12 Most Incredible Ancient Atrifact Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain

what can you tell about an ancient culture or civilization from the artifacts they leave behind sometimes these items tell us a lot about what our ancestors believed or how they lived their lives other times they tell us almost nothing at all mysterious ancient artifacts will always be a source of fascination for us because we can't explain them in some cases we can't even say how they were built we love hearing about mysterious riddles from long ago and far away so we're sharing some of them with you in this video for many years it was believed that the origin of the 2700 year old carambolo treasure was connected to the myth of atlantis thanks to new research published in april 2018 we no longer think that was the case but it's no less mysterious as a result the treasure is made up of over 20 pieces of ornately crafted golden jewelry and was discovered by chance by construction workers digging a road close to seville spain in 1958 the atlantis connection comes from the fact that the treasure was first thought to be a product of the tartesso civilization who were known to have lived in southern spain almost three thousand years ago and were described as very wealthy and technologically advanced the civilization suddenly vanishes from history around 2500 years ago for unknown reasons prompting speculation that tortesos may have been the origin of the atlanta story it's now thought that the goods belonged to the phoenicians who arrived in the region 2 800 years ago and set up a port for trading close to cadiz testing has shown that the gold was locally sourced in spain but doesn't get us any closer to explaining why nothing that looks anything like it has been found elsewhere in the country a remarkable discovery was announced in south africa in 2011 when archaeologists reported that they'd come across what might be the world's first artist studio incredibly it seems that there were artists and crafts people working at this site 100 000 years ago inside the blombos cave experts discovered traces of paint mixtures in shell containers these early humans ground oat tree into powder then mixed it up with charcoal and an unknown liquid to create their paint showing an understanding of chemistry and a capacity of planning that were once thought to have been impossible for our ancestors at this early stage in their development the paint produced in the studio might have had a number of uses ranging from cave wall painting to paint for clothing or even human skin other caves in south africa have revealed the presence of beads and red oatre paint dating back 77 000 years which had already pushed our understanding of the origin of human art back several thousand years after this discovery historians have had to rip up the record books and accept that it began even earlier it's a common cliche in fashion that what's old eventually becomes new again perhaps why this scythian woman's boot discovered in the permafrost of the altai mountains in june 2020 still looks so fashionable today despite the fact that it's 2300 years old the boot is so well preserved that it's retained most of its original bright red color that's mostly due to the elaborate and thorough burial customs of the scythian people when a scythian passed away they were buried in a log cabin built at the bottom of a deep pit the pit was then topped with birch bark and moss so when the permafrost eventually settled on top of it the grave this boot was found inside practically becomes a time capsule the red cloth of the boot is wrapped around a leather insole decorated with pyrite crystals in gold foil that suggests that she was a lady of high standing within her community there's no sign of wear or tear on the bottom of the boot so it's probable that the footwear was created specifically for her funeral our next story is not about one single artifact but a whole collection of them they were all discovered in colombia and each of them is about 6 000 years old the other thing they have in common is that they're made from lidite that's a material as tough as granite and would have been exceptionally hard to work with begging the question of why these ancient colombians would have gone to the trouble of carving artifacts out of lidite when they had access to so many softer materials to work with it's not just the question of why they did this that bothers historians it's also the question of how take the so-called genetic disk for example it's almost perfectly round and smooth and covered in tiny ornate details yet there are no signs of tool work anywhere on its surface if we didn't know better we'd say that it was made using modern laser cutting technology there are also flutes among the collection that features holes drilled with such precision that we'd struggle to replicate their design now let alone with the equipment available so long ago it's no wonder that so many people believe the ancient south americans had access to other worldly technology [Music] the bible tells us that pontus palate was the man who ultimately ordered the crucifixion of jesus christ he was an enormously influential figure in the judea of the time serving as the region's governor on behalf of the roman empire his position in public profile would have enabled him to live an affluent lifestyle so it's highly doubtful that he'd have been interested in purchasing comparatively cheaper jewelry like copper alloy rings that makes this particular copper alloy ring something of an enigma it was discovered close to bethlehem some time ago but a more recent computer analysis of the engraving on the surface has revealed that it bears pontus palate's name there's no question about its authenticity it's about 2000 years old so it was almost certainly made during palate's lifetime if it wasn't worn by palate himself who did it belong to might it have been a wife or consort of his could it have been worn by a slave to identify them as pilates property sadly we might never know many fantastic old norse and viking artifacts have been recovered from scandinavia over the years and they're all interesting in their own way among the most commonly discovered artifacts you might find in the region are tiny gold amulets depicting a man and a woman seemingly embracing each other more than 3 000 examples of the design have been recovered over the years all of which date back between 1 000 and 1500 years despite the plethora of examples of the design archaeologists still have no idea what it's supposed to represent each amulet is a tiny and fragile item smaller than a human fingernail and less than a tenth of a millimeter thick based on their design they appear to have been made by the same template stamp but there are differences between them so minor that you need a magnifying glass to identify them the clothing of the figure sometimes changes and occasionally the scepter carried by the man is replaced by a twig with leaves on the end typically the amulets are found in the foundations of ancient norse places of worship raising that possibility that their votive offerings the identity of the people on the amulets can only be guessed at [Music] while we're talking about vikings let's talk about the una tarq disc archaeologists speculate that this might have been a kind of twilight compass but as only one small fragment of the disk has been discovered they can't be sure the fragment was found by a danish archaeologist on the grounds of an 11th century content in greenland in 1948 it was initially dismissed as a mere decorative item but years later it was revealed that if you paired it with sun stones and a wooden slab the notches along its side turned it into a functional compass a device like this could be used to allow a ship to continue sailing after the sun has gone down and visibility is dropped to near zero because the uv rays of the sun still create patterns through sunstones even when the sun itself is no longer visible it's likely that at one point there was a horizontal directional pin in the hole at the center of the disc the vikings were known to be enormously accomplished sailors perhaps devices like this are what kept them one step ahead of their enemies humans have been using coins as history for well over 2 000 years and coin discoveries are usually nothing special in the field of archaeology this next artifact is a little different though it was minted in turkey around 2600 years ago back when the people of the region worshipped greek gods it's thought to be the oldest coin ever discovered in the world that's why a private collector was willing to pay almost 400 thousand dollars for it when it was sold at auction in germany in 2014. the stamp on the coin translates into english as i am the badge of fairness which adds to the mystery there is a greek god known as spanish but in this context it might also be a reference to a person or a place what we do know is that the coin is known as a stator and would have been the highest denomination of coinage in the grease of the era aside from the badge of fantasy inscription the coin also features the likeness of a deer which is possibly a depiction of the greek goddess artemis the coin is made from electrum which occurs naturally in greece but may not have been made there its origins are unknown [Music] speaking of ancient artifacts with greek heritage here's the magic sphere of helios which is currently on display at a museum in the greek capital of athens the large marble sphere gets its nickname from the indecipherable symbols carved upon its surface which some people believe indicates that it was once used in ancient religious or magical rituals the historically puzzling sphere was discovered beneath the theater of dionysus in 1866 at the foot of the famous acropolis but was probably made around 600 years prior to its discovery it's known that sporting events including duels to the death were held within the theater if this is a magic ball of some kind it might have been used by competitors hoping for good luck before they did battle of the very few inscriptions on the sphere that can be interpreted or understood one is helios the ancient greek sun god sitting on his throne the beast resting in his feet is either a lion or a dog elsewhere there are animals constellations and arcane symbols connected with the ancient practice of alchemy it might even be that the orb was designed to be confusing and is nothing more than the work of an ancient prankster but its discovery at such a significant location makes that unlikely eight thousand years ago during the neolithic period in china the hong shan people lived next to the liao river they left very few traces of their society behind when they disappeared but among the few things they did leave for us to remember them by was their collection of strange figurines the hongshon were obviously very gifted when it came to working with jade and clearly spent a lot of time working on their figurines but we lack the knowledge of their culture to determine what they're supposed to symbolize they're humanoid in shape but don't actually appear to resemble humans or at least not any humans that we've seen their enigmatic nature sometimes causes people to see what they want to see when they look upon them some observers swear that their depictions of dragons whereas others insist they're representations of the classic grey alien that so commonly is associated with alien abduction stories these figures don't appear in any other known neolithic cultures so it would be fascinating to find out what inspired the hongshon to create them the official purpose of the american numismatic society which you'll find in new york city in the usa is to study and preserve coins and metals sometimes during the performance of those duties they come across artifacts that they can't explain during a stock taking exercise in 2015 they were surprised to find an amulet stored within their cabinets that they had no record of and couldn't identify despite turning to the public for assistance with the identification process the amulet's backstory and purpose remain unknown the tiny amulet is just one millimeter thick and two inches tall and wide the piercing in the top of the object implies it was once worn around the neck on a string but the surface is covered with glyphs that defy translation the bottom right hand corner of the face of the amulet is especially interesting as it contains drawings of human faces that could be compared to modern smiley emojis the artifact is undoubtedly ancient so it isn't a more recent forgery but the glyphs look like either pseudo-arabic or possibly poorly interpreted scandinavian runes do you know what this is if so contact the american numismatic society they'd love to hear from you [Music] texts or glyphs that don't translate are always the source of frustration for archaeologists and historians which makes the cascadel block one of the most frustrating ancient artifacts ever discovered if the inscriptions on this block can be positively identified as an attempt at a written language they'll serve as evidence that the olmecs were the first civilization to master the written word in the americas the bloc was found by road builders in veracruz mexico in 1990 surrounded by ceramics and clay figurines among other debris the figurines have been proven to be three thousand years old which has led some archaeologists to believe that the cascado block comes from the same time that makes it 400 years older than the earliest known examples of the zapotec written language on the other side of the debate however are archaeologists who argue that correlation is not causation and that the block isn't necessarily 3 000 years old just because the things discovered around it are they say that it's likely to be far more recent and might even be a fake the fact that the symbols don't line up in rows like other forms of mesoamerican writing might support the idea of it being a forgery but they'd also support the idea of it being a form of writing we've never encountered before we don't know who to believe [Music] subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and you will be the first to know when a new video comes out thank you for watching and see you in the next video

Channel: Inforado

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Keywords: 12 Most Incredible Ancient Atrifact Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain, mysterious artifacts, ancient artifacts, ancient finds, archaeological mystery, archaeological finds, artifact found, ancient archaeology, scientist still cant explain, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: _lLd6wzfhic

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020