10: Ergenekon The Ergenekon Epic is a myth of survival for
the Turkish people.
It’s a story, or rather a collection of stories, that goes back thousands of years.
The primary myth connected to the Ergenekon Epic is one that tells the story of when the
Turkish people were faced with extinction, and they escaped thanks to help from a god
in the form of a gray wolf.
They escaped to a place detailed in the epic as a great valley in the mountains.
Now, excavations in Kazakhstan have revealed what experts believe could be the actual location
spoken of in the Ergenekon Epic, suggesting the ancient story may have been based on something
that actually happened rather than a myth dreamed up and put in a book.
Archaeologists began digging in 2012, with their first big discovery being the grave
of a Turkish soldier.
The man was buried with his horse, his weapons, and an immaculately preserved lute.
Researchers also found the body of a Turkish poet dating back to around the 6th century.
But that's not all they found.
They continued to uncover iron tools, primitive stone shelters, and evidence of an old Turkish
civilization.
Professor Darhan Hidiralli says all these things support the theory that this remote
area of Kazakhstan could have been the actual location that the Turkish people fled to thousands
of years ago.
9: Shipwreck Treasure Archaeologists in Israel have discovered the
remains of two shipwrecks submerged at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
But what’s truly fascinating is that the shipwrecks were discovered filled with sunken
treasure from the days of the Ancient Romans.
The experts dug out hundreds and hundreds of medieval silver coins.
They’ve already been dated to both the Roman and Mamluk periods, between 1700 and 600 years
ago.
Some of the Roman silver dates back to the 3rd century, while there are over 500 silver
coins from later on in the Middle Ages, after the Roman Empire had already fallen.
It's extremely rare that archaeologists actually find treasure in a sunken shipwreck.
Normally there's nothing left, the artifacts have decayed beyond recognition, or everything
has been swept away by the ocean currents.
But experts with the Israeli Antiquities Authority Marine Archaeology Unit spent two months conducting
an underwater survey to make this discovery.
And it was worth it, especially since they found more than just buried treasure.
They also found old figurines, ceramics, and pieces of one of the ships itself, including
nails and a broken iron anchor.
The older Roman ship is believed to have originally come from Italy.
The second ship is more of a mystery since its medieval artifacts could have come from
pretty much anywhere 600 years ago.
International trade was already booming in Europe, so it’s really hard to figure out
the origin of the ship.
Not much is left of it but some wet hunks of wood.
8: Ancient Rock Drawings in Saudi Arabia Ancient rock drawings across the country of
Saudi Arabia have been getting a lot of attention in recent years.
These rock drawings were found ages ago, but the scientific community has not conducted
much research on them.
This is despite the fact that they’re considered important sources for understanding the ancient
civilizations that lived in the Arabian Peninsula.
Finally, archaeologists and historians have taken an interest in these drawings.
One of the most fascinating examples can be found near the southern Saudi Arabian city
of Najran.
The drawing here shows two women, one of them covered in jewelry and the other dancing.
It also shows a man holding three spears, two of them in his right hand and one in his
left.
These weapons symbolize power, while the woman dancing and the woman covered in jewelry may
symbolize an ancient war dance.
According to professor of ancient history Salma Hawsawi, the rock drawing could represent
a kind of sacred ritual.
Even more, this rock drawing and others like it can be found all throughout Saudi Arabia
along what was once an ancient trade route.
There are drawings of camels, lions and wolves, battles between knights and hunters.
Many of them date back to 7000 years ago during the Paleolithic age, and some of the newest
date to just a few hundred years ago.
Why do you think the drawings seem to run along a route?
Tell me your theories in the comments!
7: Gravity-Defying Monument Archaeologists have been left in shock by
the discovery of a monument in the country of Myanmar that seems to defy gravity.
It's called the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, or the Golden Rock, a popular Buddhist pilgrimage site.
It can be found deep in the Eastern Yoma Mountains, far from the eyes of any prying tourists.
The pagoda is shrouded in the clouds, seeming to teeter precariously on the edge of a great
abyss.
It looks as though it should tumble over at any moment – and yet it never has.
The local Buddhists believe the reason it keeps its balance is because of the Buddha's
miraculous powers.
Between the rock and the cliff that it’s balanced on is said to be a strand of the
Buddha’s hair.
The story goes back centuries.
In Burmese myth, it’s said that an ancient king encountered a Buddhist hermit who had
been keeping a strand of Buddha’s hair inside his hat.
The hermit offered the strand of hair to the king, suggesting that the king enshrine the
hair in a new pagoda built on the edge of the cliff.
The king then pulled a perfect rock from the bottom of the ocean, transported that to the
top of the mountain, and balanced it at the edge, with the magical Buddha’s hair keeping
it from falling over.
And it’s stayed like that ever since.
If you ask an archaeologist why the pagoda doesn't fall over, they’ll say it’s really
just a stroke of luck.
The truth is that we don’t yet know how the pagoda was created, who managed to put
the huge boulder on the edge of the mountain and paint it gold, or why it refuses to slide
off.
Either way, it's made the mountain one of the most famous spots in the entire country
for Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world.
6: The Worst Year in History Science has proved that the years between
536 and 541 were the worst in human history.
In fact, scientists agree that these years would make the last two years of the global
pandemic look like a walk in the park.
A series of volcanic eruptions sent clouds of ash into the atmosphere, which led to an
unbelievable chain of catastrophic events.
Perpetual darkness blocked out the sunlight, plunging global temperatures and resulting
in massive crop failure across the world.
But even as most of the people on Earth struggled just to survive, there was one Pueblo society
that seemed to do extraordinarily well.
The society, a prehistoric Native American civilization, was living in the southwest
of the United States of America.
Archaeologists recently took a closer look at their lives to find out just how they managed
to flourish and become even more advanced while the rest of the world struggled to find
food to eat.
Researchers did this by using carbon dating, looking at ancient examples of food grains
discovered from as far back as the year 500.
What they uncovered was that the people living on the Colorado Plateau adapted in a way that
no one else on the planet did.
They began growing crops in a more scattered way, which helped to feed all their people.
They also saw a boom in the building of housing structures all the way until the end of the
6th century.
It seems that the secret ingredient to their success was cooperation on a large scale.
Most of the people during this time were isolated bands of farmers.
But the Puebloans came together under the perpetual darkness to hunt, forage, and grow
their food collectively.
Working as a collective community ultimately led to their survival, while the rest of the
world fell apart.
5: Ancient Stone Circle Archaeologists believe they may have just
discovered the original Stonehenge.
A group of researchers from the University College London found a dismantled stone circle
in western Wales from 5000 years ago.
What’s really amazing is that this disassembled stone circle was built extraordinarily close
to the bluestone quarry!
For those who don't know, the bluestone quarry was where the developers of Stonehenge got
most of the original building blocks.
They lugged them hundreds of miles across fields and forests to the site of Stonehenge.
This actually happened centuries before the larger sarsen stones were brought from a much
nearer distance of only 15 miles (24 km).
But according to this new discovery, there was an original stone circle built beside
the first quarry.
The circle was about 361 feet (110 m) in diameter, making it the third biggest great stone circle
in Britain.
But there wasn't much left when archaeologists found it.
All they discovered were empty stone holes and four remaining pieces of rock badly decayed.
Scientific dating of the sediments in the holes confirmed it was built around 3400 BC,
or 400 years before the first stones were laid at Stonehenge.
This original stone circle also appears to have been built to align with the midsummer
solstice sunrise.
The big question now is actually a two-parter.
First, why did the ancient people who lived here disassemble the first stone circle?
Second, why did they feel the need to bring the stones from the quarry so far just to
build the second one centuries later?
If you have any theories on this incredible new discovery, remember to tell me in the
comments below!
4: Mayan Figurine Factory Archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered
the largest figurine workshop from the old Maya world.
The workshop was buried for a thousand years before it was finally recently uncovered in
the jungles of Guatemala.
Researchers from Winthrop University say the Mayan figurine factory mass produced small
statues to be sold all across the Maya kingdom.
Sadly, the factory was in a terrible state of destruction when it was found.
Archaeologists were only able to recover around 400 figurine fragments, as well as a lot of
molds that were used for the mass production.
It's believed the figurines made here played a major role in Mayan politics and the Mayan
economy.
Leaders may have given these figurines to their allies to help strengthen relationships.
At the same time, trading the figurines from village to village would have promoted economic
trade.
The factory, discovered at an archaeological site called Aragon, was likely active between
the years 750 and 900.
It didn't shut down until near the very end of the 300-year-long collapse of the Maya
empire.
3: Incredible New Fossil Site It's true that the wasteland of Australia
we call the Outback isn't really the most ideal place to support life.
But many years ago, it was.
The Outback was a lush forest absolutely teeming with life.
In fact, paleontologists recently found evidence that there was an abundance of creatures at
an incredible new fossil site in New South Wales.
Experts dug up the fossils of spiders, fish, insects, and birds dating back to between
11 and 16 million years ago during the Miocene era.
Paleontologist Matthew McCurry says all these fossils prove that central Australia was once
a temperate rainforest bursting with thousands of different forms of life.
Many of the creatures that have just been found at this fossil site are completely new
to science.
Researchers have discovered trapdoor spiders, giant cicada bugs, bizarre types of wasps,
and a whole variety of fish that have never been seen before.
The fossils also give a bit of insight into the future of the Australian continent.
As you may already know, Australia still has a lot of lush rainforests.
But eleven million years ago, the whole landmass was rainforest.
As the temperature started to rise, the center began turning into a desert.
As the temperature begins to rise again, it’s looking like the rest of the forests on the
continent could end up turning into wastelands as well.
2: The Giant Space Rock of Doom Archaeologists have discovered evidence that
a giant space rock destroyed a medieval city in just seconds.
It happened 3600 years ago, when a giant hunk of icy space debris hit the Earth’s atmosphere
at a whopping 38,000 mph (61,555 kph).
The residents of the city in the Middle East, a place now called Tall el-Hammam, were probably
going about their daily lives when the rock exploded 2.5 miles (4 km) above the ground.
The blast caused by this rock was over 1000 times more explosive than the atomic bomb
that the US dropped on Hiroshima.
Here's what happened next.
First, anyone who had been looking at the explosion was blinded instantly.
Air temperatures then rose from what was probably a balmy, 70-degree (21 degrees celsius) day
to somewhere around 3600 degrees Fahrenheit (1982 degrees celsius).
Everyone and everything would have immediately burst into flames.
Swords and bricks melted.
The entire city was literally on fire in a second.
A few seconds later, the shockwave came.
It moved at about 740 mph (1190 kph), with the wind ripping apart the city piece by piece.
Roughly 60 seconds after that, residual winds from the blast hit the city of Jericho.
The walls came tumbling down and the city burned.
Was this the inspiration for the Biblical story of Sodom?
Archaeologists know this actually happened because of over 15 years of excavations.
They had to look through materials found in the old city to confirm their suspicion of
a deadly space rock.
After compiling all their data, scientists have no doubt that there really was a great
meteorite of doom that destroyed the city, killed all 8000 residents, and burned down
ancient Jericho. 1: A Medieval Wanderer
In 1985, the remains of a medieval Scotsman were found in the community of Blair Atholl.
It happened during construction at someone's residence.
The workers immediately stopped and called the police, thinking they had a crime scene
on their hands.
But as it turned out, the bones they found belonged to a man from around the year 400
AD.
He became known as the Blair Atholl Man.
Not much is known about this stranger, even today.
It was originally believed that he was part of the Pict civilization, an indigenous group
who lived in eastern Scotland throughout medieval times.
These guys were almost always in conflict with the Roman Empire as they tried pushing
into their territory.
It's believed the Picts even developed their own written language over 1700 years ago.
However, nobody has ever been able to find irrefutable proof of this.
Also, recent studies of the stranger’s DNA showed that he may have actually come from
western Scotland, moving across the country for an unknown reason and settling in the
east.
He may not have even been a local, but a wanderer, an original adventurer meandering about the
country.
Any recent incredible discoveries you’d like to share?
Let me know in the comments and thanks so much for watching!
Remember to subscribe to keep getting great content and check out more of our awesome
videos!
See you again, bye!