Behind every historical artifact at a museum, there’s a perfectly normal and rational explanation as to how and why it came to be. Yet, every so often, something is discovered that leaves scientists and historians utterly baffled, to the point of dedicating years of their lives trying to shed light on its origins.

Here are ten of the most bizarre historical finds ever reported. Some of the following artifacts and sites are very real and can be visited today, despite their enigmatic nature. Others were destroyed by nefarious forces or never existed at all, depending on who you ask.

10 The London Hammer

In the middle of 1934, Max Hahn, a resident of London, Texas, discovered an odd-looking rock on a ledge beside a waterfall. The rock was apparently very happy to see him, judging by the piece of wood protruding from it. Max took it back to introduce it to his family, and being the curious kind of folk they were, they cracked the rock open with a hammer and a chisel. Much to their surprise, the rock was hiding part of an old hammer inside. They filed into one of the beveled sides of the hammerhead to ensure that it was made of metal. It was.

When the rock was cracked open, the metal hammerhead was exposed to the light of day for the first time since the rock formed around it. The problem is that the rock is purported to be up to 400 million years old. Humans aren’t supposed to have evolved until hundreds of millions years later. One explanation is that the mineral concretion around the hammer itself is not 400 million years old, regardless of the age of the area it was found. Others, however, tout the London Hammer as supporting evidence for creationism.^[1]

9 The Antikythera Mechanism

Three flat pieces of bronze were recovered from an ancient Greek shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera between 1900 and 1901. Scholars had no idea what they were at the time, nor were they able to figure anything out about it for decades to come. Over time, the disks started to corrode into different shades of green, obscuring some of the crucial details of the discovery. For years, the three mysterious pieces of bronze were forgotten.

It wasn’t until Mike Edmunds from Cardiff University in Wales decided to publish CT scans of the disks in 2006 that real interest in the Antikythera mechanism started to pick up. Not only did it resemble technology that was shockingly modern for the time from which it originated (anywhere from 205 to 87 BC), but the CT scans revealed more details of the device’s inner workings and hidden inscriptions.

The Antikythera mechanism seemed to resemble a mantel clock, with bits of wood found on the fragments to suggest that it was kept in a wooden container. The case would have had to have featured a large, circular face with rotating hands. There also had to have been some kind of knob or handle on the side for winding the mechanism forward or backward. If you fiddled with the knob, gearwheels inside would have driven at least seven hands at various speeds, as opposed to the two or three in a typical clock.

What’s truly mind-blowing is that it wasn’t tracking hours or minutes; it kept track of celestial time. That’s right, every hand represented a piece of our solar system. There was a hand for the Sun, one for the Moon, and one for each of the five planets visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. A black and silver ball rotating around along with the other hands represented the phase of the Moon. The hidden inscriptions turned out to be dates on which the stars would rise and set.

Everything seems to be crystal clear, although a few problems remain. Experts are still trying to decipher the inscriptions hidden inside the mechanism in an attempt to understand the missing pieces, which may either be destroyed or still at the bottom of the sea. Without the missing pieces, we may never discover the full extent of how sophisticated this mechanism truly was.^[2]

8 The Dropa Stones

The Dropa stones, if they were real, were reportedly found in the mountains of Baian Kara-Ula, right on the border between China and Tibet. They are said to have been discovered in 1938 by a Chinese professor, Chi Pu Tei, who found regularly aligned rows of graves. The skeletons inside were small in height (122 centimeters [4′] tall) and had large, overdeveloped skulls. Chi Pu Tei and his team found some interesting rock art inside a nearby cave system, which depicted figures with round helmets. There was also engravings of the Sun, Moon, Earth, and stars. Once they ventured further into the cave, the team found the collection of 716 stone discs. Most of them were half-buried in the ground.

The Dropa stones allegedly have hieroglyphic-like markings, date back around 12,000 years, and measure up to 30 centimeters (12 in) in diameter, each with a hole in the middle. In 1962, a researcher by the name of Tsum Um Nui from Beijing University reportedly claimed to have deciphered the hieroglyphic characters after four years of study. Yet, after he published his findings in a professional journal, he became a laughingstock. According to his work, one of the disks held this exact quote:

The Dropa came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last we understood the sign language of the Dropas, we realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions.

Shortly after his name was dragged through the mud, he went into exile and later died.

In 1968, the Russians had a crack at investigating the Dropa stones. A Russian scientist, W. Saitsew, became fascinated with them. He decided to place one of the disks on an oscillograph, and much to his surprise, an oscillation rhythm could be heard. It was as if the stone was somehow electrically charged or had functioned as an electrical conductor.

A German scientist, Hartwig Hausdorf, and his colleague, Peter Krassa, visited China and the Banpo museum in Xian in 1974 to research the disks. Upon arrival, they were told that the director’s superiors had ordered them to destroy the disks and to officially not recognize the Dropa stones’ existence anymore.

Quite a few mysteries still remain. Why were the disks ordered to be destroyed? Why doesn’t the Chinese government have any records of a tribe called the Dropa? Was Tsum Um Nui right about his translations? Did the stones even exist at all?^[3]

7 The Saqqara Bird

Found in Saqqara, Egypt, in 1898, the Saqqara Bird is an artifact made of wood and estimated to be approximately 2,200 years old. Although its shape resembles a bird, it appears to display features of a modern airplane, with the head being the only exception. Reportedly inscribed on the artifact are hieroglyphs translating to “The Gift of Amon,” and three papyri found near the artifact are said to have mentioned the phrase “I want to fly.”

Dr. Khalil Messiha, the physician who discovered the artifact, speculated that the Egyptians made it as a model of an aircraft they either constructed or witnessed. According to him, the Saqqara Bird had aerodynamic qualities and was only missing a tail wing stabilizer. In theory, it would have been capable of flying if it had the tail wing stabilizer attached. He built a replica of the Saqqara Bird with said stabilizer, and much to his surprise, the model actually flew.

Some archaeologists believe that the artifact is nothing more than a depiction of an actual bird that coincidentally resembles a glider. The true purpose of the Saqqara Bird still remains unknown to this day. Was it simply a toy, or was it an interpretation of what the Egyptians witnessed while they were still alive?^[4]

6 The Baghdad Battery

Discovered in a village in Iraq, the Baghdad battery is an intriguing example of ancient technology. It’s comprised of three parts: a ceramic pot, a copper tube, and an iron rod. Some believe that it was used to electroplate gold onto silver objects, but this claim was never proven, nor is there any evidence to support this theory.

Ancient astronaut theorists think that similar devices were used as a light sources inside pyramids by ancient Egyptians, which is just another theory that can’t be proven. Reportedly, a researcher named Dr. Arne Eggerbech was the first person to look at the pot and wonder if it worked as a battery. Building a replica, he used grape juice as an acid and thin layers of silver, which supposedly resulted in the production of electricity.

If the Baghdad battery was what its name suggests, it would predate Alessandro Volta’s electrochemical cell by a millennium.^[5] Some archaeologists, however, think it was simply a device to store scrolls. It’s a little hard to study it further, as it was reportedly stolen during the US occupation of Iraq in 2003.

5 The Piri Reis Map

Back in 1929, German theologian Gustav Deissmann was busy working at the Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul. While he was filing away antique items, he came across a peculiar-looking gazelle-skin parchment on top of a stack of discarded items. Upon taking a closer look, he was surprised to see something made out of animal skin showing the outline of South America. He picked it out of the heap to study. It was drawn and signed in 1513 by a Turkish cartographer named Hagii Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, also known as Piri Reis. His sources for the map included eight Ptolemaic maps, four Portuguese maps, an Arabic map, and one drawn by Christopher Columbus.

Here’s where it gets weird: According to some, not only does this map show Antarctica almost 300 years before it was officially discovered, but it supposedly shows the continent as it would have appeared before it was covered with ice. The map is also claimed to have been drawn using the Mercator Projection, which wasn’t used by European cartographers until the late 16th century. There is still no explanation as to why Antarctica showed up to the party too early (if, indeed, that’s what the map shows), but the use of the Mercator Projection could be because of Piri’s sourcing of Greek maps in his creation of this one.^[6]

4 Nan Madol

In Micronesia, off the island of Pohnpei, lies Nan Madol, the only ancient city ever to have been built upon a coral reef. Built upon roughly 100 artificial islands, it’s truly an engineering marvel. Archaeologists just have to figure out the how, when, and why. There are no known records in existence to explain the ancient city’s existence. Although some evidence of human activity on the islands dates back to the first or second century BC, the city itself has been dated from the fifth to 11th century AD. It is generally believed that the islands were used as a ritual and ceremonial center for the ruling chiefs of the Saudeleur dynasty.

Most of the inhabitants of Pohnpei believe the legendary explanation for Nan Madol: It began with the arrival of twin sorcerers, Olisihpa and Olosohpa, who hailed from Western Katau. The brothers sought a place to build an altar for Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture. After successfully building their altar, they used it to perform rituals to levitate the huge stones with the help of a flying dragon.^[7]

3 The Stone Walls Of Saksaywaman

On the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco in Peru lies the walled complex of Saksaywaman (spellings vary), believed to have been built by the Inca. The walls are made out of boulders, carefully cut to fit together tightly without the use of mortar. This level of precision fitting is unmatched in the Americas. This, not to mention the variance of shapes interlocking as well as the wall leaning forward somehow, has baffled scientists for decades.

One theory, suggested by Dr. Derek Cunningham, is that the orientations of the stones correspond to astronomical alignments. According to him, ancient civilizations developed writing from a very archaic geometrical form based on the study of the motion of the Moon and the Sun. Astronomical values, considered central to the prediction of eclipses, were converted into angular values. He sees the same values present in the construction of the Saksaywaman walls.^[8] How did the Inca came to know about astronomical values, and how were they so accurate with the angles of their stone wall?

2 The Dead Sea Scrolls

The first set of the Dead Sea Scrolls were accidentally discovered in seven clay jars by teenage shepherds in late 1946 or early 1947. They were made out of leather and papyrus. The scrolls passed through various scholars, who estimated them to be more than 2,000 years old. After the initial discovery, treasure hunters scoured the nearby caves and managed to unearth more scroll fragments. They comprised over 800 manuscripts, to be precise.

Nobody knows who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. According to the most prominent theory, they were the work of a Jewish population that inhabited Qumran until Roman troops destroyed the settlement sometime around AD 70. Almost all of the Old Testament is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, except for the Book of Esther, which details the story of the Jewish queen of Persia. Some believe that those scrolls disintegrated over time or have yet to be discovered.

Another peculiar aspect of these mysterious scrolls is that they include a guide to hidden treasure. While the rest of the other texts were written in ink on parchment or animal skins, the Copper Scroll was chiselled onto metal sheets to better withstand the test of time. None of the treasures it describes have been found, much to the disappointment of eager treasure hunters. It’s possible that the Romans already got them years ago.^[9]

1 The Paracas Skulls

At the Museo Regional de Ica, you’ll find some oddly shaped skulls on display. Throughout history, different cultures have changed the shape of their children’s skulls by tying two wooden boards to their heads and making them fit tighter day by day. One look at these skulls, and you’ll swear their mother rolled them down a mountain like pizza dough on a daily basis.

The Paracas skulls were discovered in the Paracas Peninsula on the southern coast of Peru. Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello found them back in 1928, along with a complex and sophisticated graveyard. The skulls reportedly have some odd characteristics aside from their atypical shape. For one, the foramen magnum (the hole at the bottom the skull that the spinal cord passed through) should be closer to the jawline. Also, the Paracas skulls are said to be missing sagittal sutures, the fixed joint you typically see across the top of a human skull. In other words, these skulls don’t don’t look human. (You can probably guess what some claim they do look like.)

It has been repeatedly claimed that when DNA testing was carried out in 2014, it was found that the Paracas skulls have mitochondrial DNA with mutations unknown to any human, primate, or animal known so far.^[10] Other sources have just as repeatedly debunked these claims, pointing out that any abnormalities in the DNA can be explained by any number of factors and don’t mean the skulls are alien-human hybrids.

You can follow me on Twitter @JustThatChickXD.

All archaeological finds are invaluable, yet some are more priceless than others. Some tell stories so ancient yet so familiar that we can’t help but smile as we realize how little some things have changed these past thousands of years.

10 Unguentarium

Like the ancient Egyptians, the Romans took their funerary practices seriously lest the dead remain eternally trapped in uneventful purgatory. A by-the-book funeral could consist of five parts, starting with a procession and ending with a grand feast to ensure the departed’s successful voyage to the immortal domain. Afterward, Romans celebrated the dead during specified “holidays,” kind of like Mexico’s famed Day of the Dead.

Strangely enough, gravesites throughout the Roman world often surrendered vaselike sculptures called unguentaria. According to legend, they held the tears of family members grieving over the departed, although that appears to be a romantic myth. It’s now generally agreed that unguentaria—“unguent” meaning “ointment”—stored perishable goods for the living rather than commemorations for the dead.

Unguentaria served as old-timey equivalents of plastics, and the specimens unearthed contained cosmetics or fragrances. In his terrestrial treatise, Natural History, Pliny the Elder records that Romans preferred scents of marjoram, roses, and saffron. He also said that the women of the house utilized as many beauty products as women do today, including lotions for soft, smooth skin.

9 Fetus Paper

Before the days of Office Depot, paper was a luxury that was often made from less than savory ingredients. For example, the first collection of portable Bibles in Europe, all 20,000 of them, was said to be printed on parchment made from stillborn barnyard critters.

Known as uterine vellum, or abortivum parchment in Latin, these names suggested that the supremely thin pages came from calf and sheep fetuses. To put the issue to rest, an unexpectedly large collaboration between British, Irish, French, Danish, Belgian, and American scientists devised an innovative way to test the delicate paper without destroying it. They used a rubber eraser.

After a good rubdown, the electrostatic charge elicited from the eraser-on-paper action attracted tiny protein fragments from the pages. Analyzing the meaty dust revealed that the vellum was not, in fact, gruesomely manufactured from aborted animals. Instead, it was made from cows or other hoofed adult animals as per tradition. How medieval artisans were able to create such fine, thin sheets remains a mystery for another day.

8 Unexpected Mummy

Peru’s 5,000-year-old Caral-Supe (aka Caral) predates the Mayan, Incan, and Aztecan cultures by thousands of years. The 630-hectare, pyramid-boasting sacred site is South America’s oldest center of civilization and marks the start of city living in the region.

Due to a lack of records, we know little of ancient Peruvians, but a recently discovered female mummy suggests a progressive culture that valued women and men as equals. The 4,500-year-old corpse reposed in the ruins of Aspero, a quaint fishing village 25 kilometers (15 mi) from Caral and under the auspices of its mysterious creators.

The circumstances of the woman’s burial indicate her importance. Likely between the ages of 40 and 50 when she died, archaeologists found her laid to rest in the fetal position and placed atop a variety of charms. These included four figurines (known as tupus) carved in the likenesses of monkeys and birds, a seashell necklace, and a pendant made from a Spondylus mollusk.

The circumstances of the woman’s burial and the recovered items offer evidence that women could attain high status just as men could—a historical rarity and a candid glimpse into the hidden life of the Norte Chico peoples.

7 Etruscan Slab

The supremely religious Etruscan culture imparted great knowledge to Greece and Rome and left behind an ugly alphabet. Sadly, we don’t know much of their language, and most of what we’ve gleaned comes from funerary stones or inscriptions on household knickknacks.

Recently, archaeologists have unearthed a cipher of sorts on an old slab unearthed from beneath an Etruscan temple that dates back at least 2,500 years. It’s one of the longest, most substantial pieces of Etruscan literature ever recovered, containing at least 70 legible characters that are all nicely punctuated and a bevy of new words and phrases. The chipped, burned slab survived remarkably well, considering it was used as part of the foundation and bore the temple’s weight on its stony shoulders.

Similar tablets have provided windows into the surprises of everyday Etruscan life, like a female version of the Greek Olympics that included topless javelin and bare-breasted equine events. In fact, women enjoyed many freedoms withheld from their Grecian and Roman counterparts. Etruscan women were allowed to enjoy wine, socialize freely, and train as soldiers.

6 Jockey’s Monument

The Anatolian province of Konya served as the capital to the Seljuk culture of 1,000 years ago and afterward flourished as a prominent Ottoman city. It housed a hippodrome and horse-breeding center of some import according to a 2,000-year-old tablet, which paints Konya’s bygone inhabitants as avid race fans.

In the Beysehir district exists a monument to a once-famous jockey and bachelor named Lukuyanus, who died at a young age before fulfilling his jockeying potential. So a memorial was carved into the sacred Anatolian mountains to honor the youth after his tragic death. On it, archaeologists found still-legible text, including a lament to the unmarried hero and some information on the gentlemanly pursuit of horse racing.

The stone-etched document describes one long-abolished cardinal rule that would demolish modern horse racing as a profitable business: Winning horses were disqualified from further races. Victorious owners were excluded along with their horses in a magnanimous effort to share the wealth.

5 Chinese Gnomon

The ancient Chinese looked to celestial bodies to forecast the future affairs of men and developed an array of fancy stargazing tools to do so. These included gnomons, simplified sundials of Babylonian invention that were used to measure the Sun’s declination.

The earliest Chinese gnomons were sticks, which were set out at midday along the north-south axis. The length of the shadow cast indicated solar slant and the changing seasons, useful agricultural information that also led to the construction of calendars.

A more sophisticated, two-piece version was found in the over 2,000-year-old tomb of a Western Han dynasty marquis known as Xiahou Zao. For a while, it was known only as “lacquerware of unknown names.” Finally, it was realized that the two pieces belonged together to form a latitude-specific equatorial display.

The gnarliest gnomon was developed over 600 years ago by Guo Shoujing during the Yuan dynasty. It used a taller crossbar and longer base to accurately measure the length of the shadow and therefore the Sun’s height in the sky.

4 Roman Wine Vessel

The ancient Romans’ sense of humor did not adhere to modern principles of modesty but would have fit right in on the Internet. Case in point, an 1,800-year-old Roman drinking vessel covered with phalli.

The phallus cup was unearthed over 50 years ago, probably in Great Chesterford, Essex. But it was denied to us for the half a century that it collected dust in the private collection of Lord Braybrooke.

The vessel comes from a Roman camp where Rabelaisian soldiers—on break from pillaging Britain’s precious metals—quaffed diluted wine from it and laughed at its raunchy depictions like common frat boys.

One scene looks like it came straight from a reddit joke: A nude woman commands a chariot pulled by four disembodied phalli. Observant naturalists, the Romans realized that the male organ has no natural means of locomotion, so in their representation, they have innovatively grafted chicken legs onto each phallus.

3 Quids

The Anasazi (aka Ancestral Puebloans), the predecessors of the Pueblo culture of today, populated the American Southwest as far back as AD 100. Research shows that they enjoyed a common vice—chewing tobacco.

From the prehistoric equivalent of a compost heap found in Antelope Cave in Arizona, archaeologists recovered 345 small, fiber-wrapped balls of unknown purpose. Dubbed “quids,” similar bundles have popped up across the American Southwest, often embedded with teeth marks. At first, it was assumed that old-timey folk chewed on these during periods of food scarcity to simulate eating and to draw in the tiny bits of trace nutrients that remained.

Then researchers checked the bundles under a microscope. Peering deep past the 1,200-year-old fibrous coating, they discovered that the quids contained several types of wild tobacco, including coyote tobacco (pictured above). It’s likely that the tobacco fed daily addictions rather than sacred yearnings because the used quids were found in the trash. But many others have not been tested, and researchers are excited about what other substances may be inside.

2 Lake Baikal ‘Venus’ Figurines

The ideal female form is a popular motif for ancient sculptures, including the Mal’ta figurines recovered at Angara River in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk Oblast. Or so it seemed. But magnification unveiled the figures as faithful depictions of the Mal’ta-Buret’ women, men, and children that lived 20,000 years ago.

Carved from mammoth tusk, most were supposedly female nudes. So archaeologists borrowed a set from Russia’s Hermitage Museum for, uh, research and threw them under a microscope. The scans revealed a glut of detailed garments—they aren’t nude at all, only smoothed over by time and dirt.

The figurines are clad in period-specific clothing such as bracelets, hats, shoes, packs, and bags. With other features invisible to the naked eye, artisans labored to create different hairstyles and even used different cuts to give the illusion of fur or leather.

Overalls seem to be overwhelmingly popular, as are a variety of furry helmets and hoods to keep the cold out. Mysteriously, the figurines are scored with tiny holes, presumably so they can be worn as charms or ornaments.

1 Babylonian Complaint

Shysters have always existed, and some have even been immortalized. For example, Ea-nasir appears on a nearly immaculate Babylonian complaint tablet recovered from Ur, one of Mesopotamia’s ancient capitals.

An ancient 0-star review, the nearly 3,800-year-old grievance was filed by a disgruntled customer, Nanni, against Ea-nasir, a shady businessman and purveyor of copper. The unscrupulous merchant promised Nanni a quantity of premium copper yet delivered ingots of downright insulting quality.

So Nanni sent messengers multiple times to exact a refund and apology from Ea-nasir. But Ea-nasir only offered salty remarks, and the messengers were sent back through enemy territory without money each time.

The tablet only recently gained fame. But it was translated way back in 1967 by Assyriologist Leo Oppenheim, who published the story and others like it in his book Letters from Mesopotamia. The tablet itself resided in what is believed to be Ea-nasir’s house. Though given everything we know about his unsavory character from this letter, he probably kept it for laughs.

They were the largest animals to fly. Pterodactyls thrived from around 230 million to 66 million years ago but left behind few fossils. Every new bone can reveal more about the lives of these predatory reptiles.

In fact, they are changing the way pterosaurs looked, existed, and ultimately died out. Even so, their complete story remains mysterious and contentious. More than any other creature, pterodactyls can make researchers go a little crazy.

10 Flightless Young

Scientists debate whether pterodactyls could fly directly after hatching. In 2017, a cache of eggs proved that there was no such independence. Around 16 eggs were perfectly preserved, allowing scans to reveal complete skeletons in 3-D. The thighbones were strong, but those supporting the pectoral flight muscles were underdeveloped.

This meant that hatchlings could probably walk but not soar into the sky. None of the youngsters had teeth, either. Both the flightless vulnerability and the lack of teeth would have made life dangerous for baby pterodactyls.

Another find suggested parental protection. Close to where the 120-million-year-old clutch was found in China, adults of the same species turned up. They were male and female H. tianshanensis.^[1]

The number of eggs in the area, over 200, pointed at colony breeding behavior. The soft shells of the eggs also indicated that, much like modern reptiles, pterodactyls buried their eggs to prevent the embryos from drying out.

9 Mysterious Plane-Sized Species

In 2017, paleontologists stuck their spades into the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. They focused on a rich fossil mine. Since the bone patch never produced a pterosaur, it came as a surprise when huge neck bones turned up.

They were cervical vertebrae of such immense size that the creature was estimated to match a small plane. The species has not been identified. But it lived around 70 million years ago and was probably one of the biggest pterodactyl species ever to exist. Calculations suggested that the animal terrorized the sky with an 11-meter (36 ft) wingspan.

Confirmation will have to wait, however, as the rest of the body remains missing. It is also possible that the species was average or small but developed jumbo necks for some reason. At least, the discovery proved that the flying predators were more widely distributed that previously thought—it was the first of its kind to be discovered in Asia.^[2]

8 The Quail Study

In 2018, researchers claimed that paleontologists were wrong about pterodactyls—specifically, about how the animals’ hip joints were portrayed in flight. They drew on a 19th-century depiction of a pterosaur posing like a bat. Claiming this was impossible, they went on to say that close to 95 percent of pterosaur and dinosaur reconstructions were wrong.

This conclusion came after the common quail showed similar thighbones to those of pterosaurs. A dead quail’s skeleton splays like a bat’s, but living muscles and ligaments prevented the pose.

The study was not welcomed. Birds descend from a certain dinosaur lineage, but pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. According to the strange study, pterodactyls had similar femurs to quails. But other scientists pointed out that the bone structure surrounding the hip joint had nothing in common with birds.

Several facts were also ignored, including new research on the reptiles’ pelvic muscles and tracks showing how they walked. Additionally, scholars had dismissed the 19th-century sketch as incorrect years ago. A lot about pterodactyls remains unknown, but this baffling attempt with quails and long-acknowledged mistakes certainly does not help.^[3]

7 They Breathed Strangely

Pterodactyls did not breathe like people. They possessed an unusually rigid chest, which could not expand to inhale or squeeze out old air. Extra air sacs existed in their bones, just like birds, but the two could not have breathed the same way. Birds rely on the up-and-down movement of their sterna to regulate breathing. Once again, pterodactyls were just too stiff.

In recent years, living reptiles—crocodiles and alligators—gave the best answer. They breathe via something named the hepatic piston. This odd technique involves the liver, which separates their guts and lungs. The liver contracts and shoves the guts down, making space for the lungs to inhale. Belly ribs return the liver to its original position, and the croc exhales.^[4]

Pterodactyls could have used a similar method. Sure, their chests were ridiculously tight. Some species had fused vertebrae and ribs, along with dense networks of mineralized tendons. However, there was a method to this madness. It strengthened their skeletons and lowered muscle mass. This allowed pterosaurs to become the largest animals that ever flew.

6 When Pterosaurs Are Turtles

In 2014, paleontologists Gerald Grellet-Tinner and Vlad Codrea identified a 70-million-year-old new species called Thalassodromeus sebesensis. Oddly, this genus already existed—pterosaurs that soared above Cretaceous Brazil around 42 million years earlier. If this was the same animal, then a massive chunk of its history was missing from the fossil record.

Grellet-Tinner and Codrea attempted to patch the hole with migration, evolving alongside flowering plants and how islands could have altered the species. Despite this elaborate backstory, the Romanian fossil stayed out of place.

During publication, the single piece was called a “snout.” When other paleontologists reviewed the study, they knew why the new species could not fit. It was a turtle. The plate matched the belly shell from a Kallokibotion—a turtle from the Cretaceous.^[5]

Despite Kallokibotion‘s presence in Romania being known for almost a century and the fact that nobody agreed with them, the authors persisted with the conviction of a pterodactyl. Worse, this misidentification could muddy research with a creature that never existed.

5 Pterodactyls From Hateg Basin

Hateg Basin was an island where animals existed in dwarf form. During the dinosaur era, several species roamed Hateg as diminutive versions of their larger counterparts on the mainland.

Oddly, the island produced giant pterodactyls. It would appear that a lack of big predators, like tyrannosaurs, gave the flying reptiles the chance to become the fright factor on the island.

The tallest was Hatzegopteryx, which could have looked a giraffe in the eye. Its wingspan measured 11 meters (36 ft), but the lengthiest wings on the island went to another pterodactyl, cutely nicknamed “Dracula,” with a span of 12 meters (39 ft).

In 2018, researchers identified the biggest pterosaur jawbone in history and it came from Hateg. The 66-million-year-old fossil was found decades ago but was only recently recognized for what it was.

In life, the unnamed species sported a jaw that was 94–110 centimeters (37–43 in) long. However, this does not mean that it was the largest pterosaur. Researchers believe that it had a smaller wingspan—around 8 meters (26 ft)—than the giraffe guy and Dracula.

4 The Most Complete Skeleton

Pterodactyl fossils are exceptionally scarce. From the Triassic Period (220 million years ago), only 30 individuals have been found, often in the form of single fragments. Recently, researchers removed a living-room-sized block from a quarry in Utah that is known for tightly packed Triassic fossils.

Back at the laboratory, the team chiseled out a few ancient crocodiles and then made a smashing find. Among the block’s 18,000 bones sat a pterosaur. At least, it was the most complete one ever found with a partial face, intact skull roof and lower jaw, and a portion of a wing.

Scans soon identified a new species, Caelestiventus hanseni. This juvenile grinned with 112 teeth and had a bony jaw appendage, probably to support a pelican-like throat pouch. The brain suggested sharp sight but a poor sense of smell.^[7]

The best information concerned the Triassic-Jurassic extinction. The rare fossil appeared to be related to another species from the later Jurassic, which means that C. hanseni‘s lineage conquered a terrible event that wiped out innumerable species.

3 Cretaceous Surprise

By the end of the Cretaceous, their last era, all pterodactyls were supersized. Scholars felt the competition was so stiff that the flying reptiles had to be huge to survive. The ecological niche that once supported small pterosaurs was taken over by birds.

In 2008, a fossil hunter found a rock on Canada’s Hornby Island. About as big as a softball, the chunk contained visible vertebrae. After initially examining the rock, the fossil hunter concluded that it was a “flying something.” When researchers got their hands on the specimen, it challenged the Cretaceous pterosaur story. The vertebrae, aged 70–85 million years, had a special design linked to flight, something not present in Cretaceous birds.^[8]

The remains suggested an adult pterodactyl no bigger than a cat. Since the bones were few, researchers hesitated to name a new species or mash its existence into the evolution story of pterosaurs. However, this is a fantastic find. This pint-sized predator, which could still turn out to be a known species, existed when everyone said they should not.

2 They Were Fluffy

We can now burn the books depicting pterosaurs as leather-naked creatures. It is official—they were covered in feathers. Not just a tuft here and there, either. When scientists examined two pristine fossils in 2015, they identified four types of feathers. Found in China, the reptiles sported down, single filaments that resembled hair, filament clumps, and filaments with fluff in the middle.

Although it remains unclear if the pair belonged to the same species, both dated to approximately 165–160 million old and came from the same fossil bed. Additionally, the creatures had preserved soft tissues. Surviving pigment suggested that the feathers were rust-colored, which could have been significant in camouflage or communication.

Like modern birds, pterodactyl feathers could also have insulated the body or been used for streamlining flight or tactile sensing. They may share the four types with certain dinosaurs, but the pterodactyls boasted special honors. The discovery of the fluffy pair pushed the origins of feathers back 70 million years.^[9]

1 Killed In Their Prime

A long-standing belief claimed that pterodactyls slowly became extinct by themselves. Supposedly, by the time the dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago, pterodactyls were few. However, a 2018 study crushed this theory.

The story begins with pterodactyl-obsessed student Nick Longrich, who later went on to professionally study fossils. While excavating in Morocco, he found a tiny bone. Having studied the book on pterosaurs to the point of religion, Longrich recognized that the bone belonged to the nyctosaurs, a group of smaller pterodactyl species.

This initiated a slew of discoveries, including seven species from three different families. The best were pteranodontid bones, a group thought to have gone extinct 15 million years before. The fossils belonged to the late Cretaceous when an asteroid is believed to have killed the dinosaurs.

Their diversity showed that the studies were wrong. They did not fade away on their own. When the asteroid arrived, pterosaurs were varied and going strong. After soaring through the skies for 150 million years, it was the space rock they could not beat.^[10]

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.

Egypt was one of the earliest cultures to start keeping extensive records for future generations. Their monuments like the Great Pyramids of Giza remain to impress and awe us to this day. However, just because we have made many important finds throughout history doesn’t mean every last secret of ancient Egypt has been exhausted. In fact, in just the past few years, we have uncovered impressive finds which give us even more knowledge into the lives of the Egyptians of the past.

10 Iron From Meteorites

In the northern Egyptian city of Gerzeh in 1911, archaeologists found a tomb that contained nine beads that appeared to be made of iron. The only problem is that they were dated from 2,000 years before Egypt had the capability to smelt iron. Since then, historians have puzzled over where the ancient Egyptians either found iron or learned to create it so early in their history.

The Egyptian hieroglyphics for iron literally translate to “metal from heaven,” which gives a pretty good clue as to its origins. Because of the rarity of the metal, it was mainly associated with wealth and power. It was mainly crafted into jewelry and trinkets for royalty rather than weapons as it was later used.

In the 1980s, chemical analysis showed levels of nickel, a metal associated with meteorites, but levels were too low to confirm. Recently, however, tests have conclusively shown that the iron did indeed come from fallen meteorites which would explain why the metal appeared thousands of years before the Egyptians learned to smelt it.

Interestingly, this would also explain the mystery of King Tut’s dagger. Along with a gold blade, a mysterious dagger apparently made of iron was found at Tutankhamen’s side. Since King Tut died before iron was smelted, it was theorized that his dagger came from fallen meteorites. After testing, this theory was finally proven true.

9 Religious Tattoos

Today, many people will get tattoos for a variety of reasons: to remember a loved one, to express uniqueness, or to show off their interests. But a mummy found in the village of Deir el-Medina shows what the ancient Egyptians may have used them for. Along with other mummies with visible tattoos, the Deir el-Medina mummy sheds light on a possible ancient religious practice.

The Deir el-Medina mummy is a headless, limbless torso that belonged to a woman from between 1300 and 1070 BC who lived in an artisanal village near the Valley of the Kings. Using infrared lights, 30 identifiable tattoos were found on her.

What’s unique about her is that the tattoos appear to have been put on her during her lifetime rather than after death for a religious ritual. She also has the first symbols that have significance rather than abstract designs.

These symbolic designs range from the so-called Wadjet eyes on her neck, shoulders, and back (which represent divine watching from every angle) to cows related to the powerful god Hathor. Other symbols were found on her neck and what remained of her arms. Most likely, they were also related to Hathor and were supposed to be a sort of boost for singing and playing music.

When the discovery of the tops was made, many Egyptologists were stunned because no tattoos of the sort had been found before. Three similar mummies were found, and their markings were most likely for women who wanted to express their religious piety. To get the tattoos would have been test enough because the method used was probably excruciatingly painful.

8 Depiction Of Demons

As far back as 4,000 years ago, Egyptians feared demons and what they would do to these ancient people. Of course, the ancient Egyptians were very religious people and their beliefs were passed down so effectively that we have a good grasp on their deities and practices today. However, when it comes to demons in Egyptian’s minds from the distant past, we were mostly in the dark as to what they imagined them to be—until now.

Two demons found on a coffin from the Middle Kingdom (around 4,500 years ago and the oldest depictions thus far) show exactly what the Egyptians believed were out there and what they would do to you. One named In-tep is a doglike baboon and the other named Chery-benut is an unspecified creature with a human head. They are depicted as two guards of an entrance but what they actually did is unknown.

According to archaeologists, In-tep may have punished intruders who entered sacred spaces by gruesomely decapitating them. Ikenty, a third demon also found on a Middle Kingdom coffin, was depicted as a large bird with a feline head. But an even older depiction found on a Cairo scroll describes it as a demon that could very quickly identify victims and hold them in its inescapable grasp.

Although demons were commonly depicted in Egyptian findings from the New Kingdom (1,000 years after the Middle Kingdom), it shows that belief in evil spirits by the ancient Egyptians occurred far earlier than previously thought by experts.

7 Ancient Heart Disease

Atherosclerosis, the hardening of the coronary arteries, is a common disease in modern populations. Sedentary lifestyles, diets rich in fatty foods, and more contribute to this disease. Seeing as most of its causes were almost nonexistent in the past, it would stand to reason that atherosclerosis would not be common in ancient populations. According to Egyptologists, it was actually a common affliction.

A study of 52 mummies at the National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo showed that 20 of them exhibited signs of calcification, which means that they most likely suffered from atherosclerosis during their lifetimes. As one would expect, those who had the disease had lived the longest. Their ages averaged around 45, and they lived during the 16th century BC.

One of the mummies was royalty: Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon who lived in Thebes and died in her forties. She is the oldest recognized person to have coronary heart disease. A scan of her arteries showed that enough were clogged to warrant bypass surgery if she were alive today.

However, her diet and that of other ancient Egyptians was the exact opposite of most heart disease victims today: fruit, vegetables, wheat, beer, and lean domesticated meats. So why was heart disease common?

Parasitic infections were frequent in ancient Egypt, and the inflammation would have caused some to become more susceptible to heart disease. Salt for preservation may have been another factor. Finally, in the case of the princess, a diet of luxuries like meat, cheese, and butter could have caused her heart disease like most people today.

6 Egyptian Hair Work

When a woman’s hair starts to thin out today, there are multiple options to fix it. Apparently, women in the past had the same problem because the body of a woman found in the ruined Egyptian city of Amarna had 70 hair extensions similar to those we have today. The extensions were so well done that they were preserved to this day even though the rest of her body decomposed.

The woman’s body wasn’t mummified but remained in fairly good condition considering that she most likely died 3,300 years ago. Although it is believed that the hair extensions were placed on her for burial, evidence suggests that people at the time also used the same extensions in everyday life.

In the cemetery in which the woman was buried, other bodies with interesting hair work were found. One woman with graying hair was actually found to have dyed her hair using the henna plant. She had dyed her hair for the same reason that we do today. She wanted to cover up her gray spots.

All together, there were 28 skeletons with hair still attached, all displaying different hairstyles. The most common was tight braids around the ears. To keep the hair in place after death, some kind of fat was used. It seems to have worked well because the hair is still preserved to this day.

5 The Mummified Fetus

About 100 years ago, a 45-centimeter (17 in) coffin was unearthed in Giza. It was transported to Cambridge University where it was put away and left unchecked for the next century. At the time, all that was made of the bundle inside was that it was just some organs put into the tiny coffin for some unknown reason. However, after researchers found the coffin, they examined the bundle and came to a startling new conclusion.

A CT scan showed that it was actually a fetus and that it had been carefully preserved and buried in its own specially built coffin that contained intricate designs and decorations. Aged just 16–18 weeks, it is the youngest mummy ever found as of mid-2016 and the only academically verified, mummified fetus from this gestational period discovered thus far.

It shows just what lengths the ancient Egyptians would go to honor the dead and especially their young during the first weeks of life. It was most likely a miscarriage, a significant occurrence in ancient Egypt considering the care given to other mummified fetuses that have been discovered. Two mummies found in King Tut’s tomb were buried in individual coffins of their own.

The baby itself was mummified using the same methods as full-size mummies. Its arms were crossed over each other as other mummies are and had no deformations of any kinds. In the words of the museum where the mummy now resides: The efforts taken for the mummy, “coupled with the intricacy of the tiny coffin and its decoration, are clear indications of the importance and time given to this burial in Egyptian society.”

4 Cancer In Egyptians

Like heart disease, cancer has been described by some as a strictly modern disease, and it is true that cancer is mostly absent from historical records. However, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t occur in the ancient world. Discoveries in the past few years have shown that cancer did indeed show up in ancient Egypt, and we still have the proof. Two mummies, male and female, both show signs that they suffered from the disease.

In 2015, a Spanish university found a mummy that showed evidence of deterioration from breast cancer. Authorities now say that the mummy is the oldest victim of breast cancer in history. The 4,200-year-old mummy lived during the sixth pharaonic dynasty, and her bones showed extreme deterioration that is consistent with cancer.

According to the Egyptian antiquities minister: “The study of her remains shows the typical destructive damage provoked by the extension of a breast cancer as a metastasis.” She lived in Elephantine, the southernmost town in ancient Egypt at the time. A 3,000-year-old mummy found in Sudan near Elephantine also showed breast cancer, which suggests that it was in the Nile Valley at the time.

In 2011, a 2,250-year-old male mummy known as M1 was found with the oldest case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt. Researchers have suggested that the reason cancer wasn’t often found in mummies in the past was simply a matter of available technology. We now have scanners that can detect tumors as small as 1.0 centimeter (0.4 in) that are commonly found on the spine after prostate cancer spreads. Possible causes for cancer in ancient times range from the bitumen used for building boats to smoke from wood-burning chimneys.

3 The Oldest Papyri In The World

In 2011, archaeologist Pierre Tallet made a remarkable discovery in a remote area of Egypt far away from any civilization. Thirty honeycombed caves in a limestone cliff turned out to have been a sort of boat storage depot in ancient Egypt. But even more stunning was a discovery he made a few years later in 2013—a series of papyri written in both hieroglyphics and hieratic (an informal, everyday sort of writing by ancient Egyptians) that are the oldest papyri ever discovered.

Tallet had used instructions given by an Englishman in the 19th century and French pilots in the 1950s to find the caves. The papyri are so old that the author actually wrote about the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza. They also show that Egypt at the time had a bustling shipping economy that stretched across the entire empire. During the construction of the pyramids, all of Egypt was interconnected to enable the massive project.

The journal of an official named Merer was among the papyri. Apparently, Merer supervised a group of 200 men responsible for crisscrossing ancient Egypt and gathering supplies like food for workers or the massive amounts of copper needed to sand the limestone for the Great Pyramid’s exterior.

They went to Tura, a city on the Nile River famous for its limestone quarries, and actually dealt with Ankh-haf, the half brother of Khufu. The journals of Merer come from the last known years of Khufu’s reign and provide an account of the finishing touches of the first and largest of the pyramids in Giza.

It is the only account we have of the building of the Great Pyramids. According to Zahi Hawass, former chief inspector of the pyramid site, this makes the journals “the greatest discovery in Egypt in the 21st century.”

2 Ancient Egyptian Brain Drain

In 525 BC, Persian King Cambyses marched into the Egyptian capital of Memphis, which began a century-long rule over Egypt by Persia. During this time, most of the great Egyptian minds and artists were taken to Persia to serve the empire there. Meanwhile, back in Egypt, there was a sort of brain drain in which they were left with artists who were not talented enough for the Persians.

This is evident from a coffin discovered in 2014. Although whoever was buried in it is now gone, tests show that the coffin dates from around the time of the Persian occupation. Even more interesting are the designs on the coffin, which can be described as incredibly mediocre. They are so poorly done that some experts initially believed that the coffin was a fake.

However, the coffin was authenticated when it was proven to have the ancient Egyptian pigment known as Egyptian blue. The shoddy work was, in fact, the result of the best Egyptian artisans being taken to work in Persia.

There are a variety of bizarre images on the coffin, including poorly drawn falcons (representative of the god Horus) that appear fishlike, four jars with the heads of the four sons of Horus that are described as “goofy,” the only known image of a bed with the head of the deity Ba, and the goddess Hathor depicted with a snake-shaped crown that is also an oddity in ancient Egypt.

Other clumsy mistakes made by the artist have made experts wonder just how bad the art world in Egypt deteriorated during this period. Ancient texts by Diodoros Siculus, who died in 30 BC, record that all precious metals and artists were removed by Cambyses during the Persian occupation and that King Darius I of Persia reportedly bragged about the Egyptian artisans that he had gathered to build his palace in Susa.

1 Egyptian Sex Spells

In 2016, two papyrus scrolls from the third century AD were deciphered from the Greek in which they were written. Over 1,700 years old, the scrolls had been found a century ago with several scrolls that were held at the University of Oxford in England until recently when they were translated. The subject of the two scrolls was sex spells to make whomever the caster wanted love them in return.

The spells were not exclusive since you could essentially put whatever name you wanted in them to get the desired effects. Apparently, one of the spells invokes the gods to “burn the heart” of a woman until she loved the caster. Another one for females was supposed to allow the caster to “subject” the male to whatever she wanted to force him to do.

The author of the spells is unknown, but they were apparently Gnostic as several Gnostic gods are actually mentioned in the spells. The spells give an interesting insight into the superstitions and beliefs of Egyptians so many centuries ago.

With the men’s spell, the caster was supposed to burn various ingredients in a bathhouse (the list of ingredients didn’t survive the degradation of the scroll) and then write a set of words on the bathhouse walls. The spell then lists magic words and the names of several gods. Finally, the scroll says: “Holy names, inflame in this way and burn the heart of her” and so on until the subject falls in love with the caster.

The spell for females says to inscribe a certain text in a copper plate and then attach it to one of the subject’s possessions. The result was to make him do whatever the caster wanted. Interestingly, the back of the scrolls contained recipes for various potions, including a mixture of honey and bird droppings that was supposed to “promote pleasure.”

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects, but until he finishes one, he will write for for his bread and butter. You can write him at [email protected].

Plenty of truths pretend to be mysteries or facts. Dedicated researchers whittle away at puzzles, sometimes making great new finds without solving the whole shebang.

However, real progress means ousting the pretenders—those pesky facts that convince scholars of their authenticity for years when, in reality, they are mere misconceptions. From a dangerous vitamin everyone loves to herbivores eating their friends, the simplest of facts are no longer so simple.

10 The Aging Plateau

A widely accepted concept is late-life mortality deceleration. According to this theory, some people get so old that even their aging slows down. This “aging plateau” means that, statistically, a 105-year-old has no greater chance of dying than a person who is 90. The process is not fully understood or even unanimously explained.^[1]

In 2018, the plateau was challenged. Opposing researchers claimed that the age surveys supporting the “phenomenon” were faulty. There was a good chance that some seniors had their ages recorded incorrectly. A deliberate demonstration showed that just a few incorrect entries could skew the outcome in a big way.

An actual study done on the life span of Italians found evidence of the plateau but also matched a hypothetical outcome if 1 in 500 people had their ages wrongly listed. However, each would need to be grossly misreported and the study worked with a hypothetical scenario, not actual survey mistakes. Either way, somebody is wrong.

9 China’s Ozone Problem

In 2013, China’s smog problem was so bad that skylines vanished from cities. Within four years, the country achieved the remarkable feat of lowering eastern China’s concentrations of PM 2.5 particles by 40 percent. These ultrafine boogers are dangerous to the human respiratory system.

However, the progressive step turned dark. In a move that nobody could predict, ozone levels increased in the cities. High up in the sky, ozone is great. At ground level, it qualifies as air pollution. In fact, ozone is a really bad thing to inhale.

A survey found that China’s megacities, including Beijing and Shanghai, were swamped with this potent pollution. The reason? The well-meaning attempt to remove the PM 2.5 particles also eradicated the very thing that soaked up the chemicals that produce ozone. All this time, the PM 2.5 fog had acted like a giant sponge that kept it under control.^[2]

8 Nun With Blue Teeth

Around AD 1100, a nun died at a monastery in Dalheim, Germany. When researchers recently examined her skull, they found something odd. The woman, who was between 45 and 60, had blue stains on her teeth.

X-ray spectroscopy revealed that the flecks were lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone that was prized during the Middle Ages. It was the main ingredient in ultramarine, a rare and expensive blue paint. Ultramarine was used solely for the lavish decoration of religious books. Only the most skilled painters were allowed to use it.

The pigment saturated layers of the nun’s dental plaque thanks to years of licking paintbrushes. This technique was known to be used by painters when they faced particularly detailed work. However, it is the first physical proof of the habit.^[3]

Additionally, it proved that nuns also worked on religious manuscripts, a domain thought to belong to monks. Since lapis lazuli only came from mines in Afghanistan 4,800 kilometers (3,000 mi) away, it also revealed that Germany and Asia had extensive trade links almost 1,000 years ago.

7 Extra Denisovan Pulses

Scientists have known for a long time that humans interbred with two ancient hominids. Although the Neanderthals and Denisovans are extinct as individual species, their DNA continues in certain populations today. Our gene map shows two “pulses,” or sudden concentrations of hominid interbreeding. Both happened in Siberia’s Altai region thousands of years ago.

In 2018, a study searched for a third interbreeding event by examining the genetic codes of 5,500 volunteers from Asia, Europe, and Oceania. They found enough foreign hominid DNA to prove that Siberia was not the only place where humans absorbed pulses. In a surprising twist, Denisovan influence occurred twice outside the Altai Mountains.

Barely any fossils of these rare hominids exist. Yet, back in the day, they were plentiful enough to mingle heavily with humans who traveled across South Asia. The groundbreaking study found a Denisovan pulse to the north in living Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. Another pulse showed up to the south, likely the result of humans meeting Denisovans while migrating to Papua New Guinea.^[4]

6 Paternal Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondria nest inside cells and also provide them with energy. As a rule, people only inherit their mother’s mitochondrial DNA. The father’s is destroyed after conception.

In 2018, a new study challenged this concrete belief. Although maternal inheritance is a given, it would appear that the father’s mitochondrial DNA can do three things—avoid the next generation completely, pass on a tiny amount, or almost entirely eclipse the mother’s. This mercurial behavior challenges everything researchers know about this genetic material.

The Cincinnati study found 17 people who inherited it from both parents, and this finally lends some credence to a 2002 case from Denmark. This man appeared to have inherited 90 percent of his father’s mitochondrial DNA, but everyone thought it was a technical error.^[5]

Interestingly, it could be a family thing. The Cincinnati hospital also found the biparental inheritance in 10 people over three generations from the same family.

5 Meat-Eating Hares

Canada’s snowshoe hares are supposed to be herbivores. A recent study accidentally uncovered the hairy truth. Not only do they eat meat, but the hares are also cannibals.

Researchers rigged a remote trail near the Alaskan border with cameras. They put out hare carcasses as bait and hoped to capture photos of predators scavenging on them.

Over a period of 2.5 years, 20 dead hares were consumed by their living brethren. For the first time, the photographs captured this unexpected, if not shocking scavenging behavior in hares. Researchers also found that winter-hungry hares were not picky about the species. In one case, they even ate their main predator—a dead Canada lynx.^[6]

This meaty turn appears to be a survival strategy rather than preference. During the summer, snowshoe hares nibble exclusively on vegetation. Winter turns the region into one of the coldest on Earth. When foliage becomes scarce in such conditions, any protein is welcome.

Bizarrely, the hares also consumed feathers from dead birds. The reason remains unknown as feathers offer little nutrition.

4 How Tornadoes Really Form

Conventional belief teaches that a tornado forms inside the clouds and then grows a funnel down to the ground. A study released in 2018 told a different story. Tornadoes start on the ground.

For years, climatologists chased the deadly swirls and four spawned by rare supercell storms changed the game. Tornado intensity ranges from EF1 to EF5. A pair was recorded in 2012 in Kansas—both babies at EF1. An EF3 hit Oklahoma in 2011. A monster swept through El Reno in 2013. This EF5 was the widest tornado ever recorded, measuring 4.2 kilometers (2.6 mi).

Researchers had a hilltop view of the giant which allowed them to capture the moment of its birth. The high-tech equipment found signs that the tornado formed 10 meters (32 ft) above the ground. Droves of storm chasers provided photos of the event, which also supported the finding.^[7]

This prompted a closer look at the data. Soon, it became clear that wind rotation began on the ground long before anything churned in the clouds. The other three tornadoes showed similar data.

3 Lizard That Breathes Underwater

A group of lizards called anoles fascinate researchers so much that thousands of studies have been done on them in the past 50 years. Despite being thoroughly studied, one species did something so strange that scientists had no answer. The Costa Rican river anole disappears underwater for up to 15 minutes. The best assumption was that they could hold their breath really well.

In 2018, biologists worked with filmmakers to try to solve the mystery. What they captured was astonishing. For the first time, the footage revealed that the anoles did not stop breathing once they had sunk to the bottom.^[8]

Instead, the female they filmed had a bubble on her head. For 10 minutes, it grew and shrank repeatedly, almost as if she were recycling the air within. This behavior had never been seen in lizards or any species with a spine. As astonishing as it was to find an anole with its very own “diver’s tank,” scientists do not know how the oxygen is stored or exactly how they tap into the bubble.

2 Vitamin D Is Not A Vitamin

Vitamin D is the darling of thousands. For decades, governments and doctors encouraged swallowing more of this wonder vitamin, linking it to a host of benefits and disease prevention. In recent times, scientists focused on a particular benefit—the prevention of bone fractures. As the largest study of its kind, it involved over 500,000 people and 188,000 fractures. No evidence was found that vitamin D stopped breaks from happening.

The truth about this supplement is scary. It is not a true vitamin but an unsafe steroid. The popularity comes from outdated studies in the 1980s and marketing skills of food manufacturers and vitamin companies.^[9]

Apart from taking increasingly stronger dosages, people get extra vitamin D through exposure to sunshine and food. For this reason, clinics see a rise in overdose cases. At the lower end of the problem, nobody really knows what qualifies as a vitamin D deficiency. Ironically, several studies have shown that dosages above 800 IU actually increased the chance of a fracture.

1 Mona Lisa‘s Gaze

So many people have claimed that Leonardo da Vinci’s painting has stared at them that the phenomenon became known as the “Mona Lisa effect.” Her gaze is said to follow observers no matter where they are in the room.

When researchers recently worked on artificial intelligence programs, they wanted the avatars to really look at people. Due to her famous “effect,” the Mona Lisa was included in the study. At one point, the team realized that she was not gazing soulfully at any of them.

To confirm this, they asked volunteers to view the painting on a computer. A ruler in front of the screen carried numbers, and participants picked the one which intersected with her stare. The ruler was then moved to a second point, and the exercise was repeated.^[10]

The two sets of answers gave researchers an angle. Mona Lisa does not stare at anyone. Her gaze is 15.4 degrees to the right of observers. The real mystery is why people continue to believe otherwise.

New discoveries are made all the time that change the way we regard events and cultures of our past. Just in the last few years, many archaeological finds provided us with new perspectives on established chapters of history.

10 Bobcat Ceremonial Burial

While going through the Illinois State Museum’s collection of Native American artifacts, anthropologist Angela Perri found a box labeled “puppy” which she expected to be filled with dog bones excavated from a burial mound of the Hopewell culture. Instead, the bones belonged to a bobcat.

The discovery was notable for two reasons: It was the only decorated wildcat burial found in North America and the only animal ever found buried alone in its own mound.

Since the bobcat was only a kitten when it died, anthropologists suspect that it was raised as a pet. Inside the mound, they also found a necklace which Perri believed served as the cat’s collar.

However, zooarchaeologist Melinda Zeder has a different hypothesis. She believes that the bobcat held a much higher symbolic status for the native culture, possibly as a connection to nature.

9 Roman Terror Weapons

A recent discovery suggests that the Romans employed psychological warfare using whistling slingshot bullets. They used a staff sling called a fustibalus which could throw lemon-sized rocks over a long distance. But certain bullets found at one site in Scotland have a peculiar characteristic—they are drilled through their center.

The stone bullets were found at Burnswark Hill, the site of a massive fight between Romans and Scots about 1,800 years ago. Drilling the holes would have been a time-consuming endeavor, especially for something used only once.

Archaeologist John Reid was puzzled by the stones’ purpose. But Reid’s brother, a keen fisherman, deduced the purpose of the bullets based on his experience of using holed-out lures. When thrown, the bullets caused a sharp whistling noise. Only small stones were drilled, so multiple bullets could be thrown at once, creating a stereo effect for added terror.

8 Celtic Hybrid Boneyard

Until recently, we didn’t think that Iron Age Celtic mythology contained hybrid monsters. Now, one gravesite in Dorset suggests that the Celts had their own mythological creatures which they recreated in real life.

The discovery was made at Duropolis. The “cemetery” consists of pits with animal skeletons rearranged to form hybrid beasts. These include a cow with horse legs and a sheep with a bull’s head on its rear end.

The most bizarre discovery involved the skeleton of a woman found on top of a layer of animal bones which mirrored the arrangement of the human bones. Her head was resting on a “bed” of animal skulls, her legs were on top of animal leg bones, etc.

Archaeologist Paul Cheetham believes that the skeletons (including the woman) represent sacrifices. The pits were initially used as food storage. When a new pit was dug, a sacrifice was placed in the old one before being buried.

7 Oldest Dress In The World

The Tarkhan Dress is now the oldest woven garment in the world. Recovered from an Egyptian tomb, it is dated between 3400 BC and 3100 BC. Most recovered ancient clothing is no older than 2,000 years because neither animal skins nor plant fibers survive degradation well.

The dress has a V-neck, narrow pleats, and tailored sleeves. Creases formed at the elbows and armpits indicate that it was worn repeatedly.

There are a few clothing items of similar age, but those are ceremonial garments wrapped or draped over a body. The Tarkhan Dress remains a unique ancient Egyptian fashion statement as it was tailor-made by a specialized craftsman and worn by somebody of great wealth.

6 Philadelphia’s History Down The Toilet

In 2017, Philadelphia will open the Museum of the American Revolution. When excavation for the museum started in 2014, workers uncovered a system of privies that served households and businesses in the 18th century. The pits were literally clogged with historical items, and so far, archaeologists have recovered over 82,000 artifacts.

At that time, privies also served as garbage dumps for household waste. While these items might not have immense value, some historians prefer them over jewelry or art for the unique look they provide of common people of that time.

One especially fascinating pit belonged to Benjamin and Mary Humphreys and was dug around the start of the American Revolution. Although their house was registered as a private residence, archaeologists found tobacco pipes, broken punch bowls, and empty liquor bottles there.

In 1783, Mary was arrested for running a “disorderly house.” The couple was actually running an illegal tavern.

5 First Philistine Cemetery

The Philistines were a mysterious ancient people heavily featured in the Bible and described as the archenemies of the Israelites. In modern times, certain historians considered the Philistines a sea people, likely Aegean in origin, who came to Levant, settled in five main cities, and formed the pentapolis of Philistia.

The Philistines disappeared around the eighth century BC with little trace, but archaeologists recently announced the discovery of a Philistine cemetery with over 150 graves and countless artifacts. The cemetery was actually discovered 30 years ago, but it took this long to excavate it. No bones have been analyzed so far, but the burial of the dead sheds light on Philistine society.

The discovery reveals that the Philistines were not hostile to culture despite their name. They were buried with jewelry, decorated jugs filled with perfumed oils or wine, and weapons.

4 Oldest Document Of Roman Britain

While excavating for Bloomberg’s new European headquarters in London, workers uncovered the largest collection of Roman writing tablets in Britain’s history. The collection contains around 400 tablets and boasts the earliest mention of London, predating Tacitus’s Annals by 50 years. The still-legible tablets have been translated and published in a monograph titled Roman London’s First Voices, which provides us with unparalleled context for life in Londinium 2,000 years ago.

The find also contains the oldest document of Roman Britain, dated January 8, AD 57. The document is an IOU, fittingly found in London’s financial district. It specifies that Tibullus, freedman of Venustus, owes Gratus, freedman of Spurius, 105 denarii for merchandise which was sold and delivered.

3 Buddha’s Skull Bone

Between 2007 and 2010, archaeologists excavated a Buddhist temple in Nanjing. The highlight of the find was a 1,000-year-old model stupa which contained the remains of several saints. The stupa might have also contained the most revered Buddhist artifact in history—the skull bone of Buddha.

The inscriptions make it clear that the parietal bone placed inside the chest belonged to Buddha. It was sent to the temple after his body was cremated in India around 2,400 years ago. About 1,400 years ago, the temple was destroyed by war and rebuilt by Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty. The description even names the people who donated money and materials to build the new temple.

It’s difficult to say if the parietal bone belonged to Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhists already revere it and visit it in pilgrimage. The Western world just found out because the discovery has only recently been covered in English.

2 Untouched Mycenaean Tomb

A minor excavation of a stone shaft turned into one of the biggest Greek archaeological finds in decades. Explorers uncovered the intact 3,500-year-old tomb of a Mycenaean warrior. Although the warrior remains unidentified, he must have been quite wealthy and important as he was buried with over 1,400 objects displayed on and around his body.

We have little information about the infant stages of Mycenaean Greece around 1,500 BC. In fact, the dig was part of an ongoing project to determine the influential extent of Mycenaean culture on the Minoan civilization and vice versa.

Already, the tomb has raised several questions for archaeologists. Among the warrior’s possessions were beads, combs, and a mirror, objects typically buried with wealthy women. Group burial was common practice back then, even for Mycenaean elite. One such grave was found just 90 meters (300 ft) away from the tomb, which makes archaeologists question why this Mycenaean warrior was buried alone.

1 Oldest Stone Tools

Using tools is considered an essential step in the evolution of mankind. The Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania used to be the place where the earliest toolmaking practice (known as the Oldowan industry) occurred. The oldest tools recovered there were 2.6 million years old.

Now we’ve found tools which are 700,000 years older. On the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, archaeologists discovered sharp stone flakes for cutting that are 3.3 million years old.

The most significant implication is that the tools predate humans. Until this point, we thought that the first tools were made by members of the Homo genus, but it seems that earlier hominins also developed this skill. The most likely culprit is Kenyanthropus platyops. It’s a fossil discovered in the same area in 1999 that some claim should be its own genus. Others see it as a species of Australopithecus.

Deep under the waves, the ocean is not just a dark place. The underwater landscapes hold ancient events, mysterious animal behavior, and vast gardens of glass and octopuses.

Each contributes new facts and riddles to this incredible aquatic world. However, the ocean also has a scary side—from wrecking the weather on land to blowing giant holes in the seafloor and countries.

10 The Loudest Fish

One can be forgiven for not associating fish with noise. More often than not, they are mute. One species, however, can be very vocal during reproduction. The Gulf corvina is a large, silver fish about the size of a snowboard.

During spring, when the tides and lunar phases are perfect, shoals migrate to the Colorado River Delta. The event is an unforgettable one and worth seeing. When corvinas gather, they pack together in a sheet that can span for miles.

In 2014, scientists followed the spawning shoal and used underwater equipment to record their sounds. The loudest noise captured during the study hit a deafening 150 decibels, which is a record among fish.

Additionally, the sound also rated among the loudest ever recorded underwater—and very capable of damaging the hearing of other creatures, including sea mammals. Researchers believe that male corvinas are responsible for the chorus. Similar to frogs and crickets, the boys produce a throaty croak to attract females.^[1]

9 Return Of The Blob

“The blob” is not as adorable as it sounds. This massive anomaly—a patch of hot water in the Northeast Pacific—affects the weather in extreme ways. The blob was blamed for the persistent California drought (2013–2015), Seattle’s hottest year (2015), and the freakish polar vortex intrusions of two winters (2013–2014 and 2014–2015).

In 2018, the return of the oceanic hot spot was caused by unusually warm weather in Alaska during the fall. Though the blob is famously crabby, it remains hard to predict the phenomenon’s moods.

When it made another appearance in 2016, the spot showed many signs of troubling times ahead but faded away before anything could go wrong. The latest manifestation leans toward weakening in the same way, but even the experts admit that nothing is certain when it comes to the blob.

Either way, Alaska has already suffered notable damage. The southeastern rain forest is in the grip of a persistent drought, and snowfall showed a record delay.^[2]

8 Rectangular Iceberg

In 2018, an unusual photo turned an iceberg into a social media star. A far cry from the usual mountain-shaped behemoths, this icy wonder was almost perfectly rectangular and flat.

As it turns out, this shape is not unknown to scientists. Called “tabular icebergs,” they form during calving (when pieces dislodge from a parent iceberg). The rectangles commonly occur after an ice shelf extends too far and then breaks off at the tip. This gives them a geometric shape.^[3]

A whopping 90 percent of the tabular iceberg remains hidden underwater. This unseen part is usually perfectly angular, too. In this case, the sheet came from the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Even though these floating tabletops are known to science, this one was unusual. For once, it was almost short enough to be a square. The size of the object remains unknown. But judging from the image, it could be as long as 1.6 kilometers (1 mi).

7 Largest Octopus Nursery

Most octopuses live solitary lives. This made the discovery of about 100 nesting together near Costa Rica a sensational find. However, this nursery paled in comparison to another found by accident in 2018.

Off the coast of California, marine biologists steered a remotely operated vehicle at a depth of 3.2 kilometers (2 mi). The goal was to study an underwater volcano called the Davidson Seamount.

As the vehicle turned a corner, it happened across the world’s biggest deep-sea octopus garden. The species was Muusoctopus robustus, and over 1,000 huddled together. Nearly 99 percent were females guarding eggs between the volcano’s cracks.^[4]

Their unprecedented conglomeration is not the only unanswered question about the Davidson group. Researchers do not know why the water appears to shimmer around the octopuses.

One theory suggests that heat is behind the glitter, which could explain why the creatures gathered at Davidson to successfully incubate their eggs. Since the volcano is extinct, the heat could be coming from an unknown source.

6 Canyon That Removes CO₂

The Porcupine Bank Canyon is an underwater trench marking the border of Ireland’s continental shelf. In 2018, an effort was made to map the sheer cliffs and contours. Near the canyon’s edge, the research drone discovered something amazing: The underwater trench removed carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere using two species and death.

Porcupine Bank came fringed with corals snacking on dead plankton. While dwelling near the surface, living plankton grow by packing their bodies with CO₂ from the atmosphere. When they die, they sink down into the ocean, taking the CO₂ with them.

In turn, the corals eat the plankton and use that carbon to build their own structures. When the coral perishes, it tumbles deeper into the canyon. Researchers found a massive amount of dead coral inside the canyon, all with CO₂ locked up inside them.^[5]

Sadly, this process cannot stop climate change. But at least, it showed that nature has ways to remove some of the greenhouse gas from the air.

5 Garden Of Glass

When the deepest volcano was found in 2015, it was not just a cone-shaped mountain lower than the rest. It was anything but plain—and very unexpected. A deep-sea submersible was investigating the Mariana Trough in the Pacific Ocean when it reached a depth of 4,500 meters (14,700 ft). There, it encountered an environment straight out of a Gothic novel.

An underwater volcano had released intertwined and blackened lava tendrils, which scientists likened to “a nightmarish garden of glass.” Inside a 4.5-kilometer-deep (3 mi) trench, cold water had rapidly cooled the lava into a glassy substance. The frozen twists and turns covered an area 7.3 kilometers (4.5 mi) long.

The visuals are heart-stopping, but something else turned the discovery into a scientific gem. The deepest volcanic eruption on Earth was also fresh. Only a few months old, the undamaged site can advance knowledge about volcanoes on land, how eruptions affect ocean chemistry, and when different species colonize a lava field.^[6]

4 White Shark Cafe

Once a year, a group of sharks confused biologists. Known as the northeastern Pacific great whites, they normally cruise California’s coast, a region rich with prey.

In December, the sharks journey into the Pacific and stop about halfway to Hawaii. Satellite studies suggested that the place, nicknamed “White Shark Cafe,” was a marine desert without prey. Despite this, the predators gathered in droves and stayed for winter and spring.

In 2018, scientists wanted to know how the sharks survived and why they found the location so attractive. They followed the whites and also tagged a few. When the research boat arrived at the cafe, they found the place teeming with fish, squid, phytoplankton, and jellyfish.^[7]

These critters took daily trips up and down from the depths. The tagged sharks showed that the predators did the same thing. During the day, they hunted up to 450 meters (1,500 ft) down. At night, they kept to shallow dives, about 200 meters (650 ft).

An unusual gender mystery turned up. During April, the males dramatically stepped up their activity to around 140 dives a day. Researchers do not understand why this behavior is displayed by only one gender.

3 Methane Craters

Recently, scientists visited craters lining the seafloor between the archipelago of Svalbard and Norway. First discovered in the 1990s, they were huge but few. Upon arrival, the team was shocked to find hundreds of previously unrecorded holes.

In a single area near one of Svalbard’s islands, the floor was pockmarked with more than 100. Astoundingly, they had been blown from solid bedrock. The sheer force created craters that measured up to 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) in diameter. The culprit was methane gas from the last ice age.

In the past, enormous ice layers kept the trapped methane in place. Once these melted, the gas exploded. The largest pockets blew 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, but some remain intact and could punch large holes south of Svalbard.^[8]

Satellite images showed that pingos, hills with ice cores, preceded most of the craters. Researchers suspect that the Norwegian pingos had frozen gas instead of normal ice and were possibly instrumental in an explosion. Incredibly, once scientists knew what to look for, they found 7,000 gas-filled pingos in thawing permafrost.

2 Lost Volcanic World

In 2018, scientists investigated something that would not raise many eyebrows—the link between the East Australian Current’s nutrient levels and how phytoplankton behaved. Part of this study included mapping the seafloor. A stunning discovery followed—a lost world dominated by dramatic volcanic peaks.

Some were sharp, while others resembled immense plateaus. Smaller cones made up the rest. Located near the east coast of Australia, the extinct volcanoes towered 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) high.

The depth of the valleys likely contributed to how this underwater wonderland avoided detection for so long. The highest parts of the mountains were still 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) below the surface.

Years of research are required to understand a large geographical area that is seen for the first time. However, researchers are positive about one exciting suspicion—this was the spot that helped Australia and Antarctica to separate 30 million years ago.^[9]

The birth of the volcano chain was pivotal to crumble the Earth’s crust in preparation for continental division. The landscape also hosts a breathtaking ecosystem, including a huge pod of at least 60 pilot whales.

1 Brewing Eruption Underneath Japan

Researchers are well aware that an ancient, underwater volcano lurks underneath Japan. The Kikai Caldera is prone to super-eruptions and, in the past, experienced three devastating episodes. The last time was 7,000 years ago. The eruption was one of history’s biggest and destroyed a vast area of the Japanese archipelago.

In 2018, several expeditions using a wide array of equipment all came to the same conclusion. Underneath the Kikai Caldera was a massive lava dome. The giant bubble held over 32 cubic kilometers (8 mi³) of magma.

Analysis showed that the dome contained lava chemically different from the last eruption. This meant that the giant structure was not a leftover of the event that razed the Japanese archipelago but a completely new formation.

For thousands of years, the magma continued building up inside this new reservoir—something scientists view as a preparation for the next super-eruption. Earlier research indicated that the probability of a caldera catastrophe in the next 100 years was about 1 percent.

The discovery of the active dome was not so comforting. Should Kikai erupt, 110 million people would be in danger.^[10]

Throughout the majority of anthropological history, a council of gods and divine forces dictated the affairs of humankind. The following items capture life as it was when the world was mystical and magic still real.

10Scrolls For Tortured Souls

Surveyors in the Serbian city of Kostolac have discovered a forgotten burial ground that harkens the former glory of Viminacium, a Roman outpost from the fourth century BC that at its peak boasted 40,000 inhabitants.

The site belched up a few 2,000-year-old skeletons and also two mystifying leaden amulets. Inside the amulets, they found adorably tiny scrolls of gold and silver. Commonly referred to as “curse tablets,” such spells generally invoke otherworldly powers to affect or afflict the caster’s friends, family, or foes.

The mere presence of magical scrolls suggests the amulet bearers died grisly deaths. Such arcana are buried with the violently murdered, as it’s believed that tortured souls are most likely to encounter the demon middle-men that pass messages on to higher after-worldly offices.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely these particular scrolls will be deciphered anytime soon. Thanks to an inconvenient confluence of culture, the alphabet is Greek but the language is Aramaic, offering a seemingly uncrackable linguistic nut.

9Galilean Tomb Magic

Tomb robbing has plagued humanity throughout its history of entombing. Hollywood-style booby traps are infeasible, so the denizens of Southern Galilee inscribed curses onto the surfaces at the Beit She’arim necropolis.

Dating to the early centuries AD, the catacombs bear markings in a variety of languages, including Greek, Hebrew, Palmyrene, and Aramaic, the universal lingo of the Near East. Roman and pagan influences are present as well, like the sarcophagi that populate a burial trove known as the Cave of Coffins, a practice borrowed from Romans.

The messages throughout wish the dead an agreeable resurrection, yet another tradition not inherent to Jewish beliefs. Magical spells in Greek adorn the walls and tombs, preferring protection and peace to the reposed and invoking poxes on any who disturb the sacred bones.

8The Catalhoyuk Statuette

Turkey’s most fruitful Neolithic excavation site is Catalhoyuk, the remains of a settlement established circa 7,500 BC and lasting nearly two millennia before its dissolution. It has relinquished a range of archaeological goodies, from the household to the mystical, including a recently discovered 7-inch, marble statuette of a woman.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the Neolithic woman boasts a more substantial figure compared to the female representations of other cultures and times. Similar figurines, though not as large, well-preserved, or delicately crafted, have been found throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Researchers previously ascribed them as fertility goddesses, but a new point of view argues a more terrestrial influence. Instead of goddesses of any kind, the sculptures may immortalize the community’s respected, elderly women.

The egalitarian community here respected its elders as well as the concept of corpulence, because obesity designated a more distinguished and sedentary clerical or bureaucratic career.

7Re-Used Roman Coffin

In spite of a belief in hexes and pervading fear of sacrilege, coffin recycling was apparently A-OK for Roman Britons, according to a grave site at Dorset Quarry in England. Here, archaeologists discovered an open-faced stone sarcophagus, presenting the skeleton of a man who died mysteriously sometime around 1,500–2,000 years ago.

Only 100 or so such burials have popped up across the former Roman Brittania, including 11 others at the quarry, suggesting the individual in question, who died aged 20–30 years old, likely achieved some form of high status to deserve such an unusually dignified send-off.

However, this belief is somewhat at odds with the burial itself. The coffin is too small for its 177-centimeter (5’10″) inhabitant, whose feet have been bent back to accommodate the one-size-too-small coffin. Researchers believe the sarcophagus reused like some grisly pass-me-down.

6Moche Ritual Cat Claws

Renowned temple builders and metalworkers, the agriculturally adept Moche populated northern Peru from AD 100–800. Recently, archaeologists discovered a stupefying pair of metal cat claws in a tomb at the former Moche capital.

The grave, at the Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon) dig site in Trujillo, also surrendered a man’s body and assorted finery, including a mask, bronze earrings, copper scepter, and mixed ceramics. It’s doubtful that the claws served as weaponry and more likely that they carried mystical value, possibly advertising their owner’s nobility or societal influence.

Like their Pan-American neighbors, the Moche enjoyed their own brutal traditions. It’s believed that two warriors squared off in costumed ritual combat, with the winner receiving the costume and claws while the loser earned the privilege of being sacrificed.

5Shamanic Animal Bone Burial

A 12,000-year-old Natufian grave site in Galilee reveals a laborious, six-stage internment process fit for an evil witch.

Of the nearly 30 bodies found inside the burial cave near the Hilazon River, one presumably belonged to a female shaman. It was surrounded by an embarrassment of animal parts, including a bovine tailbone, an eagle wing, a pig leg, a leopard pelvis, 86 tortoise shells, deer bones, and a human foot to boot. The burial process began with oval grave and lined with plaster and stone slabs, upon which several different layers of animal parts and flint tools were layered, followed by the woman’s body, then a final garnish of more bones and a triangular stone slab to seal the grave.

The process is unexpectedly intricate for the period. Though maybe we should be less surprised, because these same Levant-dwelling Natufians were among history’s first civilizations to ditch the nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

4The Vestal Virgin Hairdo

Even more so than today, hairstyles in ancient Rome expressed identity. Personal factors such as age, gender, and station in life dictated one’s hairdo, which doubled as a societal nametag to visually designate one’s role and rank.

Most styles are lost forever to history, but at least one has been revived courtesy of self-proclaimed hair-chaeologist Janet Stephens. Inspired by Roman busts in museums, Stephens spent seven years studying a style known as the seni crines, a Roman staple that consisted of six braids.

The seni crines was the notorious ‘do that adorned the crowns of Rome’s famed vestal virgins, the celibate devotees of the hearth goddess Vesta, and spiritual tenders of the eternal Roman flame.

3Medusa Good-Luck Charm

The image of Medusa, the serpent-haired Gorgon with a petrifying gaze, is synonymous with evildoing and general villainy. But it wasn’t always so, and some even regarded Medusa as a harbinger of good luck.

Like the inhabitants of Antiochia ad Cragum, a first-century Roman city in southern Turkey that hosted the spectrum of Roman conveniences, including an organized, colonnaded street grid, bathhouses, shops, and a rich artistic culture. Within the remnants of the ruined outpost, archaeologists discovered a marble Medusa head.

The decoration served as a Pagan apotropaic charm, intended to ward off evil and imbue the settlement with divine protectorship. Myriad similar sculptures adorned the city, though were destroyed by the Christians who smashed a majority of the Pagan iconography to bits.

2Monument To The River God

Ancient life was ruled by a compulsion to appease the gods, who communicated with the mortal world through various mediums. So when the river god Harpasos appeared to Flavius Ouliades in a dream almost 2,000 years ago, it was like a direct message from the heavens.

To commemorate the apparition Ouliades erected a marble shrine next to the AkCay River in southeastern Turkey, hoping to invoke Harpasos’s blessing for a fruitful harvest and flood-free season.

According to researchers, the scene depicted might portray a particular traditional myth: Hercules’s son, Bargasos, defeating a maleficent river monster in hopes of summoning the riparian deity. Alternatively, the image may pay tribute to divine hero Hercules himself, commemorating his slaying of the many-headed hydra.

1Egyptian Spells Of Manipulation

The ancient Egyptian arsenal of magic contained invocations for every terrestrial desire, especially in the arena of love. Spells ranged from the hopeful to the overtly evil, as in the case of two recently deciphered papyri from Oxyrhynchus.

Written in Greek some 1,800 years ago by an unknown mage, both spells promise varying levels of mind control. One spell claims to subjugate its male victim to the whims of the wielder, while the other spell is female-specific, capable of “burning a woman’s heart” until she falls in love with the caster.

The one-size-fits-all spells are open-ended, written to be wielded when and where the occasion strikes. The love-sick caster only needs to insert a name and Bam! Their beloved is now cursed with debilitating fits of passions.

Every year, our knowledge of the past improves a little bit. 2016 has been no different. Scientists have made several discoveries and revelations which have helped us better understand (and, in some cases, drastically altered) our history.

10 Ancient Chinese Beer

We’ve known for a while that the ancient Chinese enjoyed a drink due to evidence of fermented beverages derived from rice found at a 9,000-year-old site in the Henan Province. However, in 2016, we learned that the Chinese were also beer lovers. Archaeologists excavating the Shaanxi Province found beer-making equipment dating to 3400–2900 BC.

This marks the first direct evidence of beer being made on-site in China. Residue found in the vessels also revealed the ingredients of the ancient beer, including broomcorn millet, lily, a grain called Job’s tears, and barley.

The presence of barley was especially surprising as it pushed back the arrival of the crop in China by 1,000 years. According to current evidence, the ancient Chinese used barley for beer centuries before using it for food.

9 A Man And His Dog

Dogs were man’s best friend 7,000 years ago according to evidence found at Blick Mead near Stonehenge. Archaeologist David Jacques found a dog’s tooth that belonged to an animal originally from an area known today as the Vale of York.

The dog served as a companion to a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer. The two undertook a 400-kilometer (250 mi) trip from York to Wiltshire which is now considered the oldest known journey in British history. Jacques argued that the dog was domesticated, part of a human tribe, and most likely used for hunting.

Durham University later confirmed his findings through isotope analysis performed on the tooth enamel. It showed that the dog drank from water in the Vale of York area. They also believe that the dog would have looked similar to a modern Alsatian with wolflike features.

8 King Tut’s Extraterrestrial Dagger

In mid-2016, scientists were able to wrap up a mystery that had been puzzling archaeologists since Howard Carter found King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. Among the many items buried with the young pharaoh was a dagger made of iron. This was unusual as ironwork in Egypt 3,300 years ago was incredibly rare and the dagger had not rusted.

An examination with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer revealed that the metal used for the dagger was of extraterrestrial origin. The high levels of cobalt and nickel matched that of known meteorites recovered from the Red Sea.

Another iron artifact from ancient Egypt was tested in 2013 and was also made using meteorite fragments. Archaeologists suspected this outcome due to ancient texts referencing “iron of the sky.” Now they believe that other items recovered from the pharaoh’s tomb were also made using meteorite iron.

7 Greek Bureaucracy

The ancient city of Teos in modern-day Turkey has been an archaeological boon as hundreds of steles were recovered from the site. One remarkably intact stele features 58 legible lines that represent a 2,200-year-old rental agreement. It shows us that bureaucracy was just as much a part of ancient Greek society as it is today.

The document describes a group of gymnasium students who inherited a piece of land (complete with buildings, altar, and slaves) and then rented it at auction. The official document also mentions a guarantor (in this case, the renter’s father) and witnesses from the city’s administration.

The owners retained the privilege of using the land three days a year as well as annual inspections to ensure that the renters didn’t damage the property. In fact, half the agreement deals with various punishments for damages or not paying rent on time.

6 Neanderthal STDs

A few years ago when scientists mapped out the human genome, they were surprised to discover that we have about 4 percent Neanderthal DNA due to cross-species breeding. However, our ancestors got something else from their Neanderthal cousins—a primitive version of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Through statistical modeling, scientists were able to recreate the evolutionary steps of the HPV16 virus. When modern humans and Neanderthals split into different species, the virus also split into two distinct strains.

Initially, the HPV16A virus was only carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans. When humans migrated out of Africa, they only carried the B, C, and D strains.

However, when they reached Europe and Asia and started having sex with Neanderthals, they gained the HPV16A strain, too. Further study into our genetic history could explain why the virus can cause cancer in some people but clear right up for others.

5 Unearthing A Dead Language

Even though it hasn’t been used for almost 2,000 years, Etruscan remains one of the most intriguing dead languages. It had a large influence on Latin which, in turn, influenced many European languages we still speak today. However, samples of Etruscan texts of any significant length are few and far between. Even so, in 2016, archaeologists uncovered a 1.2-meter (4 ft) stele inscribed in Etruscan.

The 2,500-year-old stone slab was found while excavating a temple in Tuscany. It was well-preserved because it was reused as a foundation for the temple. Coincidentally, one other major Etruscan artifact, the Linen Book of Zagreb, also was preserved by being repurposed as mummy wrappings.

Despite its condition, the stele still featured chips and abrasions. So scholars want to clean and preserve it thoroughly before attempting to read it. They suspect that the text is religious and will provide us with new insight into the Etruscan religion.

4 The Elusive Higgs Bison

This year, a new animal species was discovered using a unique method—ancient cave art. Researchers studied paintings from caves in Lascaux and Pergouset and noticed several changes between the bison painted 20,000 years ago and the ones painted 5,000 years later. The changes included different body types and different horns.

While the earlier paintings were reminiscent of the steppe bison, scientists believed that the newer drawings depicted an entirely different species. To confirm their hypothesis, they examined DNA evidence from bison bones and teeth that were recovered from numerous sites across Europe.

These bones and teeth originated between 22,000 and 12,000 years ago. The scientists concluded that, indeed, the later bison was a new species descending from the steppe bison and the aurochs.

The new revelation ends a decade of confusion regarding the sequencing of the steppe bison genome which sometimes had sections out of place. The newly found elusive species has been named the Higgs bison.

3 First Right-Handed People

A new study in the Journal of Human Evolution gives proof of the first recorded instance of right-handedness in hominins—and it’s not for Homo sapiens. Paleoanthropologist David Frayer has found evidence of this phenomenon in Homo habilis from 1.8 million years ago.

The study looked at teeth fossils from Homo habilis and found scrapes that were indicative of right-handed tool use. Frayer and his team tried to recreate the hominins’ behavior. Modern subjects would hold meat with their mouths and left hands while using their right hands to tear away flesh using stone tools. Scratches left on mouth guards were similar to those found on the fossils.

While not everyone agrees with Frayer’s methods, more significant here is the mere existence of hand dominance in Homo habilis. This trait is still poorly understood in modern humans, and it seems to be much older than we previously thought. Further study might help to explain this phenomenon and provide new insight into the evolution of the human brain.

2 Humanity’s New Mystery Ancestor

New discoveries made on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi suggest that it might have once been inhabited by an as-yet-undetermined hominin. Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of stone tools which are at least 118,000 years old. However, all evidence indicates that modern humans first set foot on the island between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

The existence of a new species of hominin is very plausible. Sulawesi is located near the island of Flores. In 2003, archaeologists found another hominin there called Homo floresiensis (the so-called “hobbits”) which evolved independently on the island before going extinct 50,000 years ago.

Perhaps it is a new ancestor in our evolutionary timeline. Or maybe Homo floresiensis somehow made its way to the neighboring island. Or humans reached Sulawesi much earlier than we think. Archaeologists are now digging for fossils that would enable them to know for sure.

1 The Cannabis Road

Current thinking says that ancient China was the place where cannabis was first used and perhaps cultivated as a crop around 10,000 years ago. However, the Free University of Berlin recently compiled a database of all available archaeological evidence of cannabis that showed Eastern Europe and Japan developing cannabis usage around the same time as China.

Moreover, cannabis use throughout Western Eurasia remains consistent throughout the years while the record is spotty in China until it intensifies in the Bronze Age. Scholars speculate that cannabis had become a tradable commodity by this time and spread throughout Eurasia using a trade network akin to the iconic Silk Road.

The hypothesis is backed up by other crops like wheat that also became more widely available around the same time. Scholars even identified the nomadic Yamnaya culture as the possible ancient dope dealers who, according to DNA studies, traveled this route at that time.