Facts About Strange Artifacts In Museums
Strange Artifacts FactsIf there’s one problem with history, it’s that there’s just too much of it. Archaeologists, historians, and scientists work around the clock year after year, but for every question they answer, two more pop up.
No wonder our museums are full of the mysterious, the unexplained, and the just-plain-weird. Here are 24 mysterious objects in museums.
Strange Artifacts Facts
22. The Antikythera Mechanism
Discovered in an undersea shipwreck in 1902, the Antikythera Mechanism is truly a one-of-a-kind discovery. Dismissed by scholars initially, it is only since the 1970s that technology has allowed archaeologists to appreciate the mechanism. Using precise clockwork technology, the Antikythera Mechanism tracked the cycles of several planets and stars, offering precise astronomical and chronological details–very useful for navigation, but far beyond anything we were aware that the Greeks were capable of.
21. The Codex Gigas
It’s been called the world’s most evil book: a medieval Bible emblazoned with a massive image of the devil. According to legend, the Codex Gigas was written by a monk who had promised to complete the bible in a single night or face execution.
Such work, some say, could only have been done with the help of Satan himself.
It sounds dubious, but some experts say the Codex was written by a single hand and, at 620 pages, would have taken five years of non-stop writing; none of the changes in handwriting are associated with age.
20. Baghdad Batteries
In Iraq, 1938, Wilhelm Konig discovered an interesting clay pot. Inside was an iron rod in a copper sheath, some wires, and the residue from an acidic solution.
It was hard for him to believe the ancient Mesopotamians could have such technology, but he believed these materials together were meant to produce an electric charge. Archaeologists remain puzzled as to just what the Baghdad batteries were for.
Their best guess is electroplating metals, but other possibilities, ranging from medicine to ritual magic, have been suggested.
