9.
P-40 KITTYHAWK On June 28, 1942, Royal Air Force (RAF) Flight
Sergeant Dennis Copping was tasked with flying a damaged P-40 Kittyhawk fighter plane to
a British airfield in Egypt for repairs.
But it never arrived, and for the next 70 years, the aircraft and pilot’s fate remained
a mystery.
A Polish oil worker stumbled upon the wreck in 2012 during a work expedition in the Sahara
Desert.
Historians described the astonishingly well-preserved aircraft as the “aviation equivalent of
Tutankhamen’s tomb.”
The plane appeared to be almost frozen in time, with guns and ammo still on board, where
they were likely left untouched since the day of the crash.
There were even bullet holes in the aircraft’s spine, indicating that Flight Sergeant Copping
may have had to make an emergency landing after being shot at.
On the other hand, the P-40 was already damaged before it took flight, so this may have had
something to do with why it crashed.
At the time of the discovery, Copping’s remains were nowhere to be found.
A month later though, a team of historians found human remains roughly 3 miles (4.8 km)
from the crash site, along with a piece of torn parachute, a metal button dated to 1939,
and a keychain bearing the number 61.
It hasn’t been confirmed that the remains belong to Copping, but his absence from the
wreckage strongly suggests that he survived the crash and perished elsewhere, probably
while trying to reach safety.
8.
A DICTATOR’S PAST North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the third
in his family’s line of succession to rule the Hermit Kingdom.
And while he claims to hail from a prestigious lineage known as the “Paektu bloodline,”
a remote cemetery on the South Korean island of Jeju suggests otherwise.
Situated on an obscure corner of the island, the graveyard contains at least 13 headstones
belonging to Kim’s relatives through his mother, Ko Yong Hui.
Ko was born in 1952 and was of South Korean and Japanese heritage – something the Kim
dynasty has avoided confronting, perhaps because they see it as a threat to their legitimacy.
But several of Kim Jong Un’s maternal ancestors, including his great-grandfather, are buried
at the cemetery.
Their headstones are old and overgrown, standing in stark contrast to the preserved remains
of Kim’s father and grandfather who lie in state at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun
in Pyongyang.
The graves were discovered in 2014 by South Korean journalists as part of a mission to
uncover Kim Jong Un’s ancestry.
After the media revealed their findings, at least one of the plaques were removed by a
distant relative of Kim Jong Un’s to prevent vandalism.
7.
PINE GAP Deep in the Australian outback, there’s
a jointly operated U.S. satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station known as
Pine Gap.
It’s located roughly 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Alice Springs, it’s run by high-ranking
personnel from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA),
and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
There are over 800 employees operating the site, which consists of a massive computer
complex that is used for controlling U.S. spy satellites as they pass over the Middle
East, China, and Russia’s Asian regions -- an area spanning roughly one-third of the
Earth.
The remote location was chosen for its strategic significance -- mainly the fact that it’s
too far away for spy ships to intercept its signal.
Pine Gap is considered essential to both national and global security.
Its intelligence-gathering satellites are used for identifying the location of airstrikes,
nuclear weapons, and other military and intelligence sites that U.S. officials think it’s in
the country’s best interest to know about.
The name “Pine Gap” may sound familiar to you.
That’s because there’s a Netflix series with the same name, and it’s based on insider
information from a 23-year NSA veteran who knows what life is like at the base.
6.
MOUNT WEATHER Located in rural Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains,
the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, also known as the High Point Special Facility,
is a high-security government facility that serves as the center of operations for the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The facility also contains a bunker, where top-ranking government officials would go
in the event of a serious disaster compromising national security and is an alternate site
for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Operations Center.
The 564-acre (228 hectares) site was originally used as a weather station during the 19th
century, but the public was largely unaware of its existence until 1974 when news reports
emerged about a passenger plane that crashed nearby, bringing the facility into the public
eye for the first time.
Government officials have activated the emergency use of Mount Weather at least a handful of
times, including during a major power outage in Washington, D.C. in 2015.
In an interview with NBC Washington’s I-Team, Jacob Rosenthal, a former top aide to Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy said that he was sent to the bunker in 1962.
He described it as being located in the “bowel of the mountain” and said it had enough
space to accommodate 2,000 top federal officials.
Documents obtained by NBC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that the
facility contains a medical unit, a cafeteria, bunk beds, a wastewater management facility,
training rooms, and more.
There’s not a lot of information about Mount Weather available to the public, and even
the people who live in the towns surrounding it know almost nothing about it.
5.
HIDDEN ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS Around 1,500 years ago, ancient societies
began establishing large, densely populated urban centers in the southwest corner of the
Amazon Basin.
This is a place that, until recently, researchers didn’t think anyone used to live in.
Much to their surprise, these settlements were incredibly large and complex, complete
with miles of elevated roadways and earthen mounds measuring as tall as 72 feet (22 meters)
high.
A recent study examining the area constitutes the latest findings in a growing body of evidence
that parts of the Amazon that were once thought to be untouched were actually home to thriving
societies.
While it’s been known for quite some time that humans have lived in the vast Amazon
Basin for at least 10,000 years, experts previously believed that all Amazonian people traveled
in small, nomadic tribes.
Early European explorers described seeing villages and towns, but those who came after
saw no evidence of these settlements and didn’t think the soil was suitable for farming.
But in the early 2000s researchers began to think differently.
This was after discovering large populations of domesticated plants and nutrient-rich soil
that appeared to be man-made.
In recent years, deforestation in the Amazon has revealed large earthen mounds, proving
that ancient societies shaped their surroundings.
Slowly but surely, evidence of long-term human occupation appeared, but it was difficult
to investigate these sites due to the dense vegetation.
The most recent piece of the puzzle came thanks to a remote sensing technique called lidar,
which enables archaeologists to look below the thick plantlife and even the soil to identify
hidden structures left behind by past cultures.
Many mysteries remain regarding the people who lived in these settlements and why they
up and vanished at some point in time, but knowing they were there marks a first step
to answering these lingering questions.
4.
ANCIENT MIGRATION ROUTE There are thousands of islands scattered throughout
the South Pacific.
Some of the first people to travel there were a group called the Lapita, who reached some
of the region’s farther places around 3,000 years ago.
Along with them, they brought their languages, tools, pottery, and domestic animals.
But the exact migration patterns of the Lapita are somewhat mysterious.
For example, researchers have long believed that they avoided Papua New Guinea, presumably
because there were already people living there.
But a new study shows that they lived on the southern tip of the landmass on Brooker Island.
The oldest layer of sediment at what’s known as the Gutunka archaeological site contains
the bones of numerous species that the Lapita brought with them, including pigs, dogs, and
rats.
A more recent layer on top of it was filled with tools and pottery that are specific to
the culture, proving that they did settle in Papua New Guinea.
Included among the items were obsidian objects sourced from outside the island, as well as
blades that may have been used for tattooing.
The Lapitas’ presence was sparse and infrequent at first, but they developed a more permanent
presence over time.
Evidence shows that they intensified their sea turtle hunting, and that their material
culture became more complex, as the settlement became more established.
Humans have inhabited Papua New Guinea for around 50,000 years.
Unlike some of the places the Lapita settled, they weren’t the first people to arrive
there.
In fact, their interactions with other cultures may have prompted them to eventually look
elsewhere for a place to live.
Lead researcher Ben Shaw said that the team found the Gutunka site by a seemingly random
stroke of luck, along with the local community’s help and permission, earning them a distinction
as one of the paper’s senior authors.
3.
THE WORLD’S OLDEST TREE An Alerce tree that was born at least 5,000
years ago – at the beginning of the Bronze Age – still stands tall in Chile’s Alerce
Costero National Park.
The species grows incredibly slowly and lives for a very long time.
With a trunk diameter of more than 13 feet (4 meters), the recently discovered specimen’s
estimated age is based on its massive size.
Nicknamed the Alerce Milenario, it’s attracted more than 10,000 annual visitors to the park
since the remote property was made more accessible in recent years.
Unfortunately, many visitors step and climb on the tree’s roots, putting its health
and life in danger.
Environmental scientist Jonathan Barichivich, who conducted a recent study on the Alerce
Milenario, said that only around 28 percent of the tree is actually still alive, and most
of its living parts are in the roots, where people like to step.
He doesn’t fault park guests, who are unknowingly damaging the tree’s last living parts.
But he told Newsweek that he considers the tree to be like a family member, and that
he finds it heartbreaking to see it being actively destroyed.
Barichivich comes from a long line of tree protectors, including park rangers who saw
it as their duty to ensure the longevity of the forest.
In fact, he’s so concerned with avoiding any needless damage to the Alerce Milenario
that he has avoided carrying out the procedures necessary for determining its true age, because
doing so could harm the tree.
To him, it’s not about claiming the title for the world’s oldest tree, but estimating
its age without jeopardizing its health.
2.
PREHISTORIC HUMAN TOOTH Around 130,000 years ago, or perhaps before
then, a young woman lived and died in a remote cave in what is now Laos.
In 2018, scientists unearthed one of her molars at the site, known as Cobra Cave.
A closer look at the tooth revealed that it didn’t come from the modern human species,
Homo sapiens, and it also didn’t resemble the tooth of Homo erectus, an archaic species
who was the first among our ancestors to walk upright.
But the molar did look like it could belong to a Denisovan, an extinct close relative
of modern humans whose DNA has persisted into some of today’s populations.
Denisovan DNA worked its way into the human genetic code at least 50,000 years ago, when
they crossed paths with Homo sapiens and mated.
And while it hasn’t been proven yet that the tooth belonged to a Denisovan, scientists
are pretty sure of it.
They said that there’s a small chance that the molar could have belonged to a Neanderthal,
but that it’s unlikely.
It could also belong to a hybrid individual – in other words, someone of mixed Homo
sapiens and Denisovan descent – or perhaps even an unknown hominin group, according to
archaeologist Katerina Douka, who spoke with CNN.
But for now, all signs point toward it being a Denisovan tooth, and if that’s the case,
it could help to unlock mysteries about the ancient species’ movement and its intermingling
with modern humans.
It would be the furthest south that Denisovan remains have been found – all other evidence
has put them in North Asia, yet modern genetics indicate that they did migrate south at some
point, and the discovery would reinforce that narrative.
The team that carried out the original research plans to try extracting DNA from the tooth
and to continue excavating at the site in hopes of discovering more clues about what
went on there in the distant past.
1.
ANCIENT SANDAL In 2019, a hiker discovered a piece of footwear
that was obviously very old.
He found it on an icy Norwegian mountain pass known as Horse Ice Patch.
The hiker notified experts with Secrets of the Ice, who specialize in studying artifacts
found in glaciers and ice.
By the time archaeologists received the discoverer’s photos, GPS coordinates, and report, it was
calling for heavy snow in the region.
They only had one day to go and retrieve the sandal before they ran the risk of having
it reburied in snow, possibly for years to come.
In what archaeologist Espen Finstad described to Live Science as a “long day,” a team
miraculously managed to recover the footwear.
They radiocarbon dated the sandal to around 300 A.D. and recovered several other artifacts
from nearby, including textiles and frozen horse manure.
None of the objects are as old as the sandal – most date to the Viking Age, between 800
and 1066 A.D.
Speaking with Science Norway, Finstad said that he believes the people who traveled the
region’s routes knew what they were doing, and that the sandal’s owner would have lined
his or her footwear with fabric, animal skin, or some other material that would make them
more wearable in the cold.
He theorized that the person may have tossed the sandal aside after it became too damaged
to wear anymore.
Finstad also pointed out how the remote mountainous region sees little human traffic today, but
this was a different story in the prehistoric world.
The evidence shows that people were clearly unafraid to travel over long distances and
venture into treacherous territory.
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