12 Most Incredible Discoveries Scientists Still Can't Explain

human beings love mysteries and scientists might love mysteries more than anybody else whenever they're confronted by something inexplicable they use all their skills and training to try to understand and explain it often they succeed sometimes though they're left just as baffled and confused as the rest of us many archaeological discoveries leave scientists with that frustrated baffled theory and we've packed some of the very best of them into this video for you much like brigadoon the mythical village in the scottish highlands the principality of tumutarakan in russia was once thought to be nothing more than a myth its name was mentioned on ancient written records but no physical evidence of its existence was discovered until 1792 when the stone of tutu moroccan was found at fenegoria the stone which is now housed in the state hermitage museum of saint petersburg contains a written record of the distance from turmerican to kirch as measured by prince gleb in the year 1068 the purpose of the record is believed to be an attempt to measure the width of the kirch straits and places that width at around 18 and a half miles the study that was performed on the stone at the time of its discovery is thought to be the first epigraphic study ever undertaken in russia but even that fact doesn't placate the skeptics there are still people today who believe that the stone is nothing more than an 18th century forgery and that tumoratican was never anything more than a fairy tale perhaps the lack of evidence can be put down to the fact that many ancient russian cities of the 11th century era were made from wood if a fire broke out a city could be lost overnight [Music] a drought is never good news when there's a drought in modern times a city or country affected by it might be forced to call upon its neighbors for emergency assistance in ancient times a drought could easily doom a city a country or a whole civilization that might explain the existence of the so-called hunger stones on the banks of the river elba in chechia one such stone can be found just north of prague chechia's capital city and was revealed by falling water levels in late 2018. the message written on the giant stone is an ominous one it says if you can read me weep it's thought that the inscription was made by innkeeper franz mayer in 1904 when the water level dropped to dangerously low levels and the whole city was in danger of drying up back then the river played host to whole businesses and industries so when the river dried up so did all the trade rafters would mark droughts by engraving the sandstones with messages like these and so the hunger stones were born the oldest of them can be found in decim which dates back to 1417 and is thought to be the oldest hydrological landmark in europe its author is unknown [Music] the fields of england are covered in strange unnatural lumps and mounds for many centuries archaeologists and historians thought that each of them was a burial ground but they're now starting to suspect that this may not be the case instead of graves they may actually be what rabbit breeders of the medieval era used instead of cages to keep hold of their livestock recent studies of some of the mounds have revealed them to be surprisingly advanced for their era they were built in oblong shapes and connected via stone tunnels with a moat or ditch surrounding the mound to prevent the rabbits from escaping and also protected them from predators the remains of ancient houses and towers have been discovered close to the mounds in some places suggesting that the warren keeper might have lived in lodges close to their rabbits rabbits aren't thought of as an especially valuable commodity today but during the 11th and 12th centuries rabbit meat was seen as a delicacy and the fur of a rabbit made for a good cheap substitute for irmine areas like dartmoor and brecklens are covered in pillow mounds and hark back to a forgotten era of british farming and agriculture [Music] thailand is full of spectacular sights for visitors to see but there may be no site quite as spectacular as three whales rock in boing khan seen from above this formation of three long smooth rocks looks like a trio of enormous whales swimming through the forests just as easily as real whales would swim through the oceans the best place to get a view of the whale rocks is at the peak of fu xingha in tambon kokkong where the whole site can be seen from above the long smooth rocks have clearly identifiable heads and long tails that disappear into the undergrowth as they taper off behind the heads the official explanation for their existence is that they occurred naturally and they were whipped into their current shape after being exposed to the wind and the rain for millions of years not everybody buys that explanation though weathering can shape rocks if enough time passes but why are there no other rocks in the area or in fact anywhere else that we're aware of that have taken on this unique shape through exposure in april 2020 archaeologists and scientists made a startling discovery when they opened a 3000 year old coffin in egypt we all understand the purpose of painting and decorating the outside of a coffin as well as showing respect to the occupant the paintings often confirm the identity of the deceased this coffin however has been painted on the inside there's a depiction of raw on the inside of the lid of the coffin as if it had been put there for the mummy to look at based on the inscriptions on the exterior of the sarcophagus the mummy is thought to be that of takaherb either a princess or a priestess who lived in thebes thousands of years ago ra isn't the only old egyptian deity to be found inside her coffin there are also depictions of amenitat also known as the lady of the west the mummy was donated to perth museum in 1936 but the existence of the painting wasn't known until the coffin was opened earlier this year for restoration work on the mummy ahmentet was believed to be the god who welcomed souls to the afterlife so that might partially explain their appearance on the interior of a coffin lid [Music] it took human beings 3 800 years to discover this unusual wall mural in peru it might take us another 3 800 years to work out what it means archaeologists found the wall deep inside a ceremonial building at the archaeological site of vicama just north of the peruvian capital of lima in august 2019 among the many strange carvings upon it is a toad with a humanoid face which experts think might be central to the mural's meaning toads were associated with rainfall in ancient andean culture so the wall might be a celebration of rain's arrival or a hope that the rain may eventually come close to the toad are another four human faces surrounded by snakes and a seed that also has a human face the meaning of those carvings is harder to work out experts don't currently have a detailed theory other than the possibility that the carvings were made during a time of either famine or drought and so the mural might have been a plea for help from the gods vicama was once a fishing and farming community so any threat to either industry would have been a great crisis for the region [Music] high up in the carpathian mountains of southeast poland you'll find syndrome's mountain at the top of that mountain you'll find a hill fort that was built at least 3500 years ago a fort that's believed to be the oldest example of stone architecture in all of poland a fort is a place for soldiers and warriors so why is it that the archaeologists working there found two tiny stone pig figurines in august 2020 the fort was probably built by the ottomany a bronze age culture known for introducing the amber trade to the region and briefly dominating much of eastern europe but not known at all for creating children's toys are the pig figures supposed to be children's toys or do they have another meaning that we don't understand the tiny carved figures were found in a layer of clay that was once the floor of a dwelling within the fort so it's possible that this is where one of the soldiers lived with their family whoever made them was exceptionally skilled at working with stone even though they're barely an inch high the figures have clearly defined snouts ears eyes and even nipples they're beautiful objects but we don't know why they were created many ancient cultures practice the craft of making beta jewelry but we've never seen a bead that looks quite like this before we can't even be sure that it is a bee it looks more like the kind of croquette ball you'd see in the alice in wonderland movie the beautiful blue ball which is around two inches in diameter can currently be found at the metropolitan museum in new york usa but originally came from ancient egypt it's a depiction of a hedgehog curled up in a defensive pose with paws ears snout and even individual spines clearly visible a crack along the equator of the ball suggests that it was created in two halves and then join together using heat the artifact is amazingly well preserved for something that was made around 4 000 years ago the best explanation of its existence is that it might have been a votive offering of the kind that was often left at temples but there are holes in this one that suggests it might have once been worn on a thread like a pendant like the stone pigs it's a unique item that might have had nothing more than a decorative purpose but it's odd that we've never found another one like it almost nothing is known about the pics who once lived in ancient scotland we don't even know how they referred to themselves the name picks was given to them by the romans archaeologists have spent years looking for ancient pictish sites to investigate so it was a little embarrassing when an enormous one was found to be hiding in plain sight in may 2020 it eventually took drone footage to clue the experts into the fact that toponoth hill close to rini and aberdeenshire was once an enormous pick dish settlement that would have been home to approximately 4 000 picks during the 4th and 5th centuries it's the largest pictish site ever discovered and destroys the previous theory that large settlements of thousands of people didn't begin to appear in scotland until the 12th century the close concentric arrangement of this settlement has led archaeologists to believe that it would have been arranged according to a hierarchical social structure offering us our first glimpse into the way that the pics lived and governed their people the pictish civilization vanished from history during the 10th century for unknown reasons perhaps further examination of this site will offer us our first clues [Music] it doesn't always take an experienced archaeologist to make a remarkable discovery a young amateur with a keen eye can do the job too as was proven to be the case when nineteen-year-old nico coleman discovered this beautiful ancient dagger at the site of halter namsay germany in february 2020 this was a roman military camp 2000 years ago and it seems one of the roman soldiers there went to his grave without ever using his dagger and anger if he had it wouldn't have been nearly so clean or well preserved nico found the silver dagger still inside its sheath although at first glance he nearly dismissed it as a piece of junk because the exterior had rusted so much it had turned orange and looked almost like a rock it took months of careful cleaning and treatment to get rid of the rust but once it was gone the dagger was found to still have its full complement of encrusted gemstones around the hilt and the handle it's too decorative to have been a war weapon so it was probably a ceremonial dagger albeit not one that ever saw much use depictions of the female form are among the oldest and most repeated forms of art known to humankind humans have been attempting to replicate female beauty with paint clay and stone for almost as long as they've been able to manipulate tools and these sculptures from a mine in france illustrates that point perfectly the statues are known as the venus figures and over 15 of them have been found so far the most recent of them came to light in november 2014 and is believed to have been carved around 23 000 years ago during the paleolithic era as you can see from these images the statues focus only on the female torso there are no heads or faces and in some cases there are no limbs either that's led some experts to classify them as fertility totems but there may be another explanation the women of the time wouldn't have had access to mirrors and so wouldn't have known what their own faces looked like it's possible that these statues crude as they might be are early examples of self-portraits made from limestone we've already covered the fact that we don't know much about the pictish people of ancient scotland but one of the few things we do know about them is that they were very keen on making stone cross slabs they made at least 50 of the slabs which might have been a type of marker stone and of those the ding wall stone is the best preserved and most fascinating archaeologists have two ideas about how this stone which was made around 1200 years ago might have been used the first is as a landmark helping the pictish people to find their way home after a day of hunting the second is as a warning to non-picks alerting them that picks lived nearby and if intruders got too close they might place themselves in mortal danger the warning theory might be the more likely explanation it would certainly explain why the stone is covered in shields swords and humanoid figures with animal heads if you saw this while walking through a forest or a field you probably wouldn't see it as an invitation the reverse side of the stone is believed to be decorated with a crescent and v-rod shape although the archaeologists currently studying it have been strangely reluctant to provide photos of that side of the stone maybe there's something there they don't want us to see [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 soon

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Keywords: 12 Most Incredible Discoveries Scientists Still Can't Explain, incredible discoveries, mysterious finds, unexplainable, scientists still cant explain, unusual finds, ancient finds, ancient mystery, ancient archaeology, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: 6dAoUUOR1uA

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020