- [Narrator] Weird and wonderful artifacts are being found all the time. But it's hard work
learning all the secrets of our forefathers when all you've got are two rusty pennies and a bad drawing on a cave wall. Really, it's no wonder even
the white coat wearing boffins get it wrong. So, trowels at the ready. But this is about more than big rocks. There're also big heads
and even bigger heads. What, come on, let's go back
in time to the most incredible civilizations scientists can't explain. (upbeat music) Jungle is Massive. Did you know the Amazon
rainforest houses around 30% of all plant and animal
species in the world? That's tree-mendous. However, the history of one native species has eluded scientists
for centuries, humans. Human life in the Amazon was assumed to have never been anything more than a few scattered tribes. However, ongoing deforestation
in Brazil's Acre state, which was long believed to be uninhabited, has revealed large, unnatural shapes in the ground known as geoglyphs. Whilst they look like little
more than shallow ditches, they're actually the remains
of a vast civilization. Across 5,000 square miles there're around 450 markings, with some measuring up
to 1,300 feet wide, damn. The huge hieroglyphs probably housed some sort of ceremonial buildings, where up to a million
people could've congregated as recently as 550 years ago. Holy Guacamole, that's insane. And there's much more. Nowadays, thanks to
technological advancements like LiDAR, we can explore without damaging the rainforest. By firing a tree-safe laser from directly above the surveying area, a receiver measures
the light bouncing back and records a 3D map of
the objects in the scene. That's so cool, but not as
cool as what's been hiding. In 2019, scans of the
southwestern Amazon basin uncovered miles of elevated
roads and pathways, and even pyramids over 70ft tall. An astonishing 26 individual settlements were discovered, two of which
were at least 250 acres each. That's 330 football pitches, sheesh. The mysterious Casarabe people lived here for hundreds of years and then just disappeared around 1400 AD. European conquistadors
probably drove them out, but we don't know for sure. Still, building a giant jungle community in the thickets is impressive, right? Hold up, I've just had a crazy thought. Think about it, a huge
congregation of people living together would need
to cultivate tons of food and plants, right? Well, what if the Amazon
wasn't originally a jungle? Then, after the Casarabe
people disappeared, their crops grew a little out of control? It's just a theory, but an astounding 95% of this green metropolis
is still unexplored. Who knows, maybe there's
something even crazier in there. (music whooshing) Family Misfortunes. You and me, we're pretty smart. But we're not the smartest humans ever. Heck, we might not even be the smartest species ever. Huh, since 1913, partial skull fossils found across South Africa have provided a potential new brainiest contender called the Boskop Man. This presumed extinct human-like species could've lived as recently
as 10,000 years ago. But compared to us, their skulls imply they had unusually large craniums, meaning our big-headed brethren's brains might've been a whopping
30% larger than ours. Whoa, their average IQ
would've been around 149, putting the average Boskop
among the smartest 0.05% of people alive today, double whoa. But if old Boskop brainiac here
is so much smarter than us, how come we're alive and he isn't? Well, despite what my ex said,
bigger isn't always better. Our brains are about fourfold bigger than our ape relatives. But most of this increase happens in a part of the brain
called the prefrontal cortex, which is mainly responsible for our highest cognitive functions such as decision-making, working
memory and self-awareness. The actual motor functions of the brain that control our senses and
movement don't really change. So, it's possible that
all that extra brain size just translated to Boskop
spending more time crying about the past than going out hunting. Now, this is all speculation. Truthfully, we can't be sure what happened to our clever cousins. In fact, some people argue Boskop wasn't different to us at all. The only evidence we have
are partial skull fragments. Nevertheless, seeing as
the Boskop aren't here to collect their cleverest
species ever award, I guess I'll accept it on their behalf. (audience cheering) I'd like to thank my mom, my dad, and anyone who clicked the like and subscribe buttons on this video. It's the only way to stay up to date with all my amazing content. Thank you, you're too kind,
now back to the video. Dude, Where's My City? Perhaps the most mysterious
ancient civilization is the one we've never found a trace of. Huh, I'm talking, of
course, about Atlantis, the once-grand city that ended
up sinking beneath the ocean. The first records we have of Atlantis were written by the
ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, who spoke of a great city just outside the Strait of Gibraltar. However, there was nothing
to say Plato's Atlantis genuinely existed, for
millennia, people just assumed he'd created an idealist
version of his home, Athens. So why is it that some 12,000 years after allegedly disappearing,
we still talk about it like it might be real? Well, in 1882, US
Congressman Ignatius Donnelly published 13 reasons
why he believed Atlantis was far more real than
previously accounted for. And, no, he didn't scatter
them around on little tapes. He wrote a book called
"The Antediluvian World", which proved to be highly influential. Then, in 1965, someone
actually found Atlantis. Well, some people think
they did, at least. This is the Richat
structure, a 25-mile-wide geological dome found
in Mauritania, Africa. I'm not kidding, this thing is so huge you can only see its
full scope from space, which is how it was discovered. Two astronauts flying
over the Sahara Desert had spotted the giant
eye staring back at them and thought they'd stumbled across the most important
archeological find ever. Alas, there's nothing concrete
linking it to Atlantis. It's believed the Richat
structure was formed from volcanic activity
around 100-million-years-ago. But, c'mon, it looks pretty suspicious. Seems like we're no closer to the truth. What do you think? Is Atlantis real, or a
bunch of old baloney? Let me know in the comments down below. (person typing) Tryp Down Memory Lane. Whether you've got a
big one or a small one, we all love our homes. In fact, you'd have to be a loony to wish anything bad on your humble,
or not-so-humble, abode. But, if you lived with the
Cucuteni-Trypillia people, who settled in eastern Europe
around 7,500 years ago, home was less where the heart is, and more where the hearth is, why? Because they routinely
torched their own villages. What, you heard me. Archeological evidence shows
that every 60 to 80 years, they'd bash out the matches for a spot of accommodation incineration. The burning question of course, is why? This was long before home insurance, so they weren't trying to cash a claim. And it happened way too
regularly to be accidental. We don't know for sure, but
one of the leading theories is that they were animists, people who believe objects have souls. So, they might've believed
their houses were alive. And once it got to the
end of a house's life, it was proper send-off time. Still, torching a whopping 3,000 buildings to the ground every 60
years just to rebuild them sounds like a lot of effort. Last time I felt like changing things up I just turned my bed around. Missing Mycenaeans. Honestly, I'm such a scatter brain, I lose things all the time. But even I'd have difficulty losing an entire civilization of people, like, I don't know, the
Mycenaeans of ancient Greece. Despite being the OGs
of ancient Greek society and true pioneers in architecture, engineering and language, come 1050BC, they'd managed to totally lose themselves? Seriously, they straight up disappeared. Poof, gone, how does one of
the most developed societies of its time suddenly just cease to exist? Well, that's one of history's
greatest unsolved riddles. There's lots of possibilities about what could have happened. Maybe it was an invasion from a neighboring
civilization like the Dorians. Maybe there was a
disturbance closer to home which led to civil war. Or maybe there was a big natural disaster, like a volcano or a giant
flood which wiped them all out. However unsatisfying it might be, we just don't know. Whatever it was, it was bad, real bad. The period following the
Mycenaeans' disappearance was a total dead zone known
as the Greek Dark Ages. It's like they vanished
and took the next 300 years of history with them. Reminds me of that time my dad popped to the shops for
milk and cigarettes. Something in the Water. Ever jumped in a puddle and realized it's deeper than you thought? (person laughing) Yeah, me neither, but if you
lived in Shiyan Beicun village in Zhejiang, China a few decades ago and did it, you'd have gotten
more than a little wet. That's because in 1992, local farmers drained five unassuming ponds and discovered a giant network
of 24 cavernous chambers hidden beneath them,
whoa, and I mean giant. Directly beneath the five
ponds were five main caves, each dropping nearly 100 feet underground and averaging a whopping
11,000 square feet. That's over two basketball courts a piece. And it turns out, there are 19
other cavernous chambers too, now known as the Longyou Caves. Most astonishingly though,
all of them appeared to be exquisitely manmade. They're held up by pillars, the walls rise at a perfect 60-degree angle, and 23-inch wide bands have been chiseled into all of the surfaces. On top of this, the entrance holes all face south to southwest
to draw the most sunlight. Whoever built these caves must've been highly
sophisticated architects, but we have absolutely
no idea who they were. Well, almost no idea. Pieces of clay pot were found half submerged in soil that dated back to the Western Han dynasty,
an almighty 2,000 years ago. Whoa momma, these caves are old. Aside from that though,
there's nothing else to go off. They don't look like any
other caves, quarries, or ceremonial caverns yet found in China, and could've served as
anything from mausoleums to military encampments. Man, I'll be waiting with
bated breath for any updates. (music whooshing) You Cannot B. Sirius. Best gift I ever got, a telescope. Learning about the universe is so awesome. But I don't know nearly as
much as the Dogon tribe. Despite living largely
detached from modern society, in the Bandiagara cliffs between Mali and Burkina Faso, their knowledge of the planets and stars
is incredibly advanced. In fact, they may know more about the Sirius star system than we do. Sirius A, the Dog star,
is the brightest star in the night sky. It's easily spotted with the naked eye. But, in 1862, astronomers discovered a much fainter star just behind Sirius A, which they imaginatively named Sirius B. So, when French scientist, Marcel Griaule made first contact with the Dogon in 1933, he expected to stun
them with his knowledge. Instead, he discovered they already knew every little detail about
Sirius B, or to them, "Po Tolo", despite owning no telescopes
and the star being invisible to the naked eye, what? Weirder still, the Dogon
claim there's a third, even fainter star they call "Emma Ya". Astronomers haven't found
any signs of this one, but with the Dogon's track record, that doesn't mean they won't. So, how the heck did they
get all this knowledge when they're so isolated
from regular society? Well, the Dogon insist
they learned everything from an amphibian alien race called Nommos who come from a distant planet orbiting the Sirius system. Right, not what I expected. Most likely, sometime between
Sirius B being discovered in 1862 and Griaule
making contact in 1933, traditional Dogon beliefs and modern astronomy hashed together. How, exactly, I can't say. Perhaps Griaule wasn't actually
the first to make contact, but then, what happened to whoever was? I don't know, extra-terrestrial fish men from stars we can't be sure exist isn't quite cutting it for me. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts on this supernatural
stickler in the comments. Curious China. Remember the Longyou Caves
I showed you earlier? Well, they're far from the weirdest
historical find in China. In 1986, construction
workers in Sichuan province stumbled across a
ginormous underground cache of 13,000 eerie artifacts
at an ancient site they named Sanxingdui. The pits were full of gold, bronze, and pottery unlike anything the country had seen before. Stranger still, many of the artifacts appeared to have been damaged and burnt before being purposefully buried, bigger. Who, or what, could
these have belonged to? And why do they look so alien? Well, historians reckon they're
evidence of a mysterious 3,000-year-old civilization that existed at the same time as known
Chinese civilization, yet was separate from it. It was called the Kingdom of Shu, and Sanxingdui was one of its cities. One of the most striking finds, a huge 400 pound mask, apparently represents Can Cong, a semi-mythical ruler with bulging eyes. It could be one of the earliest
religious icons in China. Shu fell when the Qin dynasty united China around 300BC, so they could be responsible for trashing and burying
whatever evidence they could of Shu when they took over. But we can't be sure,
unfortunately, the Shu people didn't have a written
language, so their history has been lost to the ages. For now, we'll just have
to imagine what Sanxingdui and ancient northern
Chinese culture looked like. Lucky I've got a good imagination, eh? (music whooshing) Saud to See You Go. Momma always said, "Eat your veggies, or you won't grow big and strong". As you can tell, I'm still
not keen on the greens. But some 1,200 years ago,
residents of Nan Madol, an ancient city off Pohnpei, Micronesia, must've eaten better than me. They needed building
materials, only problem was, it was all on the other
side of the island, 25 miles away. Yet these Polynesian powerhouses trekked all the way there, turned around and somehow brought an
astonishing 750,000 tons of heavy basalt rock all the way back. The heaviest cruise ship in the world, the Wonder of the Seas,
is around 250,000 tons. So, imagine lugging three of them. That's unbelievable. Honestly, I've not got a
scooby how they did this. Pulling all that seems impossible, and basalt's too heavy to
float around the island. Local legends say great
birds or giants moved them into place, which is as
good as any guess I've got. And moving it was only the first hurdle. The inhabitants then had to carve and shape all that rock
into 100 tiny islands which they built on top of a
coral reef off the mainland. Nan Madol was where the
first organized government of Pohnpei resided, so it was turned into
a grand capital city. Even today you can see the
remains of stone palaces, ritual sites, temples, and tombs that were built hundreds of years ago. Remarkably, it was all achieved without mortar or concrete. The sheer weight of the stones themselves secured them into position,
some were up to 50 tons. Jinkies, it might not look like much now, but in its prime, you'd
have needed some big stones of your own to go anywhere near this imposingly affluent dynasty. Tepe of the Iceberg. It blows my mind that
farming has only existed for about 10,000 years, and
makes any civilization before it all the more impressive. Take Gobekli Tepe, this
vast 11,000-year-old site in South-eastern Turkey
has archeologists stumped. Somehow, people who couldn't grow a potato came together and built the world's first known stone megaliths. Masons created 20 circles
of tall rock pillars, with each pillar weighing up to 150 tons. Many are almost 16 feet high and engraved with animal
carvings and human forms, providing a window into this
weird prehistoric world. However, the knowledge of
math and geometry required to achieve all this is comparable to that of the Great Pyramids, and they
came some 7,000 years later. Everything we thought we knew about prehistoric civilizations says Gobekli Tepe just shouldn't exist. Yet here it is. Some people reckon it was
used for religious rituals, while others insist it was some
form of ancient observatory. Without more solid
information though it's hard to be sure who's right, since it was discovered back in 1994, only around 5% of the
site has been excavated. I guess we've only seen
the Tepe of the iceberg. Kofunsing Krypts. You've got to be a real weirdo
to hang around grave sites. That, or you're Indiana
Jones looking for treasure. Who says he's not a cretinoid. But if I saw tombs that looked like this, I'd be more than a little
curious to know what's in there. They're called Kofun, and
there's a staggering 160,000 of them scattered around Japan. The largest of which,
Daisenryo Kofun, in Sakai, is over 1,000ft wide and 1,600ft long. That's twice as long as
the Great Pyramid of Giza. Oh mother, what 500ft monster
have they buried there? Well, that's the confusing,
or Kofunsing thing. Get it? Ironically, these keyhole-looking crypts are totally locked up. So, we're not entirely sure
who or what might be inside. It's assumed Daisenryo was built for Emperor Nintoku,
the 16th Emperor of Japan. He supposedly died in 399 A.D. at the grand old age of 109 years. Jeepers, but until anyone
goes in and checks, can we really be sure, I don't think so. Sadly, that's unlikely
to change anytime soon. Many are classified as
sacred religious grounds and trying to enter them is illegal. Plus, Daisenryo is completely isolated by three separate moats. There used to be a bridge,
but it was destroyed by a typhoon back in
1872 and nobody's been on the grounds since. It's a shutout, still, imagine
all the untold treasures that might be buried there. If they ever do decide
to open ol' Daisenryo up, mark my words, it'll be the
historical find of the century. Hammer Time. I like to respect everyone's
ideas about the past. But some historians make
that really difficult for me. In 1936, an iron hammer was found encased in a piece of
rock in London, Texas and it sent some theorists wild. Despite modern humans only being around for 200,000 years, tests on the rock near where the artifact was found dated back to the cretaceous period. That's a mind-blowing 66
to 145 million years ago. Wait, so does that mean
the hammer is that old too? Well, self-proclaimed
science whizz Carl Baugh, who bought the hammer in
1983, certainly thinks so. And he also believes
it's comprehensive proof of an ancient civilization of giants. Okay, I've wasted many hours
and precious brain cells trying to decipher Carl's crazy theories. Here it goes, as a
creationist, Carl believes the world as we know it was made by God about 6,000 years ago. Therefore, if something
is older than that, it must come from an
unrecognizable pre-god Earth. Still following, tests Carl
authorized on the hammer showed it contained Iron and chlorine, which he falsely claims can't exist organically in our atmosphere. Before God though, he
argues the atmosphere would have allowed this
compound to exist naturally, and also have turned
anyone alive at the time, IE the creators of the
hammer, into giants. Sorry, I tried, this dude's a dingus. There's no proof the cretaceous rock near where the hammer was
found is the same rock encasing the hammer itself. Actually, Carl won't let
anyone else run tests to check. Suspicious, I think so. Plus, minerals in ancient
rocks can dissolve and re-harden around
objects that aren't ancient if put under the right pressure, it's called concretion. So, even if it was the same
rock, it still wouldn't be proof of a 100-million-year-old hammer. C'mon, I'd choose science over Carl's quacky crapola any day. Rocking Romans. The Roman Empire is one
of ancient history's best documented civilizations. But that's not to say we know everything. In Lebanon, on the outer
edges of the old empire, six hefty puzzles known
as the Baalbek stones still have us scratching our heads. The Romans carved and
shaped these colossal stones from a quarry by hand, which might not sound that impressive until you hear their size. The smallest is a stonking 800 tons, and the largest is a colossal 1,650 tons, about the weight of 250 elephants, whoa. For comparison, the largest
stone in the Great Pyramids is a measly 80 tons. As if carving all that
isn't impressive enough, the three smallest, which
are anything but small, were somehow moved about a mile from the quarry to their current location. Phew, absurdly, you'd need 40,000 people to move just one block,
and that many people couldn't conceivably fit around
even the biggest of them. So, it's been theorized that
some sort of pulley system was used, by chipping a gap beneath the slabs before they
were cut away from the quarry, rollers could've been
slid underneath them. Then, when they were completely removed from the rest of the stone,
they'd already be sitting atop the rollers and ready
to attach to a pulley system. Like this, it could've
taken as few as 144 workers to lug them to their destination, as part of the Temple of Jupiter. It's just a theory though,
we can't know for sure how the incredible feat was pulled off. We do know however that
the three biggest stones proved too heavy even for the Romans and are still lying in the quarry today. Jeeez, I guess it's always good to know when you've been beaten. Colossal Coastguards. Man, I've been working so hard
lately, I need a vacation. Hmm, maybe Sardinia, but if I'd
been around 3,000 years ago, there's no way I'd want to
visit the Italian island. At least, not if you believe the legends. Local myths say giants
once roamed the land, and human skeletons over 13ft tall were discovered on the island. The evidence is kinda sketchy though as no one's got a big bone to prove it. Even so, there have been some
seriously strange goings on that suggest there might be
more to it than you first think. Back in 1974, over 5,000 pieces of smashed up stone
artifacts were uncovered in an area of the island
called Mont'e Prama. But suspiciously, when they
were sent to a nearby museum, they weren't put on display. Instead, they were immediately stashed in an underground vault, where they stayed locked
away some 30 years. Seems shady to me, when they
were finally removed in 2005, the pieces were reassembled
and turned out to be, can you guess, statues of giant men. 38 of them, to be precise. At 8ft tall, they're a touch shorter than the rumored skeletons, but still mightily impressive. It's believed they were carved by and represent the Nuraghe people, who lived on the island
many thousands of years ago. As well as the giant statues, the Nuraghe also built over 8,000 of these enormous stone buildings. I'm not saying the Nuraghe were giants, but these people sure seemed
to like things a little larger than most. I wonder what their civilization
would've looked like in its prime? Could even bigger statues
have stood guarding the island that have since been lost to time? Ah, I don't know, maybe I'm
getting ahead of myself. Unlike the Nuraghe, they got the head, body, and everything else of themselves. Let me know which of
those historical mysteries was your favorite in the comments below, and thanks for watching. (gentle music)
