Are there any archaeological mysteries that remain unsolved?

 Have you ever heard the term dolmen?

Did you know that a word that only appeared in high school Japanese history textbooks can actually help you feel closer to the characteristics of ancient megalithic culture, and that there is actually much that is not known about the unique shape of these tombs?

While these mysterious dolmens can be seen in Japan as well, in neighboring South Korea, there are as many as 30,000 dolmens, accounting for half of the world's total. These densely populated dolmens, with their varying rock shapes and heights depending on the region, represent a unique culture and have been registered as a World Cultural Heritage site.

The structure of these dolmens is extremely simple, ranging from the common type where a table-shaped rock rests on a base stone, to more elaborate dolmens like those found on Jeju Island, which are surrounded by base stones and have a stone placed on top, resembling a stone chamber.

Here's a question: Do you know why this structure is called a dolmen?

Is it because it's a tomb with a large rock placed on top of a base stone?

The answer is no.

Most people think of them as tombs because they are labeled as "dolmens," and indeed, carbon monoxide poisoning has revealed human remains inside, but it is unknown whether dolmens were actually built as tombs in the first place. It is also unknown who built the first dolmen, for what purpose, or even what the original dolmen was.

Furthermore, since human remains are often not found inside these tombs , I personally believe they cannot be simply called tombs. (From here on, I will use the term "dolmen.")

Now, to return to the main point, the culture of dolmens is not limited to Korea and Japan. Structures believed to be dolmens are scattered all over the world.

These dolmen-like structures, as seen in the photographs, exist in various regions, primarily in the UK and South Korea, but also in Ireland, France, China, Spain, Sweden, Malaysia, India, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Guinea.

South Korea, Germany, and France, in particular, have many such structures remaining, and Spain has what is believed to be the world's oldest surviving dolmen, dating back to 7000 BC.

Despite their rich history, dolmens are often found in places that seem to have no causal connection to other countries, such as Guinea or India.

Photo believed to be of a dolmen in Guinea ↓

Indian dolmens ↓

You might wonder how it spread to such unconnected regions.

that's right.

The most mysterious thing about this building is,

"We don't know how it spread."

That's the thing.

There are two main possibilities to consider regarding this extremely difficult mystery.

The first theory is that each culture created the dolmen as a distinct cultural construct.

This is the most widely accepted theory, suggesting that ancient people built structures through their own individual cultures, but honestly, I still have my doubts.

Given the many common characteristics they share, it seems incredibly perplexing to me that they were built upon independent cultures.

However, it's not possible to generalize, as the spiral patterns found at the Bruna-bo-Nya archaeological site in Ireland sometimes resemble the spiral patterns on Jomon pottery.

The second theory is that the ancient people built the temples after encountering a common event or through trade.

This idea is somewhat difficult to grasp, but if we consider that they were built through trade, then this explanation makes sense. In fact, structures believed to be dolmens are mainly found along the coast, so it's possible to speculate that they spread by ship.

World map from 10,000 BC ↓

However, it is unlikely that dolmen structures spread from Europe to Korea, Japan, and even Malaysia through trade, and since no documents have been found, this theory simply lacks sufficient evidence to be proven.

Furthermore, considering whether the navigation technology to reach Korea, Guyana, and Malaysia existed at that time, this theory seems unrealistic.

Other theories include "it was transmitted by aliens" and "it's a derivative of menhir" (because the word dolmen is the same Breton language as the word menhir), but so far no evidence has been found to support these claims.

A mural carved into a dolmen that looks like an alien ↓

A dolmen in Brittany, the birthplace of the Breton language ↓

However, even the mysterious dolmens have some features that have been partially explained.

This theory suggests that dolmens, particularly those in the Brittany region, were used for equatorial rituals . This is because dolmens are always positioned east-west, with their openings facing east, indicating a preference for equatorial rites.

Another

interesting feature is that,

despite being located at the far ends of the Eurasian continent, the dolmens in Korea and Spain share the same form .

These structures known as dolmens, whose details remain largely unknown and which continue to raise many questions, stir people's imaginations and stand quietly to this day.

What archaeological finds do not receive enough attention?

 The simplified version is here but at the same time exciting:

Forget Gobekli Tepe. The actual performance is in 2026 and it is called Karahan Tepe. It is altering all our understanding of early men.

Way older than Stonehenge

Stonehenge is 5,000 years old. Karahan Tepe? Over 11,000. At the time of its construction, woolly mammoths were still on this planet. It's a whole different era.

The first "selfie"

The pillars which were T-shaped had no faces, only arms and belts. One of them, dating to 2025, has a realistic human face. Huge eyes, powerful nose, hewn 11,000 years ago. It is as though people were looking out of the stone.

Humans, not animals

As compared to the animal carvings in Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe centres on human beings. This Ribbed Man is 7 feet high with ribs, spine, and folded hands and is seated in a ritual pose. It also has a submerged hall that has 11 massive phallic pillars- a life and death stage.

Farming came later

The first humans we were taught were farmed. Wrong. These hunter-gatherers held giant rituals, and then embarked on farming to nourish their mobs.

So why not everybody is talking about it? Real digs only began in 2019. As individuals are giving Gobekli Tepe a lot of hype, Karahan Tepe is blowing a hole straight through history.

Moral of the story: Need to sound smart. Forget pyramids. Discussing Stone Hills of Turkey--Karahan Tepe.

Either you would like to have the newest photos of the statue of Ribbed Man--they are unbelievable.

What incredible archaeological discoveries came in the least expected places?

 The Secret Under Gobekli Tepe: The Shepherds Knew First.

It is just the bare fact that people were walking over history and they did not even realize it. These stones had been used over the years as normal rocks by local shepherds. This is because they did not know that they were sitting on something big.

Then archeologists appeared--and all was different.

In Gobekli Tepe, they discovered large stone pillars which were more than 10,000 years old. That is even older than the pyramids. The shocking part? Those who constructed them were mere hunters. Cities, no; machines, no; and yet they created something great.

It doesn't stop there.

Near at hand is Karahan Tepe and this is even older--about 12,000 years. It has queer carvings and sunk deep stone rooms. It appears to be a worshiping place and not a relatable living place.

And it all came about in the Younger Dryas, when the world was very cold and harsh. It was hard to live--but man was creating.

So what does this mean?

Perhaps, it is not so much that people initially constructed farms then constructed temples. Perhaps they erected temples at first--and that compelled them to make themselves permanent.

Suppose that that is the case, then we may have the entire narrative of the ancient civilization incorrect.

What is the most interesting archaeological discovery ever made?

 The archaeological discovery that changed our entire understanding of the level of technology possessed by ancient civilisations, remaining unequalled for more than 1,500 years.

Since its discovery, it has remained the most compelling Archeological artefact ever found, being studied more than any other single artefact in the entire history of Archaeology. However, only in the last few years can we finally say we understand the true purpose and scale of the genius behind it.

The remarkable events that led to this Archeological discovery in many ways echo the chilling circumstances behind its owner's harrowing final moments.

“How does the bust of some hairy man change our understanding of anything, this is total twaddle!"

A plethora of stunning statues and treasures were discovered alongside this extraordinary artefact, in many ways, stealing the limelight at first.

During the spring of 1900, a small crew of Greek Sponge divers were forced to venture further from their home waters to find new Sponge fishing grounds, while sailing south their small fishing boat encountered a violent storm that ripped at their sails and drove them towards the rocks of a small island.

As the sea churned, forming valleys of seething deep green that threatened to capsize their small vessel or smash it against unseen rocks in the chaotic frenzy of the stormy gloom, the Greek captain wrestled for control of his little boat against the forces of nature, guiding it into a bay that sheltered them from the worst of the severe storm.

The next day, the crew awoke to find the sky clear and the water that had threatened to take their lives the night before now calm and crystal clear. Having never fished the waters around this island before, the captain sent a young diver down to see if there was any Sponge fishing to be had.

Elias regretted eating pickled fish and tinned beans last night.

Not long after going down, the young diver started violently tugging at his rope in a desperate panic, so the crew quickly pulled him to the surface and removed his brass helmet, shaking like a leaf, the diver said that he had seen heaps of dead bodies beneath them.

The captain suited up and decided he would go down and see for himself, because this had to be one of the most over-the-top excuses he had ever heard. What he found stunned him, for the dead bodies were in fact a mass of exquisite bronze and marble statues littered across the seabed. The captain explored the shipwreck for a while, before taking a bronze arm and returning to the surface.

The bronze arm of a boxer, found at the wreck.

With the shipwreck discovered, but not a Sponge in sight, the rather practical crew carried on their voyage to better Sponge fishing grounds, with a bronze arm safety tucked away.

Later that year, the Captain approached the Greek authorities with his bronze arm and explained his find and before long an expedition was organised with the original Sponge diving crew tasked with the role of recovering artefacts from the wreck.

Over the next two years the Sponge Divers turned Marine Archeologists would battle rough seas and storms around the island, while bringing up a vast quantity of ancient statues, coins, pristine Hellenistic glassware, and a wealth of extraordinary finds.

The shipwreck had been an enormous vessel for the ancient world and had carried a staggering amount of exquisite valuables, all of which now lay just beneath the surface.

This massive galley had probably been caught in the storms and rough seas around the little island, just as the Sponge Divers boat had, but unlike the smaller fishing boat, the Greek treasure ship had not survived, sinking around 80 BC.

Amongst all the treasure, from gold and silver coins to priceless ancient statues and jewellery, a small lump of green corroded bronze was found and chucked to the side, where it would remain in storage for the next two years, totally overlooked, sadly degrading without the proper treatment it had urgently required upon removal from the water.

The Antikythera Mechanism, 200BC.

Until one day, a visiting MP noticed the unassuming clump of green corroded bronze neglected in the corner and took a closer look, it had dried out and split, inside he could see countless gear wheels with tiny teeth, engravings and intricate mechanisms.

Naturally, everyone suddenly stopped caring about everything else from the shipwreck and focused on this remarkable artefact.

Scientists, Linguists, Archeologists, Astronomers and Naval experts from all around the world started studying the little machine. However, being only the early 1900s, it was difficult to truly understand this ingenious device, for the next 50 years it baffled the world.

Until a series of rather clever fellows slowly pieced it together, one gear diagram at a time, British Professor Price commissioned an X-ray of the Antikythera Mechanism and worked out how many teeth were on some of the gears, which seems like a rather small step forwards, but meant they now knew the device could calculate the cycles and position of the moon.

Jump forward to the last few years and a study led by the University of Cardiff in Wales which built a state-of-the-art scanner to finally unlock the answers to perhaps the greatest mystery in the history of Archaeology.

Using their custom-built high-resolution surface scanner and X-ray machine, the findings revealed 37 intricate meshing bronze gears, precision mechanisms and thousands of fine engravings.

This Antikythera Mechanism was the first analogue computer in history. It could map the movements of the moon and sun through the zodiac, accurately predict future eclipses and calculate the position of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Technology of this level quite literally didn't belong in the ancient world, or so we originally thought.

The ancient writing of Cicero talks of two incredible mechanical devices that the genius Archimedes built in the 2nd century BC, which could calculate the positions of the moon and stars with precision, the Antikythera Mechanism is possibly one of these two devices or a later copy.

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2,200 years ago, Ancient Greeks built astronomical computers that would not be equalled until the 15th century.

‘If the insight of the ancient Greeks had matched their ingenuity, we would not merely be pottering around on the Moon, we would have reached the nearer stars.’ — Arthur C. Clarke.