Inexplicable Items: 5 Mysterious Ancient Artifacts

with increasing frequency both professional and amateur scientists and archaeologists the world over are discovering ancient artifacts that are turning what we think we know about human history upside down though they're often labeled out of place artifacts by the general public it's a term not often used by those with credentials in their respective fields in some cases these fascinating artifacts have been dated to millions or billions of years before humans were thought to exist while in others they include hints at modern technology that wouldn't be officially invented until centuries or millennia later not surprisingly they're among the most disputed and controversial artifacts in existence and they put into question their supposed knowledge of everything from religion and science to the origins of man qualities shared by each of the mysterious ancient artifacts we're looking at in today's video featuring nearly 20 000 vacuum tubes spread across almost 2 000 square feet and weighing an astonishing 50 tons the eniac made its debut at the university of pennsylvania in 1946. in other words according to most sources it was the world's first computer though it may have been when an intriguing device was discovered 150 feet below the surface of the aegean sea off the greek island of antikythera nearly 120 years ago that acetation took a bit of a hit comprised of a badly corroded box with a number of complex gears and dials it's been suggested that the anti-kythera mechanism was a computer in its own right but the singular object of bronze and wood was just one of many artifacts retrieved from the roman wreck in 1900 and 1901. historians think that the ship may have been bound for rome and that its cargo of coins earthenware and marble may have been booty from a recent sack in a bath and all slated to take part in an opulent parade dedicated to emperor julius caesar in the first century bc but though it's now widely regarded as the shipwreck's true standout it wouldn't be until nearly five decades later that the anti-kythera mechanisms mechanical complexity and historical significance would really be appreciated in an effort to crack the enigma once and for all in the late 20th century the remaining portions of the device were x-rayed and though much of it had corroded and rotted away enough was still present for scientists to piece together what it would originally looked like the mechanism was similar in size to a mantle clock and bits of attached wood suggest that it was housed in a wooden case the machine originally had a large circular face and seven individual hands driven by a bevy of intricately cut interlocking gears that turned various speeds but instead of keeping track of minutes and hours like a regular clock the device displayed celestial time the seven hands represented the sun moon and each of the five planets visible to the naked eye mercury venus mars jupiter and saturn holding it in his hands one could track celestial movements with accuracy that wouldn't be matched more than a thousand years and though it was fundamentally an astronomical device recently discovered inscriptions that had been covered with rust and corrosion for thousands of years revealed that it was used to track earthly events as well like celebrations of the olympics in addition its sophistication has led many scholars and scientists to conclude that the greeks may have been even more advanced than previously thought but ironically for such an intricate and impressive device there's no mention of the antikythera mechanism in any known texts from the era further no other device even remotely like it has ever been found though it's likely that there were many predecessors from which it was derived since it first appeared in the historical record more than five centuries ago the shroud of turin or holy shroud has baffled and divided scientists historians believers and non-believers alike and though controversial and enigmatic artifacts are bound the shroud may take the cake when it comes to mystery misinformation and downright contention because while many believe it's christ's burial garment others consider it to be an outright fraud the linen shroud measures 14.25 feet long and 3.5 feet wide but its faint orban image shows a man with sunken eyes and angular cheeks who would have stood about five feet seven inches tall when he was alive if he ever was the images may have been formed when a body was laid on one half of the shroud after which the other portion was draped over it the shroud also contains distinct anatomically accurate markings corresponding to wounds jesus would have suffered before and during the crucifixion including thorn punctures around the head from the crown of thorns back lacerations from floggings and nail holes through the wrists written records of the shoud's existence stayed all the way back to the mid-14th century when it was in the possession of knight joffrey de charney who apparently presented it to a high church official in rural france with nary a word on how it came into his possession or any proof of its authenticity but despite these interesting circumstances the law of the shroud stretches back another 1400 years when it was purportedly taken from judea now southern palestine to greece turkey and eventually the chapel of the cathedral of san giovanni batista in turin italy where it has resided since 1578. since the late 1800s a number of scientific processes have been applied to the shroud to definitively determine its age and composition some evidence suggests that the christ-like pictures were painted on while others point to an early form of photography as evidenced by the sepia-toned reversed images that a hallmarks of photographic negatives sadly the experts can't agree but in 1988 the vatican provided three laboratories in different countries with small portions of the shroud's linen in an especially big shock to proponents of its authenticity each lab determined that the lin was made between 1260 and about 1400 a.d or more than a thousand years after the crucifixion however some scientists raised doubts about the researcher's methodology pointing to the 1532 fire in a chapel in chambery in france to which it was subjected that could have altered its organic material thereby tainting the test results the vatican did encourage further scientific investigations but despite a lack of concrete proof christians were encouraged to venerate the shroud as an image of christ legit or not now the shroud is rarely displayed to the public but pope francis made a pilgrimage to see it in 2015 despite the fact that a succession of previous popes considered it a hoax from its name one might assume that this interesting archaeological anomaly was discovered in england's capital but it was actually found in london texas in either 1934 or 1936 depending on which account you believe as the story goes local couple max and emma hahn were taking a leisurely stroll by scenic red creek just outside town when they noticed a strange orb-like rock with a wooden shaft protruding from its center the item wasn't partially buried in soil or stone but resting on a ledge by a small waterfall they took it home and apparently forgot about it for more than a decade but in 1947 their inquisitive son split it open with a hammer and chisel inside was an obviously man-made implement a hammer or narrow maul with a head six inches long and an inch wide connected to a hewn wooden shaft not a big deal really since the farmland of austin had been worked by tool-wielding farmers for more than a century and a half but something seemed out of place after all it was a contemporary tool so how did it become embedded in rock some accounts claim that the family turns the hammer over to archaeologists for carbon dating while others state that they had done it privately and the results were never released what is generally accepted is that the hammer is man-made about 97 pure iron but that it's oddly never rusted in the century since it was discovered adding more fuel to the fire some supposed experts suggested the rock encased around the hammer is from the ordovician period more than 450 million years ago while others claimed that it's from the cretaceous period that lasted from between 65 to 145 million years ago not that it makes much of a difference either way as iron tools are generally believed to have been invented 3200 years ago but just because the hammer was encased in old rock doesn't necessarily mean it's the same age the most likely explanation goes back to the hammer's original location near the waterfall the abandoned iron tool may have ultimately been submerged in limestone-rich water over a century or more during which time elements dissolved in the water formed a concretion that grew larger and larger if that were the case it would make it seem as if the hammer itself was as old as the minerals in which it's encased turning it from epic piece of out-of-place archaeology into little more than a contemporary and easily explained novelty in the early 1980s the hammer was purchased by creationist carl bohr and is now on exhibit in the creation evidence museum in glen rose texas but curators refused to allow it to be subjected to further tests and examination i mean why would you get science involved [Music] the kumbaya people inhabited the west central portion of colombia from about 300 to 1500 a.d known for their craftsmanship and metalworking skills the quimbyer created hundreds of intricate gold and copper alloy objects that have fascinated archaeologists and historians since they were discovered more than a hundred years ago when the spanish arrived in the region in the 16th century they named this unfamiliar alloy tumbaga tambaga had a lower melting point than either of its component metals and featured desirable characteristics of each like hardness and malleability which made it perfect for hammering casting polishing and engraving and it never tarnished or rusted many of the tombarga figurines represent animals like fish birds and insects though the most intriguing but distinct commonalities with contemporary aircraft that weren't officially invented until the 20th century to be clear no one claims that the queen buyer invented aircraft but though hundreds of artifacts were looted by spanish conquistadors and treasure hunters between the 16th and 19th centuries of those that remain many are strikingly modern and airplane-like in appearance german aeronautical experts who conducted simulations and actual wind tunnel testing concluded that had they not been made of dense metal they would have likely been capable of incredibly stable powered and unpowered flight some detractors claimed that these aircraft shaped figurines are little more than bird representations and that they were most likely expensive toys made for children of wealthy families but even to casual observers this theory doesn't really carry much weight many of the figurines feature delta wings like those found on modern military aircraft like the russian mig-21 and the eurofighter typhoon and whereas bird wings tend to protrude from the middle or upper portions of their torso the figurine's wings jut out from the bottom of what looks more like a tapered fuselage than a bird's body they also have both vertical and horizontal tail surfaces like nearly all modern aircraft characteristics that birds just don't share recently discovered petroglyphs and carvings found etched into local granite depicting the positions of constellations and stars have added another element of mystery to the story proponents of the ancient aliens theory claimed that the kumbaya figurines and carvings are yet more proof that they were visited by extraterrestrials though the theory is rightly derided by more traditional historians it is a bit of a mystery but it is not aliens [Music] in the early summer of 1972 workers at a french nuclear fuel processing facility made a fascinating discovery after conducting a routine check of uranium ore of african origin though ore itself isn't technically an artifact throughout the earth's crust uranium-235 makes up a constant 0.72 percent of total mass but the ore extracted from gabon in equatorial africa contained only 0.717 uranium-235 though the numerical difference was minuscule it was more than enough to alert them that something totally out of the ordinary had once happened on the site in fact when taken in total approximately 200 kilograms of uranium-235 that should have been present were missing or enough to make between four and six nuclear bombs depending on the yield after careful analysis the french scientists concluded that the missing uranium-235 had already been extracted that it could have happened through natural processes and that a nuclear reactor must have functioned on site as many as 2 billion years ago for a second opinion they took their findings to specialists at the french atomic energy commission who confirmed their conclusion though claims of such nature from one source should be viewed skeptically none other than the former head at the united states atomic commission concluded that a natural phenomena couldn't have caused the extractions because the conditions to do so couldn't possibly exist without man's help shortly thereafter in 1975 a number of international physicists mulled over the evidence and shared their findings of the oklo phenomenon in liberville the capital of gabon the united states representative one of the founders of the santa fe institute published an article for scientific american in which he attempted to explain the original scientist's conclusions thereby casting doubts on the ancient nuclear reactor theory his analysis was based largely on an article published nearly two decades before in which scientists from the universities of california and chicago pointed out that in some rare instances rich uranium deposits could in fact operate as naturally occurring nuclear fission reactors which would explain the missing uranium 235 and the french ore further studies have revealed that nearly 2 billion years ago when the oculoar deposit formed its concentration may have been nearly three percent or about equivalent to the enriched uranium used to fuel today's nuclear power plants so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 1,396,595

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: GtDaXSuoZAk

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/LAKnapper]

I've seen the London Hammer