- As a species, we've been writing down
our history for at least 5,000 years.
Though we have fascinating records of the civilizations
that came before us, much remains undiscovered.
There are mysteries in the cracks of history
which are so eerie that they might
just give you sleepless nights.
The following are exactly those.
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Here are 10 Ancient Mysteries to Give You Nightmares.
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Number 10 is the Labyrinth of Sal Saflieni.
This curious structure is one of a kind.
It was discovered in 1902, and remains,
at the time of this video, the only fully preserved
labyrinth structure in Europe.
This huge subterranean structure can be found at Malta,
and goes back at least 4500 years.
It was carved out of limestone and delves deep
into the ground with three levels.
The different chambers have strange properties,
including one known as the Oracle Room,
which has been carved to produce echo anomaly.
Over 7,000 human skeletons were discovered
in the labyrinth, and some of the skulls
have strange elongations and shapes,
which have fueled speculation about the people
who built and used this place.
Some believe that the labyrinth was constructed
for religious worship, though what they used
those strangely shaped skulls for remains a mystery.
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Number nine are the Rongorongo Inscriptions.
Easter Island is a place of mystery.
It's haunting landscape is thought
to have been a site of a horrific manmade cataclysm
when humans used up all the available resources there,
along with being ravaged by disease
introduced by colonial Europeans.
Many focus on the statues of Easter Island,
huge humanoid faces which glare out at the sea,
but that is not the biggest mystery of this place.
The Rongorongo Inscriptions are strange glyphs
which look like a form of proto-writing.
They were carved onto wooden objects,
with the weird shapes looking like distorted human beings
with large eyes on the outside of their heads.
Some speculate that these shapes depict
evil non-human entities, but experts have so far
been unable to decipher just what
these haunting symbols mean.
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Number eight is the King List.
The Sumerians lived in modern day Iraq
and continue to fascinate,
as their long-since dead civilization
is one of the oldest on record.
What's mysterious about this civilization, however,
is that they seem to have a strong understanding
of celestial objects you can't even see with the naked eye.
But one of the most fascinating Sumerian myths
is the King List.
This stone tablet contains Sumerian writing.
It lists the kings of Sumer.
However, it also lists historical events
which spookily line up with Old Testament accounts.
Furthermore, the kings seemed to have divine power,
and many believe that they were not human at all.
Considering the Sumerian knowledge of space,
which was unrivaled until the advent
of modern technology, we are left to wonder
if these kings were extra- or inter-dimensional creatures,
and whether they may come back.
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Number seven are the Lost Vikings.
In Dorset in South England, archeologists came across
a large number of bones which had been obscured
for hundreds of years beneath the English soil.
As they uncovered more and more of the find,
they realized that the bones were lying inside of a pit.
Furthermore, whoever had buried the bones
had arranged them into specific piles
for skulls, torsos, and legs and arms.
Why this was done is a mystery,
but what is clear is that the skeletons
were Viking in origin, and all appear to be
physically intimidating warriors
at the time of their deaths.
No one knows what happened to them
or why their bones were so neatly arranged.
However, theories range from them being set upon
by a mysterious group in the night
to the Vikings having been the victims
of a dark and brutal ritual.
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Number six is the Unknown Hand.
In 2018, a creepy relic was uncovered in the UK,
and it's existence hints at the possibility
of an ancient secret cult which took part
in a twisted ritual.
The relic was uncovered near Hadrian's Wall.
This was a huge construction designed to keep tribes
in what is now modern-day Scotland
from attacking Roman settlements.
In a fort near the wall, archeologists discovered
a tiny bronze human hand.
If that wasn't creepy enough, some believe the hand
is connected to the worship of an ancient god
known as Jupiter Dolichenus, which is supposed to be
a mysterious cult closed to outsiders.
It's possible that the hand was deliberately buried
in the land near Hadrian's Wall
to celebrate a victory against the Scottish tribes,
one which was aimed at wiping out, as one writer recorded,
every person, even the babies in their wombs.
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Number five is the Pyramid People.
In China, a new excavation is revealing
the existence of an ancient people
which goes far back into humanity's past.
Originally mistaken for part of China's Great Wall,
archeologists have excavated a stepped pyramid
at a site called Shimao.
Experts claim this is startling evidence
for a complex society they did not know existed.
This has turned history in the region on its head,
as the pyramid is at least 4,000 years old.
Standing at least 70 meters tall when it was constructed,
what was discovered at its foot is chilling:
six pits filled with the heads of young women.
It's clear the pyramid was used for human sacrifice,
and some have speculated that this is evidence
for a large global pyramid culture
with connections to the same rituals
and buildings seen in South America and Africa at the time.
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Number four are the Hunger Stones.
Drought and famine is one of
the deadliest catastrophes to face humanity.
When water is scarce, the dark side of our species
comes to the foray, and there are many surviving records
of brutal wars waged over this precious resource,
even resulting in cannibalism.
The Hunger Stones of Czechia are creepy reminders
that we're never far from such calamity.
In 2018, as the area suffered record heat waves,
the water level of the Elba River dropped,
revealing frightening messages from the past
carved into rock.
The inscriptions date back over 700 years at least,
and they include the initials
of the authors and their messages.
One such inscription reads,
if you will again see this stone, so will you weep,
so shallow was the water in the year 1417.
What happened to those who carved
the warnings remains unknown.
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Number three are the Chavin Tunnels.
The Chavin culture was a mysterious civilization
in ancient Peru, which flourished more than 3,000 years ago.
In 2018, researchers were able to unlock
some of the mysterious of its largest existing temple.
However, those revelations have only
deepened the mystery surrounding
this forgotten people and its relics.
Using small robots to travel underneath the temple
through cracks in the stone work,
researchers were amazed to find a large network of tunnels.
Inside those tunnels were human remains and other artifacts.
So far, 30 interlocking tunnels have been discovered,
with the possibility that the structure
is even more vast than that.
No one is certain what the tunnels were for,
but it's possible that they were used
to trap individuals and then use them in secretive rituals
involving hallucinogenic plants and sacrifice.
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Number two is the Bionic Man.
Dating back between the 6th and 8th centuries,
a bizarre discovery was made in the north of Italy.
It was unearthed in an ancient necropolis,
also known as the City of the Dead.
A skeleton was unearthed deep in the ground.
The skeleton was of a man in his 40s or 50s.
It's thought that he was a member
of the Germanic people known only as the Lombards.
They were a violent warring people.
But his skeleton had strange anomalies.
For starters, his arm had been severed,
and the end of the bone was calloused.
His teeth on one side were also worn down
for some unknown reason.
At his side was a long knife.
One theory is that this man had the knife
attached to his arm and used his teeth to tighten the strap.
If this is true, the Lombards were carrying out
complex operations using prosthetics,
creating people with weapons for limbs.
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And number one is the Sewer from Hell.
In Ashkelon on the southern coast of Israel,
archeologists were excavating
the area for a Roman settlement.
Their main focus was a Roman bath house,
a common structure during the Roman and Byzantine times.
However, what they discovered beneath this ruin
was anything but normal.
Thousands of years ago, a series of tunnels
hid a dark secret beneath the bath house.
Someone was disposing of human beings down there.
More horrifying still was the fact that the tunnel
was littered specifically with the bones of human babies.
Over 100 remains were found, and who knows
how many were disposed of down there,
which were then washed through the ancient sewer system.
Experts cannot agree on the reason for this macabre finding,
and those who excavated the tunnels
were left traumatized by what they found.