10: Sutton Hoo’s Treasure Workshop Archaeologists have made yet another incredible
discovery at Sutton Hoo, one of England’s biggest and most important archeological sites.
They found evidence of metalworking inside of a medieval workshop.
They believe the workshop may be the same place where most of the artifacts from the
famous Sutton Hoo burial mounds were crafted.
Sutton Hoo is to this day considered the greatest archaeological discovery in the United Kingdom,
originally excavated back in 1939, the same year Germany invaded Poland.
The time was chaotic for obvious reasons, and the poorly timed discovery put this wealth
of archaeological knowledge at great risk.
The actual burials at Sutton Hoo date back to the 6th century AD.
The biggest and most important burial is that of an Anglo-Saxon king buried along with the
remains of a huge ship, that was over 88 feet (26.8 m) long.
The king’s burial also came complete with an underground chamber stocked to the brim
with treasure.
Now, just three miles (4.8 km) from the buried ship and the ancient king, archaeologists
found the very site where most of these grave goods were likely crafted.
Volunteers with the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service found fragments of
spindle whorls, discarded fragments of a large loom, and melted pieces of metal.
They even discovered smelting ore and slag – which all points to a group of craftsmen
working to produce metal at the ruined site.
It’s believed those buried at Sutton Hoo lived in the nearby city of Rendlesham, very
close to where this ancient factory was found.
And if they were living there, it makes sense that their most precious belongings were made
there as well.
9: A Spiral in the Universe Astronomers have discovered a gas giant out
in space that has only 1,000,000 years left of its life.
And while a million years may seem like a long time, it's really not for most celestial
things in the universe.
Stars and planets typically live for billions of years!
This gas giant is about twice the mass of Jupiter and is orbiting so close to its host
star that it's gradually being pulled right into it.
Researchers have named it TOI-2337 b, and it's one of three hot planets that researchers
found orbiting at a perilous proximity to their sun.
What makes the discovery so incredible is that according to Samuel Grunblatt with the
American Museum of Natural history, as recently as only 10 years ago no one in the scientific
fields thought a planet like this could exist.
It's essentially brushing up against its host star.
It takes the Earth one year to revolve around the sun.
It takes this planet just six days to do the same thing.
Out of the thousands of exoplanets astronomers have found, this one has the shortest lifespan.
It’s currently in a death spiral and will soon, in galactic terms, plunge into its own
star.
8: Hoard of Celtic Gold In northeastern Germany, a volunteer archaeologist
discovered an ancient stash of Celtic coins.
There were 41 of the coins found in total, minted over 2000 years ago.
This is now the first ever gold treasure from the Celts found in Brandenburg.
What makes the coins so fascinating is that they aren't what you might expect.
They don't look like modern coins, or even like most ancient coins.
They're curved, looking like tiny cups made of gold.
Scientists call them rainbow cups, and believe they may be tied to the legend of a pot of
gold being found at the end of the rainbow.
It’s where they get their name.
Thousands of years ago, peasants working in the fields likely found some of these ancient
coins after a rainfall, freed from the dirt they had been trapped in.
They believed the coins fell out of the sky rather than being revealed from the dirt.
This turned rainbow coins into lucky charms, and spawned the myth of a pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow.
The volunteer archaeologist found ten of these coins in the field of a local farm, then called
in the professionals.
They brought the total up to 41 and were able to date them to being minted sometime around
125 BC.
This was the late Iron Age, at a time when the Celts occupied huge portions of what is
now England, France, Austria, and southern Germany.
It was also a time when the Roman conquest was going on and many of the Celts were being
wiped out by the Roman legions.
But what's really strange is that Celts never lived in Brandenburg.
This means the rainbow cups must have made it there on their own, probably through an
ancient trading route.
How do you think these “lucky” coins ended up here?
Tell me your theory in the comments!
7: Creatures on the Run As you may already know, life on Earth is
its most diverse at the equator.
Biodiversity increases the closer you get to the equator, and decreases the farther
north or south of that line of demarcation that you go.
This includes both creatures on land and in the ocean.
The phenomenon is known as the latitudinal biodiversity gradient.
But here's the thing, it hasn't always been this way.
Studies looking at the evolution of animals near the equator found that there were different
intervals of biodiversity.
There were actually a few times when the biodiversity became higher at altitudes further away from
the equator.
These events are all linked to the biggest mass extinction events.
Scientists have found by looking back in geological time that animals migrated north in times
of great stress to flee the changing climate.
Whenever there is ice present at both poles, biodiversity peaks in the equatorial regions
like the rainforest of the Amazon and central Africa.
But when the Earth warms up and all that ice melts, life migrates to the higher and lower
levels to escape the heat.
What's really terrifying is that scientists have predicted that as global temperatures
continue to rise, animals are going to begin to disperse.
They will move from equatorial regions to higher or lower ground just like they did
during the Permian extinction event of 251 million years ago.
There's been a lot of talk recently about this sixth mass extinction currently in effect.
Scientists say we’ll shortly see the dispersal of life from all the most biologically rich
regions.
There are also those that say there is evidence that this has already begun to occur.
6: Dinosaur Eggs A group of paleontologists from the University
of Toronto made an amazing discovery by examining a fossil bed in the Yunnan province of China.
The group discovered a set of fossilized dinosaur eggs that are believed to be the oldest ever
seen by human eyes.
And that's not all.
Inside the dinosaur egg nest, they found the perfectly preserved remains of dinosaur embryos
inside the crushed and cracked eggs.
These eggs come from the late Jurassic period, roughly 190 million years ago.
This was the peak of long-necked, herbivore-type dinosaurs.
Based on the evidence discovered, scientists concluded that in the Yunnan province, there
was a beast called Lufengosaurus that laid eggs roughly the size of softballs.
One of these dinosaurs chose its nesting site beside a river, just before a flood.
The flood came down, smothering the eggs with the intact embryos inside, and preserving
them in sediment for millions of years.
Even more exciting is that the flood caught the embryos at different stages of development,
giving scientists a clear view of how these dinosaur eggs developed.
For example, scientists were able to see just how similar dinosaurs really were to their
relatives, modern birds.
They found evidence that the dinosaurs moved inside their eggs just like birds do.
It's actually the same way developing mammals move inside their mother's womb.
It's only the first time this has been documented in a fossilized animal, making it one of the
most incredible prehistoric discoveries to date.
5: Rare Roman Dagger An amateur archaeologist uncovered a rare
Roman dagger buried under nearly two feet of soil.
Experts say it was probably buried in the dirt as an offering to the gods.
The amateur archaeologist is actually a dental student named Lucas Schmid.
He made the discovery totally by chance, and it triggered a full-scale investigation by
the professionals.
They uncovered a few more artifacts, most of which point to a battle between Roman troops
and the local Raeti people.
Putting all the artifacts together, archaeologists believe they know which historical battle
this was.
It happened in the year 15 BC, when Emperor Augustus ordered the suppression and eradication
of the Raeti.
This was a confederation of tribes living in the Alpine region of Switzerland, Italy,
Germany, and Austria.
The Romans absolutely destroyed them on the battlefield, no contest.
It was popular back when the Romans squashed their enemy, to bury offerings in the blood-soaked
soil to their gods as thanks.
Archaeologists believe the silver and brass Roman dagger was buried on purpose by the
commanding legionnaire to give praise to the Roman god of war.
4: Water Vapor on Super Neptune Water vapor has been detected on a Super Neptune
planet.
That's a lot to unpack in just one sentence.
Let me back it up a bit.
A recently discovered planet, slightly larger than Neptune, is orbiting a red dwarf star
150 light-years away from us.
It's currently one of the only planets ever found that contains water vapor in its atmosphere.
The planet’s name is TOI-674 b, and its star is relatively cool and only about half
the size of our sun.
This is one of the reasons scientists are able to study it so well.
As the enormous planet crosses in front of its small star, starlight shines through its
atmosphere and illuminates it, making it visible via our telescopes here on Earth.
Astronomers can look at it in great detail with instruments called spectrographs.
This reveals gasses present in the planet's atmosphere, which is how scientists are able
to figure all this stuff out.
It was actually the famous Hubble Telescope that was able to measure the light spectrum
from this Super Neptune planet.
Astronomers then took the data and figured out that there’s actual water vapor in its
atmosphere.
What this means, however, is a little foggy.
We can't say for sure if it actually has liquid water on the surface, making it a hotbed for
life.
All we know is that there's water in the atmosphere - so the possibilities are potentially endless
until we learn more.
3: Hallucinogenic Booze Archaeologists made an incredible discovery
in Peru, in an ancient Wari outpost from 1100 years ago.
They found evidence of a hallucinogenic alcohol that may have been used in politics as a way
to help foster alliances.
The substance they discovered is called chicha, something you can still find in South America
today at just about any local bar.
But while today chicha is alcoholic and nothing more, it was once filled with hallucinogenic
drugs.
A new study says that the peaceful and easy feeling one gets when drinking chicha and
using hallucinogens was key to wielding political power along the coast.
For a bit of background, the Wari culture ruled most of the Peruvian coast and the southern
Andes starting in the year 600 and ending in the year 1000.
The elite members of society often hosted parties for the neighboring chiefs and rulers.
During these parties, copious amounts of chicha were consumed.
And while everybody already knew this, the new discovery at the outpost showed that there
was an extra punch in the punch bowl.
Archaeologists came across the preserved remains of food and drink at Quilcapampa.
The site was abandoned in the 9th century AD, and the residents left a lot behind.
Archaeologists found traces of potatoes, peanuts, quinoa, and fruits from the molle tree.
These fruits were used to make chicha with an alcohol content of only 5%.
But among the boiled fruits, archaeologists also found vilca seeds.
These seeds were used as hallucinogens in South America, but reserved for the political
elite.
According to National Geographic, this is all perfectly good evidence that the political
fat cats of the Wari were hosting parties with substances to try and befriend their
neighbors.
2: Chariot from Pompeii One of the most incredible archaeological
discoveries of 2021 happened in Italy.
Researchers found the remains of a perfectly preserved chariot once drawn by four horses
as part of elaborate ceremonies.
They found it in the destroyed city of Pompeii, brought to ruin 2000 years ago by a devastating
volcanic eruption.
The chariot, crafted of wood and tin, was probably used in processions at festivals
and for other ceremonial purposes.
But because of its amazing preservation, researchers were able to really recreate what it would
have looked like thousands of years ago.
For example, they could tell that it was painted black and red.
They even found traces of ropes that were once used in the horses’ harnesses.
It was still sitting in the portico in front of the stable when archaeologists identified
it.
They also came across the remains of three horses, with one still in its harness.
It looks as if somebody was gearing the chariot up for a quick escape when they were covered
in hot ash from the erupting volcano and killed.
1: A Bomb from World War 1 A grenade from the First World War was discovered
in a Bay Area home just a few weeks ago.
According to the Los Altos Police Department, a homeowner found the grenade sitting in their
elderly relative’s bedroom.
The homeowner was so shocked by the surprising discovery that they phoned the police, who
then brought in the bomb squad.
The bomb squad identified the weapon as a vintage grenade from the Great War and potentially
still dangerous.
Four neighboring homes had to be evacuated while the bomb squad detonated the thing in
the backyard.
Luckily, there was no damage and nobody was blown to pieces.
The strangest part about the discovery is that it was made at all.
You might expect a leftover grenade from World War Two sitting in a veteran’s closet, but
this thing was made sometime around 1915.
A spokesperson at the National World War One Museum and Memorial, Karis Erwin, said grenades
from that war were primarily manufactured in France, Germany, and the United States.
It's not that surprising to think that in a 200-year-old house, someone forgot a grenade
inside one of the walls or in a dusty old box underneath one of the beds.
What would you do if you found a World War 1 bomb in your bedroom?
Let me know in the comments and thanks a lot for watching.
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