100 Incredible Discoveries That Vanished Right After Being Unearthed

KirTop Top 100

Dive into a whirlwind tour of the world’s wildest archaeological discoveries and vanishing artifacts! From lost treasures to unsolved mysteries, you'll hear stories museums don’t want you to know. Curious about ancient aliens or hidden Nazi gold? Watch till the end! Hit subscribe so you never miss out, and drop a comment telling us which find blew your mind most. #history #mystery #archeology #adventure #curiosity  👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-100samyh  0:00:00 - Devil's Corkscrew Mystery 0:02:46 - Salt Mummies of Zanjan 0:05:15 - Plain of Jars and Burial Secrets 0:07:23 - The Rosetta Stone and Its Controversy 0:12:05 - Ancient Burials and Enigmas 0:21:02 - Colonial Loot and Museum Disputes 0:24:18 - Forgotten Artifacts and Archaeological Wonders 0:45:06 - Lost Treasures, Mysteries, and Modern Dilemmas  We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446rMw7NEQKZvD764T3X

Transcript

00:00:00I'm Kirtop, and these are 100 finds that appeared in excavations and vanished right away.

00:00:08This was preserved for 20 million years.

00:00:12In the mid-19th century, farmers in Sioux County, Nebraska, started noticing strange things right in their fields.

00:00:19Stone spirals were sticking out of the ground, twisted perfectly like a corkscrew, as thick as a human arm, and

00:00:25some taller than a person.

00:00:26No one understood what they were or where they came from.

00:00:30And pretty quickly, the name Devil's Corkscrews caught on among the locals, because there was simply no reasonable explanation.

00:00:36In 1891, a scientist, geologist Erwin Barber, finally came to see them.

00:00:42He examined the samples and found that the spirals were fossils, sand-filled tubes with fibrous walls, clearly of biological

00:00:50origin.

00:00:52But a kind, he couldn't figure out.

00:00:54The first theory was giant freshwater sponges, which seemed logical right up until geologists noticed that the rock surrounding the

00:01:01corkscrews looked nothing like the bottom of an ancient lake.

00:01:05It resembled a dry step much more, Barber switched to the fossilized plant theory.

00:01:11But then everyone noticed the bones.

00:01:13Inside the spiral lay the bones of small rodents, and plants, even back in the Cretaceous period, didn't drag rodents

00:01:19inside themselves.

00:01:20In 1893, two scientists independently came to the exact same conclusion.

00:01:26These are burrows, ancient burrows that filled with sand and fossilized.

00:01:30Barber wouldn't back down, arguing the shape was too perfect to be the home of some animal, that creatures just

00:01:35don't dig so flawlessly.

00:01:37In the end, the dispute was settled.

00:01:38It was settled by scratches on the inner walls, claw marks left behind by something when the earth was still

00:01:43soft and damp.

00:01:44In 1905, they identified the culprit.

00:01:47It turned out to be Paleocaster, an ancient beaver, roughly the size of a marmot, that lived here 20 million

00:01:55years ago.

00:01:55With short tails, tiny ears, and incredibly long front teeth that grew back rapidly to avoid being worn down by

00:02:02constant digging.

00:02:03This little creature pushed off the central axis with its hind legs, and literally screwed itself into the ground.

00:02:09Hence the perfect spiral.

00:02:10At a depth of about a meter, the burrow widened into side chambers for sleeping and raising young,

00:02:16sometimes with separate recesses that scientists consider toilets or water reservoirs.

00:02:20And the spiral entrance protected against predators.

00:02:23It's easy to stick a paw into a straight burrow, but much harder into a twisted one.

00:02:27Paleocasters disappeared when the planet's climate became dry and hot,

00:02:31and forests gave way to endless plains.

00:02:33But their burrows still stick out of the hills in a national park in Nebraska, 22 million years later.

00:02:40With a shape so perfect that a world-renowned geologist couldn't figure out what it was for 40 years.

00:02:46The Salt Mummies of Zanjan

00:02:49While tunnels and ropes show us the greatness of engineering,

00:02:52the next find reveals a terrifying and incredibly detailed side of life deep within Iran.

00:02:57In Zanjan province, at the Cherabad salt mine,

00:03:00time literally stood still thousands of years ago.

00:03:04Here, archaeologists discovered what at first glance looks like a crime scene,

00:03:08but is actually a unique natural phenomenon.

00:03:10The Salt Mummies, or Saltmen of Zanjan.

00:03:13It all started in 1993, when mine workers stumbled upon fragments of a human body.

00:03:19But these weren't ordinary bones.

00:03:21Salt, with its powerful preservative properties,

00:03:24had completely mummified the remains,

00:03:26preserving soft tissue, skin, hair, and even internal organs in pristine condition.

00:03:31The first find shocked scientists.

00:03:34It was the head of a man with long white hair and a beard,

00:03:37with a gold earring still glinting in his ear.

00:03:40Beside him lay his leather boots and an iron knife.

00:03:43Research showed that this man lived over 1,700 years ago,

00:03:47during the Sasanian era.

00:03:49To date, six such mummies have been discovered,

00:03:51and each one of them is a frozen moment of tragedy.

00:03:54The Cherabad salt mines were a place of grueling labor for centuries.

00:03:58Most of these men died instantly, as a result of a mine collapse.

00:04:02Salt buried their bodies, drew out all moisture,

00:04:05and created a sealed cocoon, protecting them from bacteria and decay.

00:04:09The youngest mummy is about 16 years old.

00:04:12Thanks to the exceptional preservation,

00:04:14scientists were able to reconstruct his diet,

00:04:16find traces of parasites in his intestines,

00:04:18and even determine his blood type.

00:04:20For us, these findings are important not only as biological material.

00:04:24This is a direct look into the past.

00:04:26The mummies still wear cotton and wool,

00:04:28clothing dyed with natural pigments that haven't faded over thousands of years.

00:04:31The intricate patterns on the fabrics and the quality of the leather footwear

00:04:36show that ancient Iran

00:04:37possessed the highest level of textile and leather production.

00:04:41The gold earring and expensive fabrics on one of the victims

00:04:44indicate that not only slaves worked in the mines,

00:04:47but also people of high social status,

00:04:49perhaps overseers or mine owners.

00:04:51These bodies are a living reminder of the price people paid for the riches

00:04:55hidden in the mountains of Iran.

00:04:57The salt mines of Cherabad still conceal dozens of unexplored corridors.

00:05:02Who knows how many more such witnesses to history frozen in time,

00:05:06this place turns the region's underworld into a giant time capsule,

00:05:09where the line between life and death is erased in an instant

00:05:12under the weight of the collapsed rock.

00:05:1537 corpses in a single jar

00:05:18Northern Aos mountain forests on the Shangquang Plateau.

00:05:22There is a place that is called just that, the Plain of Jars.

00:05:26Hundreds of giant stone vessels are scattered across the valley,

00:05:29and most of them stand empty.

00:05:31For a long time, scientists didn't understand what they were even used for.

00:05:35But then an international team opened up one jar under the working title Object 75,

00:05:40as tall as a man and over two meters wide.

00:05:43Picture a stone vessel the size of a small car stood on end,

00:05:47and it wasn't empty.

00:05:48Inside lay the remains of 37 people radiocarbon dating,

00:05:52revealed something even stranger.

00:05:54The jar had been used for 270 years,

00:05:57meaning people came back here again and again,

00:05:59generation after generation,

00:06:01placing their dead into the very same vessel.

00:06:03Grandfathers, fathers, children, all in one jar.

00:06:07This was happening roughly from the 9th to the 12th century AD,

00:06:10back when the Chinese Song Dynasty was flourishing nearby,

00:06:13as well as the Khmer Empire in Cambodia.

00:06:15But the bones weren't placed in there right after death!

00:06:18It turns out this was done in two stages.

00:06:21First, the body was left to decompose,

00:06:23and only then were individual bones transferred into the jar.

00:06:26The small jars nearby were most likely a temporary place where the body decayed.

00:06:31And when only the bones were left of the person,

00:06:33they were moved over to join the rest.

00:06:34Perhaps that's why most of the jars on the plain stand empty.

00:06:38They weren't graves, but transit points.

00:06:40As one of the excavation leaders put it,

00:06:42in many cultures decomposition is a transitional phase

00:06:45between death and the world of the ancestors.

00:06:48And transferring the bones signified that the transformation was complete.

00:06:51I wonder who these 37 people were?

00:06:54Relatives?

00:06:55A single community?

00:06:56Nobody knows yet, beads were found nearby.

00:06:58And the analysis showed that the material was brought from as far away

00:07:01as southern India and Mesopotamia.

00:07:03So this place was connected to trade routes across half of Asia.

00:07:06And even today, getting there is hard.

00:07:09Dense forest, mountains, and unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam War.

00:07:14Who do you think these 37 people in one jar were?

00:07:17One family?

00:07:18Or something else entirely?

00:07:19Let me know in the comments, I'd love to read your theories.

00:07:23The greatest artifact of ancient Egypt.

00:07:281799, the city of Rosetta in the Nile Delta.

00:07:32A soldier scientist is digging a trench for a fort

00:07:35and hits a black slab with three types of script with his shovel.

00:07:39Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek texts all tell the same thing.

00:07:44A decree of the Egyptian priests from 196 BC.

00:07:47Scholars of that time realized that if the texts matched

00:07:50and one was written in understandable Greek,

00:07:53it meant they could crack a language that had been silent for 1500 years.

00:07:57The slab itself weighs about 760 kilograms and stands just over a meter tall.

00:08:03That is heavier than a modern car engine.

00:08:05Except instead of metal, it is a solid piece of granodiorite,

00:08:09which still had to be carefully transported across the desert and the sea without shattering it.

00:08:13Speaking of how detailed the ancient Egyptians were in keeping records.

00:08:18Getting paid in bread and beer every week like a worker in Deir el-Medina sounds strange,

00:08:22but it is literally a documented fact.

00:08:24The Egyptians recorded everything, taxes, wages, and temple decrees.

00:08:29That's exactly why a stone with the same text in three languages

00:08:32turned out to be a goldmine for science.

00:08:35From there, it stops being archaeology and turns into trophy hunting.

00:08:38In 1801, Napoleon loses the war in Egypt.

00:08:41Under the terms of the surrender, all fines from the French scientific expedition

00:08:45are handed over to Britain,

00:08:47including the stone that had already been described and sketched by French scholars.

00:08:50The Rosetta Stone is loaded onto a ship and taken to London,

00:08:54where it has been in the British Museum since 1802.

00:08:57Yet it wasn't an Englishman who managed to decipher the inscription, but a Frenchman.

00:09:01In 1822, linguist Jean-Francois Champollion matched the cartouche bearing the pharaoh's names

00:09:06and finally cracked the hieroglyphic system, which no one had been able to read for 1500 years.

00:09:12The funny thing is, the French found the stone, the French deciphered it,

00:09:16yet it's Britain that keeps it and displays it to the whole world.

00:09:19You probably think that since the stone helped decipher hieroglyphs,

00:09:23it rightfully earned its place in the world's premier museum,

00:09:25but Egypt thinks otherwise.

00:09:27Since the early 2000s, the country has been officially demanding the stone back

00:09:31and constantly getting rejected.

00:09:33Many people think museums exist for the sake of science and enlightenment.

00:09:37But when it comes down to actually returning an artifact to its country of origin,

00:09:41the conversation somehow leads nowhere every single time.

00:09:44Tourists travel to this museum, foreign to them,

00:09:47just to connect with the history of their own culture.

00:09:49Egyptians look at the Rosetta Stone through glass in London,

00:09:52not in Cairo, where it was found.

00:09:54The British Museum is the only museum in the world that has almost nothing British in it.

00:09:59Though if you believe the old joke, never ask a woman her age,

00:10:03a man his salary, or the British Museum where they got their artifacts.

00:10:06It's worth taking a closer look at the stone itself

00:10:09to understand the full irony of the situation.

00:10:11The text on it isn't some philosophical treatise or a chronicle of wars,

00:10:15but a routine tax decree by priests honoring the coronation of Ptolemy V,

00:10:20exempting temples from certain fees.

00:10:22An ordinary bureaucratic document lay in the ground for 2,200 years

00:10:26to become the most important legal key in human history.

00:10:30And that's precisely why its fate matters not just to Egypt,

00:10:33but to linguists around the globe.

00:10:34The British Museum responds to official requests with the same standard statement,

00:10:39claiming the stone is part of global heritage,

00:10:42and that it is safer in a specialized, climate-controlled London facility than anywhere else.

00:10:48I just want to ask one thing.

00:10:49Is there really any logic to this preservation argument?

00:10:52Why is it that the very countries that once took these items by force

00:10:56suddenly turned out to be the only ones who can be trusted to preserve them?

00:11:00In the city of Rosetta itself, a full-size plaster replica of the stone

00:11:03stands today at the entrance to the local museum.

00:11:06Locals and tourists take photos next to an exact replica of the discovery made right here,

00:11:11but which Egyptians themselves have never seen in person.

00:11:14In over 200 years, the original has never once left London,

00:11:18not even for a temporary exhibition.

00:11:20Imagine for a second the reverse situation.

00:11:23What if some country had landed troops in London one day,

00:11:25shipped Big Ben away piece by piece,

00:11:27and spent 200 years showing it to tourists in their own land,

00:11:31claiming it was out of concern for the preservation of British heritage?

00:11:34Would many people consider that normal?

00:11:36That is exactly how the British Museum's official stance sounds to Egyptians today.

00:11:40Getting paid in cakes sounds funny.

00:11:42But that is precisely how part of the ancient Egyptian economy worked.

00:11:45Paying with food instead of coins,

00:11:48because coins as we know them simply didn't exist back then.

00:11:52I'm reminded of this every time I hear talk about ancient civilizations

00:11:55supposedly being more primitive than ours.

00:11:58People who implemented tax accounting in three languages

00:12:00simultaneously hardly deserve to be labeled primitive.

00:12:04Where did the shamans disappear to?

00:12:07In the mountains of southern Siberia, in the Minosinsk Basin.

00:12:10Rock drawings dating back about 300 years have been preserved.

00:12:14They were created in the 17th and 18th centuries.

00:12:17Among the drawings, there are figures of shamans

00:12:19who seem to be running into the rock crevices

00:12:21and disappearing there forever.

00:12:23Local archaeologists studied this place for many years,

00:12:26but no one paid attention to which crevice the shamans were running into.

00:12:29Professor Andrzej Roswodowski from the Polish Adam Mikiewicz University

00:12:34studied the drawings on a cliff called the Ilianskaya Pisanica

00:12:38and noticed this very detail.

00:12:40He admitted he was truly surprised,

00:12:42because before him, no one had even mentioned this crack in the rock.

00:12:46This prompted him to delve deeper into the traditions of the Kakkas,

00:12:49a people who had lived in these parts for centuries.

00:12:52The Kakkas have preserved old beliefs that the sacred drum,

00:12:55the shaman's primary instrument, is hidden inside the mountain.

00:12:58A person who wants to become a shaman must, in a sense,

00:13:01enter the mountain itself, meet their ancestors there,

00:13:04and receive this drum from them.

00:13:06Only after that could he become a true shaman.

00:13:09Roswodowski went to another site called Oglakti,

00:13:12north of the city of Abakan.

00:13:14There, among all the drawings from the Ice Age,

00:13:17he found similar depictions from the same period

00:13:19dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries,

00:13:22which were most likely also made by the Kakkas.

00:13:24And he saw a striking coincidence.

00:13:26One of the drawings depicts a shaman,

00:13:28whose upper body has been replaced by a drum,

00:13:30and his leg is already half-hidden in a crack in the rock.

00:13:33Beside him are two more shamans.

00:13:35One seems to be emerging from the very same crevice,

00:13:38while the other stands nearby with a staff in his hand.

00:13:41Perhaps as a novice who hasn't yet undergone initiation

00:13:44and received his drum.

00:13:46According to Roswodowski,

00:13:48Siberian rock art is not just drawings in and of themselves.

00:13:50The artists deliberately used the very shape of the rock,

00:13:53its cracks and crevices as part of their story.

00:13:57Coffins for the gods.

00:13:59Beneath the sands of the Egyptian desert,

00:14:01not far from the Pyramid of Djoser,

00:14:03lies an underground site, the Serapium.

00:14:07French archaeologist Auguste Mariette

00:14:09discovered it back in 1850,

00:14:10and an entire avenue of sphinxes once led to it.

00:14:25One such box weighs as much as a fully loaded train car,

00:14:28and some are even heavier.

00:14:30They're carved from solid blocks of granite and basalt.

00:14:34They're polished so smoothly on the inside

00:14:36that a modern engineer would be amazed.

00:14:38And the thick lid fits the box

00:14:39with a precision that's hard to replicate even today,

00:14:42and they didn't bury pharaohs in them.

00:14:44Bulls lay in these coffins.

00:14:46In ancient Memphis,

00:14:47the priests would choose a single bull

00:14:49and declare it the living embodiment of a god.

00:14:51And as long as the bull was alive,

00:14:53it was revered as sacred.

00:14:55And when it died,

00:14:56the carcass was mummified and lowered

00:14:57into these giant sarcophagi with such honors

00:15:00that not every person received.

00:15:01And so it went century after century

00:15:04from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III

00:15:06almost up to the Roman era

00:15:08Now think about this.

00:15:09To carve such a box out of solid granite,

00:15:11polish it from the inside,

00:15:13haul dozens of tons of stone

00:15:14through narrow underground corridors,

00:15:17and lower it precisely into place

00:15:19requires a quarry,

00:15:20transportation,

00:15:21engineering calculations,

00:15:22and hundreds of men.

00:15:24And all of this for the sake of a bull.

00:15:26Some researchers still seriously talk about

00:15:27some kind of lost technology

00:15:28claiming it couldn't have been done by hand like that.

00:15:31Egyptologists simplify everything as much as possible,

00:15:33claiming there is no magic involved.

00:15:35Just abrasives,

00:15:36levers,

00:15:37copper tools,

00:15:38and years of painstaking labor.

00:15:39Maybe so.

00:15:40But just imagine,

00:15:42you need to carve a box and a lid out of rock,

00:15:45weighing tens of tons,

00:15:46polish the inner surface to a mirror shine,

00:15:49lower it all underground through a corridor

00:15:51that a person can barely squeeze through,

00:15:53and place the lid so tightly

00:15:55that there isn't even a gap.

00:15:57No crane,

00:15:57no angle grinder,

00:15:58no laser level.

00:15:59When you stand next to a 40-ton box like that,

00:16:02which someone dragged down here

00:16:03over 2,000 years ago

00:16:04for the sake of a sacred bull,

00:16:06the theory about primitive levers

00:16:07sounds pretty unconvincing.

00:16:09And another odd thing,

00:16:10many sarcophagi were found empty.

00:16:12There were no bulls in them.

00:16:14Either they were looted in antiquity,

00:16:15or they were never meant for that

00:16:17in the first place.

00:16:18Scientists and historians

00:16:19are still arguing about this to this day.

00:16:22Currently,

00:16:22nine buried bulls are currently known.

00:16:24And another three,

00:16:25according to Mariette himself,

00:16:27have not been found to this day.

00:16:28The scariest thing is that

00:16:30thousands of years ago

00:16:31there was a civilization

00:16:32far superior to our present one.

00:16:35And yet it was destroyed.

00:16:37What really happened back then,

00:16:38we may never know.

00:16:41Strange scratches on the rocks.

00:16:43The Swedish island of Gotland

00:16:45is located in the Baltic Sea.

00:16:46And if you drive away from the tourist spots

00:16:48and look closely at the ground,

00:16:50you start to notice something strange.

00:16:52Deep scratches on the rocks,

00:16:53long, smooth,

00:16:54clearly made by someone's hand.

00:16:56And not just one or two,

00:16:58but thousands of such marks

00:16:59all over the island.

00:17:00On boulders,

00:17:01on cliffs,

00:17:02on separate stone blocks.

00:17:03Moreover,

00:17:04in some places

00:17:05there are literally dozens

00:17:06on a single rock,

00:17:07while nearby there are none at all.

00:17:09When people began discussing

00:17:10this seriously in the 19th century,

00:17:12the first thing that came to mind was

00:17:14this is where they sharpened weapons.

00:17:16The Baltic islands

00:17:17were the center of the sword and axe trade.

00:17:19And traces of sharpening on the stones

00:17:20seemed like a logical explanation.

00:17:22But pretty quickly,

00:17:23it turned out

00:17:24that the size and shape

00:17:25of these scratches

00:17:26simply weren't suitable for sharpening.

00:17:28Not a single sword

00:17:29and not a single axe

00:17:30from that era

00:17:31would even fit into

00:17:31these narrow grooves.

00:17:32And the strangest part,

00:17:34next to these stones

00:17:35no work-related debris

00:17:36was ever found.

00:17:37No metal shavings,

00:17:38no broken blade pieces.

00:17:40Absolutely nothing

00:17:41that would suggest

00:17:42anything had ever been

00:17:43sharpened here even once.

00:17:44And then,

00:17:45something interesting

00:17:46came to light.

00:17:46The very same grooves

00:17:47exist in Norway,

00:17:48Finland,

00:17:49and France.

00:17:50There they call them

00:17:51polissoirs

00:17:51and date them back

00:17:52to the Neolithic,

00:17:53to the very same culture

00:17:54that built dolmens

00:17:55and erected menhirs.

00:17:56Similar traces have been found

00:17:57in Australia and India.

00:17:59Similar marks in stone

00:18:00are being found

00:18:00all over the world.

00:18:01And that,

00:18:02in itself,

00:18:02is already strange.

00:18:04Identical scratches

00:18:04left by people

00:18:05who couldn't possibly

00:18:06have known about each other.

00:18:07But nowhere else in the world

00:18:09are there as many

00:18:09as on Gotland.

00:18:10Scientists have counted

00:18:11more than 3,600

00:18:13of these marks there.

00:18:14Some are right in the bedrock,

00:18:15while others are on

00:18:16separate boulders

00:18:16scattered all across the island.

00:18:18Scientists have proposed

00:18:19several theories.

00:18:20The first one is astronomical.

00:18:21Many of the grooves

00:18:22are aligned

00:18:23with the Sunday

00:18:23or the moon.

00:18:24Perhaps it was a way

00:18:25to track time

00:18:26and the seasons.

00:18:27The second one

00:18:28is ritualistic.

00:18:29Symbolic signs

00:18:30associated with fertility

00:18:31or death cults.

00:18:32And finally,

00:18:33a practical one.

00:18:34Polishing wooden poles

00:18:35or bone tools.

00:18:37Traces of which

00:18:38simply haven't survived.

00:18:39No version explains

00:18:41why the same shape

00:18:42appears among people

00:18:43on different continents

00:18:44who couldn't possibly

00:18:45have known about each other.

00:18:46Why are there

00:18:47dozens of grooves

00:18:48in some places

00:18:49and none right next to them?

00:18:50And why spend such effort

00:18:52on hard limestone at all?

00:18:5330,600 grooves

00:18:54on a single island.

00:18:55And there's still no answer.

00:18:57What do you think this is?

00:18:58Let me know in the comments.

00:18:59I wonder what your theories are.

00:19:03Where was the most ancient forest

00:19:04on the planet found?

00:19:07Until 2024,

00:19:09the whole world

00:19:10was convinced

00:19:11that the oldest forest

00:19:12on the planet

00:19:13was in America,

00:19:14in New York State.

00:19:16And it's

00:19:18386 million years old.

00:19:19But it turned out

00:19:20that the record

00:19:21had been lying

00:19:21all along

00:19:22when no one was looking.

00:19:23On the coast of England,

00:19:25in the counties

00:19:25of Somerset and Devon,

00:19:27ancient fossilized rocks

00:19:28had been known

00:19:28for a long time.

00:19:29But it was believed

00:19:30that few plant fossils

00:19:31had been preserved there.

00:19:33Scientists from the universities

00:19:34of Cambridge and Cardiff

00:19:35decided to check this once more

00:19:37and found far more there

00:19:39than they had expected.

00:19:40Entire fossilized tree trunks,

00:19:43along with the remains

00:19:44of bizarre plants,

00:19:45distant relatives

00:19:46of modern-day ferns

00:19:48and horsetails.

00:19:48When the trees were dated,

00:19:50it turned out

00:19:50they were 390 million years old.

00:19:53That's several million years older

00:19:54than the American record holder.

00:19:56And the forest in England

00:19:57suddenly became

00:19:58the oldest known forest

00:19:59on the planet.

00:20:00The trees themselves

00:20:01weren't tall,

00:20:02only about 2 to 4 meters.

00:20:04But age-wise,

00:20:05they beat everyone.

00:20:06Dr. Christopher Berry

00:20:08from Cardiff

00:20:08said that traces

00:20:09of other ancient plants

00:20:10were also found

00:20:11near the trees,

00:20:12and even animal tracks

00:20:13on the ground

00:20:14from that time.

00:20:15And Professor Neil Davis

00:20:16from Cambridge

00:20:17explained why

00:20:18this discovery matters

00:20:19for more than

00:20:19just breaking records.

00:20:21It was back then,

00:20:23390 million years ago,

00:20:24that real forests

00:20:25first appeared on Earth.

00:20:26And that was precisely

00:20:28when rivers began

00:20:29shaping their banks

00:20:30the same way

00:20:30they still do today.

00:20:31And here's

00:20:32what's most surprising.

00:20:33There's still a living tree

00:20:34growing on this planet

00:20:36that is around

00:20:365,400 years old.

00:20:39It's the oldest

00:20:40known living tree.

00:20:41Now,

00:20:42even this long-lived tree

00:20:44is still very young

00:20:45compared to the fossil forest

00:20:46in England.

00:20:48The difference between them

00:20:49is nearly 390 million years.

00:20:52That is,

00:20:52since that ancient forest grew,

00:20:55countless generations of trees

00:20:57have come and gone on Earth,

00:20:58and it still remains

00:21:00the record holder.

00:21:02The museum itself

00:21:03destroyed what it had stolen.

00:21:05The early 19th century.

00:21:07Athens was under Ottoman rule.

00:21:10A British diplomat

00:21:12named Thomas Bruce,

00:21:13the 7th Earl of Elgin,

00:21:14receives a permit

00:21:15whose wording

00:21:16still sparks debate

00:21:17among historians.

00:21:19After all,

00:21:20the original document

00:21:21hasn't survived.

00:21:22According to one version,

00:21:24he was allowed

00:21:24to make sketches

00:21:25and remove a few fragments

00:21:26from the temple courtyard.

00:21:28In fact,

00:21:29his people removed

00:21:30half of the Parthenon's

00:21:31sculptural decorations.

00:21:33The scale of the loss

00:21:34is easier to understand

00:21:35in numbers.

00:21:36The marble frieze,

00:21:37which one-circled

00:21:37the entire temple

00:21:38and depicted a festive procession

00:21:39in honor of the goddess Athena,

00:21:41stretched for nearly 160 meters.

00:21:43Elgin took away

00:21:44about half of this frieze,

00:21:45plus 15 meters of battle scenes

00:21:47and 17 statues

00:21:49from the pediments.

00:21:49They literally sawed

00:21:51the figures off the roof

00:21:52and walls of a temple

00:21:53that by that point

00:21:54was over 2,000 years old.

00:21:56Imagine someone

00:21:56coming into your home,

00:21:58showing a piece of paper

00:21:59of questionable origin,

00:22:00and then sawing off

00:22:01part of the facade

00:22:02and shipping it away

00:22:03on a boat.

00:22:03That's exactly how this story

00:22:05is described in Greece.

00:22:06In 1816,

00:22:08Elgin sells the marbles

00:22:09to the British Museum,

00:22:11citing financial difficulties

00:22:12following an expensive divorce.

00:22:14Ever since,

00:22:15the Parthenon sculptures

00:22:16have been in London,

00:22:17while the temple itself

00:22:18stands in Athens

00:22:19missing half of its decoration,

00:22:21with empty gaps

00:22:22where the figures of gods

00:22:23and heroes once were.

00:22:24Greece has been demanding

00:22:25them back

00:22:26since gaining independence

00:22:27in the 19th century,

00:22:28and especially persistently

00:22:29over the last 20 years,

00:22:31having built a dedicated museum

00:22:32for the temple

00:22:33at the foot of the Acropolis.

00:22:34The building was erected

00:22:36in 2009,

00:22:37with glass floors

00:22:38and panoramic windows,

00:22:40looking straight at the temple,

00:22:41from which the figures

00:22:42were once removed.

00:22:43The museum's top gallery

00:22:45is literally empty.

00:22:46Space has been left there

00:22:48for the missing marbles

00:22:49interspersed with plastic casts,

00:22:51because the originals

00:22:52are still in London.

00:22:54The British Museum

00:22:55still behaves

00:22:56like a colonial museum,

00:22:57even though the British Empire

00:22:58has long vanished from the map.

00:23:00I can't think

00:23:01of any other case

00:23:02in history

00:23:03where a thief

00:23:04openly displays

00:23:05the stolen goods

00:23:06for everyone to see,

00:23:08and even sells tickets to it.

00:23:10In the 1980s,

00:23:11the Greek woman

00:23:12Melina Mercedes-Mercoury,

00:23:13an actress who became

00:23:14Greece's Minister of Culture,

00:23:16personally launched

00:23:16an international campaign

00:23:18for the return of the marbles,

00:23:19and traveled to dozens

00:23:20of countries with this cause.

00:23:21But she never lived

00:23:22to see the result.

00:23:23Since then,

00:23:24every new Greek government

00:23:26raises the issue anew

00:23:27in negotiations with London,

00:23:28and each time

00:23:30hears the very same answer.

00:23:31The British Museum Act

00:23:33expressly forbids

00:23:34permanently removing items

00:23:35from the collection,

00:23:36even if the museum itself

00:23:38would want to return them.

00:23:39It becomes a vicious circle.

00:23:41To return what was stolen,

00:23:42the museum needs

00:23:43to change its own law,

00:23:44and the British government

00:23:45hasn't yet shown

00:23:46any desire to change the law.

00:23:47And here lies another detail

00:23:49that the museum

00:23:50prefers not to recall.

00:23:51In 1938,

00:23:53while preparing

00:23:53for another exhibition,

00:23:55the museum staff decided

00:23:56that the marbles

00:23:57looked too dark

00:23:58and didn't fit the trend

00:23:59for Snow White antiquity.

00:24:01Workers manually scraped

00:24:03the surface using

00:24:03metal scrapers

00:24:04and abrasive compounds,

00:24:06scrubbing away

00:24:06the top layer of stone

00:24:07along with remnants

00:24:08of the natural patina

00:24:09and traces of the original paint

00:24:11that had adorned the statues

00:24:12in vivid colors

00:24:13thousands of years ago.

00:24:15Decades later,

00:24:16the truth surfaced

00:24:17in the museum's

00:24:17archival documents,

00:24:18and it turned out

00:24:19that some of the damage

00:24:20on the marbles

00:24:21was not the toll of time,

00:24:22but the work

00:24:23of the museum's own curators,

00:24:24who had attempted

00:24:25to make the stolen goods

00:24:26even more beautiful

00:24:27to suit their own taste.

00:24:28Many think that

00:24:29since the dispute

00:24:30is over 200 years old,

00:24:31it has long turned

00:24:32into a formality

00:24:33with no real consequences.

00:24:35Yet every year,

00:24:36this very dispute

00:24:37resurfaces during talks

00:24:38between the leaders

00:24:39of Britain and Greece

00:24:40at an official level,

00:24:42derailing joint statements

00:24:43and reviving

00:24:44diplomatic awkwardness.

00:24:45The marble

00:24:46is almost 2,000 years old,

00:24:47yet it is still capable

00:24:48of ruining a meeting

00:24:49between two prime ministers.

00:24:51But if you think

00:24:51the Parthenon marbles

00:24:52are the most scandalous theft

00:24:54in museum history,

00:24:55you haven't heard about

00:24:56the woman whose face

00:24:56became the symbol

00:24:57of an entire era

00:24:58and the subject

00:25:00of a century-long dispute.

00:25:02Ritual rice.

00:25:04In the northern cave

00:25:05of Ritidian,

00:25:06archaeologists found

00:25:07rice husk impressions

00:25:08on pottery

00:25:08that are at least

00:25:103,500 years old.

00:25:11The only traces

00:25:12are a microscopic

00:25:13starch film

00:25:14and phytoliths.

00:25:15But that's enough

00:25:16to confirm

00:25:16that the settlers

00:25:17reached Guam

00:25:18carrying rice

00:25:19across 2,300 km

00:25:20of open ocean.

00:25:22Fields,

00:25:23terraces,

00:25:23and sickles

00:25:24were never found.

00:25:25This means

00:25:26the grains were saved

00:25:27not for food

00:25:27but for ritual.

00:25:29Perhaps once a year

00:25:30to remind the ancestral spirits

00:25:31of their distant home

00:25:32in Taiwan.

00:25:33In the hands of the islanders,

00:25:34rice transformed

00:25:35from everyday food

00:25:36into a symbol of origin

00:25:37and that is precisely

00:25:39why the tiny traces

00:25:40on the pottery

00:25:40turned out to be

00:25:41more important

00:25:42than an entire graveyard

00:25:43of bone harpoons.

00:25:44Commemorative Marks

00:25:45on the Bricks of History

00:25:48Mirangar Fort

00:25:49in Jodhpur

00:25:49is one of the most

00:25:50magnificent structures

00:25:51in India

00:25:52but behind its beauty

00:25:54lie dark pages

00:25:55of history.

00:25:55On the inner gate,

00:25:57the Loha Pole,

00:25:5815 imprints

00:25:58of women's hands

00:25:59are still visible,

00:26:00silent witnesses

00:26:01to the tragic tradition

00:26:02of Sati.

00:26:03Sati is an ancient

00:26:05Hindu ritual

00:26:05in which widows

00:26:06were expected to burn

00:26:07on their husbands'

00:26:08funeral pyres.

00:26:10Sometimes women

00:26:11did this voluntarily

00:26:12but more often

00:26:13they were forced.

00:26:14This practice

00:26:14was officially banned

00:26:16by the British

00:26:16in 1829

00:26:17but in India

00:26:18it persisted well

00:26:19into the 20th century.

00:26:22In 1843,

00:26:23following the death

00:26:23of Maharaja Man Singh,

00:26:25his wives

00:26:25left handprints

00:26:26on the wall

00:26:26before stepping

00:26:27into the fire.

00:26:28However,

00:26:28this is not the only

00:26:29such instance

00:26:30in the history

00:26:30of the fort.

00:26:33In 1731,

00:26:34six wives

00:26:35and 58 concubines

00:26:36of Maharaja Ajit Singh

00:26:37also ended their lives

00:26:38in the flames.

00:26:39The tragedies began

00:26:40from the very founding

00:26:41of the fortress.

00:26:43In the 15th century,

00:26:44the hermit

00:26:45Cheria Naji

00:26:45cursed Rao Jodha

00:26:47declaring that his lands

00:26:48would suffer

00:26:48from perpetual droughts.

00:26:50To lift the curse,

00:26:51the king ordered

00:26:52a resident named

00:26:52Rajaram Megwal

00:26:53to be entombed alive

00:26:54within the fort walls

00:26:55but the curse

00:26:56seems to still

00:26:57be at work today.

00:26:58Maharajas died here,

00:27:00tourists fell

00:27:00and in 2008

00:27:02during a stampede

00:27:03at the Chamunda Devi temple

00:27:04hundreds of people

00:27:06were killed

00:27:06or injured.

00:27:08Alien guests

00:27:09in Egypt.

00:27:11Recent archaeological

00:27:12excavations in Egypt

00:27:13have led to

00:27:14a sensational discovery

00:27:15that has captured

00:27:16the attention

00:27:16of the entire world.

00:27:18Archaeologists

00:27:18have found artifacts

00:27:19in the Giza Plateau area

00:27:21which,

00:27:22according to some scientists,

00:27:23could be proof

00:27:24that extraterrestrials

00:27:25visited Earth

00:27:265,000 years ago.

00:27:27It all started

00:27:28with excavations

00:27:29in a recently discovered tomb

00:27:31dating back

00:27:32to the old kingdom

00:27:33of Egypt.

00:27:33Among the items found,

00:27:35metallic plates

00:27:36with mysterious symbols

00:27:37and depictions

00:27:37of flying objects

00:27:38particularly stood out

00:27:40which resembled

00:27:41modern UFOs.

00:27:42Analysis of the artifacts

00:27:43showed that they were

00:27:45covered with writing

00:27:46in an unknown language.

00:27:47Some scientists suggest

00:27:48that this could be

00:27:49a message from

00:27:50extraterrestrials

00:27:51which the ancient Egyptians

00:27:52may have perceived

00:27:53as contact

00:27:54with another civilization.

00:27:56Linguists are already

00:27:57working on deciphering

00:27:58these symbols

00:27:59but so far

00:28:00the results remain unclear.

00:28:01Attention was also drawn

00:28:03to images of unidentified

00:28:04flying objects

00:28:05on the plates

00:28:06which,

00:28:06according to

00:28:07ufologists,

00:28:08could be schematics

00:28:09of an alien spacecraft.

00:28:11I think that researchers

00:28:12have drawn a lot of hasty

00:28:13conclusions so far

00:28:14and the interpretation

00:28:15of these plates

00:28:16will most likely turn out

00:28:17to be much more mundane.

00:28:18Therefore,

00:28:19it is better to wait

00:28:20for the completion

00:28:21of the study

00:28:21of these artifacts

00:28:22and find out

00:28:23what kind of symbols

00:28:24are depicted

00:28:25and why they ended up there.

00:28:26The Hollow Earth Doctrine,

00:28:28the search for entrances

00:28:29to other worlds.

00:28:30While all the strange theories

00:28:32supported by the SS leadership,

00:28:34the Hollow Earth Doctrine

00:28:35remains the most enigmatic.

00:28:37It was not merely

00:28:39a mystical obsession

00:28:39of Adolf Hitler

00:28:40and Heinrich Himmler

00:28:41but an official state program

00:28:44granted enormous

00:28:45budgetary resources.

00:28:47Nazi ideologists

00:28:48genuinely believed

00:28:49that our planet

00:28:50was hollow inside

00:28:51and that another life,

00:28:52a high-tech civilization

00:28:53and even an internal sun

00:28:56were hidden beneath the crust.

00:28:57In 1942,

00:28:59by personal order

00:29:00of Hermann Göring,

00:29:01one of the strangest

00:29:02military operations

00:29:03was organized.

00:29:04A group of scientists

00:29:05led by physicist

00:29:06Heinz Fischer

00:29:07headed to the island

00:29:08of Rügen

00:29:09in the Baltic Sea.

00:29:10Their mission was

00:29:11to aim powerful radar installations

00:29:12not toward the horizon

00:29:13but into the sky

00:29:14at a 45-degree angle.

00:29:16They believed

00:29:17that if the Earth

00:29:17was concave,

00:29:18the radar beams

00:29:19reflecting off the atmosphere

00:29:20could spot the British fleet

00:29:21right through the center

00:29:22of the planet.

00:29:23The experiment failed

00:29:24but the very attempt

00:29:26to conduct it

00:29:26shows how deeply mysticism

00:29:28had penetrated

00:29:29the military strategy

00:29:29of the Reich.

00:29:30Special attention

00:29:31was paid to the search

00:29:32for the entrance

00:29:33to this subterranean space.

00:29:34The Nazis looked for it

00:29:36in Tibet,

00:29:36in the Himalayas

00:29:37and in the far north.

00:29:39However,

00:29:39the most famous location

00:29:40became Antarctica.

00:29:42In 1938,

00:29:43the expedition

00:29:43of Captain Alfred Richer

00:29:45aboard the ship

00:29:46Schwabenland

00:29:46declared a vast territory

00:29:47of the frozen continent

00:29:48to be German property

00:29:49under the name

00:29:50New Swabia.

00:29:51Officially,

00:29:52this was done

00:29:53to protect whaling

00:29:54but in secret SS reports

00:29:56there were mentions

00:29:57of the search

00:29:57for warm oases

00:29:58and geothermal caves

00:30:00that could lead

00:30:00deep into the planet.

00:30:02After the war,

00:30:03rumors circulated

00:30:03among American submariners

00:30:05that German Type X-X1

00:30:06submarines

00:30:07had departed

00:30:07for Antarctica

00:30:08laden with secret archives

00:30:10and rare materials.

00:30:11There is a theory

00:30:12that the Nazis

00:30:12discovered giant

00:30:13underground caverns

00:30:14there created

00:30:15by warm currents

00:30:16and attempted

00:30:17to establish

00:30:17a secret base

00:30:18called Base 211.

00:30:20Admiral Karl Dunitz

00:30:21once made an enigmatic statement.

00:30:23The German submarine fleet

00:30:24is proud to have created

00:30:25for the Führer

00:30:26at the other end

00:30:27of the world

00:30:27an impregnable fortress,

00:30:29a true earthly paradise.

00:30:31Was this a figure of speech?

00:30:32Or did the Nazis

00:30:33truly find something anomalous

00:30:35beneath the Antarctic ice?

00:30:36Official science

00:30:37denies the possibility

00:30:38of hollows on such a scale

00:30:39but numerous accounts

00:30:41of unenerbi operations

00:30:42around the world

00:30:43compel historians

00:30:44to return again and again

00:30:45to the question

00:30:46what exactly were the SS

00:30:47searching for

00:30:48in the Earth's

00:30:48most inaccessible corners

00:30:50and did they manage

00:30:51to find it?

00:30:53Hitler decided Egypt's fate

00:30:56on December 6th, 1912

00:30:58in the city of Amarna

00:31:00in Egypt.

00:31:02German archaeologist

00:31:03Ludwig Borchert

00:31:04excavates the workshop

00:31:05of the sculptor Thutmose

00:31:07and finds a painted

00:31:08limestone bust of a woman

00:31:09with a perfectly symmetrical face

00:31:11and a blue crown.

00:31:13The bust is 47 cm tall,

00:31:16weighs about 20 kgms

00:31:17and the left eye

00:31:18was never inlaid.

00:31:20as if the master

00:31:21simply put the work off

00:31:22until tomorrow

00:31:23and never returned.

00:31:25Later,

00:31:25this bust would be called

00:31:26one of the most recognizable

00:31:27portraits of the ancient world,

00:31:28Nefertiti,

00:31:29the great royal wife

00:31:30of Pharaoh Akhenaten.

00:31:32Back then,

00:31:32a simple rule applied.

00:31:34Everything found

00:31:34during excavations

00:31:35was split into

00:31:36two equal parts.

00:31:37One part stayed in Egypt

00:31:39and the second went to

00:31:40those who conducted

00:31:41the excavations.

00:31:42For years,

00:31:43historians have argued

00:31:44over what exactly

00:31:45Borchert showed

00:31:45the Egyptian officials

00:31:46during the division.

00:31:47According to one version,

00:31:49the bust was photographed

00:31:49in poor lighting

00:31:50and described in documents

00:31:51as a less valuable

00:31:52plaster object

00:31:53than it actually was,

00:31:54just to ensure

00:31:54it went to the German side.

00:31:56Oshar himself

00:31:57denied this version

00:31:58all his life,

00:31:59but no documents

00:32:00clearing the suspicions

00:32:01were ever found.

00:32:01I really don't understand

00:32:03how someone can go

00:32:04digging in another country,

00:32:06find artifacts there,

00:32:07and then with a clear conscience

00:32:09decide that since

00:32:10you found it,

00:32:11you have the right

00:32:11to keep it for yourself.

00:32:13Essentially,

00:32:14it was theft,

00:32:15just dressed up

00:32:16with paperwork and seals.

00:32:18Egypt should have

00:32:19had a say back then,

00:32:20instead of arguing about it

00:32:21a whole century later.

00:32:24The bust has been in Berlin

00:32:25since 1913,

00:32:26first in the private collection

00:32:28of the expedition's sponsor

00:32:29and since the 1920s

00:32:30in the city's museum.

00:32:31Ever since then,

00:32:33Egypt has been officially

00:32:34demanding its return.

00:32:35And it was became

00:32:36especially prominent

00:32:37in the 2000s,

00:32:38when the head of Egypt's

00:32:39Supreme Council of Antiquities

00:32:40launched an open campaign

00:32:42for its return.

00:32:43Germany responds

00:32:44with the exact same thing

00:32:45every time.

00:32:46The bust is too fragile

00:32:47to be transported.

00:32:49It annoys me a bit

00:32:50that Germany still owns

00:32:51the bust of Nefertiti.

00:32:53Obviously,

00:32:53it should be returned to Egypt

00:32:55and put on public display there.

00:32:57It is a part of their history,

00:32:59a symbol of the people

00:33:01and culture,

00:33:01that shaped the origins of Egypt.

00:33:04Aside from its status

00:33:06as a star exhibit

00:33:07and a tourist magnet,

00:33:08the bust has no other significance

00:33:10for the Germans.

00:33:12If she looked even remotely

00:33:13like her sculpture,

00:33:14it's easy to see

00:33:15why she was called

00:33:16the most beautiful woman

00:33:17in Egypt.

00:33:18Modern facial reconstructions

00:33:20from skulls of that period

00:33:22only confirm this fact

00:33:233,300 years later.

00:33:25For over 100 years,

00:33:26the bust has become

00:33:27an unofficial symbol

00:33:28of Berlin itself.

00:33:29It was printed

00:33:30on postage stamps

00:33:30reproduced in souvenirs

00:33:32and German politicians

00:33:33at various times

00:33:34have personally refused

00:33:35to discuss its return.

00:33:36They explain this

00:33:37citing either

00:33:37the legal subtleties

00:33:38of the partition of fines

00:33:39or the state of preservation

00:33:41of the plaster core

00:33:42beneath the paint layer.

00:33:43In response,

00:33:44Egypt points out

00:33:45every time.

00:33:45If the piece is so fragile

00:33:47that it cannot be transported,

00:33:49perhaps it shouldn't have

00:33:50been taken out

00:33:50in the first place

00:33:51from the country

00:33:52where it had lain safe

00:33:53and sound

00:33:54for 3,000 years

00:33:55in the dry Amarna Sand.

00:33:56In the 1930s negotiations

00:33:58regarding the return

00:33:59of the bust

00:33:59were actually close to success.

00:34:01Egypt offered Germany

00:34:02a favorable exchange

00:34:03for other archaeological rights

00:34:05in the country

00:34:05in gratitude for the return.

00:34:08However,

00:34:08according to contemporaries,

00:34:10Adolf Hitler

00:34:10personally intervened,

00:34:12calling the bust

00:34:12Germany's national treasure

00:34:14and banning any discussion

00:34:15of its transfer.

00:34:17Thus,

00:34:17the political whim

00:34:18of one man

00:34:19determined the fate

00:34:20of the dispute

00:34:21for a good 90 years to come.

00:34:22Do you think that

00:34:23if not for that dictator's decision

00:34:25nearly a century ago,

00:34:26the bust of Nefertiti

00:34:27could be in Cairo today

00:34:28rather than Berlin?

00:34:30Sometimes,

00:34:30the fate of an entire

00:34:31cultural dispute

00:34:32depends not on law

00:34:34and justice,

00:34:34but on a single signature

00:34:36or a single whimsical ban

00:34:38left by a random man in power

00:34:40at the right moment in history.

00:34:42It annoys me a bit

00:34:43just knowing

00:34:44that such an important decision

00:34:46was once made

00:34:47by a man

00:34:48who had absolutely nothing

00:34:50to do with Egypt

00:34:51or archaeology

00:34:52and was simply in power

00:34:53at that crucial moment.

00:34:56A seashell's journey

00:34:58across the ocean.

00:34:59In the Pavlodar region

00:35:00of Kazakhstan,

00:35:01archaeologists have begun

00:35:02excavations in an area

00:35:04called the Zhantai Tract.

00:35:07Right in the first few days of work

00:35:09it became clear

00:35:09that a large stone building

00:35:11once stood here.

00:35:12This is evidenced

00:35:13by numerous pieces

00:35:13of burned brick

00:35:14and traces of walls

00:35:15hidden deep underground.

00:35:17Analysis showed

00:35:18that this brick

00:35:19was made according

00:35:20to a specific standard

00:35:21used during the times

00:35:22of the Golden Horde.

00:35:23It was precisely

00:35:24from this kind of brick

00:35:26that mosques,

00:35:26mausoleums

00:35:27and tombs of noble people

00:35:28were built

00:35:29in the 13th and 14th centuries.

00:35:31Along with the brick,

00:35:32archaeologists found

00:35:33metal adornments

00:35:33for clothing

00:35:34and a whole set of beads.

00:35:35Elena Tusheva,

00:35:37head of the Laboratory

00:35:37of Experimental Archaeology,

00:35:39said that all the discovered beads

00:35:41turned out to be imported,

00:35:42not made here.

00:35:43This proved that the locals

00:35:44during the Golden Horde era

00:35:46maintained trade

00:35:47and cultural ties

00:35:48with very distant lands.

00:35:50But the most unexpected find

00:35:51was a small cowry shell.

00:35:53In nature,

00:35:54such shells are found

00:35:55only in the Indian Ocean,

00:35:57off the Maldives,

00:35:58in South Asia

00:35:59and in East Africa.

00:36:01Bioarchaeologist Natalia Miller

00:36:02explained that this shell

00:36:03has never lived

00:36:04in the local rivers

00:36:05and lakes of Kazakhstan.

00:36:07This means he arrived here

00:36:08solely through

00:36:09well-developed trade routes

00:36:10that connected the Great Steppe

00:36:11with South Asia.

00:36:12Modern technologies

00:36:13have also significantly changed

00:36:15archaeologists' work itself.

00:36:17In the past,

00:36:18accurately documenting

00:36:19ancient structures

00:36:20took entire days

00:36:21and sometimes even weeks of work.

00:36:23Today, 3D laser scanning

00:36:24is used for this purpose.

00:36:26Such a scanner can capture

00:36:27up to 2 million points

00:36:29in just a few seconds

00:36:30and create a detailed 3D model

00:36:32of a building

00:36:32for further study

00:36:33in the laboratory.

00:36:35The Bronze of the Mysterious Lurs

00:36:37We are heading to the harsh

00:36:39and inaccessible Zagros Mountains.

00:36:41Here,

00:36:42for nearly 100 years,

00:36:44items have been found

00:36:45that make scientists question

00:36:46the official timeline

00:36:47of technological development.

00:36:49This is the famous

00:36:50Luristan Bronze,

00:36:51but behind the dry scientific name

00:36:53lies something

00:36:54truly terrifying

00:36:55and inexplicable.

00:36:57Imagine delicate figurines

00:36:58that look like characters

00:36:59from the darkest fantasies

00:37:01or dreams.

00:37:02The main symbol

00:37:02of this culture

00:37:03is the so-called

00:37:04Master of Animals.

00:37:05It's a human figure

00:37:06holding two fantastic creatures

00:37:08in his hands,

00:37:09resembling griffins

00:37:10or demons.

00:37:10But the strangest thing

00:37:12is that the faces

00:37:13of these creatures

00:37:13often morph into human ones

00:37:15and their limbs

00:37:16turn into snakes

00:37:17or birds of prey's talents.

00:37:19It's surrealism.

00:37:20Created 3,000 years

00:37:22before the word

00:37:23even appeared

00:37:23in our language.

00:37:24The level of detail

00:37:25on these objects

00:37:26is simply astonishing.

00:37:27Luristan Masters

00:37:29used the Lost Wax

00:37:30casting method

00:37:31which allowed them

00:37:32to convey

00:37:32the tiniest details

00:37:33right down to the expression

00:37:35in the eyes

00:37:36of these mythical creatures.

00:37:37But here lies

00:37:38the main mystery.

00:37:39According to the official history,

00:37:40the people

00:37:41who created

00:37:42these masterpieces

00:37:43were nomads.

00:37:44They had no permanent cities,

00:37:45large workshops

00:37:46or stationary kilns.

00:37:48How could a people

00:37:49constantly on the move

00:37:50establish such complex

00:37:51and high-tech metal production?

00:37:54Melting bronze

00:37:55requires temperatures

00:37:56exceeding 1,000 degrees

00:37:57and stable conditions.

00:37:59Under nomadic conditions

00:38:00in the mountains,

00:38:01this is practically impossible.

00:38:03Some researchers suggest

00:38:03that the lures

00:38:04possessed secret mobile forges,

00:38:06the blueprints

00:38:07for which are

00:38:07irretrievably lost.

00:38:09Others see these figures

00:38:10not merely as ornaments,

00:38:12but as ritual objects

00:38:13used to communicate

00:38:14with some other world.

00:38:15These bronze artifacts

00:38:16are found exclusively in graves.

00:38:18They accompanied their owners

00:38:19on their final journey

00:38:21and each item was unique.

00:38:22There is no mass production here.

00:38:24Each figurine is unique

00:38:26and carries some kind

00:38:27of hidden code.

00:38:28Looking at these entwined bodies

00:38:29of humans and monsters,

00:38:31it's hard to shake the feeling

00:38:32that the ancient inhabitants

00:38:33of the Zagros Mountains

00:38:34saw the world

00:38:35completely differently

00:38:36than we do.

00:38:37They lived surrounded

00:38:38by gods and demons,

00:38:39whose images they captured

00:38:40in eternal metal

00:38:41with a level of craftsmanship

00:38:42that baffles even

00:38:43modern foundry workers.

00:38:44These discoveries

00:38:45turn the mountains of Iran

00:38:47into a giant graveyard

00:38:48of forgotten craftsmen

00:38:49whose secrets are still guarded

00:38:51by cold bronze to this day.

00:38:53A jewelry set dating back

00:38:541,100 years,

00:38:56Saudi Arabia,

00:38:57the Dariyah archaeological site,

00:38:58in the Al-Qasim region.

00:39:00Over a hundred pieces

00:39:01of gold jewelry

00:39:02dating back more than

00:39:031,100 years

00:39:04were found in the ground

00:39:05and they were preserved

00:39:06as if they had been

00:39:07taken off yesterday

00:39:08and just lightly covered in sand.

00:39:09Pendants,

00:39:10gold discs,

00:39:11colored beads

00:39:12and a large disc-shaped ornament

00:39:13studded with colored stones

00:39:15around a central pattern.

00:39:16Scientists believe

00:39:17that at one point

00:39:18all of this

00:39:19was part of a single

00:39:20luxurious jewelry set

00:39:21worn on major holidays

00:39:23and celebrations.

00:39:24Floral patterns

00:39:25within geometric ornaments,

00:39:26the signature style

00:39:27of Islamic art

00:39:28from the Abbasid era,

00:39:29the very caliphate

00:39:30famed for its science,

00:39:31literature, luxury

00:39:32and trade

00:39:32spanning half the world.

00:39:33Everything was crafted

00:39:34with great meticulousness.

00:39:36Craftsmen beat gold

00:39:37into the thinnest sheets,

00:39:38pressed patterns

00:39:39into the metal

00:39:40and delicately set

00:39:41colored stones

00:39:41into bezels

00:39:42and the stones themselves

00:39:43by all accounts

00:39:44were brought from afar.

00:39:45This means trade connections

00:39:47extended to this place

00:39:48from a thousand kilometers away.

00:39:50It remains unknown

00:39:51who owned the gold.

00:39:52Perhaps a wealthy family,

00:39:53perhaps merchants

00:39:54or maybe a pilgrim.

00:39:55Nearby ran the Basra Hajr route,

00:39:58the road taken to Mecca

00:39:59from Iraq.

00:39:59Imagine a caravan

00:40:00spending the night

00:40:01by this city

00:40:02a thousand years ago

00:40:03on its way

00:40:03to the holy sites

00:40:04and one of the travelers

00:40:05is carrying an entire set

00:40:06of gold jewelry with him

00:40:07and around here

00:40:08they found not just jewelry

00:40:09but an entire settlement.

00:40:11Stone,

00:40:12foundations,

00:40:12mud brick walls,

00:40:14plastered rooms,

00:40:14hearths,

00:40:15kilns,

00:40:16shards of glass

00:40:17and ceramics.

00:40:18So this wasn't just

00:40:19a temporary campsite

00:40:20or a buried treasure

00:40:21in the middle of nowhere

00:40:22but a vibrant

00:40:239th century city

00:40:24through which faith,

00:40:25trade and gold flowed.

00:40:26This proves once again

00:40:27that the desert trade roads

00:40:28of that era

00:40:29were bustling

00:40:30and wealthy arteries

00:40:31rather than just

00:40:32simple tracks

00:40:33through the sand.

00:40:34They burned down the palace

00:40:36for the sake of art.

00:40:38The best way

00:40:39to convince a region

00:40:40that it has no history

00:40:41is to destroy everything

00:40:43that proves it.

00:40:46That is exactly

00:40:47what happened

00:40:47in 1897

00:40:48in West Africa

00:40:49in the Kingdom of Benin

00:40:50in what is now

00:40:52modern-day Nigeria.

00:40:55A British punitive expedition

00:40:56of 1,500 soldiers

00:40:58enters the city

00:40:59following a diplomatic conflict,

00:41:01burns the royal palace

00:41:02to the ground

00:41:02and loots thousands

00:41:03of bronze and brass plaques,

00:41:05sculpted heads

00:41:05and artifacts

00:41:06that court artisans

00:41:07had cast here

00:41:08over the course

00:41:08of five centuries.

00:41:20A single glance

00:41:21at the pattern

00:41:22still worn

00:41:22by the people

00:41:23of West Africa

00:41:23is reason enough

00:41:25in itself

00:41:27to understand

00:41:28that we are looking

00:41:29at a culture

00:41:30with flourishing art

00:41:31and immense artistic flair

00:41:32rather than

00:41:33an uncivilized people

00:41:34as 19th century

00:41:36European colonizers

00:41:37portrayed them.

00:41:38After the looting,

00:41:40the bronzes

00:41:40were almost immediately

00:41:41sold off at auctions

00:41:42to cover the costs

00:41:43of the military expedition itself.

00:41:45Thus, thousands of artifacts

00:41:46were scattered across museums

00:41:47in London, Berlin,

00:41:48New York and Chicago.

00:41:49The British Museum alone

00:41:51still holds

00:41:52around 900 such items.

00:41:54For decades,

00:41:54Nigeria has officially

00:41:55demanded their return,

00:41:56receiving refusal

00:41:57after refusal.

00:41:58Only in recent years

00:41:59has something begun to change.

00:42:01In 2022,

00:42:03Germany officially returned

00:42:04more than 1,000 artifacts

00:42:05to Nigeria

00:42:06and in Benin City

00:42:07they are currently building

00:42:08a dedicated museum

00:42:09specifically for the

00:42:10returned collection.

00:42:12Other major museums

00:42:13are currently keeping silent

00:42:14and biding their time

00:42:15citing legal technicalities

00:42:17but the ice seems

00:42:17to have broken

00:42:18125 years after

00:42:20that very palace fire.

00:42:21In the 2010s museums

00:42:23from several countries

00:42:24including Germany,

00:42:25the Netherlands

00:42:26and France

00:42:26formed a working group

00:42:28to agree on

00:42:28at least some common principles

00:42:30for restitution.

00:42:31But the British Museum's hands

00:42:33are still tied

00:42:34by its own 1963 act

00:42:36which explicitly prohibits

00:42:38the permanent export

00:42:39of items

00:42:39from the national collection.

00:42:41As a result,

00:42:42the most they offer

00:42:43is a long-term lease

00:42:44of the bronzes

00:42:45back to Nigeria

00:42:46which literally means

00:42:47leasing the looted goods

00:42:49to their rightful owners.

00:42:50But there's also

00:42:51an unexpected twist

00:42:52to this story.

00:42:53In the early 20th century

00:42:55it was the Benin bronzes

00:42:56brought to Europe

00:42:58as war trophies

00:42:59that first

00:43:00caught the eye

00:43:00of Western artists

00:43:01and collectors

00:43:02on a massive scale.

00:43:04Picasso and the German

00:43:05expressionists

00:43:06studied African sculpture

00:43:07from precisely

00:43:08these kinds of objects

00:43:09in European museums

00:43:10and it was thanks to it

00:43:11that they reconsidered

00:43:12their own ideas

00:43:13about form in art.

00:43:14It creates a strange paradox.

00:43:16Part of European modernism

00:43:18grew out of admiring

00:43:19the stolen art

00:43:20of a people

00:43:20who at that time

00:43:21were denied the right

00:43:22to be considered civilized.

00:43:24The total number

00:43:25of objects

00:43:25taken from Benin

00:43:26has still not been

00:43:27accurately counted.

00:43:27Historians estimate

00:43:29the figures to be

00:43:29between 3,000 and 5,000

00:43:31pieces scattered

00:43:32across at least

00:43:32160 museums

00:43:33and private collections

00:43:35in 20 countries

00:43:35around the world.

00:43:36Such a scale of dispersion

00:43:38in itself

00:43:38makes a complete return

00:43:39an almost impossible task.

00:43:41Even with the goodwill

00:43:42of all parties involved.

00:43:43The best way

00:43:44to convince an entire region

00:43:46that it has no history

00:43:47is to destroy

00:43:48everything that proves it.

00:43:49And then

00:43:50over a hundred years later

00:43:52wonder why

00:43:52Western textbooks

00:43:53only have a couple

00:43:54of paragraphs

00:43:54about sub-Saharan Africa.

00:43:56The answer actually

00:43:57lies on the surface.

00:43:58The very evidence

00:43:59of this culture

00:44:00was taken away long ago

00:44:01and now tourists

00:44:03look at it in London

00:44:04and Berlin

00:44:04instead of back home

00:44:05in Africa.

00:44:06The Minoan Snake Goddess.

00:44:08The most famous symbol

00:44:10of the Minoan civilization

00:44:11remains a mystery

00:44:12to this day.

00:44:13One of the most recognizable

00:44:14symbols of the entire

00:44:15Minoan culture

00:44:16is the Snake Goddess.

00:44:18However,

00:44:18archaeologists still know

00:44:20very little about her.

00:44:21Given her popularity,

00:44:22one would assume

00:44:23that scholars

00:44:24had already thoroughly

00:44:25studied this artifact.

00:44:26Yet,

00:44:27ever since its discovery

00:44:28in 1903 debates

00:44:29have persisted

00:44:30over whom

00:44:31or what it represents.

00:44:33Dating back

00:44:34to around 1600 BC,

00:44:36this faience figurine

00:44:38is rare in Minoan art,

00:44:39which makes it

00:44:40even more enigmatic.

00:44:43Some archaeologists

00:44:44believe she represents

00:44:45a goddess

00:44:46who protects animals,

00:44:47while others think

00:44:48that the woman

00:44:48depicted in the figurine

00:44:49has nothing to do

00:44:50with snakes at all.

00:44:53There is a theory

00:44:54that the snakes

00:44:55in her hands

00:44:55are actually ropes,

00:44:57and the figurine itself

00:44:58was heavily restored

00:44:59by Arthur Evans,

00:45:00which led to many

00:45:01misconceptions

00:45:02and misinterpretations.

00:45:06Ludd Falls.

00:45:07Antarctica is a continent

00:45:08of records,

00:45:09and one of the strangest

00:45:10is the crimson stream

00:45:11flowing from Taylor Glacier.

00:45:12The layer of ice here

00:45:14should be sterile,

00:45:15but the meltwater

00:45:16is stained a deep red.

00:45:17Until recently,

00:45:19scientists blamed iron.

00:45:20A rusty stream

00:45:22makes sense.

00:45:23However,

00:45:24a 2023 analysis

00:45:25revealed something different.

00:45:26They discovered

00:45:27nanospheres in the water,

00:45:28tiny particles

00:45:28even smaller than viruses

00:45:30with an iron core

00:45:30coated in calcium and aluminum.

00:45:32While they're under the ice,

00:45:33the color isn't noticeable.

00:45:34But the moment

00:45:35the water breaks

00:45:36through to the surface,

00:45:37the coating oxidizes instantly

00:45:39and the stream

00:45:40turns into liquid blood.

00:45:41The source is an ancient salt lake

00:45:42sealed millions of years ago.

00:45:44Salt lowers the freezing point

00:45:45while simultaneously releasing

00:45:46heat during crystallization.

00:45:47That's why the water

00:45:48stays liquid

00:45:48even at minus 10 degrees.

00:45:49In this closed saltwater system,

00:45:52live bacteria

00:45:53isolated since the time

00:45:54before modern ecosystems

00:45:56even formed on Earth.

00:45:57They feed on sulfur compounds,

00:45:59surviving completely

00:46:00without light or oxygen.

00:46:02A direct blueprint

00:46:03for possible life

00:46:04beneath the ice

00:46:04of Europa or Enceladus.

00:46:06Enceladus.

00:46:07Blood Falls

00:46:07is neither mysticism

00:46:08nor algae.

00:46:09It is a demonstration

00:46:10of how chemistry,

00:46:11microbes,

00:46:12and geology

00:46:12can come together

00:46:13to create an utterly alien landscape

00:46:15on our own home planet.

00:46:18Reich's gold,

00:46:19one of the sunken vessels

00:46:20in Austria's lake toplets

00:46:21hid its secret for decades.

00:46:23Depth,

00:46:24murky water,

00:46:25dangerous currents,

00:46:26the perfect hideout.

00:46:27Rumors have circulated

00:46:28for a long time.

00:46:29Crates with gold,

00:46:30documents,

00:46:31stolen art at the bottom.

00:46:33But recently,

00:46:33there's been a reason

00:46:34to take these rumors

00:46:35seriously again.

00:46:36Researchers have discovered

00:46:37a sealed safe.

00:46:38According to various estimates,

00:46:40up to four tons of gold,

00:46:41at first,

00:46:42I thought it was just

00:46:43another legend,

00:46:44but then came the photographs,

00:46:45footage,

00:46:46documents,

00:46:46including those

00:46:47from the CIA archives.

00:46:48According to their data,

00:46:50the vessel was indeed

00:46:51carrying a special cargo

00:46:52that must not fall

00:46:53into allied hands

00:46:54at any cost.

00:46:55This wasn't just wealth,

00:46:56it was a backup plan,

00:46:57a resource for escape,

00:46:59for rebuilding,

00:47:00for continuing in the shadows.

00:47:01We talk about

00:47:02the Reich's legacy

00:47:02in technology,

00:47:03in ideas,

00:47:04in people,

00:47:04but every legacy

00:47:05also has a material side,

00:47:06heavy,

00:47:07valuable,

00:47:07dangerous,

00:47:08and the fact that

00:47:09it was hidden in lakes,

00:47:10in mines,

00:47:10in glaciers,

00:47:11speaks to the scale.

00:47:12These were not

00:47:12randomly hidden chests.

00:47:14This was a system.

00:47:16A rare giant book?

00:47:19Before You is one of

00:47:21twelve giant

00:47:2218th century books

00:47:23written in Spanish.

00:47:24Its dimensions are

00:47:25impressive,

00:47:26almost a meter long.

00:47:28These books were created

00:47:29for religious ceremonies

00:47:30and contained detailed scripts

00:47:32for worship services.

00:47:33The leather-binding,

00:47:34wooden covers,

00:47:35and pages made of

00:47:36animal vellum

00:47:37made the book

00:47:38not only durable,

00:47:39but also a symbol

00:47:40of majesty.

00:47:41Churches.

00:47:42Such manuscripts

00:47:43were intended

00:47:44for use in churches,

00:47:45where priests

00:47:46and the choir

00:47:47could read the text

00:47:48from afar.

00:47:49That is why

00:47:49the letters are so large.

00:47:51Today,

00:47:51this rarity is kept

00:47:52at the National Autonomous

00:47:53University of Mexico.

00:47:55Scholars and conservators

00:47:56are studying it meticulously,

00:47:58trying to preserve it

00:47:59in its pristine condition.

00:48:00These books

00:48:01are a true window

00:48:02into the past,

00:48:03allowing us to see

00:48:04what liturgical texts

00:48:05looked like

00:48:06and how the written word

00:48:07was regarded

00:48:07in colonial Latin America.

00:48:11A dinosaur

00:48:12that waited

00:48:13for scientists.

00:48:14On the Isle of Skye

00:48:15in Scotland,

00:48:16scientists spotted

00:48:17fossilized dinosaur bones

00:48:1920 years ago,

00:48:20but they were only

00:48:20truly able

00:48:21to get to them now.

00:48:22The skeleton

00:48:23was trapped tight

00:48:24in the hard rock,

00:48:25on a rocky shore,

00:48:27and the spot itself

00:48:28is only exposed

00:48:29at low tide

00:48:30when the water recedes.

00:48:32To safely extract the find,

00:48:34archaeologists

00:48:34needed ropes,

00:48:35metal wedges,

00:48:36and even a motorboat

00:48:37to deliver the heavy stone block

00:48:39to the port.

00:48:41But it had to be done

00:48:42strictly with government permission.

00:48:44After all,

00:48:45this place is officially protected

00:48:46as a site

00:48:47of special scientific interest.

00:48:49In the end,

00:48:50scientists assembled

00:48:51the first and most complete

00:48:52dinosaur skeleton

00:48:53ever found in Scotland.

00:48:54Judging by the bones,

00:48:55the creature was about

00:48:56the size of a large dog.

00:48:58It ate plants

00:48:59and walked on

00:49:00sturdy hind legs.

00:49:02Paleobiologist

00:49:03Dr. Elsa Panchiroli

00:49:04explained that

00:49:05dinosaurs of that period

00:49:06were typically

00:49:07small predators

00:49:08and omnivores.

00:49:09But a bit later,

00:49:10towards the end

00:49:11of the Jurassic period,

00:49:12some of the largest

00:49:13land creatures

00:49:14in Earth's history

00:49:15emerged among the dinosaurs.

00:49:17It turns out

00:49:18that this modestly sized

00:49:19dinosaur managed

00:49:20to survive side by side

00:49:22with real giants.

00:49:23Bone tissue analysis

00:49:24revealed that the animal

00:49:25was around 8 years old

00:49:27or more

00:49:27when it died

00:49:28approximately

00:49:29166 million years ago.

00:49:31At the same time,

00:49:33the bones

00:49:33were still growing,

00:49:34just slower than usual.

00:49:36This means the scientists

00:49:37were looking at

00:49:38a young individual

00:49:39that hadn't yet

00:49:40fully matured.

00:49:41Many believe it

00:49:42to be the earliest

00:49:43known representative

00:49:44of the ornithopod group,

00:49:45herbivorous dinosaurs,

00:49:47that walked on two legs.

00:49:48And possibly,

00:49:49it's the oldest

00:49:50iguanodontion skeleton

00:49:51ever found in the world.

00:49:54The Tibetan Iron Man.

00:49:55While physicists

00:49:56in Loford

00:49:57tried to tame sound,

00:49:58ideologues

00:49:59from the Reich's

00:49:59most mysterious agency,

00:50:01the Anenerbe,

00:50:02were looking not

00:50:03into laboratories,

00:50:04but into the distant past

00:50:05and the abyss of space.

00:50:07Himmler was obsessed

00:50:08with the idea

00:50:08that the origins

00:50:09of the Aryan race

00:50:10were hidden

00:50:10on the roof

00:50:11of the world in Tibet.

00:50:12In 1938,

00:50:14a top-secret expedition

00:50:15led by S.S.

00:50:16Sturmannführer Ernst Schäfer

00:50:17was dispatched there

00:50:18officially

00:50:19to study the flora

00:50:20and fauna.

00:50:22But the real goal

00:50:23was hidden

00:50:23in the instructions

00:50:24of anthropologist

00:50:25Bruno Beger

00:50:26to find evidence

00:50:27of the master race

00:50:28and artifacts

00:50:28of legendary Shambhala.

00:50:30It was from this expedition

00:50:32that an object

00:50:32was brought to Berlin

00:50:34that makes scientists

00:50:35shudder today.

00:50:36It is a small,

00:50:37approximately 10 kg

00:50:39statue

00:50:39of the Buddhist deity

00:50:40Vaisravana,

00:50:41which the S.S. men

00:50:42dubbed the Iron Man.

00:50:44A counterclockwise

00:50:45swastika was emblazoned

00:50:46on the deity's belly.

00:50:47For Buddhists

00:50:48it was a symbol

00:50:48of good fortune,

00:50:49but for the Nazis

00:50:50it was undeniable proof

00:50:51of ancient kinship.

00:50:52The statue vanished

00:50:53right after the fall

00:50:54of Berlin

00:50:54and was considered

00:50:55a myth for decades

00:50:56until, in 2012,

00:50:58it resurfaced

00:50:59in a private collection.

00:51:00The owner allowed

00:51:01an analysis to be conducted

00:51:03and the results

00:51:03shocked the scientific world.

00:51:05A team of researchers

00:51:06from the University

00:51:07of Stuttgart

00:51:07led by Elmar Buchner

00:51:09determined that

00:51:10the statue was carved

00:51:11neither from stone

00:51:11nor from ordinary iron.

00:51:13It's an Ataxite,

00:51:14an extremely rare type

00:51:15of meteoric iron

00:51:16with an abnormally

00:51:18high content

00:51:18of nickel and cobalt.

00:51:19Chemical analysis

00:51:20revealed that

00:51:21the statue's material

00:51:22is a fragment

00:51:22of the Chinga meteorite

00:51:24which fell on the border

00:51:25of Siberia and Mongolia

00:51:26about 15,000 years ago.

00:51:28Without knowing it

00:51:29or perhaps understanding

00:51:29it perfectly well,

00:51:31the Nazis brought to Germany

00:51:32an artifact

00:51:32literally forged

00:51:33from star iron.

00:51:34For Himmler,

00:51:35who believed

00:51:35in the world ice theory,

00:51:37according to which

00:51:37life on Earth

00:51:38had been brought

00:51:39from space

00:51:39in the form of icy blocks

00:51:41with metallic inclusions,

00:51:43this discovery

00:51:43became the holy grail.

00:51:44But why did the SS

00:51:46need this meteorite idol?

00:51:48According to interrogations

00:51:49of Anne Rebestef,

00:51:50they believed that

00:51:51metals originating

00:51:52from space

00:51:53possessed a specific energy

00:51:54capable of enhancing

00:51:55psychic abilities

00:51:56and serving as a key

00:51:57to communicate

00:51:58with certain higher entities.

00:51:59The Iron Man statue

00:52:00wasn't just a souvenir.

00:52:02It was studied

00:52:03in secret laboratories

00:52:04as an energy accumulator.

00:52:06Where did the rest

00:52:07of the artifacts

00:52:08from that expedition

00:52:09disappear to?

00:52:10Schaeffer's archives

00:52:11mentioned strange texts

00:52:12on bones

00:52:12that supposedly contained

00:52:14instructions for controlling

00:52:15the forces of nature.

00:52:16Today,

00:52:17the Iron Man

00:52:17is recognized

00:52:18as the world's only depiction

00:52:19of a human carved

00:52:20from a meteorite.

00:52:21But was it the only

00:52:22celestial key

00:52:23that the Nazis smuggled

00:52:24out of Tibet

00:52:25right before the war?

00:52:26Artifacts from outer space

00:52:27were only part of the plan

00:52:28to achieve world domination.

00:52:30While meteorites

00:52:31provided mystical power,

00:52:33German engineers

00:52:34planned to use

00:52:35the Sunday itself

00:52:36as an instrument

00:52:36of absolute destruction.

00:52:38In 1943,

00:52:40deep within the rocket

00:52:40development facilities,

00:52:42a project was born

00:52:43that would today

00:52:43be called

00:52:44the Third Reich's Death Star.

00:52:47The theft

00:52:47actually helped save it.

00:52:50Early 13th century

00:52:52Benedictine monastery

00:52:53in Bohemia.

00:52:55A monk sits down

00:52:56to hand copy a book

00:52:58that will become

00:52:58the largest medieval manuscript

00:53:00to survive to this day.

00:53:02The finished manuscript

00:53:04weighs around 75 kilograms,

00:53:06stands nearly a meter tall,

00:53:08with a spine

00:53:0922 centimeters thick.

00:53:11Just turning a page

00:53:13in a book like that

00:53:14takes both hands

00:53:15and a sturdier table

00:53:16than usual.

00:53:18Legend has it

00:53:18that the monk

00:53:19was sentenced

00:53:19to be walled up alive

00:53:20for breaking

00:53:21the monastic rules,

00:53:22and he offered

00:53:22to save his life

00:53:23by copying

00:53:24in a single night

00:53:25an entire book

00:53:26that encompassed

00:53:27all human knowledge.

00:53:28When it became clear

00:53:29that this was

00:53:29physically impossible,

00:53:31the monk allegedly

00:53:31turned to the devil,

00:53:32who finished the book

00:53:33for him in exchange

00:53:34for his soul.

00:53:35Since then,

00:53:35the manuscript

00:53:36has been called

00:53:37the Devil's Bible,

00:53:37and on one of its pages

00:53:38there is a huge

00:53:39full-length portrait

00:53:40of the devil himself.

00:53:42Moreover,

00:53:42facing it on the opposite page,

00:53:44the heavenly kingdom

00:53:45is depicted,

00:53:46as if the book

00:53:46was deliberately made

00:53:47as a balance

00:53:48between good and evil.

00:53:50What makes this legend

00:53:51more than just

00:53:51a captivating tale

00:53:52is the handwriting.

00:53:54It's perfectly uniform

00:53:55from the first page

00:53:56to the last,

00:53:57as if penned

00:53:58by a machine

00:53:58rather than a human.

00:54:00Not a trace of fatigue,

00:54:01not a single change

00:54:02in pen pressure,

00:54:03even though experts

00:54:04estimate that such work

00:54:05would take at least

00:54:06five years

00:54:06of continuous writing,

00:54:07and one more detail.

00:54:09Ten pages were cut

00:54:10out of the book,

00:54:11and to this day

00:54:11no one knows

00:54:12what was written on them.

00:54:13There is a theory

00:54:14that they contain

00:54:15the secret of eternal life,

00:54:16although historians

00:54:17cautiously suggest

00:54:18that they might have

00:54:19just been

00:54:20the monastery's

00:54:21internal rules.

00:54:22In 1648,

00:54:23at the very end

00:54:24of the Thirty Years' War,

00:54:25the Swedish army

00:54:26stormed Prague

00:54:27and looted

00:54:27the imperial library

00:54:28in the castle.

00:54:29The Codex Gigas,

00:54:31along with many

00:54:32other treasures,

00:54:33was taken to Stockholm

00:54:34as a war trophy.

00:54:35Since then,

00:54:36the book has been

00:54:37kept in Sweden,

00:54:37although it was created

00:54:39in Czechia

00:54:39more than four centuries earlier.

00:54:41In 2007,

00:54:42the manuscript

00:54:43was briefly brought

00:54:43to Prague

00:54:44for an exhibition.

00:54:45For the first time

00:54:46in three and a half centuries,

00:54:47it returned to its homeland,

00:54:49but only as a guest.

00:54:51A few months later,

00:54:52the book was taken

00:54:53back to Stockholm,

00:54:54where it is kept

00:54:55to this day

00:54:55in the National Library

00:54:56of Sweden.

00:54:58And the Czech Republic

00:54:59remains a country

00:55:00whose largest manuscript

00:55:02in its entire history

00:55:03can only be seen

00:55:04by agreement

00:55:05with another state.

00:55:07Today,

00:55:08the Codex Gigas

00:55:08is one of the main

00:55:09tourist attractions

00:55:10of the National Library

00:55:11in Stockholm,

00:55:12Fied,

00:55:12and thousands of people

00:55:14travel to Sweden

00:55:15every year

00:55:15specifically for this one book,

00:55:17created on the territory

00:55:18of another country

00:55:19400 years before

00:55:21the book even got there.

00:55:22Sweden's explanation

00:55:23is simple.

00:55:24A 17th century war trophy,

00:55:27lawful spoils

00:55:28by the rules of that era,

00:55:29and no modern court

00:55:30has the power

00:55:31to revise a 370-year-old treaty.

00:55:34According to researchers' estimates,

00:55:36the manuscript required

00:55:37about 160 animal skins

00:55:39to create.

00:55:40Calves or donkeys?

00:55:42Depending on which version

00:55:44of the legend

00:55:44you like best.

00:55:46Today,

00:55:46the book is kept

00:55:47in a special reinforced display case

00:55:49with climate control

00:55:50and vibration protection,

00:55:52because over eight centuries,

00:55:53the binding is already

00:55:54on the verge of collapse

00:55:55under its own weight.

00:55:57The irony is that

00:55:58if the Swedish army

00:56:00hadn't taken the book

00:56:01in the 17th century,

00:56:02the fires and wars

00:56:03that regularly struck Bohemia

00:56:04in the following centuries

00:56:06could well have destroyed it

00:56:07much earlier.

00:56:08It turns out to be

00:56:09a rare case for this list,

00:56:10where theft may have

00:56:11actually saved the artifact

00:56:12rather than destroyed it.

00:56:14That doesn't change the fact

00:56:15that the item is still

00:56:16not in its homeland,

00:56:17but it does make you see

00:56:18the simple formula

00:56:19as toll and means bad

00:56:20in a different light.

00:56:21Sometimes,

00:56:22history's ledger

00:56:22is far more complicated

00:56:24than it seems

00:56:24at first glance.

00:56:27Forgot where he hid the coins?

00:56:29In 1988,

00:56:31American engineer

00:56:32and oceanographer

00:56:33Tommy Thompson

00:56:34did what treasure hunters

00:56:36around the world

00:56:37only dream of.

00:56:38He found a sunken ship

00:56:40laden with gold.

00:56:41The steamship

00:56:42SS Central America

00:56:44went down in 1857

00:56:46during a hurricane

00:56:48off the coast

00:56:48of South Carolina.

00:56:49On board were tons of gold

00:56:51mined from the California

00:56:52gold fields

00:56:53during the gold rush

00:56:54and shipped to the east coast.

00:56:56Today,

00:56:57the total value

00:56:58of the cargo

00:56:58is estimated

00:56:59at around half a billion dollars.

00:57:01Thompson developed

00:57:02a deep sea robot

00:57:03specifically for this search.

00:57:04He found a shipwreck site

00:57:05at a depth of over 2 kilometers,

00:57:07brought up the bulk

00:57:08of the treasure,

00:57:09and in 2000

00:57:10sold a batch of gold

00:57:11for 52 million dollars.

00:57:13And then it turned out

00:57:14that 161 investors

00:57:16who had put more than

00:57:1722 million dollars

00:57:18into the project

00:57:19didn't receive a single cent,

00:57:20and that 500

00:57:21extremely rare gold coins

00:57:23valued by collectors

00:57:24at tens of millions of dollars

00:57:26were missing from the inventory.

00:57:28Because gold

00:57:28from a 19th century shipwreck

00:57:30isn't just gold,

00:57:31it's history and rarity

00:57:32for which people pay

00:57:34tens of times more

00:57:35at auction

00:57:35than its melt value.

00:57:37In 2012,

00:57:38when a trial was looming,

00:57:39Thompson vanished.

00:57:40For three years

00:57:41they searched for him,

00:57:42finally finding him

00:57:42in a Florida hotel.

00:57:44To all questions

00:57:45about the fate of the coins,

00:57:46he had just one answer.

00:57:47He didn't remember

00:57:48where they were.

00:57:49He claimed he had

00:57:49registered them

00:57:50under someone else's name

00:57:51in Belize

00:57:52and that due to memory problems

00:57:53he had lost track of them

00:57:54long ago.

00:57:55The court took a rare measure.

00:57:56They locked him up

00:57:57not for a crime

00:57:58but for refusing

00:57:58to answer the question.

00:57:59Without a specific sentence

00:58:01or a release date.

00:58:02You just sit there

00:58:03until you talk.

00:58:04Thompson spent 10 years inside.

00:58:06Every day he paid

00:58:07a $1,000 fine.

00:58:08His health kept deteriorating.

00:58:10But he kept his mouth shut.

00:58:11In March 2026,

00:58:13he was released

00:58:13on medical grounds.

00:58:15Because holding an old man

00:58:17any longer

00:58:17was simply impossible.

00:58:19He's 74 years old.

00:58:20The 500 coins

00:58:21were never found.

00:58:23And apparently

00:58:23right from the start

00:58:24he calculated

00:58:25that staying silent

00:58:26for years

00:58:27was a better deal

00:58:27than any other option.

00:58:28And it looks like

00:58:29he was right.

00:58:31Rajic bronze statuettes.

00:58:33These horned helmet figurines

00:58:35shed light

00:58:36on an enigmatic people

00:58:37whose origins

00:58:38still spark debate.

00:58:41In the 12th century BC,

00:58:43the Mediterranean

00:58:43faced a catastrophe,

00:58:44an invasion

00:58:45by the so-called

00:58:46Sea Peoples

00:58:47who united to attack

00:58:48the major civilizations

00:58:49of the Bronze Age.

00:58:51These warlike peoples,

00:58:52described by Egyptian

00:58:54Pharaoh Ramesses III,

00:58:56attacked great powers

00:58:57such as Ugarit,

00:58:58the Hittites,

00:58:59Cyprus,

00:59:00the Canaanites,

00:59:01and even mighty Egypt.

00:59:02It is their invasions

00:59:03that are linked

00:59:04to the Bronze Age collapse,

00:59:05the disappearance

00:59:06or weakening

00:59:07of many great states.

00:59:08One of the most

00:59:09enigmatic tribes

00:59:10among the Sea Peoples

00:59:11is considered

00:59:12to be the Shardana

00:59:12or Shardan.

00:59:13In Egyptian depictions,

00:59:15they are shown

00:59:15wearing horned helmets

00:59:16and body armor.

00:59:17However,

00:59:18the most intriguing thing

00:59:19is the connection

00:59:20between these people

00:59:21and the island of Sardinia.

00:59:23In Phoenician inscriptions

00:59:24on the Norah Stone,

00:59:25Sardinia is mentioned

00:59:26as S-R-D-N,

00:59:28the very same name

00:59:29the Egyptians used

00:59:29to refer to the Shardana.

00:59:32Neuragic bronze statuettes

00:59:33found on the island

00:59:34confirmed this theory.

00:59:36They depict warriors

00:59:37wearing the same horned helmets

00:59:39as those seen

00:59:39on the reliefs

00:59:40of Rameses III,

00:59:41as well as being armed

00:59:42with shields and swords.

00:59:44This raises the question,

00:59:46were the Shardan

00:59:46natives of Sardinia

00:59:47or did they settle

00:59:48on the island

00:59:49after their campaigns

00:59:50across the eastern Mediterranean?

00:59:52While historians

00:59:53continue to study

00:59:54the artifacts,

00:59:55this mystery remains unsolved

00:59:57and sparks numerous hypotheses

00:59:58about the role of the Shardan

01:00:00in the collapse

01:00:00of the Bronze Age civilizations.

01:00:03Something in the deep

01:00:04And here is the last story.

01:00:07The strangest one.

01:00:08It's not about ancient times.

01:00:10It's about what's happening

01:00:11right now,

01:00:12while you are watching this video.

01:00:14Over the last 10 years,

01:00:15more than 3,000 autonomous devices

01:00:17have been launched

01:00:18into the oceans.

01:00:19Small things

01:00:19about the size of a backpack.

01:00:21They measure salinity

01:00:22and temperature.

01:00:23Others listen.

01:00:24They pick up sounds

01:00:24and signals deep in the water

01:00:26and decide for themselves

01:00:27whether it's natural

01:00:28or man-made noise.

01:00:29It works like a database.

01:00:31If such a signal

01:00:31has already been encountered,

01:00:33the device recognizes it.

01:00:34If not,

01:00:35it flags it as new

01:00:36and sends it off for analysis.

01:00:38In June 2023,

01:00:40one such sensor

01:00:41in the Pacific Ocean

01:00:42caught a powerful man-made signal

01:00:43at the depth of around

01:00:443,600 meters,

01:00:46the signal lasted

01:00:47for about 70 minutes

01:00:48and then the source

01:00:49began to go even deeper

01:00:50and disappeared.

01:00:51A few months later,

01:00:52the same thing happened

01:00:53in the Atlantic.

01:00:53And there,

01:00:54the signal was detected

01:00:55by several instruments at once.

01:00:57And now,

01:00:58the reason behind

01:00:59this whole story,

01:01:00the source's speed

01:01:01was around 370 kilometers per hour

01:01:03or underwater

01:01:04at a depth

01:01:05of over 3 kilometers.

01:01:07That's faster

01:01:07than most submarines

01:01:08can travel

01:01:09even on the surface

01:01:10and far deeper

01:01:11than they can even operate.

01:01:13To move like that

01:01:14through dense water

01:01:15at such depths,

01:01:16you'd need colossal power

01:01:17and a very special hull.

01:01:19Officially,

01:01:20no vehicle

01:01:20with such specifications exists.

01:01:22Scientists began to wonder.

01:01:23Maybe military tests?

01:01:25But then there would be

01:01:26satellites nearby,

01:01:27escort ships,

01:01:28warnings for marine traffic.

01:01:29But there was nothing.

01:01:31Maybe nature.

01:01:31Then seismic stations

01:01:32would have caught the signal,

01:01:33but they stayed silent.

01:01:34Maybe it was just a glitch

01:01:36in the equipment,

01:01:37but two instruments

01:01:38in the Pacific Ocean

01:01:39showed the exact same thing

01:01:40and in the Atlantic

01:01:41several at once.

01:01:43The most rational explanation

01:01:44is a classified test

01:01:45of some new generation

01:01:46deep sea vehicles,

01:01:47the kind you just

01:01:48don't talk about out loud.

01:01:50Developments in the field

01:01:51of perhaps underwater propulsion

01:01:53are indeed underway

01:01:54in several countries.

01:01:55Technology has come a long way.

01:01:57And what they show

01:01:58to the public

01:01:59is usually years

01:02:00behind the actual developments.

01:02:01The only catch

01:02:02is that the officially reported

01:02:03depths and speeds

01:02:04of such craft

01:02:05are considerably lower

01:02:06than what the sensors picked up.

01:02:07So,

01:02:07this theory

01:02:08doesn't explain everything either.

01:02:10Yet the official story

01:02:11has never been clarified.

01:02:12And the question

01:02:13remains unanswered.

01:02:14The ocean is shared.

01:02:15It's international.

01:02:16Yet someone is racing

01:02:18around out there

01:02:18at 370 km per hour

01:02:20at depths,

01:02:21where according to all textbooks,

01:02:22there should be nothing at all.

01:02:23And this isn't some legend

01:02:24or tent-hand gossip.

01:02:26This happened three years ago.

01:02:27And the instrument recorded

01:02:28everything right down

01:02:29to the second.

01:02:30Someone goes down there

01:02:31where it's dark,

01:02:32freezing,

01:02:33under pressure

01:02:33of a thousand atmospheres,

01:02:35moving like no one else

01:02:36on this planet, Ken.

01:02:38And casually goes

01:02:39even deeper.

01:02:40Classified tests

01:02:41or a rare glitch

01:02:42in complex machinery.

01:02:44What do you think?

01:02:45Let me know in the comments.

01:02:59Human figures

01:03:00A whole series of figures

01:03:02with huge round eyes

01:03:04and elongated,

01:03:05stylized bodies

01:03:06is carved.

01:03:07At first glance,

01:03:09these figures

01:03:09don't look human at all.

01:03:11Huge, hollow eyes,

01:03:12elongated heads,

01:03:14slightly hunched postures.

01:03:15But in reality,

01:03:16this style was typical

01:03:17of the local Polynesian tradition

01:03:19of stone carving,

01:03:20where important ancestors

01:03:21and spirits

01:03:22were intentionally depicted

01:03:23as exaggerated

01:03:24and unlike ordinary people.

01:03:25Such figures

01:03:26were typically associated

01:03:27with the veneration

01:03:28of ancestors and spirits,

01:03:29who, according to local beliefs,

01:03:31continued to influence

01:03:32island life

01:03:33even after death.

01:03:34Large eyes

01:03:35in Polynesian art

01:03:36often signified

01:03:37the ability to see

01:03:38more than an ordinary

01:03:39living person could see,

01:03:40something like spiritual vision.

01:03:41Nuku Hiva Island

01:03:42has always been

01:03:43a remote place,

01:03:44cut off from the rest

01:03:45of the world

01:03:46by thousands of kilometers

01:03:47of open ocean.

01:03:48It was this remoteness

01:03:50that helped local

01:03:51artistic traditions

01:03:52survive almost unchanged

01:03:53for many centuries

01:03:54without strong influence

01:03:56from other world cultures.

01:03:58nothing is more permanent

01:04:00than the temporary.

01:04:01The year is 1911.

01:04:03American explorer

01:04:04Hiram Bingham

01:04:05climbs into the mountains

01:04:06of Peru

01:04:07in search of the lost city

01:04:08of the Incas

01:04:09and stumbles upon

01:04:10Machu Picchu,

01:04:12an entire complex

01:04:13hidden in the clouds

01:04:14at an altitude

01:04:14of over 2,400 meters.

01:04:17It stood untouched

01:04:18for several centuries.

01:04:20Simply because

01:04:21the Spanish conquistadors

01:04:23just couldn't find a way up.

01:04:25Yale University,

01:04:26which sponsored the expedition,

01:04:27conducts a series of excavations

01:04:29and takes thousands

01:04:30of artifacts out of Peru,

01:04:32ceramics,

01:04:33human bones,

01:04:33metal jewelry,

01:04:34and tools.

01:04:35According to the official agreement

01:04:37with the Peruvian government,

01:04:38all the finds

01:04:39were sent to the U.S. temporarily

01:04:40for a period of 18 months

01:04:42exclusively for scientific study.

01:04:44They promised to return them,

01:04:46but it took almost 100 years

01:04:47to do so.

01:04:48For years,

01:04:50Yale University responded

01:04:51to Peru's official requests

01:04:53with silence or claims

01:04:54that the collection allegedly

01:04:55belonged to the university

01:04:57by right of long-term possession.

01:04:59In 2008,

01:05:01the president of Peru

01:05:02publicly threatened

01:05:03a lawsuit against Yale,

01:05:04and only then

01:05:05did the negotiations

01:05:06finally move forward.

01:05:08The return agreement

01:05:09was signed in 2010,

01:05:11and between 2011 and 2012,

01:05:13Yale University

01:05:14gradually transferred

01:05:15over 46,000 items to Peru.

01:05:17Today they are kept

01:05:19in a museum in Cusco,

01:05:20the very city

01:05:21from which Bingham's expedition

01:05:23once set out

01:05:23into the mountains.

01:05:24A century of waiting

01:05:26was over,

01:05:26but the lingering bitterness

01:05:27between the university

01:05:28and the country

01:05:29seemingly remained.

01:05:30Bingham himself

01:05:31published an article

01:05:32about the find

01:05:33in National Geographic magazine

01:05:34in 1913,

01:05:35and the article,

01:05:36complete with photos

01:05:37of the abandoned city

01:05:38in the clouds,

01:05:39turned Machu Picchu

01:05:40into a global sensation

01:05:41practically overnight.

01:05:43At that time,

01:05:44Peru was just beginning

01:05:45to realize the tourism

01:05:46and historical value

01:05:47of its own heritage,

01:05:48and by the time

01:05:49the country gained

01:05:50enough leverage

01:05:50to seriously demand

01:05:51the collection back,

01:05:52the artifacts had already

01:05:53spent nearly a century

01:05:55sitting in storage crates

01:05:56at an American university.

01:05:57Officially,

01:05:58the handover of the collection

01:05:59was completed long ago,

01:06:00but some Peruvian scientists

01:06:01still believe

01:06:02that not everything

01:06:03made it back home.

01:06:04According to them,

01:06:05a small number of samples

01:06:06remained at Yale University.

01:06:08The university itself

01:06:09explains it differently.

01:06:10They say it's part

01:06:11of an ongoing

01:06:12scientific partnership

01:06:13between the university

01:06:14and the Peruvian side

01:06:16rather than unreturned fines.

01:06:18The final dispute

01:06:19is settled,

01:06:19but in reality,

01:06:20it's more of a compromise

01:06:21than a clear victory

01:06:22for either side.

01:06:23The story of Machu Picchu

01:06:25clearly shows just how varied

01:06:26the pace of international justice

01:06:27can be.

01:06:28For a country

01:06:29with strong diplomacy

01:06:30and legal clout,

01:06:31it took about 100 years

01:06:32of persistent negotiations

01:06:33to get them back.

01:06:35For poorer countries

01:06:36with a lower profile

01:06:37on the world stage,

01:06:38such negotiations

01:06:39might never happen at all,

01:06:40simply because there's

01:06:41no one to loudly

01:06:41advocate for them.

01:06:44A pendant in the shape

01:06:46of an African head.

01:06:47On the island of Cyprus,

01:06:49there's a small pendant

01:06:50carved from chlorate stone.

01:06:52It is about 2,700

01:06:54or 2,800 years old.

01:06:57The pendant was made

01:06:58in the 9th or 8th century BC.

01:07:00Carved into the stone

01:07:01is the head

01:07:02of a black African man.

01:07:03The craftsmen worked

01:07:04on the face

01:07:05very meticulously.

01:07:06You can see distinct eyes,

01:07:08a nose and lips.

01:07:09Moreover,

01:07:10they are made in such a way

01:07:11that they resemble

01:07:12a portrait of a specific person,

01:07:14rather than a generic face

01:07:15without individual features.

01:07:17The top of the head

01:07:18is covered with

01:07:18lots of small drill dots,

01:07:20which most likely depict

01:07:21short curly hair.

01:07:23Such a find

01:07:23raises an interesting question,

01:07:25how closely acquainted

01:07:26were the inhabitants

01:07:27of Cyprus

01:07:28with people from distant Africa

01:07:29nearly 3,000 years ago?

01:07:31Since antiquity,

01:07:32the island of Cyprus

01:07:33has stood at the crossroads

01:07:34of eastern Mediterranean trade routes,

01:07:36with goods and people

01:07:37from diverse lands

01:07:38constantly passing through it,

01:07:40including Egypt

01:07:40and the lands further south.

01:07:42Pendants like these

01:07:43were usually worn as jewelry

01:07:44or as an amulet.

01:07:45And the very choice

01:07:46of such an image

01:07:47for a pendant

01:07:47shows that the inhabitants

01:07:49of Cyprus

01:07:49had a clear idea

01:07:50of what people from lands

01:07:51very distant from them

01:07:53looked like,

01:07:53rather than living

01:07:54in complete isolation

01:07:55from the rest of the world,

01:07:56as people sometimes

01:07:57think about ancient society.

01:07:59A battle axe,

01:08:01Fiskum,

01:08:02at first glance

01:08:02it looks like

01:08:03a black obsidian boomerang,

01:08:05but it is an elite battle axe

01:08:07from the late Neolithic era.

01:08:08A fisherman pulled it out

01:08:10of the Norwegian lake Fiskum

01:08:11with a net back in the 1780s.

01:08:14It weighs exactly 700 grams

01:08:16of solid basalt,

01:08:17as smooth as polished marble.

01:08:19Dating back to between

01:08:212850 and 2350 BC,

01:08:23it attributes the artifact

01:08:25to the battle axe culture.

01:08:27The perfect symmetry is striking,

01:08:29the blade is elongated

01:08:30like a boat's keel,

01:08:31and the shaft hole

01:08:32was drilled from both sides

01:08:33using hollow stone drills,

01:08:34processes that took days

01:08:35to complete.

01:08:37While all the effort,

01:08:38such axes are rarely found

01:08:39with chipped edges,

01:08:40meaning they were seldom

01:08:41used as weapons.

01:08:42Most likely,

01:08:43it was a status symbol.

01:08:44You hold it in your hand,

01:08:45and everyone can see

01:08:46you own something

01:08:47made from a rare material

01:08:48by skilled craftsmen

01:08:50from afar.

01:08:50Polishing it to a mirror shine

01:08:52was another story entirely.

01:08:53The basalt was ground

01:08:54with quartz sands

01:08:55until a glossy finish

01:08:57appeared on it.

01:08:58That's how the axe

01:08:59turned into a black mirror,

01:09:00which, according to one theory,

01:09:02was used in rituals.

01:09:03The reflected sun

01:09:04illuminated the owner's face,

01:09:05emphasizing his connection

01:09:06to the heavens.

01:09:07Today, the Fiscom Axe

01:09:08is kept in the Museum

01:09:09of Cultural History

01:09:10in Oslo.

01:09:11Under the glass,

01:09:12it looks almost like

01:09:13a modern design object,

01:09:14but it's worth remembering

01:09:15that this blade

01:09:16is 5,000 years old.

01:09:18Five skeletons

01:09:19that shouldn't exist.

01:09:21In the spring of 2024,

01:09:23in Poland,

01:09:24archaeologists made

01:09:25a strange discovery.

01:09:26Under the rubble

01:09:27of one of the buildings

01:09:28in the Wolf Slayer complex,

01:09:29the former residents

01:09:30of the Nazi leadership,

01:09:31human remains,

01:09:32were found.

01:09:33Five skeletons.

01:09:34Three adults,

01:09:36a teenager,

01:09:37and an infant.

01:09:38All without feet and hands.

01:09:40No identification marks,

01:09:41no clothes,

01:09:42no explanation.

01:09:43This part of the complex

01:09:44belonged to Hermann Göring.

01:09:45It was right here

01:09:46that he held closed meetings.

01:09:47There were no outsiders here,

01:09:49and certainly no burials

01:09:50could have been here.

01:09:51The area was heavily guarded.

01:09:53Only a handful of people

01:09:54had access to these rooms.

01:09:56Who these people were

01:09:56has still not been determined.

01:09:58Neither dentures,

01:09:59nor documents,

01:10:00nor dog tags were found.

01:10:01Just skeletons.

01:10:02Strangely laid out,

01:10:03as if someone had

01:10:04deliberately staged a scene.

01:10:06An execution theory?

01:10:07But who was the baby then?

01:10:09A ritual theory?

01:10:10Archaeologists don't rule it out.

01:10:12In the final days of the Reich,

01:10:13something irrational,

01:10:14almost religious,

01:10:15was happening.

01:10:16Hitler himself was convinced

01:10:17of the sacred role of this war.

01:10:19He believed that the struggle

01:10:20of the Third Reich

01:10:20wasn't merely politics,

01:10:21but the revival

01:10:22of an ancient order.

01:10:23Why did these particular bodies

01:10:25end up in the heart of the lair?

01:10:26Why weren't they removed?

01:10:27Why weren't they buried,

01:10:28but simply tossed under the floor?

01:10:30And why,

01:10:30during their retreat,

01:10:31did the Nazis spend their energy

01:10:32not on saving themselves,

01:10:34but on destroying the bunkers,

01:10:35blowing up everything in sight?

01:10:36As if they feared

01:10:37not the advancing Soviet army,

01:10:39but future archaeologists.

01:10:41Maybe it wasn't about

01:10:42these bodies at all,

01:10:43but about what was hidden nearby.

01:10:45Something that wasn't

01:10:46supposed to remain after them.

01:10:48Something they buried

01:10:49to keep secret.

01:10:50The remains of Jesus' brother,

01:10:52an ossuary aged 2,000 years,

01:10:55was discovered in Israel

01:10:56with the inscription,

01:10:57James,

01:10:58son of Joseph,

01:10:59brother of Jesus.

01:11:00This sparked fierce debate.

01:11:03The box may have held

01:11:04the remains of James the Just,

01:11:06the first bishop of Jerusalem

01:11:08and brother of Jesus.

01:11:09Today,

01:11:10this artifact is on display

01:11:11in Atlanta,

01:11:12among 350 ancient relics

01:11:14from the time of Christ.

01:11:15However,

01:11:16its authenticity remains in question.

01:11:18The owner of the ossuary,

01:11:20collector Odid Golan,

01:11:21was accused of forging

01:11:23the inscription,

01:11:24claiming that he added

01:11:25the phrase

01:11:25brother of Jesus.

01:11:26But after years of litigation,

01:11:29the charges were dropped,

01:11:30though the judge made it clear

01:11:31that this does not prove

01:11:32the artifact's authenticity.

01:11:34If the inscription is genuine,

01:11:36the ossuary would become

01:11:37the oldest physical evidence

01:11:38of Jesus' existence.

01:11:40In the first century,

01:11:41Jews kept the bones

01:11:42of the deceased

01:11:43in limestone boxes,

01:11:44so discovering such an ossuary

01:11:46is not surprising.

01:11:47In 2017,

01:11:48another artifact

01:11:49associated with him

01:11:50was found,

01:11:51an ancient text,

01:11:52the first apocalypse of James.

01:11:55It says that Jesus

01:11:56passed secret knowledge

01:11:57to his brother,

01:11:58including a prophecy

01:11:59of his death.

01:12:00This text was banned

01:12:01because it did not conform

01:12:02to the canonical

01:12:03New Testament.

01:12:07Treasures for his wife,

01:12:09870 1873.

01:12:12Hisarlick Hill

01:12:13in modern-day Turkey,

01:12:14German businessman

01:12:15and self-taught

01:12:16archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann

01:12:17searches for the legendary

01:12:19Troy that Homer wrote about.

01:12:21And he finds

01:12:22a hoard of gold jewelry,

01:12:24tiaras,

01:12:25earrings and vessels,

01:12:26totaling 8,800 items.

01:12:29He immediately calls

01:12:31to find the treasures

01:12:32of King Priam.

01:12:33Although modern dating

01:12:35shows that the hoard

01:12:36belongs to an entirely

01:12:37different,

01:12:38much earlier Bronze Age era,

01:12:40a thousand years

01:12:41before the presumed

01:12:42Trojan War.

01:12:44The excavations

01:12:45were conducted

01:12:45under an official permit

01:12:47from the Ottoman Empire

01:12:48with a clear condition

01:12:49all finds remain

01:12:50in the country.

01:12:51Schliemann ignored

01:12:51these conditions.

01:12:52He smuggled the gold

01:12:53across the border

01:12:54in secret,

01:12:55hiding some of the artifacts

01:12:56in vegetable baskets.

01:12:57And his wife,

01:12:58Sophia,

01:12:58posed for photographs

01:12:59wearing the discovered jewels,

01:13:01sparking an international scandal

01:13:03and a lawsuit

01:13:04from the Ottoman authorities.

01:13:05In the end,

01:13:06Schliemann got off

01:13:07with the fine

01:13:07and donated the collection

01:13:08to Berlin.

01:13:09The hoard was kept

01:13:10in Germany

01:13:11until the end of World War II

01:13:12and then

01:13:12it just disappeared.

01:13:14Officially,

01:13:15it was believed

01:13:15to have been lost

01:13:16in the chaos

01:13:16of the fall of Berlin

01:13:17in 1945,

01:13:18burned

01:13:19or melted down.

01:13:20It was only in the 1990s

01:13:21that the truth surfaced.

01:13:22The treasure of Troy

01:13:23had been in Moscow

01:13:24all this time,

01:13:25in the storerooms

01:13:26of the Pushkin Museum,

01:13:27where it had been taken

01:13:28by the Soviet Trophy Commission

01:13:30at the end of the war.

01:13:31Today,

01:13:32four countries lay claim

01:13:33to the gold of Troy

01:13:33at once.

01:13:35Germany,

01:13:35because the collection

01:13:36was once legally gifted

01:13:37to Berlin.

01:13:38Turkey,

01:13:39because the find

01:13:39was made on its territory

01:13:41and taken out

01:13:42in violation of the agreement.

01:13:43Greece,

01:13:43because the hoard

01:13:44is symbolically tied

01:13:45to the Greek myth

01:13:46of the Trojan War

01:13:47and Russia,

01:13:48which currently

01:13:48physically possesses it

01:13:50and is in no hurry

01:13:50to hand it over to anyone.

01:13:52Not a single

01:13:52international authority

01:13:53has yet been able

01:13:54to cut this Gordian knot

01:13:56and there is a bitter irony

01:13:58in this story.

01:13:59Schliemann was in such a hurry

01:14:00to prove to the world

01:14:02that he had found

01:14:03Homer's Troy

01:14:04that he acted

01:14:05far too crudely.

01:14:06He simply dug a trench

01:14:07right through the center

01:14:08of the hill.

01:14:10Along the way,

01:14:11he destroyed

01:14:11several later

01:14:12cultural layers.

01:14:14Archaeologists

01:14:14discovered

01:14:15only after his death

01:14:16that among

01:14:17what he destroyed

01:14:18was the very layer

01:14:19that actually coincides

01:14:20with the time

01:14:21of the Trojan War.

01:14:23Chasing after gold,

01:14:24he literally bulldozed

01:14:26the very evidence

01:14:27he was looking for.

01:14:28When in the 1990s

01:14:30Russia officially admitted

01:14:31that the gold

01:14:32had actually been kept

01:14:33in the Pushkin Museum

01:14:34all this time,

01:14:35a real wave

01:14:35of indignation

01:14:36arose in Germany.

01:14:38Many Germans

01:14:39genuinely believed

01:14:40the treasure

01:14:40was irrevocably lost

01:14:41back in 1945

01:14:42and mourned it

01:14:43as a wartime casualty.

01:14:45The public admission

01:14:46essentially reopened

01:14:47an old wound.

01:14:48Only now,

01:14:49Germany's claims

01:14:50against Russia

01:14:50mirrored the claims

01:14:51that Turkey and Greece

01:14:52had been making

01:14:53against Germany itself

01:14:54for centuries.

01:14:55It ends up being

01:14:56almost a century

01:14:57and a half long

01:14:58vicious circle.

01:14:59Turkey believes

01:14:59the Germans stole

01:15:00the gold from them.

01:15:01The Germans believe

01:15:02the Russians stole

01:15:03the gold from them.

01:15:04And all this time,

01:15:05the treasures themselves

01:15:06just sit in the museum's

01:15:07vaults,

01:15:08unable to say

01:15:09who they would

01:15:09really want to belong to.

01:15:12Artifacts in the grave

01:15:14When I first saw

01:15:15this find,

01:15:16I had the feeling

01:15:17that someone had planted

01:15:18the artifacts there

01:15:19on purpose.

01:15:20That was how improbable

01:15:21it looked.

01:15:22A World War II

01:15:23burial in Poland,

01:15:24in the Tugola forest.

01:15:26Everything was standard.

01:15:27Remnants of a German

01:15:28uniform,

01:15:29equipment,

01:15:29an ID tag,

01:15:30but next to the body

01:15:32were Mesolithic stone tools,

01:15:33Neolithic pottery,

01:15:34and Roman coins.

01:15:35Genuine,

01:15:36verified,

01:15:37not a fake.

01:15:37For a long time

01:15:38I tried to understand

01:15:39how this was explained

01:15:40officially.

01:15:41There's only one explanation.

01:15:43They say it's a coincidence.

01:15:44It just so happened

01:15:45that ancient tribes

01:15:46used to live in that spot

01:15:47and the soldier died right there.

01:15:49Yeah, sure,

01:15:49a coincidence.

01:15:50Just like the fact

01:15:51that since the beginning

01:15:52of the war

01:15:52this place had been

01:15:53an area of interest

01:15:53for Nazi archaeological reconnaissance.

01:15:55They were obsessed

01:15:56with ancient civilizations.

01:15:58Not just interested,

01:15:59but truly obsessed.

01:16:01Ananby sent expeditions

01:16:02to Tibet,

01:16:03Iran,

01:16:04and Africa.

01:16:04But in Europe too,

01:16:06they actively sought

01:16:06evidence for their theory

01:16:08that the Aryans

01:16:08were not just a people,

01:16:09but the heirs

01:16:10of an ancient world empire.

01:16:11And here,

01:16:12in this grave,

01:16:13an SS man

01:16:14and artifacts

01:16:15that are 2,000 years old.

01:16:16I can't shake the thought.

01:16:18What if this isn't

01:16:19a coincidence?

01:16:20What if he was part

01:16:21of some program,

01:16:22testing,

01:16:22transporting artifacts,

01:16:23or even guarding them?

01:16:25The Nazis attached

01:16:26ritual significance

01:16:27to objects from the past.

01:16:29They believed

01:16:29that ancient artifacts

01:16:30were keys,

01:16:31not to history,

01:16:32but to power.

01:16:33Perhaps this soldier

01:16:34didn't die by accident.

01:16:35Perhaps he died

01:16:36because of what

01:16:37he was guarding.

01:16:38A copper object.

01:16:40This mysterious artifact,

01:16:42made from a solid piece

01:16:43of copper alloy,

01:16:44puzzles researchers

01:16:45and collectors alike.

01:16:47The object is rather

01:16:48crudely cast,

01:16:49with visible defects.

01:16:50It has a head

01:16:51in the shape

01:16:52of a rectangular prism

01:16:53that tapers on all sides

01:16:54to a sharp edge.

01:16:56The handle,

01:16:57smoothly rounded at the end,

01:16:58shows no traces of impact,

01:17:00which indicates

01:17:01that it wasn't used

01:17:01for striking

01:17:02in the traditional sense.

01:17:04Interestingly,

01:17:05there were once

01:17:06parallel scratch lines

01:17:07on the faces of the head,

01:17:08which have worn away

01:17:09over time.

01:17:10This may indicate

01:17:11that the artifact

01:17:12was used multiple times,

01:17:14perhaps in the process

01:17:15of cutting,

01:17:16grinding,

01:17:16or scraping.

01:17:17The estimated age

01:17:19of the artifact

01:17:19ranges from 5 to 10,000 years,

01:17:22but its exact origin

01:17:24remains unclear.

01:17:26Some researchers hypothesized

01:17:28that this object

01:17:29could have been used

01:17:29for ritual purposes

01:17:30or as part

01:17:31of an unknown

01:17:32technological device.

01:17:34Proponents of alternative history

01:17:36believe that such artifacts

01:17:37could have been part

01:17:38of ancient,

01:17:39highly developed tools

01:17:40created using technologies

01:17:41that surpassed

01:17:42the capabilities

01:17:43of ancient metallurgists.

01:17:46A metal rod?

01:17:48How do we explain

01:17:49this mysterious artifact?

01:17:51Inside a stone found

01:17:53in the Mazong Mountains

01:17:54of China,

01:17:55collector Zhiling Wang

01:17:56discovered a threaded

01:17:57metal rod

01:17:57resembling a screw.

01:17:59But what is strangest

01:18:01is that solid rock

01:18:02had formed around it,

01:18:03suggesting the find

01:18:04could be millions

01:18:05of years old.

01:18:06Some speculated

01:18:07that it is a meteorite

01:18:08with an alien artifact

01:18:09inside.

01:18:11Others believe

01:18:12it's an ancient

01:18:12man-made object

01:18:13that for unknown reasons

01:18:15ended up inside

01:18:16a fossil.

01:18:18Skeptics,

01:18:18on the other hand,

01:18:19believe it's just

01:18:19a rare natural formation

01:18:21and the screw

01:18:21is merely a fossilized

01:18:22marine organism.

01:18:23But the most interesting

01:18:24part is that

01:18:25similar finds

01:18:26have been discovered

01:18:27in various parts

01:18:27of the world

01:18:28a coincidence

01:18:29or evidence

01:18:30of an ancient

01:18:31unknown technology.

01:18:32For now,

01:18:33this artifact

01:18:34remains one of the

01:18:35most mysterious

01:18:35archaeological enigmas.

01:18:38Argentina.

01:18:40When I first read

01:18:41about Odessa,

01:18:41it seemed like

01:18:42just a movie conspiracy

01:18:43to me.

01:18:44An organization

01:18:44created specifically

01:18:45to smuggle Nazis

01:18:46out of Europe.

01:18:47But then,

01:18:48I saw the documents,

01:18:49maps,

01:18:49interviews,

01:18:50photographs

01:18:50that don't explain

01:18:51themselves

01:18:51yet speak louder

01:18:52than official reports.

01:18:54After the war,

01:18:54dozens,

01:18:55hundreds of SS men

01:18:56vanished.

01:18:57They didn't just hide,

01:18:58they vanished

01:18:59into thin air.

01:18:59And almost all trails

01:19:01led to one place.

01:19:02South America,

01:19:03especially Argentina,

01:19:04a country where

01:19:05dictators openly

01:19:06sympathized with Hitler

01:19:07and in the mountains,

01:19:08those who didn't want

01:19:08to be found

01:19:09went into hiding.

01:19:10In 2017,

01:19:11in the Argentine Andes,

01:19:13they found a cache,

01:19:14Third Reich Era

01:19:15weapons,

01:19:15medals,

01:19:16maps

01:19:16with German inscriptions,

01:19:18everything meticulously hidden.

01:19:19Hidden not the way

01:19:20museum exhibits are,

01:19:21but like items

01:19:22that might still be needed.

01:19:24Later,

01:19:24CIA archives surfaced,

01:19:26recorded conversations

01:19:27that mentioned

01:19:28German bases,

01:19:29a hidden settlement

01:19:29and even Hitler.

01:19:30I'm not one

01:19:31for conspiracy theories,

01:19:32but when too many

01:19:33random finds form a chain,

01:19:35it's no longer

01:19:35a coincidence,

01:19:36it's a trail.

01:19:37Someone really did leave.

01:19:39Someone carried on the work,

01:19:40not on the front lines,

01:19:41but in the shadows.

01:19:42What's especially chilling

01:19:44isn't just that

01:19:44they might have survived,

01:19:46but that they could have

01:19:47lived normal lives at home,

01:19:48passing on not orders,

01:19:50but ideas.

01:19:50The Parsenta Venus

01:19:52in December 2022,

01:19:53a Polish farmer

01:19:54near Koobzeg

01:19:55dug up a 12-centimeter figurine

01:19:57of a woman

01:19:58with accentuated hips

01:19:59and a narrow waist

01:20:00from his plowed field.

01:20:01Three years in the lab

01:20:02and the dating

01:20:03was finally complete.

01:20:04About 6,000 years.

01:20:06The early Neolithic era.

01:20:07An electron microscope scan

01:20:09revealed traces

01:20:09of a flint chisel

01:20:10and the clay spectrum

01:20:11matched the floodplain

01:20:12of the Parsenta River.

01:20:13So the figurine

01:20:14was made by local farmers,

01:20:15not brought in by traders.

01:20:17Why?

01:20:17It matters.

01:20:18Northern Poland

01:20:19had long been considered

01:20:20on the periphery

01:20:20of Venus figurine culture.

01:20:22Classic Paleolithic

01:20:23and Neolithic goddesses

01:20:24were found in Southern Europe.

01:20:25Now the Baltic

01:20:26gets its own Mother Earth,

01:20:28shifting the boundary

01:20:28of the Fertility Cult Zone

01:20:30hundreds of kilometers

01:20:31to the north.

01:20:32A wonder of the world

01:20:34vanished overnight.

01:20:37In 1716,

01:20:38the Prussian king

01:20:39presents Russian Tsar Peter I

01:20:41with a room entirely lined

01:20:43with amber

01:20:43backed by gold leaf and mirrors.

01:20:46Around 6 tons of Baltic amber

01:20:48were used for the decoration

01:20:49and contemporaries

01:20:50called the creation

01:20:51the Eighth Wonder of the World.

01:20:53The gift seals an alliance

01:20:55between the two powers

01:20:55against Sweden.

01:20:56The room is installed

01:20:57in the Catherine Palace

01:20:59near St. Petersburg

01:21:00and for three centuries

01:21:01it has been considered

01:21:02one of the most

01:21:03magnificent interiors

01:21:04in history.

01:21:05In 1941,

01:21:07German troops

01:21:07entered the palace grounds.

01:21:09In 36 hours

01:21:10the soldiers dismantle

01:21:11the Amber Room

01:21:11piece by piece

01:21:12and take it away

01:21:13to Konigsberg

01:21:13where it is put on display

01:21:15in the local castle

01:21:16as a trophy of war.

01:21:17What follows

01:21:18is a mystery

01:21:18that hasn't been solved

01:21:19for 80 years.

01:21:21For 80 years.

01:21:22In 1945

01:21:23when Soviet troops

01:21:25captured Konigsberg

01:21:26the room disappeared

01:21:27without a trace.

01:21:28Burned down

01:21:29during the storming

01:21:30of the city

01:21:30sank on a ship

01:21:31during the evacuation

01:21:32or hidden in a buried tunnel

01:21:33somewhere in the Kaliningrad region.

01:21:35There are dozens of theories

01:21:36but not a single one

01:21:37has ever been documented.

01:21:38Since then

01:21:39hundreds of search expeditions

01:21:41have been organized

01:21:41in Germany,

01:21:42Poland

01:21:43and the territory

01:21:44of the former East Prussia.

01:21:45Not a single fragment

01:21:47of the original room

01:21:48was ever found.

01:21:49Although treasure hunters

01:21:50are still searching for it

01:21:52to this day.

01:21:52In 1979

01:21:53the USSR

01:21:54decided to reconstruct

01:21:55the room from scratch

01:21:56using old

01:21:57black and white photographs

01:21:58and the only surviving

01:21:59color slide film.

01:22:01The restorers

01:22:02had to redevelop

01:22:03the lost amber processing

01:22:04techniques from scratch.

01:22:05The work took 24 years

01:22:07and cost several million dollars

01:22:09part of which

01:22:10was funded in the 1990s

01:22:12by a German company

01:22:13as a gesture of goodwill.

01:22:15In 2003

01:22:16for the anniversary

01:22:17of St. Petersburg

01:22:18a replica of the room

01:22:19reopened at the Catherine Palace

01:22:20and once again

01:22:21dazzles tourists

01:22:22with its golden glow.

01:22:23Except it's no longer

01:22:24the original

01:22:25but an exact replica.

01:22:26The real room

01:22:27is still out there

01:22:28somewhere

01:22:28if it survived at all.

01:22:30The disappearance

01:22:30of the room

01:22:31spawned an entire

01:22:32industry of treasure hunters.

01:22:34Legends of German trains

01:22:35hidden in collapsed tunnels

01:22:37beneath old mines

01:22:38in Germany and Poland

01:22:39still resurface

01:22:41in the news

01:22:41from time to time

01:22:42each time

01:22:43drawing crowds

01:22:44of journalists

01:22:45and metal detecting

01:22:46enthusiasts.

01:22:47During the excavations

01:22:49they usually find

01:22:50nothing but

01:22:50rusty wartime junk

01:22:52and yet another

01:22:53sensational discovery

01:22:54never turns into

01:22:54a real one

01:22:55perhaps because

01:22:56there's simply

01:22:56nothing left

01:22:57to search for.

01:22:59Just once

01:22:59did the trail

01:23:00turn out to be real.

01:23:01In 1997

01:23:02an authentic

01:23:03stone mosaic panel

01:23:05that once adorned

01:23:06the Amber Room

01:23:07was found

01:23:07in the German city

01:23:08of Bremen.

01:23:09A private collector

01:23:10tried to sell it

01:23:11unaware that the buyer

01:23:12was working

01:23:13for the Russian authorities.

01:23:14The panel

01:23:15was returned to Russia

01:23:16and that remains

01:23:17the only confirmed

01:23:18original fragment

01:23:19to ever surface

01:23:20in the entire

01:23:2080 years of searching.

01:23:22Everything else

01:23:23including the room itself

01:23:24in its entirety

01:23:25has never been found.

01:23:27What do you think?

01:23:28Is this a coincidence

01:23:29or a pattern?

01:23:30One single mosaic

01:23:31found in 80 years

01:23:33of searching

01:23:33thousands of tons

01:23:34of earth excavated

01:23:36by expeditions

01:23:36all across Europe.

01:23:38And the result

01:23:39is almost zero.

01:23:40Maybe the room

01:23:41really did burn down

01:23:42in the very first days

01:23:42after the fall

01:23:43of Königsberg.

01:23:45And all subsequent

01:23:46searches

01:23:46are just chasing

01:23:47a ghost

01:23:48that people simply

01:23:49want to believe exists.

01:23:51That's the whole truth

01:23:52I realized for myself

01:23:53while digging

01:23:53into these stories.

01:23:56The world's greatest museums

01:23:57are both custodians

01:23:58of history

01:23:59and its most notorious thieves.

01:24:01Meanwhile,

01:24:02someone is still searching

01:24:03for a room

01:24:03that disappeared

01:24:0480 years ago

01:24:05and hasn't lost hope yet.

01:24:08Decades go by

01:24:09and the loss

01:24:10simply becomes the norm

01:24:11for everyone

01:24:11except those it was taken from.

01:24:13And you can share your thoughts

01:24:14on what you've heard

01:24:15in the comments below the video.

01:24:17Your comments

01:24:18help support the channel's growth.

01:24:20Subscribe and turn on notifications

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