An ancient Greek analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses for calendar and astrological purposes decades in advance.
The artifact was retrieved from the sea in 1901, and identified on 17 May 1902 as containing a gear wheel by archaeologist Valerios Stais, among wreckage retrieved from a wreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists and has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, or to within a generation before the shipwreck, which has been dated to approximately 70-60 BC.
]]>A submerged rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan
It was actually by accident that Kihachiro Aratake made the discovery of what scientists are calling, the archeological find of the century. He came across the mysterious find while diving off the coast of Yonaguni Jima, an island located 67 miles from Taiwan, in search of a new spot to view hammerhead sharks from.
]]>The stone spheres of Costa Rica are an assortment of over three hundred petrospheres in Costa Rica, located on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño.
Found deep in the jungles of Costa Rica in the 1930's were 300 nearly perfectly round stone balls. They varied in size from a few inches in diameter, to seven feet across and weighing 16 tons. Scientists aren't sure who made them, how old they are or what purpose they might have had.
]]>An illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system.
Arguably the most mysterious manuscript that has ever been discovered, the Voynich Manuscript is an astonishing artifact whose origins and language are completely unknown. The manuscript is full of plant life, strange symbols, and diagrams, and it is written in a mysterious language that can’t be traced back to any known civilization.
]]>Larger than any ancient Egyptian obelisk ever erected.
Its creation was ordered by Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), possibly to complement what would later be known as the Lateran Obelisk (which was originally at Karnak, and was later brought to the Lateran Palace in Rome). The unfinished obelisk is nearly one-third larger than any ancient Egyptian obelisk ever erected. If finished it would have measured around 42m and would have weighed nearly 1200 tons, a weight equal to about 200 African elephants.
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