There are professions, the mere mention of which scares people. For example, morgue workers or, say, crime scene cleaners. The profession of a gravedigger also causes nervous tremors in many. Against the background of all this, the work of an archaeologist seems pretty enough, but do not forget that archaeologists are, in fact, the same gravediggers, and some of their historical discoveries then do not allow people to sleep overly emotional for a long time.
Cursed Carthage
The Roman commander and statesman Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, an implacable enemy of Carthage, ended all his speeches in the Senate with the phrase: "Besides, I think Carthage must be destroyed." The pacifists and people who have little idea of where the notorious Carthage is at all, and who lived in it, of course, opposed such a statement. We, too, used to think that Marcus Porcius was too excited, for Carthage had every right to exist. And many archaeologists thought so until they stumbled upon the memoirs of the ancient Roman historian Diodorus. This Dio-Dor, without any emotion or condemnation, told that there was a bronze statue of the god Kronos in Carthage. God was carved as seated on a throne, his arms extended forward and his palms open wide. It would seem, and what's wrong with that? “On these open palms,” continues Diodorus,- the Carthaginians put living children, who from these bronze palms, as sacrifices to the gods, gently rolled into a special pit with a fire lit in it. Many wealthy Carthaginians, when they wanted to make a sacrifice and in exchange for something there, beg for themselves, bought children from the poor or from thieves who specialized in kidnapping babies, slightly raised their children and sent them to Kronos.
The descendants of the Carthaginians in every possible way denied the existence of such a practice, since they were ashamed to admit that the enlightened citizens of the richest city at that time engaged in such lewdness. But not so long ago, archaeologists discovered tofets and the descendants shyly fell silent.
What are tofets? These are small urns with charred baby bones on the inside and a standard thank you note to Kronos on the outside. No information about the ruined child was written on the urn. In the same urns and with the same inscriptions, bones of burned animals were found, which were sacrificed in the same way.
Vampire Lugnano
Promotional video:
Excavations in Umbria (Italy) continue the sad "childish" theme. There, archaeologists investigated the ancient cemetery, which was called "Children's". But it was not the name that scared the archaeologists, but just one find - the remains of a ten-year-old boy, buried in the way vampires were usually buried - with a stone thrust into his mouth, smeared for fidelity with something similar to cement so that even a "revived" vampire could not spit out a stone and bite someone. Locals nicknamed the find "the vampire Lugnano", but who and when was bitten by this young vampire is unknown. Scientists have only found out that this burial is about 1500 years old.
New Guinea daggers
In New Guinea, especially in ancient times, weapons were difficult. Therefore, the Guineans used everything that did not come to hand as devices for sending enemies to heaven. Sometimes the bones of the same enemies, only sent to heaven a little earlier, came across. Poking the enemy with a sharply sharpened bone, the Guinean soldiers realized that it, the bone, is a very good weapon - light, durable, and, if properly sharpened, deadly.
Soon it was decided not to use the bones of enemies to make daggers. But to have a dagger carved from the tibia of your notoriously brave military leader is fashionable, stylish and prestigious. Of course, the chief by that time had to fall in battle, having previously bequeathed his skeleton for posthumous manipulations.
In addition to human bones, the bones of huge flightless cassowary birds were also used to make weapons. But human bones turned out to be much stronger and more durable.
The topic of knives from human bones is continued, and, more correctly, the Neanderthals begin. Recent excavations in the Goye Caves in Belgium and Mula Guersey in France have shown that 40 thousand years ago, Neanderthals not only made weapons from the remains of their enemies, but also "dabbled" in cannibalism.
Horror Sandby Borg
Sandby Borg is the name of a settlement on the Swedish island of Oland. More precisely, it was called. Once upon a time, 1500 years ago, there was a fort - 53 houses, surrounded by a high embankment. In 2010, archaeologists began excavating at Sandby Borg and immediately stumbled upon gruesome evidence of a long-standing tragedy.
Most likely, the village was attacked. Who and when is unknown, but all the inhabitants of the village, young and old, were killed. The dead were not buried - they remained rotting in the streets. Some of the bodies appear to have been partially burned. Some of the killers were openly mocked. For example, archaeologists have found a skull filled with sheep's teeth.
Further excavations showed that the attack was not sudden - the residents, albeit at the very least, managed to hide some of their savings. They hid treasures in a hurry, carelessly, literally on the surface. But for some reason the attackers did not take anything. As if the killers' goal was only to physically destroy the inhabitants of Sandby Borg.
There are no written sources about what happened here. An unwritten law prohibits local residents from settling on the territory of Sandby Borg and generally recommends avoiding this place.
Sunken submarine
More recent finds, which at a stretch, but can still be called archaeological, keep their terrible secrets. An example is the Hunley submarine, which is considered the world's first submarine to attack and sink an enemy ship.
This happened in 1864 during the American Civil War. The Hunley submarine belonged to the Southerners. Her crew attacked the ship of the northerners, sank it, after which the boat went home and went missing.
It was only in 2000 that the remains of the Hunley could be found and investigated. When the searchers got inside the submarine, they were horrified to find that all the sailors, more precisely, their remains, were at their workplaces, the rescue mechanism, including an emergency ascent and an SOS signal, was not activated. That is, something instantly killed all the crew members of the submarine, leaving them no chance.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №48. Author: Igor Saveliev