In
the late 2nd century AD, the Greek writer Pausanias wrote an account of
how (4-500 years earlier?) in one night a powerful earthquake destroyed
the great city of Helike, with a Tsunami washing away what remained of the once-flourishing metropolis.
The city, capital of the Achaean League, was a worship centre devoted to the ancient god Poseidon, god of the sea. There was no trace of the legendary society mentioned outside of the ancient Greek writings
until 1861, when an archeologist found some loot thought to have come
from Helike - a bronze coin with the unmistakable head of Poseidon.
In 2001, a pair of
archeologists managed to locate the ruins of Helike beneath the mud and
gravel of the coast, and are currently trying to peice together the
rise and sudden fall of what has been called the "real" Atlantis.
8. The Bog Bodies
This mystery may even be a problem for those legendary investigators from CSI and the like! The bog bodies are hundreds of ancient corpses found buried around the northern bogs and wetlands of Northern
Europe. These bodies are remarkably well preserved, some dating back
2,000 years. Many of these bodies have tell-tale signs of torture and
other medieval "fun", which have made some researchers postulating that
these unfortunate victims were the result of ritual sacrifices.
7. Fall of the Minoans
The
Minoans are best known for the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, but
it is in fact the demise of this once-great civilisation that is more
interesting.. While many historians concentrate on the fall of the Roman
Empire, the fall of the Minoans, who resided on the island of Crete, is an equal, if not greater mystery.
Three
and a half thousand years ago the island was shaken by a huge volcanic
eruption on the neighbouring Thera Island. Archeologists unearthed
tablets which have shown that the Minoans carried on for another 50
years after the eruption, before finally folding.
Theories
of what finally ended them have ranged from volcanic ash covering the
island and devastating harvests to the weakened society eventually
getting taken over by invading Greeks.
6. The Carnac Stones
Everyone
has heard of Stonehenge, but few know the Carnac Stones. These are
3,000 megalithic stones arranged in perfect lines over a distance of 12
kilometers on the coast of Brittany in the North-West of France.
Mythology surrounding the stones says that each stone is a soldier in a Roman legion that Merlin the Wizard turned in to stone.
Scientific
attempts at an explanation suggests that the stones are most likely an
elaborate earthquake detector. The identity of the Neolithic people who
built them is unknown.
5. Who Was Robin Hood ?
The
historical search for the legendary thief Robin Hood has turned up
masses of possible names. One candidate includes the Yorkshire fugitive
Robert Hod, also known as Hobbehod or Robert Hood of Wakefield.
The
large number of suspects is complicated further as the name Robin Hood
became a common term for an outlaw. As literature began to add new
characters to the tale such as Prince John and Richard the Lionheart the
trail became more obscure. To this day no one knows who this criminal
really was.
4. The Lost Roman Legion
After
the Parthians defeated underachieving Roman General Crassus' army,
legend has it that a small band of the POWs wandered through the desert
and were eventually rounded up by the Han military 17 years later.
First
century Chinese historian Ban Gu wrote an account of a confrontation
with a strange army of about a hundred men fighting in a "fish-scale
formation" unique to Roman forces.
An
Oxford historian who compared ancient records claims that the lost
roman legion founded a small town near the Gobi desert named Liqian,
which in Chinese translates to Rome. DNA tests are being conducted to
answer that claim and hopefully explain some of the residents' green
eyes, blonde hair, and fondness of bullfighting.
3. The Voynich Manuscript
The
Voynich Manuscript is a medieval document written in an unknown script
and in an unknown language. For over one hundred years people have tried
to break the code to no avail.
The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript suggests that it was meant to serve as a pharmacopoeia or to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine.
However,
the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about
the book's origins, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which
it was intended. The document contains illustrations that suggest the
book is in six parts: Herbal, Astronomical, Biological, Cosmological,
Pharmaceutical, and recipes.
2. The Tarim Mummies
An
amazing discovery of 2,000 year old mummies in the Tarim basin of
Western China occurred in the early 90s. But more amazing than the
discovery itself was the astonishing fact that the mummies were blond
haired and long nosed.
In
1993, Victor Mayer a college professor collected DNA from the mummies
and his tests verified that the bodies were all of European genetic
stock.
Ancient
Chinese texts from as early as the first millennium BC do mention
groups of far-east dwelling caucasian people referred to as the Bai,
Yeuzhi, and Tocharians. None, though, fully reveal how or why these
people ended up there.
1. Disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization
The
ancient Indus Valley people, India's oldest known civilization had a
culture that stretched from Western India to Afghanistan and a populace
of over 5 million. le—India's oldest known civilization—were an
impressive and apparently sanitary bronze-age bunch.
The
scale of their baffling and abrupt collapse rivals that of the great
Mayan decline. They were a hygienically advanced culture with a highly
sophisticated sewage drainage system, and immaculately constructed
baths.
There is to date no archaeological evidence of armies, slaves, conflicts, or other aspects of ancient societies. No one knows where this civilization went.
