Category: Ancient Mysteries

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Could this fossilized flea unleash deadly plague?

Fea in amber

Fea in amber
This flea preserved about 20 million years ago in amber may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., courtesy of Oregon State University [CC BY-SA 2.0]
The flea in this picture could contain the ancestor to one of the most horrifying diseases known to the human race, the Black Death. Also called the bubonic plague, this disease killed an estimated 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 per cent of Europe’s entire population.

Examination of this flea found droplets of the deadly bacteria on its proboscis (sucking mouthpart) and in its backside. This thing’s got it bad!

George Poinar, Jr., an entomology researcher in the College of Science at Oregon State University, told Discover News reporters “Aside from physical characteristics of the fossil bacteria that are similar to plague bacteria, their location in the rectum of the flea is known to occur in modern plague bacteria, and in this fossil, the presence of similar bacteria in a dried droplet on the proboscis of the flea is consistent with the method of transmission of plague bacteria by modern fleas.”

In other words, it looks like we’ve got a winner!

Just as the mosquito that started all the trouble in Jurrasic Park, this chunk of amber was pulled from a mine in the Dominican Republic. Is it possible that this bacteria could somehow be revived? It’s not likely. Generally things that have been trapped in rock for 20 million years are going to be pretty dead. However, we have discovered bacteria that can survive in space, so what do we know?

Enlarged photo of flea with arrow pointing to traces of bacteria
The arrow points at bacteria on the proboscis of this flea preserved in amber, which researchers believe may be an ancestral strain of the bacteria that causes bubonic plague.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., courtesy of Oregon State University [CC BY-SA 2.0]
Another question is could an early form of this plague have been partially responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago? Research suggests that the big event was a large asteroid (and that more may be coming). But imagine the double-whammy of terrible disease and an astro-event!Poinar added “If this is an ancient strain of Yersinia, it would be extraordinary. It would show that plague is actually an ancient disease that no doubt was infecting and possibly causing some extinction of animals long before any humans existed. Plague may have played a larger role in the past than we imagined.”Hopefully all of this will remain scientific curiosity and we won’t have some strange event that brings on the zombie apocalypse. Though, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few cans of food and some extra water handy.

 

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Read the original Discovery News article.

 

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Stonehenge outdone

Photo of Stonhenge against a dark, stormy-looking sky.
Stonhenge, located in Wiltshire, England,
is probably the most famous henge in the world.
Photo by Diego Delso [CC BY-SA 4.0],
via Wikimedia Commons
Stonehenge is one of the world’s most mysterious places. The ancient structure, located in a field near Wiltshire, England, brings to mind images of druids and mysterious rituals. What if Stonehenge is really just an overture? What if there was something bigger…much, much bigger?Researchers have recently uncovered a series of standing stones that dwarfs Stonehenge. It’s called the Durrington Walls, and lies about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) northeast of Stonehenge. People have been aware of the structures, but it’s not until recently that underground imaging helped us to see the scope of it all.  This dramatic video by the Irish Times shows how the full structure might look if it was all unearthed and restored.

Some people take these sorts of mysterious sites pretty seriously. A story from the Irish Examiner tells of a grave warning given by local lorekeeper, Eddie Lenihan, if the West Pharmaceutical Services factory destroys an ancient fairy fort in Waterford. He portends a run of horrible luck that will bring the new facility to ruins, along with all who work there. With that on the line, perhaps the construction could account for a little fairy park? It would be a nice place to have lunch!

 

Very little is truly known about the origins and uses of these structures. Perhaps we will never know. In the mean time, we look forward to learning more about the Superhenge.

 

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You might belong in a museum

phot of a mummy
This amazing mummy rests in peace at the Museum of the Weird

At the Museum of the Weird we feature a mummy that might date back 3000 years. The process of mummification is an ancient art practiced by the Egyptians to preserve and prepare the body for the afterlife. Elaborate tombs were built to house the preserved body along with belongings and largess that showed off the wealth of the deceased. The process was very detailed and took months to complete. Poor people could not afford mummification, but would emulate the process by wrapping their dead in linen. (Read details about mummification from the Ancient History Encyclopedia.)

While many details of mummification are known, it has not been regularly practiced for centuries. The modern practice of embalming is the way that we expect to be preserved. As you may recall in our article on postmortem photos, some bodies were viewed and photographed for years after they died.

However, interest in mummification has resurrected, so to speak. In 2012 a terminally ill man willed his body to scientists so they could try to replicate the ancient mummification process. The entire experiment was explicitly captured in the documentary show, Curiosity, Season 2, Episode 2: I Was Mummified. (It’s available to watch for purchase through many outlets. This clip will give you an idea if it’s for you.)

Of course, the art of mummification is not completely lost. The U.S. company, Summum, offers complete mummification services for humans and animals. Here is video from The Discovery Channel’s show One Step Beyond, where the founder of Summum tells a little bit about his inspiration and their process. He’s a little off the beaten track, but I guess you’d have to be.

The already have a number of people willing to pay for mummification. Does that mean we can expect to see more pyramids rising up around the U.S.? If you can afford it, maybe someday you’ll end up in a museum!

In the mean time, come visit ours on 6th Street in Austin, Texas.

 

 

 

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More than meets the eye

Photo of stone heads sticking out of the grind on Easter Island
Monolithic head statues of Easter island (Photo by Artemio Urbina and placed in the public domain)

If you have followed world mysteries you have undoubtedly come across the amazing head statues on Easter Island. These gigantic stone carvings depict proud heads, rising up out of the ground. If you’ve not followed them for a while you may have missed the activity over three last few years as archeologists have confirmed that these statues have full bodies and have been working to excavate them.

Called moai, these statues were created by the Rapa Nui people between 1250 and 1500 to depict worshiped ancestors. Many are near the quarry that bore the stone, but many others have been transported around the island.

For some time archeologists expected to find full bodies attached to the heads jutting out of the ground, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that serious excavation began to reveal these amazing monoliths. As you can see on their project web site there’s been a lot of progress. (This is really the site to dig into if you want to see all that has been done.)

This recent article from the Mirror in the UK highlights the discovery that the bodies are actually covered with intricate tattoos that have yet to be fully deciphered. For a quick view of what they’ve been digging up see this video.

https://youtu.be/zWj2keMob-c

It goes to show that even—or perhaps especially—with ancient mysteries there is more than meets the eye.

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Are aliens below us?

Poster for the 1956 film Mole People (See it MST3K style)

People have been fascinated with the idea of a hollow earth and who might inhabit it for many years. Jules Verne penned A Journey to the Centre of the Earth in 1864. It’s the story of a group of explorers who find that there is a world buried beneath the Earth’s crust, a mysterious world lost to time.

The story has been made into film time and time again. There have also been films like The Mole People that have looked at fantastic civilizations that have lived beneath the Earth.

This is just fiction, though. Right? When Admiral Richard Byrd explored the North Pole he allegedly wrote in his diary an account of discovering a huge area that was lush and a meeting with beings who claimed to live beneath the earth. Is this a real accounting or a fiction attributed to Byrd? Byrd makes no specific claims about this in a 1954 TV Interview (see IMDB record). So, the hollow Earth idea is probably a myth, right?

Not so fast! in this collective-evolution.com article the author covers many reputable scientists and explorers who have expressed ideas of a hollow earth with a sort of sun at its center. This BBC Article describes test results showing that the earth’s core might actually have sun-like temperatures. An article published in Nature discusses discoveries that there could be a huge repository of water (think ocean) deep under the earth. Perhaps the idea of an subterranean world is not completely ridiculous.

Of course, the biggest argument against a Hollow Earth is how could we not know? Some suggest that we do know, or at least some know, and that the news is being kept from us for the same reasons that are applied to UFOs. There’s even discussion that the UFOs people see come from inner space rather than outer space. This video even suggests a Nazi connection!

The truth is probably out there—or in there, as the case may be. If there is an inner-Earth, how many other mysteries are connected with it? It could explain UFOs, strange creatures and maybe even more shadowy puzzles of the paranormal. Imagine if our encounter with an alien world is just a matter of looking below!

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Myth and Legend Became Real in 2014

Many legends are born of historical fact, and become mythologized over time. Never was this brought to light as clearly as in the discovered reality behind the epic poems of Homer. His stories of the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus as collected in his “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” were originally assumed to be pure fiction until an amateur archeologist in the late 19th century, Heinrich Schliemann, discovered that its events and places were real. Many monsters were based on mutations, such as the stories of the werewolf may have gotten their origin from sightings of the sufferers of hypertrichosis. Who knows which stories of legend may turn out to have a basis in truth next?

mermaids

2014 actually was a pretty big year for legends proving to have some reality context. The website ancient-origins.net put together a list of 10 stories that all broke this year that are certainly worthy of the attention of followers of the weird. Like how about a possible explanation for mermaids? Sirenomelia, a rare congenital condition that causes the lower limbs to be fused, turns out to be a likely suspect for the roots of the mythological creature. Or how about the discovery of the remains of the Hell Hound of Suffolk, a 200 lb dog that broke into a church and killed parishioners before running off into legend? Maybe not just legend, as it turns out. Did you know the Icelandic government this year declared that a giant sea serpent called Lagarfljotsormurinn that lives there is real? Ok, I’m gonna take that one with a grain of salt, but I’ve still got my fingers crossed that one bears out.

iceland-legendary-monster

All these and more are discussed on the site in question. This serves as a great reminder to not dismiss out of hand the mysterious, mythological, or cryptozoological. Maybe this time next year we’ll be calling 2015, “The Year we Found Sasquatch”. We can only hope.

could-be-bigfoot-but-probably-aliens-thumb

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Cryptozoologist raising funds to study Lovelock Cave Giants

Despite my colleague Chris Cox’s article the other day (see A Bad Day for Bigfoot), I remain optimistic that there will be some proof of an unknown, living, upright-walking primate found — eventually.

As cryptozoologist Scott Marlowe points out in response to that article, “The researchers DON’T claim any sweeping generalization whatsoever. They are simply reporting on those samples they worked with — and say as much in the report.”

“Good science is about patience, not easy gratification.”

Well now Scott is putting his money where his mouth is (or more accurately, your money). Marlowe is starting a GoFundMe campaign to raise $10,000 to conduct a DNA study on the skeleton of one of the mysterious Lovelock Cave Giants. According to his GoFundMe page:

Having located the remains of one of the Lovelock Cave “Giant” skeletons, and verifying that the keeper of it is willing to permit me to extract a tooth for the purpose of doing a DNA study on the creature, I am attempting to raise the funding necessary to complete the expedition and subsequent DNA work upon it to determine its origins and phylogeny.

MOTW-2014-07-09-giant-mound-builder

In 1911 mummified remains were found by guano hunters in Lovelock Cave, a large rock shelter in Nevada’s Lake Lahontan region. According to legend, these skeletons belong to a cannibalistic tribe of red-haired giants.

Known to the Paiute indians as the Si-Te-Cah, these cannibals were at war with the Paiute until a number of tribes came together and trapped the Si-Te-Cah in Lovelock Cave, started a fire and asphyxiated them.

There may be some factual basis for the legend. During a 1924 expedition, some human bones found in the cave showed evidence that they were split to extract the marrow, which may indicate cannibalism. In addition several large fiber sandals were found in the caves, one measuring a whopping 15″. Now that’s a Big Foot!

If you’ve ever wanted to be a part of a potential new discovery, I’d say here’s your chance. To help Scott reach his goal, you can contribute to his study here:

Red-Haired Giant Research

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The ‘Real’ Dracula’s Grave is found…AND WE’RE GOING TO OPEN IT!?!?

Dracula

I hope I don’t need to explain that I don’t mean the iconic DRACULA dracula. Not Bram Stoker’s creation, famously played by Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman and many others. And I CERTAINLY don’t mean the sparkly Cullen family members. As fun as it is to imagine that Bram’s flourishy caped creation is lurking out there in the shadows, I’m afraid he was based on a more conventional human, although one with probably a bigger body count to his name.

draculavlad

I’ll admit to being a bit startled in this day and age when ANYBODY doesn’t know that Dracula was based on a real jerk of a 15th century Eastern European warlord and ruler, Vlad Dracul Tepes, who was affectionately titled “The Impaler”. Aside from his penchant for impaling his enemies on big stakes outside his castle, his murderous activities pretty much ran the wincingly imaginable gamut, and he was rumored to drink the blood of his victims to boot. As “defenders of Christianity” go, Vlad was pretty much on the ‘we wish people would quit asking about it’ list for the church. But ol’ Bram just HAD to write one of the most popular characters in literary history…

The upshot is, Vlad was a pretty bad dude. To say the least. Add the “Dracula” myth to his legend, and the fact that no one actually knows what happened to him and you’ve got something that is gonna fuel speculation. He ‘disappeared’ during battle; some reports have him dead, some led away in chains, but no one really knows for sure. Until possibly now.

Some Estonian researchers think they’ve found the final resting place of The Count in a church in Naples. The tomb in question is covered with Transylvanian symbols and images of the dragon (what the ‘dracul’ in Vlad’s name meant) and two opposing sphinxes which represent the city of Thebes (also called ‘Tepes’). Considering everyone else in the tomb is a regular Italian nobleman and that some rumors say Vlad was ransomed off to his daughter who lived in Naples, it looks like they’ve got a solid case.

But they want permission to open it…

Doesn’t seem to matter how much we recognize the fictional differential between Count Dracula and Vlad Tepes, it still makes one want to run screaming NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!

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STONEHENGE A SETTLEMENT 3,000 YEARS BEFORE ITS CONSTRUCTION

stonehengeIn Amesbury, in Wiltshire, archaeologists have unearthed new evidence that points to a human settlement that existed on the site nearly 3,000 years before the construction of Stonehenge. One mile from the location of the stone ring, archaeological remains of a human occupation dating back to 7,500BC were recently excavated. The dig was supported by Dr Josh Pollard from Southampton University and led by Open University archaeologist David Jacques, along with his team of volunteers, utilizing a small budget of redundancy money.

The project has been a quest of David Jacques since his time as a student at Cambridge University. During that time he spied an, until then, unnoticed “blind spot” in aerial-view photographs of Stonehenge taken in 1906 that showed a site referred to as Vespasian’s Camp a mile away. The area, at the time, was thought to have been landscaped during the 18th century. Thus, a full archaeological investigation of the area had never been conducted.

“The whole landscape is full of prehistoric monuments and it is extraordinary in a way that this has been such a blind spot for so long archaeologically,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “But in 1999 a group of student friends and myself started to survey this area of Amesbury.”

Due to the location of the site near a natural spring, it was only logical to Jacques that this would have been the ideal location for a human settlement at the time. He began his investigation by first exploring areas where he thought animals would visit in search of food and fresh water, which his reasoning predicted would also be the same locations for human settlements to form. His assumptions proved correct. Since first beginning to pursue the dig artifacts from one of the earliest semi-permanent settlements in the Stonehenge area (7,500 to 4,700BC) have been unearthed. Carbon dating of these relics revealed people resided in the area every other millennium during the Mesolithic era.

Sometimes it is the smaller projects that uncover the greatest mysteries. David Jacque’s excavation project is certainly a great example of this. Leading archaeologists around the world are abuzz with the news and its historical implications.

In the same article on the BBC website, Professor Peter Rowley-Conwy, from Durham University, said: “The site has the potential to become one of the most important Mesolithic sites in north-western Europe.”

The investigation of the site continues as additional funding is sought for a more in-depth pursuit. According to Dr Pollard of the Stonehenge Riverside Project this should hopefully prove easier going forth since “being able to demonstrate that there were repeated visits to this area from the 9th to the 5th millennia BC” is a crucial aspect of humanity’s history that has yet to be explored and further unravels the enigma that is Stonehenge. A deeper look at the people who resided in the area before its construction will give the world insight into its construction and its true purpose throughout the ages.