Mysterious excavations. The Most Unexplained Artifacts Ever Found

They write and talk about how one old nationalist, a proud warrior of resistance, who escaped languishing in the dungeons and the KGB treats with lead, for many years after the war watered the garden behind the hut with machine oil. Nothing edible grew in the garden, but a few buried machine guns, in theory, should have “survived”, without rusting, until better times - the sweet hour of retribution. Yes, that's not bad - the elderly revanchist himself did not live, having died in a terrible dream, where his house, his fortress, was surrounded by a dense ring of Chekists and demanded to hand over their weapons. A few more tens or maybe hundreds of years will pass, and the secret of the weapons garden will be revealed by archaeologists ...

People who, by the nature of their activities, dig into the layers of the past, often have to deal with not only amazing, but also terrible. On movie screens, before the eyes of spectators deprived of natural romance, mummies come to life and curses come true, old exaggerated myths are debunked and new ones are inflated. The earth conceals a lot - both in fantasy and in reality. Therefore, there is no place for the faint-hearted and suspicious in archeology. Because anything can happen...

1 Screaming Mummies

In 1886, the respected researcher of Egyptian antiquities, Gaston Maspero, was doing his usual business - extracting from luxurious sarcophagi, "unbinding" them and taking inventory - when he suddenly stumbled upon an unusually modest, obviously not royal burial, about which there was no information. . In addition, the body found in the box was wrapped in sheepskin, an unclean substance, according to the ancient Egyptians. The hands and feet of the mummy were bound, and on what was the face, a cry froze - obviously not enthusiastic, and, possibly, from pain:

The archaeologists named their find "Unknown Man E". Experts suggested that the deceased was either poisoned, or tortured, or even buried alive before his death. In the 20th century, this stupid terrible theory was debunked by the data of painstaking scientific research.

Everything turned out to be simple. The fact is that if the mummies forgot to tie their jaws during embalming, then with further decay of the tissues, their mouths opened. It happened that the strap from the jaw moved out. Current mummifiers take this into account in their work, and since the time of Maspero, several "screaming mummies" have been discovered by tomb raiders around the world.

At the same time, a reasonable explanation of the phenomenon of the "dead man's cry" does not make it funny and cute. They are creepy forever. And this, perhaps, is not bad - people need thrills.

2. Mass grave of headless Vikings

One day in 2010, yawning and thinking about a mug of beer and a sofa, citizen archaeologists were digging in the ground along an old road in the British county of Dorset. It was assumed that a couple of shards or even a piece of a plow would be dug, but fate prepared a surprise for the researchers.

The workers of the pick and brush revealed to the world the mass grave of 54 Viking warriors, who, pardon the tautology, were completely beheaded. That is, bones separately, skulls - separately.

Having studied the mass grave in more detail, the archaeologists found out something curious: those who were busy with the corpses of the Varangians after their death, dismembered the bodies and buried separately not only the heads, but also the legs with arms and torsos. In addition, the skulls were found much less than 54. Some kind of horror ...

The original theory was that the Vikings had taken over the village, misbehaved there, and so when retribution ensued, the locals took revenge on the dead by chopping them to pieces and dragging a few heads home as souvenirs. But scientists were alerted by the fact that all the heads were cut off in the same way - with a sword strike in the neck in front. It smacked of some cruel ritual, not panicky revenge, but cold-blooded reprisal. Probably public.

An unexpected archaeological discovery made it clear what the customs of the 8th and 9th centuries of our era were, when the Anglo-Saxons had to endure the regular predatory raids of the Scandinavians. It is possible that the fear of the robbers required the avengers to ritually dismember and sort the parts of their perishable bodies.

3. Don't be afraid, they don't bite. They just couldn't fly

It was in the Kaurangi National Park, on the South Island of New Zealand, whose nature is familiar to us from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. At the foot of the marble mountain Owen, in one of the karst caves, professional lovers of geological curiosities were gaining impressions, it was 1986.

In one of the claustrophobic stone corridors, explorers of the untrodden paths found something that made them remember footage from all the horror films they had seen over the years. The exciting find was a bunch of strange bones, sometimes covered with rough thick skin:

Visitors to the cave thought that they were dealing with some kind of guest from hell, who gave his soul to God or the devil recently. Therefore, the question was reasonably asked: are friends and relatives of an unknown monster wandering very close by in the dark galleries. Judging by the found skull and beak in addition, meeting with them alive did not promise anything pleasant for the little people.

The truth turned out to be not terrible - the researchers stumbled upon the remains of a very large moa bird, similar to an ostrich, in a cave 3000 years old. In the absence of obvious natural enemies, moas weighing up to 250 kilos could afford to lose even a hint of wings.

But three thousand years ago, the ancestors of the present Maori appeared on the islands of New Zealand - the natives of these distant lands. Moa meat was to the taste of the newcomers savages, and the last moa was eaten by the natives around 1500 AD.

123 years before the described discovery, moa bones were discovered in another New Zealand cave by a certain James Campbell. Until now, there is a hypothesis that somewhere in the now uninhabited areas of New Zealand, these birds could have survived. It happens. The search continues.

4. Sewers full of murdered babies

Another plot for a budget horror film matured in 1988 in Ashkelon, in southern Israel. Digging out an ancient Roman sewer, where water and sewage flowed from local thermae (baths) in ancient times, archaeologists found thousands of small human bones, apparently belonging to human babies.

It turned out that in an eerie place there was not quite an ordinary bath - an institution specially built for the mass extermination of newborn children. According to Roman law, up to 2 years old was considered the property of the father. If the Roman did not take the baby in his arms soon after birth, he made it clear that he did not need the child, and then the child could be put to death in accordance with the law. Only with the adoption of Christianity in Byzantium did infanticide come under a ban.

It is also possible that the bones from Ashkelon belong to the illegitimate children of local representatives of the most ancient professions. Numerous colleagues of Mary Magdalene in those years did not protect themselves, and it is believed that they culled all born boys and part of girls (those who were lucky to live, growing up, took over their mother's craft).

5. People from the swamp

Living in the north of Europe and working on peatlands is, frankly, an unenviable fate. Firstly, peat mining is considered one of the most dreary, depressing professions.

And secondly, peat workers regularly have to make unpleasant archaeological discoveries, bumping into such quivering shit:

However, this “shit” is scary only at first glance. Once it was a normal, mere mortal who one day gave up and was buried in a swampy area. In conditions of high acidity, low temperature and oxygen deficiency, the body of the deceased mummified and was too well preserved. Although it also happens that the so-called criminal corpses of past centuries are found in peat bogs. Such is the famous Tollund Man from Denmark, who was hung on a leather rope in the 4th century BC. It was discovered by dull peat miners in the summer of 1950. The internal organs of the ancestor sacrificed by someone are very well preserved, at the time of death the Tollund man was about 40 years old, and his last meal was porridge. The head of a creepy mummy is decorated with a leather cap:

Another ancient Dane with perfectly preserved hair was found in 1952 in a swamp near the town of Groboll. Judging by the cut throat, the poor fellow was killed and the corpse was thrown into the swamp, where he also "managed" to break his leg. There is a version that fellow villagers executed the Grobollsky man because ... that year there was a bad harvest.

Well, the severed skull of the so-called man from Osterby, found in a swamp near the German village of the same name, gives an idea of ​​what hairstyles were worn by elderly men in the ancient Germanic tribes who lived on the territory of Germany in the first millennium BC. This hairstyle is called the Swabian knot. The hair of the deceased was originally gray, and became red due to oxidation in a gloomy peat deep.

The profession of an archaeologist first of all requires iron nerves and endurance. Conducting research, scientists sometimes get out of the ground things from which the heart stops. In addition to ancient dishes, clothes and scriptures, they find the remains of animals and people. We offer you to learn about the most terrible archaeological excavations.

Screaming mummies

Egypt is full of mysteries and mysteries, many of which have already been solved. Studying the tombs, in 1886, the explorer Gaston Maspero came across an unusual mummy. Unlike the rest of the bodies found earlier, she was simply wrapped in sheepskin. And her face was twisted in a terrible grimace, while the terrible mummy had its mouth open. Scientists put forward different versions, among which was poisoning, the burial of an Egyptian alive. In fact, everything turned out to be quite simple. When wrapping the body, the mouth was also tied with a rope. Apparently, poor fastening led to the fact that the rope fell off, and the jaw, which was not held by anything, fell down. As a result, the body took on such an eerie appearance. And to this day, archaeologists find such mummies, which are still called screaming.

Headless vikings

In 2010, the list of the most terrible archaeological excavations was replenished by scientists who carried out work in the county of Dorset. The group hoped to find the household inventory of their ancestors, their clothes, work tools, in order to supplement the historical data on their way of life. But what they stumbled upon horrified them. Scientists have discovered the remains of human bodies, but without heads. The skulls were located near the grave. Having carefully studied them, archaeologists came to the conclusion that these are the remains of the Vikings. At the same time, there were not enough skulls. Therefore, we can conclude that the punishers took several heads as a trophy. The burial of 54 Vikings took place in the 8th-9th century.

unknown creature

Amateur scientists, walking through the National Park in New Zealand, stumbled upon a karst cave. Young archaeologists decided to visit her. Walking along the corridors of the cave, the group saw a skeleton that was well preserved, but was an eerie sight. A rather large body had rough skin, a beak, and huge claws. I don’t understand at all where this monster came from, the guys urgently left the cave. Further research showed that these were the remains of an ancient moa bird. Some scientists are sure that she still lives on the planet, just hiding from people.

crystal skull

Archaeologist Frederick Mitchell Hedges made a startling discovery while walking through the jungles of Belize. They found a skull made of rock crystal. The find by weight tightened by 5 kg. The tribes who lived nearby claim that the skull is the heritage of the Mayan tribe. In total, there are 13 of them scattered around the world, and the one who collects the entire collection will have access to the secrets of the universe. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but the mystery of the skull has not been revealed to this day. It is surprising that it is made using a technology that contradicts the chemical and physical laws known to mankind.

Here is such an amazing, unusual, and sometimes terrible world of archeology. There are still many discoveries and clues to unimaginable mysteries ahead of us.

The path to archaeologists is reserved for the faint of heart, since not only ancient shards and historical relics can be extracted from the bowels of the earth, but also human remains buried in a very eerie way, skeletons of archaic unknown animals and other horrors covered in the haze of centuries.

Scary human remains

Centuries and millennia have passed since the death of these people. What mysteries of the past are kept by their remains?

Screaming mummies

In 1886, the country of pyramids and pharaohs threw another riddle to historians. Egyptologist Gaston Maspero came across an unusual burial: it was very modest, which is not standard for luxurious Egyptian sarcophagi and burials - clearly not royal. wrapped in sheepskin. But the ancient Egyptians considered the sheepskin a symbol of vice. The mummy's limbs were bound, and her mouth was twisted in a scream.

Among archaeologists, this terrible find was called "Unknown Man E". Many experts put forward their opinions regarding the death of the deceased: poisoning, cruel torture, burial alive.

In the 20th century, a new generation of archaeologists dispelled the pessimistic guesses of their predecessors. After the "mummy of Maspero", several more "screaming" specimens were found in various tombs around the world. In the course of their research, it turned out that if, during mummification, the dead man’s jaw was not tied up, as required by the ritual, during the decay of tissues, the jaw opened and such a “mask of horror” froze on his face. It also happened that the strap or rope slipped off the jaw or broke.

Headless vikings

Another terrible find was made by archaeologists relatively recently, in 2010, at excavations in the British county of Dorset. The researchers planned to find ancient shards, plows and other inventory of ancestors. They were in for a surprise. Under a thick layer of soil, an ancient mass grave of the Vikings was discovered. All the warriors were beheaded, the skulls lay separately from the skeletons.

After a more detailed study of the burial, archaeologists found out another terrible detail - there were 54 bodies, but there were significantly fewer heads. Scientists have come to the conclusion that a public execution or a ritual of mass sacrifice took place here, since all the heads were disconnected from the body by a sword strike in the neck from the front. Apparently, several heads were captured by the killers as souvenirs.

Estimated date of burial: 8-9 century AD, the time when the Anglo-Saxons endured the piratical raids of the Scandinavians. Therefore, the option of exemplary reprisals against offenders is not ruled out, so that others would be discouraged.

Infant Cemetery

Literally, the plot for a horror film was thrown by history to archaeologists in 1988. During the excavation of an ancient sewer from the times of the Roman Empire near the Israeli city of Ashkelon, workers stumbled upon a whole cemetery of babies - thousands of small bones.

It turned out that in this place there was a special institution created for the extermination of objectionable babies. Roman law allowed to kill a child under 2 years old if the father did not recognize him, since before this age the baby was considered the property of the father. Among the killed babies could be illegitimate children of local prostitutes.

Boys born were the most unlucky - they were killed immediately. Girls, on the other hand, could expect a less cruel fate - they were left alive so that in the future they could join the ranks of representatives of the most ancient profession.

Strange finds

What unusual finds, besides human remains, does the earth hide? Let's find out.

unknown animal

In 1986, outdoor enthusiasts were gaining experience in Kaurangi National Park, New Zealand. Near the foot of Mount Owen, amateur explorers stumbled upon a karst cave, which they decided to visit.

In one of the winding corridors of the cave, the company stumbled upon a frightening find - a mountain of strange-looking bones, sometimes covered with thick skin. The travelers failed to determine the type of animal, therefore, feeling superstitious horror, the young people decided that it was some kind of inhabitant of hell that had escaped to earth to give up the spirit here.

The panic was in vain. Travelers stumbled upon the skeleton of an ancient moa bird, which has lain in a cave for no less than 3 thousand years and is surprisingly well preserved. Rumor has it that in the deserted areas of New Zealand, this bird can still exist.

crystal skull

In the middle of the 19th century, adventurers of the Old and New Worlds were eager to get an item created by the hands of the Indians of Central America - skulls made of pure crystal, made with naturalism surprising for primitive technologies. Nobody saw these skulls, but the press stubbornly stirred up interest.

In 1889, the British antiquarian Eugène Boban went to search for skulls in the jungles of Guatemala. And I found two!

40 years later, in the jungles of Belize (Central America), the fearless explorer Frederick Mitchell Hedges (by the way, it was he who became the prototype of Indiana Jones) found a quartz skull weighing 5 kilograms.

In 2007, the mysterious skulls were analyzed using UV light and a particle accelerator. The results stunned lovers of the unknown: the finds of both Boban and Hedges turned out to be a “remake”. The crystal was from Switzerland (in the second case from Germany), and traces of a milling machine were found on the surface.

Terrible finds of our time

Barrels with embryos

In 2012, in the Sverdlovsk region, near the village of Anik, local residents found four sealed plastic barrels in an overgrown ravine. Inside lay human embryos: 50 pieces of formalin-treated preparations with a tag on each.

The police officers who arrived at the scene combed the ravine and found about two hundred more embryos and 113 tags with the names of women in labor and the names of medical institutions. Before death, all embryos were at 22-26 weeks of development.

There were several versions of what kind of embryos were kept in barrels: carelessly disposed of abortive material, material for vaccines, or preparations for research. Their origin has never been determined. The police opened a criminal case on the fact of environmental pollution, as formalin from barrels got into the soil.

Bangkok find

In 2010, a case similar to Nevyansk occurred in Bangkok, Thailand. 348 human fetuses sealed in plastic bags were found in a Buddhist temple. The culprit was found - 33-year-old Lanchakon Chantamanath performed clandestine abortions on girls (abortions are prohibited by law in Thailand) and hid the aborted material in the temple.

Not only antiquities are creepy. The editors of the website site have compiled the top most terrible killers in modern history.
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Sometimes unusual artifacts found deep underground cast doubt on our usual hypotheses about the origin and development of human civilization.

Around such finds, heated debates flare up about their origin and purpose. Our selection includes: the most mysterious finds of archaeologists.

One of the most mysterious structures of antiquity was found in 1891, 30 km from the capital of Mongolia. The complex was built about 1300 years ago in the middle of a mountain lake. But archaeologists have no evidence that would explain the purpose of the "Clay House" or point to the civilization that built it.

9. Salzburg box

A metal object weighing 785 g was found in Austria in 1885 in a piece of coal, whose age ranges from 25 to 67 million years. The ideally correct shape does not allow us to assume that the parallelepiped is a fragment of a meteorite. Among fans of the theory of the extraterrestrial origin of mankind, the version about the alien nature of the find is the most popular.

8. Ural "spirals"

Spirals measuring 3 cm are made of an alloy of copper, tungsten and molybdenum. It is possible to manufacture such products only with a certain level of development of science and technology. At the same time, scientists estimate the age of the spirals at 300 thousand years.

7. Antikythera Mechanism

This artifact was discovered on the wreckage of a ship that sank off the coast of Greece. The age of the find is 2 thousand years. The mechanism contains 37 bronze gears enclosed in a wooden case with a dial. Most likely, the mechanism was intended to calculate the movement of celestial bodies. Analogs to the device simply did not exist in ancient culture.

6. Voynich Manuscript

The mysterious manuscript is written in a language unknown to mankind and indecipherable. The manuscript was discovered during the analysis of the rubble in the basement of one of the Italian monasteries. The parchment on which the text is applied dates back to the 15th century. The most famous cryptologists and riddle lovers are working on the decryption. But for now, the meaning of the Voynich manuscript remains a mystery.

5. Stone balls from Costa Rica

The purpose of these balls, made from igneous sedimentary rocks, remains a mystery. Perfectly shaped balls weigh up to 16 tons. Who, when and with the help of what technologies gave the blocks an ideal shape is unknown.

4. Baltic anomaly

A stone anomaly discovered in 2011 at the very bottom of the Baltic Sea, according to some scientists, may be the remains of an ancient spaceship that crashed. Although other scientists argue that the correct form of the anomaly may be the result of the movement of an ancient glacier.

3. Genetic disk

A disc with a diameter of 27 cm found in Colombia would be difficult to manufacture even with the use of modern technologies, since the lidite from which it is made has the highest strength and at the same time a layered structure. However, more scientists are amazed by the process of fertilization of the egg and the development of life depicted on the disc.

2. Figurine in a space suit

In an ancient Egyptian tomb in the area of ​​Tel El-Tabila, among the ritual figurines, one was found that does not resemble any of the previously found ones. The creature with the head of a lizard is dressed in a suit resembling a spacesuit.

1. Bas-reliefs in the Temple of Hathor (Lamp of Dendera)

In 1969, during excavations in Egypt, images were discovered that surprisingly resemble modern electric lamps. A number of enthusiastic scientists even reconstructed the mysterious lamps using modern technologies.