Bog Bodies
Hi, it’s Katrina, the wind to be.
Bog bodies.
Near the town of Windebie in the north of Germany, some locals were cutting peat from a bog for fuel.
They got quite the surprise when they discovered a body.
They stopped working immediately and reported it to the authorities.
At the time, they believed the mummified body that they found in the Bog was that of a teenage girl, and she was therefore called the windebe girl.
More recently, the body has been reevaluated and experts now know that it’s actually the mummified remains of a teenage boy.
The story behind how this young man ended up buried in a bog is, quite frankly, horrifying.
Unfortunately, when the mummy was found, the machine used to cut the peat had already done some damage.
In fact, they had accidentally cut off one of its legs, a foot and a hand, but still the rest of the body was able to be removed relatively intact.
There were no grave Goods like what you would expect to find in such an ancient burial plot from nearly 2 2000 years ago, but there was a strange band of wool covering the person’s eyes, as well as a collar around their throat.
He is now more formally known as the Wind B1 bog body.
There were no signs of physical trauma.
So we have no idea what happened to him.
To make matters even more bizarre, a second body was later found nearby.
It was a middle-aged man who had been strangled by a Hazel branch and then placed in the Bog on a stake.
Clearly something bad had happened here.
At first everyone thought perhaps this was an adulterous couple that had been punished and killed, but since now we know that both are male and they died 300 years apart.
Historians have interpreted the remains as belonging to Germanic tribes who punished people who committed Crimes by executing them and then staking their bodies in the Bog.
Of course, all we know is how the man died, but we will probably never know the reason why.
Today you can see these remains of the bog bodies in a museum in Germany.
Stone Age Murder
Stone Age murder modern forensics and technology has just helped solve a murder mystery from the Stone Age.
This is about as cold as a Cold Case can get unsold for 33 000 years.
The skull of the victim was first uncovered by minors working in Romania back in 1941.
It was clear by a huge crack in the top of the skull that the man had been hit very hard with something in the head.
Researchers with the Eberhard Carls University in Germany wanted to know what exactly caused the huge crack in his skull, so they recently did experimental trauma simulations.
What this means is that they tested different scenarios, such as falling off a cliff, being hit with a stick or being bludgeoned with a rock.
The researchers were able to pin down the most likely scenario.
They say that it was actually two injuries that caused the Paleolithic man to die.
The first was a linear fracture at the base of his skull.
The second was a depressed fracture on the side of his cranial Vault.
The injuries have proven to be from two consecutive blows with some kind of baseball bat-like object.
Plus, researchers were able to determine by the positioning of the fractures that the confrontation was face to face.
In other words, the killer was holding the weapon in their left hand and looking straight in the eyes of the victim just before they beat them to death.
It definitely wasn’t an accident, though of course, it’s impossible to come up with the motive.
Killed by Tomb Raiders
33 000 years after the fact killed by Tomb Raiders, archaeologists recently discovered the body of a Chinese man who had been stabbed to death and then dumped in a tunnel 1 300 years ago.
The mystery came when archaeologists were Excavating an ancient tomb in the northern ning Chao region, they found the body of a man who was probably around 25 years old at the time of his death.
His death was dated back to sometime between the years 640 and 680..
Anthropologist Chan Wang from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Texas A M says the skeleton belonged to a healthy person, at least healthy until he was stabbed 13 times in the head, arms and rib cage.
Someone was really mad at this guy.
Archaeologists found his remains slumped on the ground with his arms still covering his face in a last desperate bid to protect himself.
Archaeologists were shocked, obviously dealing with an ancient murder, but judging by other evidence in the area, they were able to put together a strong hypothesis as to what happened, because the man was discovered in a vertical shaft dug from the surface into the tomb by ancient tomb Raiders.
They believed that he was the unintended witness to a crime.
He had likely stumbled upon the thieves as they were pillaging the tomb and he surprised them in the moment the thieves killed him to ensure his silence.
After the thieves finished stealing what they could from the grave, they threw the victim’s body into the tunnel and then filled it back up with soil.
Dead in a Cave
If he hadn’t died from the stabbing, he most certainly died from being buried alive, dead, in a cave.
Archaeologists in the Scottish Highlands got another surprise when they discovered the skeleton of a man at the entrance of a cave they were Excavating.
He had been murdered about 1500 years previously, in the year 600 AD, and he had not died a quiet death.
The first clue that he had been murdered came from the position of his body.
He had just kind of been dumped into the cave with his legs crossed and heavy Stones holding down his arms and legs.
It was confusing because he had clearly been murdered.
But then he was laid to rest inside the cave with a certain degree of consideration.
Because of this, archaeologists say his murder may have been the result of interpersonal conflict or human sacrifice.
Whatever the case, his death was brutal.
According to Professor Dame Sue black with Dundee University’s Center for anatomy and human identification, it took at least five blows to kill this man.
Each blow resulted in an additional fracture to his skull.
The first three impacts broke apart his teeth, fractured his left jaw and broke the back of his skull.
He was not going to go down peacefully.
The fourth blow was probably meant to end his life.
A weapon was driven through his skull from one side to the other and finally a fifth blow crushed the man’s skull from the top.
This is one of those murder mysteries that has yet to be solved.
Nobody knows why he was killed, never mind in such a barbaric fashion.
Prehistoric Murder
– prehistoric murder.
Now it’s time for the oldest murder victim ever discovered.
This individual died 430 000 years ago, give or take a few Millennia.
We don’t know if they were a man or a woman, why they were killed, or even that many details surrounding their death.
We do know that they were killed by blunt force trauma to the Head.
Archaeologists discovered this skull in a cave in Spain, in the ataporga mountains.
They were immediately alarmed because it was visibly obvious that the victim had had their skull bashed inward.
But that wasn’t the only scary aspect.
To get to The Remains, the archaeologists had to scramble down a skinny chimney into an underground Cavern to find the skull.
Inside the cavern was a pit of bones.
At least 28 people were dead inside the pit, in including members of various hominid species.
There were members of the ancient homo heidelbergensis and another species of human ancestor that scientists had never seen before today.
This is one of the oldest burial pits ever found on the planet.
It’s also one of the only burial pits where different species of humans have been found in the same place.
Nobody knows why the bodies were dumped here, what the timeline looks like or why the victim of our ancient murder mystery had their head caved in.
It’s truly one of the real archaeological Mysteries still waiting to be solved.
New Mexico Massacre
The New Mexico Massacre.
Seven skeletons have been found in a secluded part of New Mexico, deep inside a canyon, indicating there had been some type of Massacre.
The five adults, one child and one infant were found to have been from the now extinct native Guyina culture.
They occupied a small region of the Southwestern State almost 1 000 years ago, but in the year 1275 they suddenly vanished and all trace of them was lost.
These skeletons, which were uncovered by the Us forest Service in 2005, offer an explanation for what happened to these ancient people.
According to Tony larger Espada, the main researcher involved with the discovery, every single one of these people had been murdered, including the children.
The bones had been shattered and broken apart, left behind in the dirt.
Additionally, all the other skeletons that have been discovered in the area from the time of the Guyina also appeared to have been murdered.
Archaeologists are now starting to suspect that there was not only a massacre here, but an ancient campaign of genocide in which every last member of the Guyina were wiped out in just a few years, maybe as quickly as a few months.
Curiously enough, it appears that the guyina Disappeared around the same time as the Anasazi, who built Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.
Perhaps they were both wiped out by another culture who moved up from the south, like the moche from Peru, whose gods were hungry for blood.
Murder By Hadrians Wall
Murder By Hadrian’s Wall.
A young ancient victim was found at Hadrian’s Wall in the United Kingdom.
The child may very well have been killed some 1 800 years ago.
According to the experts, this young person was either a child slave or The Offspring of a soldier from Mainland Europe serving at this farthest Outpost in the Roman Empire.
Hadrian’s Wall was built by the Romans when they occupied the United Kingdom.
It marked the boundary of the Roman Empire, or as far as they would ever conquer.
It was manned by Roman soldiers, with many of these soldiers coming from other parts of the Empire.
The body was found in a shallow pit at the corner of a back room at the old Roman Fortress.
Researchers immediately thought it was strange because most bodies were buried far away from settlements so that ordinary folk wouldn’t be contaminated by the dead.
Dr Trudy Buck from Durham University was able to determine that the child was about 10, though no one knows if it was a boy or a girl.
Dr Buck also says this was definitely a case of murder, since the body appears to have been stashed rather than buried.
Also, this skull has a distinct fracture.
That means the child was hit over the head with something heavy.
Dna tests show that the child came from the Mediterranean.
That means they were either the child of a foreign Soldier or a slave.
Seeing as child slavery was huge business in ancient Rome, it wouldn’t be surprising.
It could be that the child’s Roman owner got angry, killed the child, then stashed the body under the fort.
An Ancient Bullet
An ancient bullet sometime around 2000 years ago, a man was murdered in Greece.
The murderer killed this person by driving something very sharp into his chest.
Archaeologists investigating the body believe it was a unique type of spear driven into the man so hard that it left an almost perfect circle in his sternum, almost like an ancient bullet.
The ancient weapon used in the murder was called a styrax, an agnostis Aguilarrakis from Adelphia.
Diversity says that in 40 Years of studying archeology they have never witnessed such a perfect wound on any remains.
They say that the spear was thrust at a close range with Immaculate Precision, stabbed straight through the sternum.
So who was the person who got killed?
He was tall for the day, standing five foot seven.
He was also about 50 years old and was extraordinarily muscular.
It remains a mystery why he was killed, though.
Seeing as this was ancient Greece, it probably had something to do with political upheaval.
The real fascinating part is the wound in his chest.
After doing experiments with the physics Department, an agnostics discovered that it would have taken about 500 pounds of pure Force to pierce the man’s sternum, even though the victim was quite buff.
Whoever killed him was an absolute Beast.
Mass cannibalism.
Mass Cannibalism
In the ancient Village of Herxheim in modern-day Germany about 7 000 years ago, hundreds of people were butchered.
They were likely ritually sacrificed each attend by other humans, and then had the remains thrown into a pit.
According to anthropologists from the University of Bordeaux in France, the sudden explosion of cannibalism could have had something to do with ritual sacrifice, but this wasn’t a friendly ritual sacrifice.
The cannibals at the Village may have brought slaves or prisoners of War back to their settlement before brutally murdering and eating them.
But these villagers weren’t the only ones eating other people.
Cannibalism was fairly common in the early Neolithic period in Europe.
This was around the time that farming started to spread across the continent.
Villages would often fight against others for whatever reason, then take their bodies back home to eat.
Archaeologists know this because of markings on the skeletons indicating that they had been butchered in the exact same way as animals.
However, it’s impossible to say exactly what happened at Hercsheim.
It was definitely cannibalism, but the motive is still up in the air.
Whatever happened was extreme, since archaeologists have never before found so many many cannibalized victims killed in the same brief span of time.
The Death Pit
The Death Pit.
Eight thousand years ago, a woman around the age of 19, along with a man slightly older than her, fell into a well.
Either that or they were pushed.
Archaeologists are calling it a stone age murder mystery.
Nobody can tell whether the couple fell by accident or a foul play was involved.
It does seem a little strange that two people would fall into a well purely by accident.
One would be understandable, but two really makes you wonder.
The couple lived during the Stone Age, and what is today Israel.
The well is still around all these years later, near the ancient settlement of Enoch Nissan it.
The well itself is 26 feet deep, made completely out of stone sunken into the Bedrock.
At its mouth, the well gapes four feet wide.
The two skeletons were not the only things that archaeologists found inside the well.
They also uncovered tools, ancient garbage and Bones from animals.
It appears is that after the people fell into the well or were pushed, the villagers stopped using it to drink out of and turned it into a garbage dump.
Even 8 000 years ago, people knew that dead bodies and fresh drinking water didn’t mix, but unfortunately there is really no way to tell if these people were killed by some evil villain.
It is possible that they were murdered, pushed into the well to contaminate the water on purpose, or it could be that somebody was trying to make the entire Village sick.
What do you think?
Endangered birds are giving virgin births
Let me know in the comments below.
Endangered birds are giving virgin births.
Two wild Condor chicks have hatched in California without any male Dna.
According to scientists who just announced the shocking Discovery, they made the unexpected find while looking through a database that compiles the genetic information of all California Condors.
The phenomenon at play is called parthenogenesis, which happens when an unfertilized embryo spontaneously develops.
These so-called virgin births have occasionally been observed among reptiles, fish and some domestic Birds, but this is the first time it’s ever been witnessed among wild Condors.
The species came perilously close to extinction during the 1980s, when its surviving population dipped to less than two dozen.
Numbers have improved thanks to intensive conservation efforts and breeding programs.
There were 329 wild Condors as of last year, according to a report from the Us department of Interior, which runs the California condor recovery program.
But the bird is still critically endangered and its ability to reproduce asexually could prove helpful for restoring the species.
As scientists work to bring the California condor back from the brink of Extinction, they document every single Bird’s DNA and keep track of their relationships to one another.
This helps to prevent inbreeding and hereditary diseases.
When experts notice that there were male Condors whose DNA matches 100 with their mothers, they double check their information to be sure it was correct.
It was, and at that moment it became clear that the birds are the products of parthenogenesis.
Female Condors who reproduce this way can only hatch male chicks, because the process inevitably results in the chromosomes that create males.
Ancient mask painted with human blood
Both of the mothers had reproduced sexually before, so researchers are now looking into what may have caused them to reproduce on their own ancient mask painted with human blood.
During the early 1990s, archaeologists unearth a 1 000 year old skeleton wearing a gold mask from an ancient tomb in Peru.
The burial belonged to a high-ranking middle-aged man who was a member of the Sikan Culture.
Both the skeleton and The Mask were painted bright red.
The man’s head had been purposely separated from the rest of his body.
His grave contained an array of goods and four other skeletons, including two young women who were situated like a midwife and a woman giving birth, and two children who were buried in crouching positions.
Experts initially thought that the red pigment covering the man’s remains were was a mineral called Cinnabar, but they were perplexed by how it had stayed on the bones and a mask for one thousand years.
They figured that the paint contained some sort of binding agent that gave it its long lasting quality.
A new study has finally identified that material as Blood.
Using a process that identifies substances using infrared light, scientists saw that the paint contains proteins.
Further analysis found six different proteins that are present in human blood, as well as proteins from egg whites.
Cinnabar was a top quality material reserved for Elites, while commoners typically used ocher-based paint.
According to the researchers, based on the positions the skeletons were found in, the team believes that the burial represented the deceased man’s rebirth.
The people who buried him may have used the blood infused paint to symbolize actual blood or a life force pretty intense.
The study’s authors wrote that the use of blood in paint is not surprising, considering how the Sikan Culture is known for having performed other bloody rituals, including Human Sacrifice.
Earths mushy core
– Earth’s mushy core.
Until recently, scientists thought that the Earth’s core consisted of a solid ball of compressed iron alloy encased in a liquid outer core, but they recently realized that these innermost parts of the planet are not a boring blob of iron, in the words of seismologist Jessica Irving, who spoke to life science about a recent study she participated in.
The research found that the firmness of the Earth’s core varies from hard to liquid to semi-soft.
Even after making the discovery, though, the middle of the planet is still largely a mystery to experts.
Scientists have known since the 1950s that the world isn’t Hollow, but they still haven’t been able to explore it firsthand because it’s simply too hot for any equipment to withstand.
In fact, researchers will probably never directly observe the core, even with technology.
Experts instead visualize it by measuring seismic waves generated by earthquakes, much like how a Ct scan helps doctors see the inner workings of the human body.
The recent study came after geophysicist Rhett Butler noticed that something wasn’t adding up about these waves.
He double checked the math and found that it was correct, which meant that scientists were wrong about the core structure.
After reviewing the data, Butler and his colleague determined that the equations work out much better when considered in the context of a core that has liquid and mushy semi-solid pockets.
They also concluded that some parts of the core are extremely hard.
It sounds kind of like a brownie that wasn’t cooked all the way.
These findings could prove to be a game changer in the scientific community’s understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field, which is directly affected by the core.
Dozens of ancient coffins
Dozens of ancient coffins and a new Queen.
Earlier this year, archaeologists announced the discovery of over 50 wooden sarcophagi and numerous other valuable artifacts at the sprawling ancient Egyptian necropolis of Sakara.
The coffins were in a series of burial shafts situated between 30 and 40 feet underground.
Buried alongside statues of Egyptian gods and goddesses.
They turned out to contain the remains of top ranking officials dating back to sometime between 1570 Bc and 1069 Bc, during Egypt’s New Kingdom era.
These are the first three thousand-year-old sarcophagi ever discovered at Sakara.
News of the findings came a decade after the team began Excavating at the site, under the direction of Egyptologist Zahi Hawas.
Around the same time, the archaeologists identified a nearby 4 200 year old pyramid as belonging to Queen Naert, who was married to King Teti, a ruler of the old Kingdom’s sixth Dynasty.
Hawa said that he’d never heard of Queen nairge before the discovery, which could potentially rewrite Egyptian history, making this a major and exciting.
Origins of the Falkland Island Wolf
Discovery origins of the Falkland Island Wolf.
The Falkland Islands were once home to the Warra, a fox-like creature that was hunted to Extinction back in 1876.
Also known as the Falkland Islands Wolf.
It was the archipelago’s only land mammal.
Genetic evidence shows that the creature reached the islands around sixteen thousand years ago and became isolated from other canid species.
Researchers have long struggled to understand where the animal came from.
Darwin and other Europeans who visited the island found no signs of human settlements, so they rejected the idea that ancient people may have brought the war there.
Instead, they assume that the creature somehow made its way to the Falkland Islands on its own.
This would be surprising, because there is no evidence that the ancient dogs would have had a way to get there.
There was no ice or land bridge they could have crossed, and it’s also bizarre that there were never any other mammals on the islands.
These types of migrations usually involve more than one species.
A new study revisits the possibility of indigenous people inhabiting the islands and bringing the Warra with them as their canine companions.
Scientists found that around 1800 Bc, the amount of charcoal preserved in peat increased.
Then, around 550 Bc, it Rose even more dramatically.
These findings indicate the frequency and intensity of fires that increase in a place after humans arrive.
The team also found bone piles throughout the islands which they think may have been discarded by indigenous settlers.
Evidence also shows that the Warra ate a similar diet to some ancient humans, suggesting that they were being fed as pets.
The researchers believe that any indigenous people who reach the Falkland Islands only stayed temporarily.
Perhaps the Yaghan, who are known for their Elite seafaring skills, passed through on their way to Argentina, where they’ve been for over 8 000 years.
It’s shout out time.
I want to give a big thank you to Sabi D and Gabriel Abebe.
Thanks so much for supporting.
Origins explained.
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The world tipped on its side
The world tipped on its side millions of years ago in what researchers are calling a cosmic Yo-Yo.
The Earth’s crust tipped on its side around 84 million years ago, formerly called true polar wander, or Tpw.
This phenomenon is triggered by the movement of a planet or Moon’s outer layers around its core, which causes the crust to tilt relative to the object’s axis.
It’s basically when the outer shell of a planet moves while the core stays in place.
Instead of Shifting separately, tectonic plates travel as a single cohesion unit.
Some researchers suspect that Tpw happened sometime between 145 million and 66 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period.
This theory has been met with a lot of controversy, but a new study strongly suggests that it’s actually true.
A team of scientists examined magnetic field data trapped inside ancient mineral fossils and found that around 84 million years ago, the world tilted 12 degrees relative to its axis.
Over the next 5 million years, it returned to its original position.
The researchers looked at fossilized chains of magnetite crystals which were oriented to the Earth’s magnetic field when they became Frozen in time.
This helped the team to determine how the crust was situated, and all signs point toward an episode of Tpw.
These findings challenged the previously held notion that the world’s spin access has remained relatively stable over the past 100 million years.
Prehistoric burial
Tpw is a gradual process that would have had no major in impact on Wildlife because, while it caused the Earth’s Geographic poles to shift, it had no impact on the planet’s magnetic field prehistoric burial.
While digging a foundation for a new garage at his home in Western Slovakia, a resident dug up- quite a surprise- a human skull.
Archaeologists found the remains of two women in the grave and determined that they died sometime between 4, 21 and 541 AD.
One was aged 20 to 25 when she died and the other was between the ages of 25 and 40.
They were laid to rest on their backs with their heads facing west and their feet pointed Eastward.
The burials date back to the migration period, when Slovakia was inhabited by various tribes, including the Quadi, the Huns, the Lombards and more.
Other Graves found in the region were connected to the Lombards, and the timing of the newly discovered burials matches up with when they were in the area, leading experts to think that the women were from the same tribe.
There were no grave Goods indicating that the burials were looted at some point, much like other Lombard Graves throughout Western Slovakia, but some artifacts have been found, including ceramic fragments, indicating that there was a settlement in the area.
Lost Extinction
Because of this, researchers believe that there are more remains nearby that have yet to be found.
Lost Extinction.
Around 34 million years ago, the earth changed.
It was marked by a cooling climate that caused sea levels and global temperatures to drop, killing an estimated two-thirds of the animals in Europe and Asia.
Scientists long believed that Africa managed to avoid a large-scale Extinction during that time.
They thought that being near the equator lessened the effects of climate change, enabling most animals to survive.
But Recent research tells a much different story.
Using fossilized remains from five African animal groups spanning a several million year period, scientists created an evolutionary timeline.
In a new study, scientists focused on a variety of animal groups, ranging from primates to rodents.
The team found that entire branches of these groups were wiped out of existence during the cooling period that straddled the eocene and the oligosine era.
These extinctions happened more gradually in Africa than they did elsewhere, making the loss of diversity less noticeable.
In addition to a cooling climate, unusually active volcanoes may have played a role in wiping out Africa’s mammals during that time period.
The new species that emerged had different traits than the ones that disappeared during the mass extinction.
Their teeth were shaped differently than their ancestors, for example, indicating that they evolved to survive in different ecosystems.
Ancient Wildfires
Ancient wildfires tore through Antarctica.
The planet underwent one of its warmest periods between 166 million years ago, known as the late Cretaceous.
At the time, Antarctica was Ice free and home to temperate forests filled with conifers, ferns, flowering plants and dinosaurs.
As these supercontinent Gondwana broke up, it became increasingly isolated from other land masses.
Scientists already know that wildfires tore through the Northern Hemisphere and occasionally hit places throughout the southern hemisphere, but until recently they were unsure whether Antarctica was affected.
In a recent study, researchers examined fossilized plants from James Ross Island that had a charcoal-like residue on them.
The findings confirmed their suspicions that wildfires occurred throughout Antarctica.
It makes sense.
During the late Cretaceous, the now Frozen continent was Rife with volcanic activity, lightning strikes, Fireballs from falling meteors and flammable plants.
The study’s authors wrote that it’s possible that volcanic activity sparked the blaze that created the charcoal they studied.
They are currently searching for evidence of wildfires elsewhere in Antarctica.
You would never think of wildfires looking at it now.
New Human Ancestor
Would you a new human ancestor
Over 500 000 years ago, a hominid called homobodoensis lived throughout Africa.
It was one of several ancient human species that once roamed the Earth and, like the others, its place on our complicated family tree is a hotly debated topic.
Scientists recently named H bodoensis as a new species and a direct ancestor of modern humans.
It lived during the Middle Placedocene, which saw the emergence of us
Homo sapiens and manyanderthals, our closest relatives, in what paleoanthropologists call the muddle in the middle.
Human evolution during this time period is poorly understood.
They are hoping that the identification of H bodoensis will help to bring Clarity to the confusion.
The team discovered the species by examining fossils from Africa and Eurasia that were originally classified as homo heidelbergensis or Homorota Siensis.
There had already been problems with using these poorly defined labels when several of the fossils were found to belong to early neanderthals.
Following the new studies guidelines, each photoensis will include most middle-placeocene human ancestors from Africa and some from Southeastern Europe.
The rest will be reclassified as neanderthals wherever they fit in.
Welcome to the the Human family Tree, although that honestly hasn’t cleared up anything for me yet.
Dun Wang Library Cave
The Dun Wang Library cave.
At the Mogal cave complex in Dunhuang, China, there is a mysterious Stone library that goes back centuries.
When modern archaeologists uncovered the library cave in the year 1900, they found an estimated 50 000 Scrolls, manuscripts, booklets and paintings inside.
It was a literal Trove of intellectual Treasures, a collection of literary artifacts from between the 9th and 10th Century Ad.
The literary Works were placed into the cave by Buddhist monks.
Some of the manuscripts involved religion, some were philosophical, some spoke of ancient Chinese history and others were scientific.
It was an overwhelming collection of knowledge stored away for over a thousand years.
All along the sheer face of the cliff here, spanning a distance of 15 miles, there are many mysterious caves carved by ancient monks.
The library cave is only one out of 500 caves carved out by human hands at Dun Huang.
It’s why the area is often known as the Thousand Buddha grottos.
Construction began back in 366 AD, with the happenings of the caves being kept mostly a secret.
The final cave was carved out about a thousand years ago, when the library was sealed and hidden until modern times.
But why go through all of that trouble?
The truth is that no one really knows out of all the various scriptures uncovered inside the Library.
There are over 20 different languages, with manuscripts involving nearly a dozen different religions.
In reality, this is the Chinese version of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The monks had most likely wanted to safeguard all the knowledge they had accumulated over the years, keeping it safe by sealing it in the stone cave, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Out of all the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, there is only one that remains a mystery to this very day: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and scientists have speculated for centuries whether this impressive structure ever existed at all.
To understand this curious Monument better, we need to go back to 225 Bc.
That was when the Greek engineer Philo made his list of the seven things to be seen in the world.
At the time of Philo’s list, these things were considered modern.
The list included the statue of Zeus, the Pyramids of Giza, the Temple of Artemis, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mausoleum at Halle, carnassus and the Pharaohs of Alexandria.
It also included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but the gardens have never actually been uncovered by archaeologists.
The other six wonders, while only one of them still stands in all of his glory today, have at least been found in ruined condition.
According to ancient descriptions, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were created by King Nebuchadnezzar Ii, who ruled Babylon from 605 to 561 Bc.
See, the gardens were considered amazing to the ancient people because nothing like them had ever been constructed before.
The gardens were allegedly built on raised stone columns to make them look as if they were suspended in mid-air.
There were all kinds of beautiful plants and flowers.
It was basically an ancient Botanical Garden, more immense and impressive than anything around today.
Plus, it was in the middle of the desert.
But despite the fact that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were mentioned by geographers and historians all the way up to the first century Bc, no trace of them has ever been found.
They may have existed, but unlike Stone monuments, buildings and statues, the gardens may have not weathered time
And it’s likely-
We’ll never know for sure.
Irelands Sweat Houses
Ireland’s sweat houses.
Did you know that until about 100 years ago, Irish people used to get naked and visit saunas whenever they got sick?
These saunas go back hundreds and hundreds of years, maybe even thousands.
Archaeologists have recently been trying to unravel the mystery of what you might call Irish igloos: constructs of stone covered in soil and grass to create a sealed, beehive shaped Dome.
According to Sarah Malone, with lay trim County Council Heritage, there are at least 100 of these bizarre sweat houses in County lathrum alone, an area with fewer than 35 000 people.
This structures date from between the 1600s to the 1900s, though there had likely been sweat houses in Ireland much earlier than that.
When a person became ill, they would fill the Irish Igloo with turf or wood, light a fire and block the entrance, only to release the smoke a few hours later.
The Embers would quickly be swept out.
Next, the sick person would crawl into the Dome naked and sweat for as long as they could take it.
Then they would crawl out and cool down in a nearby stream.
For these ancient people, The Sweat House was a magical place.
They didn’t know why it worked, but they knew it made them feel a lot better.
Dr Ronan Foley from Ireland’s Maine youth University says it was just a placebo effect, since sweating can’t really cure Illness.
But whatever it was, the ancient people of the area absolutely swore by it.
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe is one of the most mysterious ancient cities anywhere on the planet.
According to National Geographic, people lived within Great Zimbabwe starting at around the year 1100, but within just 400 years the city was abandoned and nobody ever lived in it again.
For those first 400 years, the city was the capital of the kingdom of Zimbabwe and a major hub for trading.
Great Zimbabwe was part of a global trading Network which facilitated trade between many different parts of the world, even from places as far away as China and Persia.
The elite members of the society controlled all trade moving up and down the coast of East Africa.
But here’s where things get a little strange.
Great Zimbabwe was wildly wealthy, with their City being massive and very technologically advanced.
It makes no sense that by the 15th century every single person left and the city was in Ruins.
To this day no one knows why it was abandoned, how they managed to lose control over East Africa, or where the 20 000 people living inside its walls disappeared to.
Was it War, famine, disease?
It’s a total mystery.
The Hermit Kings Cave
The Hermit King’s cave- the anger Church caves in Derbyshire, England, include a mysterious rock-cut cave dwelling that goes back to the days of the Anglo-Saxons.
The Cave- well, a series of caves carved out to be an extremely primitive house- is located near the modern Village of Ingleby.
Until recently, locals thought it was an 18th century structure, maybe belonging to an unknown hermit, but according to researchers with the Royal agricultural University, it may actually be a medieval cave from the 9th century that belonged to a deposed King piecing together vague scraps of historical texts.
Throughout the past Thousand Years, Scholars put together a solution to the mystery of the cave house.
They believe that when King aired Wolf of Northumbria was kicked off his throne in the year 806, he was forced to become a Hermit and live alone in his primitive cave.
He was exiled, sent off to be by himself and then died 24 years later, in 830..
His burial was even found five miles from the cave, really cementing the whole Theory.
But why would they go through the trouble of putting the king in a cave?
Back in those days it wasn’t unusual for for Saxon royalty, after being kicked off The Throne or retiring from politics, to devote their life to God.
They normally did this by breaking away from society and living as a Hermit.
In this case, the hermit ex-king just so happened to have himself a rather fancy cave to live in.
The Whole Stone
The whole Stone, the whole Stone, located in Dayak, Northern Ireland, has been standing ever since the Bronze Age.
It’s actually one of the most immaculately preserved standing stones from the Bronze Age in the whole country.
But its Origins are unclear.
Nobody knows who built it, when it was built or what its original purpose was.
Today it looks out of place, a worn old rock sticking out of the dirt at the top of a Grassy Hill.
Experts believe it may have been a kind of gravestone used to mark an important burial place.
Others suggest it could have been used as a pagan altar.
One of the more bizarre theories is that the whole Stone represented a sacred place where Celtic Kings gather to meet and discuss important topics.
Records of the whole Stone have been lost for thousands of years and it’s likely we’ll never know its true purpose.
And besides, this Stone has been warped by numerous Legends passed down through the generations.
A lot of people know it today as the Love Stone, since it was used by couples before they got married, because the hole at the top of the stone is quite small.
A woman would reach her arm through her lever, would hold her hand on the other side and their love would officially be bound forever.
The Deserts of Alula
The deserts of Al-Ula.
In the deserts of Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, researchers are still trying to piece together the truth behind an ancient civilization that vanished from the face of the Earth.
The civilization is known as the nabitaians and they have been gone for a very long time.
They first appeared around the year 100 Bc and ruled a massive Empire.
From the City of Petra and Jordan to the city of Hegra in the Arabian Desert, the Nabataeans flourished as expert Craftsmen and Traders for 200 years.
However, much of their culture has since been lost.
Modern historians hadn’t really taken a big interest in these forgotten people until now.
In Saudi Arabia, an international team of over 60 experts is scoring a massive area of the desert of alula to uncover as many ruins of the Nabataans as possible.
What we know so far is that their sophisticated Traditions likely influenced all kinds of people from the Greeks to the Mesopotamians.
They built the City of Petra to be their desert capital and prospered as a stopping point along the Silk Road between Asia and the Mediterranean.
But sadly for these desert dwellers, they ended up being wiped out around the year 106 AD, when the Roman Emperor trajan stormed through with his army.
He destroyed the Navitaians, raided their cities and buried their culture.
The Ziggurat of Amara
The Ziggurat of Akar Kuf. have you ever seen images of an ancient pyramid-like structure that looks as though it’s made up entirely of steps or staircases?
These structures are called ziggurats and they are the ancient precursors to the Egyptian pyramids we know so well today.
The ancient cigarette of a carcuf can be found in the city of Dura kurigalsu in central Iraq.
The city itself was founded way back in the 14th century BC by King corigalsu, the first of the Cassite Dynasty, and it was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Babylonia for a Time.
The Ziggurat, the pyramid-like structure that goes back to before the Egyptians began building their own great monuments, stood at least 180 feet tall.
The purpose of this enormous Monument isn’t completely clear, but we do know that it was dedicated to the God and Lil, and Lil was the ancient Mesopotamian god of wind, air, Earth and storms.
The Ziggurat built in his honor was made of mud bricks stacked one on top of the other, with its foundation over 210 feet squared.
It was absolutely Monumental back in its Glory Days, but sadly, All That Remains now is the core of the structure.
The rest was obliterated by the 12th century Bc, when the elimites and Assyrians showed up and conquered the city.
Later, the Syrians destroyed everything.
The door Korigatsu still had a fairly long life.
It was the capital of the Casites for 400 years straight.
This was the longest rule by any of the Babylonian dynasties.
Even after it was destroyed, it remained a landmark used by camel Caravans on their way to Baghdad.
To this day, many people even associate the ziggurats with the Biblical Tower of Babel, believing this great structure was the inspiration behind the story in the Bible.
Lost Viking Village
Lost Viking Village.
The Curious remains of an ancient Viking settlement were recently uncovered on a remote mountain pass in Norway.
Thanks to Melting glaciers, archaeologists have been finding all kinds of amazing things in the Norwegian mountains.
Lately, the objects of discovery have mostly been artifacts and everyday items, but experts have finally found an actual settlement.
Not only that, but archaeologists have even dated it to somewhere between 750 and 1150, which pretty much coincides with the entire timeline of the Viking era.
In total, archaeologists found 21 structures.
None of these structures were actually still standing.
They simply uncovered the foundations of them beneath the newly revealed soil.
They found embankment walls, leftover charcoal from fireplaces and stone platforms.
It was an entire Village.
But the real mystery is why in the world the Vikings had such a remote settlement.
It was discovered in a very secluded part of the country, high up in the mountains, where there wouldn’t have been access to many resources.
They could have hunted reindeer, but the experts aren’t really sure.
They also don’t know why the Viking mountain town was ultimately abandoned and forgotten.
Do you have any ideas?
Masada
Let me know in the comments below: Masada, the ancient Fortress of Masada, located in Israel at the edge of the Judean desert Towers, above the Dead Sea, over 1 300 feet up on the precipice of a cliff.
Today the Fortress is a Unesco world heritage site and Israeli National Park, but back in 37 Bc it was a castle complex that could be seen for miles around.
The impressive Fortress was commissioned by Herod, the Great King of Judea.
He used Masada, which literally translates from Hebrew to strong Foundation or support, as a winter retreat and as a stronghold against his enemies.
It had a castle, fortified walls and plenty of storage for food.
But after King Herod died in 4 Bc, things changed very quickly.
The kingdom of Judea was annexed by the Romans, who built their own Garrison at Masada.
When the Jews revolted in 66 AD, they took a Masada back and it became something of a sanctuary for the Jewish people, who were desperately trying to avoid being overthrown by the Romans.
Sadly, the Jewish people did not succeed in defending themselves.
In 70 AD, when Jerusalem was burned To The Ground by the Romans, the surviving Jews fled to Masada, but that too was destroyed.
A legion of 8 000 Romans Siege The Fortress, which at the time was only holding about 960 Rebels, most of them women and children.
In the end, every last Jewish person in the region, except for a small handful, ended up dead, and Masada was largely abandoned.
Today, the ruins of the Fortress are still there, on the Mesa overlooking the Dead Sea.
Chand Bowery
The mysterious Stepwell Chand Bowery is an incredibly fascinating stairwell located in Rajasthan, India.
This is no ordinary stairwell.
It’s more like a stair Temple.
It’s also technically called a step well.
Images of the place are so captivating it’s almost unreal.
It’s been used in Bollywood films and has even had Hollywood film sets modeled after it.
But just what in the world is a stepwell and what was this one meant for?
It was built as an underground well to hold water for those living nearby.
The stairs were so that locals could climb down to wherever the top of the water was.
It’s one of the largest step walls in the entire world and also one of the most beautiful.
The structure has a precise geometrical pattern and the steps form a magical looking maze.
The consequent play of the light and shadows give it a really unique look.
It’s one of the few classical stepwells surviving in India today, with its oldest Parts going all the way back to the 8th Century at least.
John Bowery has a total of 3500 narrow steps arranged in perfect symmetry, descending 65 feet over 13 stories to the bottom of the well, and it’s rumored that it was built in one night, but that is just Legend.
Of course.
It would take some kind of superhuman to do that.
The bottom of the well has air over 10 degrees cooler than the temperature at the surface.
The community would gather down at the bottom of the stepwell in the hottest months to stay cool and refreshed.
A palace was added at the very top of the stairs built by the original chaohan rulers.
You’re not actually allowed to visit this area of China Bowery today, though not as a tourist at least, because it is sealed off to visitors.
The final parts of the step will were built fairly recently, in the 18th century, while the Mughal still ruled India.
These magical places have been around for a very long time.
Babylons Tower
Babylon’s Tower of Babel.
Many people believe that the Tower of Babel is nothing more than a Biblical metaphor, While others believe the tower was once a very real structure.
The Bible says that the tower was built in the land of Shinar, which is old Babylonia.
It was allegedly constructed after the great flood commissioned by King Nebuchadnezzar Ii in 586 Bc, trying to conquer the world as he knew it.
King Nebuchadnezzar Ii stormed Jerusalem, a city 500 miles to the West, capturing its most highly skilled and highly educated citizens, and brought them back with him to build the Tower.
While it’s true that the actual Tower itself hasn’t been discovered, archaeologists recently found some evidence that could be linked to this mysterious ancient structure.
Specifically, they have found bricks from Babylonia stamped with the Seal of King Nebuchadnezzar Ii himself.
Whatever These Bricks were used for, the legendary King was the one who commissioned them.
Mysterious Graves
The structure they belong to has long since been picked apart and thrown away, but it could have been the real Tower of Babel, located in what is today Iraq, about 60 miles from Baghdad.
Mysterious Graves.
Archaeologists in France have come across a very mysterious graveyard from 1 400 years ago.
The site has brought to light a bizarre habit of people living in Europe during the Middle Ages.
They had a tendency to reopen Graves, take certain things out of them and then re-berry the person.
The tradition of digging up Graves periodically has been documented from Transylvania to England, but this wasn’t traditional grave robbing.
Between the 6th and 8th centuries Ad, people opened Graves and took out objects that weren’t worth anything, meaning it probably wasn’t grave robbery so much as an odd kind of tradition at this particular graveyard in France.
Archaeologists are still trying to figure out why the graves were pillaged for seemingly worthless items and then sealed back up.
The robbers took broaches and swords, yet Left Behind precious jewelry of gold and silver.
Alison Clevenness, a researcher with Stockholm University, says the people only removed things that were of no practical use or monetary value, which means it was probably sentimental.
So far, researchers say stealing things from freshly dug Graves probably had some kind of symbolic motivation.
Mysterious Town
It could be that relatives were taking back heirlooms and then handing them down to their young relatives, but the truth is that we can’t say for sure is an ancient Town built by the Vikings about 12 miles away from Stockholm.
It’s on a small island called Bjorko inside Malarin Lake.
The Viking age brought a lot of Innovations and key events to Europe, greatly shaping the future of what was to come.
The Vikings being all about raiding and pillaging as they sail to the West and East is a popular misconception.
While they did travel all over and bring kingdoms to their knees, they were also advanced in many other ways: their major ports and settlements around Scandinavia were some of the busiest trade hubs, full of wealth, and Birka was one of these settlements.
The lake is dotted with multiple Islands.
Adelso, a neighboring Island, was also a key Viking trade center.
Adelsa was supposedly the Royal residence from which the Kings and Chieftains ruled over the lands.
Historical evidence tells us that Birka was founded roughly around 750 AD, growing slowly from a small settlement into a larger town.
It’s also one of the earliest Urban cell settlements in this area of Scandinavia, but for some bizarre reason that no one really knows, the town vanished basically overnight, completely abandoned.
Archaeological evidence shows that Birka, within the span of just a few years, went from the biggest trading Hub in the region, connecting the Vikings to civilizations farther away such as the Slavs, the Byzantine Empire and even Traders from the Orient, to nothing.
By the 900s there was nobody living here.
It could have been that they saw too much competition from other Traders moving into the area.
It also could have been because the water levels of the lake receded, making it difficult for trade ships to even reach the ports of the city.
What’s left of these well-developed trading networks gives an important glimpse into the past of the Viking age in Sweden.
The tomb of Genghis Khan.
Tomb of Genghis Khan
One of the most interesting and mysterious archaeological locations in the world has still never been discovered.
I am talking about the tomb of Genghis Khan, conqueror of the war World, an original ruler of the great Mongol hordes.
He’s been dead for 800 years and no one knows where he was buried.
Ever since he was laid to rest in this mysterious location, the nomadic, dark-eyed Warriors have been protecting it.
It’s said that when the Great Khan died, his funeral procession murdered everyone who witnessed where they were going.
After the slaves finished burying the great ruler, the soldiers killed them, and when the soldiers returned from their gray Journey, they too were massacred.
In the end, there was no one left who knew where Genghis Khan was buried, not even the dark ad.
They were simply given orders to protect a large area where his tomb could be located.
37 Generations before now, they were tasked with slaughtering anyone who went into the area and all these years later, they are still there protecting the secret of the Tomb.
Of course, they no longer kill people who travel into the region, but, that being said, there are sixteen thousand guards in the area doing all they can to stop archaeologists from coming in.
They want to keep the tomb a secret and so far they’ve done an awesome job.
Where do you think the tomb of Genghis Khan is?
Let me know in the comments below.
And I wanted to give a big shout out to Jupiter and Eric P. thanks so much for watching and supporting Origins explained.
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The Wreck of the Santa Maria
We have lots more videos about Amazing Discoveries coming soon: the wreck of the Santa Maria.
Barry Clifford, an underwater investigator in the United States, believes that he has uncovered the final resting place of the Santa Maria, a submerged archaeological site supposedly holds the flagship of Christopher Columbus’s famous expedition to the new world.
Yeah, That’s Santa Maria.
Clifford says there is strong evidence suggesting Santa Maria is hiding beneath the waves just off the northern coast of Haiti.
Clifford has even managed to take photographs of the wreckage and is currently working with the government of Haiti to protect the site.
He is still figuring out how to properly conduct a detailed investigation, but he’s almost 100 percent certain the ship is there waiting for him.
The Santa Maria sailed along with La Nina and La Pinta to explore the islands around the Caribbean in 1492, believing they would find a passage to Asia.
They never expected to discover North America.
Instead, Columbus lost the Santa Maria shortly before he returned to Spain and people have been looking for it ever since.
If Barry Clifford does find a way to get to the bottom of the ocean to investigate the Lost vessel, he will be looking at the first archaeological Marine evidence of the European discovery of America.
El Dorado
Clifford, along with the government of Haiti and the History Channel, will be documenting his journey to find it for sure.
El Dorado archaeologist near Bogota and Colombia have discovered nearly a dozen strange ceramic jars at a temple that they believe could be connected to the mythical city of gold.
Many know this city as El Dorado, the places said to be so full of riches that anyone who finds it will be rich beyond their Wildest Dreams.
People have searched for the lost city of El Dorado for centuries, but most historians agree that it may not even exist.
The ceramic jar is found by the archaeologists contained metallic figures and carved emeralds.
The jars were crafted as offerings about 600 years ago by the ancient Moiska people, also sometimes called the Chicha.
Researchers say it could have been the Muiska and their phenomenal skills at crafting metal that inspired the original Legend of the city of gold.
This Legend goes back to 1537, when the Spanish moved in and conquered the region.
Most of the indigenous Muiska were either killed by the Spanish during fighting or they died after becoming infected with diseases.
They were almost wiped out completely, but a handful survived and there are still a few thousand of these natives living today.
When the Spanish beat the locals down and started looking through the amazing Treasures, they were blown away by the impressive goldwork of the Muiska.
The Spaniards took the story of the city of gold in the jungle back home with them, and this very well could have sparked the legend of El Dorado, which still lives on to this very day.
Saudi Arabias forgotten kingdoms
Saudi Arabia’s forgotten kingdoms.
There are several forgotten Kingdoms in Saudi Arabia and many lost archaeological sites that have only recently come back to us through extensive study.
For example, Al-Ula only opened to tourists in 2019, and this place is enormous.
It was built over 2 000 Years Ago by the Nabateeans, the people that came before the Egyptians.
Two more forgotten kingdoms are the data Knight and the Leonite, two civilizations that flourished two thousand years ago and were even mentioned in the Old Testament.
Both of these kingdoms controlled the trade routes to the region of Arabia for about 900 years, until 100 AD when the Romans showed up and conquered the area.
As a result, There is almost nothing left of the amazing cities that they built, with the exception of Al-Ula.
Al-Ullah covers an area of about 11 000 square miles.
It was built by the leonites with with high stone walls to keep out Invaders, along with hundreds of mud houses occupied by the desert dwellers.
After the Romans came and destroyed most of the Nabataeans, they did away with Al-Ula, leaving it to fall to dust.
Chichen Itza
The Chichen Itza asuari-
The Chichen itsa Asueri in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula, is one of the most mysterious archaeological sites left behind by the Maya.
It looks like an oddly shaped pyramid with steps cascading down from the top.
Originally, it was part of a Monumental complex that researchers believe helped the ancient people communicate with the gods of the underworld.
This structure measures about 30 feet high and is composed of nine staggered bodies.
The pyramid still has its original decoration, including all kinds of mythological snakes, Birds, gods and scary looking masks.
But the creepiest part of the ossuary is an entrance at its top, leading to a deep staircase and a tunnel that goes underground for nearly 10 miles.
During the time the Maya still live lived here.
This was likely a secret passage that led from the bottom of the ossuery to a different Maya City, likely Yaksuna.
The Maya didn’t actually dig the tunnel, it was already there.
They built the ossuary at the entrance to a natural underground Cavern and, while we don’t know for sure, this underground landscape may have also been viewed as the actual underworld to the Maya.
Underwater Mystery Ruins
According to Legends, these tunnels or Caverns represent the gate between the world of the dead and Paradise.
Underwater mystery ruins.
There is a mysterious underwater archaeological site off the coast of British Columbia and Canada, located in the Como Estuary.
Over 150 000 wooden Stakes spread across the intertidal zone, like wooden arms reaching out of the water.
They can only really be seen at low tide, looking like the remnants of some kind of huge settlement once built on the floor of what is now the ocean.
But the truth is that these are actually ancient fish traps.
This small wooden stake sticking out from the water represent at least 300 fish drops.
Some were erected as recently as 100 years ago, but others go back 1 300 years.
Together, the fish traps create one of the very first commercial Fisheries ever built in Canada.
At its peak, this place provided food for up to 12 000 indigenous coomoks.
If you’re curious as to how 300 fish traps all work at the same time, I’ll try to tell you.
They work based on a knowledge of fish behavior and tidal range.
Each trap had a removable wooden panel that would let water through, but not fish.
When the Tide Rose, fish would follow the center of the Trap, since it mimicked the shoreline and seemed completely natural to them.
But then, as the tide receded, the fish got stuck with nowhere to go and were stranded in Shallow pools of water.
The natives would then gather all the fish up and take them back to be prepared for eating.
Perfect.
But the craziest thing about the site is that no one even knew what it was until 2002.
The natives in the area.
I had known about the stakes for decades, but it wasn’t until Anthropologist Nancy Greene took an interest and began to actually research them that anything was made public knowledge.
When she studied them and took into account the oral history, the results were amazing.
The stakes actually formed a constellation outlining one of the most sophisticated and extensive indigenous fishing operations ever discovered.
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