5 Most Mysterious Ancient Discoveries

Some of the most fascinating ancient discoveries in our history were found by complete chance. These accidental findings have left researchers puzzled for years and many of them remain shrouded in complete mystery. It is this mystery surrounding them though that makes them so fascinating. Here we’ll take a look at five of the most mysterious ancient discoveries that will leave you as baffled as those who discovered them and those who have tried studying their backgrounds.

1. Horned Human Skulls

Image source - mysteriousworld

In the 1880s very strange human skulls were found in a burial mound in Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. What makes them so strange of course were those horns protruding two inches above the eye sockets. To me personally the skull looks like it belongs to Donnie Darko’s giant bunny friend, Frank. It is believed the skulls, found along with seven foot tall skeletons, were buried around AD 1200. The discoveries were made by respectable men: the state librarian, a dignitary of the Presbyterian Church, and two professors. Little else is known about the skulls or skeletons because after they were sent to the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia they were stolen and never seen again.

 

 

2. The Dropa Stones

Image source - Cosmic Conspiracies

Archaeologists in 1938 were investigating an area of the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains on the border that divides China and Tibet when they came across a series of caves in the mountains. Inside the caves were graves that contained three feet tall skeletons with abnormally large skulls. The walls of the caves were decorated with drawings of the sun, moon, stars…and beings with elongated heads. Further to their strange discoveries were these 12 inche discs, which became known as the Dropa Stones.716 of them were recovered from the caves. Professor Tsum Um Nui of the Beijing Academy for Ancient Studies studied these weird objects and later revealed that the discs were covered in a secret alien language. He translated the language and claimed that an alien spacecraft crashed in the Bayan Har Shan region 12,000 years ago. The occupants were aliens called Dropa or Dzopa. The Dropa could not repair their craft, so they tried to adapt to the conditions on Earth. Meanwhile, the local Ham tribesmen hunted down and killed most of the aliens. Supposedly, the aliens had intermarried with the locals, making identification of the origins of the skeletons more difficult. Under extreme objections the professor was forced to resign, yet whether he was right or simply just crazy remains as much a mystery as the stones, skeletons and caves themselves.

 

 

3. Giants of North America

Image source - boingboing

A twelve foot tall human skeleton was unearthed in at Lompock Rancho, California, in 1833 by soldiers digging a pit for a powder magazine. The skeleton had a double row of teeth and was surrounded by stone axes, carved shells, and porphyry blocks with abstruse symbols. In 1856 another giant human skeleton was found, this one measuring at 10 feet 9 inches. Labourers found this skeleton when they were plowing a vineyard in what is now West Virginia. In 1895 in Toledo, Ohio 20 giant skeletons were found seated with jaws and teeth twice as large as a normal skeleton’s. Yet another giant skeleton was unearthed in 1928 by a farmer in Louisiana. This skeleton was 9 feet 11 inches. Many claims have been made about these abnormal skeletons, the majority of people claiming they belong to the mysterious Sasquatch. Decide for yourselves…

 

 

4. Piri Reis Map

Image source - Wikipedia

A pre-modern world map that was put together by the Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. This much we know. The mystery surrounding the half of the map that has survived though is the accuracy in detail that shows the western coasts of Europe, North Africa, and the coast of Brazil. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands are shown, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan. More puzzling yet though is the inclusion of Antarctica. History books say that Antarctica was not discovered until 1820 by the Russian expedition of Mikhail Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Piri Reis’ map was drawn up in 1513. Drawn up on gazelle skin, the map was found in 1929 while Topkapı Palace , in Istanbul, was being converted into a museum.

 

 

5. The Shroud of Turin

Image sourcee - Wikipedia

A life-size linen cloth that bears the bears the image of Jesus Christ at rest. There is so much mystery surrounding this shroud that it has been at the centre of debate between scientists, theologians, historians and researchers for years. Some argue that it was the actual cloth that was placed over the dead body of Jesus while others state that it was created in the Middle Ages. The Catholic Church has sat on the fence over this one for years, but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. In 1988 samples of the cloth were tested in three different universities: the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. All drew the same conclusion that the artifact came from the Middle Ages. Since then though even the testings have come under scrutiny by those who still believe. Since 1578 the shroud has been wrapped in red silk and kept in a silver chest in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Make up your own minds on this one.