Strange finds our ancestors left behind

Since people in the Stone Age and early cultures didn’t have any form of written language there’s no way of knowing why they left behind some of the things they did. We can only guess at the purpose of the artifacts and remains we have discovered and can only wonder why they went through so much trouble to do what they did. Here are a few strange finds our ancestors left around the world to get confused about.

25,000 year old mammoth bone circle

This find was only uncovered in early March of 2020 and will remain under excavation for months to come. Located near Kostenki in eastern Russia, this mammoth bone circle is 30 feet (9.14 m) wide and consists of 64 individual woolly mammoth skulls and 51 lower jaw bones. Since it has been dated around the 25,000-year old mark it is now the oldest known circular structure known to have been built by humans.

The thing that puzzles people is why they went through so much trouble to source so many bones as acquiring the skulls of 64 mammoths using nothing but sharp stones would have been quite a task and probably cost many lives. Researchers believe it could have been some kind of winter structure since there’s a spring nearby which would have provided unfrozen water through the winter, something rare in such a cold climate. As for it being a religious structure, it seems unlikely as nothing like this has been found before and no artifacts suggesting religious use have been found at the site. For now, it’s simply a large round building made of mammoth bones that have long since collapsed and been buried, but it’s the oldest one anyone on earth has ever built.

Göbekli Tepe

Located in south-eastern Turkey in the Anatolia region stands what appears to be some kind of temple which in itself doesn’t seem too mysterious. What makes this one so strange and even a little scary is that the oldest layer that’s been excavated has been dated close to 11,000 years old. There were indeed people in the country at the time but they were in the Neolithic stage, which meant they hadn’t even invented pottery yet.

The temple, if it even was a temple, has been built in the middle of a flat earth plain and after they finished building it they covered it in dirt and made it look like a small hill. So far 15 meters of structure has been uncovered on a hill that measures 300 meters wide and is believed to contain levels that go all the way to the ground. Each level is significantly older than the last, with three main layers uncovered so far dating about 500 years older than the last. The big question is how people who didn’t even know what pottery is manage to create a huge carved stone structure, and why did they go through the trouble of moving thousands of tons of soil to bury it afterward? Since restrictions have been placed on further excavation and no one currently has any idea how or why it’s built this one is going to confuse and frustrate researchers for many years to come.

The Inca Stones

The Inca stones are a collection of large carved stones made from a type of volcanic rock that can be found in the Ica province in Peru. Because the stones themselves date back to millions of years old there’s no real way of knowing when they were carved, but most estimates put them between 400 and 600 AD. The stones make up a series of walls in an Inca fort that in itself is quite impressive but nothing out the ordinary. What makes the stones so special is that no one knows how they were carved since they appear to be to the same level of accuracy that is achieved today by laser guided machinery.

The stones fit so perfectly together that it isn’t even possible to slide a piece of paper in between any of the gaps, and stones that have been removed seem to have perfectly flat surfaces and exact angles, something people using iron tools wouldn’t be able to create on stones of this size. There are no chisel marks and the connecting surfaces are flat to the accuracy of 1/1000 of an inch across all surfaces within the wall. Stone carving to this accuracy has never been seen before the Incas did it, and wasn’t seen again until recent decades with the invention of laser measuring and guided machinery.

Stonehendge

Everyone has heard of Stonehenge haven’t they? The ancient circle of stones located in Wiltshire that seems to be some kind of ancient temple. The structure itself is impressive but not unusual as stone circle worshiping sites have been found all over the world, though many are not as elaborate as this one. Stacking stones is nothing strange when it comes to ancient cultures, but what’s so confusing about Stonehenge is that the stones they used to build them came from over 130 miles (209.21 km) away from the Preseli hills in western Wales.

The structure was built around 3000 BC at which time people in Briton were very much still in the Stone Age and only had flint tools to work with. They could have carved the stones by hacking them away with other rocks, but how they transported such heavy rocks such a long distance and why will forever remain unknown. The stones that came from Wales weigh between 2 and 5 tons each and were also moved completely intact suggesting a more advanced transport method than dragging them over logs. The heaviest stones are thought to be from an area about 20 miles (32.19 km) north of the site, but again were transported using unknown methods and reasoning. In a time when people didn’t have metal to work with and couldn’t create wagons or ships, it seems odd they could move 5 ton rocks over 100 miles (160.93 km) without a single crack.

Antikythera mechanism

Around 2,000 years ago a ship left port in Ancient Greece heading to an unknown location. On board the ship was a device which has come to be known as the Antikythera mechanism, but for some unknown reason the ship it was carrying sank and wasn’t found until someone came across the wreck in 1902. At first, it was put into the back room in a museum and considered to be unknown junk, but decades later someone took a closer look and actually dated it to be around 2,000 years old and interest in the piece went sky-high.

The device contains a series of intricate cogs and wheels which seem to be some kind of analog computer used to calculate a specific thing, which is thought to be some kind of astronomical calendar. It appears the device can keep track of the location of the stars and might possibly be able to predict their movements, but why it was created is unclear. The level of knowledge needed to create the device has never been seen before anywhere in the world and wasn’t seen again on this level until at least 1000 years after it was built.