the stone age accounts for 99 of the world's history lasting from
2.6 million years ago to about 5 000 years ago the epoch stretches so far back that it
covers multiple ice ages in the emergence of the modern human species in fact at one
point around 300 000 years ago nine human species co-inhabited the earth of which
only one homo sapiens remains today the era is shrouded in mystery and new archaeological
discoveries continue to push the boundaries of our current beliefs and understanding when it comes to
mankind's cultural evolution technological development and other accomplishments
however with each new discovery we seem to uncover a multitude of new mysteries which
not only make us question our current belief systems but also our current societal prowess
number 10. the red deer cave people the discovery of 14 000 year old bones belonging to numerous
members of a strange pre-modern human species in china's maludong red deer cave in 2012
electrified the scientific community archaeologists hypothesized at the time
that the bones could belong to an undiscovered new species or a very early and primitive looking
group of modern humans who had migrated to the area over a hundred thousand years ago known
as the red deer cave people their mystery persists to this day and it was previously assumed that the
earliest pre-modern humans on mainland eurasia the denisovans of siberia and the neanderthals
of europe and west asia died out around 40 000 years ago shortly after modern humans
arrived in the area this discovery suggests that a pre-modern species may have coexisted
alongside modern humans on mainland east asia at some point in the past these ancient humans or
more accurately their remains which are so close to us but so physically distant so much younger
than our neanderthal ancestors that it raises some extremely important questions were they actually a
different species of human and if that's the case what became of them why did they become extinct
what was their actual way of life and how did they engage with our ancestors 9. the shigeru idol
in 1894 the shagir idol was unearthed where it lay concealed deep in a peat bog in
russia's euro mountains at 12 500 years old it dates back to the early holocene
epoch fondly called the age of man and is twice as old as egypt's famous pyramids the idol itself is
a miracle of preservation carved from the wood of a 156 year old larch tree it was discovered
in fragments and stood at around nine feet tall after being reconstructed however according to
archaeologist vladimir tolma jeb's drawings it was once over twice that height the massive artwork
has seven faces a three-dimensional face can be seen on its top while six more were engraved
onto the idol's body a succession of abstract shapes including chevrons and a herringbone
as well as diagonal or horizontal lines run alongside the intricately carved faces to date
we have not been able to decipher the message that was so meticulously engraved into the sculpture's
surface but it is assumed that the sculpture's geometric patterns had a very specific meaning
some theories suggest that the lines indicate borders between the spiritual and the physical
world and that it might resemble a pictorial map or have some relation to the deities at the time
number 8. stonehenge stonehenge a marvel of stone age engineering erected before the time of the
pyramids has stood the test of time for millennia each of the 80 megaliths some of which are over
23 feet in height weigh more than 20 tons the construction of stonehenge started around 3100 bc
what remains of stonehenge today represents only a small part of the original site but
why did the ancient people actually decide to erect these massive boulders in the middle of
nowhere in the united kingdom according to london archaeologist mike park pearson up to 10 percent
of the people in what is now the island of great britain used to visit the site in order to worship
the gods the discovery of 80 000 animal bones which may have been used as food or possibly as
offerings to the gods supports this notion while there are several hypotheses the most popular is
that stonehenge acted as an observatory with the rising sun shining directly through the complex's
core at the equinox mothers claim it was used for pagan rituals and as a burial ground however the
only thing we know for sure is that this was a site of great significance there are simply no
other explanations that can justify the immense amount of effort that went into the construction
of the awe-inspiring structure 7. the karnak stones hundreds of megalithic sites
are scattered over the area of karnak on the south coast of brittany france around 5000 bc
people living in the karnak region began erecting these megaliths and proceeded to do so for the
next 2000 years leading archaeologists to believe that the area must have had a vast
thriving and well-organized society based on the sheer size and number of stones cognac
would in all probability have been a great area to hunt fish and gather shellfish and berries
because it was protected by the quibberon peninsula and had several freshwater springs
however it's thought that the development of agriculture which included the care of
domestic animals and the cultivation of crops freed people to build these massive structures
but why did they build them those that have been identified as graves or that could be associated
with graves include megaliths dolmen stone tunnels and tumuli dolmen buried by massive mounds as well
as single-standing stones menis however the purpose of the long stone lines alignment
stone circles crom elks and most of the men ears have been lost to the ages some believe they are
observatories or calendars used by ancient farmers to understand the seasons and when to grow or
harvest their crops and by priests to predict dreadful events such as solar and lunar eclipses
number six the megalithic menieres of missouri a unique and intriguing megalithic structure lies
hidden in a seldom seen an uninviting section of morocco not far from the atlantic coast away
from major tourist destinations and adequate roads the mizora stone ring is the largest stone ellipse
in the world it lies approximately 11 kilometers from asolar and 27 kilometers from the magnificent
overgrown ruins of ancient elixirs mizora is virtually unknown in history though plutarch
may have mentioned it in his life of sartorius in the 1st century a.d the 10 000 year old site
consists of 168 surviving stones out of a total of 175 originally thought to exist the tallest of
these stones stands at almost five meters tall in the 1970s the woods hole oceanographic institute
in massachusetts undertook the only professional survey of the site thanks to that survey mizora
was discovered to be not only extraordinary in and of itself but also to have ramifications for
the history of megalithic sites in britain mizora astonishingly appears to have been built by the
very same civilization that built the megalithic sites in ireland france and brittany as the site
is aligned with the stones in stonehenge and karnak and feels strongly related to the european
continent a pythagorean right angled triangle of the ratio 12 35 37 was used to create the ellipse
the same process was employed to create the sands of forvy and the dabio rings which are among the
30 good examples of british stone ellipses that have survived 5. malta's megalithic mysteries
people initially arrived at maltese island some 7000 years ago most likely from sicily however
little is known about prehistoric people's movements around the mediterranean around
3400 bc the construction of megalithic temples unlike any others in the world and older than the
great pyramid and stonehenge began the temples were built for over a thousand years with clear
stylistic stages within the era and 30 sites still exist to this day the hal sappliani hypogeum one
of the best preserved in existence can be found in malta hypogeum is an underground chamber system
carved out of rock it's assumed that several of the temples may have had such structures below
them however they have yet to be discovered but how safely any hausafliani hypergium is composed
of three main layers of subterranean rooms pits and galleries the rock cutting quality varies from
rough-hewn areas to highly finished exteriors the hypergm also has strange acoustic properties as
sound echoes rumble on for a remarkably long time and reverberate throughout the whole structure
several acoustic studies have been conducted over the years with a special focus on the oracle
room which features an oval wool niche that produces a particularly intense echoing sound
it's worth noting that the painted discs grow larger as one moves further into the oracle
room reaching their apogee at the wall niche where the ceiling painting erupts the ends this in all
probability proves that chanting formed part of the site's prehistoric ceremonies but it remains
another wonder from malta's prehistoric past 4. the tower of jericho one of the first stone
monuments in human history a tower uncovered within the ancient settlement of tel jericho
has spawned a variety of theories as to why it was erected since its discovery by archaeologists
some 60 years ago around 8000 bc the tower of jericho was erected right next to the wall of
jericho while the wall was discovered in 1907 the tower was not discovered until 1952. around
11 000 years ago the people who raised the tower were established hunter-gatherers on the verge
of transitioning to agriculture they couldn't just pack up and depart in moments of crisis
or uncertainty like their forefathers could some archaeologists have speculated that the local's
primitive concerns and cosmological beliefs may have influenced the building of the tower others
have speculated that the tower and wall next to it were defenses put in place to protect
the village a topographical marker or even as a symbol of wealth two archaeologists from tel aviv
university recently came up with a new theory they believe that the 28-foot tower symbolizes
power and might after observing how the sunset on the summer solstice the longest day of the
year interacts with the tower and the environment around it the shadow of a hill to the west fell
perfectly on the jericho tower as the solstice sun sank before engulfing the settlement implying that
the monument and the beginning of longer nights were related number three nabta player nab de
playa is a unique site in the nubian desert some hundred kilometers west of abu simbel in southern
egypt with hundreds of prehistoric tumulized sterling megalithic structures these are the
remnants of a highly developed urban community that emerged around 11 000 years ago the community
built a number of megalithic monuments including underground tombs stone circles massive slabs and
a 2 500 meter long row of stellai the megalithic monuments at nab to player are among the world's
oldest predating stonehenge by several millennia among the most important monuments in naptiplier
is a stone circle that has been declared to be the world's oldest known astronomical alignment
of megaliths by scientists the stone circle which dates back at least seven thousand years was built
as a prehistoric calendar to mark the anniversary of two significant celestial events the summer
solstice which is associated with the start of the summer rains and the constellations in the
night sky which they used to navigate across the desert what happened to the people of nabdiplaya
is still a mystery some people believe they were forced to disperse due to climate change in the
local environment and that they migrated south into nubia or modern-day sudan as well as north
into egypt it's worth noting that their exodus would have occurred in the years leading up to
the rise of the first pharaohs leading some to speculate that nabta player is the true origin
of the ancient egyptian culture number two the age of the great sphinx the great sphinx
of giza the massive stone figure with the bulk of a lion and the head of a man who wears the
pharaoh's crown is egypt's national symbol and one of the world's foremost landmarks however in
spite of its prestige egyptologists archaeologists geologists and many others continue to debate the
sphinx's lasting riddle and that's just how old is it according to popular belief the monolith is
roughly 4 500 years of age and was erected for kafra a pharaoh of the fourth dynasty reigned
between 2603 and 2578 bc not everyone however believes that the sphinx was built for kafra some
egyptologists have noted as early as the mid-19th century that despite the fact that the sphinx is
situated inside the pyramid complex traditionally identified as kafra no contemporary inscriptions
connect him to the statue as time went by various researchers have attributed the sphinx to kafra's
father khufu as well as jedifrara mother of khufu's sons a new theory has recently emerged
that places the statue's origins much further back around 9 000 years ago advocates of this
theory point to the substantial limestone erosion at the top of the great sphinx claiming that
the last period the region received sufficient rainfall to create this level of erosion was 7000
bc number one gobekli tepe no list regarding the stone age would be complete without at least one
mention of quebec tepe widely regarded as the world's first temple quebec teplay is located
in southeastern turkey about 55 miles east of the upper euphrates the discovery of the twelve
thousand year old site in 1994 shockwaved through the archaeological field calling into question a
long-held theory that organized religion appeared only after cultures adopted agriculture during the
early excavations archaeologists became convinced that psy was a ritual center possibly a burial or
death cult complex rather than a settlement recent discoveries however such as evidence of houses a
large receptacle and channels for harvesting rainwater and hundreds of milling tools are
rewriting prehistory once more researchers have also created a computer algorithm to trace the
architectural design of the site specifically three of the complex's truly massive round
structures and they ascertain that the pillars were deliberately placed in their specific
positions more specifically they discovered that the site's design is characterized by
symbolic and spatial hierarchy levels that reflect changes in the spiritual world as well as the
social structures of the time this discovery is noteworthy since architectural design methods
like floor plans and geometry were thought to have only emerged substantially later in history
to put things in perspective galecki tepe was constructed 6000 years before stonehenge and the
exact meanings of its sculpture architecture and ultimate purpose remains a mystery that of course
adds to its mystery and allure every new finding changes our understanding of the site
and the history of the human race so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did
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