Unexplained creations of our ancestors

Even though many ancient cultures didn’t have a written language we still know a huge amount about them because after all, they were just like us but much more primitive. They still needed to farm crops and build homes just like us, but unlike us, they had a rather strange view of the world and did things so out of place that we can’t understand them. Here are some of the unexplained creations of our ancestors that we have no idea about.

1) Plain of Jars

This megalithic site was built during the Iron Age around the year 500 BCE within the current day Xiangkhoang Plateau in Laos. The area has close to 100 different sites that contain large stone jars that number between 1 and 400 jars per site, with well over 4,000 jars across the whole area. They appear to have been carved by hand and many have rims around the top, presumably to hold a lid or covering of some sort, but the problem is that no one has any idea why they are there. The people who built them were a long way from having a written language and there’s no mention of their purpose in any historic texts, leaving researchers to simply guess.

(One of the thousands of carved stone jars)

2) The Antikythera mechanism

This strange device was found at the bottom of the sea on a Roman ship that presumably sank after taking it from Greece to wherever they were going. The Antikythera mechanism is widely believed to be the world’s first analog computer, complete with a series of dials that are thought to be some kind of astrological prediction chart. It was built sometime between 200 BCE and 30 BCE by persons unknown, and no other information about its purpose or how to use it has been found.

(Part of the antikythera mechanism on display)

3) Stonehenge

It’s no secret that our ancestors had a very strange belief system and worshipped everything from mountains to lakes, and building a monument to worship their gods was the best way to show their dedication. That’s why Stonehenge itself isn’t that odd, but rather how people in the Bronze Age managed to build it is the big question. The rocks could have been put in place with enough people and ropes, but the blue stones used on top of the pillars came from a location 150 miles away in the Preseli hill range in Wales. People of this time couldn’t make part of the journey on the ships they had, and dragging stones of up to 5 tons that distance on a wooden sled without them cracking seems impossible with such primitive technology.

4) The cave of bones

Sitting in the Atapuerca mountain range in northern Spain is a series of caves, one of which is called “Sima de los Huesos” which means the pit of bones. The reason this site is so significant is because it contains the world’s first evidence of murder, in the form of many bones that could be as old as 600,000 years. There are several full skeletons that have been recovered from the hole and all have injuries that seem to have come from a blunt instrument, suggesting they were killed and their bodies dumped down the pit. This continued for some time as some of the bones are around 300,000 years old, though it’s not known why the bodies were put there and if it had another spiritual purpose other than a body dumping site.

5) Roman dodecahedron

A dodecahedron is a shape with 12 flat sides, nothing special right? But for some unknown reason, the Romans made a huge amount of these things and left them all over Europe, and no one knows why. They aren’t mentioned in any surviving Roman texts but have been unearthed at dig sites in many European countries, leading to the big question of what they were used for. There are many theories out there including some kind of measuring tool or perhaps a device for judging distances or even astronomy purposes, but the problem with these theories is that they come in a variety of sizes, and there doesn’t seem to be a standard that could be used for such purposes.

6) Göbekli tepe

This temple in Turkey is widely believed to be the first solid structure built by the human race. Before this temple was built, and for a long time after, people were living in huts made from wood or animal skins and had not been able to shape and stack stone like this. The final stages of building the temple were completed around 8,000 BCE, which would make it about 5,500 years older than the pyramid of Giza, but when the site was first occupied is unknown. When it was constructed, people were still in the Neolithic period which meant they hadn’t even discovered pottery or the wheel yet, so how did they manage to build such a huge temple? The other weird thing about this site is that after they finished building it, the whole temple was buried in soil which created a small man-made hill that was able to keep it hidden until the 1900s.

7) Pre-ice Antarctica maps

The continent of Antarctica has been covered in ice for many thousands of years, or so we thought. There are several very old maps that appear to show parts of the continent without any ice on it, most notably the Piri Reis map. This map was made in 1513 and was put together by an Ottoman Admiral and cartographer called Piri Reis who used a collection of maps he had acquired from all over the world. The map shows what seems like animal and farm locations on what is now land covered in thick ice, but on the other hand, it also shows that South America is connected to Antarctica by land. If it was simply a mistake and what he thought was Antarctica was actually another land, it seems very unlikely an experienced mapmaker would include millions of square acres of land, complete with markings by pure mistake.

(The Piri Reis map)