks settled Cilicia in large numbers. From there, the Greeks absorbed Hittite and Cilician legends, including the story of a sea dragon defeated by a thunder god.

The Greek story of Teucer, one of the heroes of the Trojan War, similarly showcases a familiarity with the ancient Near East. It is said that Teucer and his men settled Crete and Cyprus and then set out on many voyages that took them through Canaan and Phoenician cities such as Sidon. It is possible that the story of Teucer, as well as other stories concerning the travels of Greek heroes following the Trojan War, may be parables about Mycenaean Greek settlement in the Near East during the age of the Sea Peoples.

Benjamin Welton is a freelance writer based in Boston. His work has appeared in The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, , Metal Injection, and other publications. He currently blogs at literarytrebuchet.blogspot.com.

A zoonosis is a disease which is transmitted from animals to humans. With nearly 850 known zoonoses, many of which are almost never contracted by humans, there are bound to be many that we are unaware of. Besides entry number four, this list presents a number of fairly unknown zoonotic disease which, although rare, still infect hundreds or thousands worldwide each year. Each entry includes a brief rundown of symptoms, risks and treatment, as well as providing small factoids about the pathogen itself.

As the name suggests, the humble cat is the main carrier of Cat Scratch Disease. Transmitted through a scratch or bite, symptoms including painful regional and lymph node swelling and papules, which typically appear within one to two weeks of infection—although they can take up to to eight weeks to manifest. The majority of cases resolve themselves over time and do not require medical treatment with antibiotics, although in individuals with weak or compromised immune systems, such as children and sufferers of HIV, treatment is essential to prevent abscesses, pneumonia and even comas.

Endemic only to Australia, barmah forest virus is a non-fatal mosquito borne pathogen which is closely related to the equally non-fatal, but more common, ross river virus. The majority of individuals who contract barmah forest virus demonstrate no symptoms whatsoever, but in those who do the virus manifests itself within two weeks with a mild fever, headaches, lethargy, rashes and painful arthritis and swelling—particularly of the wrists and ankles. All of these symptoms, barring arthritis which can continue for up to six months or more, resolve themselves without treatment within a couple of weeks. Although relatively harmless, in susceptible individuals barmah forest virus has been known to cause Guillain–Barré syndrome or kidney inflammation, both of which can be fatal.

Carried almost predominately by sheep, orf is contracted when the virus comes into contact with cuts or abrasions on the skin. If normal wound infections procedures are followed, medical care should be unnecessary as there are no major complications which can arise from the disease. The main symptoms of orf are red papules or lesions at the site of infection.

With varying infection rates worldwide, Bang’s disease, or brucellosis, is a bacterial disease commonly contracted through the consumption of unsterilized and contaminated milk or meat from infected cattle, sheep, pigs or goats. It may also be contracted through cuts which come into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected animal. Symptoms arise within one month and initially include flu like symptoms such as fever, headaches, back and joint pain as well as fatigue. If left untreated Bang’s disease can lead to heart infection and liver abscess—both of which can lead to death—and also lasting symptoms similar to chronic fatigue syndrome. In pregnant women the disease can also cause miscarriages and birth defects.

Unlike many of the entries on this list, cryptosporidiosis can not only be frequently transmitted from animal to humans, but also from human to human. All infections result from the consumption of contaminated food or water. With an incubation period of up to ten days, the cryptosporidiosis parasite lives within the intestines of it’s host and can cause acute symptoms in the majority of patients, which can last up to two weeks. Symptoms include stomach cramps, vomiting, nausea, fever and dehydration. Treatments often target the symptoms rather the the parasite itself, and as long as one remains hydrated there should be few, if any, major complications. In patients with a compromised immune system, however, hospitalization is often required to prevent death from chronic dehydration.

Caught from contact with the infected feces of dogs, cats and foxes, toxocariasis is a parasite whose eggs can remain dormant within a host for up to two years before hatching. Once born, toxocariasis typically takes up residence in the intestines and cause moderate headaches, coughs and stomach cramps as well as a high fever should the parasite decide to relocate to an individuals organs. In rare cases the pathogen may infect the hosts eyes, leading to blurry vision and severe irritation, which if left untreated can lead to permanent blindness.

Probably the most well known entry on this list, rabies is of particular interest today as it’s no longer considered a total death sentence. Contracted through the bites and cuts from infected animals, rabies has an unpredictable incubation period followed by a rapid onset of destructive neurological symptoms, which eventually lead to death as the virus induces brain dysfunction. However in recent years the so called ‘Milwaukee Protocol’ has rose to prominence by saving around 8% of unvaccinated patients it has been used upon. That may seem low, but for a virus that once had a 100% mortality rate it is promising. During the Milwaukee protocol a patient with rabies is forcibly put into a drug induced coma and provided with high doses of antivirals. How exactly this technique works is unknown, although it is thought that by shutting down large portions of the brain it both prevents the brain dysfunction which typically kills, as well as providing more time for an individuals immune system to combat the virus.

Native to North America, Pahvant Vally Plague, or tulaermia, is a potentially fatal bacterial disease primarily transmitted from rabbits to humans via ticks and lice. One can also contract the disease by consuming contaminated food or water, or handling infected animal corpses. With an average incubation period of three to five days, many who have been infected are often surprised by the rapid onset of debilitating symptoms, which generally include a high fever, severe headaches, extreme weakness, lethargy, diarrhea, arthritis, chills, swollen lymph nodes and eyes as well as ulcers within the mouth or on the skin. Pahvent Vally Plague is considered a medical emergency which requires immediate treatment with antibiotics to prevent death from either dehydration, pneumonia or suffocation—resulting from respiratory depression caused by pahvant valley plague.

The severest form of leishmaniasis, black fever is a parasitic disease contracted from female sand fly bites in tropical and temperate regions of the globe. Infecting up to half a million people annually, and killing an estimated 50,000 of those, black fever is the deadliest human parasite known to man after malaria. With a untreated mortality rate of 100%, black fever’s symptoms are similar to to that of malaria—which often leads to a fatal misdiagnosis. Patients experience a high fever, blackening of the skin, ulcers, weakness, fatigue and anemia as well as spleen and liver enlargement. If left untreated black fever generally begins to attack the hosts immune system, which leaves the individual open to opportunistic infectious agents—many of which can cause pneumonia leading to death.

With a single colony hypothetically able to infect the entire human race, Q Fever is considered one of the most infectious agents known to man, as only a single Q Fever bacterium is required to be present for an individual to contract the disease. Although rarely transmitted from human to human (predominantly via sexual contact), the pathogen is far more commonly passed from livestock and domestic mammals to humans through contact with their bodily fluids—including milk, excrement and semen (There is a high rate of Q Fever amongst zoosexuals and zoophilies). Symptoms typically take up to three weeks to manifest and include, amongst others, a high fever, photophobia, extreme headaches and excessive sweating. Although there is a high risk of complications, including life threatening pneumonia and hepatitis, swift treatment with powerful antibiotics leads to a survival rate of over 90%. Antibiotic treatment for Q Fever typically has to be continued for months, or even years if necessary, as every single bacterium has to be eliminated fro the body to prevent relapse. There is typically less then a thousand Q Fever cases worldwide per year, and there is little threat of the bacteria mutating into something more powerful. Despite this, Q Fever is classified as a Class B bioterror agent due to it’s infectious and incapacitating nature.

Honorable Mentions: Anthrax, Avian Flu, Bovine TB, Cholera, Cowpox, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Dengue fever, Ebola, HIV, Plauge, Salmonellosis, SARS (Debatable), Streptococcus Suis, Swine Flu, Typhus, West Nile Virus, Yellow Fever, Leprosy.

In mid-2018, Chris Martin was having his UK home renovated when he discovered a World War II bunker in his back garden. The two-room concrete bunker found at the Middlesbrough home was large enough to hold up to 50 people. Martin plans to turn the bunker into an office or wine cellar.

He isn’t the first person to make an amazing discovery in his backyard. People have been finding strange items and treasures on their properties for years, including a stolen vehicle, a bag of cash, ancient fossils, and even mysterious objects. Here is a list of 10 fascinating discoveries in ordinary yards.

10 Stolen Ferrari

In 1978, children were playing in their Los Angeles yard and digging in the mud when they touched something unusual under the ground. The children flagged down a sheriff’s car nearby and told him about the strange object they had found.

The sheriff came back with some help and made an odd discovery. They unearthed a green 1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS worth about $18,000 when it was brand-new. It was a mystery to authorities how the vehicle could have ended up there.

The car was purchased by Rosendo Cruz in October 1974, and it was stolen on December 7. The police couldn’t figure out what had happened to the Ferrari, but the insurance company decided to reimburse Cruz for the vehicle anyway. It remains a mystery as to who placed the car in the yard.

The car was eventually purchased from the insurance company for about $7,000 by a mechanic who restored much of the vehicle. The Dino remains unlisted on any Dino registry.^[1] But hopefully, someone is out there taking it for a joyous spin down some winding roads.

9 1,000-Year-Old Human Remains

Ali Erturk was building a trout pond in his Utah backyard for his father when he came across something unusual. The 14-year-old boy thought he had found an animal bone. But after continuing to dig, he realized that the bones might have belonged to a human. Erturk discovered the first bone about 2 meters (6 ft) below the surface.

After the police arrived, they quickly realized that the bones were incredibly old and referred the case to the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. The department workers soon determined that the bones belonged to a Native American who had lived over 1,000 years ago.

Humans have occupied this area of Utah for over 10,000 years. The department gets multiple calls a year that are similar to this one.^[2]

8 $10 Million Worth Of Gold Coins

A Northern California couple stumbled across something rare as they were walking their dog. Buried in the shadow of a tree was $10 million in gold coins. There were over 1,400 coins dating from 1847–1894. They were also in rare mint condition. The face value of the coins only added up to $27,000, but they were so rare that they were worth much more. The couple knew that they were about to be rich.

Some experts believed that the coins were stolen, but the robbery could never be proven. The couple remained anonymous and decided to auction off the collection. The first coin to sell was an 1874 $20 double eagle that brought in $15,000. An 1866-S No Motto $20 gold piece was valued at more than $1 million. The entire collection was estimated to be worth over $11 million.^[3]

7 Mysterious Crystal Object

In Kitchener, Ontario, two sisters were digging in their backyard for worms for an upcoming fishing trip when they discovered a large, transparent, shiny object with a bluish hue. Some believed that it was part of a meteorite that had fallen just a month earlier, but nobody could seem to identify it. The family hoped that the object had a high value and could be sold.^[4]

A local gem and mineral expert didn’t know what it was, so the piece was sent to the University of Waterloo for further testing. The curator of the school’s Earth sciences museum was finally able to identify the object, but it wasn’t anything special. It was a type of glass sold in various colors that was used as a garden ornament.

After the object was identified, it was sent back to the two sisters.

6 Mammoth Bone

A family in rural Iowa went out to pick blackberries, but they returned with more than just a bucketful of berries. The family had discovered a 1.2-meter-long (4 ft) mammoth femur.

This was just the beginning of what would be found on their property. The father took the massive bone to the University of Iowa to have it identified. The university’s Museum of Natural History continued the excavation and found several other bones on the property.^[5]

The team of excavators has found parts of at least three woolly mammoths, although none of them is complete. The crew found several bones, teeth, and tusks belonging to the creatures. After examining the discovery, scientists have determined that the woolly mammoth bones are about 13,000 to 14,000 years old.

5 World War II Explosives

About 75–100 people in a Southern California neighborhood were evacuated after authorities discovered several World War II–era explosives in the backyard of an abandoned home. The house was once owned by a World War II veteran who had died months before the discovery, but it is not clear if he was the owner of the explosives. The house had been vacant after his death, and transients had taken over the property.^[6]

After searching the yard and home, authorities found several grenades, mortar rounds, rusty artillery shells, bullets, and more. Many of the devices were duds, but authorities were concerned about some of the ammunition. Most of the explosives were transported to another location for safe disposal, and nearby residents had to wait many hours to return to their homes.

4 Cursed Money

In 2011, Wayne Sabaj found a nylon bag with $150,000 stashed in his Illinois backyard garden. The carpenter, who had been unemployed for two years, was picking broccoli when he discovered the cash.

He turned the money over to authorities, and they told him that he could keep the cash if it was not claimed by the end of 2012. Eventually, his 87-year-old neighbor, Delores Johnson, and a liquor store stepped in to claim the money.^[7]

Johnson suffered from dementia, but she told her daughter that she got rid of the money because it was cursed. Johnson died before she could claim the bulk of the money, but it would later go to her daughter.

Due to a diabetic problem, Sabaj died just 10 days before receiving his smaller portion of the money. Sabaj’s father went into cardiac arrest after finding out about his son’s death, but he was awarded the amount that Sabaj would have received. Mrs. Johnson may have been right about the money being cursed after all.

3 Rusty Old Safe

A New York couple always noticed a piece of metal under some trees in their backyard, but they thought that it was just an electrical box or cable. A landscaping crew at their home discovered that it was actually an old rusty safe.

Inside the safe, they found wet money and lots of jewelry in plastic bags. There were dozens of rings (including an engagement ring), diamonds, and other jewelry. There was also a piece of paper with their neighbor’s address.

The couple went to the neighbor and asked if they had ever been robbed. They replied that their safe had been stolen the night after Christmas 2011. They even knew that the safe contained cash and jewelry that was worth about $52,000.

The couple returned the safe to their neighbor. When the couple was asked why they didn’t just keep it for themselves, they replied, “It wasn’t even a question. It wasn’t ours.”^[8]

2 Whale Fossil

Gary Johnson first discovered a half-ton whale fossil when he was a teenager exploring the creek behind his family’s home in Southern California. A local museum passed on adding it to their collection back then. In 2014, 53-year-old Johnson contacted the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County about the fossil after another sperm whale fossil was recovered at a nearby school.

A paleontologist from the Natural History Museum claimed that the baleen whale fossil was around 16–17 million years old. Only about 20 baleen fossils are known to exist.

The fossil was lodged in a 450-kilogram (1,000 lb) rock, and it was hoisted from a ravine by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Their search-and-rescue team used the fossil recovery as a training mission, but they typically rescue motorists and hikers who have careened off the roadway onto the steep and rugged hills.^[9]

1 Cold War Bomb Shelter

John Sims discovered a Cold War–era fallout shelter underneath the lawn of his Tucson, Arizona, home. He uncovered the shelter after receiving a tip from a previous owner of the home.

Sims started digging shallow holes in the backyard, but he began to believe that the shelter had either collapsed or was under a bricked-in corner of the yard. After hiring a consultant with metal detectors who found where to dig, Sims hit the metal cap that covered the entrance of the shelter.

He discovered that the shelter was from 1961 and had been built by Whitaker Pools. Made of concrete with a domed fiberglass ceiling, the bunker could be entered by walking down a spiral staircase. It led to a large room that was emptied of any furniture.^[10]

The shelter appeared to have been deliberately closed off after the Cold War. Between the 1960s and 1980s, 18 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads were deployed in the desert around Tucson, making the city no stranger to the Cold War. Sims plans to restore the bunker to its original glory.

I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life. Visit me at www.MDavidScott.com.

Picture this: It is about 700 years before Jesus was born, and you are Numa. No, not the “Numa Numa” song. You are Numa Pompilius, the king of Rome. You live in a time long before being an insane emperor was cool. The priests of your kingdom have informed you that the goddess Vesta will protect your realm from harm.

The catch? You must light a magical fire in her honor and never let it go out. You wonder: How could the kingdom preserve such a fire? After much thought, you decide that such a task could only be taken on by a holy college of virgin women. This sort of thinking is exactly why they elected you king.

These women were known as the vestal virgins, or the vestals for short. For a thousand years, they attempted to keep Vesta’s sacred fire lit. And because of the 10 reasons listed below, they were perhaps one of the most fascinating orders in all of history.

10 They Had To Remain Chaste But Not Forever

When an order of priestesses is called the vestal virgins, you get the feeling that virginity was an important part of the process. These vestals, who were chosen as children, indeed had to abstain from sex for as long as they tended to the sacred fire.

The holy rites of Vesta could only be performed by somebody innocent and pure of heart. If one of the vestals were to break their vows of virginity, it was feared that the fire would go out and Rome would be destroyed. Therefore, ancient Rome had the greatest argument for chastity in the history of abstinence education.

While some might dread the mere mention of abstinence, not to mention a lifetime of it, fear not. Each vestal only served for 30 years. After their service to Rome had been completed, the priestesses would be freed from their vows, just in time to enjoy their midlife crises but with all of the privileges that were associated with the vestals.

9 They Were The Most Powerful Women In Rome

Believe it or not, feminism was not very popular 2,500 years ago. While women in Rome had more rights than women in other ancient cultures, they still could not vote. They were also legally controlled by their fathers and, eventually, their husbands. Because of this, ordinary Roman women rarely owned land or amassed influence.

However, the vestals were no ordinary women. Their rituals were thought to be the one thing stopping Rome from being destroyed or otherwise doomed. Being the most important women in the kingdom/republic/empire, they had privileges that the common women could only dream of.

They were freed from the influence of their fathers and could vote and own property, they were considered trustworthy enough to handle important documents, and they even had front-row seats reserved for them at stadium games. Unfortunately, these privileges have not endured the test of time as modern lady priests are not given complimentary floor tickets to see LeBron play.

8 There Could Only Be Six Of Them (Times Three)

With all the prestige and awe that came with being a virgin, you would think that all the women would have lined up to join the priestesshood. Unfortunately for them, the college of vestals was very exclusive and becoming a virgin was much harder than it would seem. Noble families would offer up their young daughters to the vestal college, although in later years, the college would have to resort to lower-class families as the virginity fad began to die down.

The order would admit six young girls to study the ways of the vestals for 10 years. Afterward, they would perform the rites of Vesta for another 10 years and then train the newest batch of girls for their last 10 years of service. As such, there would never be more than 18 women in the vestals at a time, which made them a rather scarce commodity.

7 Marrying A Former Vestal Was All The Rage

Today, when one thinks of a trophy wife, one thinks about a young woman who has little going for her except for her attractiveness. However, if a man lived in the times of ancient Rome, the greatest wife that he could snag would have been a former vestal. Although they were few in number, retired vestals were well respected, had expanded rights, and received generous pensions, making them potential targets for any masculine gold diggers.

For example, Marcus Licinius Crassus, who is renowned for being one of the wealthiest men in all of human history, is known to have chased the skirt of a vestal named Licinia. He merely wanted to woo her so that he could buy her property cheap.

However, as Licinia was still in the vestal virgins and had not retired yet, a controversy began to brew, and eventually, both Crassus and Licinia were put on trial. Fortunately for the two of them, the judges decided that Crassus was stupidly greedy and didn’t actually mean to deflower the vestal. So Crassus and Licinia were free to go. With this one trial in mind, it would seem that the repercussions for trying to marry a current vestal weren’t too horrible.

6 Marrying A Current Vestal Was A Horrible Mistake

Elagabalus was the 25th emperor of Rome. He was also a teenage boy most famous for fornicating across the capital, marrying five women and two men, and forcing the Senate to watch him dance for his Syrian Sun god—which, in all honesty, is the least that the Senate deserves.

Although Elagabalus preferred the company of his beefy charioteer, he forced Aquilia Severa, a vestal, to marry him. He believed that this would have two benefits: The faiths of Rome and ancient Syria would be joined as one, and he and Aquilia would have “godlike” babies because the vestals were clearly magical.

For the people of Rome, this was unacceptable. The protectors of Vesta’s flames were the vestal virgins, not the vestal babymakers. For the crime of rapturing a vestal away from her duties, among other things, Elagabalus was quickly shown justice. In other terms, he was stabbed and decapitated before being thrown in the Tiber River.

5 Breaking The Rules As A Vestal Was Even Worse

So much emphasis has been placed on the chastity and virtue of the vestals. But even if the Romans thought otherwise, the priestesses were only human. Surely, they erred from their duties on occasion? Everybody needs their fill of Sunday Funday, after all.

Unfortunately, the punishments for errant vestals were ridiculously harsh. If the sacred fire were to go out, then the vestal at fault would be whipped for making the goddess forsake the city. Even worse was the punishment for breaking their vows of celibacy: the considerably bleaker sentence of death.

Of course, attempting to execute a vestal virgin for naughtiness would prove to be difficult as their sacred blood could not be spilled. “Easy solution,” said the other priests. “We’ll just bury them alive!”

This posed another problem, however. Roman law dictated that nobody could be buried within the city. “All right then,” the rival priesthoods collectively murmured. “We’ll build nice rooms underground, put a little bit of food down there, and then seal the room under several feet of dirt. That way, we’re not burying the vestals. We’re just putting them in a chamber where they’ll happen to die after a few days.”

The faithful of Rome then congratulated themselves on the sort of ingenuity that would make any politician swell with pride.

4 They Were Serious About Their Duties

Clearly, being a vestal was not all it was hyped to be, especially if you were constantly under the threat of being whipped, placed in the worst bed-and-breakfast ever, or both. However, to their credit, the vestal virgins were absolutely on top of their game. Vesta’s flame hardly ever went out, although the temple in which it was housed did catch on fire on occasion. That is what you get for trying to keep a magical fire lit for the entirety of Rome’s history.

However, even more incredible is the extent to which the vestals adhered to their vows of chastity. The priestesshood had survived for well over 1,000 years, and yet there are only 10 recorded vestals who were punished for impropriety. That is an average of one virgin breaking the rules every 100 years, a batting average that every religion in the world would be envious of.

3 They Were The Most Sacred And Powerful Of All Roman Clergy

By virtue of protecting the city with Vesta’s flame and having the chastity tenacity of 100 priests, the virgins were naturally the most powerful priestesshood in all of Rome. They even had the political power to pardon pre-dictator Julius Caesar, who had been targeted in one of his rival’s political purges.

Although the priests of other gods had legal protections, the vestals were so revered that merely injuring one was punishable by death—although this presumably did not include dragging one of the errant vestals into an underground chamber.

Furthermore, they were so sacred that they could intervene in criminal affairs at will. If a vestal touched a slave, they were freed on the spot. If a criminal saw a vestal virgin as the criminal was on his way to be executed, he was automatically pardoned. Unfortunately for world history, the demise of Vesta’s college eliminated both the vestals and their slave-freeing powers.

2 Their Fire Was Put Out Forever By The Christians

For eons, the vestal virgins had kept the sacred fire in Rome lit like a magical, protection-granting bonfire that only occasionally burned down the surrounding temples. The Roman pagans argued that the fire, coupled with the Romans’ faith in their pantheon, had granted the city the protection of the goddess. This seemed hard to argue with because of the whole 1,000 years of continued existence thing.

Unfortunately for the pagans and the pyromaniacs of Rome, Christianity happened. In the year 394, emperor Theodosius, boasting the most Christian name an emperor could have, closed the vestal college and put out the magical fire.

According to legend, his niece then came to Vesta’s temple and stole a necklace from a statue of the goddess, thinking that nothing bad could come from this. Sixteen years later, Rome was destroyed by rampaging barbarians—to be precise, the dreadful and Hot Topic–dressing Goths—which led to the most scornful “I told you so” in ancient history.

1 The Closing Of The Vestal College Radically Shaped Christianity

Quickly after the sack of Rome, the citizens of the empire were quick to blame the Christians. If the city prospered for a millennium but was destroyed after these religious upstarts had forsaken the old gods, then surely this was all their fault.

However, instead of this leading to sour feelings and a return to paganism, the notion ended up leading to a theological revolution. Saint Augustine, one of the most famous figures in early Christianity, began to work on a rebuttal.

A few years later, he retorted with his most famous work, The City of God, where he argued that the Christian god had protected Rome in the past when it was virtuous and had abandoned the empire for misbehaving in recent times. Vesta and the other pagan gods had failed to protect Rome from past misfortunes.

They were also, he argued, fake and stupid. Although this did little to assuage any former disgruntled vestals, it reaffirmed the beliefs of contemporary Christians and helped cement Augustine as the most important theologian of his time.

Jeremy is an impoverished college student who enjoys research, gaming, history, and researching gaming history.

Fast food is a relatively recent innovation, only about as old as the automobile, and not really taking off until the 1950s. But in that short time, it has become an ultimately pervasive part of our culture; outside the most desolate tribes, it would be difficult to find someone who has not visited a McDonald’s in his life. Fast food has established a mythos all its own; below are ten strangest marketing stunts, lawsuits, and scandals to have ever struck our drive thru world.

Burger King is no stranger to weird marketing stunts, such as the dreadful 2004 Coq Roq campaign, wherein faux nu metal rockers with chicken masks on thrashed to music filled with double entendre. Their mascot—a towering, creepy King with unmoving features, was mercifully retired in 2011. But perhaps the worst idea in company history was their 2009 Facebook “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign. The premise was simple; use the Burger King application to unfriend 10 people on Facebook, and you would get a coupon for a free Whopper. Normally, there is no notification involved in unfriending someone, but in this instance, Burger King would send the friend a message informing them that their friendship was less important to you than a free sandwich. The campaign was promptly dropped, but not before people leapt at the opportunity, abandoning almost 234,000 friends in the process (that’s more than 23,000 Whoppers).

Taco Bell is perhaps best known for its Chihuahua ad campaign, which was often derided as racist. The ads, starring Gidget, were stopped in 2000. Gidget didn’t remain unemployed for long; she found several other roles, including a spot in “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde”. Taco Bell didn’t fare so well… they’d stolen the Chihuahua idea from two Michigan men, Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks. The pair pitched the idea to Taco Bell in the 1990s, but were rejected. Shortly thereafter, the restaurant chain’s new ad agency began using the concept. The men took Taco Bell to court, and in 2003, a jury awarded them $30 million. The judge promptly added on $12 million. Shields and Rinks walked away with $42 million for their troubles.

A subsidiary of Yum! Brands (which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut), Taco Bell enjoys considerable popularity worldwide, and has locations selling its Mexican fare in several countries throughout the world. A notable exception: Mexico. They made two attempts to crack the Mexican market, in 1992 and 2007, but both times folded due to lack of patronage.

Wendy’s is best known for its simple commercials starring earnest, plainspoken founder Dave Thomas. Thomas was working as a head cook in a restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when Kentucky Fried Chicken owner Colonel Harland Sanders came calling, selling franchises. Thomas, as well as the family for he worked for, bought in. In doing so, Dave worked closely with the Colonel on marketing ideas. It was Dave Thomas who suggested the idea of buckets of chicken, which help keep the product crisp. He also suggested Sanders appear in his own commercials.

The response was phenomenal, and Dave Thomas was later able to sell his share in the restaurants back to to Sanders for $1.5 million, thus giving him the capital to open Wendy’s. He’d later use this advertising formula to great effect in his own restaurants, appearing in over 800 commercials.

Despite its feel-good American dream origins, Wendy’s is not immune from the bizarre. In 2005, an employee named Steve LeMay and a co-worker were caught robbing the safe from the Manchester, NH store where they worked. The co-worker’s name? Ronald MacDonald.

In a previous list, I detailed the immense popularity of KFC on Christmas Eve in Japan, with lines snaking out the door. While business thrives in America, you aren’t likely to see that kind of rush the next time you stop in for a bucket of chicken. Unless you’d happened by in early May of 2009. None other than Oprah Winfrey advertised on her show that a coupon could be downloaded on her website for a free grilled chicken meal at KFC. According to a KFC press release, they received “unprecedented and overwhelming response”, which is the politically correct way of saying that the campaign turned into a complete circus. Millions of coupons were printed, the website couldn’t handle the traffic, and hordes of people descended on the restaurants, which quickly ran out of food. By the time KFC axed the program, an astonishing 10.5 million coupons were printed, which were eventually honored with rainchecks.

Whenever the subject of the frivolity of lawsuits comes up, the 1992 McDonald’s coffee case always pops into the conversation. While on its surface, it sounds ridiculous that someone should be able to sue a restaurant for Stella Liebeck burning herself with a beverage that by its very nature is supposed to be hot, there are several less obvious elements at play. First, McDonald’s served its coffee extremely hot—in excess of 180 degrees (your home coffeemaker will generally clock in around 140), and Liebeck suffered horrifying third degree burns right down to the bone. There are pictures available online, but I don’t suggest you look for them unless you have a strong stomach.

Second, Liebeck did not sue McDonald’s hoping to reap a fortune. Initially, the 79 year old only wanted a settlement to cover her medical expenses, which were in excess of $10,000. McDonald’s offered a mere $800.

Liebeck retained an attorney, and much legal wrangling followed. McDonald’s staunchly refused to settle despite multiple attempts to mediate the case before trial. During the court hearing, it came to light that the restaurant had fielded hundreds of complaints about burns from their coffee, and had settled many claims in the past, some for as much as $500,000. This was pretty much the kiss of death for McDonald’s; the jury awarded Stella Liebeck $2.86 million. The judge reduced the settlement, and both McDonald’s and Liebeck appealed. Before further legal proceedings occurred, both parties settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Tim Hortons is a Canadian donut chain, with some presence in the United States, and some scattered stores in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Unlike a lot of restaurants, Tim Hortons was named for a real person—professional NHL defenseman Miles Gilbert “Tim” Horton, who played for several teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. On February 21, 1974, Horton was driving home from a hockey game in Toronto in his De Tomaso Pantera sports car. When police attempted to pull him over, he fled, reaching speeds over 100mph. When rounding a curve, he lost control of the car and hit a concrete culvert. Horton, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was killed instantly. It was discovered that his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. Horton’s business partner promptly paid his widow $1 million for her shares in the restaurant chain. Today, the company’s revenue exceeds $2.5 billion.

Most would agree that their neighborhood pizzeria serves far better fare than Pizza Hut, whose formulaic, prepackaged recipes do very little to stimulate the palate. But the local joint will only deliver in a five mile radius. Pizza Hut delivered to space. In April of 2001, the company paid the Russian space program approximately a million dollars to take a pizza aboard a rocket sent to resupply the International Space Station orbiting earth. Rolled into the price was a photo op with cosmonaut Yuri Usachov, who offered a thumbs up after receiving his snack. Since it is difficult to taste things in zero gravity, the vacuum sealed salami pie they delivered was heavily spiced.

Rahm Emanuel isn’t exactly a household name, but he has maintained a distinguished career in American politics, serving in multiple advisory positions to Presidents Clinton and Obama, most notably as White House Chief of Staff. He is currently Mayor of Chicago. In high school, Emanuel worked part time at an Arby’s restaurant, a chain known for its roast beef sandwiches. One day, while operating the meat slicer, he severely cut his right middle finger. Being a teenager, he eschewed getting stitches and decided to go for a swim in Lake Michigan. Infection set in, and doctors were forced to amputate the top of his finger.

As an interesting aside, one of Rahm’s brothers is Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, the person on whom the character Ari Gold is based on in the show “Entourage”.

Mark Cuban is one of the world’s richest men, a dot com billionaire who owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and regularly features on the NBC show “Shark Tank”, investing in startup businesses. In 2002, the outspoken Cuban lashed out at Ed Rush, the NBA’s head of officiating, claiming that he wouldn’t hire Rush to manage a Dairy Queen. He was fined half a million dollars by the NBA for his big mouth. The popular ice cream chain took offense at Cuban’s insult, inviting him to manage a Dairy Queen for a day if he thought it was so easy. He accepted, good naturedly serving cones and signing autographs at a store in Coppell, Texas. The event was a media circus, with lines over an hour long. Cuban had considerable trouble mastering the swirl of a soft serve cone, telling customers “Be patient with me, please. I’m new at this. It might not be pretty, but it works.”

Subway is the world’s largest restaurant chain—as of this writing, there are 39,517 Subways operating around the globe, in 102 countries and territories. The most exclusive location? Inside 1 World Trade Center. The restaurant sits inside a trailer-like “pod” that is lifted up level by level as the construction of the skyscraper progresses, from the ground all the way up to the planned 105th floor. The restaurant was opened to cater to union workers, who only have half hour lunch breaks, and thus couldn’t leave the premises for food, since leaving required waiting for a hoist to bring them back to ground level.

Not every food scandal revolves around a batch of moldy jam or some undercooked hamburgers. They can range from hilariously funny events to stories of terrifying neglect.

And sometimes, they are really, really strange.

10Glow-In-The-Dark Meat

In 2005, Australians were alarmed by a very strange phenomenon in their fridges: their pork chops were more luminous than their fridge lights. The meat literally glowed in the dark.

The locals understandably panicked, going as far as to suspect radioactive contamination in the continent’s meat supply. However, the authorities quickly pointed out that the meat’s eerie glow is caused by a simple, harmless bacteria. But while they were technically correct, that still didn’t mean the meat was good to eat.

The bacteria in question is called Pseudomonas fluorescens. While it doesn’t cause food poisoning by itself, it is only present in large amounts when the meat hasn’t been stored in a proper temperature, which means there are probably other bacteria that are less friendly to the eater.

9Mud Pepper

China is a hotbed of increasingly bizarre food scandals. When a country has over a million hungry mouths to feed and a famously relaxed attitude on work legislation, it’s no surprise that food manufacturers are tempted to get creative.

One prime example is from China’s Guangdong province, where a market was caught selling black pepper and white pepper that were not what they were supposed to be. The white pepper was made from flour, and the black pepper was simply ground mud.

When the vendor was confronted over the fact that his spices weren’t spices (or, in the case of his black pepper, even edible), he couldn’t understand the problem. After all, his products wouldn’t kill anyone.

8Sugared Water Sold As Apple Juice

Apple juice is not an expensive commodity. It’s not a complicated one, either: you take some apples and make juice. Yet in 1981, the Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation started selling apple juice that was 100 percent counterfeit. In search of better profits, they had created a recipe that was 20 percent cheaper to make than regular apple juice. This may have had something to do with the fact that it contained no apples at all. The drink was just colored sugar water with some syrup for flavor, yet was marketed as 100 percent apple juice.

The company shipped their unique take on apple juice to multiple countries for 14 months before they were caught and brought to justice. To their credit, they were ashamed enough to accept full responsibility and paid millions in fines and compensation.

7Fake Eggs

Eggs are a food item that seems impossible to counterfeit. The manufacturing process is as organic as it gets. Yet the Chinese food industry has managed to do the impossible. A mixture of resin, starch, coagulant, and pigments makes up the egg white and the yolk, shaped into a perfect egg with a mold. Then, the ”egg” is dipped in an amalgamate of paraffin wax, gypsum powder, and calcium carbonate to create its shell. These completely artificial eggs are quick to manufacture (one person can make up to 1,500 in a day), beautiful to behold, inexpensive, and absolutely worthless in nutritional value.

However, this particular scandal might have consequences that are a lot less scandalous in the long run. The eggheads at Silicon Valley have been looking into the process and are quickly developing artificial eggs that are cheaper and longer lasting than the real ones. These ”Beyond Eggs” are also extremely tasty—and completely suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

6Lead-Paint Paprika

When you think of Hungarian food, the first thing that comes to mind is probably paprika. This delicious pepper variation is more important to Hungary than bacon is to America: it’s the primary flavor of their entire cuisine, and they hold it in extremely high regard . . . which made it all the worse when some greedy individuals tainted the spice in 1994.

Paprika is not a terribly expensive spice. Still, certain shady people decided to make it a little more cost-effective by lacing it with lead paint, of all things. This made it weigh more and turned its color more vivid, both of which made it fetch a better price. Sadly, it also made unwary diners eat lead paint, which is never a good idea.

When dozens of people started falling ill and a few even died, a massive sampling process found as much as 5.8 percent of all paprika in the affected area was tainted with lead paint. Although the situation has since been cleared up, the government recognizes that paprika’s reputation may have suffered a massive blow and continues to control the paprika business with an iron hand.

5Irradiated Cereal

During the 1940s and 1950s, the United States put a lot of focus into harnessing the power of the atom. The entire country was determined to uncover the pros and radioactive cons of nuclear energy.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and food company Quaker Oats were also keen to participate. So they started feeding radioactive breakfast cereal to schoolchildren.

In an effort to see what small amounts of irradiation would do to a kid, the children in the Walter E. Fernald State School were fed radioactive cereal for extended periods of time. Not only were the majority of the children mentally challenged, they were often bribed into eating their poison with gifts such as tickets to baseball games.

Since the scandal was declassified in 1993, MIT has been very open about the case and regrets that ”proper procedures for consent were not followed” in the experiment.

4Rat Or Lamb?

Lamb meat is popular for a number of reasons. It’s delicious and nutritious. It can be eaten by Muslims (who are forbidden to eat pork), and sheep are far easier to keep than cows.

However, some Chinese meat producers noticed there’s another animal that, other than being forbidden for Muslims, fits the same description: the rat. So they started to sell rat meat as lamb. They didn’t just use rat meat, either: foxes, minks and various other animals that had not undergone any inspection ended up doused in gelatin, red pigment, and nitrates, only to be sold as prime mutton.

Before long, people got suspicious and the Chinese officials decided they had to do something. The rat meat ring was eventually busted.

The strange thing is that there was really no need for this deception in the first place. Rat meat is a perfectly acceptable snack in some parts of the country, so the criminals could easily (and legally) have sold their fare.

3Toxic Oil Syndrome

In 1981, Spain encountered a strange, new disease. It was a lung infection that seemed to fight all known behavior patterns of such diseases. It was often extremely localized and was somehow able to resist antibiotics. Six hundred people died before the health officials managed to locate the cause: tainted oil.

A manufacturer had sold poisonous, industrial-grade colza oil (which is about as safe for human consumption as motor oil) to street vendors, who had sold it to the public as prime olive oil. A hasty public announcement campaign and a promise to swap all tainted bottles to actual olive oil quickly ended the outbreak.

However, some people remain skeptical to this day. The first cases of the ”disease” had happened near a US military base, and many who got ill claimed they had never touched the tainted oil. This leaves the case with a number of delicious conspiracy theories, though they are probably best enjoyed without any ”olive” oil.

2Exploding Watermelons

If there is one thing food absolutely should not do, that thing is “explode.” Of course, if there’s one place where that somehow happens, that place is China.

Perhaps the strangest food scandal China has seen happened in 2011, when the watermelons in Jiangtsu province suddenly started blowing up. The blasts ranged from simple splitting and cracking to full, grenade-like explosions with wet shrapnel and comically flying bits of shell. One farmer described his melons as landmines and couldn’t sleep because the explosions made him too nervous.

The farmers of the area had been using a chemical called forchlorfenuron to boost their crops. However, they had ignored the fact that watermelons are extremely sensitive to such growth boosters. As a result, their growth became so rapid it was literally explosive.

Instead of getting huge amounts of large, money-making melons, the farmers lost their entire crops. To add salt to their wounds, the largest Chinese TV channel picked up the story and they became the laughingstock of the entire nation.

1Radioactive Beef

Japan is renowned for its delicious meat products. Its wagyu cattle give some of the most tender and juicy meats in the world: the Kobe variant in particular is praised by many as the best beef in existence.

The country is also known for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011. Caused by a tsunami that tore through Japan, the Fukushima catastrophe was a series of massive equipment failures and nuclear meltdowns that released disturbing amounts of radioactive materials.

Some of these materials ended up in their beef.

The officials were aware of the problem, but they were so busy with the tsunami’s aftermath that at least 500 cows tainted by radioactivity were slaughtered and sold before they could stop it. The cattle had been fed with hay from Fukushima’s immediate vicinity. The government standard for radioactive cesium in cattle feed is 300 becquerel units per kilogram, while this particular feed had an unbelievable 97,000 becquerels per kilogram.

The radioactivity in the meat itself isn’t nearly that high, so the officials say it shouldn’t present any immediate health concerns to the public. However, people pointed out that the long-term effects of ingested radioactive cesium are completely unknown. As a result, no one is ever willingly going to eat beef from the Fukushima area again, and those who have eaten it are probably going to feel pretty paranoid for the next few decades.

Pauli Poisuo also writes for Cracked.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Agriculture is the foundation of all human civilization. The moment mankind was able to reliably grow its own food, it could halt its nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. When we were no longer forced to chase migrating herds and pluck grubs from the dirt to survive, we were able to develop culture, language, and music. Below are 10 strange and fascinating facts about these foods we hold so dear.

10 Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed was a real person, but so much mystique surrounds his name that, like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, he’s passed into the realm of legend. He roamed the frontier territory of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana in the late 1700s and early 1800s, planting 100,000 square miles of apple orchards as he went, some of which remain today. Barefoot and dressed in sackcloth, people were vastly entertained by his presence. He made fast friends with Native Americans, children, and animals alike.

That said, the man wasn’t a saint, and growing apples was big business. He seemed to have an uncanny knack for knowing where the next settlement was going to spring up and arrived ahead of time. When the pioneers came along, he would sell his trees for a few cents apiece and move on. Because of this, he died a wealthy man.

Lest you imagine that Johnny’s apples went into pies and cobblers, it might interest you to know that apples weren’t highly valued as food back then. Johnny’s orchards were planted for making hard cider and applejack. After all, there was no sense conquering the frontier if you couldn’t settle down with a cocktail at suppertime.

9 Negative-Calorie Celery

There is no pursuit fraught with more anecdotal, questionable, and downright dangerous advice than dieting. One of the most dubious claims is that there are “negative calorie” foods—so low in calories that the very act of chewing and digesting them consumes more energy than the food actually gives us. The most commonly cited example is celery, which contains about six calories per stalk. Dozens of otherwise reliable sources assert that celery will actually help you lose weight.

However, the act of digestion is remarkably efficient and burns few calories. It makes sense as a survival mechanism; in the age before drive-thrus and Wal-Marts, humans often had to expend enormous amounts of energy to obtain food. If digesting what they managed to scrounge up was also an energy-consuming process, they would likely starve to death. Celery is no replacement for exercise, but feel free to eat it to your heart’s content. It would take over 300 sticks to equal the average human’s daily ration of calories.

8 Banana Extinction

Our great-grandparents might have dealt with the Great Depression, and they certainly didn’t have iPads to while away their hours, but they did have something we don’t—far superior bananas. Prior to the 1950s, the most widely distributed banana in the world was the “Gros Michel.” Unfortunately, the Gros Michel banana was nearly wiped out by a fungus called Panama Disease.

Today, we enjoy a similar version of the banana called the Cavendish. The Cavendish is smaller, more fragile, and less tasty than the Gros Michel, but it has a resistance to the Panama Disease. But like the Gros Michel before it, the Cavendish is in big trouble. There’s a new strain of Panama Disease on the rise, and most scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before the Cavendish, which is susceptible to this version, will also disappear (functionally, that is—there are still Gros Michels around, just not enough to meet global demand).

7 Toxic Potatoes

The common potato is a member of the Solanum genus and a kissing cousin of deadly nightshade. Like nightshade, the potato produces large amounts of substances called glycoalkaloids, particularly one nasty strain called solanine. This poison is the potato’s defense mechanism that keep it from getting eaten, and is most concentrated in the leaves, stems, and shoots. Spotting any green on the skin of the potato is a sure indication of the presence of solanine. Most commercially available potatoes are carefully cultivated for low levels of the poison, but it is possible to get one with a high amount present, and people have died from ingesting potato solanine. While cooking can reduce the level, every potato you eat gives you at least some small amount of exposure.

6 Grape Plasma

A simple grape can be turned from a solid to a gas to a plasma with a little ride in the microwave. There are sometimes inherent dangers involved in catastrophically changing states of matter, and the microwave might not survive this stunt. There is also a chance, however remote, that you might set your house on fire, so don’t try this one at home.

The set up is simple. Take a grape, and slice it about 90 percent of the way through, leaving both halves attached by a small strip of skin. Remove the rotating tray from the microwave, insert grape, and set it for no more than ten seconds. After a couple seconds, the moisture inside the grape emerges as a gas, and the charge between the two halves turns the steam into a brief electric lightshow. Placing a clear glass over the top of the grape will contain the plasma a few moments longer.

5 Cannibal Tomato

Fiji’s “cannibal tomato” is actually an eggplant. The plant closely resembles a tomato and was used by the natives of Fiji, who have practiced cannibalism for thousands of years, to create a sauce said to be the perfect compliment to eating human flesh. As I mentioned in a previous list, some modern-day folks who have tasted human meat have likened its flavor and consistency to that of veal, so it would seem appropriate to pair it with a nice marinara.

4 Designer Melons

The watermelon originated in southern Africa, and its spread throughout the world highlights the existence of sophisticated trade routes in ancient times. It was consumed by Egyptians during the time of the pharaohs. It reached China by the 10th century and Europe in the 13th century.

Highly adaptable, the watermelon was a natural target for the Japanese appetite for novelty. Farmers discovered a way of raising the melons inside glass boxes so that they grow in a cube shape for easy storage in refrigerators. Other shapes—including pyramids—have also been formed. Even more outlandish are the prices paid for gourmet “Densuke” watermelons. Grown only on Hokkaido Island, the first few specimens harvested each year sell for thousands of dollars. The average Densuke melon retails for about $250.

3 Purple Carrots

Like the watermelon, the carrot’s migration around the world can be traced, though there are some doubts regarding its origin. It is believed to have been first cultivated in modern-day Afghanistan, then swept into Europe along Middle Eastern trade routes. Of course, we would hardly recognize these ancient carrots—they were rather straggly and either white or purple. Beneath the green thumb of the Dutch, the carrot was bred into its current orange state. While most of us have never seen anything but orange carrots, other colors are available in high-end grocery and health food stores, often in “rainbow packs,” including white, yellow, red, purple, and even black varieties.

2 Spinach, The Iron Vegetable

Spinach has a bad rap. Many people, particularly children, turn up their nose at the vegetable. Enter Elzie Segar, whose Popeye character derived superhuman strength from a can of spinach. There is no telling just how profound an impact Popeye has had on the worldwide consumption of spinach, but there have been statues erected of him in growing communities. Canner Allens Vegetables even markets a Popeye brand.

The story goes that spinach was chosen by Segar based on a faulty study from the 1800s that misplaced a decimal point in estimating the iron content of the vegetable. The story has since been proven a myth, with newer claims pointing to the vitamin A content as the reason Segar chose spinach. Spinach is rather healthy, but many people choose to boil it—which tends to remove many of the nutrients.

1The World’s Most Hated Vegetable

Unfortunately for our expanding waistlines, vegetables are often the most reviled of foods. President George H.W. Bush so hated broccoli that he made headlines when he banned it from the White House. Surveys in the UK have shown celery to be their least favorite green. But the world over, one vegetable continually tops the lists of “most hated”: brussels sprouts.

These tiny cabbages might be extremely healthy, with over a dozen vitamins and minerals, but their bitter flavor turns off most palates. In fairness to the sprouts, certain cooking methods can improve their taste. For best results, aficionados claim that smaller sprouts taste sweeter. Halving them, quickly boiling them, and then immersing them in cold water takes away some of the bitterness, and it helps to temper them with an acid like lemon or red vinegar.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

The elegant and mysterious design of hieroglyphics have captured our imagination for thousands of years. They remained undeciphered and silent for centuries until the Rosetta Stone was discovered in the 18th century, and we could finally hear the voices of the ancient Egyptians. This list includes interesting facts about Egyptian hieroglyphs covering everything from their early origin to the present day.

10Rock Art And Hieroglyphs

Many scholars have argued that hieroglyphs they are linked to pictures found in the Western Desert produced by early hunter-gatherer and cattle herder communities around 5000 BC. For these communities, the ability to remember information about their land—such as the location of water holes, grazing areas and routes across the dry land—was key for their subsistence.

We know that the function of rock art in general is complex and diverse, and this rock art in particular is not all about passing information. However, it seems that these communities were familiar with the idea of conveying information through visual imagery.

This idea is further supported by some of the images found on pottery vessels produced by subsequent cultures in Egypt, which resemble some of the rock art motifs. This tendency is particularly marked during the 3500-3000 BC period.

9Earliest Evidence Of Writing In Egypt

Around 3100 BC, a wealthy man (probably a ruler) died somewhere in or around Abydos, Upper Egypt. His body was buried with many funerary objects in tomb “J,” in a cemetery in Abydos known to archaeologists as cemetery “U.” Many of these objects were looted, and all that remains from them are about 150 labels that were attached to them and discarded by the thieves. These labels display the earliest recognizable writing in Egypt.

The labels display about 50 identifiable signs. The information they convey is diverse. Some are numerical signs, some indicate specific locations (possibly the place of origin of the goods), and some relate to administrative activity.

8Mesopotamian Influence

In Mesopotamia, somewhere around Modern Iraq, the Sumerians developed a writing system a little earlier than the Egyptians. There is evidence of contact between Mesopotamia and Egypt prior to the time when hieroglyphs were developed.

Both Sumerians and Egyptians had a pictorial form, although the more simplified Cuneiform script quickly replaced traditional writing in Mesopotamia. It is likely that the Mesopotamians showed the Egyptians the idea of writing. Many scholars believe that as more archaeology and research is carried in Egypt, we may find earlier writing examples.

7Development Of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The complex design of hieroglyphs was not suitable for the writing speed required by everyday use, so their pictorial look became gradually stylized. By 2800 BC, this tendency formed a new script known as “hieratic,” a simplified and more user-friendly version of the traditional hieroglyphic signs.

The hieratic script did not replace the hieroglyphic script; it merely complemented it. Hieroglyphs were kept in use for monumental inscriptions, while hieratic was the main choice for manuscripts. Sometimes, hieratic is referred to as “cursive” writing.

Around 600 BC, an even more abbreviated Egyptian script lacking any pictorial trace was developed, known as “demotic.” A century or so later, demotic replaced hieratic, and it became the standard script in mostly every writing context, with the exception of religious texts, where hieratic remained in use.

6Literacy Levels

The vast majority of Egyptians were craftsmen, farmers, and herdsmen, who did not have access to the resources of the elite. Many hieroglyphs were displayed on monuments, which very few outside the elite would be able to access. Also, hieroglyphic texts are largely concerned with taxation and other data connected to economic and administrative control, commemoration of royal achievements, religion, and magical and liturgical spells. All these uses are linked exclusively to the elite.

Based on these and others facts, it is estimated that during the Old Kingdom (2686–2160 BC), the proportion of Egyptians who could read and write at all was about 1 percent. Most of these would write and read hieratic script, not actual hieroglyphs. Outside this privileged group, there would also be some people able to read and write their own names for the purpose of administration.

5A Gift Of The Gods?

Egyptian mythology claimed that the god Thoth showed the Egyptians how to write. His goal was to make the Egyptians wiser. The god Ra objected, saying writing would weaken the memory of humanity, and that instead of experiencing the past through their memories, they would rely on documents. Writing would make them lazier, not wiser.

Thoth ignored the warning of Ra and gave the Egyptians the art of writing, but he only gave it to a select group, the scribes. The Egyptians referred to the hieroglyphs as medu netjer (the gods’ words). Their elegance and pictorial look encouraged the Greeks to believe they were something sacred, so they referred to them as “holy writing.” The word “hieroglyph” comes from the Greek hiero (“holy”) and glypho (“writing”).

4Hieroglyphs And Magic

The magical tradition of Egypt was closely connected to the spoken and written word. Although the performance of spells, incantations, and other rituals required the use of religious and magical paraphernalia, none could work without the aid of words. Hieroglyphs were an essential component of magical practice. Many examples of magical texts and formulas, mostly written in hieratic on papyri, have been found in Egypt. We know of magic to aid the sick, to cure snake and scorpion bites, to curse enemies, to obtain help from the gods, and many other uses.

What follows is an example of a love spell used by a male to gain the heart his beloved. It was found on a piece of pottery dating to the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC). The spell had to be recited out loud so that the gods could hear it

“Hear me, O Ra, Falcon of Twin Horizons, father of gods!

“Grant that this girl, true child of her mother, pursue me with undying passion, follow close on my heels like a cow seeking pasture, like a nursemaid minding her charge, like a guardian after his herd! For if you will not cause her to love me, I must surely abandon the day consumed to dust in the fire of my burning.”

3Portable Writing Surfaces

In addition to the hieroglyphs carved or painted on walls, Egyptians used many other writing surfaces that could be easily transported. We have examples of hieroglyphs written on small labels carved on wood or ivory or inscribed on surfaces such as ceramic, metal, and stone. We also know of clay tablets (which were popular in Mesopotamia), bone, and even leather.

Papyrus was the chief portable writing medium in Egypt. Egyptian scribes used papyrus and other writing surfaces, including writing boards generally made of wood. Until the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1295 BC), these boards were covered with a layer of white plaster that could be washed and re-plastered, providing a convenient reusable surface.

2The Scribes

Scribes in Egypt were highly regarded and could potentially work in many areas. The core of their profession was writing, administration, and calculation, but depending on where they worked, they also had specialized skills. Learning to read and write was mandatory for anyone who wanted to be part of the state bureaucracy.

Egyptian scribes could be employed by the state bureaucracy in several areas: In the legal administration as legal clerks, in tax offices and storehouses as record keepers, in temples copying books, in the army recording and managing supplies, or in the pharaoh’s court serving the royal family directly. They could also work in private industry, supporting different businesses that required their skills.

1Learning Ancient Hieroglyphs

If you have been captured by their beauty and the thought of learning hieroglyphs has crossed your mind, know that today, learning hieroglyphs is easier than ever. If you research locally, you might find available courses (in libraries or educational institutions), enthusiast groups, and other options. If you have no luck with this, there are alternatives:

Egyptian Hieroglyphs is a free online resource that you can use to learn the basics. It is run by a passionate graduate student with a background in Egyptian art and archaeology. You will be surprised about how detailed and well organized these lessons are.

You can also use the excellent Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners to get inside this fascinating world.