Life is full of mysteries. Time has provided numerous illustrations of lost secrets or forgotten knowledge. Stonehenge or Easter Island are generally the most recognized of unsolved mysteries that come to mind, but there are other overlooked mysteries seldom explored.
What has been dubbed the “first computer,” was found in an ancient Greek shipwreck retrieved off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. The device was housed in the remains of a wooden-framed case of an overall size of 13.4 in. × 7.1 in. × 3.5 in. It was found as one lump and later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is approximately 5.1 in. in diameter and originally had 223 teeth.
In 2008, a team used modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. This scan suggested that the device had 37 meshing bronze gears enabling it to follow the movements of the Moon and the Sun through the zodiac. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are now kept at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions and replicas to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked.
The 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism was an Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery that used a wind-up dial system to track celestial time of the Sun, Moon, and five planets; along with a calendar, the phase of the Moon, and the timing of eclipses. It predicted astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance and could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.
Astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes studied this motion in the 2nd century BC and it is speculated that he may have been consulted in the machine’s construction. There is also speculation that a portion of the mechanism is missing and it also calculated the positions of the five classical planets.
It was more sophisticated than any other tool that would be invented for the next 1,000 years, which sparked theories that it must have come from aliens. Machines with similar complexity did not appear again until the astronomical clocks of Richard of Wallingford and Giovanni de’ Dondi in the fourteenth century. Researchers still aren’t sure how the Greeks managed to create a tool so much more advanced than anything we’ve seen of that era.
An otherwise unknown writing system, referred to as the Voynich Manuscript, was written in Central Europe 600 years ago, but scholars still have no idea what the pages say or even what language it is. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and stylistic analysis indicates it may have been composed in Italy during the Italian Renaissance.
The origins, authorship, and purpose of the manuscript are debated. The manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. Various hypotheses have been suggested. Some suggest that it is an otherwise unrecorded script for a natural language or constructed language; an unread code, cypher, or other form of cryptography; or simply a meaningless hoax. Since it is the only known example containing its looped alphabet, there is nothing to relate it to. Researchers put forward new translations every year, but none have stuck so far. Recently, artificial intelligence suggested the words are Hebrew written in code but that study was only able to match 80 percent of the words.
The manuscript currently consists of around 240 pages, but there is evidence that pages are missing. Some pages are foldable sheets of varying size. Most of the pages have fantastical illustrations or diagrams, some crudely colored, with sections of the manuscript showing people, fictitious plants, astrological symbols, etc. The text is written from left to right. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish-Lithuanian book dealer who purchased it in 1912. Since 1969, it has been held in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Travel a bit and you discover amid the Laos mountains a field that is home to the Plain of Jars. The massive stone jars, some almost ten feet tall, are from 2,500 years ago, and no one knows why they’re there. Nearby human bones suggest the jars might have been used for burial or to house decomposing bodies before being cremated or going to another part of the funeral process. Meanwhile, locals say the vessels held whiskey for a mythical giant, or rice wine to celebrate giants helping them defeat enemies. Undetonated U.S. bombs from the Vietnam War are still scattered in the area, so only seven of the 60 Plain of Jars sites are open to the public.
Then there are the Roman Dodecahedrons. Made between 100 AD and 300 AD of bronze with a hollow center, the Roman dodecahedrons’ use is hotly debated. A dodecahedron is a small hollow object made of copper alloy which has been cast into a regular dodecahedral shape ranging from 1.6 to 4.3 in. in size. There are twelve flat pentagonal faces with each face having a circular hole of varying diameter in the middle and the holes connect to the hollow center.
These mysterious objects got their name from their 12 sides, but the shape is about all that experts can agree on. Some believe the 12 sides had to do with zodiac signs, while other theories suggest the objects were weapons, toys, or religious symbols or even fortune-telling devices. Other speculative uses include use as survey instruments for estimating distances to (or sizes of) distant objects, or used as devices for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain.
The first dodecahedron was found in 1739. Since then, at least 116 similar objects have been found from Wales to Hungary and Spain and to the east of Italy, with most found in Germany and France. Several were found in coin hoards, which suggest that their owners considered them valuable objects or believed their only use was connected with coins.
A Roman icosahedron (20 faces) was also discovered after having long been misclassified as a dodecahedron. This icosahedron was excavated near Arloff in Germany and is currently on display in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn.
Between 1 AD and 700, the Nazca people of Peru carved 12 to 15 inches out of rust-colored rock, revealing the lighter-colored stone in deeper layers. The result was massive geoglyphs – pictures in the ground of animals, plants, humans, and geometric shapes that are best seen from an airplane. Some outlandish theories suggest the carvings point to aliens or ancient astronauts, but researchers can’t agree on some of the more realistic theories either. Initially scholars suggested the Nazca Lines were connected to astronomy, while recent theories argue they were used for begging rain from the gods or other religious reasons.
There are two major phases of the Nazca lines, Paracas phase, from 400 to 200 BCE, and Nazca phase, from 200 BCE to 500 CE. In the years leading up to 2020, between 80 and 100 new figures were found with the use of drones, and archaeologists believe that there are more to be found.
Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are the figurative designs of animals and plants. The shapes are usually made from one continuous line. The individual figurative geoglyph designs measure between 440–1,200 yards across. The combined length of all the lines is over 800 miles, and the group covers an area of about 19 square miles. The lines are typically 4–6 inches deep. They were made by removing the top layer of reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles to reveal yellow-grey subsoil. The width of the lines varies considerably, but over half are slightly over 13 inches wide. In some places they may be only 12 inches wide, and in others reach 6 feet wide.
The figures vary in complexity. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes. More than 70 are zoomorphic designs, including a hummingbird, spider, fish, condor, heron, monkey, lizard, dog, cat, and a human. Other shapes include trees and flowers.
Because of its isolation and the dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau, the lines have mostly been preserved naturally. Extremely rare changes in weather may temporarily alter the general designs. As of 2012, the lines are said to have been deteriorating because of squatters. They were designated in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mysteries, mysteries mysteries. We always think the world will remember what we do today. Maybe now is the time to sit down and record that family history or start the genealogy line you have been wanting to develop. Stayed tuned for more ‘what in the world was that used for????’