From tying shark teeth with human hair, to humans fighting Neanderthals, here are 8 amazing
historical discoveries!!
8.
Tooth Tools When it comes to hunting, having the right
tool for the job is critical!!
I mean, it’s hard to hunt down a gazelle with your bare hands...Natives of certain
islands have become extremely creative to catch sea creatures, because those things
are slippery!!
And you need to have the best possible tool to get the job done.
In the Gilbert Islands, some strange toothy weapons were discovered.
The native people would kill deadly apex predators like sharks, and then use their teeth as weapons.
This may sound like something seen on a survival show, (Naked and Afraid anyone?) but it's
very real, and in fact, you can see some of these weapons displayed in a museum in Chicago.
These weapons can be traced back to the 1700's.
People would get the base of their tool ready, then position the teeth perfectly next to
them.
After that was all laid out, they would tie the teeth to the base via human hair, or sometimes
even with coconut fibers.
Pretty exotic, huh?
Also inventive, but even further research reveals that the natives even killed off some
species of shark that aren't known to be around the Gilbert Islands, which means they were
off hunting in waters far away…Anthropologists were fascinated!!
While the tools have been known to have Tiger, Hammerhead, Blue, and Silky Shark teeth, there
have been new discoveries that Spotfin and Dusky sharks were also killed to make these
weapons.
Not good news for them, because those two species are heavily endangered because of
overfishing.
7.
Glass Spearhead You might think that using glass as a weapon
is a dumb idea, but if you’ve ever cut yourself on sharp glass, you know that it’s extremely
dangerous.
Obsidian is basically a volcanic form of glass and has been used by many cultures over the
centuries for knives, arrowheads, spear points, scrapers... you name it!
Plus it was the perfect carving tool.
But this glass spearhead was very different from the Obsidian used throughout history.
And it was found in a very unlikely place in Australia.
Just off the coast of the mainland, is a place called Rottnest Island.
This was a place where Australia used to send prisoners of Aboriginal descent.
There, they would have to survive on their own.
But recently, some university students took a trip there, and while exploring, one student
found a beautiful glass spearhead.
While this wouldn't be interesting on its own, this one had a green coloring, which
was unheard of before this discovery.
After all, most glass is clear, and given the remote area, green glass is practically
impossible to come by.
Scientists were pretty confused!!
Previous spearheads like this have been found before, but none were ever green like this.
The common belief is that these spearheads were carved by the prisoners to hunt for food
on the island.
They were also made as a kind of currency, and the prisoners would trade them for goods.
If nothing else, this just proves the islands prisoners were some tough cookies.
And were somehow able to get their hands on green glass.
6.
Metal Boomerang?
Sometimes, to figure something out, we need to move backwards.
An 800-year-old skeleton was found in the dirt in Australia.
Now known as Kaakutja, the man had some pretty serious injuries when he was found in the
fetal position almost as if he were screaming for help.
Kind of a strange position to die in, don't you think?
Scientists were confused about how he had died.
The biggest clue was a huge fracture across his eye socket.
At first glance it looked like the damage was done by a metal blade, and that he was
probably attacked by British Militia.
Or, was it a metal boomerang??
But then they realized that he had actually been killed in the 13th century.
That's a problem, because there were no metal weapons in Australia 800 years ago.
Why?
Because they weren’t introduced by Europeans until the late 1700’s.
So, what killed Kaakutja??
Researchers dug deep and found that early Aboriginal Australians of this time used uniquely
carved boomerangs out of wood to do damage like this.
Instead of using swords, since they didn’t have any, they carved the boomerangs in such
a way and threw them with such force that they were able to do the same amount of damage.
They were used for hunting and tribal warfare, and it looks like a pretty effective weapon.
Maybe an enemy threw the saber-sharp boomerang at Kaakutja, it went around his shield, and
struck him in the skull.
Very difficult to dodge, that’s for sure.
5.
Roman Slingshots One of the fascinating bits of archaeology
is learning about new twists in history that we thought we already knew.
For example, the Roman Empire had a vast reach, and to this day is considered one of the greatest
and longest-lasting empires to ever reign.
However, like most kingdoms, there was a country that refused to bend the knee, and couldn't
be conquered.
For Rome, that was Scotland.
(Or what is now known as Scotland).
It may seem odd that Scotland could resist the might of the Roman Empire, but as in many
tactical situations, the reason for victory isn't might, it’s topography.
Mainly, the Scots knew their lands so much better than Rome that they were able to rebel
against every major attempt to conquer their land.
That being said, that doesn't mean Rome didn't get any victories during the war.
At a hill called Burnswark, a group of people used metal detectors to scour the area.
When they did, they found lead balls scattered all around.
400 of them in fact.
Why does this matter?
Well, Roman soldiers were trained to use slingshots, and got so good at it that they could fire
them as rapidly as certain guns today, and they had a heck of a range on them too.
The area around the hill was littered with these balls, which many researchers feel is
an indication of a battle or a siege.
They also believe that the Romans won this battle due to how the lead balls were laid
out in certain places.
Bet you didn't know Roman's were good at slingshots did you?
4.
In The Pharaohs Hands Sometime with kings, queens, rulers, emperors,
and pharaohs it is hard to tell what is fact and what is fiction.
A very interesting question posed by historian is whether these rulers were ever armed?
But some cultures make it clear that certain rulers aren't supposed to ever have weapons
on them.
In Ancient Egypt many people believed the Pharaohs never carried weapons.
It wasn't uncommon to find weapons on Pharaohs, but many times they were ceremonial, not real...or
so people believed.
Some intense research on bronze-age weapons from Egypt revealed that while some Pharaoh’s
weapons may have looked ceremonial, they were anything but fake.
They were made to injure and kill, and some of them actually showed signs of use.
Which you can't have if it was truly ceremonial.
The weapons themselves trace back to Kamose, who was the son of a murdered Pharaoh.
He took up his father’s blade and went after those who killed him, which seems to prove
that the weapons were really made for battle.
So why the illusion of being ceremonial?
Perception maybe, or maybe the Pharaohs wanted others to think they were "unarmed" so that
they could attack by surprise.
All that gold wasn’t just to look pretty!!
3.
Weather-ing History History is full of mysteries, and sometimes
the answers to these mysteries are right in front of us.
When it comes to great empires and dynasties, few top what the Mongolian leader Genghis
Khan did.
He took a warring people, united them, then struck out across most of Asia, failing only
when he tried to take Japan.
But for the longest time, no one really knew how Khan did it.
What changed to make the Mongols go from small faction to overlords of basically a whole
continent?
Well, after doing some studies in the country, scientists looked at some tree rings and found
the answer: The weather changed.
Say what now?
Basically, Mongolia for the longest time had a very harsh climate, it was either very cold
or very hot.
Because of this, resources were precious, and there was a lot of in-fighting for those
resources in order to survive.
But then, over the course of 15 years, a massive and continuous rainstorm occurred.
No one knows why it happened, but it did.
And the results were massive.
The fields of the Mongols bloomed, giving them more room for crops and livestock.
This is when they became famous for their impressive horses.
The Mongolian Army became a legend.
With all of these factors in play, Genghis Khan was able to unite the country and set
off on a conquest that would change history.
And it all started because of good weather.
2.
Sword Copies There are few things worse in this world than
a forgery.
After all, you might pay good money for something that is authentic and "name brand", only to
discover it's just a convincing looking copy.
Who wants that, right?
Well, recent research has found that this kind of thievery happened even back in the
days of the Viking.
What was forged?
Why, swords of course!
Even though Vikings used a plethora of weapons, their swords were often their bread and butter,
and like any good warrior, you wanted the best sword around.
At the time of Vikings that was the Ulfberht sword.
Ulfberht was a master forger, in the good way I mean.
He would forge the best swords around, and would engrave the handle of the sword with
his name to show its authenticity.
But...a clever man decided to pull a bit of a con, and started making swords in the style
of Ulfberht, but without the quality.
Fast forward to the modern day, and a man who had had an Ulfberht sword in his family
for centuries went to donate it to a museum.
Turns out it was an ancient forgery.
They had the sword tested it was determined it didn’t have the same recipe of metal
as the original.
The fakes were made of iron, while the real Ulfberhts were made with Crucible Steel, which
is much, much stronger.
While they looked the same, proving that the con artist did know how to make swords, the
results of them on the battlefield were pretty bad.
The iron was made brittle during the forging process, and so they would break easily.
Wouldn’t want to find out the hard way, would you??
Many Vikings that couldn’t afford the expensive Ulfberht were probably killed in the process.
Even more ironic, many "Collectible" swords that were believed to be from Ulfberht have
now been determined to be fake.
Just goes to show, even back then, you should only by from the man himself.
1.
Death of a Caveman Scientists were exploring caves in Iraq when
they came across the remains of 9 Neanderthals.
The injuries on one of them revealed that he did not die a natural death but had actually
been murdered.
There was a clear injury that showed something had pierced through his ribs.
The question then became, what did this to him?
At first, the suspect was believed to be one of the other Neanderthals, but something didn't
feel right about that.
The way the weapon penetrated the body didn't match up with the weapons the Neanderthals
used.
That's when a different notion came to mind.
It was probably a human that killed him!!!
At that time in history, humans had throwing spears, and they were quite good with them.
Judging the evidence, and looking at what all the possible weapons could and couldn't
do, it was ruled that a human had thrown a spear at the Neanderthal, essentially killing
him.
It was humans versus Neanderthals!
Did we lead the Neanderthals to extinction??
Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for watching!!
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