The Most Incredible Archaeological Discovery Of 2021

medieval crime lakes and rivers sometimes act as more than fun places to pass a hot day dipping in and out of cool water to ease the discomfort of a blazing summer sun they've been known to function as crime scenes in graves too sometimes criminals dump their victims into deep waters to hide the evidence so to speak after all unless law enforcement officials know where to look seldom do divers explore an area's waters just on a hunch bodies might lay on the bottom for that reason a lake can make an excellent cover for a bad guy looking to dispose of his victim lakes and rivers are also the places where literally hundreds of thousands of soldiers perhaps millions of them who participated in the wars that have occurred globally over many generations have fallen after battle in world war ii alone the number of soldiers who slipped beneath the surface of oceans rivers and lakes across europe is almost inconceivable they died and fell into the murky depths their bodies never recovered that was the fate of a medieval soldier whose remains were recently discovered in a lake in lithuania experts know he was a soldier because two knives and a sword were found near the body all of which were amazingly well preserved said the archaeologists and divers involved in the retrieval also he was still wearing the leather boots he died in and other leather items were found near the remains which experts think are straps for the knives all this bounty for archaeologists was found nine meters down in lake espaija the largest lake in lithuania and the source of many other valuable centuries-old discoveries reports live science it is near the da bingii bridge located near the ruins of da bingii castle once an imposing important structure in medieval lithuania and vital to the country's defense against outside threats once the remains and the relics found alongside them are restored and properly preserved by the university of vilnius they will be put on display at the lithuanian national museum this discovery is not the first turned up in lake is vega plenty of other items from the 16th and 17th centuries have been found during previous explorations of the lake sediment teams have found pieces of broken down boats a ferry and even parts of the old da bingei bridge that once stood across the lake the lake has been explored on and off since 1998 when developments in underwater archaeology equipment made it possible for the sediment to be examined yet left undisturbed this find in particular is a memorable one experts say according to english archaeologist elena prankinate the underwater find which was not a burial was unique and the first of its kind in lithuania however the cause of the soldier's death has not yet been confirmed though team members suggest he may have been one of the soldiers guarding the castle hundreds of years ago it was once part of the grand duchy of lithuania part of a dynastic union as it is called with the kingdom of poland work excavating lake espaja will continue and experts hope there may be more valuable discoveries awaiting them as divers keep sorting through the deep water the soldiers remains were amazingly well preserved because of the sediment which seemed to freeze the body and its accompanying artifacts in time revealing even more details about who this young man was are there more like him waiting to be found on the lake's bottom only time and the hard work of diverse and archaeologists will tell two battle axes used in hand-to-hand fighting at the battle of grunwald over 600 years ago have been found by detectorists during a sweep of the famous battle site in northern poland the find which has astonished archaeologists is all the more important as the melee weapons are in remarkably good condition the axes are of two different types one has a longer closed shaft for the handle and the other has a shorter open shaft according to dr simon draja director of the museum of the battle of grunwald the discovery of the battle axes are an archaeological sensation in seven years of our archaeological research we have never had such an exciting important and well-preserved find he stressed according to the director there is little doubt that the axes come from what many historians say was the largest battle of the middle ages in europe the context of these finds the preliminary dating to the 15th century and the type of axes clearly indicate that they are directly related to the battle of grunwald of july 15 1410 he said the battle of grunwald was fought in 1410 and saw the joint forces of poland and lithuania defeat the knights of the teutonic order over 50 000 nights gunners and infantry clashed on the fields near the village of grunwald in what was possibly the biggest battle of medieval europe the battle marked the end of the order's expansion along the southeastern coast of the baltic sea and the beginning of the decline of its power it also marked the emergence of poland lithuania as one of europe's most powerful states the battle axes were found by alexander mead we do a member of the search team who stumbled upon them with his metal detector in a marshy area at a depth of about 80 centimeters a few meters away from each other the axes are of two different types one has a longer closed shaft for the handle and the other has a shorter open shaft although they have been in the ground for over six centuries the axes are in almost perfect condition according to mead we do this is because they ended up in swampy ground which is a wet environment protected the axes off from air and corrosion he said after removing these axes we rinse them under running water and they look like new the axes have been preserved in such a good condition that they even have the rivets by which they were attached to their wooden handles describing how he felt when he found the axes he said it was a huge shot of endorphins adrenaline plus a hundred it was like flying to the moon like crossing a bridge between people from 1410 and us seventy metal detectorists took part in the search which ended on saturday for seven years dozens of detectorists and history lovers from all over europe have been coming to the battle site under the supervision of archaeologists to comb through the fields the specificity of this place requires us to change our methods a little bit we do not do it with the typical excavation method we cooperate with detectorists who have their own equipment their own metal detectors said adam gorecki the archaeological research manager in previous years archaeologists from many countries have come to search the site of the battle however due to the covet 19 pandemic fewer people took part this year despite its reduced size the search produced incredible results during this year's research of the grunwald battlefield several dozen artifacts were found in addition to the two battle axes these include a handle fragment of a medieval short sword as well as dozens of other objects mainly spearheads the museum is not revealing the precise location of the find because they believe that other artifacts are still lying in the ground for this reason they are planning more archaeological excavations later this year the mystery still waiting to be discovered is the location of the mass grave of knights who died in one of the greatest battles of medieval europe so far burial places have only been found near the ruins of the battle chapel during archaeological work in the 1960s and 1980s bones of about 300 men were discovered there in the battle however several thousand people died fighting on both sides archaeologists have found a red sandstone roman sarcophagus from the early 4th century during excavations on a school site in cologne it has been cracked open probably grave robbers were at work there in the past said the head of the roman germanic museum marcus trier in the process he said the skeleton's bones had also been jumbled nevertheless the robbers had not stolen all the grave goods during their excavation work in july the archaeologists discovered eight vessels made of ceramics and glass as well as bronze fittings in a niche which probably came from a wooden box that is no longer preserved at the moment we cannot say whether a woman or a man was buried here says the director of the roman germanic museum professor dr marcus tryer the wooden box could indicate a woman based on the grave goods in the sarcophagus we assume that it was a wealthy person at the beginning of the 4th century the place where the tomb was found was still outside the city it was a troubled time attacks by germans on the roman cities increased there was also unrest within the empire that's why people withdrew behind the city wall explains professor trier the dead were then buried in the abandoned suburbs the sarcophagus is now being restored he said and may later be placed in the extension to the high school on whose grounds the burial site is located the restoration of a soot-filled ancient egyptian temple has revealed the previously unknown names of ancient egyptian constellations according to experts in germany and egypt the restoration has also uncovered the gorgeous original colors the ancient egyptians painted the 2000 year old temple as workers in egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so vibrant it looks like it was painted yesterday project leader christian lates a professor of egyptology at the university of tubingen in germany told live science but we are not repainting anything we are just removing the soot during the restoration researchers cleaned ancient carved scenes depicting the constellations including the big dipper known as masecto and orion known as saw they also found inscriptions about previously unknown constellations including one called ape done r.a or the geese of ra who is the ancient egyptian sun deity late said however without an image to accompany these descriptions there's no way to know which stars in the night sky they described he said a team from the museum of london archaeology have excavated the largest anglo-saxon cemetery in northamptonshire at overstone gate excavations were conducted over the course of 12 months in preparation for the construction of a housing development the team from mola have exhumed 154 burials dating from the anglo-saxon period ad450 to 1066 containing grave goods that total around 3 000 excavated artifacts some of the discoveries include 150 broaches 75 wrist clasts 15 rings thousands of beads and 15 chatelaines a decorative belt hook or clasp worn at the waist with a series of chains suspended from it various weapons have also been excavated including 15 shield bosses 40 knives and 25 weapons along with domestic objects such as bone combs and cosmetic kits the team also revealed an adjacent anglo-saxon settlement that contained 22 core structures with another 20 structures in scattered locations prehistoric evidence included three bronze age round barrows 46 prehistoric burials and four bronze age buildings the overstone lee site contains by far the biggest anglo-saxon cemetery ever found in northamptonshire it is rare to find both an anglo-saxon settlement and a cemetery in a single excavation the excavations will help us understand the way people lived in both the anglo-saxon period around 1 500 years ago as well as the bronze age nearly 4 000 years ago the human remains will tell us about diet health and even the origins of the people themselves whilst their buildings can teach us what their day-to-day lives were like and how they utilized the local landscape in these two different periods massive seven thousand-year-old structures with a rounded or circular plan known as rondelles discovered near tauren consisted of ditches up to three meters wide and two meter deep archaeological research shows the enormous structures which required the work of dozens of people equipped with bone digging tools were discovered in 2019 by doctoral students mateusz sosnowski from the institute of archaeology of the nicolas copernicus university in jersey cherniak from the institute of archaeology and ethnology of the polish academy of sciences in warsaw while analyzing data from google maps and google earth in arable fields in the lysomice area the researchers noticed outlines of two round structures approximately 85 m in diameter around five kilometers from each other they consist of a system of three oval ditches with a common center the researchers described them as sensational as these types of buildings had not been found so far east of the vistula river before this year a team of archaeologists led by jersey cherniak began field research of the two structures analyses were carried out with a magnetometer which enabled them to look underground without interfering with the surface as a result researchers reconstructed their course in places where they were not visible from a bird's-eye view they also started limited excavations with financial support from the lysomice commune mateusz sosnowski from the nicolas copernicus university in torrance said these were huge structures from about 7 000 years ago they required the effort of dozens of people bone or horn tools were probably used to dig the ditches excavations were not easy either even though we were certainly equipped with better tools than the rondelle builders during excavations the archaeologists took samples of burnt coals from inside the ditches to carry out c14 radioactive carbon isotope analyses and determine the approximate age of the structures they also found dozens of fragments of ceramic vessels sosnowski said most of the shells we found belong to the incised linear pottery culture community it is a surprise for us because until now rondels were believed to be built by later communities associated among others with the punctured linear pottery culture the roundel was probably built in the place of an earlier settlement but it cannot be ruled out that the structure is older than we thought expert analysis will shed light on this issue animal bones and antler fragments were also discovered in the ditch which they suspect came from rituals roundels are the oldest examples of monumental architecture in europe archaeologists believed that they served as ceremonial centers temples or places of assembly they were usually surrounded not only by concentric ditches but also palisades so they could also have defensive function so far more than 130 have been located a third of them in austria the remaining structures are in today's hungary slovakia czechia and germany in 2014 only three such structures were known in poland we currently know of approximately 10. researchers from cornell university and the national park service have discovered the remnants of a wooden fort in alaska the tlingit people's last physical bulwark against russian colonization forces in 1804. the twinkit built what they called shiskano the sapling fort on a peninsula in modern-day sitka alaska where the mouth of kazdaheen indian river meets sitka sound at the sitka national historical park the fort was the last physical barrier to fall before russia's six-decade occupation of alaska which ended when the united states purchased alaska in 1867 for seven million dollars thomas urban researcher at cornell university said the fort's definitive physical location had eluded investigators for a century previous archaeological digs had found some suggestive clues but they never really found conclusive evidence that tied these clues together the researchers discovered the site using geophysical imaging techniques in ground penetrating radar a non-intrusive method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface to find shiskano urban created a grid to see if the electromagnetic induction methods could spot the potential outline of the fort and then created a small grid for dragging the ground penetrating radar we believe this survey has yielded the only convincing multi-method evidence to date for the location of the sapling fort which is a significant locus in new world colonial history and an important cultural symbol of twinkit resistance to colonization urban said in 1799 russia sent a small army to take over alaska in order to develop the fur trade but the tlingit successfully expelled them in 1802. expecting the russians to return the twinkit built a wooden fort over two years the trapezoidal-shaped shiskano the tlingit armed it with guns cannons and gunpowder obtained from british american traders when the russians returned in 1804 the tlingit held them off for five days but suffered a setback when a gunpowder supply being carried to the fort from storage across sitka sound blew up in a canoe the tlingit clans escaped shiskano by nidakroshi baranov island to chattalay with a cute enough halibut manfort and the russians then established a trading post at what is now sitka a large-scale survey was necessary to convincingly rule out alternative locations for this historically and culturally significant structure said co-author brennan carter of the national park service archaeologists conducting excavations in a field near the village of slusko and poland have discovered thousands of silver artifacts dating back nearly 900 years a team from the institute of archaeology and ethnology of the polish academy of sciences made the discovery after researchers were sent to photograph a previous coin hall site poland's largest coin hall discovered in 1935 and were informed by the local villagers of rumors of another buried treasure in the vicinity this led to a systematic study at the intersection of three plots of land in the northern part of the village after failing to find any evidence of the treasure the team turned their attention to a field near the village road where they discovered a ceramic vessel containing daenerye with the overall hull consisting of 6500 silver coins arranged in linen pouches silver ingots two gold rings and two wedding bands archaeologist daryush wiksolkowski from the institute of archaeology and ethnology polish academy of sciences said the rings were probably made using precious stones polished in a semicircular way they are additionally decorated with golden granules the larger ring is tapered and polygonal and the smaller one is bar shaped with punched holes one of the rings has an inscription which reads lord may you help your servant maria which researchers believe may have belonged to a ruthenian princess named maria who was the daughter of sviatoslovich izioslovic prince of kiev and the sister-in-law of the 12th century polish king boleslaw iii rymouth also known as bolslow's three the rye mount dr kadzirsky told first news that we know that at that time the wife of bullslaw the rymouth was a russian princess named zbislawa according to the literature she was supposed to have a sister maria who was married to pilder lostowick a polish noble and ruler maznolatka of part of silesia following the capture of prince bolidar of paramishel by pielter lostowick it is believed that the hall may have been part of a dhari intended for maria that was hidden near slusko professor adrian josephovic from the institute of history of the polish academy of sciences in warsaw suggests that her husband's position and property may have prompted her to deposit the dowry which was later joined by the wedding ring farmers digging in a citrus grove near mexico's gulf coast have found a striking six foot tall statue of a female figure who may represent an elite woman rather than a goddess or some mixture of the two experts said friday the national institute of anthropology and history said it was the first such statue found in a region known as the hostica the carved woman has an elaborate hairpiece in marks of status and may date to around 1450 to 1521 the institute said while the site where it was found is nearer to the pre-hispanic ruined side of el tajin the statue shows some influences of the aztecs farmers digging in the grove founded on new year's day and quickly reported it to authorities the area where it was found was not previously known to be an archaeological site and the stone statue may have been moved from some unknown original site just to the open mount wide-eyed statue depicts remains something of a mystery institute archaeologist maria eugenia maldonado veat wrote that this could be a ruler based on her posture and attire more than a goddess maldonado added it could be a late fusion between the teen goddesses and women of high political or social status in the vostecha those goddesses were part of a fertility cult susan gillespie an anthropology professor at the university of florida said there there are quite a few pre-hispanic depictions of elite women and female rulers elsewhere best known among the classic maya but also in classic zap attack bar reliefs and post-classic mistake codices colonial-era aztec documents mentioned women rulers or at least holders of the crown to pass on to their successors so that is not a surprise gillespie added women were highly valued in the pre-hispanic era drastically losing their status only after the conquest however she noted that if there is only one such find it's hard to say whether it is significant or even correctly identified archaeology works best with repeated occurrences to show a pattern in 1994 in the mayan ruins side of palenque archaeologists found the tomb of a woman dubbed the red queen because of the red pigment covering her tomb but it has never been firmly established that the woman whose tomb dates from between 600 and 700 a.d was a ruler of palenque mount podong indonesia is a country famous for its white sand beaches blazing hot sun and crystal blue waters that lure millions of tourists every year from continents as close as australia or as distant as the southern united states its beauty is legendary and locals are justifiably proud of the way nature seems to have given the country a double dose of unspoiled landscapes and memorable sunsets but there is much more to this island paradise than beaches on which to relax in oceans in which to surf and swim indonesia has some remarkable archaeological structures some of which date back thousands of years these locations appeal to scientists every bit as much as the beaches appeal to visitors and there is much to be gained from experts investigations into these sites one example is the pyramid atop mount padang in west java it's not a pyramid in the usual sense one might imagine them like the famous pyramids of egypt but it too has secrets buried just beneath its surface like egyptian pyramids have tombs of kings and queens under their surfaces and the secrets lurking under the rock and earth at mount potton are as complex and compelling and also very old as the ones that lie beneath the giza pyramids near cairo the mountain has always been a place where residents go to pay their respects pray and meditate but until recently in 2018 what was underneath the crumbling ground of the megalith was unknown although it was hiding in plain sight as the old adage goes thanks to modern archaeological technology like scanners and ground x-rays scientists now know that there is a massive weaving of tunnels and chambers and pillars just 10 feet below the mountain surface hiding in plain sight indeed a team of experts long imagined that there were many surprises beneath the pillars atop the structure now they have a clearer understanding and insight into what those surprises entail according to the team's leader danny hillman nato ajaja who is a senior scientist with the indonesian institute of sciences it's a unique temple he explained to the press two years ago it's not like the surrounding topography which is very much eroded this looks artificial to us in other words the experts believe it's man-made the team used advanced techniques to peer beneath the stone surface without disturbing it including ground penetrating radar 3d imaging and other methods ultimately they found a 15 hectare sized structure consisting of pillars terrace steps paths spaces rock columns and more each time they looked further down new revelations and structural marvels appeared at the second layer down the scientists found built artifacts they estimate to be 7500 to 8300 years old down further to a third layer construction at 49 feet deep may be as much as 28 000 years old clearly the people who built the temple did so in a layering fashion putting a new structure on top of an existing one however while some things about the site changed steps put in here walls there depending on who was doing the building one thing experts say likely didn't change the reason for the temple's existence just as folks today go to the site to ponder the existence of a higher power and extend their respects that is probably what they used it for so many thousands of years ago as well in life many things change but many things stay the same at mount podon construction over the centuries changed its appearance but the reason for that construction did not people's abiding faith in a higher power imagining the climate of the antarctica region usually prompts visions of dog sleds parkas and explorers like ernest shackleton struggling to access the area only to be beaten back by snow ice and freezing temperatures the weather he encountered then in the early part of the 20th century is the weather we imagine even today not a place to go without the warmest clothing available on the market stowed firmly with our gear but now scientists paleontologists and other experts of ancient era say that antarctica was not always thus that once upon a very long time ago its landscape bore greater resemblance to rainforests than the inside of a refrigerator and had temperatures that were downright balmy it's difficult to imagine certainly but about 90 million years ago sediment samples indicate antarctica had the landscape best described as temperate there was lush vegetation teeming with organisms hardly the vision most of us have when we conjure up the views there a team of international experts including geologists and paleontologists work together to drill into the ice to uncover what remains of past periods far down below the ice they worked on the icebreaker vessel rv polar stern on the amundsen sea not far from pine island glacier it was one sample in particular because of its unique coloring that prompted them to do a ct scan to see what secrets it held it showed what is known as root fossils the remains of vegetation that were incredibly well preserved one of the team members tina van de flart of the imperial college in london described this evidence as remarkable and added that it showed an unanticipated world of swampy temperate rainforests grew close to the south pole another team member suggested that new zealand's south island is likely most comparable to the landscape that once existed under the ice so many millions of years ago they found evidence of conifers and other trees ferns and even flowering plants although they didn't find fossils of any animals still they believe that some dinosaurs roamed there along with flying reptiles and a variety of insects team members said the region likely got as warm as 77 degrees in summertime and did not plunge to the extreme cold temperatures in winter that we today associate with antarctica one marine geologist on the team suggested that the average annual temperature would have been between 53 and 55 degrees that's a lot different than modern antarctica which gets temperatures as low as -40 during its harshest periods furthermore it endures a period of four months during which there is no sunlight called polar night guaranteeing that no plant life today could possibly live let alone thrive the team has published their findings in the online science journal nature these exciting revelations about antarctica are yet more reason why geology and other related sciences can teach us so much about our planet what it once looked like and just as importantly how different regions flourished and perished the earth continues to evolve and change never remaining static for any length of time we worry that the planet changes solely because of global warming but clearly that's too simple an assertion the earth was once home to dinosaurs and rainforests in the most unlikely places but climate patterns changed and mutated because of factors other than mankind it offers a little solace in these times when we blame 10 ancient stories in the geological events that may have inspired them if you dig deep enough say scientists you can find some truth to legends and creation stories myths have fed the imaginations and souls of humans for thousands of years but a few have roots in real geological events of the past here are 10 ancient stories from around the world and the geology that may have influenced them the oracle at delphi in ancient greece in the town of delphi on the slopes of mount parnassus there was a temple devoted to the god apollo within a sacred chamber a priestess called the pythia would breathe in sweet-smelling vapors emanating from a crack in the rock these vapors would send her into a state of frenzy during which she would channel apollo and speak gibberish a priest would then turn the gibberish into prophesies science the temple was a real place and scientists have discovered two geologic faults running beneath the site now in ruins gas was likely emanating from those fissures when the oracle was in action but researchers have been arguing over the contents of the euphoria causing gaseous mix theories include ethylene benzene or a mix of carbon dioxide and methane atlantis plato the ancient greek philosopher wrote of a great civilization called atlantis founded by a race of people who were half god and half human they lived in a utopia that held great naval power but their home located on islands shaped like a series of concentric circles was destroyed in a great cataclysm science atlantis probably wasn't a real place but a real island civilization may have inspired the tale among the contenders is santorini in greece santorini is now an archipelago but thousands of years ago it was a single island a volcano named thera around 3 500 years ago the volcano blew up in one of the biggest eruptions in human history destroying the island setting off tsunamis and blowing tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere where it lingered for years and probably caused many cold with summers those conditions would have ruined harvests in the region and are thought to have contributed to the quick decline of the minoans who had dominated the mediterranean from nearby crete the city of he-like in greece has also been suggested as inspiration for atlantis the ancient metropolis was wiped off the map by an earthquake and tsunami in december of the year 373 bc pele goddess of kilauea pele came to hawaii with her sisters and other relatives she started in kauai there she met a man lohio but she did not stay because there was no land hot enough for her liking she eventually settled in the crater at kilauea on the big island of hawaii and asked her sister hayaka to return for lohio in return hayaka asked that pele not destroy her beloved forest hayaka was given 40 days for the task but did not return in time pele thinking that hayaka and lohio had become romantically entangled set the forest on fire after hayaka discovered what had happened she made love to lohio in view of pele so pele killed lohio and threw his body into her crater hayaka dug furiously to recover the body rocks flying as she dug deeper she finally recovered his body and they are now together science what seems like a celestial soap opera actually describes volcanic activity at kilauea say scientists the burning forest was probably a lava flow the largest the island experienced since its settlement by polynesians lava flowed continuously for 60 years in the 15th century covering some 430 square kilometers of the island of hawaii if any flow were to be commemorated in oral tradition this should be the one because the destruction of such a large area of forest would have impacted hawaiian life in many ways u.s geological survey volcano scientist donald a swanson wrote in the journal of volcanology and geothermal research in 2008. hayaka's furious digging may represent the formation of the volcano's modern caldera that occurred in the years after the lava flow rama's bridge in the hindu epic the ramayana sita the wife of the god rama is kidnapped and taken to the demon kingdom on the island of lanka bears and monkeys help rama and his brother lakshman by building a floating bridge between india and lanka rama leads an army of monkey-like men and rescues his wife science satellite images reveal a 29 kilometer line of limestone shoals that stretches between india and sri lanka that would have been drowned when sea level rose after the last ice age it is possible that people were able to cross over the bridge until about 4 500 years ago but rama's bridge is not the only mythological site buried along india's shores a more recent natural event the tsunami in the indian ocean on december 26 2004 revealed the truth of the legend of mahabhipuram a port city on india's northeast coast that was said to be home to seven pagodas today only one pagoda the shore temple exists but the great tsunami removed centuries of sediment from the ocean floor just off the coast revealing several submerged temples the exploding lake the calm people in cameroon lived for a short time in the land of the messi the leader or fon of the com discovered a plot by the bamesi f.o.n to kill all the young men in his kingdom and the calm fo1 vowed revenge he told his sister he would hang himself and the fluids from his body would form a lake the calm were not to go near the lake they were to leave the fish for the bemessi and should prepare themselves to leave the region on the day that was set for catching fish on that day when the bamesi entered the lake to fish the lake exploded or imploded or sank depending on the storyteller drowning everyone science on the night of august 21 1986 lake neos a volcanic lake in cameroon released a deadly cloud of carbon dioxide killing 1 700 people sleeping in nearby villages a smaller degassing event at lake manon two years earlier killed 37. carbon dioxide can build up in waters at the bottom of volcanic lakes such as these where it is kept dissolved by the pressure of the lake water above but seismic activity can trigger a sudden release of the gas which will travel along the ground and suffocate anyone caught in the cloud such events might have been behind the exploding lake of the comm legend mayer notes that africa is not the only place with cautionary tales of deadly lakes creeks and romans also had stories warning of valleys or bodies of water that killed birds flying over them they may also describe real places namazu the earthshaker buried beneath japan is a giant catfish named namazu the god kashima keeps namasa still with the help of a giant stone placed on the fish's head but when kashima slips namazu can move its feelers or its tail causing the ground above to move science japan which sits at the junction of several tectonic plates is home to volcanoes and is crisscrossed by seismic faults making it the number one country for earthquakes no giant catfish necessary catfish also figure into japanese myth in another way the fish are supposedly able to predict earthquakes decades of research has failed to find any link between catfish behavior and earthquakes however and the country now relies on a sophisticated early warning system that detects seismic waves and sends messages to people so they can take actions such as slowing trains before the worst of the shaking arrives the chimera in the iliad homer describes a creature of immortal make not human lying fronted and snake behind a goat in the middle and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire this is the chimera daughter of the half-woman half-snake echidna and slain by the hero bella rofante but her flaming tongue remained burning in her lair science in the lichen way of modern day turkey hikers can visit yanardus the site of the chimera's eternal flames methane vents from dozens of cracks in the ground the ignited gas has probably been burning for millennia and sailors have long used it as a natural lighthouse the creation of crater lake when the first europeans arrived in the pacific northwest they heard a tale from the klamath people about the creation of crater lake the native americans would not gaze upon the lake for to do so was to invite death the lake they said had been created in a great battle between leo who ruled the below world and skell the chief of the above world during the battle darkness covered the land and leo standing on mount mazama and skell on mount shasta through rocks and flames the fight ended when mount mazama collapsed and sent leo back into the underworld rain filled in the remaining depression forming a lake in the mountains place science the tale the explorers heard was not far from the truth though it wasn't angry gods but a volcano mount mazama that erupted 7 700 years ago the oral traditions actually contained details about the explosion notes mayor scientists now recognize that the klamath tales describe a real event red-hot rocks do get flung through the sky during a volcanic eruption the mountain did collapse to form a volcanic caldera that was filled in with rainwater what's unusual about this story though is that it was told for 7 000 years passed down through so many generations usually myths are reliable for only about 600 to 700 years says none these kinds of things are very very rare

Channel: Blast World Mysteries

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Keywords: discoveries, archaeological discoveries, archaeological, recent archaeological discoveries, most amazing recent archaeological discoveries, mysterious discoveries, recent, ancient discoveries, recent discoveries, scientific discoveries, amazing discoveries, ancient archaeological discoveries, mysterious archaeological discoveries, recent archaeological discoveries that could rewrite history, strange discoveries, bizarre discoveries

Id: fqxvqpKOXX4

Length: 40min 40sec (2440 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021