Many believe that in the age of information technology, the book is losing its significance.
But before, it was the only way to transfer knowledge through generations. The most ancient
books for historians are simply priceless. In this video, I will show you the most ancient books
and other archeological finds that will amaze you! Hi, friend. You are on the KirTop channel.
Divine Bull Apis Egyptian mummy of the divine bull Apis,
late Ptolemaic period 300 BC - 400 AD. Discovered in Dashur (lower Egypt)
exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum. The mummy is covered with at least
nine layers of bandages, so its study was carried out using x-rays. The picture showed that under
the dense tissue there are only bones. Scientists believe that meat was eaten for ritual purposes
by priests or kings in order to join the divine power. Only the head of the bull was embalmed
so that he could see and hear forever. This bull was kept in a special stable within
the walls of the temple. The priests massaged his body, decorated his horns with silver ornaments,
and even sang to him. The bull was seen as a living manifestation of God, so the Egyptians
literally revered him during his lifetime. It was believed that after death the sacred
animal gained eternal life. The priests gave the bull a magnificent funeral and placed the
body in an underground niche, and a young bull with the same distinctive marks took its place.
Ostromir Gospel
The most ancient book of Russia is the Ostromir Gospel. It was written in 1056-1057 for the
Novgorod head of the city Ostromir by deacon Gregory. The unique manuscript is decorated with
initials and miniatures. In addition, the book is important because the deacon in the afterword
indicated the date of its writing from the creation of the world. The Ostromir Gospel
became the model from which scientists started when creating modern grammars of the Old Church
Slavonic language. Today the book is stored in the Russian National Library of St. Petersburg.
The Secret of Joanna Southcott's Chest Until the age of 42, Joanna Southcott
lived inconspicuously. She did not have a husband and children, she worked as a servant for almost
her entire adult life. She was fired from her job after a complaint from the head butler.
He complained to the owners that Joanna had gone mad. It was his revenge for her rejection
of him. On the other hand, the characterization of the butler is similar to the truth, because
in 1792, 42-year-old Joanna began to compose rhyming prophecies about the end of the world.
She also declared herself to be the "Woman Clothed with the Sun".
Joanna prophesied so much and rhymed so deftly that she had admirers. Basically,
they were the same old maids who, having heard a lot of apocalyptic tales, rejoiced
that all the wicked would soon go to hell, and they, of course, would ascend to heaven.
It is believed that over two decades of inventing prophecies, the number of followers
of Southcottism has reached 100 thousand. In 1814, Joanna, who had repeatedly promised the imminent
end of the world, announced her latest trick - the immaculate conception. 64-year-old Southcott,
with a rounded belly, announced that she was pregnant and would give birth to a new messiah
on October 19, 1814. The London newspapers ridiculed her, some followers turned their backs
on her, but both of them were waiting for the announced day. Nothing happened on October 19th.
The congregation was told that the messiah ascended to heaven immediately after birth,
and Southcott fell into a trance. Without regaining consciousness, she died in December
1814. It turned out that the stomach appeared as a result of a tumor, which led to death.
Joanna Southcott left behind the prophecy books and the mystery box. Southcott told to open this
box when the world gets really bad. It supposedly contains something that will save the world from
all that is bad. For the first time, Southcott's followers wanted to open the chest during the
Crimean War, then at the height of the First World War, and then in the worst
years of the Second World War. However, they never succeeded. Southcott bequeathed to open the box in
the presence of 24 Anglican priests, who should study Southcott's writings and spend several days
discussing them together. So even in the 1940s there were no priests who would agree to do such
nonsense for the sake of saving the world. In 1927, debunker of mediums and other crooks,
Harry Prince, got hold of Southcott's chest. Previously, he interviewed some psychics about
the contents of the box, and then opened it. None of the psychics guessed what was inside.
And inside they found all sorts of rubbish, like a lottery ticket, a nightcap, jewelry,
dice. However, Southcott's followers stated that the real chest was not opened and
the Prince is a deceiver. Until recently, there were several organizations/churches,
each claiming to be the successor to Joanna Southcott. Today, there is hardly anyone
who seriously believes in the prophecies of an old maid who lived 200 years ago. One of those
churches turned into the Southcott Museum, where the same mysterious box is still kept.
Book of the Dead The mystical Book of the Dead is often
featured in adventure films. But its original title is "Chapters on Coming Out into the Light
of Day." The book is a collection of papyruses with ancient Egyptian prayers, spells that were
supposed to help the deceased to move to another world. The name "Book of the Dead" was given by
the Egyptologist Lepsius. The book was created in the period from the 6th to the 1st century BC.
Face of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut
And how do you like such a strictly scientific reconstruction?) Archaeologists collect the face
of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut from fragments that have just been removed from the earth.
After 3500 years, the eyes of the broken sphinx look at us again.
An archaeological mission excavating Hatshepsut's famous temple at Deir el-Bahri (Luxor) is working
to restore a sphinx figure that once adorned the procession road. At the beginning of the
XV century BC. along the road leading to the temple, there were more than 70 such figures.
The lion's body was combined with a human head, which the sculptor gave
a resemblance to the face of the queen. Alas, Pharaoh Thutmose III, who replaced
Hatshepsut, tried to destroy all memory of his stepmother, and his descendants
completed what they had begun. The sculptures of the queen were broken and buried.
Paradoxically, the burial of the statues made it possible to better preserve the paint that
covered the sculptures, because the sphinxes were once painted. The yellowish-reddish complexion of
the sphinx is noteworthy: according to the canon, female images were painted yellow.
Gospels of Garima
In the monastery of St. Garima (Ethiopia) two Gospels are kept, created in the period from
330 to 650 years. They are written in Geez, the sacred language of Abyssinia. The gospels were
discovered by art historian Beatrice Plain in 1950. The books are designed in the same style,
but written in different handwriting. The first gospel has a binding of wooden planks
covered with gilded copper, while the binding of the second is made of silver. Unfortunately,
the books are not subject to restoration, and they are all preserved in the same monastery.
Pharaoh's Meteor Throne
Giulio Magli, director of the Faculty of Mathematics at the Politecnico di Milano,
transcribed and translated the Pyramid Texts. These documents contain many religious
inscriptions carved on the walls of the pyramids around 2400 BC. According to Magli,
the famous throne of Pharaoh Khufu, or "Cheops", can be found in an underground room.
Although the throne is believed to be made of iron, Magli points out that it is not molten iron,
but meteoritic iron, that is, iron meteorites that fell from space and are mentioned in the Texts.
Incredible as it may seem, there is evidence that the ancient Egyptians
made beautiful and symbolic iron artifacts from meteorites that fell from the sky.
The same dagger of Tutankhamun was made from meteorite iron, which was discovered in 2016.
Modern scientists can easily recognize meteoric iron due to its high nickel content.
Pyramid writings convinced Magli that evidence relating to the tombs of Egyptian kings
suggested that a meteoric iron throne might be hidden within the Great Pyramid.
These writings state that the monarch must first pass through the "gate to heaven" to
sit on his "iron throne" before he can pass to the next world through the stars of the north.
Magli suggests that the Great Pyramid may have had four shafts, which could
mark the entrances to the sky. Therefore, an iron throne must be fixed in the room.
Since no one has been in the Great Pyramid's secret room for thousands of years, it's hard
to know if the mathematician is right. But he makes a strong case for what might
be hiding in the mysteriously hidden room, and it's possible he'll be right very soon.
Who was the terracotta army waiting for
Such an archaeological find could bring any researcher to a seizure. An army of
thousands of human-sized warriors, along with horses and thoroughly executed uniforms, is,
without a doubt, the biggest find of the second half of the 20th century.
The huge Chinese army was discovered by accident while drilling water off Mount Lishan in 1974.
It seems that this amazing find was a harbinger that China is aiming to conquer the world with
its scale and performance in the near future. Each soldier of the Terracotta Army has
individual facial features, they also differ in the types of weapons (sword,
crossbow or spear) and even differ in rank - there are ordinary soldiers, and there are officers.
Their clothes, uniforms, details of costumes and armor are true works of art. Probably,
the statues of foot soldiers were created in different parts of the empire, and then
brought to the necropolis. Unlike chariot riders, which were made near the mountain in
order to facilitate their transportation. The appointment of the army was ritual.
Warriors of various ranks and skills were supposed to protect the emperor after death.
Now the pavilion with the Terracotta Army makes an indelible impression on visitors. Thousands of
distinct clay soldiers froze in anticipation of an invisible threat, calm and focused,
as if they were able to shake off a layer of dust and look into the eyes of the enemy at any moment.
Codex Sinaiticus
The most ancient book, made in the form familiar to the modern man, is the Codex Sinaiticus,
dated to the 4th century. The first part of the code was found in 1844 quite by accident by the
German scientist Konstantin Tischendorf on the Sinai Peninsula in the monastery of St. Helena.
The sheets lay in a pile of rubbish destined for destruction. Then the scientist found
another 86 pages of the Codex and took them to Europe, where he made them public.
When Tischendorf came to the monastery again in search of a continuation of the Codex,
the monks did not even let him on the threshold. The situation was saved by Emperor Alexander II.
He paid the monastery 9 thousand rubles, after which Konstantin Tischendorf was able to find and
bring new pages of the Codex to Russia. The Codex Sinaiticus contains part of the Old Testament, the
full text of the New Testament, the "Epistle of Barnabas" and the "Shepherd" of Hermas, written in
Greek. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks in 1933, the codex was sent to the British Museum.
Amazing burial of a woman
Women's blouse, belt and skirt, discovered in the town of Borum Eshoy, Jutland, Denmark.
Well-preserved clothing was found on the skeletal remains of a 50-60-year-old woman.
She was relatively short in stature, but with well-developed muscles, which indicates that
during her lifetime the woman worked hard. The clothes are well preserved, the costume
consists of various items: a skirt sewn from several separate pieces of fabric, a blouse,
a hair net, a cap and two belts. The entire fabric is woven from wool and, despite the age
of 3.5 thousand years, is perfectly preserved. It is noteworthy that a lot of bronze jewelry
was found in the burial, including two decorative plates or “tutuli”, a belt plate,
bracelets and a neck decoration in the form of rings, spiral rings on the fingers and a hairpin.
The grave also contained an earthen vessel, a wooden box, a bronze dagger and a horn comb.
Apparently, the lady decided to take to the grave, if not all her jewelry, then a solid part of them.
Diamond Sutra
The Diamond Sutra is an almost 5-meter scroll printed using the xylography method (print of
engravings). This book contains a text with the basics of Buddhism. The Diamond Sutra was found
by archaeologist Mark Stein in China in 1900 and taken to the UK. The book indicates that it was
printed on the 15th day of the fourth moon of the Xiantong year, i.e. May 11, 868. The Diamond
Sutra is now in the British Library. All ancient books were made by hand
with inlays of precious stones and were equated almost to works of art.
Ancient rituals in a Spanish cave There is in the south of Spain, in the
province of Malaga, one unusual cave, well known to archaeologists thanks to the rock paintings,
of which there are more than a thousand on its walls. And not only Cro-Magnons left them:
some drawings in Cueva de Ardales appeared before modern people began to use this cave,
which means that they were painted by the former inhabitants of southern Europe - Neanderthals,
who were also not alien to the sense of beauty. After seven years of excavations in the cave,
scientists realized that Cueva de Ardales was not a dwelling: they did not find traces of a
permanent human presence in it, like old bonfires, as well as artifacts related to
housekeeping. The age of the oldest layers in the cave coincides with the age of the oldest
rock paintings (abstract figures consisting of dots, strokes with fingertips and handprints)
and is more than 58 thousand years old. The last traces of the presence of Neanderthals date back
43 thousand years ago, that is, ancient people more or less regularly visited
the cave for at least 15 thousand years. It is interesting that, even without making
direct contact, both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon people used the cave for non-domestic tasks,
without equipping it as a permanent home. In all layers of the cave sediments, scientists
have found fragments of ocher, a natural pigment that ancient people used for painting,
and sometimes as a ritual material. Also, many decorations were found in the cave - drilled
shells and animal teeth, and some teeth, for example, those belonging to a beaver and a horse,
could hardly have been there by chance. Finally, human remains fell into the last
category of finds: in the early Neolithic, the dead were buried in Cueva de Ardales.
Probably, Neanderthals and ancient Cro-Magnons used the cave mainly for ritual purposes,
leaving drawings and decorations in it. A sacred place for 50,000 years, this cave
was eventually forgotten by mankind, and only now is it beginning to truly reveal its secrets to us.
And I'm trying to reveal the secrets of the ancient world on this channel.
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