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.

In London in 1851, the Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was held. The luxurious pavilions and grand attractions drew crowds from across the globe and began an impressive tradition of World’s Fairs.

These universal exhibitions were held frequently throughout the Victorian Era (and less frequently throughout the 20th and 21st centuries). We have these worldwide events to thank for iconic structures like the Eiffel Tower and the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. T the fairs were also an opportunity for inventors and artists to show off what they’d been working on. Sometimes, these immediately took the world by storm, but sometimes, they slowly crept into the public consciousness.

Here are ten ordinary things you might not know debuted at World’s Fairs.

Related: Top 10 Game-Changing Recent Inventions and Innovations

10 Ketchup

It seems impossible to imagine eating a hot dog or french fries without the option of adding some ketchup. But before the 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, you would have been hard-pressed to find any that was being distributed on a commercial level.

It was here that the Heinz company, which at this point was mostly known for manufacturing horseradish, created a new tomato “catsup.” While tomato sauces had been popular since the 1700s, Heinz advertised its sauce as “Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!” because it was much easier to buy it pre-bottled than make it at home. The Centennial Exposition allowed Heinz to distribute free samples and merchandise (including the iconic pickle pin,) skyrocketing the popularity of a classic American condiment.

The telephone also debuted at this fair, but I think we all know which is more important.^[1]

9 Cherry Coke

While Coca-Cola has been around since 1886, it wasn’t until the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, that the company capitalized on more flavors.

It was here, almost 100 years after the soda’s invention, that Cherry Coke debuted. It was intended to imitate the taste of cherry sodas made at soda fountains in local drugstores before canned or bottled soda was popular. Thus, while cherry cola had been around for a long time, this was the first time Coca-Cola was actually creating it themselves. The cherry variation of Coke was immediately a hit, and three years later, it was released to the public.

Today, you can buy not just cherry-flavored Coke but also vanilla, lime, orange, and many other limited-edition flavors.^[2]

8 Color Television

The 1964 World’s Fair in New York City’s belle of the ball was Radio Corporation America. In a time when television was taking over the country, RCA installed over 250 televisions across the fairgrounds. But not just any televisions—color ones.

Though TVs weren’t exactly rare in the 1960’s, regular civilians had never seen screens with color before. As if this wasn’t enough, RCA had a special treat for fairgoers. They could see themselves on screen in the RCA pavilion! A color TV studio was also featured, where visitors would watch announcements and reports take place live.

Oddly enough, lost children got a special treat. They were televised across the fair in order to help parents find them from wherever they were within the pavilion.^[3]

7 Cellophane

No trip to Grandma’s would be complete without a little piece of candy, usually wrapped in clear plastic called cellophane. At the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, you could watch this tradition be created in real time at the “Wonderful World of Chemistry” exhibit. This area of the fair featured a candy wrapping machine, which wrapped up to 400 pounds of hard candy with cellophane every day.

Cellophane is still used on a daily basis by florists, gift wrappers, and food product companies, but it’s not quite the attraction it was in the early 1900s.^[4]

6 Zipper

Though it was invented and patented back in 1851, the “automatic continuous clothing closure” did not rise in popularity until 1893, when inventor Whitcomb Judson presented his “clasp locker” at the Chicago World’s Fair.

Judson’s version of the clasp was originally intended just for shoes, but as the patent notes, it could be useful for many kinds of clothing. While the clasp was not an instant hit at the fair, having to compete with Buffalo Bill shows and the Ferris wheel, Judson was inspired by interest from corporations. By 1920, “zippers,” so-called for the sound they made, were commonplace on boots. From there, they became popular on children’s clothing and grew into the staple we know them as today.^[5]

5 Pay Toilets

In most European countries, you’ll find no shortage of toilets to relieve yourself—as long as you have a few Euros.

Though they aren’t widely used in America, pay-per-use toilets can be found all across the world, from Mexico to Singapore. However, the first one premiered at the Great Exhibition World’s Fair in 1851. Almost a million visitors paid a penny to pee in the “monkey closets,” and the toilets were such a success they stayed up long after the rest of the fair was taken down.

“Spending a penny” became a Victorian-Era euphemism for using the bathroom. However, for a penny, they got quite a bit more. Each penny at the fair got you a comb and shoe shine included in the visit to the water closet.^[6]

4 Dishwasher

Spite is a great motivator.

In 1883, Ohio housewife Josephine Cochrane was done wasting time cleaning up after dinner parties, allegedly saying, “If no one else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.” And that’s what she did.

Just three years later, Cochran patented her hand-powered dishwashing machine. Unfortunately, investors refused to collaborate with Cochran unless she handed over control to a man, which she wouldn’t do. In 1893, Cochran got the opportunity to show off her machine at the Chicago World’s Fair. She won the prize for “best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to its line of work,” and restaurants and stores from around the world clambered to learn how it worked.

For the first few years, dishwashers were only used in large batches, such as for hotels and stores. It wouldn’t be until the 1950s, after Cochran had died, that they became a luxury for personal homes.^[7]

3 Moving Walkway

Take a stroll through almost any airport in the world, and you’ll find adults and children alike marveling at the wonder of the moving walkway. Even in 2024, these futuristic mechanical sidewalks are fascinating to use (and great for tiring kids out during long layovers).

The idea for a moving sidewalk came about from French engineer Eugene Henard, who planned to debut it at the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Unfortunately, he was unable to complete the invention before then, and it wasn’t until 1893 that it would come to fruition. At the Chicago World’s Fair, inventor Joseph Lyman Silsbee created the first version of the moving walkway, which featured a section for riders to sit and another to stand or walk.

The walkway frequently broke down and thus did not make a huge impact on guests at the fair. Luckily, Silsbee had another opportunity to show off the contraption at the 1900 World’s Fair, also in Paris. This one was much more successful and was even featured in a few of Thomas Edison’s early short films.

As people began to imagine what the future might look like, automated walkways crept into the public’s eye. In 1962, the titular family in The Jetsons introduced their own personal moving walkways, called “slidewalks.” Today, we’re practically living in 2062 with George and Jane, as we can walk on moving walkways at amusement parks, zoos, museums, and airports around the globe.^[8]

2 Ice Cream Cone

Much like the popsicle, the invention of this summer staple came out of pure luck.

In 1904, St. Louis had the honor of hosting the World’s Fair. The summer’s heat meant ice cream was selling out fast. So fast that the “penny licks,” small serving glasses that were returned and reused by the vendors, had run out.

A Syrian concessionaire named Ernest Hamwi quickly curled one of his zalabias (a waffle-like pastry) into a conical shape and scooped the ice cream right into it, thereby creating the ice cream cone. In an interview years later, Hamwi said that as soon as they saw the cones, other ice cream vendors came up to him and bought the waffles to create their own cones, calling them “cornucopias.”

While it’s not certain that this was the first version of the ice cream cone, historians are certain this is what popularized it, as the St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote in amazement about fairgoers eating ice cream out of “an inverted cone of hard cake, resembling a coiled-up waffle.”^[9]

1 Ferris Wheel

Now an iconic sign of summer carnivals and big cities all over the world, the Ferris wheel started as a rival to the Eiffel Tower.

Gustave Eiffel’s wrought-iron lattice tower debuted in 1889 at the Paris Exposition—also known as the Paris World’s Fair. It instantly became a symbol of the City of Love and hosted over two million visitors during the fair. So when Chicago was selected as the host of the 1893 World’s Fair, the Second City knew they’d have to create something big to rival Gustave Eiffel’s building.

What they came up with was a 231-foot (70.4 meter) tall wheel that was able to carry up to 2,160 people throughout its 36 cars. Designed by George Ferris, the wheel was intended to be a temporary creation. It was dismantled at the end of the fair in 1894. But that was far from the end of this amusement ride. Its thrilling (at the time) nature and ability to show off city skylines made it a staple in public celebrations.

Though it’s world famous, the Ferris wheel probably isn’t Chicago’s most famous Ferris. That goes to Mr. Bueller, of course.^[10]

Everyone likes to imagine that there might be a Picasso hidden in the attic. But it is a sad fact of life that when we finally get around to cleaning out the clutter, most of us will uncover nothing but dust bunnies.

However, some people have found out that riches were hiding not in their attic, but in their junk drawers, backyards, bathrooms, dinner plates, or even on their birth certificates. And the things that they made fortunes from weren’t as rare as a work of art—they were things that almost everyone today can find or buy cheaply. Read on to find out about ten ordinary items that made their owners rich.

10 A Name

When Jason Sadler’s mom told him his stepfather was filing for divorce, Sadler responded to the news with a joke. Sadler told his mom he’d just have to sell off his last name to avoid being stuck with the family name of a third divorced dad.

That joke became reality half a year later when Jason Sadler created a website called buymylastname.com. Sadler offered to change his last name to an advertising billboard for any company willing to pay for the privilege. What would happen if Nike wanted to change Jason’s name to Jason JustDoIt? Jason would just do it indeed, as long as the dubbing was for the highest price offered.

Within 24 hours of the auction opening, his name’s selling price skyrocketed to thirty thousand dollars. Forty days later, Jason was paid forty-five thousand dollars to legally become Jason Headsetsdotcom.

While “Mr. Headsetsdotcom” may be a memorable title, Jason decided he would not settle on that last name either. Headsetsdotcom did not go back to calling himself Jason Sadler. Instead, he auctioned off his last name again, and for fifty-thousand dollars Jason was now Jason Sufrapp.

What is in a name? Almost one hundred thousand dollars, apparently.

9 A Cup of Coffee

On a cold winter day, Stella Liebeck and her nephew drove up to a McDonald’s drive-through. After ordering a cup of hot coffee, Liebeck spilled it on her lap as her nephew pulled the car away. Stella Liebeck then sued the restaurant chain for damages and won big time.

In the first court case that followed, Liebeck vs. McDonald’s, the jury awarded her three million dollars in compensation. Though a judge later reduced this prize to about a half a million dollars, and Liebeck may have settled for a lesser amount later, that payout does not seem bad for spending fifteen minutes at a fast food franchise, though maybe not worth spending months in the courtroom.

But before we all head out to the nearest drive-through with a hot beverage in one hand and a phone ready to speed-dial our lawyers in another, this settlement did come with a cost greater than coffee-stained pants. Liebeck suffered third degree burns and required skin grafts to recover, and evidence in the courtroom revealed that hundreds of people each year had suffered similar injuries because McDonald’s franchisees had overheated their coffee. This lawsuit was more a case of justice rather than frivolity.

8 A Spring

Richard James was working in a factory during World War II when he knocked a spring off the shelf. He was amazed when the spring smoothly coiled downwards instead of instantly dropping to the ground. As the spring hit the floor, an idea hit him: what if he could make a coil that would double as a child’s toy?

After two years of tinkering, he came up with a toy that could stretch, retract, and spiral down inclines. His wife, Betty James, pulled out a dictionary and named it the slinky. Together they took out a five hundred dollar loan, and built an empire that continues to sell the toys to this day.

At first James and Betty struggled to make the slinky profitable. Toy shops refused to stock it because it was so ordinary. But once the toy caught on and James earned millions of dollars, he donated most of the profits to a religious group he had joined in South America. Far from being rich, James plunged his company into a seven-figure debt hole. Oops.

Betty took over the company, and miraculously turned it around. While selling enough slinkys to wrap around the globe one hundred and fifty times, she never strayed from the slinky’s simplicity and affordability, and sold it even more cheaply in 1990 than it sold for in 1945.

7 A Tulip

A 17th century Dutchman would be shocked if you gave your significant other a bouquet of tulips for Valentine’s Day. Not because the Dutch preferred roses, but because of what the sheer value of the tulips (or more specifically their bulbs) would be in the arrangement.

In the 1600s, tulips had just arrived to the Netherlands from what is now Turkey. A virus had afflicted harvests, which caused each tulip to be colored in its own unique pattern. Curiously the diseased flowers became worth even more than tulips that were healthy. Scholars coveted different tulip patterns and bought them as if they were collecting baseball or pokemon cards.

Soon the population caught on that people in academia would buy uniquely patterned flowers at almost any cost, and prices for the tulips soared. By 1637, it would be possible for you to exchange a single bulb for one of the largest, most fashionable, houses in all of the Netherlands. While prices collapsed less than a year later, people made and lost fortunes for what today we give out freely as gifts.

6 A Rock

Gary Dahl was drinking at a bar when he came up with a concept that would take the 1970s by storm and make his company over a million dollars in revenue. In a conversation with his friends, he came up with the ultimate pet. It would be docile, housebroken, shed no hair and have a long lifespan too. Rocks, Dahl realized, were the perfect pets in all respects, better than any cat, dog, or goldfish.

Dahl made his drunken idea a reality when he sold rocks in cardboard boxes, complete with air holes so the stones could breathe. For just under four dollars you could possess a stone of your very own. A manual included in the package explained how to care for the rock along with the tricks it could be taught. Among other sardonic jokes, it gave instructions oin how a pet rock could be trained to play dead.

The rocks’ sheer absurdity caught the whimsy of Americans everywhere. Though anyone could pick up a feral rock in their backyard, the pet rock’s value as a gag gift made them fly off the shelves.

5 Garbage

As anyone who lives in a city can tell you, litter is worse than worthless. A New Yorker named Justin Gignac was convinced otherwise. He believed that if someone packaged something right, it would sell (and clearly his point has been well proven by other items on this list also!). He began to collect garbage off the streets and arrange it in glass smell-proof boxes.

Gignac sold them for ten dollars a pop, and people bought them as souvenirs. He raised the price to fifty dollars, and people bought them as artwork. Today the New York garbage costs one hundred dollars per cube and according to his website at the time of this writing, is completely sold out (in not too dissimilar a fashion to New York City itself thanks to de Blasio!)

4 Air

We breathe about twenty three thousand times a day. While we may spend money on basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, and electricity, nobody would even imagine paying for air. Right?

Two Canadians proved that people will pay for the stuff they breathe when the pair began bottling the air in the Rocky Mountains and selling it for twenty four bucks a can. Chinese customers, choking in smog-filled cities, began to purchase the bottles both as a joke to protest against poor air quality (or so they say) and for whiffs of pure, unpolluted, air (more likely).

3 Poop

We flush our waste down the toilet every day without much thought. If we excreted gold instead of poop, we might think twice about doing so.

Artist Piero Manzoni believed that his own waste was just as valuable as gold. In 1961, he put his money where was butt was, and canned ninety tins of his own poop and tried to sell it to his patrons. Less than two years later he exchanged thirty grams of the stuff for thirty grams of eighteen carat gold.

Lest we think that this was another strange byproduct of the 1960s, another can sold in a 2008 auction for over one hundred thousand dollars, meaning that right now Manzoni’s poop is worth roughly sixty-five times its weight in gold.

2 A Red Paperclip

Kyle MacDonald, a 27-year old man from Montreal, started out his summer with no job, no house, and a single red paperclip. When Kyle resolved to get a home for him and his girlfriend to live in, he did not brush up his resume or open a savings account. Instead, he left his apartment with the red paperclip in hand and traded it for a pen that looked like a fish.

Thirteen exchanges later, he traded a movie role for a two story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. Kyle had traded up the paperclip on his desk for a house in less than a year, in a story that shows even the value of office supplies can bring surprise.

1 Two Boxes of Pizza

In 2010 Lazlo Hanyecz, a hungry developer of a then near-unknown cryptocurrency called Bitcoin had a craving for pizza. Under the internet handle “lazlo”, he offered ten thousand bitcoins to anyone who would order him two pizza pies.

Nine years later in 2019, those ten thousand bitcoins are worth far more dough than the flour in two large pizzas. Anyone who had taken Laszlo up on his offer (at the time of this writing) would now possess more than a hundred million dollars just for having made two orders from Papa John’s.

Ancient peoples often had complex and fascinating stories about food, from the legends of fabled lands with exotic spices to the tales of gods bequeathing humanity with sacred cereals or cups of mind-altering enjoyment. But even the humblest items in our fridges and pantries have a rich history in mysticism and mythology.

10 Salt

In many cultures around the world, salt is considered a symbol of purity, a substance with the ability to ward off evil spirits. In European folklore, salt is often used to keep witches at bay, while the Quebecois believed sprinkling salt at the doorstep would frighten off lutins, mischievous imps that would often spook horses.

Salt also plays an important part in the Jewish and Christian traditions, and modern advocates of spiritual warfare see it as a weapon in the fight against Satan. After all, salt is mentioned many times in the Bible in regard to cooking, rituals, and covenants with God. Buddhism and Shinto have similar views on the efficacy of salt in repelling evil spirits.

Many modern Okinawans bless new cars with salt and carry small packets of salt around with them in their vehicles for protection. Following the September 11 attacks, heightened security checks at US bases on the island saw guards questioning local workers about the mysterious bags of white powder in their vehicles. Evidently, the “mysterious” white powder was perceived as a possible threat, despite the local customs.

For the Zuni people of the American Southwest, one of the most important deities is the Salt Mother, or Ma’l Oyattsik’i, who dwells in the Zuni Sacred Lake. According to their oral tradition, she once lived much closer to the Zuni people but relocated to the lake after being offended by their behavior. This is why the Zuni and other neighboring tribes must travel there in order to obtain salt, which is an important part of religious ceremonies and traditional baptismal rituals.

9 Potatoes

The humble potato once had a difficult time finding acceptance as a foodstuff in Europe, but it was eventually adopted—rather enthusiastically—for its folk healing powers. In Scotland and Ireland, the potato was used to treat rheumatism, and in other various parts of the British Isles it was used for cramps, boils, asthma, and sore throats.

Similar folklore appeared in North America, where a potato placed under the bed was thought to assist conception and prevent night sweats. Some even believed three potatoes carried in the pockets prevented hemorrhoids. There is little evidence of such folk remedies among Native Americans, except in the case of curing warts. This suggests the potato remedies originated in Europe and spread back to the Americas.

While the potato originated in the Americas, the Muslim Hui people of China have a very different legend about its origin. They say that while Muhammad was on his holy campaign, his army was hungry and holed up in a valley, so he prayed to Allah for help. He then ordered his men to build a stone hearth, fill it with burning firewood, and place large stones inside before sealing it with clay. After two hours, the hearth was opened to reveal the stones had become potatoes. Fortified by the feast, the Islamic soldiers won the next battle and later found potato plants growing in the valley.

8 Milk

Irish folklore spoke of a great cow named Glas Ghaibhleann that wandered the country, bestowing a wonderful milk with 100 percent cream content for free to anyone who approached. Many towns were named after this cow, and some believed the animal represented Ireland itself. Various explanations for the cow include that she was a fairy beast belonging to the king of the sea or the underworld, or possibly she was a guise for the goddess Bo Find.

The disappearance of free milk in Ireland was linked in legends to various wicked individuals who tried to steal the milk, thus causing the creature to fly away or disappear. One notable story has someone milking the great cow into a bottomless cavity called Poll na Leamhnachta, or “hole of sweet milk,” causing her to leave in distress. Tales of a great milk cow were also known in other parts of the British Isles, and one story from Wales has the cow vanishing from the Earth after the greedy residents of a valley plotted to turn her into steak-and-kidney pie.

Some contend these legends are distantly related to ancient Indian myths of “cloud cows” that would rain milk from the sky. According to the stories, these bovines were ultimately captured by the demon Vritra to bring famine to the Earth. Indeed, milk has a special significance in Indian mythology, where breast milk symbolized a feminine mystical power equal to that of a man’s semen. Additionally, milk from the breasts of the goddess Parvati brought immortality. Both Indian and Irish legends also speak of evil men killed by ingestion of a fatal pseudo-milk, or “black milk.”

7 Bread

Historically, bread has played an extremely important part in the history of much of western Eurasia. Bread is also important in the Jewish tradition, where it is known as lechem, and was one of the acceptable sacrificial offerings in biblical times.

When the Jewish people wandered through the desert in biblical times, they were said to have been sustained by manna, or lechem min hashamayim—bread from heaven. It was said to have fallen from the sky and was able to recreate any possible taste, but it could only be kept for a single day. This bread was meant to teach the Jewish people how to mature from a population of slaves to an independent people.

Specific rituals involving bread included the challah, in which part of the dough was taken and burned to commemorate the portion reserved for the priest, as well as tashlich, a custom of transferring sins to a loaf of bread which was then cast over a natural water source.

The tradition of transferring sins to bread has an interesting parallel in British and American traditions. Only instead of sins, these people often transferred diseases. British folk medicine prescribed bread poultices for boils, swelling, sprains, splinters, and sore eyes. And over in East Anglia, bread baked on Good Friday was kept throughout the year to cure ailments. This folk medicine was brought to North America, where bread was thought to be a cure for whooping cough and smallpox. Similarly, water in which burned bread had been soaked was said to cure diarrhea, and children were given bread that had been nibbled by a mouse to cure toothaches.

6 Tuna

While cans of tuna fish are considered humble or even uninspiring fare in the industrialized West, for the traditionally seafaring cultures of the Maldives, the tuna is a fish with lofty origins. Maldivian folklore speaks of a legendary navigator named Bodu Niyami Takurufanu who first introduced the favored skipjack tuna to the islands.

While on a trading voyage, Bodu Niyami’s crew caught a large, fat fiyala fish. Busy making astronomical calculations on the mast, Bodu Niyami ordered them to save him the head of the fish, but when he descended in hunger, he discovered one of his crew had picked it clean and thrown it into the sea to hide the evidence. Enraged, he ordered the helmsman to sail in the direction the fish head had been thrown.

After sailing for 83 days, they came upon a gigantic black-coral tree at the end of the world. Suddenly, they were faced with raging winds and waves. The storm threatened to toss the ship off the world’s edge until the crew tied a line to a branch of the great tree. Seeing the terror of the crew, Bodu Niyami’s rage started to subside, and he agreed to leave once the winds and tides became favorable.

After spending a night, they awoke to discover the seas were not only calm but brimming with large, unknown fish. Bodu Niyami traced an image of the fish on a piece of parchment and whispered magical words to capture its soul, sealing the parchment inside a bamboo tube. As the ship sailed back home, it was followed by a school of the strange fish. The waters around the ship teemed with so many fish that they occasionally leaped unbidden onto the deck.

Problems soon arose when they sighted two great rocks rising in the sea in front of them. Bodu Niyami recognized them as the pincers of the Queen of the Hermit Crabs, attracted by all the fish. Thinking quickly, he opened the bamboo tube, attached a weight to the drawing of the fish, and dropped it into the ocean. The school of fish and the Queen of the Hermit Crabs followed it to the ocean’s depths, saving the ship. However, upon arriving home, he tossed the empty bamboo tube into the ocean, attracting the skipjack tuna which would become the favorite catch of Maldivian fishermen.

5 Cabbage

According to the ancient Greeks, the humble cabbage has its origins in a war between man and god. A prince of Thrace known as Lycurgus had annoyed the god Dionysus by destroying the deity’s sacred vineyards. As punishment, the prince was bound to some vines, and as he wept for his lost freedom, the first cabbages sprang from his tears. This legend led to the popular classical practice of eating cabbage to stave off intoxication or hangovers, under the belief that the cabbage and the vine were natural enemies. Other Greeks, such as the Ionians, considered the cabbage sacred and invoked it in their oaths.

Cabbage myths also appeared elsewhere in Europe. Cabbage stalks were said to be used as flying steeds by fairies and witches, with one Irish legend telling of a gardener falling under fairy influence and suffering from great fatigue due to being forced to fly about every night on a cabbage stump.

In the German region of Havel, there is a legend of a hungry man who decides to steal some of his neighbor’s cabbages in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Just as he finishes filling his basket, he is caught in the act by the Christ child who happens to be riding by on a white horse. For stealing on the holy night, the Christ child sends him into exile on the moon with his stolen cabbages, and there he presumably remains to this day.

4 Butter

According to the folklore of Wexford County, Ireland, some people can make a deal with the Devil in order to steal butter from other people. A victim of the curse would churn and churn but produce no butter. Instead, they would sometimes yield a cream with an awful stench. One sign that a curse was on a house was a piece of fat or butter left on the doorstep. The cure was to take a coulter from a plow and redden it in the fire in the Devil’s name. This would impel the butter-thief to come to the house and reveal himself.

Magical butter theft was apparently a major problem in medieval Ireland as other regions have similar tales. One story tells of a priest making his morning rounds when he passed an old woman collecting dew and saying, “Come all to me, come all to me, come all to me.” Without really realizing it, the priest responded with, “And half to me, and half to me, and half to me.”

He didn’t give the matter another thought until he got home and was informed the morning’s churn had yielded three times the usual amount of butter. Soon, his neighbors arrived to complain their churns had yielded nothing, and the priest suddenly remembered that witches could steal butter by collecting dew. Realizing he must have inadvertently become wrapped up in the witch’s spell, he distributed the butter to his neighbors. Afterward, they went to the house of the old woman, where they found that despite only owning an old billy goat, she had three tubs of fresh butter.

3 Peas

The historian Walter Kelly believed that peas were a central part of Indo-European mythology, somehow related to “celestial fire.” One Norse myth says peas were originally sent to Earth by the god Thor as a punishment. He sent out dragons to pollute wells and water sources with peas, but some of them landed on the ground and sprouted. To avoid further antagonizing the deity, the Norse traditionally ate peas on Thursday (Thor’s Day).

In Germanic legends, a race of dwarves called Zwergs, who’d once forged Thor’s hammer, loved peas so much that they would go out in “caps of darkness” that rendered them invisible while they stole peas from farmers’ fields.

In British folklore, a pod of exactly nine peas had a curious association with romance, leading to a tradition called peasecod wooing. In Suffolk, a kitchen maid who found a pod with nine peas would lay it on the lintel, which meant the next young bachelor to enter would become her husband or sweetheart. Meanwhile in Cumbria, if a young woman discovered her beau was unfaithful or if a young man lost his love interest to a rival, local youths of the opposite sex would console them by rubbing them with “peas-straw.”

2 Radish

Believe it or not, the radish was esteemed by the ancient Greeks. According to the Roman author Pliny, when the Greeks made offerings to the god Apollo at Delphi, they modeled a radish in gold, a beetroot in silver, and a turnip in lead. The radish was also important to the Hindu god Ganesha, who is often depicted as holding the vegetable in one of his left hands. He’s also said to exhort his followers to grow plenty of them so they can use them regularly in offerings.

Every year in Japan, a large radish with two sections and a forked root is offered to the god Daikoku-sama. According to legend, Daikoku-sama had eaten too many rice cakes and was told by his mother to eat a radish to avoid death. He found a servant girl washing radishes and asked for one, only to be refused as the girl’s master had already counted them. Luckily, she had a two-section radish that she could break in half, thereby saving the deity’s life.

One curious piece of Russian folklore features a radish used to censure the excesses of Ivan the Terrible. In the story, the city of Novgorod offered the tsar a radish. Much to Ivan’s surprise, the radish magically appeared as a horse’s head, which was forbidden for Christians to eat. After Ivan refused the gift, the citizens of Novgorod retorted, “So it’s a sin to eat a horse’s head, but destroying people is a holy deed.” They then blessed the radish, allowing it to return to its true form.

1 Cucumber

The cucumber has shown up a surprising number of times in world folklore, and it’s often considered a symbol of fertility. An early Buddhist legend tells of King Sagara, whose wife, Sumati, bore 60,000 children. Oddly enough, the first of her children was a cucumber named Ikshvaku. Somehow, Ikshvaku eventually had a son who climbed to heaven on his own vine.

In ancient Rome, women wore cucumbers around their waists to encourage pregnancy. Strangely, the plants were disliked by herbalists in the British Isles. They considered them too cool for human stomachs, so naturally they were the cause of illness and death. In 1766, English writer Landon Carter wrote critically of his daughter, “She does bear ungovernable the whole summer through, eating extravagantly and late at night of cucumbers and all sorts of bilious trash.”

The British view was rare, as cucumbers were more often linked with sexuality. The Pennsylvania Germans believed that cucumbers were best sown in daylight by a naked man in the prime of his life. They also thought the “visible virility of the sower” would determine a cucumber’s length. The cucumber’s darker associations with sexuality can be seen in their connection to the Japanese kappa demon, a being that raped women and was only satiated by human blood or cucumbers.

One ancient Javanese legend tells of a couple who prayed daily for a child. They were overheard by an evil giant named Buto Ijo, and he gave the couple a magical cucumber seed that would yield a baby girl. But there was a catch. Buto Ijo would only give them the seed if he could eat the girl when she turned 17. The couple agreed, and the seed yielded a golden cucumber that produced a girl named Timun Mas.

When she inevitably turned 17, the hungry giant showed up. But her parents went back on their deal. They gave Timun Mas a special bag and told her to run for it. As she fled, she took salt out of the bag and threw it behind her. The salt became a sea which the giant was forced to cross. She then threw chili powder, and it became a spiky bush, entangling Buto Ijo. Next, she tossed cucumber seeds that immediately sprouted, prompting the hungry giant to pause for a snack. When he was finished, he continued pursuing the girl, so she finally threw a handful of shrimp paste. It became quicksand and swallowed the giant, and Timun Mas inexplicably returned home to her parents.

David Tormsen believes that instant ramen cures hangovers and wards off banshees. Email him at [email protected].

The stars of ancient Egypt are undoubtedly the pharaohs, the gold artifacts, and the pyramids. Often overlooked, however, are the common people who reflect the complexity and mystery of their famous culture.

They played sacred games, had a sense of humor, and promoted members of society who were often discriminated against in both the ancient and modern worlds. Not everything was easy. From rampant health problems to murder, civilians also suffered dark times and tempers.

10 They Loved Board Games

After a long day of hauling pyramid blocks, ancient Egyptians needed entertainment. A popular activity was board games. They were made for two people as well as multiple players, and if a board was not available, one was drawn on the ground.

The favorite game was Senet. It had 30 squares in rows of 10, some marked with symbols of good or bad luck. Egyptians being Egyptians, the winner was the one whose pawns entered the afterlife first by escaping bad fortune blocks.

Senet was deeply intertwined with the divine. The victor was said to be protected by the gods, and the boards were often included in tombs to protect the deceased during the transition to the afterlife.

Aseb had 20 squares. To free a piece from the home block required a four or a six from the dice. If the piece landed on a square held by the opponent, the piece was banished back to home.

The rules of Mehen and another game, Hounds and Jackals, are not known. Mehen’s board was a curled-up snake with lion pieces. Hounds and Jackals had 10 stalks, each topped with a canine head, and was likely a racing game.^[1]

9 Artists Sneaked In Humor

Egyptian art is not known for its colorful clowns. That does not mean that ancient artists had no sense of humor, even though convention demanded images with poise. The artists could and did poke subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) fun at patrons and foreigners.

In Thebes around 2000 BC, a tomb carver created a wall image of the deceased. Dagi was a pharaoh’s vizier. He was important in life and should perhaps have been portrayed with a noble countenance. But the artist gave him a depressed look with a raised eyebrow as if Dagi was surprised that he had died.

A carving done during the reign of Amenhotep III (1389–1349 BC) shows a scribe and a baboon, the animal associated with Thoth, god of writing. The baboon has comically bushy eyebrows.

Artists did not hold back on the sarcasm when it came to Egypt’s enemies.^[2] An ivory plaque shows a captive Assyrian prince moving in a silly way and with bulging eyes. Tensions with the Nubians probably caused one artist to sculpt a relief showing a Nubian with exaggerated and unflattering facial features.

8 Artists With Unusual Arthritis

When researchers recently analyzed the remains of those who forged and decorated the famous Valley of the Kings, they found something odd. Around 3,500 years ago, the village of Deir el-Medina supplied the royal burial ground with carvers and painters.

Usually, years of building and creating art would cause upper body issues. However, osteoarthritis was rife in the men’s ankles and knees. After studying the village’s ancient records, the cause was revealed. Despite the hard labor involved at the necropolis, it was not the men’s jobs that messed up their bones. It was how they traveled to work every day.

During the week, they lived in huts near the royal tombs and used a short steep hill to go to work and to return when the day was done. At the end of the week, they went to Deir el-Medina—a 2-kilometer (1.2 mi) walk over hills. When the week started, they trooped back again.

This continued for years and for some individuals, decades. The excessive hiking is most likely why this group of artists developed a condition not usually seen in their profession.^[3]

7 Class Determined The Menu

The complete book on what ancient Egyptians ate will probably never be written. No recipes have ever been found, but an idea can be gleaned from their art and history. Some ingredients were enjoyed by all classes, but commoners were not allowed to handle certain preparations. Fish curing was strictly the domain of priests.

Every day, regardless of breeding, everybody consumed the nation’s staples—beer and bread. Then there was beer bread, which was fermented in water to produce a cloudy brew that aided the nutrition of the lower classes. In addition to grain-made meals, such as porridge, there was also game meat, honey, dates, fruits, and wild vegetables.^[4]

Workers only ate twice a day. Breakfast included bread, beer, and sometimes onions. The workers could look forward to a better dinner. In addition to the staples, they could expect cooked vegetables and meat.

Nobles had veggies, meat, grains, wine, and dairy products with every meal. But the priests and royalty got the best culinary fare. Tomb images depict banquets packed with flowing wine, honey-smeared gazelle, roasted fowl, fruits, and desserts such as honey cakes.

6 They Had Serious Dental Disease

The Egyptians did not suffer from enamel failure because they lived before the invention of A-grade floss. It was because they could not keep the sand out of their food. The problem was immense.

A study done on 4,800 teeth showed that 90 percent were worn down. Many suffered such abrasion that the living center, or pulpal tissue, was exposed. This led to other conditions such as cysts, multiple abscesses, and osteoarthritis of the jaw.

Needless to say, chronic dental pain must have been a fact of life in ancient Egypt. A diet filled with fibrous foods did not help, but the main problem was sand. It blew in with the wind and was collected with the grain during harvest. Sandstone grinding tools also contaminated the flour. Most of it ended up in the bread, which was eaten every day.^[5]

As a result, ancient Egyptians chewed on quartz, mica, feldspar, and hornblende among other rock particles. Despite the Egyptians’ known adherence to cleanliness, there is no evidence that the complex society practiced oral hygiene. Nothing among their plentiful toiletries resembles a dental tool.

5 Salaries Of Grain

The monetary system of ancient Egypt is not fully understood. In the past, it was believed that the system was based on barter without any form of currency. But this deduction was made solely by looking at paintings which showed the exchange of goods.

While trade certainly existed, it could not uphold the commercial system of a kingdom so vast. Among its wealth commodities was grain, which was grown on a mass scale. Surplus cereal was stored in a network of silos across Egypt and used to pay laborers who worked on major public projects.^[6]

But what if somebody wanted to buy a house? A bag of grain just would not do.

Ancient Egyptians worked with a unit of worth called “shat.” Experts still do not know exactly what it was, but a house could be bought with items, such as cloth and furniture, as long as they held the equivalent of the selling price in shat. This currency standard existed as far back as the Ancient Empire (2750–2150 BC). One shat was said to be worth 7.5 grams (0.24 oz t) of gold.

4 Family Expectations

Boys were encouraged to marry and have lots of little Egyptians. Girls usually married in their early teens. While love matches did happen, marriage was primarily a viable support unit for everybody involved. There was no welfare for the old or poor, and family provided the only safety net. A man was seen as incomplete until he took a wife, after which he was expected to be the provider.

Murals traditionally depict men as dark from working outside and the ladies as paler from running the household. Egyptian wives had the highest birth rate in ancient times and thus constantly faced the dangers of childbirth. There was no effective contraception, and midwives could do nothing during a disastrous delivery.^[7]

Even so, babies were cherished and breastfed for up to three years. Boys would learn a trade while their sisters were trained in childcare, cooking, and making clothes. Both genders were instructed by their parents in matters of the world, religion, and ethics. The oldest son (in some cases, a daughter) was expected to take care of his elderly parents and also see to their funerals.

3 Women Were Legal Equals

Egyptian women were not destined to exist as housebound wives. They handled the domestic duties but were free to work elsewhere and own property. Unlike ancient Greek women (who were not even regarded as Greek citizens), ancient Egyptian women could live without a male guardian.

They initiated divorce, went to court, and served as members of juries. They were not forced into arranged marriages, but they could draw up legal documents and pursue careers. This horrified Greek visitors, who incorrectly assumed that the roles were reversed in Egypt.^[8]

Still, the majority of higher professions were dominated by men. A small percentage of women broke through this glass ceiling and became honored priests, scribes, and pharaohs.

Female doctors were also respected. One named Peseshet held the title of the “overseer of doctors.” The oldest record of a woman practicing medicine mentions Merit Ptah, who lived in Egypt 5,000 years ago. In essence, ancient Egypt was the first region to empower women, not the West as so many assume.

2 Handicapped Egyptians

In the ancient world, people with handicaps were often treated worse than women. Mental illness was viewed with such shame that Chinese families hid such members from view. In Greece, they were abandoned to wander the streets.

Ancient Egypt no doubt had its haters, but the populace and physicians generally had a very accepting attitude toward people with disabilities. Their moral writings taught respect for those facing physical challenges. Individuals born with dwarfism were not viewed as handicapped. They had no fear of unemployment and worked as attendants, overseers, caretakers, artists, and entertainers.

Among the skeletons of Deir el-Medina (the village of the arthritic artists of the Valley of the Kings) was a young man. He was born with a useless leg, a serious disability for a group that hiked great distances. Instead of being an outcast, his otherwise healthy remains showed that he lived well and was employed in a manner that accommodated his situation.^[9]

As far as mental illness was concerned, Egyptians came the closest to modern treatment. Instead of blaming or shaming the patients, the afflicted were encouraged to engage in creative pursuits.

1 Ancient Abuse

A lot of art shows happy domestic scenes between partners and their offspring. Idealized family notions and legal equality was one thing, but violence toward women and children remained a reality.

Horrifying cases have been recorded. The 2,000-year-old skeleton of a toddler in Dakhleh Oasis had fractures of the back, pelvis, ribs, and arms. Some were old breaks, a classic sign of long-term physical abuse. Both upper arms were broken as if he or she had been violently shaken by an adult. The broken collar bone showed no healing and could have been part of the event that ultimately killed the youngster.

In the ancient town of Abydos, a 4,000-year-old victim was found. The woman was around 35 when she was fatally stabbed in the back. Her bones revealed a lifetime of physical assaults. She had old and new fractures that match those of battered women repeatedly kicked or punched in the ribs. Her hands had injuries, probably from attempting to shield herself or to break a fall. Since her abuser remained close for a long time, he could have been a male family member or her husband.^[10]

The popular images of the Middle Ages do not always focus on the deeper side of ordinary life. Yet, these often ignored moments can be extraordinary. Researchers are beginning to understand that nothing can be taken for granted with medieval citizens.

Far from being unintelligent farmers, people during medieval times had complex behaviors, mysteries, and very relatable problems. But perhaps the most magnetic quality about them is that tiny, alien part the modern mind will always be amazed by. Simple things whipped up deadly frenzies, and their approach to marriage and parenting is almost unrecognizable today.

10 They Rearranged Graves

In medieval Europe, a massive 40 percent of graves were disturbed.^[1] In the past, unsavory robbers were solely blamed. However, two cemeteries recently revealed it may have been a community thing. The Austrian cemetery Brunn am Gebirge contained 42 graves from the Langobards, a sixth-century Germanic tribe. All but one had been rummaged through, and only certain objects were taken.

There was also a noticeable way in which the remains were treated: Skulls were removed, or an extra one was added. Most bones were moved with some sort of tool. The motive is unclear, but the tribe might have been trying to prevent the undead from rising. It is also possible the Langobards wanted reminders of their lost loved ones. This could be why over a third of the skulls were missing.

In an English graveyard, Winnall II (seventh and eighth centuries), skeletons were bound, decapitated, had twisted joints, and contained bones from other individuals. Originally, they were thought to have been given strange funerals. There is growing evidence, however, that the manhandling happened later, perhaps because locals believed the restless souls brought bad luck.

9 Marriage Was Difficult To Prove

Getting married in medieval England was easier than tripping over a log. All that were needed was a man and a woman, and each had to verbally agree to the union.^[2] If the girl was 12 and the boy 14, no family consent was necessary. No church or priest came into play.

People often tied the knot wherever they were, be it down at the local pub or in bed. (Sex counted as automatic marriage.) A church warning echoed one of the dangers of such glib matrimony. It cautioned young men not to abuse it just to fool girls into having sex. Most couple-related cases before the court were indeed to prove that a wedding had happened and to enforce it.

If couples married alone, it was extremely hard to say what was agreed to (or wrongly assumed). For this reason, vows were encouraged to be taken in the presence of a priest. Divorce could only happen if the union was never legal in the first place. Reasons included still being married to a previous partner, being related (distant ancestors were often invented), or being married to a non-Christian.

8 Men Received Infertility Treatment

In the ancient world, the usual approach to a childless marriage was to eye the wife with suspicion. This was also assumed to be the case in medieval England. But researchers found the opposite to be true. From the 13th century, men were also held accountable, as medical books of the time discussed male reproductive problems and sterility.^[3]

The pages also contain some odd advice to identify the infertile partner and what treatment to employ: Both had to pee in separate pots full of bran, seal them for nine days, and then check for worms—the smoking gun. If the husband was believed to be the one who needed treatment, he faced hairy options to treat his “unsuitable seed.” To cure conception difficulties in any person, one recipe called for dried pig testicles to be ground up and consumed for three days with wine.

Though physicians accepted infertility as a medical condition, medieval courts were less forgiving. A wife could divorce her husband if he was impotent.

7 Apprentices Caused Trouble

In Northern Europe, parents had the habit of booting teens from the house and into an apprenticeship that often lasted a decade.^[4] The benefits for the adults included one less mouth to feed, and the master got cheap labor.

Surviving letters, written by the teens, show the experience was traumatic. Some historians feel the youngsters were sent off because they were unruly and that their parents believed training would have a positive impact. Perhaps the master craftsmen knew trouble when they saw it because many had their students sign a contract to behave. Even so, apprentices got a bad name. Being away from their families, resenting their lives of labor, and bonding with fellow ticked-off teens soon produced gangs.

At their most tame, they gambled and frequented brothels. In Germany, France, and Switzerland, they gatecrashed carnivals, caused disorder, and once held a town to ransom. In London’s streets, violent fights broke out between different guilds, and in 1517, they looted the city. It is likely that the hooliganism came from disillusionment. Despite all the years invested, many understood that it was no guarantee of future work.

6 The Real Medieval Elderly

In early medieval England, a person was considered elderly by age 50.^[5] British scholars hailed the era as a “golden age” for people of advanced age. It was believed that society revered them for their wisdom and experience. This was not entirely true. Apparently, there was no concept of letting somebody enjoy their retirement; the older folks had to prove their worth. In exchange for respect, society expected older members to continue to contribute—especially warriors, holy men, and leaders. Soldiers still fought, and workers still worked.

Medieval authors had mixed emotions about growing old. Some agreed that the elderly were spiritually superior, while others belittled them as “hundred-year-old children.” Old age itself did not receive pretty poems. Text described it as a “foretaste of hell.” Another misconception is that everybody keeled over before getting truly old. Some people still lived well into their eighties and nineties.

5 Everyday Deaths

During the Middle Ages, not everybody perished from spectacular violence and warfare. Citizens also died from domestic violence, accidents, and too much fun.^[6] In 2015, researchers perused the medieval coroners’ records of Warwickshire, London, and Bedfordshire. The results offered a unique look at daily life and hazards in these counties.

Death by pig was a real thing. In 1322, two-month-old Johanna de Irlaunde died in her crib after a sow bit her in the head. Another pig killed a man in 1394. Cows also were responsible for several fatalities. According to the coroners, drowning accounted for the biggest number of accidental deaths. People succumbed in ditches, wells, and rivers.

Murder is to be expected. One graphic story from 1276 details how Joan Clarice cut her husband’s throat and literally beat his brains out. Several died from disputes, but falling also culled quite a number. People toppled from trees, buildings, and too much drink, and one woman fell off a chair she used to reach a candle. In 1366, John Cook wrestled a friend for fun but died the next day from his injuries.

4 Londoners Had It The Worst

To put a finer focus on the bloodshed, one did not truly want to move the family to London. It was the most violent spot in England.^[7] Archaeologists pondered over 399 skulls, dating from 1050 to 1550, from six London graveyards across all classes. Nearly seven percent showed suspicious physical trauma. Among these, lower-class men aged 26 to 35 filled the most graves. With violence rates double that of anywhere else in the country, the cemeteries showed that working-class males faced extreme aggression.

Once again, the coroner’s roll gave some insight. An unnatural number of homicides happened on Sunday evenings, a time when most lower-class men were in taverns. It is likely that drunken arguments happened frequently, with fatal results. In addition, only higher classes could afford a barrister or partake in duels where both parties had protection. The rest had to settle disputes and revenge with deadly informal fights.

3 Medieval Reading Habits

During the 15th and 16th centuries, religion was immersed in every part of people’s lives. Prayer books, in particular, were popular.^[8] Using a technique that calculates shades on a surface, art historians realized something: The dirtier the page, the more readers were drawn to the content.

To understand what their reading habits were as well as possible reasons behind it, several prayer books were scanned. The most thumbed pages showed medieval Europeans were not that different. One manuscript held a prayer dedicated to St. Sebastian, said to be able to ward off the plague. The prayer was constantly touched, likely by someone who dreaded getting sick. Other prayers about personal salvation also received more attention than those asking the same for another person.

These prayer books were treasured and read daily. However, a humorous find involved one particular prayer. The long piece was always read very early in the morning. Since only the first pages were smudged, it would appear the verse put most people back to sleep.

2 They Skinned Cats

In 2017, a study found that the cat fur industry also extended to Spain. This medieval practice was widespread and used both domestic and wild cats.^[9]

El Bordellet was a farming community 1,000 years ago. Among its many medieval finds are pits thought to have stored crops. But some of them held animal bones, and an unexpected number, around 900, belonged to cat skeletons. They were all in the same pit. Bone growth indicated they were nine to 20 months old, the best age to yield a large, unblemished pelt. Another strong indication that the felines were skinned were cut marks. They marred the remains at the right angles, intensity, and number.

It may make pet lovers cringe, but Northern Europe already slaughtered felines as clothes trimming or to make cat coats. However, researchers believe the El Bordellet cats could have served another purpose—as an ingredient in a ritual. Their pit included a horse skull, chicken egg, and goat horn. All three are known additions to magical medieval rites.

1 Wearing Stripes Was Deadly

Stripes make a chic fashion turn every few years, but back in the day, a lined outfit could get a person killed. In 1310, a French cobbler decided to wear striped clothing for the day. He was condemned to death for his decision. The man was part of the town’s clergy, which did not sit well with the belief that stripes belonged to the Devil.

Good citizens, too, had to avoid wearing bands at all costs. Prolific documentation from the 12th and 13th centuries reveals the strict stance authorities took against the pattern. It was considered the dress of society’s most tarnished—prostitutes, hangmen, lepers, heretics, and, for some reason, clowns. Even the disabled, bastard children, Jews, and Africans were slapped with stripes.^[10]

It is a mystery how the hatred became so easily entrenched. Why not spots or squares? No theory can adequately explain the link between Satan and stripes. One speculative grab cites a Bible verse: “You will not wear upon yourself a garment that is made of two.” Perhaps the medieval mind interpreted the passage as a reference to stripes. Whatever the reason, by the 18th century, the strange aversion was over.

People from the 19th and early 20th centuries were fascinating, to say the least. Inspired by the Industrial Revolution and groundbreaking scientific discoveries, the average householder developed an interest in inventions, “improving” their lives by using cutting-edge (untested) science and technology in every aspect of their social and domestic lives.

Unfortunately, their enthusiasm often ran away with them, and their disregard for health and safety often led to disaster. Here, we look at some of the ways the average person from the Victorian era through the early 20th century may have killed himself while enjoying the benefits of scientific and technological progress.

10 Going To The Bathroom

Visiting the bathroom shouldn’t be a dangerous undertaking. However, the Victorians had a number of perils to contend with. First was the water heater, which was gas-powered and often exploded, possibly because of the candles and oil lamps which were often used by residents who were caught short in the night.^[1]

And then there were the toilets themselves. Prior to the Great Stink of 1858, when London was practically uninhabitable due to the hot weather and sewage smells, toilets with the s-bend design that we know today were rare. Toilets dropped their contents straight into the sewers below, and the smells from sewer rose through the unimpeded pipes and, shall we say, lingered.

And the sewers didn’t only contain eliminations but other sorts of human waste, too. The cemeteries of the period were not well-regulated, and human remains frequently contaminated drinking water or flowed directly into the sewers. And decomposing matter produces methane and carbon dioxide. Methane, particularly when combined with a flame from a candle or water heater, causes explosions.

Straight up through the toilet.

In order to control the methane problem, a number of sewer gas lamps were installed. In a surprisingly green fashion, engineers attempted to power the city’s streetlights using methane gas in order to reduce the dangerous buildups. The lamps were only partially successful, but the widespread introduction of s-bend toilets after the Great Stink made using the facilities a little safer.

9 Eating A Sandwich

A lot of foodstuffs in Victorian England were made with contaminated ingredients. One report in 1877 showed that ten percent of butter, eight percent of bread, and 50 percent of gin had copper added to it, while red lead was added to cheese to give it a “healthy” color. Other adulterants included strychnine in beer, copper in pickles and jams, lead in mustard, iron in tea, and mercury in chocolate.^[2]

Bread, however, was a particular problem. Very few poor people at that time had the facilities to bake their own bread and therefore bought their daily loaves from street vendors. Bread was cheap, so it was a staple food for many, and almost the only food for some. However, the majority of this bread was adulterated with alum. Though it was not poisonous in itself, alum acted to prevent the absorption of nutrients in food.

The alum bulked out the bread, making loaves appear larger for their weight and thus more attractive to poor families with many mouths to feed. Those who survived the sandwich fillings would have developed rickets or other diseases because of their inability to absorb nutrients efficiently.

8 Walking Down The Stairs

Though anyone can fall downstairs, the Victorians were more vulnerable than most to severe injury and even death.

There were very few building regulations at that time and none at all when it came to the construction of modest homes. Stairs were very narrow, often with several steep turns, which made navigation tricky. Also, the builders did not have a standard measurement when constructing their staircases, so steps within a single staircase were often of different height and width.

Not only that, but no one thought it necessary to install a handrail. Some staircases were nothing more than glorified ladders, up which women were expected to climb while wearing long dresses, often while toting a child or two on their hip.

Unsurprisingly, deaths from falling down stairs were common.^[3]

7 Playing Billiards

Snooker and billiards were once considered games for gentlemen only. The balls were made from ivory and were therefore very expensive. However, when celluloid was developed as an ivory replacement, the possibility of billiards for the masses seemed a very real one.

There was a big disadvantage of using celluloid over ivory, though: It was volatile and flammable—very flammable, in fact. That was unfortunate, because one billiard ball striking against another was sometimes enough to cause an explosion. Players complained that the noise sounded like a gun going off.^[4]

Which is enough to put you off your shot.

6 Wearing Makeup

Usually, when you tell a woman that they have a certain glow about them, it is a compliment. For the Radium Girls, however, it was more a sign of impending death.

During the early 20th century, radium was considered to be something of a miracle element. Cosmetics manufacturers claimed (without any evidence) that small amounts of radium were beneficial to health. Customers were sold face creams and soaps laced with radium that were guaranteed to make their skin glow. Other manufacturers added radium to energy tablets, butter, and even chocolate.

Radium was also added to paint, which was used to decorate clock faces with luminous dials. And during the 1910s and 1920s, women who painted them were told to lick their brushes after dipping them in the radium-laced paint in order to point the end of the brush.^[5]

The radium was extremely dangerous, and those who were in regular contact with it often died painful deaths. The clock painters, known as the Radium Girls, suffered terribly. When the body of one was exhumed five years after her death, it was still said to be “glowing.”

5 Cleaning Out The Gutters

The Victorians loved their scientific discoveries and inventions, but they weren’t always careful about testing them before they went into full-scale production.

So when they discovered asbestos, a cheap, nonflammable material, they used it for everything. Its use in guttering was common, but it was also found all over the Victorian and Edwardian home in insulation, floor tiles, and heaters. It was also used in some more unlikely and disturbing products, such as children’s toys. The attractiveness of a nonflammable material in such products is obvious.

Unfortunately, though asbestos is wonderfully flame-retardant, it causes severe respiratory diseases and cancer.^[6]

4 Waking Up To A Nice Cup Of Tea

Ever inventive, the Victorians and Edwardians were always looking for ways to save labor for even the simplest things. Some of their inventions were brilliant, but others fell into the wacky and useless category. And some of them were just plain dangerous.

They tried to develop bottles that babies could feed themselves with, to save parents the trouble of having to pick them up, and made a pump-action vacuum cleaner that such needed vigorous bellow-pumping that it would have given Charles Atlas a tough workout. But right at the top of the list of the inventive, ridiculous, and dangerous was Albert E. Richardson’s patented Automatic Tea Making Machine. He combined an alarm clock with a kettle set over a spirit burner.

The burner used methylated spirits, which were lit by the automatic striking of a match when the alarm went off. Another alarm rang when the kettle was boiled, and a spring mechanism tipped the water into the waiting cup. However, if the match failed to ignite, or if it ignited at the wrong time, the teasmade was potentially lethal.^[7]

3 Setting The Table

The ingenuity, or stupidity, of Mr. Henry Cooper knew no bounds when, in 1902, he invented the self-illuminating table cloth. Why go to the trouble of putting a cloth over a table and then placing a lamp on top of it, he reasoned, when you can accomplish both at once with his patented electric tablecloth?

The cloth consisted of two layers of felt with an electrical circuit sandwiched in between them and six electric light bulb sockets poking out through the cloth. When plugged in, the cloth would give a lovely, intimate feel to his dinner party, without all the extra (two seconds) effort of using separate lamps.

Lovely. Unless, of course, a guest spilled their wine, in which case the whole thing would have gone up like a box of firecrackers. Back to the drawing board, I think, Mr Cooper.^[8]

2 Stocking The Fridge

Keeping food fresh has always been a big domestic problem. Various nonmechanical methods had been developed, such as meat safes, but for the inventive Victorians, that wasn’t good enough. They wanted to produce a mechanical or electrical refrigerator that would keep food cool.

In 1834, American inventor Jacob Perkins unveiled the first-ever refrigeration unit. The fridge was billed as a vapor compression refrigeration unit and as an “apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids.”^[9] However, the fridge was not particularly reliable and very expensive and never caught on.

By the 1890s, however, the cooling process had been “improved” by the addition of methyl chloride gas. This cooled the fridge but was, unfortunately, extremely toxic. Manufacturing ceased when a fridge leaked while still in the factory, causing several deaths.

Though the Victorians were innovative and farseeing in developing fridge technology, less than two percent of the population of Britain owned a fridge before the outbreak of World War II. Later, safer, innovations, of course, demonstrated just how right the Victorians were about the usefulness of a fridge.

1 Doing A Bit Of Light Ironing

Being a laundry maid in the Victorian era was a tough job. Irons were made of (surprise, surprise) iron, which was heavy, and a set of irons were needed in different shapes and sizes to tackle different jobs. They were placed in a fire to heat and then cooled to the correct temperature. Steam was created by covering the garment with a damp cloth before ironing. It was hot, sweaty work.

So it was only to be expected that someone would try to make an electric iron to make the job easier. In 1882, Henry W. Seely of New York was the first person to patent a workable electric iron. The iron was wired, permanently, into a circuit.^[10] However, it was not possible to regulate the temperature of the iron, which made it difficult to iron clothes without burning them. And it was a fire risk, which rather defeats the point.

Nevertheless, like many of these inventions, these early electric irons were the forerunners of something really useful and exciting (electric tablecloths excepted), which shows that perseverance can be the mother of success. Or dangerous table dressings.

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

What do you think of when you imagine spending time in the garden? For some of us, it’s a place to relax in the sunshine, read a book, and maybe do a few exercises. For others, a garden is a place to invite friends, have picnics outside, fire up the barbecue, and socialize.

At ground level, though, gardens can look like battlefields- with plants, insects, small birds and mammals all jostling for space and for food. To survive in the garden ‘jungle’, you have to make use of anything at your disposal- including some targeted chemical weapons.

Top 10 Places You Don’t Want To Visit

10 Tree-killing fungi

We do associate many fungi with poison, which is entirely fair because a lot of toadstools and mushrooms contain highly toxic chemicals (and they have associated scary names, like the ‘Death cap’ and ‘Satan’s bolete’). These poisons are a defence mechanism, discouraging insects and mammals from eating the fungus.

Some fungi, however, are a bit more proactive in their use of chemical warfare. An example is the bracket fungus (Fomitopsis betulina), which grows on birch trees. If the tree is weakened for any reason, the fungus starts to produce digestive enzymes that break down the material inside the tree; the fungus itself can then feed on the broken-down tissue material.

It’s not all bad, though; some of the other chemicals found in the ‘brackets’ (the disc-shaped structures that sprout out from the infected tree) are actually useful for humans, being antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. This type of fungus has been used in some alternative medicines, and was found among the possessions of a 5000 year-old mummy in the Alps, leading to speculation that he used the fungus for medicinal purposes.

9 Insects as a weapon of attack

Another example of a fungus that actively influences its environment is the sac fungus (Ascomycota), which affects elm trees. This fungus makes use of elm bark beetles, which lay eggs in dying elm trees. If the fungus is present, it creates a lot of spores which stick to the young beetles, which then carry it to other trees. As the young beetles feed on healthy trees, the fungus spores get lodged into the tree, especially infecting the system that the tree uses to transport water and nutrients up the tree from its roots. This is fatal; as the tree can no longer sustain itself, its leaves begin to turn yellow and shrivel all year round (not just in autumn) and its shoots begin to die back. This ‘Dutch elm disease’ is now widespread across Europe and North America and has killed a large percentage of the world’s elm trees (the name is actually a nod to the fact that it was first identified and studied in the Netherlands).

The story does not end there, however; some trees seem to have resistance to the disease, such as the European White Elm (Ulmus laevis), which synthesises a chemical called Alnulin in its bark. The elm bark beetles appear to dislike the bark of trees that contain Alnulin, so these elms escape infection. Natural chemical defences may be the key to resisting Dutch Elm disease.

8 The wood-wide web

Despite the previous two items on this list, fungi are not all bad for garden and woodland plants, in fact in most cases they are beneficial. The mushroom or toadstool that you see above ground is actually only a small part of the fungus; a large part of its mass is actually a big network of thin root-like structures underground. This network is called a mycelium, and is very favourable for plants in its vicinity, doing good work such as helping to decompose dead leaves and wood, enriching the soil, and even enhancing trees’ immune systems by triggering the production of defensive chemicals. Recently, however, researchers have found that the mycelium is even more useful than this, sometimes in some quite strange ways; it can be used as a sort of communications network (hence the nickname, the ‘wood-wide web’. This communication can be a simple transfer of nutrients from one tree to the next, but more complex interactions are possible- if some plants in the network are under attack (for example, by aphids) other plants will automatically produce defensive chemicals to fend off a potential predator. The full extent of chemical signalling that can take place is still not fully understood.

7 Insects that are good at manufacturing chemical weapons

Chemical warfare in the garden is not limited to fungi and trees, however; there are a wide variety of insects that are good at producing toxic substances to kill or annoy their predators. Ants are an obvious example of a type of insect that does this; there are over 12000 species of ants in the world, spread across most of the continents, and between them they have an array of interesting chemical defences. Some of the more exotic ones are found in Central America, including the bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) which is said to have an intensely painful sting as it injects poneratoxin into the wound (this chemical is a fairly powerful neurotoxin). However, it isn’t just the exotic species that have chemical means to defend themselves; the common black garden ant (Lasius Niger) uses formic acid as a weapon.

6 Plants manufacture natural insecticides

Left to themselves, insects will munch through a huge quantity of plant matter. Most plants can’t move to defend themselves or kill the insects (with the exception of a few carnivorous plants like the venus flytrap…) so it is no surprise that some plants have evolved chemical defenses. Of course there are the obvious candidates like deadly nightshade and poison ivy, which do contain some very intense toxins, but actually even some of our more unassuming species of garden plants can produce chemicals that are toxic enough to deter insect predators. An example is the humble mint plant- for humans, it makes a tasty sauce to go with your lamb roast, but from the point of view of an insect it produces a cocktail of toxic chemicals. The most powerful of these is a chemical called pulegone that can damage the nervous system of creatures that come into contact with it.

5 Survival strategies of aphids

Aphids are interesting little critters that are generally not favoured by gardeners- they can weaken plants by feeding on their sap, damage new growth, and spread viruses from plant to plant. They are part of the food chain though, so there are a number of natural aphid predators (such as ladybirds and wasps); however, in some situations the number of aphids can become uncontrolled and then considerable damage can be done to the plants they are feeding on. The aphids have quite a nifty chemical tactic, which is to excrete honeydew; this is a sugary liquid made from the plant sap that they are feeding on. The honeydew attracts ants, which like the honeydew so much that they display really protective behaviour towards the aphids- they have been known to fend off aphids’ natural predators, and even to move aphids from wilting plants on to fresh new plants so that they can feed.

4 Aphids don’t have it all their own way

However, despite their symbiotic relationship with ants, aphids do face some chemical dangers in the garden. Strong-smelling plants, such as garlic and onions, seem to affect certain species of aphids. Alliums such as garlic contain a complex mixture of sulphur-containing chemicals, and it seems likely that these change the aphids’ behaviour by e.g. masking the smell of the plants that the aphids would prefer to feed on.

Some plants, though, take a different tack and instead of producing chemicals to repel the aphids themselves, they produce chemicals to attract creatures that are natural predators of aphids. For example, chamomile flower buds produce a volatile compound that is attractive to ladybirds. Selecting the correct plant to attract aphid predators is a complex task, and there is some debate on whether this is an effective method of pest control.

3 The protein chemistry of spiders

Spiders are good at protein chemistry- the silk that makes up their webs is basically made up of very long protein molecules that are packed together to make a fibre. Proteins themselves are made up of many small molecules (amino acids) and the spider is able to vary which amino acids predominate in one particular strand of silk. In this way, they can make some of the strands of silk tough (to hold the web together) while other strands are more stretchy (to effectively capture and hold prey after it flies into the web).

2 Do birds rely on chemical signals?

If small birds are attracted to your garden, that’s a good sign, because it means there are plenty of bugs for them to eat. It used to be assumed that birds had no use for a sense of smell; surely they sense both prey and predators by vision and hearing only? However, more recently researchers have suggested that in some birds, smell is in fact a useful sense. Starlings and blue tits have been known to add the leaves of aromatic plants to their nests, and it is suggested that they select which plants to use based on their sense of smell; but are these plants useful to deter predators or because chemicals in these plants keep bacteria in the nest under control?

1 Venomous mammals

Very few mammals manufacture poisons, because they more usually disable their prey with claws or teeth; however, there are a few examples of venomous mammals. One of the more surprising is the European mole, which is often thought of as a pest when it arrives in a garden (somewhat unfairly, because it does do some valuable jobs in the garden, such as aerating the soil as it digs). We think of moles as cute furry little creatures that eat earthworms and other bugs, but their eating habits are actually far more interesting (and gruesome). Their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyse their prey. The mole then takes its still-living, incapacitated prey down into its underground tunnel network and stores it in a kind of earthworm larder to eat later. The European mole is the only one so far known to display this behaviour, although certain types of shrews can also deliver venomous bites to prey species.

There may be monsters in the closet after all – only this kind was purchased at the store. Everyday items sitting on the shelf are designed to make life easier. In some cases, they can do the opposite. Cosmetic treatments can cause comas and burns inside the body, while dental products come with paralysis and blue people. Then there were the exploding scooters and the earbuds that caused bacteria to eat a woman’s skull.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ridiculous Health Myths (Science Says Are Actually True)

9 Mouthwash – Higher Blood Pressure

When it comes to mouthwash, most people receive their education from television.^[1] The lesson is short. Just swirl the advertised product and all your bacterial worries are over. In 2019, scientists became concerned. Not all bacteria are bandits. Was there a drawback to wiping out all dental microorganisms? They found an alarming side-effect.

First, they grilled volunteers for half an hour on a treadmill. Directly afterward, the participants gargled with either a real mouthwash or a placebo. The results were undeniable. Many people exercise for healthier blood pressure to avoid heart disease and strokes. Indeed, the placebo group showed a reduction but the volunteers who used the mouthwash experienced a drastic interference with this benefit.

The reason is nitric oxide. Produced during exercise, it opens the blood vessels which reduces blood pressure. When it degrades, a waste product called nitrate is formed. Only recently did researchers discover that certain oral bacteria turns the nitrate into nitrite. The latter is crucial to boost the production of the beneficial nitric oxide. The 2019 study proved that there are goobers in our mouths that should stay there. When they are missing, the resulting lack of nitrite prevents blood vessels from opening. As a result, no amount of exercising could lower one’s blood pressure.

8 Acid Reflux Syrup – Werewolf Syndrome

Imagine the following scenario.^[2] Your infant has acid reflux and as a dutiful parent, you spoon the syrup prescribed by a doctor into the kid. Pretty soon, you have a hairy baby. Like, abnormally hairy. This happened in Spain to 17 shocked families in 2019. One infant blinked at his parents with adult eyebrows and swathes of hair on his face and limbs.

Abnormal hair growth is called hypertrichosis or “Werewolf Syndrome.” The congenital condition is diagnosed at birth. However, these children had an acquired form. In other words, they were born without the condition but something triggered it when they were around two years old. Spain’s health regulators identified a common factor – the children all used a syrup for acid reflux. It contained omeprazole but this medication had never caused excessive hair growth in anyone.

Inspectors visited the factory that sold the drug. Their shipment originally came from India but tests proved that the omeprazole was perfect. Things went wrong when the factory decided to divide the bulk shipment and re-sell the smaller batches. The idea was to stick the omeprazole label on bottles. For some reason, the labels ended up on another product at the factory, one that contained minoxidil. This compound fights baldness by encouraging hair growth. Luckily, the children are expected to shed the extra fuzz as they grow older.

7 Hoverboards – Explosions And Burns

The future has arrived.^[3] Human beings are finally zipping around on hoverboards. To be fair, these devices do not fly. They resemble high-tech skateboards driven forward by an internal power source. The hoverboards became a hot item during the 2015 and 2016 holiday season. However, it became a little too hot. The battery pack’s design was faulty, causing several machines to overheat during a ride. There were fires. Some hoverboards exploded.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received 99 complaints about the two-wheeled scooters, 18 of which involved injuries. Most were burns to the limbs and neck. Needless to say, this was not what people expected after paying up to $900 for a hoverboard. The unpredictable devices were banned from campuses, railroads, and airlines due to safety concerns. Not only riders were injured but the fiery scooters also damaged property. At the end of the day, over 500,000 hoverboards were recalled from ten companies.

6 Denture Cream – Permanent Paralysis

In 2017, a man from the United Kingdom experienced symptoms that became increasingly frightening.^[4] First, there was a tingling in his fingers. However, soon numbness and pain weakened his legs so much that the 62-year-old had to depend on a cane to move around. Within six months, he was housebound.

Doctors suspected a neurological problem and wheeled the patient through an MRI scan. Indeed, they found he was suffering from copper deficiency myelopathy. This was weird. The body needs very little copper. For someone to become so deficient that they develop a brain condition, something peculiar had to be going on.

The reason turned out to be an overdose of zinc. Too much zinc is known to block copper absorption. The source of the zinc turned out to be the man’s dental cream. He admitted to applying too much cream because of ill-fitting dentures. For the past fifteen years, the patient used up to four tubes a week. The cream was immediately removed from his dental regimen and he was treated with copper supplements. Sadly, the nerve damage was irreversible and the man remains wheelchair-bound.

5 Acupuncture – Pierced Lungs

Acupuncture’s benefits are not uniformly verified by science.^[5] Even so, the practice remains a flourishing alternative for those looking for less invasive therapies. The craft is ancient but not flawless. For centuries, practitioners have known that a point called Gallbladder 21 was a tricky one. Incorrect manipulation of this spot could have dangerous consequences for the patient, including pierced lungs. Frighteningly, prospective clients are not always informed about the risks involved.

In 2019, a woman from New Zealand found this out the hard way. The 33-year-old had an arm injury that affected her breathing. The acupuncturist inserted a pair of needles into her Gallbladder 21, which, despite the name, is located in the shoulder region. As the needles went in, the woman experienced pain and became worried because the insertion felt too deep. The pins were left for 30 minutes, rotated and pulled out. Almost immediately, she felt uncomfortable. The woman told the acupuncturist that there was a strange sensation around her lungs. It felt airy and painful. She was told to go home and rest.

That night, her husband took her to the hospital where the woman received emergency care. Doctors diagnosed bilateral apical pneumothoraces. The condition is as scary as it sounds. The needles pierced the top of one lung, which later caused both organs to collapse. Punctured lungs are a common problem in acupuncture. A 2010 study identified Gallbladder 21 as the culprit behind 30 percent of such complications.

4 Vaginal Steaming – Second-Degree Burns

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow endorsed vaginal steaming and predictably, it turned into a trend.^[6] Said to cleanse the vagina, the technique is simple – just hover over a steaming bowl full of herbs. In 2019, a painful incident proved that celebrities can give really stupid advice. A Canadian woman was recently told she had a vaginal prolapse, a condition where pelvic organs slip out of their normal position. The 62-year-old was hopeful that the steaming remedy might help. Instead, she wound up in the emergency room with second-degree burns on her vaginal membranes and cervix.

The sad part is that the trend is bogus. Scientists found only risks and no benefits. Biologically, the vagina also cleans itself. It does not need to go through a herbal steaming, which incidentally also interferes with beneficial bacteria that safeguards the vagina. The woman’s prolapse was scheduled to be treated surgically but the procedure had to be delayed until she could recover from the burns.

3 Cotton Swabs – Skull-Eating Infection

A woman, identified only as Jasmine, visited a doctor because she could not hear properly.^[7] The physician gazed into the offending left ear and declared that she had an infection. Jasmine was prescribed antibiotics but the deafness remained.

In 2019, she cleaned her ears with cotton swabs. This was a daily habit but that night there was blood on the swabs. When the patient visited a specialist, she was given a serious dressing down about her swab habit. The specialist was probably still in shock. A CT scan had shown, in graphic detail, a horrifying skull infection caused by her ear-cleaning regimen. Cotton fibers had been collecting inside her ears for as long as five years and resulted in a bacterial infection. The microorganisms feasted on the bone behind her ear and were literally eating it away. As a result, the skull region was paper-thin.

The 37-year-old underwent a 5-hour operation to remove the corrupted tissue and rebuild her ear canal. Jasmine’s surgery managed to eradicate the infection but the hearing loss in her left ear was permanent.

2 Tooth Gel – Blue Blood

In 2019, a woman entered the emergency room of a Rhode Island hospital.^[8] “I’m blue,” she told the doctors. The 25-year-old was not being funny nor did she make a reference to depression. Her skin had a light blue tinge. The staff whipped out a syringe and pulled some blood, which turned out to be dark navy blue.

The diagnosis was methemoglobinemia. This condition occurs when there is a dangerous lack of oxygen in the blood due to an iron abnormality. The patient was already in the danger zone. Serious tissue damage can start when blood oxygen levels reach 70 percent. She was at 67 percent. The treatment was swift and successful. The patient was given a remedy that was aptly named – methylene blue. Two doses later and a night in hospital returned the woman to her pink self.

But what caused the Smurf look? When questioned, the patient said she had a toothache the night before. She applied copious amounts of a numbing medication that contained benzocaine. This freaky customer can influence the iron inside the blood. Benzocaine changes iron so much that the element can no longer bind to oxygen. When this bond severs, blood circulation becomes a problem and blood, skin, and nails turn blue.

1 Face Lotion – Coma

In 2019, a Sacramento woman followed her usual beauty routine.^[9] She reached for her favorite face cream, a brand that she had been using twice daily for years. This time something went horribly wrong. Her extremities went numb and she could not walk or talk properly. The 47-year-old was rushed to the emergency ward where she lapsed into a semi-comatose state. At first, she reacted to staff when they spoke to her but eventually the mother of five became unresponsive.

Blood tests identified the culprit. On average, everyone carries 5 micrograms of mercury per liter of blood. The patient had a staggering 2,630 micrograms per liter. Worse, it was methylmercury. Nobody could say with certainty if this dangerous type of mercury’s addition to the cream was accidental or homicidal. Mercury is often the ingredient that makes age and blemish lotions effective.

But this brand was a risky one. Imported from Mexico and sold informally to the public, the woman’s son admitted she loved the anti-wrinkle cream because it outperformed all pharmacy brands. Unfortunately, this the first such poisoning in the United States. Doctors do not have enough experience to say when or if she will ever wake up again.

Everybody has fantasized about hitting the jackpot at some point in their life. Whether you scour the ocean floor looking for sunken treasure, love sports betting or casinos, or even just play the lottery, everybody harbors a small flicker of hope that one day they can win big and change their lives for the better.

For most people, this payday and level of wealth will always remain an unattainable dream that few people are willing to invest time or money into achieving. But for the incredibly lucky few, great fortunes are still out there, just waiting to be discovered.

With that in mind, here are 10 examples of ordinary people who made astonishing discoveries that made them millions of dollars overnight.

Related: 10 Inspirational Rags-To-Riches Stories

10 Hand of Faith Gold Nugget, Australia: $1 Million

In the fall of 1980, Kevin Hillier and his family were traveling up and down the Australian coast in a van searching for work opportunities. Hillier had been making ends meet by doing odd jobs. However, after suffering a back injury, doctors had told him to cut back on the physical labor but to go walking to aid his recovery, which directly led to his interest in metal detecting.

Hillier’s wife often prayed they would discover their fortune through their newfound hobby, and Hillier once dreamed that he found a gold nugget that couldn’t be removed from the soil. But the family continued to struggle until one day in September 1980 when, outside his small hometown of Wedderburn, Victoria, Hiller’s dream became an unbelievable reality.

While out walking with his metal detector, Hillier really did discover a gold nugget that couldn’t (initially) be pulled from the ground. After many hours of careful digging, he managed to extract a gold nugget that weighed about 27.6kg (61 lbs.) which he sold in February 1981 to the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas for over $1 million, where it remains the largest gold nugget on display anywhere in the world.^[1]

9 Heade’s “Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth,” Indiana: $1.25 Million

In January of 1999, an unnamed man was playing a board game about fine art titled Masterpiece when he recognized a picture that was painted in a similar style to a painting he had bought to cover a hole in the wall of his Indiana home. Intrigued, he searched the internet until he came across information from the Kennedy Galleries in New York regarding the work of an American artist named Martin Johnson Heade.

After sending some pictures and a description of the painting in his home to experts at the gallery, the owner was shocked to learn that his acquisition was actually a lost work by Heade. The piece was still in its original frame, and it was in remarkable condition, considering it was painted in the 1890s.

Heade’s “Magnolias On Gold Velvet Cloth”—as the painting was titled—was eventually purchased by the Houston Museum of Fine Arts for more than $1 million after the board of trustees managed to raise the funds in a meeting that lasted less than 90 minutes.^[2]

But don’t be discouraged, reportedly, there are many more lost or forgotten—and valuable—paintings just waiting to be found at your neighborhood thrift store, flea market, or rummage sale.

8 Declaration Of Independence, Pennsylvania: $2.42 Million

The Declaration of Independence is considered by many Americans to be the most important document in the nation’s history. After the original was created, 200 “first edition” copies were made by John Dunlap ‘ were made so the message of the Declaration could be carried across the nation. Of the 26 copies known to survive, only three of them are currently in the hands of private collectors.

One such copy was discovered behind a painting that a collector only bought because he liked the frame. Upon disassembling the frame, the unidentified owner found an “unspeakably fresh” first edition copy of the Declaration Of Independence folded up behind the picture.

An excited friend encouraged the owner to contact Sotheby’s to get it appraised and eventually it sold for $2.42 million at auction in 1991, with the price reflecting the unique nature of this discovery and the remarkable condition it was in. That same copy was auctioned by the 1991 auction wiiner again in 2000, bringing in $8 million.^[3]

7 Hoxne Hoard, UK: $2.5 Million

In November 1992, a farmer was working his fields in Suffolk, England, when he realized that he had lost his hammer. Knowing it could take years to search for it alone and not willing to give it up as lost and buy a new one, he asked his friend Eric Lawes to bring his metal detector over and attempt to locate his missing tool.

Not long into the search, Eric picked up a signal, so he began digging in the soil where his reading was strongest. It quickly became apparent that he had not found the hammer but had instead stumbled across something much more exciting. After digging up a few shovels full of gold and silver coins, Eric quickly contacted police and local archeologists to inform them of his discovery. The very next day, a team of experts excavated the entire chunk of earth containing the coins so that they could be examined and extracted under laboratory conditions. It was only when the experts began the lab work that they realized the significance of Eric’s discovery.

Overall, Eric had found about 27 kilograms (60 pounds) of gold and silver objects, including over 15,000 coins that dated from the Roman occupation of Great Britain. Mr. Lawes received over $2.5 million from the British government as compensation for his remarkable discovery, which he split evenly with the landowner, who eventually found the hammer which had sparked the initial search.^[4]

6 The Royal One, Black Opal, Australia: $3 Million

In 1999, a man known only as Bobby decided to sell all of his equipment and retire from an opal mining career that had lasted more than 20 years. Bobby lived in Lightning Ridge, a small mining community in New South Wales, Australia, and he found the stone in the very last bucket that had been mined.

Bobby worked carefully for months to reveal the beautiful opal, which he eventually named the Royal One. For reasons known only to him, Bobby inexplicably kept it under his bed (or in a kangaroo skin pouch around his neck) for more than 14 years despite having the expertise to know just how potentially valuable it was.

Eventually it was auctioned off in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2013, and the Royal One—a 306-carat high quality black opal—netted Bobby over $3 million.^[5]

5 Tanzanite Stones, Tanzania: $3.4 Million

Tanzanite is an incredibly rare mineral that can only be found in one place on earth, the African nation of Tanzania, from which the gem gets its name. The rarity of tanzanite makes it extremely valuable, and mining this gem provides a valuable source of income for many budding entrepreneurs and treasure hunters in the country.

Out of all the people who spend their lives searching for tanzanite, Saniniu Laizer must be considered the luckiest. In June 2020, his mining operation in Tanzania recovered the two largest examples of the mineral ever recorded, weighing 9.3 kilograms (20 pounds) and 5.1 kilograms (11 pounds), which he sold to the Tanzanian government for more than $3.4 million.

Amazingly, Laizer wasn’t ready to retire with his new fortune. Just two months later, in August 2020, reports suggest that he found another huge piece of Tanzanite weighing 5.3 kilograms (14 pounds), worth an estimated $2 million.

Laizer has 30 children to care for, but he still promises to build a school and a medical center with his newfound wealth in an attempt to help all the people who live in his impoverished community.^[6]

4 Crosby Garrett Roman Helmet, Cumbria UK: $3.6 Million

In the UK, important archeological finds must be reported to the relevant authorities upon discovery. Certain valuable metals such as gold and silver are not permitted for private sale, so just like the previously mentioned Hoxne Hoard, a “finder’s fee” is paid to anyone who discovers and reports valuable historical artifacts. The finds are then acquired by local museums, where they can be studied and viewed by the public.

The next item, however, wasn’t covered by these laws as it was made from bronze, which is only considered treasure if it is part of a hoard. Since this object was discovered on its own, it could be sold privately, which was great news for the pockets of the unnamed person who found it!

The artifact in question is a bronze, ceremonial Roman cavalry helmet in unbelievable condition for its age. It was discovered by an amateur metal detectorist on a Cumbrian farm in the UK in May 2010. It’s one of only three Roman helmets to be found in Britain with a complete facemask. Because of its rarity and the fact it could be purchased by anybody, the helmet eventually sold for $3.6 million, which was paid by a private collector at an auction in October 2010.^[7]

3 Staffordshire Hoard, UK: $4.3 Million

An amateur metal detectorist named Terry was searching a field in Lichfield, England, in July 2009 when he came across an area with a uniquely strong signal. Almost immediately after breaking the surface of the ground, the man knew he had discovered something special as he started to uncover an astonishing stash of gold, weapons, and ornaments that had lain undisturbed beneath the surface for over 1,300 years.

What has become known as “The Staffordshire Hoard” was essentially a “war hoard” dating from 600–650, which was an especially turbulent period of England’s history. Experts believe that the items were captured in battle by armies from the kingdom of Mercia, which was at war with the neighboring regions of Northumbria and East Anglia at the time. Although, how it came to be buried in a field far from any known buildings or roads, we will probably never know.

The hoard was purchased by the Birmingham Museum for more than $4.3 million and is still available for the public to view. The money was split evenly between metal detectorist Terry Herbert and landowner Fred Johnson.^[8]

2 “Christ Mocked” By Cimabue, France: $26.8 Million

This story is remarkably similar to that of Heade’s “Magnolias on Golden Gold Velvet Cloth,” which originally covered a hole in a wall. However, this painting, “Christ Mocked” by Cimabue, hung over a stovetop in a French farmhouse for decades. Thought to be a Russian religious relic, the paint was darkened by the stove’s heat, and the whole thing was covered in dirt and grease. This tiny masterpiece was eventually discovered in September 2019 by an auctioneer categorizing the belongings of the elderly owner who was moving out of the old house and into a retirement home.

Upon closer inspection and after some cleaning, it was realized that this was one of only 11 known paintings created by the Italian artist Cimabue. The painting was put up for auction. It was purchased by two U.S.-based collectors who specialized in Italian Renaissance art, but the French government imposed a 30-month ban on the export of the painting with the hope that it could quickly raise enough money to buy it so that the painting could remain in France and eventually be displayed in the Louvre.^[9]

1 The Third Imperial Easter Egg by Fabergé, USA: Roughly $33 Million

The Russian Revolution is famous for many things: the eventual rise of communism, the demise of the Romanov royal family (the last monarchs in Russian history), and the confiscation and eventual sale of numerous golden bejeweled eggs created by the master artist, Peter Carl Fabergé, by the incoming regime.

Fabergé eggs not only hold remarkable value because of the cost of materials used in their creation and their fabulous designs but also because they are the last remaining relics of a royal family and a way of life that no longer exists in Russia today.

You would think that with their incredible notoriety, Fabergé eggs would be quite easy to identify and locate, but due to the secretive nature of Stalin’s sales of the eggs to private buyers in Western countries, eight of the Imperial eggs created for members of the Russian royal family are still missing today.

So when a man from the midwest happened across the Third Imperial Easter Egg at a jumble sale, the intention behind him spending $14,000 on acquiring this unique piece of art was not based on knowledge of art or Russian history, but from a desire to melt it down and profit from the raw materials that the egg consisted of. Upon appraisal, however, the unnamed man realized that he had paid more than the egg’s gold and jewels were worth, and he was worried that he had made a colossal error that would cost him a lot of money.

In desperation, the man searched the words “egg” and “Vacheron Constantin” (the words engraved around the clock) into Google and stumbled across an article in a British newspaper.

To the scrap metal dealer’s astonishment, the egg he thought would lose him money was actually worth something in the region of $33 million, and in 2014, the egg was purchased by a private collector for an unknown price.^[10]