12 Most Incredible Artifacts Finds

what secrets can we learn from the artifacts left behind by the people who came before us well to answer that question we'd need to take a closer look at some of those artifacts which is exactly what we're going to do in this video some of the objects left behind by the civilizations of the past are incredible works of craftsmanship each with their own story to tell let's tell a few of those stories looking at things from a historical perspective can make even the most humble of objects fascinating like this ball of string for example obtained from a dig site in england in 2011 this delicate ball of thread and yarn was wound around a bobbin more than 3 000 years ago in a bronze age village close to where peterborough stands today based on archaeological evidence gathered from the site it appears that the old settlement was abandoned in haste after a large fire broke out most of the objects at the site at the time of the fire were either badly damaged or totally destroyed but this ball survived because it's made of plant fiber probably a nettle base or flax when the fire broke out the plant matter carbonized and then became waterlogged in the years that followed allowing it to be preserved intact not everyone would have been able to create thread like this 3000 years ago so this probably belonged to the village's resident craftsmen who might have been responsible for making clothes alternatively maybe it's just a relic of somebody's knitting hobby not everything that was made in the roman empire stayed within the roman empire although the ancient romans guarded their goods jealously they sometimes ended up in the hands of other people whether by trade or by conquest one of the more curious examples of that cultural exchange that's been found recently is the burial site of a barbarian woman laid to rest two thousand years ago in russia still wearing fine jewelry that's unmistakably roman in design jewelry like this would have been hard to come by at the time doubly so if you weren't a roman yourself so she was probably someone of very high status within her community perhaps a warrior or the wife of a chieftain her remains were discovered in the mountains of carbodino bulgaria in 2019. the complexity of the rings on her fingers is too advanced for them to have been made by barbarian tribes because there wasn't even any glass production going on in the north caucuses of the era and the design is consistent with roman trends of the period as valuable as the rings are they pale in comparison with the violet amethyst medallion that was found around her neck it's a wonder nobody robbed these fine grave goods after she was buried as we move across russia to siberia we find the lands where the yupik people settled in ancient times eventually spreading to western alaska around 3 000 years ago and creating settlements in the cusco queen river and yukon areas there are only around 25 000 of them today and that small community keeps alive the knowledge and traditions that went into making these beautiful masks the people who founded their society obviously had a high opinion of themselves the word yupik translates into english as real people which implies that they saw the other civilizations around them as something less than real at the center of their settlements you'd find buildings known as koskik which is where ceremonies of dance singing and storytelling took place these masks played vital roles in those ceremonies symbolizing things like life death birth and rebirth they would be worn by a shaman who wore the masks to summon the spirits they were created to represent a shaman would even have a mask of his own face for when he was telling tales derived from his own personal experience to make it clear that he spoke on behalf of himself rather than the spirits you could consider it an ancient form of theater of all the many and varied myths of ancient europe the germanic legend of wayland the smith is perhaps the most enigmatic was he a humble blacksmith a living god or something in between you'll find him referenced in the folklore of every germanic culture in old norse mythology he's known as volund ancient high german refers to him as violent and old english has his name as welland the names stem from the proto-germanic word velandes which means he who crafts things the best known and most impressive artifact that relates to vailand is the eighth century angle-saxon artifact known as frank's casket only three types of story appear as engravings on the box tales of ancient rome tales of the bible and tales of the adventures of valent the smith which suggests that he must have been seen as equally important back then legend has it that he was imprisoned on an island and forced to manufacture goods by nyar king of the nars who also stole his wife and daughter eventually he gains his revenge by murdering the king's sons creating goblets from their skulls and tricking the king into accepting them and then escaping on a self-made pair of wings that story is too fantastical to be true but could it be an exaggeration of a tale based on a real folk hero perhaps we'll never know [Music] marie antoinette the 18th century queen of france is best known today for being the out-of-touch monarch who said let them eat cake when she was told her starving subjects had run out of bread if she knew those words were her eternal legacy she'd be very annoyed not least because she never actually spoke them she'd much rather have been known for her impeccable dress sense marie antoinette was a dedicated follower of fashion as we can see from this silk shoe of hers which was recently auctioned in versailles france and sold for just under 12 000 the delicate white shoe which contains a little goat skin in among the silk is easily identifiable as the queen's former possession because she had her name etched upon the heel it's likely that she'd have worn it regularly as she spent her days in the palace prior to the french revolution and the downfall of the monarchy the queen's former chambermaid marie emile leschevin managed to rescue the shoe during the revolution and it was kept in her family for over 200 years before finding its way to the auction house [Music] in 2014 nikolay tarasov was out fishing on a lake in tisoul south russia when he caught something he wasn't expecting on his line when he pulled it out of the water it frightened him looking at the expression on this ugly figurine it's easy to see why but being ugly doesn't mean that it's not a priceless artifact this is believed to be a figurine of a pagan god carved from animal horn approximately 4 000 years ago nicolet didn't realize its historical value when he first saw it but he was savvy enough to take it to a local museum where he discovered its true historical significance he could hardly believe that the figurine had been hiding at the bottom of the lake since bronze age times waiting for him to find it historians can't decide who made the figurine but it's likely a product of either the samus or okunev cultures who lived side by side in this part of south siberia thousands of years ago generously nicolet has donated the piece to the tesoul history museum without seeking any compensation in return speaking of scary ancient faces check out this 6 000 year old mask that was discovered in bulgaria in november 2020 historians are puzzled by the design of this clay piece it's definitely humanoid but you wouldn't exactly call it human it has oversized eyes and no mouth or nose some conspiracy theorists have tried to claim it as the face of an alien but it's more likely to be a representation of a mask worn by the tribal people who created it in provadia solnitsara during ancient times the settlement is thought to be one of the oldest towns in all of europe adding to the strange appearance of the face the mask also has very small protuberances at the top left and top right with tiny holes drilled into them which might be intended as ears the holes would have had thread passed to them so the mass could be worn or perhaps hung from something unfortunately we don't know much about the people who lived in this part of the world during late chalcolithic times so the true purpose or symbolism of the mask can only be guessed at cats have been chasing mice and rats around for as long as both species have existed the chase usually doesn't end well for the mouse or the rat but sometimes it ends badly for both of them we can see evidence of that at the cathedral of the holy trinity in dublin ireland it's already notable for containing britain's largest crypt built during the 12th century but it's the comparatively more recent wall art that captures most people's attention there framed in a glass case you'll find the mummified remains of a cat and a mouse both of whom got trapped inside an organ pipe during the 1850s and passed away later becoming mummified the rat appears to have managed to stay away from the cat's clutches but it was a pirate victory quite why someone saw it fit to preserve them and put them on public display as unknown but they found fame thanks to the james joyce book finnegan's wake which makes reference to a character being as stuck as the cat is to the mouse in that organ in christchurch bizarrely the cat still has all of its fur but we don't think we'd be interested in stroking it in 2011 an exquisitely carved skull was found in an antique shop in vienna austria the antique shop is unable to say who donated it to them when or why they assumed that it was little more than an ornament but it isn't this is a real human skull belonging to someone who passed away at least 300 years ago and covered in intricate symbols and decorations that nobody has thus far been able to transcribe local folklore says that the skull arrived in vienna with a doctor who traveled extensively through asia and was given the strange object as a gift by a tibetan monk after providing him with medical treatment it's a lovely story but sadly it can't be verified there might be something to it though the style of the lettering does appear to be tibetan even if it can't be fully transcribed one of the figures on the top of the skull has been identified as sidipati who's seen as a protective deity according to some ancient buddhist traditions skulls aren't easy things to carve and decorate like this so whoever carved this one went to a lot of time and effort to do so we wish we knew why we've all heard of messages in bottles but how about messages on bottles excavation work has been ongoing at more than 230 graves inside an ancient necropolis in autumn france throughout most of 2020 and some of the artifacts that have been recovered so far are incredible this exceptionally rare roman glass vase etched with an inspirational message is probably the pick of the discoveries made so far even without the message etched onto its surface the vase is a notable find it was manufactured during the 4th century and is made of reticulated glass which is considered to be the peak of roman glass making achievements only 10 such vases have ever been found before and this is the first one since the 1970s the message on its side reads live in felicity which is perhaps better understood as live happily we suppose you could consider this the ancient equivalent of live laugh love the whole area that the vase was found in was once known as gaul and occupied by the same celtic tribes who once occupied most of western europe they along with almost everyone else in the area eventually fell to the might of the roman empire [Music] human beings have been making music for as long as they've walked the face of the earth but were other hominid species also musical we asked that question because of the controversy that surrounds the existence of the so-called dija babe flute which was discovered close to cirque no in slovenia in 1995 made from the femur of a cave bear some historians believe that this is a musical instrument specifically a flute carved intentionally by neanderthals more than 43 000 years ago that would easily make it the oldest musical instrument in the world but it's so far beyond what we believe the capabilities of the neanderthals were that some experts have a hard time accepting it it's even been suggested that the indentations on the bone were made by animals but that surely can't be the case the spacing and alignment of the holes are too perfect to have occurred by chance there's an outside chance that it was made by crow magnets rather than neanderthals but that isn't consistent with the archaeological evidence that surrounded it when it was discovered perhaps the neanderthals enjoyed music and dancing just as much as we do today [Music] while we're wondering whether neanderthals deliberately made flutes we should also wonder whether vikings deliberately made magnifying glasses if they didn't we have no idea what else their vizbee lenses would have been used for the lenses turn up regularly at viking burial sites on gotland island sweden although oddly that's the only place they're to be found even though there are many other viking burial places to be found in europe each of the glasses is precisely engineered with similar magnifying qualities and very low spherical aberration as hard as it is to believe the evidence clearly shows that they were deliberately created to magnify things that doesn't necessarily mean that they were used to make reading or looking at objects from a distance easier though it's possible that vikings use them to magnify the lenses of the sun and start fires as all of the visby lenses discovered thus far have been found in the same places and all of them were made during the 11th or 12th century historians think that they may all have been made by the same person a person who never taught their skill to others and took the secret of creating visby lenses to their grave [Music] subscribe 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Channel: Amazing Stock

Views: 57,841

Rating: 4.8734179 out of 5

Keywords: 12 Most Incredible Artifacts Finds, ancient artifacts, incredible artifacts, ancient archaeology, archaeological artifacts, artefact found, artifacts, archaeological finds, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: ILmLk20Dk08

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020