These mysterious finds of archaeologists, many of which were discovered quite a long time ago, to this day cause amazement among those who see them and read about them. Some of them are interesting and attractive, others are really terrible. However, all of them attract the attention of not only scientists, but also ordinary people, excite the imagination and serve as the subject of fierce debate in scientific circles.
Discovery of the century: Rosetta stone and its decoding
Many of archaeologists' most incredible finds were made entirely by accident, such as the Rosetta Stone found in 1799 near Rosetta, Egypt. On this granodiorite slab, the same text was carved in three languages. This find of the archaeologist, the photo of which can be seen below, gave a clue to the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. They were read due to the fact that the ancient Greek language at that time was already well studied, and the ancient Egyptian demotic script was in the process ofstudying and deciphering.
The discoverer of the Rosetta Stone, Pierre-Francois Bouchard, captain of the French troops, has gone down in history forever.
Qumran Manuscripts
The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran manuscripts, which have been consistently found since 1947 in the ancient Israeli fortress of Masada and the caves of the Judean Desert, can be fully attributed to the most significant finds of archaeologists. These ancient documents, including biblical books and apocrypha, are written on parchment. They were collected, translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and subsequently published in French and English with a preface, translation and transcription, notes, photographs and commentary. The publication contains 40 volumes.
The value of this discovery by archaeologists is that thanks to it, the existing historical knowledge was significantly expanded and supplemented. This, in turn, helped to better understand some of the details of the books of the Old Testament.
Classified Archaeological Finds: Antikythera Mechanism
It is believed that some of the archaeological discoveries have long been classified. But it's not. They just didn't matter much. This happened, for example, with one strange find by archaeologists, which later received the name of the Antikythera mechanism.
Discovered aboard an ancient ship in 1900 and brought to the surface in 1901,it has been studied sporadically for many years. The start of real research on the mysterious subject was given only in 1951. A description of its mechanism was published in 1959 by Derek John de Solla Price, a British historian. A detailed diagram was presented in 1971.
The purpose of the mysterious device
With the help of a system of gears and several dials, the user of the Antikythera mechanism could simulate the movement of the Moon and the Sun relative to the fixed stars, display the change of days and signs of the zodiac. It was also possible to calculate the difference between the positions of the Moon and the Sun, corresponding to the lunar phases, the cycle of solar and lunar eclipses. Thus, the device turned out to be much more complex than the astrolabe it was originally thought to be.
It was previously believed that the differential gear, which was the basis of the device, was not invented earlier than the 16th century, but it was present in the description of J. Price. This is another reason why so much attention was riveted to this for the time being inexplicable find of archaeologists, although later the scientist's assumption was refuted.
Geoglyphs in the Nazca desert
Another archeological find that was first discovered in 1939… from an airplane! Otherwise, it would probably be very difficult to find these mysterious signs. It was the development of aviation that made this ancient, primitive find possible in the 20th century. The archaeologist who discovered it was the American Paul Kosok. Since 1941, the study of mysterious drawings by Maria Reiche, a doctor of archeology from Germany, began.
Drawings-symbols on the plateauNazca are distinguished by their huge size, schematic and perfectly straight lines. They were applied to the surface with the help of deep furrows - trenches with a depth of 35-40 centimeters. How their creators (presumably from the Nazca civilization) did this remains a mystery.
Since most of the so-called geoglyphs, giant images, are indistinguishable from the ground, scientists logically assumed that they were created for those who could see them from the sky - deities or, perhaps, pilots of alien ships. Many people believe that this is direct evidence of alien civilizations visiting the Earth in ancient times - therefore, as if, this find of archaeologists is classified, and mere mortals will never know the details.
There was also an assumption about the astronomical significance of the drawings, among which there are many geometric figures - spirals, trapezoids, triangles. So, Dr. F. Pitlugi from the Chicago Planetarium, having analyzed them, suggested that one of the geoglyphs - the image of a spider - corresponds to the constellation Orion. Maria Reiche also believed that the purpose of these lines is rather astronomical (astrological). At the same time, other scientists who compared petroglyphs with the picture of the starry sky found very few matches. However, it must be borne in mind that the map of the starry sky over several millennia could change significantly.
Besides, even today there is no complete image map. Only the most famous of them are analyzed - a spider, a flower,a monkey, a humanoid figure, a bird, etc. So, perhaps, scientists are waiting for new discoveries.
The most terrible finds of archaeologists. Traces of ritual sacrifices
Archaeological finds that horrify and disgust any normal person are usually associated with human sacrifice. In ancient times, as you know, this practice was customary. Among the most terrible are the ruins of Simao in China, the temple of the Moon of the Moche civilization in Peru, and, of course, the Egyptian pyramids, in which not only the pharaohs and their families were buried, but also their numerous servants, and even animals.
The ruins of the ancient Chinese city of Simao, where 80 female skulls were found, were discovered in 1976. It is the largest Neolithic settlement in China. According to archaeologists, this find is more than 4000 years old. Presumably, young women and girls were ritually killed and sacrificed in honor of the founding of the city. Three centuries after its founding, the city was abandoned. During this time, the Xia Dynasty ruled China. It is noteworthy that archaeologists did not find any torsos, limbs, or other bones - only the skulls of the victims.
The Temple of the Moon, or Lunar Pyramid, located on the territory of modern Peru, along with the Temple of the Sun, belonged to the now extinct Moche culture (100-800 AD). These are the two tallest structures erected in South America by ancient civilizations. It had walls richly decorated with paintings (5 colors - black, blue, brown, white, red) and consisted of five temples built one above the other. courtyard, byaccording to scientists, was intended for the preparation of sacrifices. However, only a select few, priests and high officials, could watch them. More than 70 human remains were found during excavations.
Swamp Mummies
Good material for archaeological research - the so-called swamp people. These archaeological finds may seem rather scary and unpleasant to the unaccustomed eye. However, for archaeologists, this is a real treasure. Due to natural mummification, the remains of people found in the bog of the peat bogs of Europe are often well preserved and have intact skin and internal organs. These people lived 2500-8000 years ago. At the disposal of scientists were clothes and preserved hair, so that the appearance of the ancient Europeans could be recreated with sufficient certainty. They were usually named after the area where they were found.
Of such finds, the most famous are the woman from Kölbjerg - the oldest mummy, which is 8000 years old, the woman from Elling with a well-preserved complex hairstyle, the man from Tollund, whose facial features are perfectly preserved, the man from Groboll and others. In total, scientists found about a thousand swamp mummies, more or less well preserved. Some of these people, including those listed above, did not die of their own death. So, on the neck of a woman from Elling, a trace was found from a leather cord found nearby. The man from Tollund was also strangled with a noose of leather, and the throat of the man from Groboll was cut literally from ear to ear. Were these people, like so many others, sacrificedexecuted or became victims of crimes, it is impossible to determine. A woman from Kölbjerg is believed to have drowned in a swamp because there were no signs of a violent death on her body.
This is certainly one of the most terrible archaeological finds, but their value is undeniable. In the stomachs of many of them, food remains were even preserved, which provided interesting material for research. So, a man from Tollund, shortly before his death, ate boiled seeds and cereals, more than 40 species in total. Among them are barley, flax seeds, etc.
Fake or genuine artifacts? "Discovery" from the category of curiosities
The so-called Acambaro figurines, allegedly unique artifacts, were found and collected by Waldemar Julsrud over a long period of time, starting in 1945. He was not a scientist, but was engaged in archeology at an amateur level. The collection included more than 30 thousand figurines made of baked clay and stone. According to Julsrud himself, he discovered some of the figurines himself, while others he exchanged with the peasants of the villages located near Acambaro in Mexico. They depicted people, and belonging to different races, and … dinosaurs! The age of the find was allegedly several thousand years. This fact attracted great attention to it and led some to assume that individual pages of history will be rewritten anew. Unfortunately, this incredible find by an amateur archaeologist turned out to be nothing more than a fake. This was confirmed by the analysis of the figurines by archaeologist Charles Di Peso. In his opinion, they were made by local peasants in order to earn money -for sale to tourists. However, many, including Yulsrud himself, remained unconvinced, appealing to the inaccuracies of analytical methods.
After the death of the owner of the collection in 1964, many of the figurines were stolen, while the rest were first transferred to the Akambaro City Hall for storage, and then a whole museum was opened for them, bearing the name of Julsrud. This is how the fate of this supposedly ancient find of archaeologists.
Crystal Skulls
Crystal skulls are among the fakes deliberately passed off as ancient archaeological finds. Currently, there are thirteen of them, and nine of them are in private collections.
According to one version, the English archaeologist and traveler F. Albert Mitchell-Hedges in 1927 took his seventeen-year-old daughter with him on an expedition to the Yucatan, which, under the ruins of the altar of the ancient Maya, is a perfectly preserved quartz artifact - a transparent, perfectly smooth crystal life size skull. As it turned out, this is not the first find of its kind, but all the others were much rougher. However, from the point of view of the Hewlett-Packard engineer L. Barre, one of the experts who carefully examined the skull, ancient technologies did not allow the Indians to create such a perfect object. It inevitably had to split even at the time of processing the material. Psychics, who have studied crystal skulls, speak of sounds and glows emanating from archaeological finds, andpossibility of contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.
At the same time, modern research conducted by scientists from the UK and the USA made it possible to find traces of processing on the skulls with materials invented in the 19th and 20th centuries, which gave reason to talk about fakes. In addition, the quartz from which they are made is of European, not American origin. Nevertheless, crystal skulls continue to excite the imagination of people. As you know, this item was played in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" by Spielberg. By the way, it was the tireless Mitchell-Hedges who served as the prototype for the main character of the picture.
In addition to films, crystal skulls also appear in some computer games (Nancy Drew, Corsairs, etc.).
Instead of a conclusion
The article, of course, does not provide a complete list of the most outstanding finds of archaeologists. And can any of them be considered less important and significant for history than others? All of them, except for fakes capable of leading science on the wrong path, supplemented the existing historical and scientific picture of the world… One thing is certain: the history of earthly civilization is bottomless, and over the next years, decades, centuries, scientists are waiting for new amazing discoveries and archaeological finds.
