OE 21-370 Controversial Discoveries 10: The Pharaoh’s Medallion
There is said to be a mysterious pharaoh’s medallion that once belonged to the great ruler
Akhenaten. You may remember him as King Tut’s father, and the pharaoh that changed the entire
religion of Egypt to worship one god, the sun. The reason the medallion is so mysterious is that it
seems to depict the pharaohs being ruled over by aliens. There's what appears to be a great
big UFO in the center of the medallion, some kind of oblong-headed alien overlord at the
very top of it, and at the bottom are some pharaohs along with gods like Ra and Anubis.
The suggestion of the medallion is that the Egyptians knew very well that aliens existed.
If true, it would lend some credit to the theory that aliens did have something to
do with the Egyptians building their pyramids and other amazing structures.
It could also mean that aliens had a real influence over other ancient cultures as well.
But there's a reason this is a controversial discovery. Nobody actually knows if the
medallion even really exists. Was this really something commissioned by the pharaoh Akenaten?
He is depicted quite strangely in many works of art, with spindly legs and arms and a
large protruding belly, and a large head with big almond eyes. His appearance has
made many question if he actually was an alien. Unfortunately, no one knows where the medallion
is, who actually discovered it, or if it's all just a hoax perpetrated by pseudo-archeologists.
The reality is that it appears as though Pharaoh Akhenaten had a genetic mutation which caused his
brain to grow far larger than normal. Based on his looks, his strange DNA, and odd behavior,
this pharaoh remains quite the enigma. 9: Monsters on Crete
On the Greek island of Crete, archaeologists discovered controversial footprints that
suggest some kind of humanoid creature was roaming around six million years ago.
To understand this controversial discovery, we need to look at the human foot. It is
exceptionally distinct. One of the defining characteristics of a human being is the foot.
So when scientists on Crete found fossilized footprints of a creature with feet that look
shockingly similar to ours, it was quite the surprise. The footprints were made by
something walking on two legs. In total, there were 29 prints, ranging in size. It was almost
the same, except they didn't have enough toes. There's a big toe and then three smaller toes,
with a heel on the other side. If you didn't actually stop to count the toes,
you would think it was a normal person’s print. Carbon dating determined the age of the
footprints to go back 5.6 million years. This doesn't make sense for a lot of reasons.
The cradle of humanity is supposed to have been in Ethiopia. How human-like creatures could have
made it out of Africa and all the way to Greece before branching out to the rest of the world
would completely change history. What kind of creature was this anyway? It remains a mystery
whether it was a primitive humanoid, ape, dinosaur, lizard-human hybrid? Who knows!!
8: The Truth About Pluto
When it comes to astronomical discoveries, nothing gets people going these days quite like Pluto.
More controversial than its discovery 90 years ago was its removal from the list of planets.
But just what is Pluto and why is it the most controversial space rock in the solar system?
It was originally discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. Then in 2003, a slightly larger planet than
Pluto was found beyond Neptune in a region that contains trillions of small icy rocks.
And here's where the controversy finally comes in. Pluto is still thought of as a planet by a lot of
planetary scientists. It was the International Astronomical Union that reclassified Pluto as
a dwarf planet, not technically a planet like Earth or Mars. And yet Pluto still
has moons like any other planet. It just so happens to be at the edge of the solar system
in an area where there are billions and billions of similarly sized chunks of rock.
And so, scientists had to make a call. They had to define what's just a big rock and what
is a planet. Half of the scientists decided that Pluto would be the line in the sand. It was too
small to be a proper planet. However, the other half of the scientists still to this day believe
Pluto deserves its place on our list of planets. Which side of this controversial debate are you
on? Is Pluto a planet or is it just a really big rock? Let me know your thoughts in the comments
below and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe buttons if
you haven’t already! :) 7: Big Brains
A controversial study has proposed a new theory as to how humans developed our big, smart brains.
For a bit of background, our brains grew as if they had been taking steroids between 2.6
million and 11,700 years ago. During this brief window of time, and up until very recently,
our brains were developing more rapidly than just about any other creature on the planet. Scientists
working with the Tel Aviv University believe the reason for this sudden explosion of growth
has to do with our hunting style. According to the scientists, as humans
hunted the largest animals around, eventually bringing them to the brink of extinction,
we found ourselves running out of food. Our earliest ancestors specialized in taking down big
animals like bison and elephants. These creatures would have provided great, fatty meals. But as we
killed them all, humans were forced to resort to catching smaller prey. This meant we needed
more brainpower to catch smaller, cleverer animals. The humans who were good at hunting
these smaller creatures had larger brains with more brain power. So, the brainiacs had more
babies and passed on their big brain genes. This is at least what the new theory suggests.
It’s controversial because there's no way to prove it. All we know for sure is that the human brain
expanded from 40 cubic inches (655 milliliters) 2 million years ago to 92 cubic inches (1507
milliliters)10,000 years ago. That is a shocking amount of growth. And wait until you hear this.
Scientists say that brain size since farming started has gone down to 80 cubic
inches (1310 mil). We've actually lost 12 cubic inches(196 ml) of brain since agriculture began.
6: The Tomb of Jesus There are three tombs in the world where
Jesus was supposedly buried. But which of these controversial tombs is the real one – if any?
The story goes that after Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, his body was placed in a tomb. But
when they went to check on his body later, he was gone. Three days after he was dead,
he came back to life, or was resurrected. That's the way the story goes, anyway. The
truth is that there are three tombs in Jerusalem that are all claimed to be the place where Jesus
was originally buried. There's the Talpiot Family Tomb, just outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
It was discovered in 1980 with ten ossuaries within. Some of the tombs bear names such as Mary,
Joseph, and Jesus. It's been suggested that Mary Magdalene was also buried here, next to Jesus who
was, according to some, her husband. But that's a whole different controversy for another day.
Then there's the Garden Tomb, originally put forth as Jesus’s resting place in 1883. This is the
most popular spot where evangelical Christians come to see the place where Jesus was buried.
However, the guy who actually found this tomb was not very reliable. It was even said that the Ark
of the Covenant was found nearby and then stolen. And finally, there's the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. Before the church was ever built, there was an ancient Jewish cemetery that stood
just outside the walls of Jerusalem at the time that Jesus died. There's archaeological
evidence to confirm this. However, it’s still impossible to say whether Jesus truly did get
entombed here – or one of the other two spots believed to have been the site of his burial.
5: Fetuses & Memory A new study has shown that fetuses can remember
things. Scientists have found that at 30 weeks old, a fetus has developed short-term memory.
If there had been any debate about whether fetuses were conscious or not, this really settles it.
According to Live Science, researchers tested the fetuses in 100 pregnant women’s bellies. They
wanted to figure out at what age memory starts and how long the memories can last. They exposed the
fetuses to vibroacoustic stimulation. In other words, a very low sound that causes vibration.
They observed the reaction of the fetuses using ultrasound machines.
What they discovered was that a fetus would get used to the sound after hearing it enough times.
At first, they would react badly to the sound – but after hearing it over and over, they just
got used to it. Scientists saw that at about 30 weeks and beyond, the fetus would remember that
specific stimulus and not react badly. To summarize the results of the study,
fetuses at 30 weeks old can remember things for a full 10 minutes. At 34 weeks, fetuses are able to
remember things for up to four weeks. 4: The First Noodle
There's a lot of controversy surrounding the noodle. Back in 2005, there was an announcement
in the scientific “Nature” magazine talking about the remains of noodles being found at
a Neolithic archaeological site in China. The news circulated around the globe, sparking a
fierce debate between the Chinese, the Italians, and the Arabs over who invented the noodle first.
And as it turns out, that award goes to the Chinese.
The discovery of the oldest noodle came from a site called Lajia, which has been compared
to Pompeii in Italy. It's a famous ancient city that was abandoned after a brutal earthquake and
a flash flood. The flood managed to preserve the city almost perfectly. When excavations
began back in the early 2000s, archaeologists found strands of noodles from at least 2000 BC.
These noodles were created using the traditional method of “lamian,” of stretching each strand by
hand. This technique is still used in China today. The reason everyone got so angry is that each
culture wanted to believe they were the inventor of the noodle. The Italians are no longer able to
say that it was them who invented spaghetti. In fact, it was the Chinese roughly 4000 years ago.
3: The Bust of Nefertiti The bust of Nefertiti is a
painted statue displaying the royal wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten. It's believed that the bust was
carved in 1345 BC by Thutmose, the most legendary Egyptian craftsman. After all, it was found in his
workshop. The bust has gone on to be one of the most replicated pieces of work from ancient Egypt.
It also helped turn Nefertiti into one of the most famous women of the ancient world.
The statue was originally discovered by a team of German archaeologists led
by Ludwig Borchardt in 1912. Ever since its discovery, it's been kept solely in Germany.
It's been displayed at several different German museums and is currently sitting in Berlin.
The reason it's such a controversy is that Egypt has been trying to get it back for a decade.
It's been part of an intense argument between the two countries because Egypt demands the statue
back as reparation. Egypt began demanding the statue back 12 years after it was taken
by the Germans, once it became a wildly famous artifact. But Germany refuses to give it back.
It's part of some bizarre protocol. Because the German excavator signed a deal with the
Egyptian Antiquities Services at the time, the Germans technically own it.
But just how long are these kinds of deals valid for? It's been nearly 100 years since the paper
was signed, and at the time, no one even knew it was a bust of Nefertiti. Should Germany be allowed
to keep an artifact that they took out of another country? Or should they have to give it back after
holding onto it for a century? 2: Animal Evolution
A new fossil may have just pushed the theory of animal evolution back 100 million years
or more. As you may already know, our planet has existed for at least 4.5 billion years.
And throughout the life of Earth, physical life has existed continuously. For most of the Earth’s
history, that life was bacteria. The big question scientists have always wanted to answer is this:
When did animals as we know them today first appear?
Scientists know now that organisms began to grow shells, exoskeletons,
and become animals about 540 million years during the period known as the Cambrian explosion.
This was when diverse and complex animals with hard body parts suddenly exploded onto the scene.
However, scientists have no idea what happened before these animals existed. There is no fossil
evidence of creatures without hard body parts. The catch 22 is that animals with hard body parts must
have evolved from animals with squishy body parts that scientists have never been able to find.
In northern Canada, a geologist and paleobiologist just discovered a microstructure that's nearly 900
million years old. It seems to show a type of sponge creature many hundreds of millions of
years older than creatures from the Cambrian explosion. The reason this is controversial
is that it could push back the creation of animals to nearly a billion years before today,
or further. If this goes far enough back, it could prove that Earth has harbored complex life
for almost all its existence. 1: Crucifixion Nails
There are two iron nails, that depending on who you ask, were used 2000 years ago to nail Jesus
to the cross. These nails have been controversial artifacts for decades. The nails were found in an
unmarked box in the collection of a dead Israeli anthropologist named Nicu Haas. According to
the Israel antiquities authority, Haas took the nails from a tomb that he excavated in the 1970s.
However, there are no records that say which tomb the nails came from. Then in 2011,
there was a controversial documentary suggesting that the nails came from the Caiaphas Tomb,
from the tomb in which a high priest involved with the crucifixion of Jesus was buried. It’s said
that the priest felt so guilty about crucifying Jesus that he kept the nails as a weird souvenir.
It's obviously quite difficult to prove beyond any doubt that the nails were used to crucify Jesus.
But according to geologist Aryeh Shimron, there is some proof that they could be the real deal.
By doing analysis, scientists found that the nails contain slivers of wood and bone. This
means they were almost certainly used in a legit crucifixion. They were also dated back
to around the year 33 AD, which is the time when Jesus was crucified. No one can say for
sure if the nails were used in the crucifixion of Jesus, but they were definitely used in the
crucifixion of someone at the same time. Thanks for watching!! Do you think any of
these discoveries are actually authentic? Let me know in the comments and hope you are having
a wonderful day! !For more videos like these be sure to hit subscribe and come back soon!! Bye!!