22 Facts about Strange Artifacts in Museums

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22 Facts about Strange Artifacts in Museums

Source: https://www.factinate.com/things/22-...medium=dakleck

If there’s one problem with history, it’s that there’s just too much of it. Archaeologists, historians, and scientists work around the clock year after year, but for every question they answer, two more pop up. No wonder our museums are full of the mysterious, the unexplained, and the just-plain-weird. Here are 24 mysterious objects in museums.

The Antikythera Mechanism

Discovered in an undersea shipwreck in 1902, the Antikythera Mechanism is truly a one-of-a-kind discovery. Dismissed by scholars initially, it is only since the 1970s that technology has allowed archaeologists to appreciate the mechanism. Using precise clockwork technology, the Antikythera Mechanism tracked the cycles of several planets and stars, offering precise astronomical and chronological details–very useful for navigation, but far beyond anything we were aware that the Greeks were capable of.




The Codex Gigas

It’s been called the world’s most evil book: a medieval Bible emblazoned with a massive image of the devil. According to legend, the Codex Gigas was written by a monk who had promised to complete the bible in a single night or face execution. Such work, some say, could only have been done with the help of Satan himself. It sounds dubious, but some experts say the Codex was written by a single hand and, at 620 pages, would have taken five years of non-stop writing; none of the changes in handwriting are associated with age.




Baghdad Batteries

In Iraq, 1938, Wilhelm Konig discovered an interesting clay pot. Inside was an iron rod in a copper sheath, some wires, and the residue from an acidic solution. It was hard for him to believe the ancient Mesopotamians could have such technology, but he believed these materials together were meant to produce an electric charge. Archaeologists remain puzzled as to just what the Baghdad batteries were for. Their best guess is electroplating metals, but other possibilities, ranging from medicine to ritual magic, have been suggested.




Roman Dodecahedrons

These strange items have been found scattered across the Roman empire and central Europe. They are hollow, with holes on each side and round knobs at every corner, and come in various sizes. The sheer number of them, and their widespread use, suggests that they were mass-produced, and possibly used by people who travelled a lot. But just what were they for?




The Ulfbehrt Sword

They’re like something out of Game of Thrones: a set of mysterious, and mysteriously strong, Viking swords, inscribed with the word ULFBEHRT. With over 170 of the swords in existence, and dating over a span of 200 years, it seems likely that ULFBEHRT was a brand rather than a single maker. But what is most surprising is the quality of the metal: whoever ULFBEHRT was, he (or they) knew how to make “crucible” steel, so pure it wouldn’t be replicated again until the Industrial Revolution.




Witch Bottles

In the 17th century, few things worried the English people more than witches. Witches bore the brunt of the blame for everything from poor crops to ill health. And so they would combat witches through magic of their own. The only way to prevent yourself from suffering at the hands of a witch was the Witch Bottle: a small clay bottled filled with nails, hair, fingernails, and urine, and buried near the witch’s home. Archaeologists have since found several of these bottles all over England, and even a few in the United States.




Ubaid Lizardmen

For almost one hundred years now, archaeologists at a site just west of Ur in southern Iraq have been uncovering mysterious 7,000-year-old statues of men, women, and women holding babies, all with a strange mixture of human and reptile characteristics. While many gods of Mesopotamia had hybrid human and animal characteristics, there’s nothing to suggest these statues, which have long snouts and almond-shaped eyes, were ritualistic figurines.




The Voynich Manuscript

For years, scholars have puzzled over the Voynich Manuscript, a 15th century manuscript written in an unbreakable code and filled with mysterious drawings of plants. Researchers are still trying to piece together the code, and they have no idea who the writer (or writers) was, or what led them to make such a book.




The Maine Penny

In 1957, a guy–Guy Mellgren, in fact–found an unusual object near Blue Hill, Maine: a Viking coin. The coin itself is not so unusual: the Smithsonian Institute confirms it is a real Viking coin, going so far as to call it “the only pre-Columbian Norse artifact ever found in the United States.” And there lies the mystery. There is no definitive evidence that the Vikings ever travelled further southwest than Newfoundland. Could the coin been passed, hand to hand, by First Nations and Native American traders? That seems the only reasonable possibility: there were 30,000 Native American artifacts found at the Blue Hill site, but only one Viking penny.




Bog Bodies

Almost a dozen so-called “bog bodies” have been pulled from bogs across western Europe. Dating to the Iron Age, the eerily-well preserved bodies are often dissected, or have leather ropes drawn tight around their necks and arms, suggesting a particularly violent end. Other times, they are accompanied by tools, weapons, and even food. No matter the confusing nature of the burials, archaeologists generally believe the bog bodies were victims (participants?) in ritual sacrifice.




The Auid Aluminum Artifact

In 1974, a wedge-shaped object was found under 35 feet of sand and alongside two mastodon bones. The proximity to mastodon bones suggests the object is 11,000 years old. But when scientists studied the metal object further, they made a shocking discovery: it was made of aluminum, a metal not discovered until 1808.




The Winnipesaukee Stone

Uncovered by workers near Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire in 1872, this egg-shaped object has been a source of speculation for over a hundred years now. Covered with abstract designs in different styles, but with a focal point that is very clearly a human face, it was originally suggested that the stone was meant to commemorate a peace treaty between Native American tribes. Most researchers remain skeptical, however, and the search for its real meaning continues.




The Calixtlhuaca Head

The Tecaxic Head looks like any normal bit of Classical sculpture. It is made of stone, with distinctly Hellenistic features and in a Roman style, and scientists have dated it back to antiquity, possibly as early as the 9th century BC. But when archaeologist José García Payón discovered this statue fragment in Calixtlhuaca, it was in a burial ground near Mexico City dating back only to 1476-1510 AD.




The Copper Scroll

It took researchers years to figure out just how to read the Copper Scroll, a series of tightly-wound copper plates found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. When they did (by cutting it in half) they were shocked to find a list of treasures buried throughout the Holy Land. The descriptions of the sites were incredibly specific–too specific to ever be found. One reads “in the gutter at the bottom of the (rain-water) tank,” another, “in the water conduit of the north[ern] reservoir.”




The Sanxingdui Carvings

Very little is known about China’s ancient Sanxingdui culture, and their impact on China’s artistic evolution was largely unrecognized until 1986, when archaeologists found hoard of figures, carvings, and bells. The sculptures were cast in jade and ceramic, as well as some very advanced bronze, with an aesthetic that calls to mind the art of the Aztecs. Mysteriously, many of the ceramic figures found at the site had been deliberately smashed or defaced.

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A Sri Lankan Meteorite

When a meteor struck Sri Lanka in 2012, scientists discovered something unusual about it. Embedded in the rock were tiny fossilized forms of algae. Scientists have recently hypothesized that life on earth was first carried here on just such a meteorite. Debate over the exact origin of the algae continues, but the Sri Lankan Meteorite could be one more step toward proving life exists beyond our world.




The Piri Reis Map

The Piri Reis map is a Turkish map dating to 1513. It features a remarkably accurate depiction of the eastern coast of North and South America, despite the Ottoman Empire having undertaken no real exploration of the Americas. It is thought that Piri Reis, the man who made the map, used a now-lost map from Christopher Columbus.




The Fetter Lane Hoard

There is a well-documented history of Roman England, so it’s not unusual for a stray coin to turn up in the UK now and then. A whole hoard of Roman coins used only in Egypt but found in London, however, is a surprise. The coins, first discovered in 1908, were minted in Alexandria, and had no value outside the city. Maybe someone was going on holiday.




The Woman of the Seine

The body of young woman was pulled from the Seine River in Paris in the 1880s. While they never discovered who she was, or just what led to her death, replicas of her serene, pallid face became an extremely popular art piece in French homes. Young women even styled their hair and makeup after the Unknown Woman of the Seine. Her face has now spread around the world: hers is the face CPR dummies faces are modelled on. To this day, no one knows who the young woman was, even though her face is one of the best known in history.




The London Hammer

In 1936, a couple walking along Red Creek in London, Texas, found a wooden shaft protruding from a loose rock along a hillside. When the rock was broken open, it revealed an iron hammer head attached to the handle that had somehow gotten into a 400 million year old rock. Though archaeologists are skeptical of the London Hammer’s authenticity, Christian creationists have latched on to the artifact as proof of a pre-Flood society that coexisted with dinosaurs. The London Hammer is now on display in the Creation Evidence Museum in Texas.




The Shroud of Turin

The famous Shroud of Turin is supposedly the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. Its ghostly, bearded face is perhaps the most famous holy relic in the Christian world. It has been tested again and again, with some researchers claiming it’s a hoax and others insisting on its authenticity, but never reaching a definitive conclusion. But now a new detail has been added to the mystery: according to researchers at the Institute of Crystallography in Italy, “The consistent bound of ferritin iron to creatinine occurs in human organism in [a] case of a severe polytrauma.” In layman’s terms? The blood on the Shroud came from someone who had been tortured.




Isleworth Mona Lisa

In December, 2014, the Arts House of the Old Parliament in Singapore displayed the Mona Lisa. No, not that one: This is a version of the Mona Lisa whose owners allege was painted by da Vinci earlier than the famous portrait. While most have dismissed the claim, some historians have pointed out that da Vinci would often paint parts of portraits, leaving his students to fill in the rest.

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Amazing Facts About Historical Artifacts

Source: https://www.factinate.com/things/44-...ifacts/?fact=1

“But that was the trouble with ancient artifacts – no one really knew what they did.”

― Patricia Briggs, Wolfsbane

The public is fascinated by the discovery of ancient artifacts and they love to imagine what those artifacts might have been used for. Once in a while, an artifact is uncovered that puzzles archaeologists and scientists alike. There is no explanation of where it came from, what it’s for, or even what value it holds. Below are 45 amazing facts about historical artifacts.

The Balls

Stone Spheres known as Las Bolas (The Balls) are scattered throughout the Diquis Delta of southern Costa Rica. They were the works of a pre-Columbian civilization, and are mostly made from a rock that forms from molten magma. There has been some speculation that they were used for astronomical purposes or that they pointed the way to significant places. No one knows for sure however, as the people who once populated the area vanished during the Spanish conquest.




Aliens in China

In 1938, archaeologist Dr. Chi Pu Tu discovered an ancient cave in Baian-Kara-Ula, China. Buried in the cave were hundreds of ancient stone discs similar to records, with a spiral composed of tiny hieroglyphics. and when the glyphs were translated, they told a story of a spaceship that crashed into the mountains, piloted by a race called the Dropa. Russian researchers requested the discs for study, but as of today, nobody knows where the discs are stored or what final conclusions were drawn.




How is That Possible?

A fossil of a human handprint was found inside limestone that was estimated to be 110 million years old. This is way before modern humans were thought to have evolved on Earth. A fossilized human finger found in the Canadian arctic also dates back about 100 million years. Both suggest that humanity is older than we think, but it has yet to be proven.




Ancient Light Bulb

Beneath the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt is a sculpture depicting figures standing around a large, light-bulb like object. Erich Von Daniken, author of Chariot of the Gods created a working model of the bulb, which, when connected to a power source, emits an eerie purplish light.




Burnt Mounds

Nearly 6000 mysterious artifacts known as fulachtai fia were found in the waterways and marshes of Ireland and the UK (where they are called burnt mounds) that date back to the middle-bronze age. A fulacht fiadh is a horsehoe mound of soil and a stone surrounding a hollow piece of ground large enough to park a car on. They are usually found far from settlements, which would make them difficult to get to. People have suggested that they were used for cooking, or even breweries, saunas or sweathouses, but no conclusive answers have ever been found.




But Does it Fly?

In 1898, a bird-shaped artifact made of sycamore wood was discovered during the excavation of the Pa-di-Imen tomb in Saqqara, Egypt. It dates back to somewhere around 200 BC, and weighs just under 40 grams. There is no documentation to explain exactly what this artifact was for, but the Ancient Egyptians were fascinated with the principals of flight, and some believe it is possible it’s possible that it could glide like a hawk.




An Unusual Rock

The discovery of a rock is not in itself unusual, but the three metal prongs sticking out of it are. A man by the name of John Williams found the object while hiking in a remote, rural area, and appears to be some kind of an electrical conductor. The artifact, known as the Petradox could be as much as 100,000 years old. Scientists are still trying to determine how the object was made.




A History of Kings

The King List is a history of kingships dating back to pre-history of the Sumerian people. Researchers originally thought that they were straightforward historical documents, but as they found more complete versions, they realized that the kings were either partly or wholly mythological. There were numerous important omissions, and some histories had mythological accounts attached to them. Historians are still trying to understand why the Sumerians would have created a fictitious history, but some people like to speculate that the long reigns of the early kings were true, and they were gods or even aliens.




Big Giant Head

Between 1400 and 400 BCE, an ancient civilization known as the Olmec thrived in the area now known as Guatemala. They left behind a number of artifacts, and in the 1950s, a photograph emerged of a giant stone head. What was strange about the head was that it had Caucasian features, and didn’t resemble any other heads created by Central American civilizations. When an archaeologist travelled to the area in the 1980s to examine the object, all he found was that it had been used for target practice by rebel troops. As a result, the mystery of its creation remains unsolved.




Simple Machines

Metal springs, eyelets, spirals and other metal objects were found in layers of 100,000-year-old sediment. The objects could be between 20,000 and 100,000 years old, but people only started working with metal 9,000 years ago. So where did these objects come from? Nobody knows, but it’s possible that they are a product of another long-lost civilization.




Prehistoric Labyrinth

Prehistoric people, as early as 3000 B.C., used the Bolshoi Zayatsky Island in Russia to build villages. The villages were complete with sacred sites and even an irrigation system. The most mysterious construction left by these people are the many stone labyrinths found in the area. They are built of two rows of boulders overgrown with vegetation, and there are at least 13 on the island, and about 35 in total. Only 300 ancient labyrinths are known to exist world-wide, but exactly what they were used for is unknown.




Polonnaruwa Meteorite

The Polonnaruwa meteorite supposedly fell to Earth in late 2012. The team that examined the object claimed that it contained algae from another planet, and suggested that first life on Earth could have been delivered in a similar fashion. Other experts have disputed the theory, and said that the algae is from Earth and proves nothing. The debate is still ongoing.




Ring of Stones

The prehistoric monument known as Stonehenge is one of the world’s most famous and mysterious landmarks. The ring of stones were erected approximately 4,000 years ago, and was quite an amazing feat for a supposedly primitive civilization. There are numerous theories about its original purpose and construction, but none have ever been conclusively proven.




Unidentifiable Metal Objects

Since humans, and certainly not metal-workers, were not around 65 million years ago, scientists have been unable to come up with an explanation for the semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of a 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France. In 1885, a metal cube was found inside a block of coal, and in 1912, an iron pot was discovered in a large chunk of coal. Some people think this is possible evidence for intelligent beings existing on Earth well before recorded history, or perhaps our dating methods are less accurate at this scale.




Unbreakable Code

Twenty-four mysterious carvings have been discovered on Easter Island (famous for its giant head statues), and so far, nobody has been able to decipher what the glyphs on the carvings mean. Cracking the glyphs could provide answers as to why the early civilization of Easter Island collapsed, but some people believe that they don’t mean anything and are just decoration. Some theories also suggest that only village elders or religious elders knew the script, which could explain its disappearance.




Kites

The low stone walls crisscrossing the deserts of Egypt, Israel and Jordan have puzzled scientists ever since their discovery in the early 20th century. The chain of walls run up to 40 miles long, and have been nicknamed kites by scientists for their appearance in the air. A recent study suggests that they were constructed as animal traps, and would lure animals towards a small pit where they could be killed. If true, then ancient hunters knew more about the behaviour of local animals than was previously thought.




Hidden Treasure

An ancient copper scroll was discovered at the archaeological site of Qumran in 1952 that possibly describes a hidden treasure of gold and silver. The scroll dates back nearly 2000 years, but nobody knows where the treasure is hidden or if it actually exists.




UFO or Something Else?

One day in 2013, in the Russian City of Vladivostok, a local discovered a piece of coal with an embedded metal object resembling a toothed rod. The object was 98% aluminum and 2% magnesium, which was odd, since the coal deposit was over 300 million years old. Some people believe that it was from alien visitors, but it’s more likely that the object broke off of a piece of mining equipment and became embedded in the coal.




The Lost Arc

Fans of the Indiana Jones movie franchise will remember Indie’s famous search for the Ark of the Covenant, but in real life, nobody has ever found the actual relic. Some reports suggest that it was buried in Jerusalem, and others say it was destroyed along with the first temple. A recently translated Hebrew text suggests that the arc will reveal itself, but not until “the coming of the Messiah”.




Desert Lines

The Nazca Lines are giant glyphs carved into the ground located in a Peruvian desert. The glyphs cover more than 450 square km and each one measures more than 200m in length. The drawings depict geometrical figures, animals and figures that might have been constellations. Scientists believe they were created by the ancient Nasca people who lived between 1 and 700 A.D. but their exact purpose is still unknown.

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Potbelly Hill

In the Urfa plain of southeast Turkey, there is a temple whose ruins are thought to be the oldest known organized place of worship in the world. Gobekli Tepe (Potbelly Hill), named for the mound it’s buried under, was discovered in the mid 1990s by Klaus Schmidt, and is about 5000 years older than Stonehenge. Schmidt and his successor believe that the ruins were a site for religious rituals, but others believe it was a home for some of the region’s first settlers.




Bronze Age Treasures

In 1929, a worker who was repairing a sewage ditch in China uncovered multiple jade and stone artifacts. In 1986, two more pits of Bronze Age treasures were uncovered in the area, including jade, elephant tusks, and bronze sculptures. Researchers believe that members of the Sanxingdui civilization (which collapsed 3000 years ago) made the artifacts, but why they buried so many valuable artifacts or why the civilization collapsed is unknown.




Biblical Boat

For centuries, archaeologists from all around the world have claimed to have found evidence of Noah’s Ark on or around the mountain in Turkey where the boat allegedly came to rest. Some researchers doubt that the arc even existed, making it an archaeological mystery.




A City Built on Corals

Somewhere between 200 BC and 800 A.D., the city of Nan Madol was built on a coral reef near Micronesia. The city consisted of roughly 100 artificial islands, made from huge basalt blocks and connected with viaducts. How the blocks were quarried, transported and placed is a mystery. Even by today’s standards, this was a remarkable engineering feat, and there are few clues to explain what happened to the civilization that put them there.




Big Circles

2000-year-old Stone Circles in the Jordanian countryside have puzzled scientists for years. Known as the “big circles”, these structures are 400m in diameter, but just a few feet high. There are no openings for people or animals to walk through, which makes their purpose even more mysterious.




Underwater Structure

Scientists discovered a large stone structure beneath the Sea of Galillee in Israel in 2003, which is made up of tiny stones placed on top of each other. The structure weighs an estimated 60,000 tons, and is nearly 32 feet high. Scientists have no idea what it might have been used for, but it’s possible they may have been originally land-based and submerged underwater due to rising sea levels.




Ancient Artwork

The Cochono Stone in Scotland is 43 feet by 26 feet, and contains swirling patterns that have also been identified on other prehistoric sites around the world. The stone is 5000 years old, and may have been an example of ancient artwork, but it’s exact purpose is unknown.




Greater than the Great Wall

Located at the northern edge of the former Inca Capital Cuzco, the Sacsayhuaman walls were built more than 3500 metres above sea level. The walls were constructed between 1438-1471 CE, and is believed to have needed over 20,000 labourers to complete. No mortar or cement was used to bind the walls, but they are placed so tightly that even a sheet of paper couldn’t be wedged between the blocks. Scientists have tried for years to replicate this feat on a smaller scale and failed, leading them to wonder how it was designed and constructed.




Super Monument

Located just 2 miles from Stonehenge, Super-Henge is a mammoth stone monument made up of a collection of stone monoliths. Archaeologists aren’t sure what the stones’ orginal purpose was, but they do believe that they stood upright before being pushed over 4500 years ago.




A Jar full of Holes

The discovery of a holey jar (literally a jar full of holes) was a first for researchers. The jar was recovered from a bomb crater outside of London, and dates back to Roman Britain between 43-410 A.D. Researchers believe it could have been used as a lamp or an animal cage, but these theories are really just educated guesses.




15 Million-Year-Old Shoe

A shoe-print fossil discovered in a seam of coal in Fisher Canyon, Nevada is believed to be about 15 million-years-old. There is no explanation for how it got there, but scientist speculate that humans or something like us existed earlier than we think or coal does not take as long to form as scientists think.




Rat King

A rat king is formed when several rats have their tails fused or tied together, creating a horde of rats facing outward from the central knot, seemingly forced to act as one composite beast. The largest of these artifacts contains 32 rats, and is stored in the Mauritianum Museum in Altenburg, Germany. Mice Kings and Squirrel Kings have also been reported.