Certain structures, megaliths, and buried
items defy explanation, but there are some crazy theories about them. Let's take a look at some historical artifacts
that continue to baffle experts to this day. You might think that real-life archaeology
is nothing like what you see in the movies with its treasure maps with spots marked by
an X. "And X never, ever marks the spot." But not so fast! The Copper Scroll is an honest-to-goodness
treasure map. It was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and
it tells the story of exactly how to find major ancient treasures … sort of. According to the text, 64 treasure hoards
were scattered across Jerusalem and the Judean desert, and they were used to hide the most
valuable treasure in the world from invaders. That treasure includes not just religious
artifacts but also a huge amount of gold, silver, and coins. The pieces of archaic text that have been
translated give rather precise directions. The problem is that the directions are a little
too precise and refer to things like water tanks, reservoirs, and underground passages
that we have no way of tracing now. Some think the whole thing is fiction anyway. But another school of thought believes the
Copper Scroll was a record of the actions of a religious sect living in the city of
Qumran who were responsible for safekeeping Jewish treasure. Scattered across four different sites in the
Costa Rican jungles are the remains of a civilization that date to between 500 and 1500 AD. In addition to the regular sort of archaeological
remains, they also contain around 300 stone spheres, known as "Las Bolas". They're close to perfectly shaped spheres
and are all different sizes. Some could fit in your pocket, and others
are estimated to weigh somewhere around 15 tons. For hundreds of years, they were buried under
dirt, mud and sediment, and that's kept them safe from all kinds of unsavory characters. That hasn't helped experts figure out much
about them, though, and we thus have no clue who made them, when they were made, or what
they possibly could've been for. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to the
placement of the spheres, most of which are in residential locations. One of the sites has a set arranged in a linear
pattern, another has an abnormally large sphere, and a sadly large number have been looted,
destroyed, or moved. And that means we don't even know how many
there really were. They can't be carbon-dated, but based on the
layers of sediment they were buried in, it looks like someone was carving them over a
period of about 1,800 years. Lore says that the gods used them to control
the weather, but maybe they were just a sort of divine bocce set. Sometime incredible discoveries get incredibly
boring names like "The Big Circles." Made out of stone, and dating from sometime
between 2000 and 4500 BC, The Big Circles were first spotted in 1920, but it wasn't
until 2014 that archaeologists discovered how weird they are. So far, 12 have been found scattered across
Jordan along with one in Syria. They range between 720 and 1,460 feet in diameter
with a rough average height of three feet. What's weird is that they're pretty perfectly
round and that there's no entrance to any of them. The fact that there's no entrance puts an
end to most of the theories about what they might've been used for. There's no practical reason that you're going
to, for example, keep a herd of cattle in an enclosure you'd have to lift them in and
out of. The sheer distance between each of the sites
is also confusing. It is known, at least, that some of them have
been destroyed. The one in Syria was all but demolished by
expanding towns, but that hasn't gotten us any closer to figuring out what they were
built for. In 2016, archaeologists from the University
of Glasgow unearthed a prehistoric site that had already been discovered once. After the Cochno Stone was thoroughly documented
in the 1960s, it was then re-buried to protect it from vandalism. Dated to around 3000 BC, the stone sits next
to a housing estate and is said to have some of the best depictions of Neolithic and Bronze
Age carvings ever discovered. But we don't know why people went to all the
trouble of carving the exquisite markings into relatively soft stone, or what any of
it means. The surface of the stone was already mapped
before it was defaced by graffiti and people's boots. The goal of the 2016 excavation was to map
it more extensively, with 3D scanning technology that would allow archaeologists to get a look
at the stone as it was originally intended. While we doubt that this is the case, we would
love the irony if the carvings turned out to be graffiti from prehistoric hoodlums. How do you say "Eat at Joe's" in Neolithic? Judaculla Rock is named for the Cherokee legend
that Judaculla, an ancient giant, was the one who left the markings on the boulder's
surface. The tale says that he was jumping from mountain
to mountain when he pressed his hand into the stone and left the imprint of his seven
fingers. But aside from that, no one's really sure
what the deal is about the North Carolina stone with the prehistoric petroglyphs. Strangely, some of the best images we have
of the rock come from the 1930s, when archaeologists filled in the carvings with chalk to show
where the markings were. In the decades since, weather has taken its
toll on the soapstone boulder, and it's inevitable that at some point, the carvings are going
to wear away completely. They've already been dated to be between 2,000
and 3,000 years old. Not only do we not know what the carvings
mean, we're not sure who made them, either. Even stranger, there's supposedly two other
similar stones in the area, but no one can find them anymore. Theories about the rock suggest that it's
an ancient peace treaty, religious marker, or even something like the Rosetta Stone,
giving us the key to unlocking other languages. Unfortunately, whatever it's unlocking has
been so lost to time that we have no idea where to even start, and it might just disappear
anyway before we're able figure it out. "It's a form of communication … in some
ways.. so What are they trying to tell?" Miami, Florida is probably the last place
you'd expect to find an ancient stone circle that's reminiscent of sites like Stonehenge. But in 1998, construction crews were tearing
down six blocks of housing to clear space for a few new skyscrapers. In the process, they uncovered a circle of
24 large holes and limestone. Some more digging uncovered a perfect circle
that was 38 feet in diameter, dated to around 2,000 years ago, and littered with all kinds
of ancient artifacts. Along with animal bones and shark teeth, archaeologists
found tools and ax heads made from basalt. That's significant, because the closest place
to get basalt is hundreds of miles away in what's now Georgia. Further digging led archaeologists to conclude
that the site was left behind by the Tequesta Native American tribe, one of the most mysterious
peoples to settle in the southern United States. They were a largely nomadic group that managed
to survive into the 18th century. There's a lot we don't know about them, including
what the deal is with this ancient circle. The site is still being studied, and it's
also now preserved by state authorities. If you ever find yourself in Miami anytime
soon, you now know you have somewhere cool to visit besides the beach. In 1957, an amateur archaeologist found a
small coin in what he thought was a purely Native American site at Naskeag Point in Brooklin,
Maine. Then in 1974, experts visiting the Maine State
Museum announced that it was a Norse coin, and it took another four years to date it
to between 1065 and 1080 AD. The site itself was dated to just after that,
when the coin would've logically been in circulation. But the question of just how it ended up in
Maine has been hugely debated. Some people insist it's proof of Norse contact
with Maine, but since it's the only Norse artifact that's been found there, others say
it's a hoax. Still others suggest it might have been carried
there as a part of some 12th-century trade network. The coin has a mark that's led some to suggest
it had been made into a pendant, and was brought to the New World that way. If that's true, there's something oddly comforting
about the idea that even hundreds of years ago, we were picking up souvenirs, turning
them into jewelry, and then losing them. The eerily named Starving of Saqqara is a
2-foot-tall limestone statue that now resides at Concordia University in Montreal. It came to the university from a collection
of Mediterranean antiquities. But no one has the faintest idea about the
statue's origins or what it's supposed to be, even though there's no shortage of experts
that have been consulted. Saqqara is the name of an ancient Egyptian
burial ground, but no one knows just how the statue came by that name or if the two are
really related. Even stranger, a mysterious script was etched
into the statute, and no one's been able to even come close to identifying that either. If it's a fake, someone went to a lot of trouble
to make up something that's not recognizable as anything of importance. And if it's not fake, then we have a lot to
learn. Some places aren't typically on anyone's travel
plans. One of those is surely a remote corner of
the Southeast Asian country of Laos about 250 miles outside the capital city of Vientiane. But if you head out into the literal middle
of nowhere, you'll discover the Plain of Jars. The sprawling site of hundreds of square miles
is filled with thousands of these stone containers. They're in random places, some alone, some
in groups, with some up to 9 feet tall. Some have lids, some don't. Some are decorated with carvings, others aren't. At this point, you can probably guess that
no one has the slightest idea what the jars were for. One theory says that they were burial sites,
or that they were urns for placing a body in to allow it to decompose before the rest
of the burial rites were performed. Others say that they're kilns and were used
to make building materials. Still others suggest that they were used for
brewing rice wine, and that's probably our favorite theory. We're thinking it's either that, or the beer
pong of the gods. In 1986, construction workers near Chengdu,
China uncovered something bizarre: an ancient cache of artifacts that included animal bones
and elephant tusks, along with around 200 jade figures, massive bronze artworks, and
a life-size statue. Most of the Sanxingdui artifacts appeared
to have been damaged, dumped into the massive pits, and buried. Further investigation dated them to around
1200 BC and discovered that they were cast with technology that wasn't thought to have
existed at the time. No one's sure how they were made. No forges or foundries were ever found, no
tools were uncovered, and in fact, until the discovery, it was thought that Chinese civilization
was busy growing up elsewhere. Nor does anyone know why the figures were
broken and buried. Traces of similar artwork were found at the
nearby Jinsha site, which dates to about 500 years after the burial of the Sanxingdui horde. But still, no one's quite sure exactly what
the story is. The pieces have a sort of unearthly, supernatural
look to them, with exaggerated features and almost wing-like ears. It could be the work of ancient aliens, or
maybe it's just proof that there's a huge amount we don't know about our own collective
history. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite
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