People's penchant for writing down what happens to them has resulted in countless documents being preserved. Today, you can see centuries-old secret codes and oaths, unique manuscripts and caves, on the walls of which are left what people feared hundreds of thousands of years ago. And obsessed with such ancient texts, scientists study dead languages to learn about the amazing things that happened long ago.
1. The oldest description of the case when a person was near death
In 1740, a French physician named Pierre-Jean du Monchaux described a curious case. The patient, who lost consciousness after bloodletting, woke up and said that he saw a light so pure and white that the person was convinced that he “stood with one foot” on the threshold of heaven. This case was included in the doctor's book "Medical Curiosities". It might have gone unnoticed were it not for the French doctor Philippe Charlier, who recently accidentally found this book in an antique shop and bought it for less than $ 1.
The oldest medical chronicles.
When Charlier read about the case, he realized that it was the world's oldest description of a near-death experience. At the time, people relied heavily on religion to explain such things, but Pierre-Jean du Monchaux took a very professional approach. He suggested that too much blood had entered the patient's brain or that a hemorrhage had occurred. Monshaud's estimate is almost in line with modern explanations. Researchers today believe that a lack of blood flow and oxygen in the brain causes a near-death experience.
2. Mysterious Devourer
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In 2017, archaeologists excavating a temple-like building in the ruins of the ancient city of Samal (near Zenjirli in Turkey) found a stone vessel in which cosmetics were originally stored, but then used to record some kind of spell. A story was carved into the surface of the vessel, describing how the “devourer” was caught, who was said to have spawned “fire” on its victims. The only way a person could be cured was to use the devourer's own blood.
A mysterious devourer.
The spell did not specify how the creature's blood should be injected. The illustrations show that it was a centipede or a scorpion. "Fire" was interpreted as a painful bite. The author was a wizard named Raheem, who carved this Aramaic text on a vessel 2,800 years ago (that is, it is the oldest Aramaic spell ever found). Archaeologists believe that the spell was considered important enough to preserve it after the life of the magician, because by the time the temple was built, he was already over a hundred years old.
3. Dirty jokes in the bathroom
Antique bathrooms with floor mosaics are quite rare. When one of them was found in 2018 in the ancient Turkish city of Antioch ad Kragum, it was cause for celebration. However, the images were not pretty legends or geometric designs.
Dirty jokes were written on the tiny tiles. When Roman men visited the restroom around 1800 years ago, they laughed at the antics of Narcissus and Ganymede. Both men were mythical characters. Narcissus was in love with his own reflection, and Ganymede was kidnapped by the god Zeus as a slave and also because of a passion for him. In the mosaic, these stories have been distorted.
Narcissus got an ugly nose, and instead of admiring his own reflection, he was fixated on his genitals. The Ganymede scene was sketched in even more detail. He cleaned his intimate areas with a sponge, which the Romans usually used to clean toilets, and this sponge featured Zeus. The unusual topic stunned archaeologists, but at least proved that “dirty” humor is nothing new.
4. Signs of Cresswell
On the border of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in England, there is the Cruswell Crags limestone gorge, which is of great historical value. In addition to having found ancient remains in the past, Cresswell is also home to the only example of Ice Age art in Britain. After many years of exploration, the caves managed to present a big surprise in 2019. The tourist group stumbled upon the largest collection of apotrophetic signs in the country.
The engravings on the walls had nothing to do with the images of the Ice Age. The latter were thousands of years older, while the new finds are relatively "fresh" - from medieval times to the 19th century. Historians have recognized several symbols. They were also called witch signs and were designed to protect people from supernatural evil. All the ceilings and walls of the caves were dotted with symbols, which testifies to the fear of the locals before the unknown.
5. Nag Hammadi Library
About 1400 years ago, a vessel containing 13 codices was buried in Egypt, which was rediscovered in 1945 near the city of Nag Hammadi. The scrolls contained Gnostic records of Jesus. Christians generally regard the Gnostic teachings (an early mystical branch of Christianity) as heretical. Most of the codes were traditionally written in Coptic, which has been spoken in Egypt for centuries. In 2017, researchers in Texas found that one codex was different because it was written in Greek. This work, titled "The First Apocryphal of Jacob," had never been found in ancient Greek before.
It recounted a conversation between Jesus and Jacob regarding how the teaching would continue after Jesus' death. Another feature that made this scroll stand out was the small dots dividing the text into syllables. This rare technique is known from instructional texts, which stated that the writer used the heretical gospel to teach Greek to students.
6. Unique palimpsest
Centuries ago, manuscripts were very expensive. Sometimes text was removed from the surface of an old manuscript and then used to record new information. These revised documents are known as palimpsests. In 2018, Dr. Eleanor Sellard examined fragments of the Qur'anic manuscripts. She noticed the outline of the letters behind the eighth-century Arabic text and determined that they were several Bible passages. Written in Coptic, they belonged to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.
Unique palimpsest.
The find was very unusual. Palimpsests with the Koran are rare enough, but never before has a Christian document been erased to make room for the Islamic holy book. Unfortunately, due to the fragility of the manuscript, it could not be subjected to radiocarbon analysis. But even if the document were strong enough, this technique can only date the paper, not the inscriptions on it. Only the writing style was the only clue - the original Coptic was not used until the seventh century. Despite the dating problem, the palimpsest remains invaluable due to its uniqueness.
7. The earliest record of Algol
The Algol star is actually triple. Officially discovered in 1669, the three suns move around each other, causing the "star" to dim and glow more intensely. The papyrus studied in 2015 suggested that Algol was discovered much earlier - even by the ancient Egyptians. Called the Cairo calendar, this document described each day of the year, marking auspicious dates for ceremonies, forecasts, warnings, and even the actions of the gods. Previously, researchers suspected that the ancient calendar had a connection with the heavens, but they never had proof of this. The study showed that the "positive" days of the calendar corresponded to the brightest days of Algol as well as the days of the moon.
The earliest record of Algol.
The appearances of one deity, Horus, also corresponded to the 2867-day cycle of the star system. This strongly suggests that the ancient Egyptians were the first to observe Algol around 3,200 years ago. Even more remarkable, they did it without a telescope, even though the system is nearly 92.25 light-years from Earth.
8. Unique vows of the ninja
In Japan, for the last half century, rumors have circulated about the discovery of written ninja vows. If this is true, then this would be an invaluable "historical diamond". Unlike ninja movies, real saboteurs usually conducted covert operations to gather intelligence and rarely used weapons. Most of their traditions and learning characteristics were passed down orally from master to student. Never before have they found written documents, and even more so, oaths. In 2018, the invaluable document finally surfaced. It was donated to the museum by the Kizu family, once a ninja clan from the city of Iga.
The donated treasure consisted of 130 ancient documents, but the oath was the most remarkable. It was written by a man named Inosuke Kizu, who thanked his masters for teaching ninjutsu and vowed never to reveal secret knowledge, even to his close relatives. The 300-year-old documents also provided for punishment for exposing ninja techniques to outsiders. The author admitted that his betrayal would cause his descendants to be tortured by the gods for generations. The letter was probably passed on to his masters and returned to the Kizu family after his death.
9. Ferdinand's code
To protect military information from his enemies, King Ferdinand of Spain recorded it in a secret code. As a result, his cipher turned out to be too effective, and the correspondence between the king and a commander named Gonzalo de Cordoba remained undeciphered for 500 years. Ferdinand sponsored Christopher Columbus's expeditions to America and fought several enemies.
Ferdinand's code.
He conquered Spain from the Moors in 1492 and fought with France for the Mediterranean. Since the letters could contain invaluable information about Ferdinand's military campaigns, the Spanish special services were involved in the decryption. Ferdinand's alphabet consisted of 88 symbols, 237 letters and six accompanying symbols (such as numbers and triangles), which made the meaning of each letter more complex. In addition, the text of the "language" ran continuously and the words were not separated by spaces. In 2018, six months later, the agency was able to decipher enough code to read four snippets of correspondence. Many details have become known, from instructions for deploying troops in Italy to scolding the commander for making decisions without Ferdinand's approval.
10. Extinct language
The Cambridge scientist was so obsessed with Ancient Babylon that he decided to learn the language of this state, and he wanted not just to read it, but to speak it correctly. Babylonian disappeared at the time Jesus was born. Almost 2000 years of oblivion did not stop Dr. Martin Worthington, who already spoke Sumerian, Assyrian, English, Italian and French. For over 20 years he studied ancient writings and compiled a unique research archive.
After collecting correspondence, treaties, letters and scholarly reports written in Babylonian, Worthington reached the point where he could speak Old Babylon. He was the first to admit that the project was not perfect.
Although he could make speeches in the lost language, he was never able to speak fluently. Worthington now teaches the language to Assyrian students, mainly to bring them closer to the ancient world they have chosen to study. Interestingly, the ancient Babylonians would have been able to understand modern speakers because this language shares similarities with Hebrew and Arabic, which succeeded Babylonian as the dominant language in the Middle East.
