The Strangest Human Discoveries We Can t Explain

I'm sure we all have that one friend, or that one person, who seems to have just too much free time on their hands, and every once in a while they will show you what they've been working on. And um, that frankly only leaves you scratching your head. And this seems to be a type of person that has only become common in recent times, as one would assume that more modern inventions, such as economic crises, procrastination driven by technology, AI takeovers, and boredom at work, have gently yanked people to commit No judgment though. However, as it turns out, it seems that your one buddy isn't a novelty of present times. There has apparently always been that one very interesting individual, seeing that over the years archaeologists and anthropologists have stumbled upon a multitude of ancient discoveries that seemingly have no rhyme or reason. Or at least, we haven't discovered it yet. But yet, despite that, these things clearly took quite a bit of time, effort, and in some cases, resources, proving that we pretty much have always been the strangest species around. And something that I think makes this point inarguable, is balls. No, I'm serious. Balls. And not just any balls, but big balls. And no, no, this isn't a crass joke, but rather a reference to the stone spheres of Costa Rica, which are exactly like what they sound, round, smooth, giant, stone, balls. And there is lots and lots of them, coming in just about every size, but pretty much always the same shape, a smooth sphere. A bit confused? Yeah, me too. So let's just start from the beginning. The existence of these stone spheres, named bolas de piedra by locals, first came to light back in the 1930s, when the United Fruit Company, which is, yes, a real name, were jungle-clearing within the Costa Rican canton of Osa, in order to create banana plantations. And while cutting down brush, a group of workers stumbled upon these strange objects. At first the workmen were pretty confused by their discovery, which is pretty understandable, and used bulldozers and heavy equipment to push them around, resulting in some of the spheres being destroyed. But then, after getting a better look at them, the workers decided that they actually had hit the discovery jackpot, as they figured that something must have been sealed away in these stone balls. And their guess? Gold. And thus, they promptly rigged the few up with dynamite to bust them open. But sadly for them, within these broken balls, their expectations were squashed, as it was stone through and through. But this didn't stop them, and they kept blowing up more balls and balls until authorities intervened, deciding that enough balls were destroyed for now. And once the commotion had died down, it didn't take archaeologists long to deduce that this was a pretty unique discovery. And that's, my friends, where the real research began. In total, it seemed that around 300 of these balls were created, and that most were made of gabbro, basically basalt, but coarse-grained, while a few were made of limestone, and then a handful of sandstone. And they didn't just range in material, but as I mentioned, size, too. And that range was quite stark, as the tiniest of the balls were just 2 centimeters, or 0.8 inches in diameter, while the largest were 2 meters, or 6.6 feet in diameter. So whoever made that one clearly had a bit of time to kill, especially when you consider that they were created when modern stone carving tools did not yet exist. Instead, they had to be crafted through meticulous hammering with stone tools, and then be heavily polished to smooth them out, likely requiring tens to hundreds of hours to complete. And what made it all more time-expensive was the fact that these spheres also then needed to be moved, which is not a very easy feat when you consider the fact that some of them weighed up to 15 tons, heavier than a freaking African elephant. So uh, who would put themselves through so much pain and work? And the answer, seemingly, was the Dikis people. Based on all evidence we have, it's believed that the culture was a pre-Columbian indigenous group that was a subsect of the greater Cherokee culture that had extended from Costa Rica to Panama. The Dikis people, in particular, inhabited the delta of the Tarapa River and the small Kano Island, which lies about 10 miles or 16 kilometers from the western shore. Now, unfortunately, very little is actually known about the group, such as their population numbers, overall culture, and timeline, with much of our knowledge on their existence stemming actually from the spheres themselves. And that leaves things a bit tricky, as in all the time since its discovery, no one has been able to tell the purpose behind these balls. Hypotheses have ranged from notions that it was a way for the ancient population to pass the time, to religious purposes, and then all the way up to lawn decor for the powerful members. As I guess nothing says you're well off like giant rock balls in your garden, apparently. However, that being said, there are some other small slivers that do give us a bit of insight into this group besides the spheres, as we manage to identify the construction of mounds and public plaza points, while small statues have also been found, many of which bear feline or lizard faces, suggesting that both these animals played a large role in Deca society. Besides this, though, not much else is known about the group, just that one day they were making balls, and the next, they weren't. Exact dating, though, on this start and stop date has proven a bit trickier than anticipated, as the final resting locations of the spheres differ from where they were originally made. So far, the earliest proposed dates suggest that these balls started being created up to 2,300 years ago, around 300 BC, and then continued all the way up to the 16th century. And, what is a bit interesting, is that from about 1,300 years ago, till the end, the Deca's people were pumping these things out faster and faster, until again it just suddenly stopped. And from here the story gets a bit more mysterious and, uh, somewhat bleak, as the disappearance of this culture coincides quite nicely with Spain's colonization of Costa Rica. However, that being said, no European explorer from that time ever mentioned the balls in any written accounts. Plus, what's more, is that an expedition that literally went through the area where this group lived not only failed to report any spheres, but also made no mention of signs of human life, or settlements, suggesting that the Deca's people had at this point already died out or at least abandoned their homes, leading to some questions, such as did they see the Spaniards coming and dip, were they killed due to introduced diseases that had been brought over, or had they disappeared from something else entirely different? Unfortunately, like the purpose of the spheres, we don't know, and probably never will. A bit of a somber ending to an otherwise, at least, somewhat positive story. I mean, what's not to love about a good rock? And thankfully though, not all strange cases like these have darker, mysterious endings. Sometimes they're just random and mysterious, without the whole dark part. Maybe. Which you can see with our next case, the Great Jars of India, or Assam. And a bit like the balls, the names of these artifacts are quite fitting, as I really am just talking about jars that were great in size. But let me explain. This story started not that long ago, as it was only in the 2020s that the discovery was made, when a team excavating a forest in the northeastern state of Assam located giant jars. Lots of them. 65 to be exact. However, it actually turns out that civilians in the area had been aware of them for a bit longer, as they were described by civil servants all the way back in the 1930s. Regardless, these jars had apparently been carved out of sandstone, a classic sedimentary rock that is primarily made up of sand-sized grains of silicate, cemented together by other minerals, and thus making it quite easy to carve through. Still though, these jars were impressively large, with some of them standing 3 meters or 9 feet tall, and weighing over 10 tons. So they definitely would have taken some time to make, and moving them would have been no laughing matter. Especially since they were jars, not balls that had more superior rolling dynamics. So whoever had built them must have been pretty strong. Yet in truth, no one has been able to figure out who this exactly was, or even when. As similar to the spheres, dating attempts have yielded somewhat mixed results, with the only conclusion having been that the jars were all over 2,400 years old, tracing back to before 400 BC, with the assumption being that some local group in the region back then cooked them up. And thus, the next question that pops into my head, at least, is why giant jars, exactly? And the answer to that is not clear. Nowadays, jars are mostly used to hold items and food, and this certainly could have been the case in Assam, yet jars for those purposes tend to be much smaller, not like the mega jars people were creating in India. And as it turns out, it wasn't really just the 65 jars, as since those first had been found, so have at least 640 others, putting the total amount of giant jars to over 700. And now, this is certainly odd, but you see, researchers have a default when they can't figure something out, and that is to propose that it was used for burial practices. And alas, this is the best hypothesis, outside of the other idea, which is that the jars were just labors of boredom. And there is some indirect evidence that actually supports this, as in Laos, large jars of similar sizes have been found with human remains inside. The only difference here is that of the 700 studied jars, not a single one was found to hold anything of significance. No bones, no personal belongings, etc. A bit weird, to say the least. Meanwhile, in the Laos jars, human remains and other items have not only been found in many of the jars, which by the way number over 2,000, but were also located around the jars, leading some to question if they were truly used for burial practices. Additionally, these jars seem to be pretty rare for an established practice, like a burial practice, as they come only from 4 sites and have only been located in the state of Assam. This being said though, there is one tidbit of information that has the researchers still As in one report from the 1930s, someone had stated that one, or a couple of the jars did have bones inside them, but that's pretty much it, and therefore leaving lots of room for doubt. No pun intended. And for me personally, I kinda like the idea better that this civilization just had a thing for giant jars. I mean, I personally already know a few people who really, really love jars. And you know something else that people like too? Doodling. Yes, the art of doodling is absolutely a thing, and technically a doodle is any drawing made while a person's attention is occupied. They tend to be simple, can have some meaning, or be completely random, and increase in frequency when someone is bored, daydreaming, or procrastinating, which I can personally attest to the last one. And so, why am I bringing doodling up? Well, besides being an avid doodler myself, it turns out that doodling has long been in the repertoire of people who should be doing something else, as the earliest confirmed doodles are very, very old. One might say ancient, in fact. It's specifically from South Africa's Blombos Cave that we have the first recorded case of bro, you're not even listening, as it was in this cave that a 73,000 year old piece of rock was located, which bore signs of having been doodled. The cave itself dates to between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago, during the Middle Stone Age, and has long been a trove of archaeological importance, as over the years, multiple discoveries have come out of it, including bones, shell beads, stone tools, funnel remains, and bone tools, suggesting that it was for a long time inhabited, or at the very least, frequently visited by anatomically modern humans in the area. And amongst the pile of very important finds, we find the most important one of all, one that was a rock. A rock that, wait for it, had red lines all over it. Yep, 9 red lines to be exact, that were just kind of there, no visible pattern, just lines on lines. And this might have been seen as nothing, and just skipped over, yet the red part was a pretty interesting coloration, and the researchers had a hunch that it was man made. So despite the risk of finding nothing, they decided to extensively study the rock over the next 7 years, which revealed, drumroll please, that the red lines were without a doubt forged by a human, having been made with a red ochre crayon. So I guess crayoneaters have been a thing for longer than we first thought too. Now you may be wondering, why in the heck does someone draw random lines on a rock? And the answer to that my friends is, well, why do you scribble, or draw random lines? And it's currently believed that the artistic individual who did it, simply doodled for the heck of it. However, they did note that the lines suddenly stopped at the corners of the rock, suggesting that when this progeny first made this masterful doodle, they had done so on a bigger piece of rock. So who knows what it truly had been cooking up. Whatever the case though, this doodler not only holds the title for the oldest doodle by homo sapiens, but also the first known case in modern humans, drawing in pretty much any capacity, so hats off to Michelangelo here. And as it so turns out, it wasn't just our kind that has a bit of randomness in them, as another member of our genus did a bit of an abstract art in their free time too, and might have done so far earlier than we first thought possible, as there is one potential case of a homo erectus dabbling in the art of randomness, and it has to do with a pseudodon. Now when I first heard this name, I was picturing some sort of mammoth-like animal, yet in reality pseudodon is a still-living species of freshwater mollusk that is endemic to Southeast Asia. The specific mollusk in question was obviously an ancient one, that dated back to 485,000 years ago, during the Chebanian stage of the Middle Pleistocene, and was specifically found within Indonesia's Trinol site, which is a very established trove of paleoanthropological finds, which includes by the way, the famed Java man, and sits along the banks of the Benggawan Solo. The shell in question was really just one of many, but it specifically caught the eyes of researchers for one reason, and that one reason was zigzags. I know, I know, mind-blowing. But no really, it was a breakthrough discovery for multiple reasons. You see, the Trinol site had long been known to have been the home for various groups of homo erectus, which is one of our ancestors, and a human species well known for having done many things first, such as building houses. But for a long time it was thought that art, or doodling, was pretty much off the table, because apparently art is harder than making houses. That is, until this shell. You see, the zigzag lines appear to have been deliberately made by one of them, and based on the impressions, and the fact that the shell was associated with a coastal community, it's thought that the art tool in question was actually the shark tooth, which were known to be used to routinely open shells in general. The other observation was that the shell was engraved in just one single session, which really just speaks to their immense amount of talent. Now you'd think that a simple zigzag on a shell would be pretty harmless, yet the discovery ultimately cooked up quite the firing debate, primarily because for a long time, such an action was believed to be outside the realm of possibilities for the erectus, given its cognitive abilities. Leading to questions such as, how smart were they really, were there other cases of them being just, well, goofballs, and what exactly is the function of a zigzagged shell? And regarding the latter question, we don't know, but many believe it was just a thing that one did. I mean, I know I personally have picked up a few shells in my lifetime, via boredom, or drew on things that I perhaps should not have, and maybe our cousin the erectus was doing the same thing. With that said, others speculate that he might have done it to mark some sort of territory, because we all know how terrifying graffitied seashells are, or there is also the chance that he or she was simply trying to impress their fellow homo erectus' significant other, being all romantic and shiz. Then on the other side of the debate, there are those who think that this shell was actually a deliberate art piece, with the zigzag supposed to have some sort of deep symbolic meaning, perhaps representing all the ups and downs in life. Though truthfully, I do kind of think the hypothesis of the erectus simply being bored So with all that said, it is clear that at least in some capacity, humans have been artsy and pretty random for quite a while. However, not every find that reflects our randomness, or willingness to commit energy to projects, has to do with, uh, well, doodling, because as you know, some people are less into marking things, and more into making them. For example, I know a few people who have LEGO monoliths within their homes, and this might not be such a new concept after all, as researchers are aware of things, such as Now, Acheulean is really a reference to an archaeological industry that manufactured stone tools, and has historically been associated with the Homo Erectus, once again, and more derived species, such as the Homo Hydropogensis, and even early Neanderthals. This industry seems to have began as far back as 1.95 million years ago, during the Lower Paleolithic, and then continued all the way up until just 130,000 years ago, with traces of it being found all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and possibly parts of Australia. And actually, this culture, you could say, is for now considered the longest running one in the entire history of humankind. Pretty impressive. An achieved part of it has always been its unique, and quite easy to identify, hand-held stone axes, which were oval, or pear-shaped, and used for many tasks, such as butchering, cutting wood, digging up roots, scraping material, etc., leading to it often being nicknamed the Swiss Army Knife of the Stone Age. So clearly it was a useful tool, but just like knives, someone can reach a point where they just have so many of it, you start to get a little confused. It's like if you went over to a friend's house who had samurai swords, seeing that they had one would be pretty dope, but 300 might raise a couple of questions and possibly some concerns. And I give you this example, as the researchers have discovered something a bit similar in the Shulian Axes, as over the years, not one, but multiple sites have been found with an abnormal accumulation of these axes. And of them all, perhaps the most interesting has been the Lorca Sail Basin, in Kenya. Located in the eastern Rift Valley, this specific site was first stumbled upon by modern scientists in 1919, but it wasn't until the 40s that a real interest started to develop. And why? Well, first off, multiple extinct species of animals were found here, including various kinds of hippos, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and baboons, which are obviously no longer around, and also show distinct signs of having been butchered by humans. However, what really seemed a bit off here was the amount of axes that started to be dug up, as buried here wasn't just hundreds of axes, but thousands upon thousands, so much so that the site has since been designated as the highest concentration of axes on the planet, out-axing anything found even in ancient armories, from say the Romans to medieval barracks. And despite thousands having been sent to museums all over the world, it seems that still thousands still remain buried. And so, the sheer quantity made for quite the story. Perhaps the researchers had stumbled upon an ancient civilization of early hominins unlike no other, right? Well, there was a few other perplexing finds, the first one being that the vast majority of these axes had shown signs of little to absolutely no usage. Figuratively speaking, they were as far as buried axes go, squeaky clean. A bit odd seeing that axes of those times were basically used for everything and anything, so finding a huge amount, let alone ones that were left alone, was a tad bit strange. And then here's the other thing. If you find thousands of thousands of axes in an area inhabited by people, how many skeletons of said people would you expect to find? Thousands? Hundreds? Maybe tens if we're being very, very conservative? Well, try just one, and it wasn't even a complete skeleton, instead being the partial fragmented frontal bone of a 950,000 year old Homo Erectus. And while this is certainly the most striking case, as I mentioned, it wasn't an isolated one, as at least two other sites with an abundance of axes never used, which also lacked human remains by the way, are unknown of, and this includes sites outside of Africa too, such as in Europe. So this is a tad strange, no doubt, and has led to the formation of between two and three main hypotheses. The most popular one that gives a practical explanation is that these sites were really just factories for these axes, from which they would then be transported to other areas over long distances. However, there's a few things that seem to contradict this proposal. One is that many of these axes were pretty symmetrical, meaning that each was meticulously made and would have taken exceptional time and effort to craft. Something that you don't, you know, usually see in factories, where the usual go-to is quantity and effectiveness. And studies have found that much cruder axes could have been made that would have performed just as well, not to mention that none of these axes showed signs of even being tested after their production, or that they were obviously moved around. In other words, if this was a site for exporting, there should be signs of that. And similarly, there is no clear production zones in the site either, because as you know in factories, there are usually designated areas for various stages and for waste. But here? Nada. There's also the point that these kind of sites are unique to the Shulian. Nothing like them, i.e. mass-produced symmetrical tools, are seen elsewhere, even when you do extend the search to include non-axe equipment. And thus, this has led to the other idea, that the hand axes in question were just kind of a thing during the Stone Age, and that these large piles were more associated with someone going, hey girl, check out my hand axe collection, pretty nice, right? Instead of it being a prehistoric factory. But anyways, all in all, it just goes to show that while things around us have changed, maybe humans themselves haven't changed as much. Thanks for watching, and until next time, on ExtinctZoo.