Strangest Discoveries Found Below
#20.
Whale Bones During excavations for a rail project in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in June 2020, between a post office and a scrap yard, two large bones from the
fin of a large male sperm whale were discovered buried underneath the ground.
They were found right along with a cannonball/ and were thought to have originated from the
16th to 17th Century/ as part of the town s defense systems.
Though the bones were discovered by construction workers, analysis was performed by John Lawson,
Edinburgh s council archeologist.
He stated that the origins of the bones was a mystery, but then/ they may have been trophies
brought from elsewhere.
#19.
An Unexploded WW2 Era RAF Bomb The city of Augsburg, Bavaria, was one of
the most populous cities during World War 2.
During the war, allied forces targeted the city repeatedly, although, clearly, not every
bomb went off.
On Christmas Day 2016, one such bomb was found unexploded underneath the city.
The 1.8-ton explosive caused 54,000 people to evacuate the city/ as a massive police
operation was put into place/ to disarm and remove the bomb.
The Mayor of the city, Kurt Grill, coordinated the evacuations.
He also stated that there might be many more bombs buried underneath the city.
#18.
More Than 40 Skeletons In January 2020, 42 skeletons were found in
Milton Keynes, a town in England.
They were unearthed during groundworks for a new development of 72 retirement flats/
on former farmland near Birmingham.
The skeletons had shallow graves/ and appeared to have been bound behind their backs.
Although the company behind the excavation attempted to hide the discovery, the local
townspeople didn t let them.
District and town councilor Robin Stuchbury said that the skeletons could date back to
Anglo-Saxon times/ or could even be from the Civil War era.
Although an investigation began into the source of the skeletons, a report has yet to be released.
#17.
An 18th Century Cemetery In November 2011, Vincent Marcello wanted
to build a new pool.
However, given the history of New Orleans, he suspected that he might find buried bodies
at the construction site.
And so, he hired an archeologist, Ryan Gray, to confirm his findings.
And just as he expected, about fifteen 800-pound stone coffins were found.
DNA testing can reveal more demographic information about the bodies in the coffin.
However, it would be impossible to name them/ since the town records went down in a blaze
in the 19th Century.
#16.
The 2,200-Year-Old, Long-Lost Temple of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV
While construction was going on in a small town in Egypt for a new drainage system, workers
happened to uncover an ancient, underground temple.
Not knowing precisely what they had stumbled across/ but having a fair idea, they stopped
work and allowed the appropriate authorities to investigate.
Then, on October 2, 2019, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa
Waziri, announced that the discovery/ was the 2,200-year-old, long lost temple of Pharaoh
Ptolemy IV, who ruled Egypt from 221 BCE to 205 BCE.
Findings were confirmed by inscriptions on the temple s limestone walls.
#15.
A Cinema In August 2004, while undergoing a routine
exercise, police in Paris, France, discovered a modern, private theatre hidden in catacombs/
underneath the city.
Although swastikas were found painted on the ceiling, so were crosses, ruling out the influence
of extremist groups in the place s construction.
The cinema was connected to a second cave, which was used as a restaurant.
There was also electrical wiring, phone wiring, a projector, and a screen present on-site.
After an investigation, police found out that the phone wiring and electrical lines had
been cut.
They also discovered a note that said, do not try to find us.
#14.
A Ferrari In February 1978, some kids in Los Angeles
were messing around and digging around their yard.
Then, they stumbled upon something hard and metallic.
It turns out the boys had discovered a Ferrari Dino 246 GTS.
How the car had gotten there was a mystery that prompted an investigation.
The car had been crudely mummified, with pieces of cloth plugged into the exhaust pipes.
However, the windows weren t closed all the way through, causing a lot of damage to the
interior.
Photographer Michael Haering shot the story for the local newspaper.
The investigation arrived at the conclusion/ that the car had been stolen four years earlier/
and hidden there by thieves.
#13.
The Betz Mystery Sphere The Betz Family, who are known for their winery
business, suffered a tragedy in 1974/ during which a fire destroyed a large part of their
woodlands.
In the aftermath, while examining the damage, they discovered a strange metal ball, which
was completely smooth, except for a single elongated triangle symbol.
The family decided to invite a photojournalist, Lon Enger, to help them investigate.
They found out that the ball had very strange properties/ and could change its set direction
by itself/ as well as resonate with certain sounds and noises.
This prompted a media frenzy, in which people began to hypothesize that the ball was from
space.
In any case, the ball has been lost to time.
Today, its whereabouts are allegedly unknown.
#12.
The Antikythera Mechanism In the year 1900, in a shipwreck of a Greek
island, the Antikythera Mechanism was found under 158 feet of water.
It was a gear-like mechanism that the top scientists at the time were at a loss to explain.
According to Professor Micheal Edmunds of Cardiff University, who led the team studying
the mechanism, the Antikythera Mechanism was the world s first computer.
It was a device impeccably designed to track the motion of the planets in the sky.
The device is dated to originate from the 2nd Century.
#11.
Boats Under San Francisco The city of San Francisco has hundreds of
ships buried beneath it.
The last time one of these ships was unearthed was in 2001.
These ships are remnants of the gold rush era of the city, during which thousands of
people sailed to and away from the west coast looking to find a fortune.
As the gold rush died down, most of these ships got abandoned, and some got put to other
uses/ such as offices, bars, stores, hotels, and prisons.
Even though 40 ships have been found, at least 75 more are estimated to lie beneath the city.
These ships may contain lost treasures, remains, or something else entirely.
#10.
The Baghdad Batteries In 1938, a German archaeologist known as Wilhelm
Konig discovered a mysterious clay jar/ in a town outside Baghdad in modern-day Iraq.
The jar contained an iron rod encased in a copper cylinder, and early tests revealed
that an acidic agent such as vinegar or wine had been present within the jar.
All of these are known components of/ batteries.
Even though people tried to bury the discovery at the time, discussions about these batteries
came back around after World War 2.
Till today, the origin and purpose of the batteries remain a mystery.
#9.
The Williams Enigmalith In 1998, an electrical engineer known as John
J Williams/ discovered a special stone on the ground while taking a hike in North America.
There was one peculiarity about the stone/ in that it had three metals sticking out of
its side, similar to a plug.
Analysis of the stone/ showed that the material that made up the metal part/ was no less than
10,000 years old.
Even though Williams has invited many scientists to study the stone, very few have accepted
the call, as there is the perception that the entire thing is/ an elaborate hoax.
#8.
An 1894 Time Capsule In 2015, in Scotland, construction workers
working on the Ruthven Road bridge discovered a box that looked like a safety deposit box.
Within the box, they found a capsule.
When the capsule was opened, the construction workers found an assortment of different items.
Of particular interest was a bottle of whisky and a newspaper dating from 1894.
Apparently, the box was a time capsule.
The items were donated to the local museum, where it was found that the capsule was created
during the bridge s construction in the 19th Century.
#7.
A 13th Century Mansion In 2013, while preparing construction for
a new house, excavators in Wellington, England, found an ancient mansion buried underneath
the ground.
A mansion of that size should have had some public record about it, but there was absolutely
nothing to be found.
However, an archeologist known as Bob Davis found a tile on the site/ which had a painting
of a knight on it.
From that, it was approximated that the house was built in the 12th Century.
#6.
A 17th Century African Burial Ground In Manhattan 1991, between Broadway and Centre
Street, near Thomas Paine Park, plans were underway for the construction of a new federal
building.
However, the moment excavation began, workers realized that they had stumbled upon an ancient
burial site/ dating back to the 1690s and 1790s.
Constructions were halted while archeological investigations took place/ to find out more
information about the site.
Now, the site has been declared a national monument by the American government, and some
of the remains have even been identified.
Christopher Moore identified his grandfather s remains, who was known as Groot Manuel.
#5.
A Medieval Hospital The black death is famous for killing one
in three people in Europe.
During its heyday, many hospitals were overrun with sick individuals/ and were abandoned
once there were no medical health professionals to take care of the sick.
When Apple was excavating a site in Madrid in July 2013 to build a store, they ended
up discovering the foundations of one such hospital.
The hospital had been in use from the 15th Century to the 19th Century.
#4.
A 60,000-Year-Old Wooly Mammoth Tusk In 2014, in Seattle, Washington, a mammoth
tusk/ which is 8 feet 6 inches long/ was discovered at a construction site.
Senior vice president of the construction company, Scott Koppelman, informed his men
to stop work/ in the wake of the discovery.
The tusk was then carefully removed and taken to Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
in Seattle.
Its age ranges between 16,000 years and 60,000.
#3.
Two Dozen Coffins In March 2017, beneath a Philadelphia apartment
building, around two dozen coffins were found.
These coffins contained fully intact human remains.
An associate professor and director of forensics at the Rutgers University-Camden, known as
Kimberlee Moran, was summoned with her team to analyze the coffins.
As it turns out, the coffins were supposed to have been exhumed and re-interred/ by a
church that moved into the neighborhood in 1860.
However, corners were cut, leaving a nasty surprise for the construction workers.
#2.
A 1,500-Year-Old Byzantine Church In June 2015, in Jerusalem, Israel, a 1500-year-old
church was discovered on an ancient road.
These discoveries took place by accident, as excavations were underway to make way for
new construction projects.
According to Annette Nagar, director of the excavation, the church was built in the Byzantine
period next to the ancient road between Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain.
Lots of smaller items were discovered within the church, including mother of pearl shells,
glass jars, marble, and oil lamps.
#1.
An Ancient Mayan Ball Court In 2006, a housing project in Yucatan, Mexico,
uncovered ancient historical ruins.
Before the ruins were destroyed, the National Institute of Anthropology stepped in, discovering
that the ruins contained an ancient Mayan ball game court.
Fernando Acevedo and Donato Martin Espa a, researchers with the National Institute, said
the court is 82 feet long and 15 feet wide.
The ball game played on the court was of special mythological and cultural significance, linked
to the Mayan account of the creation of the sun and moon, said to have taken place after
a match in which the gods Hunahpu and Ixbalanque confronted the lords of the underworld.
Would you rather find a Ferrari you can t use underground/ or $1000 you can actually
use?