12 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain

there are a lot of gaps and guesses in our history books our historians have done the best they can with the information they have and archaeologists help them with that by supplying them with as much information as they can about the things that they find the problem with that arrangement is that archaeologists are sometimes mystified by the things that they discover as we're about to see with the amazing and enigmatic finds in this video [Music] ireland is often referred to in the united states of america as the old country but the history of human habitation of the emerald isle goes back even further than most people imagine we know that because of archaeological sites like drumbeag's stone circle in roskeberry the site which is also sometimes referred to as the druids alter is considered to be the irish equivalent of stonehenge in england there are 13 megaliths standing there today although it's believed that there were once four more dating stones is difficult for archaeologists but the radio carbon testing carried out on human remains uncovered at the site has proven that it was in use at least 3 100 years ago as is often the case with stone circles the site has been laid out in alignment with the movements of the sun in this case matching the winter solstice traces of human occupation are littered across the surrounding terrain including what's left of ancient homes and what appears to be a kitchen facility even with so many examples we still don't know what sites like this were used for were they a calendar a focus for ritual activities both or something else entirely four thousand five hundred years ago a part of the world that we now know as northern india was home to the indus civilization stretching from there into the east of pakistan the remains of more than 2000 indus sites have been uncovered by archaeologists but nothing puzzles them quite as much as the indus script which appears on the stone seals left behind by this mysterious culture are the symbols on the seals a form of written language we're not sure but if it is we still haven't been able to translate it despite recovering more than 6 000 examples of it aside from appearing on stamps the script also appears on pottery tablets weapons and tools often accompanied by drawings the glyphs often recur which is a telltale sign of written language but they don't quite recur often enough for analysts to be positive that they're an attempt to convey a message they might be nothing more significant than a description of the items they've been found on or they could be a whole written history of the indus that we don't have the skills or knowledge to translate there are very few solid pieces of information that we or anybody else can give you about the novolara steel we know that it was made around 2600 years ago and we know that it was found close to novolara in italy we also know that the inscriptions on its surface are written in a variant of the etruscan language known as north pekin beyond that everything is speculation the reverse of the steel shows a hunting scene so the text might be a description of that or might not be associated at all the fact that the letters are etruscan mean that we can read them individually but we don't understand the words that's only part of the mystery though we don't know where the north pokey language came from or who spoke it because of that we don't have any idea who made the novorilla steel they might have been a branch of the ancient etruscan civilization or they might have been a totally different civilization in their own right hundreds of academics have tried to translate the steel in the 130 years since it was found but none have succeeded [Music] although the pyramids of cairo get the most attention in egypt they're actually ancient pyramids to be found all over the country and that includes the pyramid of senestret in the third dasser the mud brick and limestone pyramid is a little more rustic than the ones you've seen in the movies and it was made almost 4 000 years ago aside from all the usual chambers and tombs that you'd expect to find in such a place there's also some rather alarming graffiti one example of which shows a human head with a strikingly modern hairstyle it's possible but not proven that the tomb was either raided or accessed during the hixos occupation around 2 800 years ago and the graffiti was added at that time while there are several sarcophagi inside the pyramid including several female members of senesret's family the remains of senesret iii himself don't appear to be present they might have been taken by the same grave robbers who dobbed the passageways with graffiti or alternatively he might have chosen to be buried in his abedine tomb instead the earliest written records of the chinese civilization were written not on paper paperos or parchment but on animal bones they're called oracle bone scripts and although we've been able to translate some of them we're a long way from translating them all that's why the national museum of chinese writing in china's hinan province has been offering fifteen thousand dollar rewards to anybody who can translate even a single unknown character of the scripts since 2017. hundreds of oracle bones have been discovered in china dating back three thousand years to the time of the shang dynasty almost five thousand different characters have either been painted or carved onto the bones approximately 2 000 of which have been translated and understood the rest remain a mystery and with less than half of the characters translated understanding the full meaning of the oracle bones has proven to be impossible it's thought that some of them contain little more than the names of people or places but some of the more complex ones might contain insight into ancient chinese systems of taxation governance and even gossip we've mentioned a few forms of untranslated text now so we should probably introduce you to the oldest undeciphered writing in the world it's etched out across a series of 5 000 year old tablets and it's known as proto-elamite more than 1600 clay tablets containing examples of the language have been recovered from iran and they're considered to be so aesthetically pleasing that some of them are on display in the louvre in paris france the messages written upon them however are understood by nobody the language is so named because of where it was found a series of cuneiform tablets made 500 years later has also been recovered from the same area and the language upon them is known as elamite this is a little misleading as the two languages have almost nothing in common what makes them even stranger is that the language appears to have lasted only about 300 years before disappearing which is almost no time at all in a historical sense the script is linear which distinguishes it from other forms of early mesopotamian writing but being able to identify its form hasn't got us any closer to knowing what's being discussed on the tablets you never know what you might find when the waters of a lake drain away especially when it's been a very long time since the water level dropped drought conditions in the iznik district of bursa turkey have reduced the waters there to their lowest level in centuries and revealed the remains of a basilica that was built 1500 years ago even with the water disappearing the ruins of the basilica weren't noticed until aerial drone photography detected them it's thought that the basilica found itself underwater after an earthquake struck the area in the year 740. the iznik area is known to have been a focus of religious activity for both the byzantine and roman empires so there's some debate about who built the basilica but the best guess is that this is an early example of great christian architecture in shape and size the building bears similarities to hagia sophia which is also in iznik and was built during the 5th century it's based on this that the estimate of the sunken basilica's age has been made curiously seals belonging to scottish knights have been found among the ruins how they got there is unknown speaking of scottish mysteries archaeologists made an incredible discovery on the top of the extinct volcano known as arthur seat in edinburgh scotland in early september 2020 it's a craggy and inhospitable place today but thousands of years ago it played host to a whole community known as the votindini tribe the votedini tribe built a fort there to defend their territory some 3000 years ago during the iron age and it's the remains of that port that are getting archaeologists excited today the team has struggled to drag and carry its equipment to the 850-foot peak of the volcano but the discoveries they're making there have made all the effort worthwhile it's hoped they'll be able to gather new information about the votedini and their way of life other than the fact that they once controlled a large portion of the southeast of scotland thousands of years ago very little else is known about them the cliffs coupled with the 18-foot thick stone walls would have made this a great defensive position to hold and the views of the surrounding countryside may have been even more breathtaking than they are now the gribs huddend is one of the best preserved ancient shipwrecks on the planet and offers us a fascinating insight into the kind of mind games that went on during the warfare on the water centuries ago the name of the danish vessel which belonged to the army of king john and sank in 1495 translates into english as griffinhound which might go some way to explaining the appearance of the strange creature that decorated the bow it has enormous teeth the beak of a bird of prey huge wide eyes and what appears to be a screaming human trapped in its jaws if you saw this ship coming for you in the 15th century you'd immediately have known that you were in trouble the wreck is so well preserved that traces of the original paintwork still cling to the figurehead which confirms what historians have long believed about figureheads like this being painted with bright colors after they were carved parts of the wreck have split open and spread across the ocean floor but archaeologists believe that this happened before the sinking rather than after historical records suggest that the gribs hudden sank because of a fire on board looking at the evidence a full-on explosion appears to be more likely the cause if you've ever sought out the comfort of asana to relax after a session in the gym you've taken part in a practice that dates back at least four thousand years scotland might not be the first place you might think of visiting for its sauna scene but the remains of a bronze age underground sauna were found there by archaeologists in 2015 that doesn't necessarily mean that the people of the time used the sauna for the same reasons we use them today though experts believe the sauna may have been provided as a relatively comfortable place for women to give birth the noteland region of scotland would have been cold and challenging for the people of the bronze age so having a nice warm underground retreat they could head to if things got too cold outdoors would have been a luxury but it's more likely that entry was reserved either for pregnant women or perhaps religious leaders the sauna which is unique in scotland was found on the island of westray it's stunningly well preserved and doesn't appear much different today as it would have done during the time of its use in fact if you brought some hot stones to sink into the water tank you could probably still use it [Music] how long do you imagine that human beings have been playing board games to pass the time it goes back a lot longer than the invention of monopoly and even longer than the invention of chess during the excavation of a tomb in shenzhou city china in march 2016 artists discovered the remains of a board game that was made around 2300 years ago we sometimes like to tell ourselves that the people of that era were primitive but this board game seems to have been quite complex and involved the die made from an animal tooth has 14 faces each with a different symbol engraved onto it 21 painted game pieces have been recovered too along with broken tiles that might once have been part of the game board by putting the tiles back together archaeologists were able to determine that the board consisted of two eyes surrounded by clouds and lightning strikes the only thing missing was the rules which is a shame because it looks as if this might be a fun game to play if we understood what we were supposed to do an astonishing archaeological discovery elsewhere in china in 2018 quickly went from thrilling to terrifying as the researchers found out more about it the 4 thousand year old lost city which once sat on a ridge above the countries to y river contains a stepped pyramid that was once 250 feet tall protected on two sides by enormous walls that was the exciting part the terrifying part came a little later when they started digging and found that the ground around the pyramid contained multiple pits full of hundreds of human skulls while they could be the leftovers of a great battle the fact that it's just skulls as opposed to the whole skeleton implies that they're the victims of human sacrifice the city's been named shimao and has been thought to have been founded approximately 4 300 years ago and lasted for around five centuries the entrance to the pyramid leads to an open plaza which might have been where the sacrifices took place and at the very top there would have been a grand palace the discovery of the city challenges our current understanding of bronze age chinese society which is based on the idea that the first complex chinese societies emerged from the central plains subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and you will be the first to know when a new video 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Channel: Inforado

Views: 358,089

Keywords: 12 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain, ancient finds, ancient archaeology, archaeological discoveries, archaeology, ancient mystery, mysterious, mysterious finds, still cant explain, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: SONBZPqhIJM

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020