10: Faces in the desert Something new has just been
discovered! Just earlier this year (2022 in case you’re in the future), a Neolithic
complex dating back 9000 years was uncovered in the desert of Jordan, the same country as the
ancient city of Petra. The find was recorded by a team of French and Jordanian archaeologists,
consisting of strange stone carvings. The thing about the complex is that it appears to have
been used as some kind of ritual installation. This isn't an ancient city or even a settlement,
but an entire complex dedicated to a ritual that archaeologists know nothing about.
The complex itself is in ruins, with not much left except some stone walls and heaps of bizarre
statues carved with unusual, almost alien-like faces. Nearby, archaeologists found huge stone
traps called desert kites, inventions of ancient hunters for catching animals like gazelles. They
built stone walls to funnel animals into traps, slaying as many of them at one time as possible.
Additionally, the researchers found a handful of campsites in the area, where the hunters had
lived in semi-subterranean huts. It's all a little confusing,
but archaeologists have been able to put most of the pieces together. The camp sites were used as
living areas for the hunters while they corralled as many animals as they could using their traps.
Then, they gathered in the ritual complex to perform some kind of ceremony – but the
details of this ceremony are elusive. If it’s not clearly drawn on a tablet found right there
explaining it all, it’s hard to say for sure, but It almost definitely had something to do with the
hunt and capture of animals, but we don't know if there were sacrifices involved or if the ancient
hunters were conducting acts of worship. We also don’t know why they carved dozens of statues with
seemingly inhuman faces. 9: Ancient Runes
Recent excavations done by researchers with the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
discovered an object of great mystery. The team was investigating an archaeological
site near Oslo, which is a medieval park that hasn't been inhabited since the 13th century.
They pulled from the dirt a wooden object not even one foot (.3 m) in length.
Yet the small object seems to be of some great importance, and is carved with strange runes.
Professor of runology Kristel Zilmer decoded the runes and found they translate directly to
a person's name. Whoever made the inscription was named Asbjorn, a pretty common name for
men back in the days of the medieval Norse. What the object is has proved a little more difficult
to figure out. It doesn't seem to have been used for any obvious purpose. It wasn't a tool, it had
no religious value. The best archaeologists have been able to come up with is that it was used as
a label. It may have been attached to something to indicate that something was Asbjorn’s property. In
other words, it was a wooden tag that would have been attached to a specific item so that everyone
knew it belonged to Asbjorn. Its like one of those tags you attach to your luggage at the airport
with your name and phone number on it, except over 700 years ago in an ancient Norwegian city.
Discoveries like this show that though society has evolved and changed over time, there are
some simple human behaviors that have remained the same. For example, labeling your items.
8: Mysterious Underground Tunnel When a team of construction workers were busy
digging a hole for a sewage pipe near Kolkata, India they discovered the entrance to an old,
mysterious underground tunnel. The tunnel is also near an ancient fort, as well as inside
the old capital of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The city is called Cuttack, and is over 1000
years old. Cuttack is rich in history, so it's no surprise that there are hidden structures
beneath the modern city streets. It is unclear what this tunnel was once used for, but inside,
researchers did find brick constructs and an arch. It could have been an ancient housing structure
buried over the centuries, or some kind of secret escape passage. It's totally up in the air right
now, as the structure is located 12 feet (3.65 m) beneath the street and isn't exactly easy to
investigate. Additionally, construction had to move on and so much of whatever archaeologists
could have found was quickly covered over. But what was the Ganga Dynasty? The Ganga appeared
around the 11th century and ruled over the modern state of Odisha and all the way into West Bengal.
They built the great Konark Sun Temple, dedicated to the sun god Surya. This is the oldest place in
all of India where people first gathered together to literally worship the sun. And it wasn't even
that long ago, only about 700 years. The dynasty ended when King Bhanudeva IV was killed in 1434.
7: Egyptian Time Capsule Archaeologists in Egypt
discovered something almost unbelievable. They uncovered over 18,000 tablets which give an
unparalleled insight into the lives of ordinary citizens living in this ancient civilization.
Basically, archaeologists found snapshots of their lives preserved in stone, what you might think of
as ancient Egyptian Instagram Stories. Each tablet is mundane by itself. But when put together,
they offer a glimpse into the past. The discovery was made in the town of Athribis,
and consists of thousands of pieces of pottery called ostraca. These pieces had been used by
the ancient Egyptians as notepads. Imagine people breaking apart pots and using the shards to write
things like grocery lists, small stories, and even private letters. The pieces of pottery
could be inscribed with ink and a reed, or just raw ink and a hollow stick. It was primitive,
but it worked – and it stood the test of time. Judging by the fact that 80% of the
shards are inscribed in a type of script called Demotic, archaeologists know they came from the
Ptolemaic and Roman periods, after 600 BC. What's truly amazing is that we can see how
similar ancient Egyptians were to the people of today. Archaeologists have identified shopping
lists of various foods and items people had to buy for daily use. They made calendars
and marked important dates. They even used some of the scraps for grammar exercises,
suggesting kids were doing homework. Even over 2000 years ago in Egypt, people were still just
people. They went grocery shopping, they had family celebrations, and they forced their kids
to sit at the table and practice their alphabet. 6: Ancient Underground City
In central Turkey, a mysterious underground city was discovered by local shepherds completely
by accident. The shepherds came across the entrance to the subterranean world,
informed local authorities, and now the whole place is getting ready to open to tourists.
It's called the Belagasi Underground City, and was dug into the side of a mountain by hand.
It's the very first city of its kind found in the area that has over 50 individual rooms inside.
Researcher Osman Ozsoy says he believes it started as a small settlement of people living
in underground caverns, but gradually grew as the population increased. More chambers were carved,
more people started sheltering in the city, and it took on a life of its own.
This region in Turkey is home to a lot of underground places. The ancient residents
frequently carved hideouts into the sides of mountains in case of invasion, so they had
somewhere to wait out the violence. But this city is different from the others in one main aspect.
Whereas most of the underground settlements were built vertically, Belagasi was built horizontally.
Those who created it carved it straight into the mountain, rather than going down in a complex
series of tunnels. Researchers aren't sure why they did this, or really who even lived here.
We don't even know exactly when the city was first carved or when all the residents
ultimately fled and left the place abandoned. Why do you think this city was created
in such a unique way? Share your theories in the comments! And now
for number 5 but first it’s shout out time!! Thanks so much for watching and spending time
with us! If you are new here welcome and be sure to subscribe to join the Origins Explained family!
5: Destroyed by a Comet When archaeologists
began analyzing rock samples from various archaeological sites in the Ohio River Valley,
they made a weird discovery. It has to do with the Native American Hopewell culture,
a people who enjoyed centuries of stability before a sharp and irreversible decline
1500 years ago. For years, archaeologists have been trying to figure out what happened to the
Hopewell culture. With these new rock samples, we may finally have an answer.
Researchers with the University of Cincinnati believe an exploding comet may have been the
final nail in the coffin for the Hopewell people. The rock samples they analyzed came
from 11 different sites, and they all contained disintegrated fragments of a space object.
These are known as micrometeorites. Considering how far apart the different sites are,
it only makes sense that some kind of airburst caused debris to be distributed for miles in
all directions. This would have been a major cosmic event, on par with a volcanic eruption.
By radiocarbon dating the fragments, researchers were able to determine the catastrophic event
happened sometime between 252 and 383 AD. This coincides perfectly with the downfall of the
Hopewell culture. It's unclear what exactly happened, but the comet was almost certainly
at fault. The explosion could have caused raging wildfires, the destruction of agricultural lands,
mass social confusion, and so much more. All of this resulted in a powerful civilization
vanishing almost overnight. What do you think would happen if a
similar cosmic catastrophe happened tomorrow? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
4: Ancient Sacrifices Archaeologists recently discovered funerary
bundles filled with the remains of children and adults at the entrance of a tomb in Peru.
The ghoulish discovery was made at the Cajamarquilla Archaeological Complex,
an ancient city that was once a great trading hub connecting the coastal communities of the Pacific
Coast with those living high up in the Andes Mountains. The city was extremely sophisticated,
rich in commerce, and was abruptly abandoned because of climate change and natural disasters.
Within the city is a great tomb, and at the entrance of that tomb is where these most recent
bodies were found. The tomb was only designed for a single burial, for someone archaeologists have
still been unable to identify. The bodies at the entrance were possibly his family members,
including his wife and perhaps children – along with his closest servants.
Archaeologists believe they were all sacrificed around the year 800 to keep the mummified man
inside the tomb company while he journeyed to the afterlife.
3: An Ancient Mask Archaeologists made yet another fascinating
discovery recently in South America. This time, they found a rectangular copper mask in Argentina,
high up in the mountains. The mask is ancient, at least 3000 years old. It also appears to be
the oldest man-made metal object ever found on the continent. This is extraordinary for one main
reason. Up until now, it was assumed metalworking originated in Peru. Yet the oldest copper mask
was found hundreds of miles away in Argentina. The mask was discovered at an ancient burial
site that dates back to 1000 BC. But we don't really know what it was used for. Researchers
did find hole marks, suggesting it may have been fastened to a person's face. But there's no way of
really knowing. Even more interesting is that the copper ore used to fashion the mask came
from within 45 miles (72.4 m). The ore was sourced and crafted locally, and that makes the pre-Incan
society living in the mountains of Argentina the oldest metalworkers in South America.
At least, that’s the way things are looking right now. It’s true that gold objects have been
found in Peru over 4000 years old, but nothing that old fashioned of copper. It could be that
an unknown and very mysterious civilization in Argentina mastered metalwork, then traded with
other pre-Incan societies in Peru instead of those societies learning how to work metal themselves.
It's all very confusing, and researchers are still trying to untangle all the threads.
2: Dark Age Stone One of the most spectacular and
mysterious recent discoveries came from Scotland. It was in early 2020 when archaeologists with the
University of Aberdeen in Scotland participated in a survey of a farmer’s field. That was when
they came across a mysterious stone from the Dark Age, made by the Pictish people 1500 years ago!
Here's a quick history lesson. During the Dark Age in Scotland, the nation was ruled
by a group of people called the Picts. The name translates roughly from Latin to English as the
“Painted Ones.” They were called this because they painted their bodies with colorful dyes, making
them look like savage barbarians to the Romans. They rose to power in the centuries following
the fall of Rome, but disappeared from the history books around the ending of the first millennium.
Aberlemno in Scotland is home to some of the best standing stones left behind by the Pictish people.
They didn't make the best architecture, nor the biggest, most impressive cities. However, they
did make some pretty cool works of art. It was in a field here where the archaeologists came across
a stone carved with a mysterious Pictish symbol. The stone was taken from the field and brought to
a lab for study, but archaeologists still don’t know what exactly the symbol means. It may have
been important, or it may have just been a doodle. It could have had something to do with a ritual,
or it could be nothing at all. It's one of the best-preserved Pictish symbols found carved onto
a rock, making it a very unique discovery. 1: Stonehenge the Solar Calendar
In 2022, we received some new and interesting information about Stonehenge. This is already
one of the most enigmatic places in the world, and it seems like every year it just gets a
little more mysterious. Researchers now believe Stonehenge may have been used as a solar calendar.
We already know Stonehenge had something to do with astronomy. But until now, researchers mainly
believed the megalith, which was built over 5000 years ago, was used to mark solstices, meaning the
beginning of summer and the beginning of winter. That's all changed. Researcher Timothy Darvill
from Bournemouth University in the UK has suggested Stonehenge was a calendar
for the full year. He believes each stone represents one of the 365 days in the year,
with each section within the circle corresponding to weeks. This is a radical new theory that could
change how we view Stonehenge. It wasn't a particular discovery
that inspired the theory. It was based on observations made over the past few decades.
Nobody actually knows how Stonehenge functioned with total certainty. But if Timothy is right,
it would mean Stonehenge was a fully functioning calendar. It would mean every aspect of Stonehenge
was specifically designed for people to keep track of each day and each week, not only
the major events like the winter solstice. What do you think Stonehenge was really used
for? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and remember to hit subscribe if you haven’t already.
Be sure to check out more awesome videos of the channel. I’ll see you soon for the next one!