Have you ever wondered what secrets the skies hold about our ancient past? Thanks to groundbreaking technology called lidar, archaeologists can now unlock past mysteries in a way that was once impossible. With lidar, massive areas of land can be scanned in just a few hours, revealing incredible archaeological finds that might have otherwise gone undiscovered for centuries.
Today we will explore the exciting world of lidar and the big archaeological digs happening in the sky.
Think rocks are boring? Think again! Not only do they batter the heck out of scissors in a good old-fashioned game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” but they can also be in rather peculiar shapes. These are the 20 most unreal rock formations!
Throughout history, people have been fascinated by beautiful women. While black and white photography was a largely underdeveloped technology in the 19th or early 20th century, beautiful and iconic women of that era managed to shine through in a very poignant fashion. With the technology of today, we can now see these elegant and beautiful women of the past as they were meant to be seen. Let's watch a few examples of beauties from the bygone era come back to life in a very touching way.
Researchers at the University of Oregon state and the Natural History Museum in London confirmed that they had found the oldest known gecko fossil with life-like pieces after 100 million years of the amber-buried skeleton.
The tiny foot of this ancient lizard also displays the tiny “lamellae” or sticky headdress hairs, that to this day give modern geckos their unusual ability to cling to surfaces or run across a ceiling. Research programs around the world have tried to mimic this bizarre adhesive capability, with limited success.
This gecko’s running days are over, however, as only the foot, toes, and part of a tail are left in the stone. The rest might have become lunch for a small dinosaur or another predator during an ancient fight in the tropical forests of Myanmar during the Lower Cretaceous Period, from 97 million to 110 million years ago.
The find is at least 40 million years older than the oldest known gecko fossil, shedding additional light on the evolution and history of these ancient lizards that scampered among the feet of giant dinosaurs then and still are common in tropical or sub-tropical regions all over the world.
The findings were just published in Zootaxa, a professional journal.
“It’s the unusual toe pads and clinging ability of some geckos that make them such a fascinating group of animals, so we were very fortunate to find such a well-preserved foot in this fossil specimen,” said George Poinar, Jr., a courtesy professor at OSU and one of the world’s leading experts on insects, plants and other life forms trapped in amber, a semi-precious stone that begins as tree sap.
“There’s a gecko society, gecko clubs, just a lot of interest in these animals because of their unusual characteristics,” Poinar said. “So there are a lot of people pretty excited about this.”
Based on the number of lamellae found on its toe pads, this gecko was probably a very small juvenile of what would have become a comparatively large adult, possibly up to a foot long, the researchers say. Modern geckos get no more than about 16 inches long, although it’s possible there were larger species millions of years ago.
The juvenile gecko found in the fossil was less than an inch in length when it died – possibly by being eaten or attacked since only partial remains were found.
The discovery has been announced as a new genus and species of gecko, now extinct, and has been named Cretaceogekko. It had a striped pattern that probably served as camouflage.
There are more than 1,200 species of geckos in the world today, common in warm or tropical regions, including parts of the southern United States. They are frequently kept as pets, and often are welcome in the homes of some tropical residents because they help control insects. Some are very colorful. They use long tongues to lick, clean, and moisturize their eyes.
“Geckos are territorial, and when I lived in Africa in the early 1980s we used to have them in our house,” Poinar said. “They are pretty friendly and don’t bother humans. Certain individuals would move into the house, we’d give them names, and they would run around the house, catch mosquitoes, help control bugs. They would crawl across the ceiling and look down at you.”
The new study provides evidence that geckos were definitely in Asia by 100 million years ago, and had already evolved their bizarre foot structure at that time. The amber fossil was mined in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, and during its life, the gecko probably lived in a moist, tropical forest with ample opportunities for climbing.
The ability of geckos to walk on vertical walls or even upside down is due to the presence of thousands of “setae” on their toes, very tiny, hairlike structures that have tips which attach to surfaces by van der Walls forces. It’s a type of incredibly strong, dry adhesion shared by virtually no other group of animals.
It’s not known exactly how old this group of animals is, and when they evolved their adhesive toe pads. However, the new study makes it clear that this ability was in place at least 100 million years ago, in nature. Modern research programs still have not been able to completely duplicate it.
Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley reported earlier this year that they have developed a new “anti-sliding” adhesive that they said was the closest man-made material yet to mimic the ability of geckos – they think it might help a robot climb up the side of walls. A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by geckos, that may someday be used in surgery. And of course, geckos have become an advertising icon for the insurance company Geico.
This study is just one of many in which Poinar and colleagues have used the unusual characteristics of amber to study ancient life forms and develop information on the ecology of ancient ecosystems.
As a stone that first begins to form as sap oozing from a tree, amber can trap small insects or other life forms and preserve them in near-perfect detail for observation millions of years later.
In the following video we will be exploring the most unbelievable recent finds around the world. Watch the video to find out more!
In today’s video we will investigate this ancient iron pillar of India. It has many baffling features which have not been explained till date. One of the strangest features is that it has not rusted for more than a thousand years, although we can see some rusting in the recent years. Archeologists confirm that this was created at least 1600 years ago, but it could be much older than that. An iron pillar made such a long time ago should have rusted and completely disintegrated. How was such a pillar made, 1600 years ago, at a time when Historians claim there was no advanced technology?
In 2002, scientists studied the iron pillar and realized that it has a strange way of reacting to the atmosphere. Normally, Iron reacts with moisture in the atmosphere or rain and produces Iron oxide, which is called Rust (Fe2O3). This rust is very powerful, it will deteriorate the iron, and eventually destroy the entire structure. For example, if you look at this Nandu bridge in China which is less than 80 years old, it has been completely taken over by rust, making the bridge unusable. But the iron pillar does something very strange. When it comes in contact with moisture or rain, it produces a strange material called Misawite = y-FeOOH) which has not been seen anywhere before. This material actually forms a protective coating over the iron pillar and shields it from damage, and also increases its magnetic property.
Now, why does the iron pillar create Misawite instead of Rust or Iron Oxide? What makes this Iron pillar produce such a strange compound that is not seen anywhere else?
When archaeologists dig up an old ceramic pot, they can usually figure out what it was used for back in the day. The same goes for other ancient things like tools, temples, weapons, and even whole cities. But, there are still some things that even these experts can't fully understand, and that's when they might reach out to scientists for assistance. To show you what we mean, we've put together this video compilation of some pretty perplexing finds that archaeologists have found.
In the following video we will be going through the history of the Philistines, explaining who the Philistines were. Enjoy!
Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick - An axe, pick up a stone and shape it - A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. In this video we will build a hut from fired clay bricks and mortared them together with a cement made from wood ash left over from the firing process.
You stand there in awe, over-powered by their sheer magnificence. No wonder we've been intrigued, totally baffled for more than 4000 years. And of all Egypt's pyramids, the Great Pyramid at Giza is by far the most mysterious. It's so imposing, so perfect you can see why many insist it couldn't possibly be the work of mere mortals. It has to be a creation of the gods, either that, or aliens. But at last it seems this ancient riddle has been solved. There's one man who reckons he's figured it all out. And he's willing to share his amazing discovery with us. To take us to the very heart of the mystery, deep inside the Great Pyramid, where very few have ever been.
After a video showing vintage photographs of the Sphinx excavations from the 1920s and 30s we went on the hunt for more, and came across something we had never seen before, actual video footage of the Sphinx excavation and renovation work from nearly 100 years ago.
Most vintage black and white footage of the Sphinx comes from after 1930s, and you can tell this because the headdress has been restored, but finding footage of the Sphinx pre-1930s is incredibly rare. In fact such footage is generally stored on archives, owned by private companies and it never gets to see the light of day.
From a strange burial with a bird to a labyrinth from legend come to life, here are 10 mysterious archaeological discoveries. Enjoy!
Scientists are poring over the body of a puppy; but this is no ordinary animal. The young pup has lain frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 14,300 years. Painstakingly, the researchers extract samples of tissue from cartilage, liver and muscle. And once they’ve analyzed the samples in the lab they make a groundbreaking discovery – and it may have huge implications for science.
In the following video we will investigate something unusual that happened just 2 days before the dinosaurs went extinct. Watch the video to find out more!
New research suggests that extinct trilobites had a hidden third eye right in the middle of their foreheads.
Hidden Third Eye
Live Science reports that paleontologists are familiar with how these hard-shelled creatures had compound eyes that they used around 541 million to 252 million years ago, during the Paleozoic time.
The discovery of a hidden third eye is only recent. This eye was situated in the middle of their forehead, which is quite common among present-day arthropods. Findings were published in a Scientific Reports study.
When the researchers looked into an Aulacopleura koninckii specimen that had a missing part of its head, they discovered three tiny, inconspicuous, dark, and same-sized oval-shaped spots at the head's front.
Brigitte Schoenemann, the study's lead author and a substitute professor from the University of Cologne's Institute of Zoology, says that the regular and clear appearance of the feature distinguishes it from other formations that may have randomly formed due to fossilization or decay. It also corresponds with the expected relics of middle eyes that have a pigment layer. Schoenemann adds that, though this finding is singular, it supports the notion that ancient trilobites had median eyes on their foreheads.
Live Science also adds that, at varying evolution points, the creatures may have had one to multiple middle eyes. For instance, the scientists also discovered that the Cyclopyge sibilla trilobite had three median eyes that had lenses that were similar to human ones. The Cindarella ecualla, on the other hand, had four median eyes. Lately, most modern crustaceans and insects reportedly have three median eyes.
The study authors note that they now have a vital tool that can help in determining the position of the creatures in the evolutionary tree.
Trilobites
According to Oxford University's Museum of Natural History, trilobites are an extinct marine arthropod group that first showed up roughly 521 million years ago. Fossils of this arthropod group have been found across the globe.
Some of these creatures burrowed in the sediments, while others swam through open seas or crawled on the floor of the sea. Some trilobites could have also been predators, scavengers, or detritus feeders.
According to the Australian Museum, trilobites are the most species-rich arthropod group that is completely extinct. Among trilobites, its sturdy exoskeleton that covers the surface of its dorsal body and its "well-marked segmentation" are classic features of arthropods.
These creatures lived through almost the entire Palaeozoic Era for almost 300 million years. They became extinct by the end of the Permian period, which was roughly 251 million years ago. The Permian mass extinction event led to their eradication, as well as the deaths of over 90% of species across the globe.
A resurgence of paganism may once have brought demonic fears to early-modern peoples, but an ancient Polish community found a way to cope.
Burying bodies with a sharp, curved iron sickle pressed against the throat or hips of a body guaranteed that if the dead rose back up, they wouldn't get very far.
Five such graves have been exhumed from a 17th century Drawsko cemetery, and researchers say the unique burials hint to folk demonology.
Of the graves studied, four bodies were buried with sickles placed with the cutting edge tightly against the throat, according to the paper.
The fifth body had a sickle pressed up against the pelvis.
The researchers, Marek Polcyn and Elżbieta Gajda, have written that such burial practices are often viewed as 'anti-vampiric,' measures, or can indicate the graves of 'vampires,' but they dismiss this term in order to open up the discussion to include a wide scope of demons.
'When placed in burials they were a guarantee that the deceased remained in their graves and therefore could not harm the living, but they may also have served to protect the dead from evil forces,' the researchers wrote in a study published in Antiquity.
'According to folk wisdom, a sickle protected women in labour, children and the dead against evil spirits.
It also had a role in rituals designed to counter black magic and witchcraft.'
Five bodies with sickles were found among 250 burial sites in the cemetery showed no differences from the ordinary ones, and they were all of good health.
The bodies were buried in the uniform way of Drawsko sites, and all featured copper coins or a headband.
Sickles were found pressed the throats of an adult man, who was between 35 to 44 years old, and an adult woman around 35 to 39 years old.
Both skeletons revealed copper staining near the skull, which suggests a coin was buried with them.
An older woman, who was 50 to 60 years old when she died, was buried with a sickle laying across her hips, and a medium sized stone at her throat. Staining in the oral cavity suggests she was buried with a copper coin in her mouth.
Two more graves, both with sickles placed at the throats of the skeletons and traces of copper, revealed an adult woman between 30 and 39 years old, and a young girl who was just 14 to 19.
Researchers believe the youngest may have met with a traumatic death, possibly from drowning.
In all the sites, evidence of a wooden coffin was also found.
The sickles may have been used to physically prevent the dead from walking again and terrorizing the living, but they also could have been a symbolic attempt to ward off demons and protect the wearer's soul.
Superstitions held that a 'bad death,' would cause the dead to rise.
A violent or unpredicted end from drowning, miscarriage, suicide, death before baptism, or even death at one's own wedding could lead a person to transform into one of 14 demons.
People who were considered 'others,' and were thought to have supernatural capabilities, would also be at risk for post-death demonization.
Commonly, these people were buried outside of cemeteries in 'liminal locations,' where the transformation would occur.
At the Drawsko site, the researchers note that the deceased still received a traditional burial despite the implications of the sickles.
'The dead from Drawsko, no matter how demonic they may have been thought by their fellow villagers, were after all buried with Christian rites in a cemetery in hallowed ground,' the researchers wrote.
'Despite this adherence to the recognized funerary rites, the problem of demons remained in the collective consciousness, and the presence of the sickle was meant to solve it.'
Twenty-nine Greek antiquities, products of smugglers from Macedonia, Epirus, Central Greece, the Cyclades and Crete, which had entered the U.S. through the criminal networks of illicit trafficking in cultural goods, were turned over by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni to be returned to the land of their birth, the place and the people who created them.
They include marble and bronze figurines of people and animals, marble, silver, bronze and earthenware vessels, gold and bronze jewelry, parts of a fresco that were in the Shelby White collection and an extremely rare gold coin that refers to the day of March that Julius Caesar was assassinated, which was seized at an auction house.
These antiquities cover a wide temporal spectrum from prehistoric to Roman times.
The items were seized through the actions of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, and specifically Attorney General Alvin Bragg, New York Department of Homeland Security and Officer Ivan J. Arvelo, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos and his staff. The Department of Culture's Division of Documentation and Protection cooperated with the Attorney General's Office - again in this case - and provided archaeological documentation and all available information to facilitate their work.
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni, said during the ceremony, "The great successes achieved by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in recent years in the fight against antiquities led to the repatriation of hundreds of illegally trafficked antiquities to their countries of origin, including Greece. Once again, Matthew Bogdanos and his team worked closely with the Ministry of Culture, whose relevant directorate provided archaeological documentation and all available information to facilitate the prosecution's work. On behalf of the Hellenic Republic, I would like to thank them wholeheartedly and congratulate them all for their contribution to the investigation and, ultimately, to the successful conclusion of this case.They succeeded in fighting the illegal international criminal networks, whose action alters the identity of the peoples, as it cuts the archaeological findings from their contexts and turns them from evidence of the history of the peoples, into simple works of art. Greece, a country that has suffered great damage from antiquarian actions over the years, has as its first priority the restoration of its cultural heritage and seeks every alliance in this direction. The relationship of trust and close cooperation that has developed between the leaders of the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office and the Greek Ministry of Culture fills us with confidence that many more successes will follow."
Homeland Security Agency Director Ivan J. Arvelo said that "the antiquities trade is a billion-dollar business in which thieves and smugglers profit from cultural heritage. Greece, considered the cradle of Western civilization, is particularly vulnerable to this type of criminal activity. These valuable works of art, dating back to around 5,000 BC, were an important part of life in the ancient world. We are honored to work with our partners today to return this valuable cultural heritage to the Greek people."
New York Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos pointed to the daily efforts he and his colleagues make to combat the illicit trade in cultural property:
"The Secretary of Culture, Lina Mendoni, has added two outstanding members to our team, Ms. Papageorgiou and Ms. Vlachogiannis. We all work together, long hours, in the middle of the night and weekends, like a family, like a good Greek family, and we passionately discuss who will be the next target because we all have the same vision. We want to return the cultural heritage to where it was born and where it belongs. As archaeologists and other scientists study these ancient artifacts and wonder how they were found, this particular group will work together, as one man, for the next goal. It's only fair that this team celebrates today."
The unique cultural identity of Crete is highlighted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in the nomination file for six Minoan palaces - Zakros, Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zominthos, Kydonia - in the World Heritage List UNESCO, prepared by the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Crete and the support of the Region of Crete. In the collection of the documentary material, scientific institutions that have been active in the Region of Crete for many years, such as the foreign archeological schools and the Archeological Society of Athens, as well as the excavators of the sites, also played an important role.
As stated by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni, "The palace centers are among the most emblematic elements of Minoan culture. Geographically, they are distributed throughout Crete, and their general promotion beyond the Palace of Knossos is a priority for the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The serial recording makes it possible to show the most important palace centers while maintaining a complete representation of all aspects of Minoan culture. The preliminary management plan for the Minoan palace centers constitutes the "core" of their management, with the aim of highlighting their outstanding universal value as cultural assets, but also ensuring their authenticity and integrity. Through the application for their registration in the list of monuments UNESCO, the management of the Minoan palaces will be consolidated on a holistic basis and their inclusion in a cultural route that highlights and developmentally absorbs the dynamics of this unique and particularly rich cultural heritage".
The Preliminary Plan for the Management of the Minoan Palaces, unanimously endorsed by the Central Archaeological Council, follows the philosophy of a holistic framework for highlighting the Minoan culture as reflected in the six archaeological sites to be registered, and defines and ensures, in the short and long term, the methods for their protection and visitation. At the same time, it establishes a system for implementing conservation and management measures to preserve the sites' values and pass them on to future generations as intact as possible.
The preliminary management plan for the Minoan palace centers includes in its three main axes of actions for research and study, records the problems regarding the monuments and proposes measures for their protection and restoration, the upgrading and development of infrastructure and services for visitors with the aim of improving their overall experience in archaeological sites. The formulated objectives are specific and measurable, and divided into immediate, medium-term, and long-term actions according to the priority of implementation and need.
With the revision of the indicative list of Greece for the inclusion of monuments in the World Heritage List UNESCO in 2014 and in order to ensure the most complete representation of the Minoan culture, the previous candidacy of Knossos was expanded and transformed into a series entitled "Minoan Palace Centres (Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Kydonia)". Later, it was considered appropriate to include Zominthos in this series of nominations in order to better reflect the spread of Minoan culture in Crete. The six Minoan palace centers in the nomination series were established at key sites and cover geographically the entire island and chronologically the entire range of Minoan civilization from the Early and Middle Bronze Age of the foundation of the first palaces (1900-1700 BC) and the Late Bronze Age of the flourishing of the new palaces (1700-1450 BC) to the Final and Post-Palatial Period (1450-1100 BC).
The three fragments of the metopes, the frieze and the pediment of the Parthenon, returned to Greece from the Vatican Museums, were put back in their place.
The return of the fragments followed an agreement signed on March 7, 2023 at the Vatican Museum between the representatives of the Pope and the Archbishop, which provided for the handover of the sculptures to the representative of the Archbishop and then to the director of the Acropolis Museum.
Prior to the ceremony, a Vatican delegation was in Greece and met with the Archbishop of Athens Hieronymos. Welcoming the members of the Vatican delegation, Archbishop Hieronymos expressed his emotion and joy at the transfer of the three fragments from the Vatican Museums to the Acropolis Museum.
The Archbishop stressed that "the events we will witness today have filled the hearts of all Greeks with joy. The heroic decision of the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church to donate a treasure that may not seem great, but is the greatest gift for all of us, leaves us in gratitude. The Acropolis Hill and the Parthenon Temple are points that 'shake' the history and the path of every person in this place" he said. He once again expressed his emotion at Pope Francis' gesture for the return of the fragments, adding, "We especially appreciate the decision of the Roman Catholic Church to offer the fragments to the Church, which we as willingly gave to the Greek state, for display in the Acropolis Museum".
The delegation is led by Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Vatican Commission for Promoting Christian Unity, and includes the commission's undersecretary, Father Andrea Palmieri, Professor Dr. Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums and Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawlowski, Vatican nuncio to Greece. Also present were the principal secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, Bishop Filotheos of Oreoi, Evia the proto-secretary of the Archdiocese, Archimandrite Varnavas Theoharis, the general hierarchical commissioner, Archimandrite Iakovos Andriopoulos, the staff member of the Synodal Committee for Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations, Father Emmanuel Papamikroulis, and Archdeacon Father Ioannis Boutsis.
The head of the Delegation, Bishop Brian Farrell, brought greetings from Pope Francis and noted the special symbolic value of the fragments provided by the Vatican Museum. "It is true that one could not have imagined how much joy this initiative would bring to the Greek people, and we are deeply moved to participate in this historic event," noted the bishop, adding, "The value of contacts between the Churches is the most important thing. And I also want to emphasize the desire to be protagonists and representatives of the idea of cooperation between us".
We can now quickly and easily comprehend how humanity's perception of the universe has changed over the past two millennia thanks to Reddit user PisseGuri82.
Humanity has been aware of the appearance of the globe for around 190 years.
Or, more precisely, humanity has been aware of the dimensions and shapes of the land masses that rise above the waters, as well as how they relate to one another.
We have all grown up seeing visual representations of this knowledge in the form of the common world map, which is obviously deformed and typically created using the Mercator projection because it is impossible to accurately transform a three-dimensional globe into a two-dimensional image.
The global map used by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt, "the first to employ positions of latitude and longitude based on astronomical observations," in 150 AD, serves as the starting point for this Shape of the World infographic.
Although those findings didn't instantly result in anything approximating the map we remember from our elementary school walls, they must have been an advance over the pure speculation and guesswork utilized in earlier periods.
Medieval world maps, like the one seen on the diagram made by an unidentified French monk in 1050, were intended "not to explain the world but the Bible."
As a result, it concentrates on locations from the Bible like Jerusalem, the Red Sea, and even the Garden of Eden.
A little more than a century later, Muhammed al-Idrisi of Italy used a map that calculated distances using information from travelers and merchants on how long it took them to go to the far-off places they visited.
Although it includes "recognizable and detailed Eurasia and Northern Africa," the rest of the planet is only a rough approximation (and, needless to add, scarcely full).
We only reach a world map that would resemble the ones we use today in 1529, with the empire-minded Spanish Crown's official and secret "master map," updated "by Spanish explorers on pain of death."
Advances like the Mercator projection, which was created in the Netherlands in 1569 and improved in England 30 years later, as well as the marine chronometer, which was created in 1778, led to further innovations.
The last map in the graph, an Adolf Stieler creation from 1832 in which "only the unknown Polar areas are missing or shown erroneously," may resemble modern globe maps nearly identically.
Our ability to view the Earth is still evolving every day thanks to the increasingly precise digital maps and satellite imagery that are now included in our globe maps. Yet progress has undoubtedly not ceased.
In 2000 years, our descendants might find themselves in a setting we would hardly recognize.
