These unexplained discoveries will baffle you. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most intriguing archaeological discoveries whose true origins and/or purpose continue to elude experts.
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00:00 All these giants are made of sarsen, a local sandstone harder than granite.
00:06 Yet they were carved and fitted like woodwork.
00:10 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most intriguing archaeological
00:15 discoveries whose true origins and/or purpose continue to elude experts.
00:20 And then suddenly you look and you look and you see that they're tiny Greek characters
00:24 engraved into the actual metal itself.
00:29 Number 10.
00:30 The Voynich Manuscript.
00:32 Go to Yale University and you will find the utterly mysterious Voynich Manuscript, which
00:37 is, well, no one really knows what it is.
00:41 It's the world's most mysterious book, written by an unknown author.
00:45 Even the best codebreakers have shrugged their shoulders in exasperation.
00:50 The manuscript is named after Wilfred Voynich, a lover of old books who purchased it from
00:55 the Roman College.
00:56 Voynich bought the manuscript and tried to decipher it for the rest of his life.
01:03 While the book was later dated to the early 15th century, it didn't appear in written
01:07 records until the 1600s, leaving its first 200 years of existence shrouded in mystery.
01:14 No one knows who wrote it, what it means, or even where it came from.
01:19 We think it's Italian, but no one really knows for sure.
01:23 For the time being, the Voynich Manuscript remains what it has been for the last 600
01:28 years.
01:29 It's a hall of mirrors reflecting each researcher's own imagination.
01:32 Number 9.
01:33 The Tomb of the First Qin Emperor.
01:36 The mausoleum of Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang is best known for being the site of the Terracotta
01:41 Army, the massive assembly of stone soldiers constructed to symbolically guard the emperor
01:47 after his death.
01:48 He ordered his real army to be recreated in clay and buried with him, ready to fight his
01:54 battles in the afterlife.
01:56 While much excavation has been done at this site after its discovery in 1974, strangely,
02:02 the emperor's tomb itself remains untouched.
02:05 There are ancient tales of various traps installed to kill anyone who attempts to enter the tomb,
02:10 as well as streams of mercury designed to imitate China's water systems, which pose
02:15 their own threat to modern researchers.
02:17 To date, the site is still unexcavated, due to dangerously high levels of mercury.
02:23 While we can't say for sure that all of these claims are accurate, what we do know
02:27 is that whatever is contained in Qin Shi Huang's tomb is a mystery.
02:32 Number 8.
02:33 The Diki's Spheres.
02:35 Human ingenuity never ceases to amaze.
02:39 Found in Costa Rica are the "Bolas de Piedra", or quite simply, "stone balls".
02:44 These perfectly spherical stones are primarily made of a rock called gabbro and vary in size,
02:50 with the biggest measuring over 6 feet in diameter and weighing 15 tons.
02:55 To date, over 300 stone spheres have been found at archaeological sites across the region.
03:02 It's also widely believed that the stones were made by a pre-Columbian culture called
03:06 the Diki's, hence the name Diki's Spheres.
03:10 Unfortunately, we still don't know why these stones were made.
03:14 They could be related to astronomy, they could have been used to decorate processional walkways.
03:19 Unfortunately, could-bes are all we have to go on, as the Diki's are no longer around.
03:30 Number 7.
03:32 Goblekli Tepe.
03:33 We return to the Middle East for Goblekli Tepe, an enormous site found in southern Turkey.
03:39 The site of Goblekli Tepe is a series of circular enclosures.
03:44 Turkish for "pot-belly hill", Goblekli Tepe is known for its circular pits and richly
03:49 decorated megaliths which contain beautiful animal reliefs.
03:54 And despite its enormous size, experts theorize that we've only seen 5% of its total area.
04:00 But why such a monumental site was built in the first place remains a mystery.
04:06 Goblekli Tepe dates back to around 9,500 BCE and is found at the top of a mountain, leading
04:13 some to believe that it was a sanctuary used by nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers.
04:18 But evidence of houses and complex water systems also suggest that it was a permanent settlement.
04:25 Maybe the answers lie in the 95% we haven't seen.
04:29 Is it possible that primitive hunter-gatherers could have built such sophisticated megalithic
04:35 structures?
04:36 6.
04:37 The Copper Scroll Few archaeological finds are as important
04:41 to religion as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
04:44 These were found in the Qumran caves in the Judean desert and are primarily ancient biblical
04:49 manuscripts.
04:51 But one scroll stands out from the rest, and that is the Copper Scroll.
04:55 But joined together, they form a single copper scroll.
04:59 Whereas the others were written on papyrus and parchment, this one was etched on… well,
05:04 you can probably guess.
05:06 It also employs a different style of language and writing and was etched much later than
05:11 most of the other scrolls.
05:13 Most importantly, it is not religious in nature.
05:16 Could these brittle fragments of corroded metal hold the clues to finding ancient buried
05:22 gold and silver?
05:23 Rather, it explains the hidden locations of buried gold and silver.
05:27 No one knows whose treasure it is, and unfortunately, none of it has ever been located.
05:32 Someone call Indiana Jones!
05:34 5.
05:39 The Mawai While they're found on a tiny island in
05:43 the massive Pacific Ocean, the Mawai have become one of the world's most popular images.
05:49 These are the enormous stone figures found on Easter Island, and they were built by the
05:53 indigenous population between 1250 and 1500.
05:58 Archaeologists believe that the Rapa Nui people built these statues to represent ancient,
06:02 deified ancestors, but the biggest mystery surrounding the Mawai is how they were moved.
06:07 Were these figures made in such a way that they could be moved standing upright?
06:12 Some theorize that they were rolled on logs, while others believe that they were walked
06:17 to their destination using ropes and a rocking motion.
06:20 The latter theory is the current favorite amongst archaeologists, but it is far from
06:25 definite.
06:26 4.
06:27 The Nazca Lines While they were recorded back in the 16th
06:35 century, the Nazca Lines weren't seriously studied until the 1940s, when an American
06:40 historian named Paul Kosok spotted them in the Peruvian desert.
06:52 These lines vary greatly in size and design, with some being simple geometric shapes, while
06:58 others present realistic drawings of animals, humans, and fauna.
07:02 The designs are really only clear when viewed from a great height.
07:11 These lines were made by making a 5-inch divot in the topsoil, thereby revealing the different-colored
07:17 subsoil underneath.
07:19 But we don't know why they were made.
07:21 They could have astronomical significance, or they could be related to water collection,
07:26 or even be of a spiritual nature to be viewed by the culture's deities.
07:36 The Antikythera Mechanism There are lots of mysteries surrounding the
07:40 Antikythera Mechanism.
07:47 Found in a shipwreck in 1901, it's believed to be an astronomical calendar that predicted
07:52 eclipses and the orbit of the moon.
07:55 But there are many things we do not know.
07:57 Its date of construction has not been definitively proven, with years ranging from 205 BCE to
08:03 87 BCE.
08:09 We're also not sure if it's even complete, as some believe that pieces are missing.
08:14 Furthermore, we don't really know who made it.
08:17 And therein leads to the most intriguing mystery.
08:20 A computer of this complexity was not seen again until the 14th century, roughly 1,500
08:26 years after the device was made.
08:29 So how did its makers have such vast know-how in regards to engineering?
08:34 Much later, the Antikythera Mechanism, to the amazement of scientists, would be revealed
08:40 as the world's first computer.
08:43 Number 2.
08:50 The Great Pyramids It's amazing that the Great Pyramids have
08:51 been around for almost 5,000 years, and we're still figuring out how they were built.
08:57 The oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world, they are the only ones still standing.
09:02 It's now thought that the labourers who built them were paid locals rather than slaves.
09:07 The stone blocks, which averaged about 2.5 tons, may have been transported from quarries
09:12 on sledges and dragged across sand that had been wet with water.
09:16 The Great Pyramid is equivalent to the Empire State Building of its day.
09:21 However, some of the blocks weighed up to 80 tons.
09:24 On site, the blocks may have been raised with ramps and levers, but ultimately all we have
09:29 are theories, and scholars continue to debate the details to this day.
09:33 This is an amazing amount of accuracy for a structure this big, this long ago.
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09:56 Number 1.
09:57 Stonehenge Ancient monuments don't get much more famous
10:01 than Stonehenge, or more mysterious.
10:09 Found in the middle of England's Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge is instantly recognizable
10:13 with its circle of standing stones and curious beams.
10:17 And this collection of rocks continues to stump archaeologists.
10:21 The date of construction is relatively unknown, with the 1,000 year leeway between 3000 and
10:27 2000 BCE proving quite expansive.
10:31 Its true purpose is unknown.
10:35 Stonehenge itself was extensively excavated during the 20th century.
10:40 Those digs established that the monument was built in stages.
10:45 The ancient culture who built it is unknown, and the method of construction is, you guessed
10:50 it, unknown.
10:53 Basically Stonehenge is met with a giant shrug and the nicely worded academic equivalent
10:57 of "I don't know."
10:59 In 2500 BC, Stonehenge became a monument like no other.
11:06 A symbol of everything the Stone Age could achieve.
11:11 Do you have some answers?
11:12 Let us know in the comments below.
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