10: The Blue Bottle An ordinary excavation being
done in the city of Kingston Upon Hull, or known locally just as Hull, turned a little bizarre.
A team of archaeologists were digging up bodies in the Old Trinity Cemetery
when they came across one skeleton unlike the others. This strange skeleton was buried with
a mysterious blue bottle sitting between its legs. The bottle contained a creepy, sludge-like liquid,
puzzling the researchers and reporters who learned of the find. What was the weird blue bottle for??
There was an inscription on the glass bottle. It said: Hull Infirmary. This
suggests the bottle had been placed there on purpose by staff of the ancient infirmary.
A little bit of research showed that the skeleton belonged to a woman who died sometime in her 60s
after suffering from rickets and osteoporosis. But that still doesn't explain why such a creepy
vial of liquid was placed between her legs. Archaeologists gave the bottle over to some
scientists for testing. They discovered the presence of potassium, phosphorus, and sodium.
In other words, this was quite possibly a bottle of urine. When this woman died,
the workers at the infirmary placed the blue bottle, perhaps containing urine, between her
legs to take to the afterlife. Either that, or it could also have been a mysterious phosphate-based
tonic used in the 19th century for curing ailments. Either way, it was strange. It was also
exceptionally weird because out of the over 1500 skeletons that were exhumed from the cemetery,
she was the only one with such an artifact. 9: A Strange Burial
On the small island of Chapelle Dom Hue, located in the English Channel
off the coast of Guernsey, archaeologists made a creepy discovery. An archaeological dig of just
three weeks resulted in the unveiling of a dead porpoise. Researchers didn't find the tomb of a
mysterious king or warrior, but instead the elaborate grave of a medieval ocean mammal.
Archaeologist Philip de Jersey from Oxford University told local news it was very peculiar.
Even after digging up the porpoise, he and his colleagues had no idea what to think of it.
Even now they don't understand why the ancient islanders went through all the trouble of burying
a porpoise. And it wasn't like they just buried it in the ground and forgot about it either.
This animal wasn't disposed of like the dead family pet in the backyard. It was laid to rest
in a proper Christian burial. While excavating, before they actually saw the body of the animal,
the archaeologists thought they were digging up the remains of a medieval monk.
Here’s a bit of background on the island itself. It was used as a religious retreat for monks
during the 14th century. Archaeologists have indeed found the tombs of monks on the island.
And yet there's no way the porpoise was killed for food, as people just didn't eat them back then.
They have no good explanation for why the porpoise was buried with just as much care as a person.
Why do you think that this creature received a Christian burial? Let
me know your theories in the comments! 8: The Girl with the Finch in her Mouth
In southern Poland, archaeologists were excavating a mysterious cave in 1967 when they came across
the burial of a young girl. She died about 300 years ago. What makes this confusing in itself
is that people had generally stopped burying their dead in caves back in the Middle Ages.
But even more unusual and shocking to the confused experts was the fact that she was
discovered with the head of a finch in her mouth. Out of every skeleton ever found in Europe,
this is the only one with the head of a bird stuffed into their mouth.
There are no other examples of this anywhere. And to make things even creepier,
the girl was only between the ages of 10 and 12 when she died. Researchers analyzed her bones,
discovering signs of arrested growth. This means she may have suffered from a metabolic disease.
But there is no evidence of trauma, no sign of stab wounds, and no
obvious cause of death. She didn't die from a violent beating, and so it may be that she was
poisoned. She may also have been strangled or suffocated. It's just too hard to say for sure.
As for the bird head in the mouth, that’s something nobody can even guess at.
The experts are stumped and a little grossed out. 7: Pickled Fetus
A team of researchers from the University of Warsaw discovered the presence of an unborn child
inside the belly of a female mummy. As if that wasn't strange enough,
they discovered that the fetus had been pickled inside her stomach for over 2000 years. Because
of the acidification as this woman decomposed, her baby was pickled and perfectly preserved.
This is now the first mummy ever found embalmed with a fetus inside of her. She was removed from
Egypt way back in December of 1826 and donated to the University of Warsaw. But it wasn't until
researchers were able to use CT scans and X-rays that they found the fetus. Otherwise,
they would have had no idea it was there. Very little is known about the mummy herself.
We don't know who she was or where she came from. Not even the location of her tomb is known.
This was during the 1800s when she was taken, a time when foreign explorers were robbing Egyptian
mummies left, right, and center. She likely came from a royal tomb in Thebes, probably buried
in the 1st century BC. She was between 26 and 30 weeks into her pregnancy at the time of her death.
6: Mysterious Graves About 1400 years ago in Europe,
people practiced something very unusual. They developed a habit of reopening graves
and removing things almost immediately after burial. Cemeteries throughout all of Europe, from
Transylvania in the east to England in the west, have shown evidence of this strange behavior.
Graves were opened and manipulated in what archaeologists initially mistook for graverobbing.
But after analyzing a series of excavated cemeteries from five regions in Europe,
they found it had nothing to do with graverobbing. Instead, the people who reopened the graves
carefully selected which possessions they removed while leaving behind plenty of valuables.
Researchers from Stockholm University say the most popular objects to be removed from graves were
women’s brooches and men’s swords. But they would leave behind all kinds of precious metal objects,
like gold and silver jewelry. Most of the things taken from the graves were of no value,
either practically or economically. Researchers are still struggling to
figure out why this happened. The reopening of the graves probably had some kind of symbolic meaning,
but it's difficult to say exactly what that symbolism was. One of the main theories is that
people were taking back grave gifts that had been passed on as heirlooms. Things that may not have
been worth much but connected family members. It's like if you were buried with an old watch
that had been in the family for centuries. Perhaps because of the sentimental value of these objects,
they were removed and passed on to someone else in the family.
5: Porridge Beer A new study has identified
a rather bizarre drink that Egyptian elites enjoyed 5800 years ago. Researchers checked out
fragments of pottery found at the ancient city of Hierakonpolis in southern Egypt. They found traces
of beer. But this wasn't any ordinary beer, it was as thick as porridge and just as disgusting.
The vessels they analyzed were used for transporting beer in bulk. They were enormous,
made of fine clay, and reserved only for the elite members of society. Beer almost 6000 years ago
was not for everyone. It was a symbol of status and authority. But it was also pretty horrible.
This beer was made primarily from wheat, barley, and grass. It had a very low alcohol content
and was thick and cloudy like swamp scum. If you had the chance, would you taste this
ancient Egyptian porridge beer? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to hit subscribe
before the end of the video! 4: The Capuchin Crypt
The Capuchin Crypt in Czech is one of the creepiest burial sites in the world. It's
here where monks were mummified and interred over a period of 300 years, up until the 18th century.
The crypt itself is located in the underbelly of Brno’s Capuchin Church. The only way into
the vault is by navigating a series of winding passageways deep in the dank underground. Once
inside the crypt, the bodies of the monks can be seen lined against the walls, not stuffed in tombs
or buried in coffins. They were simply laid out on the floor with their heads resting on bricks
and their arms crossed across their chests. One of these mummies is a woman frozen in a
horrifying pose. Archaeologists believe she was buried alive by accident because she suffered
from paralysis but the monks at the church didn't understand what it was. They put her in a coffin,
she starved to death, and then they put her body in the crypt.
What's really interesting is that the mummification wasn't even on purpose.
The monks reused a single coffin for funerary rites. After the public funeral, the dead would
be placed into the crypt and the dry air helped preserve the bodies for hundreds of years.
There are 24 monks down here in total, still clad in their robes and draped with rosaries.
3: Ancient Poisoning 5000-year-old bones have revealed the very first
case of poisoning. These bones were discovered in Spain with alarmingly high levels of mercury.
Researchers looked at the skeletal remains of over 370 individuals in the area who were alive during
the Copper Age. This was between 2900 and 2600 BC. The high levels of mercury likely resulted from
contact with cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral which forms in thermal and volcanic regions.
When crushed, cinnabar turns into red powder. This red powder was used for
all kinds of things in the ancient world. Humans in the Copper Age used red pigment
in paint, they inhaled it as part of a hallucinogenic drug ritual,
and they accidentally poisoned themselves with it. These primitive humans obviously didn't know the
dangers of mercury. We didn't even know about the dangers of lead until a few decades ago.
Researchers think people who were inhaling the powder to get high, or people using it to
make art, ended up dying as a result of it. Some individuals had 400 parts per million of mercury
in their bones. According to the World Health Organization, the normal level of mercury
should not exceed one or two parts per million. They probably had no idea what was happening,
but they were suffering from mercury poisoning, a pretty miserable way to spend your final days.
Spain may have seen a mass outbreak of mercury poisoning before they finally figured out
it was the red pigment causing it. 2: Part of an Ancient Skull
In the Rising Star cave, located in South Africa’s Johannesburg, researchers discovered the partial
skull of a child who died 250,000 years ago. The child wasn't quite human, but a member of
the Homo naledi species. The team discovered only a fragment of her head, as well as a couple teeth.
At her time of death, the girl was only between four and six years old.
The truly creepy part is the fact that she was found in a remote passage of the cave system,
in a dark, gloomy pit of dirt and rock. Nobody even knows what happened to the rest of her bones,
as researchers couldn't find anything except her skull fragments. It looks like the young girl
wandered off on her own into the recesses of the cave and laid down on the dusty floor to perish.
Professor Lee Berger, project leader, says she belonged to a very primitive species.
She existed at the same time as more modern hominin species in Africa,
yet there is little known of the Homo naledi. They appear to have been primarily cave dwellers.
It’s unclear when the species went extinct, how long they existed, or even how many there were.
So many ancient ancestors of humans were wandering around Africa between 3 million and 10,000 years
ago it's almost impossible to keep track of each. Scientists are still working to figure
out how all these ancient species interacted with one another and what caused each one to vanish,
ultimately leading to the rise of humans. 1: Chinese Mummies
In northwest China, researchers discovered hundreds of mummified corpses buried in boats.
This wasn't anywhere near the ocean, but in the middle of a barren desert. The burials began in
2000 BC, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The burials were done between 4100
and 3700 years ago. They were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, a total
of 13 corpses now known as the Tarim mummies. Because of where they were buried in the dry
desert, the dead became mummified all on their own. When modern archaeologists found them,
they still had their hair and clothing intact. It was a miraculous look into the past,
at a distinct culture that dwelled in the desert. The structures that contained their corpses were
shaped like boats and covered in cowhides. They even used oars as grave markers. What's
really strange is that this practice has only been seen before with the Vikings. And yet these were
ancient North Eurasians, a group that spread into this part of China about 10,000 years ago near the
end of the Ice Age. The genetic lineage of these people can be directly connected to the indigenous
population of North America and Siberia. And while the mummies were creepy and the
people themselves very mysterious, it's the fact they were buried in boats that has archaeologists
scratching their heads. They didn't live near water, they had no use for boats,
and yet they used them for their burials. This is the last community in the world you would
expect to do such a thing, and yet they did. Which of these weird archaeological discoveries
creeped you out the most? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to hit subscribe!
Thanks so much for watching and see you soon for another awesome video from the channel. Bye!