10. Sri Lanka’s Stargate
The sacred city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka is full of mystery. It was first occupied in 377 BC,
then turned into a major city complete with massive Buddhist temples. Among the Buddhist
temples, is something unusual, that hasn't been seen anywhere else in Sri Lanka or surrounding
countries of similar origin and culture. In this location alone there is a chart carved into the
rock that seems to hold secrets of the universe, a chart that some people say is a stargate.
The chart is hard to see now because it's so old, and because it wasn’t carved deep enough into the
rock face. But it clearly shows mysterious symbols that appear to be associated with the cosmos.
There is also a seating area carved out of rock in front of the chart, where people would have
presumably sat to stare at it. But historians, archaeologists, and academics have been hopeless
in identifying the marks on the map or figuring out why a seat had been carved in front of it.
The biggest problem is that the iconography of the chart is unlike anything else carved in the
city. There are strange circles, horizontal lines, and other bizarre shapes that kind of look like
umbrellas. Basically, the chart is completely out of place and doesn't make any kind of sense to us
right now. Some argue that it's as if it was carved by a completely different civilization,
but that doesn’t have to be the case. By far, the most bizarre theory is that
the stargate was a functional teleporter used by aliens to move from place to place on the planet,
especially since other similar carvings have been found as far away as Peru and Egypt.
9. The Sumerian King List Even after a century of research, the
Sumerian King List is still puzzling historians. The King List is one of the most incredible
artifacts ever recovered from Iraq, where the great cities of Sumer once controlled the world.
The list itself is an ancient manuscript written in the original Sumerian language,
listing all the kings that ever ruled Sumer. The reason the Sumerian King List is so mysterious
is that it not only lists historical kings, but also mythical rulers who aren't supposed to have
ever existed. Historians can't figure out where to draw the line between fantasy and reality.
And that's made it very difficult to properly document Sumer’s ancient past.
The first piece of the King’s List was found in the 1900s by the scholar Hermann Hilprecht at the
ancient site of Nippur. It dates back 4000 years. It's also not the only one. At least eight other
examples have been found since 1906, although most of them date from the Isin dynasty that
lasted from between 2017 and 1794 BC. To make matters more confusing, none of the ancient
documents are identical. Instead, they appear to show an ideal account of Sumerian history,
a kind of fanciful history similar to what we find in the stories written in the Bible. All
the fantasy has made it impossible to know which kings were real and which kings were simply myth.
8. Decapitated Romans A group of decapitated Roman
skeletons have been unearthed at three separate Roman cemeteries. The cemeteries were in the UK,
at a farm in Cambridgeshire. In total, 52 skeletons were found, all of them dating back
about 1700 years. So far as archaeologists have been able to put together, the skeletons were once
British Romans. This means they were technically born in Britain, but likely had Roman heritage.
In any case, 17 out of the 52 skeletons were decapitated. The mystery here is that
scientists can't quite figure out why some of them had their heads removed and others didn't.
To make matters even stranger, those who had been decapitated had their head placed at
their feet. And where their skull was supposed to be, a piece of pottery was placed instead.
The best guess archaeologists have right now is that the decapitated individuals were executed
for interfering with the Roman military. Because this particular farm was used as a supply center,
and because there were so many civil wars happening at the time, it would make sense
if there was some kind of rebellion here. The punishment for this sort of crime was definitely
death. It could be that the rebels were killed, decapitated, and then buried in the most shameful
way possible. If that's not the case, scientists don't know what happened to these poor people.
7. The Sword in the Monastery An archaeology student made probably
the most amazing find of her lifetime when she took notice of a sword at an Italian museum.
The museum is inside an ancient Venetian monastery, and the sword didn't seem to match
any of the other medieval artifacts on display. The student, Vittoria Dall’Armellina, demanded
that the sword be investigated, and this opened up an ancient mystery that still hasn't been solved.
The Venetian monastery is located on San Lazzaro degli Armeni, a small island in
Italy. Those at the monastery thought the sword was only a few hundred years old.
After actually dating the sword using scientific methods, it was determined to be over 5000 years
old. It's also been traced back to eastern Turkey, the same part of the world in which
swords were first invented, during the Bronze Age. But how the sword got from the birthplace of the
swordsmith to a random Italian monastery remains unknown. The monastery had been a congregation
for Armenian Catholic monks ever since 1717. The sword was a donation gift from an Armenian art
collector about 150 years ago. That art collector is obviously deceased now, and the only written
records pertaining to the sword say that it was found near a small Greek colony called Kavak,
located in eastern Turkey. No one knows who forged the sword, who owned the sword,
or how it survived for so long being passed between owners before arriving at the monastery.
Do you have any theories as to how this sword ended up at the monastery? Let me know in the
comments down below, and if you’re liking this video, be sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe
buttons if you haven’t already! :) 6. Works of the Old Men
Thousands of mysterious stone structures have been found throughout the Middle East,
referred to in archaeological circles as “the Works of the Old Men.” The stone structures
form geometric patterns, often in the shape of wheels. Some of them date over 8500 years,
making them older than most other geoglyphs in the world, even the legendary Nazca Lines in Peru.
The Works of the Old Men can be found scattered throughout the Azraq Oasis in Jordan,
and they seem to have some kind of astronomical significance. They may have been built to line
up directly with the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. But nobody really knows. The
structures were first seen by pilots flying with the Royal Air Force in World War One.
Mention of them first appeared in 1927 in the journal Antiquity. But even after all these years,
archaeologists are still a bit stumped. Not only are there geoglyphs in the shape of
wheels, but there are also shapes referred to as kites, which are stone structures that were built
to funnel and kill animals, and pendants, which are lines of stone cairns. There are the remains
of walls that don't seem to make any sense, lines of stone graves, and other mysterious structures
that can't even be identified. They are all across Arabia, from Syria to Jordan and all the way down
to Yemen. Some were even built as recently as 5500 years ago, meaning for at least 3000 years
the area was highly active. But why these geometric shapes were built and how the
ancient people could have possibly done it without having aerial capabilities is still a mystery.
5. The Maya Extinction One of the biggest mysteries
surrounding the Maya civilization is the fact that they seemingly evaporated into thin air,
seemingly overnight. Of course, it's not that simple. The decline was gradual, happening
over the span of a few decades. Even before the Spanish ever arrived in North America, the Maya
had pretty much vanished. There were still some of the Mayan people lingering, but their great cities
were abandoned and their society was in ruins. What we know today is that drought seriously
impacted Mayan civilization. There were five serious droughts throughout the history of
the Maya that didn't seem to bog them down too much. But then two devastating droughts in a
row happened right before their civilization fell apart. By the year 1150, the Mayans were gone. The
droughts that destroyed this once great culture went on from between 850 to 1000 AD. Over the
course of 150 years, they went from boom to bust. There are some theories. Some believe that the
Maya Kingdom was too densely populated. They weren't prepared for a dramatic and fundamental
change to the landscape. They had cities of over 100,000 people and had cut down forests
and manipulated wetlands to create more room for farming and urbanization. They accidentally
ruined their own agricultural success because of extensive deforestation. By the time these
droughts came along, the Maya had ruined their environment. What happened next was a complete
collapse of civilization, with not enough food to feed the bustling cities filled with people.
But of course, this is just a theory. Archaeologists and historians still can't
figure out why the people didn't eventually go back to the cities. They still don’t know exactly
what happened in Mexico and Guatemala over 1000 years ago, and can only make educated guesses
as to the fate of the Maya. 4. Iron Age Spinal Miracle
During the Iron Age, a man took an arrow to the spine. He survived long enough for his
bone to heal around the point of metal, when by all accounts, the horrific spinal injury
should have killed him. During what must have been a fierce battle, he was shot in the back,
and the bronze arrowhead lodged into one of his vertebrae. He also had fractured ribs,
but it’s unclear if he sustained both injuries at the same time. According to Svetlana Svyatko with
the Queen’s University Belfast, this individual was extremely lucky to survive. Normally,
a vertebral wound would damage the main blood vessels and result in an immediate death.
Other than the fact that this warrior was incredibly hardy and basically unkillable,
we don't know much more about him. He stood five feet and seven inches (173 cm), a considerable
giant for the Iron Age. The average height of a Scythian warrior was only five feet
and four inches. (164 cm) He was also buried in an impressive grave sometime around the 8th
century BC in central Kazakhstan. This was the part of Central Asia dominated by the Scythians,
powerful nomadic warriors, for hundreds of years until the 2nd century AD.
Sadly his grave had already been pillaged centuries ago. Archaeologists found nothing
except his body and some other mysterious scattered bones. No one knows who this formidable
and unkillable warrior once was. 3. Hannibal’s Elephants
Hannibal Barca was a Carthaginian general who fought against Rome during the second
Punic war. He was born in 247 BC and died in 182 BC. And ever since then, his name has been
associated with great military genius. His most notable achievement was in 218 BC when
he led 100,000 troops and 40 elephants through the Alps to fight the Romans. But to this day,
nobody has been able to figure out where he managed to pick up the famous 40 elephants.
Keep in mind that ancient Carthage is located in modern Tunisia, extremely far away from any
areas one might easily obtain elephants. So far as scientists are aware, there were only
two species of elephants alive back then, the Asian and the African, and he wasn't anywhere
close to where these elephants lived in the wild. Historians also aren’t sure which type of elephant
he had. All we know is that he had at least 40 of them! Some historians suggest he got
the elephants from a small forest near Morocco, and that they were a sub species that have since
gone extinct. These hypothetical elephants would have grown 8 feet tall (2.4 m) at the shoulders,
perfect for military action. But it’s honestly impossible at this point to say if these elephants
ever did truly exist. If they did, it's possible that the great general Hannibal Barca helped
hasten them along to extinction by taking them all with him through the Alps to battle the Romans.
2. The Tomb of Alexander We have been searching for the tomb of Alexander
the Great for hundreds of years. And while it's never been physically found, an Egyptian official
recently claimed that it’s located in Siwa, Egypt. The claim is a bit flimsy though, since it was
made by the director of Siwa’s Tourism Department, the one guy who would profit most from Alexander's
tomb being in his region. He says that between 1995 and 1996, archaeologists found a temple from
the Greco-Roman era that could contain the tomb. Unfortunately, the tomb hasn't actually been found
in the temple. Instead, the director is simply insinuating that it's hiding somewhere inside.
It's completely unverified, although definitely possible. Alexander the Great did visit the Siwa
Oasis while in Egypt, and the region is so secluded that it wouldn't be a big shock
if it contained a lost tomb. The Siwa Oasis is even home to the fabled oracle’s temple,
where Alexander was given confirmation by the oracle that he was indeed the son of Zeus.
1. Roanoke’s Lost Colony
In 1585, English settlers in the new world established a colony on the island of Roanoke
in what is now North Carolina. All 115 settlers then mysteriously disappeared.
To this day, archaeologists and historians have no idea what happened to them or why
they vanished. It's actually one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of America.
Archaeologist Martha Williams, along with others from the First Colony Foundation,
found physical evidence that may help finally solve the enduring mystery. They discovered a
secret message written on a very old map that seems to indicate the settlement split into
different camps and were then assimilated into the local indigenous populations.
Until now, most of the theories as to what happened to the colony have been pretty grim.
Some say the colonists were wiped out by Native Americans, that hostile Spaniards killed them all,
or that they were decimated by disease, famine, or even a deadly storm. But the information
discovered on the map, which is currently housed at the British Museum in London, shows that the
colonists may have actually separated and made two different forts away from the original settlement.
When archaeologists went to these locations to see if the forts really had been built, they
found several dozen shards of English pottery. This suggests that there were people living here.
However, they seem to have been incorporated by the local indigenous population, abandoning
their new forts and disappearing in history. Do you think we’ll ever discover the tomb of
Alexander the Great? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and thanks so much for watching.
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