thanks to ancient artifacts that have been uncovered by archaeologists we have
many sources of information regarding the history of humankind and the cultures that have existed
throughout the world over the centuries but some of the oldest ancient artifacts
have left us baffled as to how they got there who left them and what their true purposes were
number five
once in a while we stumbled upon unexplained archaeological discoveries that change the way
in which we see the world and our history german archaeologist klaus schmidt started excavating the
site of gobekli tepe in 1994 and the unexplained ancient artifacts that he has uncovered there
have re-written our conventional view of the rise of civilization the site which is
situated in southeastern anatolia and turkey was first noted by researchers from chicago in 1963
but when schmidt decided to dig further into the mystery he was shocked to learn that it
held what he believes is the world's first temple researchers had previously shown little interest
in the site as they believed it to be nothing more than a medieval cemetery however excavating began
in 1994 and researchers uncovered a veritable trove of ancient artifacts that date back as far
as 9500 bce these included a figure resembling a lion limestone pillars and etchings depicting
humans snakes foxes boars gazelle ducks vultures and many other animals that would have been hunted
by people in the area they also found a number of smaller carved stones depicting reptiles animal
heads and some that resembled totem poles at first they only uncovered a few megaliths
and were so close to the surface that they showed marks made by plows used by local farmers as
they continued to excavate the site however the unearthed pillars that were arranged in circles
along with a few stone hammers and blades they then started finding thousands of animal bones
some of which showed telltale signs that the animals were hunted skinned and eaten by the
inhabitants of gobekli tepe in fact there were so many wild animal bones that it became clear
that the inhabitants were hunter-gatherers and had not yet learned how to farm or domesticate
animals scholars have believed for a long time that temples and other complex social structures
were only built after people learned to farm but with the discovery of gobekli tepe we now
know that it was very likely the other way around since it would have taken hundreds of workers to
move the seven ton stone megaliths into place and they would have needed to be fed and housed
this would have brought about the emergence of settled communities in the area
proving that socio-cultural changes started to occur long before agriculture was ever developed
bringing about a new way of thinking as far as human development is concerned
number four
in 1929 a man from the sichuan province of china was repairing a sewerage ditch about 24 miles from
chengdu when he stumbled upon ancient artifacts of jade and stone at first it was believed that
the site didn't hold much significance until archaeologists returned to the area in 1986 while
doing further research on the site they discovered two pits of bronze age treasures containing more
jade over 100 elephant tusks and bronze sculptures that stood more than eight feet high
this showed that the people who inhabited the area around 3 000 years ago had a greater technical
ability than any other civilization at the time the artifacts were left there by the sen xingdui
people a lost civilization that lived in the walled city on the banks of the minjang river it's
believed that the culture wasn't wiped out as is the case with many others and that they willfully
disbanded though it's not understood why this happened some theories suggest that a war broke
out and the inhabitants decided to relocate while others suggest that a flood may have forced them
to leave the area but this is mere speculation a far more likely scenario is one in which an
earthquake would have caused landslides damming up the river higher up in the mountains and cutting
the senching dewey people off from a regular clean water supply this theory is supported by
some historical records showing that an earthquake struck the capital of the joe dynasty in 1099 bc
the sen xingdui site is 250 miles further away but since the culture hadn't developed writing
skills yet it's possible that the epicenter was closer to the area and the quake couldn't
be documented geological sediments also show massive flooding occurred in the area
as is recorded in the chronicles of the kings of shu a document created during the han dynasty
this script explains that the floods poured from a mountain in an area showing that the
flow was redirected meaning that the sen xingdui people's water would have all but disappeared
but this is as close as we've come to explaining the disappearance of this ancient civilization
and only time will tell if we're able to find more answers for this unexplained discovery
number three
in 1948 british diplomat sir alec kirk bride first identified an unexplained archaeological discovery
that has left archaeologists scientists and anthropologists baffled he found the remnants
of a wall that extends 93 miles over the jordan landscape so far the only clues as to its age
have come about thanks to pottery found in some of the towers and other sites along the wall
these date back to between 312 bc and 750 a.d which leads to the question of whether the wall
was built by kingdoms or empires during that time or whether communities copied the idea
from neighboring cultures that found walls to be a useful commodity the wall has been found to be
too low and narrow to provide any sort of defense from enemies as it was only about five feet tall
since traces of ancient agriculture are more visible to the west of the wall than to the east
it's possible that it served as a boundary between ancient farmers and nomadic people
or that it served as another type of boundary this theory is supported by the fact that the
wall was likely built by the bedouin people who relied on herding and farming to survive
in the arid environment of the jordan desert as for the nearly 100 towers that were found
scattered along the wall's length it's believed that they served as watchtowers shelters or areas
in which food and water supplies were stored again the towers are deemed to be too small to serve
any military purpose as they only measure between 6 and a half to 13 feet in diameter today the wall
faces many threats to its structural integrity including looting natural erosion parts of the
site that are being repurposed for agricultural use and destruction due to conflicts and mining
in the area but many questions about the wall still remain including its true purpose and who
the people were that built it aerial archaeology is being undertaken to study more of the wall
since it covers such a vast area and around 115 000 photographs are currently being studied
to possibly one day help us understand more about this ancient archaeological discovery
number two
in 1920 a british pilot named lionel reese was flying over the region that we now know as jordan
when he discovered a set of 12 unexplained ancient artifacts that we now know as the big circles of
jordan he decided to take a few photos of his discovery and these are now considered to be some
of the earliest aerial archaeology photos taken of the massive structures for some reason not
much attention was given to the discovery until 60 years later in 1980 and only in the last 10 years
have they really gained the attention they deserve david kennedy a researcher at the university
of western australia found that the circles are actually 2 000 years old they are low stone walls
that measure between 720 feet and 1200 feet across it was also found that the walls originally didn't
have any openings meaning that they could not have been used as corrals since they're too low
to serve that purpose there are also no structures that would have helped maintain a herd of animals
though one of the circles does contain three cairns but it's believed that these were added
later and they were used for burials kennedy asserts that the structures would not have
been very hard to construct as 12 people working for a week could have easily completed the task
using local rocks the shape and sheer size of the structures would have taken
some serious planning though as some of the circles are almost perfectly round
this could have been achieved by employing one person to act as a type of architect who would
have tied a long rope to a post and then walked in a circle marking the ground as they went along
this would also explain the imperfections in some of the circles that cross uneven land
where the architect could not have kept walking in a perfect circle for the time being satellite
imagery and aerial archaeology are being used to properly map the circles but to further understand
the purpose that they served more groundwork will need to be done and for now we will have
to wait to learn more about the structures and the ancient civilization that built them
number one
thanks to the discovery of ancient artifacts that date back three hundred thousand years we know
that our ancestors in africa began crafting small tools using stone flakes creating a technique
known as lavalois this technique involved the shaping of a raw piece of stone until it resembled
the shape of a tortoise shell flat at the bottom and rounded at the top the top edges of the rock
could then be struck to flake off sharp flat sections which were perfect for use as tools and
in some cases weapons this technique is commonly associated with people who lived during the middle
paleolithic age which scientists claim spanned from 300 000 to 30 000 years ago the technique is
named after a suburb in paris where these tools were first discovered and is considered to be
a massive step forward from the much bigger crude tools that were used in previous eras
the technique has also been found in discoveries made in europe and we have always believed that
this technology spread around the globe much later after humans moved away from africa
however a discovery made by scientists in india has all but upended this theory thousands of tools
made with the level technique have been found in one of the country's most prolific archaeological
sites near the city of chennai more than 7 thousand stone tools dating back to about 385
000 years according to scientists seem to suggest that the people who inhabited the area at the time
had a greater understanding of tool crafting than previously thought
this means that homo sapiens must have moved out of africa much sooner than previously believed and
that they most likely brought this technique with them it's also possible and in fact quite probable
that more ancestral humans may have developed the technique on their own independent of the
tools that were being created in africa this has brought about the question of how prominent india
actually was in the history and development of humans throughout history no human fossils have
been found at the site making it impossible to ascertain who the people were that crafted
the tools and leaving us with an unexplained archaeological discovery that may never be solved
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with all of our future uploads but i've been ty knotts and i'll catch you guys in the next video