Strange archaeology. Mysterious artifacts of ancient civilizations. The most mysterious artifacts in the world

But archeology, you know, is such an unpredictable science, no, no, and it throws up new finds that do not fit into the generally accepted model neatly folded by scientists. We present to you 15 the most mysterious artifacts that made the scientific world think about the correctness of existing theories.

Spheres from Klerksdorp

According to rough estimates, these mysterious artifacts are about 3 billion years. They are disc-shaped and spherical objects. Corrugated balls are of two types: one of bluish metal, monolithic, interspersed with white matter, the other, on the contrary, is hollow, and the cavity is filled with white spongy material.

Nobody knows the exact number of spheres, since miners with the help of kmd still continue to extract them from a rock near the city of Klerksdorp, located in South Africa.

Drop Stones

In the mountains of Bayan-Kara-Ula, which are located in China, a unique find was made, the age of which 10 — 12 thousand years. Drop stones, numbering in the hundreds, are like gramophone records. These are stone discs with a hole in the middle and a spiral engraving applied to the surface.

Antikythera mechanism

IN 1901 The Aegean Sea revealed to scientists the mystery of a sunken Roman ship. Among other surviving antiquities, a mysterious mechanical artifact was found, which was made around 2000 years ago.

Scientists managed to recreate the most complex and innovative invention for that time. The Antikythera mechanism was used by the Romans for astronomical calculations.

Interestingly, the differential gear used in it was invented only in XVI century, and the skillfulness of the miniature details from which the amazing device was assembled is not inferior to the skill of watchmakers XVIII century.

Unique stones were discovered in the Peruvian province of Ica by the surgeon Javier Cabrera. Ica stones are processed volcanic rock covered with engravings.

But the whole mystery is that among the images there are dinosaurs (brontosaurs, pterosaurs and triceraptors). Perhaps, despite all the arguments of scientific anthropologists, the ancestors of modern man were already flourishing and engaged in creativity at the time when these giants roamed the earth?

Baghdad Battery

IN 1936 year in Baghdad, they discovered a strange-looking vessel, clogged with a concrete plug. Inside the mysterious artifact was a metal rod.

Subsequent experiments showed that the vessel performed the function of an ancient battery, since by filling a structure similar to the Baghdad battery with an electrolyte available for that time, it is possible to obtain electricity in 1 Q. Now you can argue who owns the title of the founder of the doctrine of electricity, because the Baghdad battery is on 2000 years older than Alessandro Volta.

Ancient "spark plug"

In the mountains of Coso in California, an expedition that was looking for new minerals found a strange artifact, with its appearance and properties, it strongly resembles a "spark plug". Despite the dilapidation, one can confidently distinguish a ceramic cylinder, inside of which there is a magnetized metal two-millimeter rod.

And the cylinder itself is enclosed in a copper hexagon. The age of the mysterious find will surprise even the most inveterate skeptic - it is more than 500 000 years!

Stone balls of Costa Rica

Three hundred stone balls scattered along the coast of Costa Rica vary in age (from 200 year BC e. before 1500 year n. e.), and in size. However, scientists are still not clear how exactly the ancient people made them and for what purposes.

Planes, tanks and submarines of ancient Egypt

There is no doubt that the Egyptians built the pyramids, but could the same Egyptians have thought of constructing an airplane? Scientists have been asking this question ever since 1898 year, a mysterious artifact was discovered in one of the Egyptian caves. The shape of the device is similar to an airplane, and, given its initial speed, it could well fly.

The fact that in the era of the New Kingdom the Egyptians knew such technical inventions as an airship, a helicopter and a submarine is told by a fresco on the ceiling of a temple located near Cairo.

Human palm print, 110 million years old

And this is not the age for humanity at all, if we take and add here such a mysterious artifact as a petrified finger from the Arctic part of Canada, which belongs to a person and has the same age. And the footprint found in Utah, and not just a foot, but shod in a sandal, age 300 — 600 million years! You wonder, so when did humanity originate?

Metal pipes from Saint-Jean-de-Livet

The age of the rock from which the metal pipes were extracted is 65 million years, therefore, the artifact was made at the same time. Wow Iron Age. Another strange find was mined from a Scottish rock dating back to the lower Devonian period, that is 360 — 408 million years ago. This mysterious artifact was a metal nail.

IN 1844 Englishman David Brewster reported that in one of the Scottish quarries, in a block of sandstone, an iron nail was found. Its hat was so "grown" into the stone that it was not possible to suspect the falsification of the find, although the age of the sandstone belonging to the Devonian period is about 400 million years. Already in our memory, in the second half of the twentieth century, a discovery was made, which scientists still cannot explain. Near the American town with the loud name of London, in the state of Texas, when splitting sandstone of the Ordovician period (Paleozoic, 500 million years ago), found an iron hammer with the remains of a wooden handle.

If we discard a person who did not exist at that time, it turns out that trilobites and dinosaurs smelted iron and used it for economic purposes. If we discard stupid mollusks, then you need to somehow explain the finds, for example, such as this one: in 1968 in the quarries of Saint-Jean-de-Livet, France, the Frenchmen Druet and Salfaty discovered oval-shaped metal pipes, whose age, if dated from the chalk layers, is 65 million years - the era of the last reptiles.

Or like this: in the middle XIX For centuries, explosive work was carried out in Massachusetts, and among the fragments of stone blocks a metal vessel was discovered, which was torn in half by a blast wave. It was a vase about 10 centimeters, made of metal resembling zinc in color.

The walls of the vessel were decorated with images of six flowers in the form of a bouquet. The rock in which this outlandish vase was stored belonged to the beginning of the Paleozoic (Cambrian), when life was barely born on earth - 600 million years ago.

Iron mug in the corner

It is not known what the scientist would say if, instead of the imprint of an ancient plant, in a coal block, he would find ... an iron mug.

Would the coal seam be dated by humans from the Iron Age, or still, the Carboniferous, when there weren't even dinosaurs? But such an object was found, and until recently that mug was kept in one of the private museums in America, in South Missouri, although with the death of the owner, the trace of the scandalous object was lost, to the great, it should be noted, relief of pundits. However, the photograph remains.

The circle had the following document, signed by Frank Kenwood:

" ... IN 1912 When I was working at the Thomas, Oklahoma, municipal power plant, I came across a massive block of coal. It was too big and I had to smash it with a hammer. This iron mug fell out of a block, leaving behind a recess in the coal. An eyewitness of how I broke a block and how a mug fell out of it was an employee of the company named Jim Stoll. I managed to find out the origin of coal ─ it was mined in the mines of Wilburton, in Oklahoma ... "

According to scientists, the coal mined in the mines of Oklahoma has 312 million years, unless, of course, dating by a circle.

Or did man live with trilobites, those shrimp of the past?

Foot on a trilobite

Fossilized trilobite. 300 million years ago!

Although there is a find that speaks exactly about this - a trilobite crushed by a shoe! The fossil was discovered by a passionate lover of shellfish, William Meister, who examined 1968 year neighborhood of Antelope Spring, in Utah. He split a piece of shale and saw the following picture (in the photo - a split stone).

One can see the imprint of the shoe of the right foot, under which there were two small trilobites. Scientists explain this by the play of nature, and are ready to believe in the discovery only if there is a whole chain of such traces.

Meister is not a specialist, but a draftsman who in his free time searches for antiquities, but his reasoning is sound: the imprint of a shoe was not found on the surface of hardened clay, but after splitting a piece: the chip fell along the imprint, along the border of the compaction caused by the pressure of the shoe. However, they do not want to talk to him: after all, man, according to evolutionary theory, did not live in the Cambrian period.

There weren't even dinosaurs back then. Or... geochronology is false.

IN 1922 John Reid, an American geologist, was searching in Nevada. Unexpectedly for himself, he found a clear imprint of the sole of the shoe on the stone.

A photograph of this wonderful find is still preserved. In the same 1922 The New York Sunday American published an article written by Dr. W. Ballou.

He wrote:

“... Some time ago, the famous geologist John T. Reid, while searching for fossils, suddenly froze in embarrassment and surprise at the rock under his feet. There was what looked like a human print, but not of a bare foot, but of the sole of a shoe that had turned to stone. The forefoot is gone, but retains the contour of at least two-thirds of the outsole. A well-defined thread ran around the contour, which, as it turned out, attached the welt to the sole. This is how the fossil was found, which is today the biggest mystery for science, since it was found in a rock that is at least 5 million years..."

The geologist took the cut piece of rock to New York, where it was examined by several professors from the American Museum of Natural History and a geologist from Columbia University.

Their conclusion was unequivocal: the breed - 200 million years - Mesozoic, Triassic period. However, the imprint itself was recognized, both by these and by all other scientists, as a game of nature.

Otherwise, one would have to admit that people in shoes sewn with thread lived with a number of dinosaurs.

Two mysterious cylinders

IN 1993 Philip Reef turned out to be the owner of another amazing find. While tunneling in the mountains of California, two mysterious Cylinders were discovered, they resemble the so-called "cylinders of the Egyptian pharaohs". But their properties are completely different from them. They consist half of platinum, half of an unknown metal.

If they are heated, for example, to 50 °C, they keep this temperature for several hours, regardless of the ambient temperature. Then they cool almost instantly to air temperature.

If an electric current is passed through them, they change color from silver to black, and then again acquire their original color. Undoubtedly, the cylinders contain other secrets that have yet to be discovered.

According to radiocarbon analysis, the age of these artifacts is about 25 million years.

Mayan crystal skulls

According to the most common story, the "Skull of Doom" was in 1927 was found by the English explorer Frederick A. Mitchel-Hedges among the Mayan ruins in Lubaantun (modern Belize). Others claim that the scientist bought this item at Sotheby's in London in 1943 d. In any case, this rock-crystal skull is so perfectly carved that it appears to be a priceless work of art.

So, if we consider the first hypothesis correct (according to which the skull is a Mayan creation), then a whole rain of questions falls upon us. Scientists believe that the Skull of Destiny is, in some ways, technically impossible.

Having a weight of almost 5 kg, and being a perfect copy of a female skull, it has a finish that would not have been possible without the use of more or less modern methods, methods that the Maya culture owned and which we do not know about. The skull is perfectly polished.

Its jaw is a hinged part separate from the rest of the skull. It has long attracted (and probably will continue to do so to a somewhat lesser extent) specialists from various disciplines.

Mention should also be made of the relentless attribution by a group of esotericists of supernatural powers, such as telekinesis, the emission of an unusual fragrance, color changes. The existence of all these properties is difficult to prove.

The skull was subjected to various analyses. One of the inexplicable things is that made of quartz glass, and therefore having a hardness 7 on the Mohs scale (scale of hardness of minerals from 0 before 10 ), the skull could be carved without such hard cutting materials as ruby ​​and diamond.

Skull studies, which 1970 -x conducted by the American company Hewlett-Packard, determined that in order to achieve such perfection, it would have to be sanded for 300 years. Could the Maya have deliberately designed this type of work to be completed in 3 century? We can only say with certainty that the Skull of Destiny is not the only one of its kind. Several of these items have been found around the world and are made from other quartz-like materials.

Among them is a whole jadeite skeleton found in the region of China/Mongolia, made on a smaller scale than a human, according to estimates, approx. in 3500 -2200 gg. BC e. There are doubts about the authenticity of many of these artifacts, but there is something that is certain: crystal skulls continue to delight daring scientists.

There is a lot of archaeological evidence in the world that the history of life on Earth may be completely different from that described in modern geological and anthropological texts.

Especially for – Lina Skok

According to the interpretation of some fundamentalists, the Bible says that God created Adam and Eve several thousand years ago. Science reports that this is just fiction, and that man is a few million years old, and civilizations are tens of thousands of years old. However, could it be that conventional science is as wrong as the biblical stories? There is ample archaeological evidence that the history of life on Earth may be very different from the one we are told today by geological and anthropological texts.

Consider the following amazing finds:

Corrugated Spheres

For the past few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal balls. These balls of unknown origin are about an inch in diameter, and some of them are engraved with three parallel lines running along the axis of the object. Two types of balls have been found: one consists of a hard bluish metal with white spots, while the other is emptied from the inside and filled with a white spongy substance. Interestingly, the stone in which they were found belongs to the Precambrian period and dates back 2.8 billion years! Who made these spheres and why remains a mystery.

Artifact Koso

While searching for minerals in the mountains of California near Olancha in the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell found what they thought was a geode—a nice addition to their gem shop. However, after cutting the stone, Mikesell found an object inside that looked like white porcelain. In his in the center was a shaft of shiny metal. The experts concluded that if it was a geode, it would have taken approximately 500,000 years to form, but the object inside was clearly a piece of human production.

Further examination determined that the porcelain was surrounded by a hexagonal body, and X-rays revealed a tiny spring at one end, similar to a spark plug. As you might have guessed, this artifact is surrounded by some controversy. Some argue that the object was not inside the geode, but was covered in hardened clay.

The find itself was identified by experts as a spark plug from the 1920s. Unfortunately, Koso's artifact has been lost and cannot be thoroughly studied. Is there a natural explanation for this phenomenon? Was it found, as the discoverer claimed, inside the geode? If this is true, how could a 1920s-era spark plug get inside a stone that is 500,000 years old?

Strange metal objects

Sixty-five million years ago there were no humans, let alone anyone who could work with metal. In that case, how does science explain semi-oval metal pipes dug in France from Cretaceous chalk?

In 1885, when a piece of coal was broken, a metal cube was discovered, clearly processed by a craftsman. In 1912, power station workers broke a large piece of coal from which an iron pot fell out. A nail was found in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic era. There are many more such anomalies. How can these findings be explained? There are several options:

• Intelligent people existed much earlier than we think
• In our history, there is no data about other intelligent beings and civilizations that existed on our Earth
• Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and these rocks, charcoal, and fossils are forming much faster than we think today.

In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt all curious and open-minded scientists to reexamine and rethink the history of life on Earth.

Footprint on granite

This fossil trace was found in a seam of coal in Fisher Canyon, Nevada. According to estimates, the age of this coal is 15 million years!

And lest you think that this is a fossil of some animal, the shape of which resembles the sole of a modern boot, examination of the footprint under a microscope revealed clearly visible traces of a double seam line along the perimeter of the form. The footprint is about a size 13 and the right side of the heel appears to be more worn than the left.

How did the imprint of modern shoes 15 million years ago end up on a substance that later became coal? There are several options:

• The trail was left recently and coal is not formed for millions of years (which science does not agree), or ...
• Fifteen million years ago, there were people (or something like people for whom we have no historical data) walking around in shoes, or ...
• The time travelers traveled back in time and inadvertently left a trail, or...
• This is a well thought out gamble.

ancient footprint

Today, such footprints can be seen on any beach or muddy ground. But this footprint - clearly anatomically similar to that of a modern human - is frozen in stone, which is estimated to be about 290 million years old.

The discovery was made in 1987 in New Mexico by paleontologist Jerry McDonald. He also found traces of birds and animals, but found it difficult to explain how this modern trace appeared on the Permian rock, which, according to experts, is 290-248 million years old. According to modern scientific thinking, it was formed long before humans (or even birds and dinosaurs) appeared on this planet.

A 1992 Smithsonian Magazine article on the find noted that paleontologists refer to such anomalies as "problematica". In fact, for scientists they are big problems.

This is the white crow theory: all you have to do to prove that not all ravens are black is just to find one white one.

In the same way, to challenge the history of modern man (or perhaps our way of estimating the age of rock strata), we need to find a fossil like this. However, scientists simply shelve such artifacts, call them "problematica" and move on with their unyielding beliefs, because reality is too inconvenient.

Is this the right science?

Ancient springs, screws and metal

They are similar to the items that can be found in the scrap box in any workshop.

Obviously, these artifacts were made by someone. However, this set of springs, loops, spirals and other metal objects was found in layers of sedimentary rocks that are one hundred thousand years old! At that time, foundries were not very common.

Thousands of these things - some as small as a thousandth of an inch! – were discovered by gold miners in the Ural Mountains of Russia in the 1990s. Excavated from 3 to 40 feet deep in layers of earth dating back to the Upper Pleistocene period, these mysterious objects may have been created some 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Could they be proof of the existence of a long-lost but advanced civilization?

Metal rod in stone

How to explain the fact that the stone was formed around a mysterious metal rod?

Inside the hard black stone found by the stone collector Gillin Wang in China's Mazong Mountains, for unknown reasons, there was a metal rod of unknown origin.

The rod is screw-threaded, suggesting that the item was made, but the fact that it was in the ground long enough for solid rock to form around it means that it must be millions of years old.

There were suggestions that the stone is a meteorite that fell to Earth from space, that is, the artifact may be of alien origin.

It is noteworthy that this is not the only case of finding metal screws in hard rocks; there are many other examples:

• In the early 2000s, a strange stone was found on the outskirts of Moscow, inside of which were two objects similar to screws.
• X-ray of another stone found in Russia found eight screws in it!

Williams fork

A man named John Williams said he found the artifact while walking through the remote countryside. He was wearing shorts, and as he passed through the bushes, he looked down to see if he had scratched his legs. It was then that he noticed a strange stone.

The stone itself is ordinary - despite the fact that some manufactured thing is built into it. Whatever it is, it has three metal prongs sticking out of it, like it's some kind of fork.

The place where Williams found the artifact, according to him, was “at least 25 feet from the nearest road (which was muddy and barely visible), no urban areas, industrial complexes, power plants, nuclear power plants, airports, or military operations (of which I would know) are nearby.”

The stone consists of natural quartz and feldspar granite, and according to geology, such stones are not formed over decades, which would be required if the anomalous object was made by modern man. According to Williams, the stone was about a hundred thousand years old.

Who in those days could make such an object?

Aluminum artifact from Aiud

This five-pound, eight-inch long piece of solid, nearly pure aluminum would have been found in Romania in 1974. Workers digging a trench along the Mures River found several mastodon bones and this mysterious object, which still baffles scientists.

Apparently manufactured and not naturally formed, the artifact was sent for analysis, which found the item to be 89 percent aluminum with traces of copper, zinc, lead, cadmium, nickel, and other elements. In this form, aluminum does not exist in nature. It must have been manufactured, but such aluminum was not produced until the 1800s.

If the artifact is of the same age as the bones of the mastodon, this means that it is at least 11 thousand years old, because it was then that the last representatives of the mastodons died out. Analysis of the oxidized layer that covered the artifact determined that it is 300-400 years old - that is, it was created much earlier than the aluminum processing process was invented.

So who made this item? And what was it used for? There are those who immediately suggested the alien origin of the artifact ... however, the facts are still unknown.

It is strange (or maybe not) that the mysterious item was hidden somewhere and today it is not available for public viewing or further research.

Piri Reis Map

This map, rediscovered in a Turkish museum in 1929, is a mystery not only because of its amazing accuracy, but also because of what it depicts.

Drawn on the skin of a gazelle, the Piri Reis map is the only remaining part of the larger map. It was compiled in the 1500s, according to the inscription on the map itself, from other maps of the three hundredth year. But how is this possible if the map shows:

• South America exactly located in relation to Africa
• West coasts of North Africa and Europe, and east coast of Brazil
• Most striking is the partially visible continent far to the South, where we know Antarctica is, although it was not discovered until 1820. Even more mysterious is that it is depicted in detail and without ice, although this land mass has been covered with ice for at least six thousand years.

Today, this artifact is also not available for public viewing.

petrified hammer

Near the city of London, Texas, in 1936, the head and part of the hammer handle were found.

The discovery was made by Mr. and Mrs. Khan near Red Bay when they noticed a piece of wood sticking out of a stone. In 1947, their son smashed the stone, revealing the head of a hammer inside.

For archaeologists, this tool presents a difficult task: the calcareous rock in which the artifact is located is estimated to be 110-115 million years old. The wooden handle is petrified like ancient petrified wood, and the hammer head, made of solid iron, is of a comparatively modern type.

The only possible scientific explanation came from John Cole, a researcher at the National Center for Science Education:

In 1985, the scientist wrote:

“The stone is real, and for someone unfamiliar with the geological process, it looks impressive. How could a modern artifact get stuck in Ordovician stone? The answer is that the stone does not belong to the Ordovician period. Minerals in solution can solidify around an object that has fallen into the solution, fallen into a crevice, or simply left on the ground, if the source rock (in this case, reportedly Ordovician) is chemically soluble.

In other words, the dissolved parts of the rock solidified around the modern hammer, which may be a miner's hammer from the 1800s.

And what do you think? A modern hammer...or an ancient civilization's hammer?

Despite the efforts of scientists from various branches of knowledge to create a logical picture of the world and our civilization, strange finds periodically come to light, inexplicable artifacts that “blow up the brain” and destroy the “building of science” built with such difficulty. We offer you the 10 most mysterious artifacts that science, unable to explain, simply ignores.

1. Grooved balls

Over the past decades, South African miners have been finding strange and mysterious metal balls. Their origin is unknown, they reach almost three centimeters in diameter, some of them have three parallel grooves in the middle. Balls of two types were found: the first were made from a single piece of bluish metal with white spots; the second are hollow and inside them is a porous white substance.

But the catch is that the rock in which these balls are found belongs to the Precambrian era, it is 2.8 billion years old! Who created them and for what purpose is unknown.

2. Ica stones

In the 1930s, Dr. Javier Cabrera received an amazing stone as a gift from a local farmer. He was so intrigued by the unusual nature of the stone that he collected more than 1,100 of these andesites, which experts believe are between 500 and 1,500 years old. This collection is collectively known as the Ica Stones. Images are etched on the stones, some of them are of a sexual nature (which is typical for ancient culture).

Among the images you can find idols, and some of the stones reflect such strange practices for antiquity as open-heart surgery and brain transplantation. But the most colorful and amazing are the images of dinosaurs, brontosaurs, three-horned creatures, stegosaurs and pterosaurs. Skeptics claim that the Ica stones are nothing more than a skillful fake, but scientists have never tried to verify their authenticity.

3. Antikythera mechanism

And here is another stunning find: off the coast of Antikythera, a small island located northwest of Crete, pearl divers discovered a sunken ship and raised several marble and bronze statues from the bottom, which were probably on the ship. Among the finds was a piece of oxidized bronze, inside of which a certain mechanism was found, consisting of several wheels and screws.

The inscription on the body indicates that the mechanism was made in 80 BC, many experts are sure that the device is nothing more than an astrolabe, an instrument used by astronomers. X-ray examination of the mechanism showed that it was much more complex than expected, it had a set of intricate gears of various sizes. Chronicles of a later period indicate that such mechanisms have been known to mankind since 1575! It is still unknown who designed such a complex device more than 2000 years ago, and why humanity lost this technology.

4. Baghdad Battery

Today, rechargeable batteries are sold on every corner. But there is only one, which, according to scientists, is 2000 years old. This curiosity, called the Baghdad Battery, was discovered in the ruins of the Parthian period, and is dated between 248 BC. and 226 AD The device consists of three components - a clay vessel 14 cm high, inside which a copper cylinder containing an oxidized iron core was inserted and fixed with resin.

The experts who examined the artifact came to the conclusion that this device could only be filled with an acid or alkaline solution, and it would be possible to obtain an ordinary battery that produces an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery could have been used for gilding objects by electrolytic deposition. If this is indeed the case, where could such advanced technology have gone, and why hasn't at least one more similar battery been found in 1800 years?

5. Artifact from Koso

In the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell, searching for valuable minerals in the mountains of California near Olanchi, found a stone that was no different from other geodes - a good addition to their store selling semi-precious stones. However, upon cutting open the stone, Mikesell discovered an object inside that appeared to be made of white porcelain. And in the center of the object was a metal rod. The scientists who conducted the study of this amazing find concluded that it would take at least 500,000 years for such an inclusion in the rock to form naturally. But this is not the main thing. The main thing is that the object inside the geode is of artificial origin. In other words, it was not nature that worked on its creation, but someone's hands.

Further analysis showed that the porcelain core was inside a hexagonal case. X-ray examination of the object suggested that at one end of the object there is a thin spring, as in a modern spark plug. You can imagine how many conflicting opinions have been expressed about this artifact! The most ardent skeptics have come to the conclusion that the outlandish find is just a Champion brand spark plug from the early 20th century.

But how could she get inside a stone that is half a million years old?

6An Ancient Airplane Model

The find, discovered in the tomb of Sacquar in Egypt, in 1898, is a wooden object about 15 cm long, outwardly resembling a miniature model of an airplane, with a fuselage, wings and tail. Experts are sure that the object was created according to all the canons of aerodynamics and is quite capable of flying like a glider. And a small object found in Central America and dating back about 1000 years is cast in gold and looks exactly like an aircraft with delta wings, namely the Space Shuttle. It even has something very similar to the cockpit.

7. Giant stone balls of Costa Rica

In the 1930s, workers hacked their way through the impenetrable jungles of Costa Rica looking for a site suitable for a banana plantation. Quite unexpectedly, they stumbled upon an amazing find: in front of them lay several dozen stone balls, most of which had an almost perfect round shape. The balls differed in size - there were small ones, no larger than a tennis ball, there were also huge ones, about 250 cm in diameter and weighing almost 16 tons! There is no doubt that these balls are the creation of human hands, who made them, for what purpose and, most importantly, how the master managed to achieve extreme accuracy is unknown.

7 Strange Fossils

Fossils, we were taught in school, can be found in rocks that formed many thousands of years ago. However, there are fossils, the occurrence of which neither geologists nor historians can explain. For example, how to explain the imprint of a human hand found in a limestone rock, which, according to scientists, is at least 110 million years old? An imprint resembling that of a human finger has also been found in the Canadian Arctic, also dated to 100 or 110 million years. And near Delta, Utah, they stumbled upon the imprint of a human foot wearing a sandal. It was found in a layer of shale clay, which, according to scientists, is from 300 to 600 million years old.

8 Unexplained Metal Objects

65 million years ago, people did not yet appear on earth, not to mention people who can work metal. How then, from a scientific point of view, to explain that in France, when drilling a rock dating back to the Cretaceous period, workers discovered a piece of an oval metal pipe? And in 1885, miners, having split a block of coal, found a metal bar, created, no doubt, by the hands of a rational being. An amazing incident occurred in 1912 at one of the power plants: a metal pan was found in a piece of coal, and a real nail was found in a piece of sandstone from the Mesozoic era. And these are not isolated cases, well-known stories!

9. Shoe print on granite

When mining a coal seam in Fisher Canyon (Pershing County, Nevada), a clear shoe print was discovered: a completely modern boot with double stitching on the sole. The imprint is so distinct that every stitch is visible. It can be understood from the print that this boot is size 13, the heel is worn more on the right side.

Looking at amber with a midge frozen in it, we understand that millions of years ago this unfortunate, sitting on some prehistoric Christmas tree, stuck to the resin and remained in it forever. For example, recently an international team of paleontologists led by Frauk Stebner from the University of Bonn discovered a midge frozen in amber in India, which is about 54 million years old.

What about the boot print?

10. Ancient footprint of modern man

Geologists have repeatedly found fossilized traces of ancient man. However, the trace that will be discussed undoubtedly belongs to modern man. One problem: it was imprinted in a stone that is about 290 million years old. The find was discovered in New Mexico by paleontologist Jerry McDonald in 1987.

All these strange finds raise more questions than answers. So we can only assume that:

1. Human civilizations existed much earlier than is commonly thought;

2. There were other intelligent beings on the planet who had their own civilization long before the appearance of man;

3. Our dating methods, methods of determining the age of rocks, are completely wrong, and rocks, coal seams and fossils were formed much earlier than we think;

Throughout the history of mankind, there have been people whose favorite pastime was to forge artifacts. However, the question - how they managed it - remains open.

As you know, a fact is a stubborn thing. And even more stubborn is an artifact (in the sense in which this word is used in computer games, that is, an artificially created object that exists despite scientific misconceptions about the world order). In fact, any object made by a person can be considered an artifact. Even an ordinary pushpin. Archaeologists around the world annually dig hundreds of artifacts out of the ground. And yet, we, non-specialists, are somehow more accustomed to using this word to mean mystical objects, sacred relics, or objects of mysterious origin. By the way, many of the artifacts that you know from adventure films have caused nervous breakdowns in hundreds of scientists on the planet. After all, these things exist and are not really explained in any way! We tried to unravel their mysteries. Aleksey Vyazemsky, Candidate of Historical Sciences, helped us with this;

In scientific circles, this subject is better known as "Mitchell-Hedges". It was his story that formed the basis of the fresh Spielberg blockbuster about the anti-Soviet adventures of Indiana Jones. And it was like this: in 1924 in Central America, an expedition led by Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges excavated the ancient Mayan city of Lubaantuna in search of traces of the Atlantean civilization. Frederic's adopted daughter, Anna Marie Le Guillon, discovered an object under the rubble of the altar. When it was brought to light, it turned out to be a skull skillfully made of rock crystal. Its dimensions are quite comparable with the natural dimensions of the skull of an adult woman - approximately 13 x 18 x 13 cm, but it is unlikely that some absent-minded Cinderella lost this crystal contraption. The find weighs a little more than 5 kg. The skull lacked a lower jaw, but it was soon discovered nearby and inserted into its proper place - something like hinges were provided in the design.

What is the mystery

In 1970, the skull underwent a series of tests at the Hewlett-Packard research laboratory, which was famous for its advanced technologies in the processing of natural quartz. The results discouraged scientists. It turned out that the skull was made of a single (!) crystal, consisting of three intergrowths, which in itself attracts a sensation, since it is impossible even with the modern development of technology. In the process of creation, the crystal had to fall apart due to the internal stress of the material. But the most amazing thing is that no traces of any tools were found on the surface of the skull! It seems like he just grew up on his own. It soon became clear that there were other artificial skulls made from natural quartz. All of them are inferior to the Skull of Destiny in terms of quality, but they are also considered the legacy of the Aztecs and Mayans. One is in the British Museum, another is in Paris, a third is made of amethyst in Tokyo, the Max skull is in Texas, and the most massive is at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. In addition, tireless researchers unearthed a legend according to which, since ancient times, there are 13 crystal skulls associated with the cult of the Goddess of Death. They came to the Indians from the Atlanteans (who would doubt it!). The skulls are guarded by specially trained warriors and priests, passing from generation to generation and making sure that the artifacts are stored in different places. At first they were with the Olmecs, then with the Mayans, from whom they passed to the Aztecs. And at the very end of the fifth cycle of the Mayan long-term calendar (that is, in 2014), it is these items that will help save humanity from an imminent catastrophe, if people guess what to do with them. The previous 4 civilizations did not think of it and were destroyed by disasters and cataclysms. It seems that the crystal skulls are some kind of ancient supercomputer that will come into action if you collect all of its components in one place. And more than 13 skulls have already been found. What to do?!

Voice of the Skeptic

Virtually every one of the crystal skulls was first thought to be Aztec or Mayan. And yet, some of them (for example, British and Parisian) were recognized as fakes: experts found traces of processing with modern jewelry tools. The Parisian exhibit is made of Alpine crystal and, most likely, was born in the 19th century in the German town of Idar-Oberstein, whose jewelers are famous for their ability to process precious stones. The problem is that there is no technology yet that can confidently determine the age of natural quartz. So scientists have to navigate the traces of tools and the geographical origin of minerals. So all crystal skulls, in the end, may be the creations of the masters of the XIX-XX centuries. There is a version that the Skull of Destiny is just a birthday present for Anna. He could well have been thrown to her by her father in the manner of Christmas surprises, but not under the tree, but under the ancient altar. Anna, who died in 2007 at the age of 100, said in an interview that the skull was found on the day of her 17th birthday, that is, in 1924. The author of this whole exciting story may be Mitchell-Hedges himself, the treasure hunter of Atlantis.

They were found in Peru, near the city of Ica. There are a lot of stones - tens of thousands. The first mentions of them are found in the chronicles of the 16th century. On each of the stones there is a drawing depicting in detail any scene from the life of ancient people.

What is the mystery

There are drawings that show horses that became extinct on the American continent hundreds of thousands of years ago. There are riders on horseback. Other stones depict hunting scenes ... for dinosaurs! Or, for example, heart transplant surgery. As well as the stars, the sun and other planets. At the same time, numerous examinations confirm that the stones are ancient, they are also found in pre-Hispanic burials. And official science does its best to pretend that Ica stones do not exist, or call them modern fakes. Who would think of putting images on tens of thousands of stones, and even carefully burying them in the ground?! It's absurd!

Voice of the Skeptic

All journalistic publications about Ica stones say that examinations have confirmed the authenticity of these artifacts. But for some reason, the data of examinations are never given. It turns out that all kinds of ufologists with atlantologists offer to seriously study these cobblestones only on the grounds that it would never occur to anyone to fake them. But the sale of Ica stones is a profitable business that the Ikians are willingly engaged in ... Ikiots ... in short, the inhabitants there. Well, some "scientists" too. Why not assume that they jointly put the production of profitable goods on stream? Or is that also too absurd an idea?

It was first known as the "Blue Diamond of the Crown" and "French Blue". In 1820, it was purchased by the banker Henry Hope. Now the stone is stored in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

What is the mystery

The most famous diamond in the world has earned the unkind reputation of a bloodthirsty stone: almost all of its owners since the 17th century have not died a natural death. Including the unfortunate French Queen Marie Antoinette ...

Voice of the Skeptic

Imagine, the Russian grand dukes and tsars, from Ivan Kalita to Peter the Great, were crowned with the Monomakh's cap. And they all died too! Many - not by their death, but from various diseases! Creepy, right? Here it is, the curse of Monomakh! Moreover, the fact of life, death and contact with this killer hat in each case can be confirmed by documents, unlike the biographies of other Hope owners. Among which, by the way, there are those who lived quite a prosperous life, Louis XIV for example. And you can also derive an equation in which the length of the life of the owner of a diamond is inversely proportional to the size of the gem. But this is from another area ...

In 1929, a fragment of a world map on the skin of a gazelle was found in Istanbul's Topkapı Palace. The document is dated 1513 and signed in the name of the Turkish admiral Piri ibn Hadji Mamed, and later became known as the Piri Reis map (“reis” in Turkish means “master”). And in 1956, a certain Turkish naval officer presented it to the American Marine Hydrographic Office, after which the subject was thoroughly investigated.

What is the mystery

The most amazing thing is not even that the east coast of South America is depicted in detail on the map (this is only 20 years after the first voyage of Columbus!). Before the inquisitive gaze of scientists, a medieval document appeared - the authenticity is beyond doubt - a document on which Antarctica is clearly depicted. But it was opened only in 1818! And this is far from the only secret of the map: the coast of Antarctica is depicted as if the continent is free from ice (whose age is from 6 to 12 thousand years). At the same time, the outlines of the coastline are consistent with the seismographic data of the Swedish-British expedition of 1949. Piri Reis, when compiling the map, honestly admitted in his notes that he used several cartographic sources, including very ancient ones, from the time of Alexander the Great. But how could the ancients know about Antarctica? Of course, from the super-civilization of the Atlanteans! This is the conclusion reached by enthusiasts like Charles Hapgood, while representatives of mainstream science bashfully remained silent. They are still silent to this day. Many other similar maps have also been found, including, for example, those compiled by Oronteus Finneus (1531) and Mercator (1569). The data given in them can only be explained by the fact that there was a certain primary source. From it, cartographers copied information about those places that they simply could not know about. And the compilers of this ancient source knew that the Earth is a ball, accurately represented the length of the equator and mastered the basics of spherical trigonometry.

Voice of the Skeptic

If you believe the Piri Reis map (or rather, the mysterious source), Antarctica was located differently in ancient times, and this difference is about 3000 kilometers. Neither paleontologists nor geologists have any information about such a global continental shift that happened about 12 thousand years ago. In addition, the ice-free coastline of Antarctica simply cannot match modern data. During the icing, it should have changed significantly. So the map of the unknown continent, most likely, is the speculation of an ancient author, which, by a lucky chance, approximately coincided with reality, or another modern fake.

From time to time, perfectly round balls are found in different places on the planet. Their sizes are different - from 0.1 to 3 meters. Sometimes there are strange inscriptions and drawings on the balls. The most mysterious are the balls found in Costa Rica.

What is the mystery

It is not known who made them, why and how. The ancient people obviously could not grind them to such a round shape! Maybe these are messages from other civilizations? Or maybe the balls were carved by the Atlanteans, who encoded important information in them?

Voice of the Skeptic

Geologists believe that such round objects may well be obtained in a natural, natural way. For example, if a stone falls into a pit located in the bed of a mountain river, the water will grind it down to a round state. And inscriptions with drawings are not only on stones, but also on the walls of elevators and fences. And, as a rule, they are autographs of contemporaries.

K restas were discovered in the 19th century in Quintana Roo (Yucatan). It is known that the Maya, long before the appearance of Christians in Mesoamerica, revered their symbol, in any case, the ancient Temple of the Cross has been preserved in Palenque. By the way, therefore, during the Spanish colonization, the natives reacted favorably to Christianity.

What is the mystery

According to legend, a huge cross carved from wood suddenly spoke in 1847 in the village of Chan. He called the Indians - the descendants of the Maya - to a holy war against the whites. He continued to give voice, leading the Indians during combat operations. Soon, two more similar talking objects appeared. The village of Chan became the Indian capital of Chan Santa Cruz, where a sanctuary of crosses was erected. In 1901, the Mexicans managed to capture the sacred capital, but the Mayans managed to carry their feet and crosses into the selva. The struggle for independence continued. Historians call these events the war of the Mexican government with the state of the Crusob Indians - the “Land of Talking Crosses”. In 1915, the Indians recaptured Chan Santa Cruz, and one of the crosses spoke again. He urged to kill every white who wanders into Indian lands. The war ended only in 1935 with the recognition of the independence of the Indians on the terms of broad autonomy. The descendants of the Maya believe that they won thanks to the talking crosses, which still stand in the sanctuary of the current capital of Champon, but in silence. The official religion of the free Indians is still the cult of the three "talking crosses".

Voice of the Skeptic

This phenomenon can have at least two explanations. First, it is known that the Indians of Mexico often used the narcotic substance peyote in their rituals. Under its influence, you can have conversations not only with a wooden cross, but also with your own tomahawk. But seriously, the art of ventriloquism has been known for a long time. In many nations, it was owned by priests and clergymen. Even an inexperienced ventriloquist is quite capable of uttering a couple of simple phrases like: “Kill all whites!” or "Bring more tequila!" We should also not forget that none of the modern scientists have yet heard a single word from the "speaking crosses", even if it is obscene.

The Shroud is located in Turin, in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It is stored under bulletproof glass in a special chest. According to legend, it was in this shroud that Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus Christ. The modern history of this piece of matter begins in 1353, when it ended up in the possession of Geoffroy de Charny, who lived in his own estate near Paris, by unknown means. He claimed that she got him from the Templars. In 1532, the linen was damaged by a fire in Chamberti, and in 1578 the shroud was transported to Turin. In the 80s of the last century, it was presented to the Vatican by the Italian king Umberto II.

What is the mystery

On a four-meter canvas (length - 4.3 meters, width - 1.1 meters), a clear image of a person is visible. More precisely, two symmetrical images located "head to head". One of the images is a man lying with his hands folded just below his stomach, the other is the same man, viewed from the back. The images are similar to a film negative and show through clearly on the fabric. There are traces of bruises from whips, from a crown of thorns on the head and a wound in the left side, as well as bloody marks on the wrists and soles of the feet (presumably from nails). All details of the image correspond to the gospel evidence of the martyrdom of Christ. Both physicists and lyricists (in the sense, historians) fought over the secret of the shroud. Some of them became believers after that. The Shroud was shone through with infrared rays, studied under powerful microscopes, analyzed the pollen found in the tissue - in a word, they did everything, but so far none of the scientists has been able to explain how and with what help these images were made. They are NOT painted. They did NOT appear as a result of radiation exposure (there was such a fantastic hypothesis). Radiocarbon analysis, carried out in 1988, showed that the time of the shroud's creation was the 12th-14th centuries. However, Russian doctor of technical sciences Anatoly Fesenko explained that the carbon composition of linen could "rejuvenate". The fact is that after the fire, the fabric was cleaned with hot oil or even boiled in oil, so carbon from the 16th century got into it, which caused incorrect dating. There are other facts confirming that this is not a medieval, but an older and generally miraculous thing. Miracle?!

Voice of the Skeptic

It's time to become like Rene Descartes, who once logically reasoned that being a believer is more reliable than an atheist, since you can get a posthumous ticket to heaven. After all, God (if he exists) will be pleased that you believed in him. But while you are still alive, look into scientific articles and read that the Jews wrapped the dead not in shrouds, but in funeral shrouds. That is, they were bandaged with ribbons using aromatic resins and substances. This is exactly what was done to Christ after his death, which is recorded in the Gospel of John. Therefore, it is not necessary to talk about the absolute correspondence of the images of the shroud to the Gospel testimonies. Moreover, the deceased sons and daughters of Israel were never laid in the position of a football player standing in the “wall”. The tradition of drawing people with their hands folded shyly on their genitals appeared after the 11th century, and in Europe. It remains to be added that many serious scientists just do not doubt the data of radiocarbon analysis carried out by three independent laboratories. Taking into account all Fesenko's calculations, it is possible to add another 40 years to the age of the shroud, even 100, but by no means more than a thousand. And one more interesting detail: shortly before the appearance of this artifact, that is, in the 13th-14th centuries, there were 43 (!) shrouds in Europe. The owner of each probably swore that he had the same one, the true one, handed over personally into the hands of almost Joseph of Arimathea himself.

Are you looking for a grandmother?

There are still artifacts that have not yet been found by anyone. It's up to you!

holy grail
In theory, this is a simple bowl into which the blood of the crucified Christ was collected. In fact, it can look like anything, because it is a classic that-which-cannot-be. Most likely, the Grail simply does not exist, it is a literary myth.

Ark of the Covenant
Something like a massive box with the Tablets of the Covenant stored inside and the 10 commandments on them. Be especially careful with this object: it is believed that anyone who touches it immediately dies.

golden woman
According to the medieval geographer Mercator, it is located somewhere in Siberia. This is a figurine (and maybe a statue) of the Finno-Ugric goddess Yumala. She is credited with supernatural powers. Adventurers are also attracted by the metal from which it is made. Yes, yes, it is pure gold. We can say, not a woman, but a treasure!

Photo: APP / East News; Corbis/RGB; Alamy/Photas.

Let's not talk about the numerous discovered stone tools that were produced at a time when, according to scientists, man did not exist. Let's think about more exotic finds.

Let's not talk about the numerous discovered stone tools that were produced at a time when, according to scientists, man did not exist. Let's think about more exotic finds. For example, in 1845, in one of the quarries in Scotland, a nail was found embedded in a block of limestone, and in 1891, an article appeared in one of the American newspapers about a gold chain about 25 cm long, which turned out to be walled up in a block of coal, not older than less than 260 million years.

A message about an extremely unusual find was published in a scientific journal in 1852. It was about a mysterious vessel about 12 cm high, two halves of which were discovered after an explosion in one of the quarries. This vase, with clear images of flowers, was located inside a rock that is 600 million years old. In 1889, in the state of Idaho (USA), while drilling a well, from a depth of more than 90 m, a figure of a woman about 4 cm high was extracted. According to geologists, her age was at least 2 million years.

For the past few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal balls. These balls of unknown origin are about an inch in diameter, and some of them are engraved with three parallel lines running along the axis of the object. Two types of balls have been found: one consists of a hard bluish metal with white spots, while the other is emptied from the inside and filled with a white spongy substance. Interestingly, the stone in which they were found belongs to the Precambrian period and dates back 2.8 billion years! Who and why made these spheres is still a mystery.

While searching for minerals in the mountains of California near Olancha in the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell found what they thought was a geode—a nice addition to their gem shop. However, after cutting the stone, Mikesell found an object inside that looked like white porcelain. At its center was a shaft of shiny metal. The experts concluded that if it was a geode, it would have taken approximately 500,000 years to form, but the object inside was clearly a piece of human production.
Further examination determined that the porcelain was surrounded by a hexagonal body, and X-rays revealed a tiny spring at one end, similar to a spark plug. As you might have guessed, this artifact is surrounded by some controversy. Some argue that the object was not inside the geode, but was covered in hardened clay.
The find itself was identified by experts as a spark plug from the 1920s. Unfortunately, Koso's artifact has been lost and cannot be thoroughly studied. Is there a natural explanation for this phenomenon? Was it found, as the discoverer claimed, inside the geode? If this is true, how could a 1920s-era spark plug get inside a stone that is 500,000 years old?

In 1968, the workers of the quarry of Saint-Jean-de-Livet (France) were quite surprised when semi-oval metal pipes of various sizes, clearly made by intelligent beings, were found inside the Cretaceous layer about 65 million years old.
And quite recently, in Russia, an ordinary bolt was found in ancient rock, which hit a stone about 300 million years ago ...

The last sensation among the anomalous finds can be considered the Chandar map, discovered in Bashkiria. The map is a stone slab with a relief image of the area from the Ufa Upland to the town of Meleuz. The map shows numerous channels, as well as dams and water intakes.
The slab with the map seems to consist of three layers: the first is the base and is a substance resembling cement, the other two layers - made of silicon and porcelain - were clearly intended not only to better display the details of the relief, but also to preserve the entire image as a whole. According to scientists, it is about 50 million years old...
According to the vice-rector of the Bashkir University A. N. Chuvyrov, the map could have been made by aliens from outer space, who in ancient times were going to inhabit our planet.

Sixty-five million years ago there were no humans, let alone anyone who could work with metal. In that case, how does science explain semi-oval metal pipes dug in France from Cretaceous chalk?
In 1885, when a piece of coal was broken, a metal cube was discovered, clearly processed by a craftsman. In 1912, power station workers broke a large piece of coal from which an iron pot fell out. A nail was found in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic era. There are a LOT of similar anomalies.

In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt all curious and open-minded scientists to reexamine and rethink the history of life on Earth.

So, we moved on to the question of the authorship of numerous anomalous finds. Perhaps the easiest way, and even more profitable for scientists, is to blame everything on the unfortunate humanoids. Here they lost a bolt, then a mug, and in Bashkiria they dropped a map weighing one ton ... What we now find in the bowels of the Earth, all these are tricks of aliens ... Only here are the scales of these "tricks", and their geography are impressive: it begins to seem that once upon a time our Earth was simply inhabited by aliens ... Then, maybe we ourselves are also aliens? ..

Footprint on granite
This fossil trace was found in a seam of coal in Fisher Canyon, Nevada. According to estimates, the age of this coal is 15 million years!
And lest you think that this is a fossil of some animal, the shape of which resembles the sole of a modern boot, examination of the footprint under a microscope revealed clearly visible traces of a double seam line along the perimeter of the form. The footprint is about a size 13 and the right side of the heel appears to be more worn than the left.
How did the imprint of modern shoes 15 million years ago end up on a substance that later became coal? There are several options:
The trail was left recently and coal is not formed for millions of years (which science does not agree), or ...
Fifteen million years ago, there were people (or something like people for whom we have no historical data) walking around in shoes, or ...
The time travelers traveled back in time and inadvertently left a trail, or...
This is a well thought out gamble.

ancient footprint Today, such footprints can be seen on any beach or muddy ground. But this footprint - clearly anatomically similar to that of a modern human - is frozen in stone, which is estimated to be about 290 million years old. The discovery was made in 1987 in New Mexico by paleontologist Jerry McDonald. He also found traces of birds and animals, but found it difficult to explain how this modern trace appeared on the Permian rock, which, according to experts, is 290-248 million years old. According to modern scientific thinking, it was formed long before humans (or even birds and dinosaurs) appeared on this planet. In a 1992 Smithsonian Magazine article on the find, it was noted that paleontologists call such anomalies "problematica." In fact, they are big problems for scientists. This is the white crow theory: all you have to do to prove that not all ravens are black is just to find one white one. In the same way, to challenge the history of modern man (or perhaps our way of estimating the age of rock strata), we need to find a fossil like this. However, scientists simply shelve such artifacts, call them "problematica" and move on with their adamant beliefs, because reality is too inconvenient. Is this the right science?

A much more serious hypothesis explaining the anomalous finds in rocks is the assumption of the existence on Earth in the distant past of a proto-civilization that reached a high development and disappeared in a global catastrophe. This hypothesis irritates scientists most of all, because it breaks a more or less harmonious concept of not only the emergence and development of mankind, but also the formation of life on Earth in general.
Well, let's say people existed millions of years ago and even ran a race with dinosaurs, then there should be some fossilized bones left from them? That's just the point, that remained! In 1850, in Italy, in rocks 4 million years old, a skeleton was discovered that, in its structure, is quite consistent with modern man. And in California, in gold-bearing gravel, at least 9 million years old, human remains were also found.
These finds were not isolated, but just like all those found in very ancient rocks, human remains knocked the ground out from under the feet of conservative scientists: anomalous bones were either hidden in storerooms or declared fake. Ultimately, it turns out that scientists have at their disposal not only anomalous artifacts, but also very ancient human remains that do not fit into any chronological framework of the alleged human evolution.

Antikytherian computer

Let's take a closer look at this find.
In early 1900, Elias Stadiatos and a group of other Greek divers were fishing for sea sponges off the coast of the small rocky island of Andikithira, located between the southern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula and the island of Crete. Rising from another dive, Stadiatos began to mumble something about "many dead naked women" lying on the seabed. Upon further examination of the bottom at a depth of almost 140 feet, the diver discovered the wreck of a sunken Roman freighter 164 feet long. Items from the 1st century BC were on the ship. BC e .: marble and bronze statues (dead naked women), coins, gold jewelry, pottery and, as it turned out later, pieces of oxidized bronze that fell apart immediately after rising from the bottom of the sea. The finds from the shipwreck were immediately studied, described and sent to the National Museum of Athens for exhibition and storage. On May 17, 1902, the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Stais, studying the unusual fragments from sunken ships covered with marine growths that had lain at sea for up to 2000 years, noticed in one piece a gear wheel with an inscription similar to Greek writing.
A wooden box was found next to the unusual object, but it, like the wooden boards from the ship itself, soon dried out and crumbled. Further research and careful cleaning of the oxidized bronze revealed several more fragments of the mysterious object. Soon a skilfully made gear mechanism made of bronze, measuring 33x17x9 cm, was found. BC e. - this is how the sunken ship was dated according to the pottery found on it. Many researchers believed that the mechanism was a medieval astrolabe - an astronomical instrument for observing the movement of the planets used in navigation (the oldest known example was an Iraqi astrolabe of the 9th century). However, it was not possible to come to a common opinion regarding the dating and purpose of creating the artifact, and soon the mysterious object was forgotten.
In 1951, British physicist Derek De Solla Price, then professor of the history of science at Yale University, became interested in the ingenious mechanism from the sunken ship and began to study it in detail. In June 1959, after eight years of careful study of X-ray images of the subject, the results of the analysis were presented in an article entitled "The Ancient Greek Computer" and published in Scientific American. With the help of x-rays, at least 20 individual gears were examined, including a semi-axial one, which was previously considered an invention of the 16th century. The side gear allowed the two rods to rotate at different speeds, similar to the rear axle of automobiles. Summing up his research, Price came to the conclusion that the Antikythera find is the wreckage of the "greatest astronomical clock", the prototypes of "modern analog computers." His article was met with disapproval in the scientific world. Some professors refused to believe in the possibility of such a device and suggested that the object must have fallen into the sea in the Middle Ages and accidentally ended up among the wreckage of a shipwreck.
In 1974, Price published the results of a more complete study in a monograph entitled Greek Instruments: The Antikythera Mechanism - The Calendar Computer of 80 B.C. e.". In his work, he analyzed X-rays made by the Greek radiographer Christos Karakalos and gamma radiography data obtained by him. Price's further research showed that the ancient scientific instrument actually consisted of more than 30 gears, but most of them are not fully represented. However, even the surviving fragments allowed Price to conclude that when the crank was turned, the mechanism should have shown the movement of the Moon, the Sun, possibly the planets, as well as the rise of the main stars. According to the functions performed, the device resembled a complex astronomical computer. It was a working model of the solar system, once housed in a wooden box with hinged doors that protected the inside of the mechanism. The inscriptions and the arrangement of the gears (as well as the annual circle of the object) led Price to the conclusion that the mechanism is associated with the name of Geminus of Rhodes, a Greek astronomer and mathematician who lived around 110-40 years. BC e. Price decided that the Antikythera mechanism was designed on the Greek island of Rhodes, off the coast of Turkey, possibly even by Geminus himself, around 87 BC. e. Among the remains of the cargo with which the wrecked ship sailed, jugs from the island of Rhodes were indeed found. Apparently, they were taken from Rhodes to Rome. The date when the ship went under water, with a certain degree of certainty, can be attributed to 80 BC. e. The object was already several years old at the time of the crash, so today the date of creation of the Antikythera mechanism is considered to be 87 BC. e.

In this case, it is possible that the device was created by Geminus on the island of Rhodes. This conclusion seems plausible also because Rhodes in those days was known as a center of astronomical and technological research. In the II century. BC e. the Greek writer and mechanic Philo of Byzantium described polybolos that he saw on Rhodes. These amazing catapults could fire without reloading: two gears were connected on them by a chain, which was set in motion with the help of a gate (a mechanical device consisting of a horizontal cylinder with a handle, thanks to which it could rotate). It was on Rhodes that the Greek Stoic philosopher, astronomer and geographer Posidonius (135-51 BC) managed to reveal the nature of the ebb and flow. In addition, Posidonius quite accurately (for that time) calculated the size of the Sun, as well as the size of the Moon and the distance to it. The name of the astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes (190-125 BC) is associated with the discovery of trigonometry and the creation of the first star catalog. Moreover, he was one of the first Europeans who, using data from Babylonian astronomy and his own observations, explored the solar system. It is possible that part of the data obtained by Hipparchus and his ideas were used to create the Antikythera mechanism.
The Antikythera device is the oldest extant example of complex mechanical technology. The use of cogwheels more than 2000 years ago is of the greatest astonishment, and the skill with which they were made is comparable to the art of clockmaking in the 18th century. In recent years, several working copies of the ancient computer have been created. One of them was made by the Austrian computer specialist Allan George Bromley (1947-2002) from the University of Sydney and watchmaker Frank Percival. Bromley also took the clearest x-rays of the object, which formed the basis for a three-dimensional model of the mechanism by his student Bernard Garner. A few years later, the British inventor, author of the orrary (a desktop demonstration mechanical planetarium - a model of the solar system), John Gleave, designed a more accurate model: on the front panel of the working model there was a dial that displayed the movement of the Sun and Moon along the zodiac constellations of the Egyptian calendar.
Another attempt to investigate and recreate the artifact was made in 2002 by Michael Wright, Curator of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Science Museum, together with Allan Bromley. Although some of Wright's findings differ from those of Derek DeSol Price, he concluded that the mechanism was an even more amazing invention than Price had imagined. Justifying his theory, Wright relied on x-rays of the subject and used the method of the so-called linear tomography. This technology allows you to see the object in detail, considering only one of its plane or edge, clearly focusing the image. Thus, Wright was able to carefully study the gears and establish that the device could accurately simulate not only the movement of the Sun and Moon, but also all the planets known to the ancient Greeks: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Apparently, thanks to the bronze marks arranged in a circle on the front panel of the artifact, which denoted the zodiac constellations, the mechanism could (and quite accurately) calculate the position of known planets in relation to any date. In September 2002, Wright completed the model and it became part of the "Ancient Technologies" exhibit at the Technopark of the Museum of Athens.
Many years of research, attempts to reconstruct and various assumptions have not given an exact answer to the question: how the Antikythera mechanism worked. There were theories that it performed astrological functions and was used to computerize horoscopes, created as an educational model of the solar system, or even as an elaborate toy for the rich. Derek De Solla Price considered the mechanism to be evidence of the high-tech traditions of metalworking among the ancient Greeks. In his opinion, when Ancient Greece fell into decline, this knowledge was not lost - it became the property of the Arab world, where similar mechanisms later appeared, and later created the foundation for the development of watchmaking technology in medieval Europe. Price believed that at first the device was in the statue, on a special board. The mechanism may once have been located in a structure similar to the stunning octagonal marble tower of the winds with a water clock located on the Roman Agora in Athens.

Research and attempts to recreate the Antikythera mechanism forced scientists to look at the description of devices of this type in ancient texts from a different point of view. Previously, it was believed that references to mechanical astronomical models in the works of ancient authors should not be taken literally. It was assumed that the Greeks possessed a general theory, and not specific knowledge in the field of mechanics. However, after the discovery and study of the Antikythera mechanism, this opinion should change. Roman orator and writer Cicero, who lived and worked in the 1st century BC. BC e., that is, during the period when the shipwreck occurred at Antikythera, tells about the invention of his friend and teacher, the previously mentioned Posidonius. Cicero says that Posidonius recently created a device "which, with each revolution, reproduces the movement of the Sun, the Moon and the five planets, occupying a certain place in the sky every day and night." Cicero also mentions that the astronomer, engineer and mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) was "reputed to have made a small model of the solar system." The speaker's remark that the Roman consul Marcelius was very proud of having a model of the solar system designed by Archimedes himself may also be related to the device. He took it as a trophy in Syracuse, located on the east coast of Sicily. It was during the siege of the city, in 212 BC. e., Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier. Some researchers believe that the astronomical instrument recovered from the shipwreck off Antikythera was designed and built by Archimedes. However, it is only certain that one of the most amazing artifacts of the ancient world, the real Antikythera mechanism, is today in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and, together with the reconstructed sample, is part of its exposition. A copy of the ancient device is also exhibited at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman (Montana). The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism unambiguously called into question the conventional wisdom about the scientific and technological achievements of the ancient world.
Reconstructed models of the device proved that it performed the functions of an astronomical computer, and Greek and Roman scientists of the 1st century. BC e. quite skillfully designed and created complex mechanisms, which for a thousand years had no equal. Derek De Solla Price observed that civilizations with the technology and knowledge needed to build such machines "could build just about anything they wanted to". Unfortunately, most of what they created has not been preserved. The fact that the Antikythera mechanism is not mentioned in the ancient texts that have come down to our time proves how much has been lost from that important and amazing period of European history. And if it weren't for the sea sponge fishermen 100 years ago, we wouldn't have this evidence of scientific advances in Greece 2000 years ago.

How can these findings be explained? There are several options:
- Intelligent people existed much earlier than we think
- In our history there is no data about other intelligent beings and civilizations that existed on our Earth
“Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and these rocks, charcoal, and fossils are forming much faster than we think today.

Tisul princess
One of the most interesting facts is the so-called "Tisulskaya find" - an amazing artifact found in the Tisulsky district of the Kemerovo region in the late 60s of the last century.

Oleg Kulishkin wrote about this discovery in issue 124 of the Arkaim newspaper.
Tisulskaya find
The name of the hero who told me this story, I will not name. For such revelations in our "free" society, one can freely become unfree.
During my last trip to Moscow, I met on a train a man with a strict, unusually intelligent face (like Stirlitz's). At first he kept silent, but the road is long, and his fellow traveler, as they say, boiled in his soul ...
It turned out that in front of me was a retired colonel of the KGB of the USSR, who had worked for many years in one of the secret departments. He left the organs in 1991 (did not accept the collapse of the Union). Now retired. Raising a granddaughter. I wrote down the story of a fellow traveler from memory. I think, on the whole, I managed to preserve the style of presentation and even some of the speech patterns of the narrator.
It happened at the beginning of September 1969 in the village of Rzhavchik, Tisulsky district, Kemerovo region. During overburden work at a coal mine, in the core of a twenty-meter coal seam at a depth of more than 70 meters, a miner Karnaukhov (later died on a motorcycle under the wheels of KrAZ) discovered a two-meter marble casket of amazingly precise mechanical workmanship.
The village of Rzhavchik and lake Berchikul from Kosmos At the command of the head of the site, Alexander Alexandrovich Masalygin (died in 1980. The official version is a stomach ulcer), all work was immediately stopped. They lifted the casket to the surface and began to open it, pounding the putty, which had petrified from time to time, along the edges). Not so much from the blows as from the heat of the sun, the putty had turned into a clear liquid and flowed. One thrill-seeker even tried it on his tongue (literally a week later he went crazy, and in February he froze at the door of his own house). The lid of the box was a perfect fit. For a more durable connection, the inner edge was bordered by a double edge, tightly entering the fifteen-centimeter wall thickness.
The opening came as a shock to those present.
The casket turned out to be a coffin, filled to the brim with a pink-blue crystal-clear liquid, under the spring surface of which a tall (about 180 cm), slender, unusually beautiful woman rested - she looked about thirty, with delicate European features and large, wide-open blue eyes. Thick dark blond curls with a reddish tint to the waist lightly covered delicate white hands resting along the body with short, neatly trimmed nails. She was dressed in a snow-white lace transparent dress, a length just below the knees. With short sleeves embroidered with colorful flowers. There were no underwear. It seemed that the woman was not dead, but asleep. At the head is a black, rectangular, rounded at one end, metal box (something like a cell phone), about 25 by 10 cm in size.
The coffin stood open for public viewing from about 10:00 to 15:00. The whole village came to see the miracle. Almost immediately, the discovery was reported to the district center. The authorities, firefighters, the military, and the police came in large numbers. By 2 pm, a brick-colored helicopter flew in from the region and delivered a dozen solid “comrades” in civilian clothes, who immediately declared that the place was contagious and ordered those present to move away from the coffin. After that, they cordoned off the place of the find and enumerated everyone who touched the coffin and even those who were close, supposedly for an urgent medical examination.

The “comrades” dragged the coffin, it was into the helicopter, but the burden turned out to be too heavy, and they decided to make the task easier by removing the liquid. After pumping out the liquid from the coffin, the corpse began to turn black right before our eyes. Then the liquid was poured again, and the blackness began to quickly disappear. A minute later, a blush played on the cheeks of the deceased again, and the entire body of the deceased acquired its former life-like appearance. The coffin was closed and brought into a helicopter, the remains of the putty were collected together with the ground in plastic bags and the witnesses were ordered to disperse. After that, the helicopter soared up and headed for Novosibirsk.
Five days later, an elderly professor arrived in Rzhavchik from Novosibirsk and gave a lecture in a village club about the preliminary results of laboratory studies of a recent find. The professor said that this Rzhavchik find would change the very understanding of history. In the very near future, Soviet scientists will publish the results of their research, and this will shock the scientific world. The age of the burial, according to the professor, is at least 800 million years! This refutes Darwin's theory of the origin of man from apes.
The woman was buried in the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era, millions of years before the advent of dinosaurs, long before the formation of coal on the planet, when, according to modern concepts, the earth was still a continuous plant kingdom. Initially, the coffin with the body of a woman stood in a wooden crypt in the middle of a deep thicket of the forest. Over time, the crypt completely rooted into the ground, collapsed and, without access to oxygen, for hundreds of millions of years turned into a monolithic layer of coal.
A coal mine near the village of Rzhavchik, Tisulsky district At first, an alien version was put forward, but a genetic analysis of the woman's body showed her 100% similarity with modern Russian man. Today we are one to one the same as our ancestors were 800 million years ago! It has been established that the level of civilization to which the woman belonged exceeds all known so far, including ours, since the nature of the fabric from which the “princess's” dress is made is not amenable to scientific analysis. The technique for the production of such material by mankind has not yet been invented. It has not yet been possible to determine the composition of the pink-blue liquid, only some of its constituent components, formed by the most ancient varieties of onions and garlic, have been identified. The professor said nothing about the metal box, except that it was being studied.
The lecturer left, and a couple of days later a tiny note appeared in the Tisul regional newspaper that an archaeological relic had been discovered near the village of Rzhavchik, which would shed light on history. Rzhavchane protested - so many sensations, and in the newspaper three lines!
The indignation subsided by itself when the Tisulsky district was suddenly cordoned off by the military, the police went through the yards, seizing the "seditious" number from the population, and the place where the coffin was found was carefully dug up and covered with earth.
And yet, despite the efforts of the authorities, there were fighters for the truth among the villagers. One of the heroes ran around all instances, even wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU, but a year later he died suddenly (according to the official version, from heart failure). When, within a year, all six "pioneers" of the coffin died one after another in car accidents, the surviving witnesses fell silent forever.
In 1973, when, according to the authorities, “everything calmed down”, on the shores and islands of Lake Berchikul, which is six kilometers from the place where the sarcophagus was found, large-scale excavations were carried out in the strictest secrecy all summer until late autumn. The place of work was cordoned off by soldiers and police. But, as they say, you can’t hide an awl in a bag!
Somehow, visiting workers, who participated in the excavations and kept silent for a long time, went into the district store, got drunk and let it slip that an ancient cemetery from the Stone Age was discovered on the islands. They flatly refused to give details, but the whole village saw how a “brick” helicopter flew to the excavation site every now and then and took something away, and upon completion of work on the islands and shores of Berchikul, hundreds of graves dug up and carefully covered with earth remained ...

It will be very difficult to get used to the fact that some time ago there was another civilization on our planet, much more advanced scientifically and technically than ours today.

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