12 Most Mysterious Recent Archaeological Finds That Change History

history isn't set in stone nobody living today knows exactly what life was like for any of our ancestors living several hundred years ago so we piece together our understanding of history from the objects artifacts and written records left behind from that era that means history can sometimes be wrong and when new facts appear or new discoveries are made history has to be changed everything you're about to see in this video changed our understanding of history some in small ways and some in big ways stone circles exist all over europe most notably at the stonehenge site in england but wooden circles are just as common the problem with discovering wooden rings is that wood rots over time so the remains of these ancient complexes can be challenging to find in early august 2020 one such wooden circle was discovered in portugal at the pertigos complex and this so-called woodhenge might be the most impressive of them all based on the evidence collected at the site it appears to have been built towards the end of the stone age and is unique in the fact that nothing like this has ever been found in portugal before the circle is within a natural amphitheater and is around 60 feet in diameter featuring pits that show evidence of sacrificial deposits like stonehenge the entrance and exit points of the circle seem to have been aligned with the sun's position during both the winter and summer solstices this would appear to confirm that whatever rituals and practices were observed by people living in stone age england were also observed in stone age portugal even though the two countries couldn't possibly ever have met [Music] wooly mammoths have been extinct for thousands of years but that hasn't stopped scientists all over the world dreaming of bringing them back to life through cloning now thanks to the discovery of an almost complete set of siberian mammoth remains found in russia in july 2020 that dream may finally come true the mammoth remains which are around 10 000 years old are so well preserved that the animals hair and flesh are still present permafrost has kept them covered for all the years since it passed away but an unusually warm summer in siberia has melted enough of the ice to free the beast and allow experts to move in and take it away further analysis has shown that it would have been a teenager when it died but appears to have perished due to natural causes the yellowy soft tissue that still cling to the mammoth's bones are rich with mammoth dna and that dna can now be taken and used in cloning experiments ethical objections might hold the project up but it looks like mammoths will walk the earth again sooner rather than later strange as it may seem today purple was once a color that was only worn by royals leaders and the supremely wealthy that's because it was a difficult color to produce and the phoenicians and romans guarded the secrets of how to make it jealously it's easy for us to synthesize the color purple today but we had no idea how our ancient ancestors used to do it until very recently now because of the hard work of tunisian expert mohammed ghassan nuria we do muhammad had long suspected that the dai's secret rested with sea snails that washed up on his local beach so he spent years experimenting with them in an attempt to recreate the shade he finally realized that the dye could be produced by cleaning out the shells removing the intestines and allowing them to oxidize this must have been the same method that the phoenicians learned and then passed on to the carthaginians and romans it takes him two days to create a single gram of the dye but it's turned into a whole new career for him because european traders are willing to pay him up to four thousand dollars for every single gram for years scientists and archaeologists have wondered how the incredible wall paintings of the mesoamerican city of teotihuacan were created the murals are beautiful but the secret of how they manage to keep their shade for so many years has always eluded them it eludes them no longer because earlier this year a team of researchers proved that the people who created the murals did so using a highly unusual method they used minerals many of the paintings were created using a mixture of mercury sulfate and iron oxide the team's work focused on the palace structure at the center of quetzal papillatol which is thought to have been the home of either a high priest or a great leader the mercury sulfide is cinnabar which provides a red shade red was an enormously important color to the people of the time because of its association with blood fertility and the sun cinnabar may even have represented blood to these ancient artists which gives the temple walls a slightly ghoulish tone the artists didn't just paint these monuments red because they liked the color they did it to make a statement about what happened within these walls these days we think of dolphins as intelligent friendly creatures that are willing to swim with us and might even alert us to danger if they're feeling kind they haven't always been like that a recent discovery made in south carolina usa suggests that dolphins were once terrifying sea-based predators who would be far more likely to bite you in half on sight than swim next to you the remains of this prehistoric dolphin ancestor which lived more than 25 million years ago show that it was around 50 feet long and had enormous teeth that would have been perfect for ripping and chewing almost any marine creature it came into contact with its bone structure suggests that it had the same echolocation abilities as its modern cousins but it would probably have used that ability more for hunting than for social purposes the previously unknown species has been given the scientific name ankyloriza titamani and improves our understanding of the chain of evolution that dolphins have followed during their long time living on our planet we're glad they're more gentle now than they were back then at the start of summer 2020 an indian farmer decided he was going to dig a fish pond in his field in agra city uttar pradesh he never got around to finishing his pond because he was stopped in his tracks when he accidentally discovered the remains of a pradihara era temple from the 11th century he quickly contacted local experts and archaeologists and they've been excitedly excavating the site ever since so far they've made some remarkable discoveries including two sandstoned amilakas and the lamppost that presumably once marked the entrance to the temple amalakas which are decorative ridged stone discs are more closely associated with the 3rd and 4th centuries than the 11th and have never been found before in this part of india they also weren't previously thought to have been a key part of temple design for the pratiharas who ruled much of india's north from the 8th century to the 11th and were more noted for their pavilion style temples than more intricate creations like this the discovery of this incongruous temple might suggest that there was more to the pradaharas than we think or perhaps that there were other people living on land controlled by the pradaharas if you live in or close to olst zinn castle in northern poland you'll already know about olsen castle the large famous structure dominates the local landscape and it's pretty hard to miss what you might not know is that there's a secret network of tunnels and chambers underneath the castle and that's because they'd somehow managed to remain hidden until summer 2020 it appears that the tunnels were used by a secretive society during the middle ages although there are signs that their usage goes back even further than that the castle itself was built in the 14th century for the bishop of krakow but it was then rebuilt as a fortress by casimir the great archaeologists aren't yet sure which of them ordered the creation of the tunnels or even if the tunnels pre-date the castle we certainly know that neanderthals sheltered here long before modern humans did because we found their stone tools a fissure in the ground conceals the tunnel's entrance so it's even possible that the people who built the castle didn't know they were there that begs the question of who used them and what for the existence of the old silk road trading route has been known about for centuries but the route is so enormous that vast stretches of it still haven't been fully excavated or explored archaeologists are working on it a piece at a time and in july 2020 they made a remarkable discovery right at the start of the road in the northwest region of china a collection of 2 000 year old tombs has been discovered dating all the way back to the han dynasty and providing us with new information about what's seen as the ancient golden age of china the 27 undisturbed tombs were full of jade figurines and even jade clothing which is significant because back then jade was associated with the mythical jade emperor who the people of the time believed to be the ruler of heaven the presence of so much of the material in the tombs suggests that the people buried here were of very high social standing and may even have been rulers in their own right experts now hope that they're closer to finding the remains of quinchi huang the first emperor of china the famous terracotta army was found in what's believed to be his tomb but his body has never been recovered returning our attention to poland in june 2020 we heard that archaeologists had unearthed a series of gigantic 7 000 year old structures known as roundels in the vicinity of tauren the spiral-like arrangements are made up of ditches 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep the strange imprints on the ground were first noticed in 2019 but their full extent wasn't revealed until a year later the roundels are almost invisible to the naked eye but their form can be detected using a device known as a magnetometer which allows scientists to see below the ground without disturbing the surface or damaging the remains of what was once there a structure this large would have been a massive undertaking for the people of the era not least because they would have had to have been dug out by hand using tools made of bone or horn fragments of linear pottery have also been detected at the roundel site which surprised researchers because pottery of that kind has traditionally been associated with earlier cultures the presence of antlers and animal bones has also been proven suggesting a ritual or ceremonial purpose for these strange examples of ancient architecture [Music] the roundels in poland give us an insight into how people lived seven thousand years ago but if you visit grot de cusack in dordon france you can glean an insight into the way human beings lived and died more than 25 000 years ago this incredible cave is full of human bones animal bones and over 800 examples of cave art including paintings and engravings it's said by some to be the most beautiful and significant ancient art gallery in the world the human remains inside the cave appear to have been deliberately placed in nests that bears once used to hibernate in which created hollows on the cave floor traces of red ochre in and around the indentations suggest that the nests were painted before the remains were placed there hinting at a burial practice that we can't even begin to understand it's also apparent that the bones were arranged in a specific way long after decomposition and the same pattern has been used in the arrangement of all the remains that are found there it appears that humans have always approached death with a certain kind of reverence it's just that the reverence has changed over time england has always been the home of theater and drama it is after all the birthplace of william shakespeare in january 2019 the remains of a theater that was around during shakespeare's time but was thought to have been destroyed centuries ago might finally have been found excavation work for a housing development in the white chapel district of london uncovered a rectangular structure made up of over 100 timbers and archaeologists believe that this is the site of the legendary red lion documents from the elizabethan era suggest that the red lion was the first purpose-built theater created during that time but its location was long disputed and the building was considered to be lost if the claims veracity can be proven these timbers were put in place in 1576 by john brain and staged plays written by shakespeare when he was a young writer in the 1590s to many historians this was the birthplace of elizabethan theater very little is known about what went on inside the red lion other than the fact that it was mentioned in lawsuits in 1567 and 1569 so it's hoped that the ongoing exploratory dig will reveal a few more of its secrets we've always known that our ancient ancestors used primitive tools to go about their tasks of labor but it's amazing to think how far back that practice goes thanks to a discovery made in ethiopia earlier in 2020 we now know that ancient homo erectus an ancestor species to modern day humans used handcrafted tools an astonishing 1.4 million years ago archaeologists working in the country at the site of kanso garjula have discovered a set of ancient hand axes made during the pleistocene period and they're different from any ancient tools found before stone tools of around this age have been discovered in the past but these newly discovered axes are fashioned out of bone it's only the second homo erectus bone axe ever found and appears to have come from the thigh of a hippopotamus closer examination of the axes has shown signs of polishing from regular wear and tear and scarred patches where the tools appear to have been heated from this experts have deduced that they were probably used for animal butchery in an attempt to make the meat easier to swallow and digest in a way you could even consider them an ancient form of cutlery 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 Mysterious Recent Archaeological Finds That Change History, archaeological finds, archaeological mystery, mysterious, ancient finds, ancient mystery, ancient archaeology, history mystery, recent finds, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: 1yuCB_f575A

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020