10.
LUFTWAFFE PLANES
In 2003, a Luftwaffe transport plane was salvaged from the waters off the island of Leros and
taken to the Hellenic Air Force Museum in Athens for preservation and display.
It was a Junkers Ju 52 model aircraft, which served on virtually all WWII war fronts that
the Germans fought on.
During the Fall of 1943, the British and the Germans engaged in a fierce battle for control
of the Dodecanese Islands, which had been under Italian control since 1912.
The fighting lasted for several days and ended with a German victory over the island of Leros.
A German soldier’s remains were found inside the plane, and they were identified and sent
back to his family.
Authorities also found ammunition, personal belongings, and guns, which have since gone
on display at the HAF Museum.
The Ju 52 is also on display after undergoing extensive preservation and still bears the
bullet holes from anti-aircraft guns that shot it down nearly 80 years ago.
Another German plane, a Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stuka,’ was also salvaged from the waters off Leros.
The Stuka was a dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft that served its purpose well during
the war’s early stages, but it lost its air superiority before the end of the conflict
and became a prime target among anti-aircraft operations and Allied fighter planes.
Sources suggest the Stuka recovered near Leros was likely shot down in October 1943 after
taking off from Rodos island.
After spending 70 years at the bottom of the sea, it was transported to the HAF Museum,
where it was put on display beside other historic wrecked planes.
9.
A “YELLOW BRICK ROAD”
Recent news headlines reported on the alleged discovery of an underwater “yellow brick
road” possibly leading to the lost island of “Atlantis.”
The articles are referring to a unique rock formation that scientists found on the ocean
floor near Hawaii, in what’s known as the Liliʻuokalani Ridge.
It certainly looks man-made at first glance, and the team who found it even described it
as looking like a yellow brick road.
But they didn’t mean it in literal terms, and news reports took some creative liberty
by using such attention-grabbing headlines.
Found during the Nautilus expedition, which seeks to learn more about our vastly unexplored
oceans, the so-called “yellow brick road” was formed naturally.
Researchers identified it as a “fractured flow of hyaloclastite rock” which settles
on the seafloor after forming during high-energy volcanic eruptions.
News website CNET explained that the brick-like pattern forms from the eruptions’ heating
and cooling cycles.
But by now, it’s likely that at least some people believe the more outlandish parts of
the story that some other media outlets have put out.
8.
AN ANCIENT CITY
Retired architect and amateur archaeologist George Gelé believes that he’s discovered
a submerged ancient city off the Gulf Coast near the Chandeleur Islands, an uninhabited
archipelago located roughly 50 miles (80.5 km) east of New Orleans.
That’s about the length of the Panama Canal.
It’s certainly possible that the area was dry land during the last ice age before global
temperatures increased and sped up glacial melting, causing sea levels to rise.
Gelé believes that the alleged “lost city,” dubbed “Crecsentis,” may have existed
long ago, predating civilizations like the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas.
He claimed he found granite masses at the submerged settlement, and that there are hundreds
of buildings buried in sand and silt along the sea bottom.
Even more surprisingly, Gelé said that these structures are “geographically related”
to the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
While it might sound crazy, he is truly convicted of his research on the site, which he’s
been carrying out for nearly a half-century.
He’s even gathered sonar images of what he believes to be the ancient buildings, along
with an enormous pyramid.
Gelé says that the pyramid is 280 feet (85 meters) tall and that it emits intense geomagnetic
energy.
That’s almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
Fisherman Ricky Robin claims to have experienced the energy firsthand, telling local station
4WWL that his compass spun out of control when he got near Crescentis and that one can
expect all the electronics on their boat to stop functioning, too.
Robin also said that fishermen in the area have been finding strange square-shaped rocks
for years and that he believes they’re from the underwater pyramid.
Mainstream experts disagree with Gelé’s theories.
The square rocks, for example, could be from old shipwrecks or may have been used for ballast
on ships in the past.
They’re also quick to point out that granite is not native to Louisiana or Mississippi,
making its alleged presence beneath the waves highly questionable.
In the meantime, Gelé hopes to uncover more evidence of Crescentis as he continues to
explore it after making 44 visits already.
7.
SS ATLANTA
The 172-foot-long (52 meters) schooner SS Atlanta capsized and sank in Lake Superior
in 1891.
The ship is just a little shorter than The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
This was after a strong gale snapped the towline connecting it to its companion steamer.
The ship began to quickly take on water, causing its seven-person crew to scramble for a lifeboat.
Only two of them survived.
The Atlanta wreck was finally found last year off Deer Park, Michigan, where it sits 650
feet (198 meters) beneath the water’s surface.
That’s about as deep as two football fields are long.
Researchers were mapping the lake bottom using sonar when they spotted the sunken ship.
Speaking with Newsweek, Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society spokesperson Corkey Adkins
described the process as “a lot of tedious and boring and monotonous work, filled with
little specs of joy and high-fiving.”
At first, the team wasn’t sure what their sonar system had detected.
So they returned to the site with a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, and could see the
well-preserved wreck clear as day.
Footage reveals that the ship’s three masts broke off during the storm, just like the
two survivors had said after being rescued.
Atlanta is one of three shipwrecks that the team found last summer among the estimated
6,000 wrecks that have happened across the Great Lakes to date.
6.
460-YEAR-OLD HUNTING BOW
Earlier this year, National Park Service (NPS) employees discovered an ancient hunting bow
laying in two feet of water in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park and Reserve.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the bow is around 460 years old and that it was made
sometime between 1506 and 1660.
But where the bow comes from is an even bigger question than its age.
It was found in south-central Alaska, on lands where the ancestors of the indigenous Dena’ina
people once lived, yet the bow may not be of Dena’ina origins.
Researchers consulted with local Elders and compared it with similar objects from around
the same time, and the bow appears to have more in common with artifacts that were crafted
by the Yup’ik and Alutiiq cultures.
The Dena’ina interacted with other indigenous groups in the region, including the Yup’ik,
which could explain how the bow ended up on Dena'ina ancestral lands.
At the last update, researchers were still working to determine where the bow came from.
They sought the help of wood identification expert Dr. Priscilla Morris, who believes
that the bow is made from spruce.
To know for sure, she’d have to examine a cut fragment of the artifact under a microscope,
but the NPS wants to keep it intact because it’s a rare discovery for the region.
So the team may have to rely on less invasive clues to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Should they cut the bow to examine it or leave it intact?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel before the end of the video.
5.
MAYA CANOE
Recently Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced
the discovery of an intact ancient Maya canoe submerged in an underwater sinkhole or cenote.
They found the 1,000-year-old boat on the Yucatán Peninsula, at a site known as San
Andrés.
In the ancient world, the area consisted of many ceremonial sites that were used by many
indigenous communities.
It’s a great place to look for artifacts.
But the recent canoe discovery is special because it’s the most intact Maya canoe
ever found.
Experts believe it was built sometime between 830 and 950 A.D.
but will have a more precise date after performing a tree ring analysis, which will tell the
boat’s exact age.
The canoe came as a surprise to the team that found it, who were taking a break when they
spotted an ancient watermark on the cenote’s wall and went down to investigate.
Inside a cavern 150 feet (45.7 meters) below ground, about half as tall as Big Ben, they
discovered the five-foot-long (1.5 meters), nearly three-foot-wide (1 meter) vessel.
It’s about the size of a refrigerator.
Archaeologists believe the canoe was used for carrying water out of the cenote or to
bring offerings to the cavern.
Besides the boat, the team found human remains, ceramics, a painted wall mural, and other
artifacts.
They were exploring the area in anticipation of a controversial rail project that’s slated
to travel through the area.
Many fear this will put thousands of sacred and historically important ancient sites at
risk of destruction.
4.
A SUBMERGED MEDIEVAL TOWN
Nicknamed “Yorkshire’s Atlantis,” the once-bustling medieval port town of Ravenser
Odd was founded near the mouth of England's Humber River around 1235.
At its peak, it had over 100 houses, a dockside market, wharves, warehouses, a court, a jail,
and a harbor where it saw frequent ship traffic.
The town was eventually abandoned, and its deserted remains were flooded by a massive
storm in the 1350s.
What was left of the town was swept to the bottom of the North Sea, and nobody has located
it yet.
But sedimentology professor Daniel Parsons believes researchers are closer than ever
to discovering Ravenser Odd, and if he’s right, he hopes that an excavation would follow.
Lobster vessels have discovered evidence of the town along the seabed, and Parsons believes
he may be able to use high-resolution sonar to locate it.
He told The Guardian that he believes it’s especially important to find Ravenser Odd
because it can teach today’s experts about how coastal change can impact communities.
This is a problem that is coming into play in a bigger and more concerning role in many
parts of the world as we grapple with the effects of the ever changing world.
3.
HUGE CACHE OF BOMBS
A group of magnet fishers were trying their luck at Daisy Nook Country Park near the English
town of Oldham earlier this year when they discovered a massive stash of around 1,000
bombs.
They piled the explosives up at the bottom of the canal they were fishing in and contacted
the police, who reported to the scene along with the EOD, Britain’s elite bomb squad.
People find explosive devices all over the world, many of them in places where nobody
would think to find them.
From the accidental leftover explosives of more than a hundred years’ worth of wars
to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) put in place by terrorist organizations worldwide,
the risks to innocent people from explosive devices are much greater than most people
think.
Magnet fishing enthusiast Sophie Doyle told the Manchester Evening News that the group
pulled up many types of explosives, too many for experts to identify them all at the time.
Emergency services cordoned off the area and removed the bombs.
The area was reopened just hours later.
It was the second time in a week that the group discovered a large number of explosives.
The previous weekend, they had found around 200 bombs.
Authorities believe that the cache of bombs found at Daisy Nook were railway explosives
that were left behind and forgotten about long ago.
So what does the EOD do with these kinds of finds?
Modern military EOD techniques are classified top secret to prevent their distribution to
prospective enemy bomb-makers or to any of the various extremist organizations around
the world.
2.
A “MISSING” CONTINENT
Between 87 and 79 million years ago, a sizable chunk of the Earth’s crust broke free from
the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana and began sinking into the ocean.
By around 23 million years ago, it was completely submerged.
Scientists discovered the 2 million-square-mile (5 million km2) sunken landmass, known as
Zealandia, during the 1990s.
That’s about twice the size of Tibet.
As the name suggests, it is close to New Zealand.
But they weren’t initially sure what it was, and they spent years going back-and-forth
about what to classify it as.
Finally, in 2017, a study announced that Zealandia met all the qualifications for being classified
as a submerged continent, rather than a continental fragment.
At roughly a billion years old, it’s the world’s youngest continent.
It’s also the smallest and thinnest and contains just a handful of islands sticking
out of the water.
The remaining 94 percent of Zealandia sits beneath the waves, where it went unnoticed
for centuries as explorers searched for new continents.
It hasn’t been studied much, because it sits thousands of feet below the water’s
surface.
But now that scientists know it’s there and about its significance, they’re working
to learn more about it.
The continent is doubtful to reveal all its secrets soon.
Researchers find it difficult to make discoveries when the whole thing is over a mile (2km)
deep below the sea, and the deposits needed to be tested are 1,640 feet (500m) beneath
the seabed.
It's buried about one-and-a-half times down as tall as The Eiffel Tower.
It's really difficult to go out and research a continent like that.
It will take a lot of time, money, and work to go out on ships with a lot of equipment
and survey the sections.
If nothing else, the world's eighth continent confidently shows that nearly 400 years after
Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand in 1642, there is still plenty to be discovered.
1.
5,000-YEAR-OLD HUMAN BONE
Simon Hunt was out on the River Thames in London one morning when he discovered a femur,
or upper leg bone, in the water.
Upon realizing it was human, he was extremely concerned that it might be recent, even though
it looked old.
Howell took the bone with him and showed it to his wife before calling the police, who
asked him to take them to the site where he found it.
By then, the high tide had come in and it wasn’t possible to search the area.
Police sent the femur off for testing, which revealed that it was around 5,000 years old.
The person it belonged to lived sometime between 3516 and 3365 B.C., during the late Stone
Age.
It was a period marked by the arrival of farming in England, predating both the building of
Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
While it’s impossible to know whether the person was male or female, an archaeologist
has estimated that they were around 5 feet, 7 inches tall (170 cm).
The police gave the bone back to Hunt, and for now, he keeps it in his house in a place
where his cat can’t get to it.
He hopes it will eventually sit alongside a Neolithic human skull fragment at the Museum
of London, which houses many artifacts that have been found along the banks of the Thames
River.
While a license is normally required to search for and collect artifacts from the river,
Hunt was simply taking a stroll while unintentionally coming across the bone, and he didn’t get
in any trouble for taking it.
Thanks for watching!
Should regular people who find artifacts or other relics be able to keep them or do they
belong in a museum?
Let us know what you think in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time, bye! :)