This discovery of archaeologists surprised people around the world!
And right now they are talking about it online.
Archaeologists talked about new discoveries and in this video I will show you what I managed
to find unique and interesting from the ancient world! Hi, friend. You are on the KirTop channel.
Vatican Archives Another purple pigment damages scrolls all
over the world. But the ancient scribes themselves never added pigment, which over the years
"ate" the texts and destroyed the parchment. To get to the root of this problem, the researchers
studied a damaged book from the Vatican Secret Archives. This 5 meter high goatskin scroll was
a petition written in 1244 AD. Marginal notes have already disappeared under the purple color,
and some pages have become completely unreadable. Suspecting the presence of microbes,
the researchers took samples from the scroll for gene sequencing. Unlike the mysterious
"intruder" in Tutankhamun's tomb, this type of bacteria was able to be identified. However,
the fact that these were marine bacteria caused bewilderment, because the history of the scroll
was in no way connected with the ocean. But the damaged manuscripts had one thing in common - they
were made from animal skins. This turned out to be the key that helped to find the solution.
The skins were treated with sea salt, which was contaminated with marine organisms, including
those that produce a purple dye. Bacteria began to multiply in the goatskin when the temperature
and humidity were right. Today, the damage done to many manuscripts is irreparable, but researchers
continue to hope that one day they will be able to safely remove the remaining pigment.
What is encrypted on the Phaistos disc More than a century has passed since one of the
most mysterious and exciting artifacts in history was found during the excavations of the city of
Festus in Crete. The Phaistos disk is a round clay tablet, both sides of which are covered with
mysterious, strange symbols. This find has become one of the most interesting monuments of the
history and culture of the ancient Mediterranean. The archaeological artifact became the first known
surviving printed text. It was stamped on clay using miniature dies three thousand years before
the printing press was invented by Gutenberg. In total, 242 characters are printed on the
Phaistos disc. Each of them consists of more than forty dozens of different signs.
Some of them are understandable. They are a form of familiar objects, denoting, for example,
a boat, a bow, a shield, a helmet. All signs are arranged in a spiral and are divided into groups
by vertical lines. Each group contains from two to seven characters. Scientists think that these
are either individual syllables or whole words. Scientists have not come to a common conclusion
about the origin of the characters printed on the disk. Despite this,
quite a few facts still testify in favor of the version of the Cretan origin of writing,
which is used on the Phaistos disc. This is also evidenced by the origin of the clay from which the
disk is made. In addition, the symbols, or rather their prototypes, are taken from local realities.
In one of the caves in Crete, archaeologists discovered a copper ax that was the same age as
the Phaistos disc. On the subject were peculiar writings. These were characters from the disk
interspersed with linear writing, which was widespread in Crete at that time. That is,
in other words, the language in which the text of the Phaistos disc is printed is Minoan, not Greek.
The Phaistos disc is the clearest example of technological progress in ancient times,
which, for unknown reasons, did not receive any distribution in its era.
The riddle of the texts of the artifact will most likely never be solved. Only a discovery equal
in importance to the Rosetta stone can help. The principle of bilingualism was used there.
Thanks to this, Francois Champollion deciphered hitherto unknown Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is
possible that this principle was used when printing the text on the Phaistos disc.
Mummy of the boy-pharaoh Tut Many questions and oddities are
connected with the mummy of Tutankhamen. So, a lot of controversy was caused by the
cause of the death of the ruler. It was assumed that the pharaoh was hit
on the head with a blunt object. Then it turned out that the damage to the skull was received
after death. Genetic analysis showed that Tutankhamen was bitten by a malarial mosquito.
Therefore, scientists began to adhere to the version of death from malaria.
Mummies of two female embryos were found in the tomb with the pharaoh. Who it is is unknown.
But there is an assumption that the girls were the daughters of Tutankhamun, possibly twins.
They were either born prematurely, or they were specially removed from the mother's womb.
Dozens of mysterious giant jars At four sites in the Indian state of Assam,
archaeologists have found 65 giant stone jars of various sizes and shapes. The purpose of
the vessels is unknown, but scholars say they may have been used in ancient burial rites.
In Assam, such jugs have been known since 1929 and there are 797 of them. The current finds
were made when an archaeological expedition went to investigate three already known,
but remaining undescribed stone jugs and at the same time examined the surroundings.
The jars are made of sandstone. Although archaeologists have not yet dated the finds,
they note that similar jars discovered in the region date back to 401 BC.
or earlier. Some of the stone vessels reach three meters in height and two meters in diameter.
Scientists have previously found similar artifacts in Indonesia and Laos. The most famous Lao Valley
of pitchers in the province of Xiangkhouang. Exploration in the valley began in the 1930s.
Scientists then found evidence of cremation inside the stone vessels in the form of burnt teeth and
bone fragments. Therefore, they concluded that the vessels were used as funerary urns.
The theory was also put forward that the vessels served for the primary
burial of bodies, and when the flesh decomposed, the bones were buried in the ground. In 2016,
scientists found that some burials in the Valley of Pitchers were made about 2,500 years ago.
So far, no human remains or other contents have been found in Assamese stone jars. The
people of the Naga group living in Assam have legends that they used to find similar stone
vessels with cremated remains, beads and other material artifacts inside.
Researchers suspect that stone jar traditions in Assam and Laos are related.
Olmec heads in Mexico
The Olmecs were an advanced early Mesoamerican civilization that greatly influenced later
cultures such as the Aztecs and Maya. The Olmec culture flourished along the coast of present-day
Mexico from 200 to 400 BC. e. The Olmecs were extremely talented artists and sculptors,
after this civilization there were many statues, steles, masks, figurines, etc.
The most famous creation of the Olmecs are giant stone heads - at least seventeen monumental stone
sculptures in the form of human heads, which are carved from large basalt blocks. The age
of the stone heads dates back to at least 900 BC. Now there is a lot of controversy in scientific
circles regarding the origin of the sculptures, given the clearly African features of their faces.
"Zero day" of the ancient "computer"
Researchers at University College London (UCL), led by mechanical engineer Tony Frith,
have proposed a "day zero" date for the Antikythera mechanism. On December 23,
178 BC, a visible solar eclipse occurred - a rare phenomenon that was of great importance for
the priests of that period. In addition, the sun entered the constellation of Capricorn and there
was a day of the winter solstice, and on the same dates the religious holiday of Isia, associated
with lunar and solar eclipses, was celebrated. The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient device
that was used to track celestial bodies and astronomical events. Sponge divers discovered
this mechanism in 1900, on an ancient shipwreck off the coast of the island of Antikythera in
Greece. A year later, archaeologist Valerios Stais was examining what he thought was a
piece of rock found after a shipwreck and noticed that it had a gear built into it.
It turned out to be an ancient mechanical device. High-resolution x-ray tomography later showed that
it was an analog computer with 37 gears, of which 30 survived. Engravings showing the solar cycle
and constellations were engraved on its front surface, as well as
indicators of the positions of the Sun and Moon. Any measuring system, from a thermometer to an
Antikythera mechanism, needs to be calibrated in order to perform its calculations correctly.
Of course, the ancient mechanism was hardly perfect - it's not a digital computer,
but gears - but with its help it was very good to predict solar and lunar eclipses.
Ancient leather shoe On one of the mountain passes,
while exploring the Hestfonni ice spot, archaeologists from Norway discovered many
artifacts, among which is an ancient leather shoe. The researchers found that many factors
indicate the presence of horses in the territory of the finds. It is
assumed that the ancient local pastoralists used this pass during seasonal movements.
This is confirmed by three ancient paths found by archaeologists. Surprisingly, the paths of
the ancestors are marked with stone markers. Also found in the research area were several
horseshoes, one of which turned out to be about 700 years old,
as well as an ancient leather shoe dating from approximately the 3rd to 4th centuries AD.
Scientists have also found the remains of a stone shelter, tools for hunting deer,
as well as parts of a bow and arrow. It is noted that all the finds were recorded gradually,
as the process of glacier melting took place. Who knows what secrets are hidden in the ice blocks?
Broken nose of ancient statues The most common question asked
by visitors of Egyptian halls in museums around the world is why do statues have broken noses?
It may seem inevitable that as the millennia pass, an ancient artifact will show signs
of damage. But careful observation reveals a widespread pattern of deliberate destruction.
For as it turns out, there is a complex set of reasons why most Egyptian art was damaged.
There were many political, religious, personal and criminal motives for acts of vandalism.
So, the difference between accidental damage and deliberate vandalism is quite definable.
It is important to note that the ancient Egyptians attributed important abilities to depictions of
the human form. They believed that the essence of a deity could dwell in the image of that deity,
or, in the case of mere mortals, a part of the essence of that deceased person
could dwell in a statue depicting him. The damaged body part can no longer do its
job. Without the nose, the spirit of the statue stops breathing, so this effectively "kills" it.
In the era of the pharaohs, there was a clear understanding of what sculpture was supposed
to "do". Even if the petty tomb robber was mainly interested in stealing precious objects,
he was also concerned that the deceased might take revenge if his image was not mutilated, "killed".
The destruction of statue noses on a large scale was primarily political. Defacing statues helped
ambitious rulers rewrite history in their favor. The purposeful precision of the chisels suggests
that the vandals were skilled workers trained and hired for this very purpose.
The understanding of statues and reliefs has changed over time as cultural mores
have changed. During the early Christian period in Egypt, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD,
the local gods who "inhabited the sculptures" were feared as pagan "demons". Statues - were
attacked: their noses and mouths were beaten off in order to "neutralize".
Yes, religion was new, but the fears and methods of "struggle" were old...
A symbol of these fears and a demonstration of these methods is the Great Sphinx at Giza, the
face of which the "successors" of the Christians, the Muslims, disfigured by depriving the nose.
Ancient Goddess Statue In Croatia,
archaeologists have unearthed a damaged statue, believed to be the goddess Venus,
dating from the 2nd century. She was taken to the Museum of the Motherland in Biograd,
where the statue of a Roman naked girl, discovered in Zadar, will be preserved and studied in detail.
So, the statue is large, about 180 cm in height, but only a part of the statue has survived - from
knees to waist. The pose of the girl resembles the headless and armless statue of Venus the Conqueror
with Erot, which is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Split. The statue of Venus,
discovered in the 18th century in the palace of the emperor Diocletian in Solin, also has its
right knee bent and its leg slightly forward. Zadar, where part of the statue of a naked girl
was found, was a prosperous city during the era of the Roman Empire. She was found in the
ruins of a local luxury villa. Researchers believe that one of the wealthy residents
of the city could live in this house. It is possible that this statue adorned the atrium
of the villa. Archaeologists have discovered that the floor of the house was made of marble,
approximately 260 sq. m area. The walls of the villa are also lined with gray marble.
The first navigation charts in the world
We are all used to the fact that modern maps are always at our fingertips - literally! We also
remember the paper maps we used before everyone had smartphones. And, of course, in the movies we
have seen what ancient paper maps look like. But the first map appeared long before the
advent of paper - and the idea of ​​​​the world was not at all the one we are used to.
The oldest navigation map, the riddle of which scientists still cannot solve.
This find was made at the end of the 19th century during excavations in ancient Mesopotamia. Then
several thousand clay tablets were discovered, and this find became a sensation. They are well
enough preserved for scientists to study the inscriptions on them - and yet they date back
to the 6th century BC. The tablets contain a huge amount of information important for history - and
this discovery allowed scientists to fill in the gaps in the history of the ancient world.
Then Babylon was at the peak of its heyday, so such finds are extremely valuable for historians.
But among all the tablets, scientists have singled out only one - it shows a map of the ancient
world. Many scientists involved in the decoding talked about what exactly was written on the
tablet. The uniqueness of the found map is that it shows the entire territory that was familiar to
ancient people, and not a map of the area. We can look at how ancient people imagined the world and
what places they knew. The drawing of the map is a circle that denotes the earth, and around it - the
water. Small circles probably depicted cities, and triangles - mountains. There are also names of
places on the map, which, of course, are different from those we know. For example, the World Ocean
is called “bitter waters” here, and the place that is called “swamp” is most likely the mouth
of the Shatt al-Arab River. The ancient people who created this map assumed that the earth consists
of four endless coasts of the earth. Of course, there were inaccuracies in the map, but the very
fact that a map of the world appeared long before our era is amazing. By the way, the map itself
says that it was a copy of an even more ancient map, which dates back to the 9th century BC.
The reverse side of the tablet raises many questions, the answers to which scientists have
not yet found. This side lists all the animals that ancient people knew, but only two species
of them lived in this territory. Also on this side is the myth of how Marduk, the chief god,
cast down all the others into the underworld. It also describes the reign of King Sargon I.
This map has become a cultural heritage of the whole world, and it is difficult to overestimate
its contribution to the restoration of ancient history. All clay tablets are still being studied
by scientists who are trying to unravel their meaning and translate the inscriptions completely.
Great-great-grandson of the legendary Indian chief Paleogeneticists in the United States have
extracted DNA from the scalp of leader Sitting Bull, who lived in the 19th century,
and confirmed that the American Ernie Lapointe is the great-great-grandson
of one of the most famous Indians. According to one of the authors of the study,
Professor Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge,
scientists were able to extract a fairly large amount of genetic material from Sitting Bull's
hair and compare it with samples of the genomes of modern representatives of the Sioux Indians.
Sitting Bull was one of the iconic figures in the history of the confrontation between the North
American Indians and the United States. He was one of the leaders of the Sioux tribal alliance in the
early 1860s and inflicted a number of defeats on the regular army and volunteer units of the United
States. Sitting Bull won his biggest victory in 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn,
defeating the army of General George Custer. Historians do not have exact data on the resting
place of the Sitting Bull, who was killed in 1890, and the family ties of the leader
with the descendants were also unknown. Despite the difficulties associated with
extracting DNA from the hair, scientists were able to decipher 0.8% of the genome
of the legendary Indian chief and confirm that Ernie Lapointe is indeed Sitting Bull's maternal
great-great-grandson. Researchers hope to find other descendants of the leader in the future,
as well as pinpoint the location of his remains. Share this video with your friends and leave
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