Archaeologist may not be the most breathtaking profession, but it definitely has its exciting moments. Of course, not every day archaeologists find valuable mummies, but from time to time you can stumble upon something truly amazing, be it ancient computers, huge underground armies or mysterious remains. Here are 25 of the most astounding archaeological finds in human history.
1. Venetian vampire
Today, every student knows that in order to kill a vampire, you need to stick an aspen stake in his heart, but hundreds of years ago this was not considered the only method. Let me introduce you to the ancient alternative - a brick in your mouth. Think for yourself. What's the best way to get a vampire not to drink blood? Of course, fill his mouth with cement to waste. The skull you are looking at in this photo was found by archaeologists on the outskirts of Venice in a mass grave.
2. Children's dump
At the end of this post, you will probably understand that over a long history, people (at least in the past) have been supporters of cannibalism, sacrifice and torture. For example, not so long ago, several archaeologists were excavating the sewers under a Roman / Byzantine bath in Israel and came across something really terrifying … the bones of children. And there were a lot of them. For some reason, someone upstairs decided to dispose of many of the children's remains by simply throwing them down the drain.
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3. Sacrifices of the Aztecs
Although historians have long known that the Aztecs held many bloody festivals with sacrifices, in 2004 an eerie thing was found near the modern city of Mexico City - many dismembered and mutilated bodies of both humans and animals, shedding light on the terrible rituals that several hundreds of years ago.
4. Terracotta army
This huge terracotta army was buried along with the body of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Apparently, the soldiers were supposed to protect their earthly ruler in the afterlife.
5. Screaming mummies
Sometimes the Egyptians did not take into account the fact that if you do not tie the jaw to the skull, then in the end it will open as if a person was screaming before death. Although this phenomenon is observed in many mummies, it does not become less creepy from this. At times, archaeologists find mummies that seemed to really scream before dying for some (most likely not the most pleasant) reasons. In the photo there is a mummy, which was named "Unknown person E". It was discovered by Gaston Masparo in 1886.
6. The first leper
Leprosy (leprosy), also called Hansen's disease, is not contagious, but people who suffered from it often lived outside of society due to their outward deformity. Since, according to Hindu tradition, corpses are cremated, the skeleton in the photo, which is called the first leper, was buried outside the city.
7. Ancient chemical weapons
In 1933, archaeologist Robert do Mesnil do Beusson was excavating under the remains of an ancient Roman-Persian battlefield when he came across some siege tunnels dug under the city. In the tunnels, he found the bodies of 19 Roman soldiers who had died desperately trying to escape from something, as well as one Persian soldier clinging to his chest. Most likely, when the Romans heard that the Persians were digging a tunnel under their city, they decided to dig their own in order to counterattack them. The problem was that the Persians found out about this and set a trap. As soon as the Roman soldiers descended into the tunnel, they were greeted by burning sulfur and bitumen, and this infernal mixture is known to turn into poison in human lungs.
8. Rosetta stone
Discovered in 1799 by a French soldier digging in Egyptian sand, the Rosetta Stone has become one of the greatest archaeological finds to date and a major source of modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone is a fragment of a larger stone on which the decree of King Ptolemy V (about 200 BC) is written, translated into three languages - Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic writing and ancient Greek.
9. Balls Dikvis
They are also called Costa Rica stone balls. Scientists believe these petrospheres, the near-perfect spheres now found at the mouth of the Dikvis River, were carved around the turn of the millennium. But no one can say for sure what they were used for and for what purpose they were created. It can be assumed that these were symbols of heavenly bodies or designations of borders between the lands of different tribes. Parascientific authors often argue that these "ideal" spheres could not have been made by the hands of ancient people, and associate them with the activities of space aliens.
10. The Man from Groboll
Mummified bodies found in swamps are not uncommon in archeology, but this body, dubbed the Man of Groboll, is unique. Not only was he perfectly preserved with his hair and nails intact, scientists were also able to determine the cause of his death from finds collected on and around the body. Judging by the large wound on the neck from ear to ear, it looks like he was sacrificed to ask the gods for a good harvest.
11. Desert snakes
At the turn of the 20th century, pilots discovered a series of low stone walls in Israel's Negev desert, which have baffled scientists ever since. The walls could be over 64 km long, and they were nicknamed "kites" as they look very much like reptiles from the air. But recently, scientists have come to the conclusion that hunters used the walls to corral large animals into enclosures or throw them off rocks, where they could easily be killed several at a time.
12. Ancient Troy
Troy is a city well known for its history and legends (as well as valuable archaeological finds). It was located in the northwest of Anatolia in the territory of modern Turkey. In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert found a trench in a field he bought from a local farmer in Hisarlik, and in 1868 wealthy German businessman and archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann also began excavating in the area after meeting Calvert at Canakkale. As a result, they found the ruins of this ancient city, whose existence was considered a legend for many centuries.
13. Figures of Acambaro
This is a collection of over 33,000 miniature clay figurines that were discovered in 1945 in the ground near Acambaro, Mexico. The find includes many small figures that resemble both humans and dinosaurs. While most of the scientific community now agrees that these figurines were part of a sophisticated scam, their discovery made a splash at first.
14. Antikythera mechanism
Found in the wreckage of a ship off the Greek island of Antikythera at the turn of the 20th century. This 2000-year-old device is considered the world's first scientific calculator. Using dozens of gears, it can pinpoint the location of the sun, moon and planets by simply entering data. While controversy continues over its precise application, it definitely proves that even 2,000 years ago, civilization was already making huge strides towards mechanical engineering.
15. Rapa Nui
Known as Easter Island, this place is one of the most isolated places in the world. It is located thousands of kilometers from the Chilean coast. But the most amazing thing about this place is not even that people managed to get to it and live in it, but the fact that they managed to erect huge stone heads all over the island.
16. Tomb of the sunken skulls
While excavating a dry lake bed in Motal, Swedish archaeologists came across several skulls with sticks sticking out of them. But this, apparently, was not enough: in one skull, scientists found pieces of other skulls. Whatever happened to these people 8000 years ago, it was terrifying.
17. Map of Piri Reis
This map dates from the early 1500s. It shows the outlines of South America, Europe and Africa with amazing accuracy. Apparently, it was compiled by the general and cartographer Piri Reis (hence the name of the map) from fragments of dozens of other maps.
18. Geoglyphs of Nazca
For hundreds of years, these lines were practically under the feet of archaeologists, but they were only discovered in the early 1900s for the simple reason that they were impossible to see unless viewed from a bird's eye view. There were many explanations - from UFOs to a technically advanced civilization. The most plausible explanation is that the Nazcs were terrific land surveyors, although the reason why they painted such huge geoglyphs is still unknown.
19. The Dead Sea Scrolls
Like the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most important archaeological finds of the last century. They contain the earliest copies of the biblical texts (150 BC).
20. Mount Owen Moa
In 1986, the expedition was deepening deeper into the Mount Owen cave system in New Zealand, when it suddenly stumbled upon the huge part of the paw that you are now looking at. It is so well preserved that it seemed as if its owner had died quite recently. But later it turned out that the paw belonged to a moa - a huge prehistoric bird with an eerie set of sharp claws.
21. Voynich manuscript
It is called the most mysterious manuscript in the world. The manuscript was created in the early 15th century in Italy. Most of the pages are occupied by recipes for herbal infusions, but none of the plants presented coincides with those currently known, and the language in which the manuscript is written is generally impossible to decipher.
22. Göbekli Tepe
At first it seems that these are just stones, but in fact it is an ancient settlement, discovered in 1994. It was created about 9000 years ago, and now it is one of the oldest examples of complex and monumental architecture in the world, which appeared much earlier than the pyramids.
23. Sacsayhuaman
This walled complex outside the city of Cuzco in Peru is part of the so-called capital of the Inca empire. The most incredible thing is in the details of the construction of this wall. The stone slabs lie so tightly to each other that it is impossible to stick even a hair between them. This shows how accurate the architecture of the ancient Incas was.
24. Baghdad Battery
In the mid-1930s. Several simple-looking jugs were found near Baghdad, Iraq. Nobody attached much importance to them until the curator of the German museum published a document in which he stated that these jugs were used as galvanic cells, or, in simple terms, batteries. Although this opinion was criticized, even the Mythbusters got involved in the case and soon concluded that such a possibility existed.
25. Headless Vikings of Dorset
While laying the railroad to the English city of Dorset, the workers stumbled upon a small group of Vikings buried in the ground. They were all without heads. At first, archaeologists thought that perhaps some of the villagers had survived the Viking raids and decided to take revenge, but after careful analysis, everything became even more foggy and confusing. The decapitation looked too precise and neat, which means it was only done from behind. But scientists still cannot say with certainty what actually happened.