From messages hidden in famous paintings to
mentions of forgotten monsters, here are 10
mysterious cases found in art and writing….
10.
The Last Supper
The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci, is
one of the world’s most famous artworks-
and depicts arguably the most important moment
between Christ and his followers.
It’s long been thought that the painting
contains hidden messages and codes, only clear
to those who look deep enough into it.
It's even been the subject of a number of
fictitious stories, like the Da Vinci code,
in which life-changing secrets have been revealed
through this work.
While these are purely made up for entertainment,
an Italian computer technician actually has
found a secret message hidden within the image,
based on the positioning of the bread rolls
and the hand positions of the Apostles.
If you draw the five lines of a musical staff
along the table, then the rolls and hands
represent musical notes, which can be read
as a 40-second long composition.
Of course, this could just be a coincidence,
but when the music is played, it makes sense
and sounds like a requiem.
Da Vinci was known to be an avid musician
alongside his many other talents, so was this
his way to ensure one of his compositions
would last forever?
And if so, why would he make it a secret?
Perhaps because he was such a genius, he just
did it to amuse himself!
9.
The Nag Hammadi Library
First discovered in upper Egypt in 1945, the
Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of 13
books, buried about 1,400 years ago, that
included a large number of “Gnostic Gospels’.
Including scriptures such as the Gospel of
Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel
of Truth… these codices were believed to
have been long destroyed, and date back to
early Christian beliefs; ones that have all
but been eliminated from the modern religion.
The majority of the works were written in
Coptic, which was a language spoken for a
long time in Egypt.
Strangely, though, one of them was different.
Known as the ‘First Apocalypse of James',
it was written in Greek and is a text that
has never before been found in that language.
Furthermore, this particular text had small
dots that had been added to divide the words
into syllables, which suggests that it was
used to help teach the Greek language to students
at the time.
Not only was the find of the Nag Hammadi Library
an important insight into early Christian
beliefs, but it also showed the range of ways
in which such texts were used… and raises
questions about what else might be hidden
on those pages and others that remain buried.
8.
The Morag Texts
The Loch Ness Monster is known around the
world- with people wondering if it’s just
a hoax, or is there actually a large creature
living beneath the surface?
What you may not know, though, is that Nessie
has a less well-known cousin, who’s been
written about a number of times, and remains
just as much of a mystery.
Morag is a creature that is said to live in
the waters of Loch Morar, in the Scottish
Highlands, and was the subject of three different
writings by Alexander Carmichael, who collected
stories from folklore around the turn of the
20th century.
Recent work looking through Carmichael's collection
has uncovered these writings, which describe
Morag as being either a mermaid-like character
with flowing hair, or the grim reaper who
only appears before someone dies.
Thought to have last been seen in 1898, Morag
was supposedly witnessed by most of the local
villagers, including clergymen, and was very
much disliked by them all.
It’s easy to dismiss such stories as fabrications,
but there’s a long written history of unexplained
creatures in both Loch Morar, and Loch Ness.
Perhaps the truth will one day be found, but
until then, the mystery continues!!
And now for number 7, but first, if you are
new here, welcome!
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bell before you leave!!
7.
Roman Bathroom Jokes
As any archaeologist will tell you, the Romans
had just as crude a humor as anyone nowadays
has… just look at some of the artwork that's
been found in Pompeii as an example.
It's no surprise, then, that a recent find
in Turkey uncovered a series of dirty jokes,
this time on the walls of a Roman public bathroom.
Found in the coastal city of Antiochia ad
Cragum, and dating back to about 1,800 years
ago, the bathroom was next door to the grand
bath and the council house so it would have
been extremely busy.
Despite this, a series of mosaics on the floors
depict some risqué moments from myths…
Narcissus admiring a certain appendage of
his own, and Ganymede having parts of his
body sponged clean by a bird.
The researchers who made the discovery could
hardly believe what they had found because
the scenes had been altered from the traditional
myths.
Narcissus' nose was quite large, which was
considered ugly at the time, and was looking
at the shadow being cast from another part
of his body… while the bird washing Ganymede's
intimate parts was a representation of Zeus.
Maybe the Romans' humor doesn't really stand
the test of time, but it definitely proves
that they knew how to poke fun at themselves
and enjoyed comedy as much as any other type
of entertainment.
6.
The Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich manuscript was found in 1912 and
has mystified researchers ever since.
Dated to the 1400s, the pages are full of
illustrations that show plants and stars,
with a level of understanding that's far beyond
what is thought possible from the time.
To make things more complicated, it's written
in an unknown language, which has fuelled
the belief that it may be a fake… while
others believe it may even be linked to Leonardo
da Vinci or aliens!
Of course, but if you’ve seen some of the
other videos about this on this channel, you
most likely know by now, it’s not the case.
People have been trying to decipher the words
and images ever since it was found, and even
a team of code breakers during the second
world war tried to translate the manuscript…
but it was only recently that some of the
words have been translated.
In a paper published in the Journal of the
American Botanical Council in February of
2014, a theoretical physicist announced evidence
he says proves that the manuscript is real
and that the text follows the structure of
‘real languages'.
He also said that one of the drawings of a
plant suggests that the book could have originated
in Mexico.
There’s still far more to learn about this
manuscript, though, but the remains of the
book are online so you are welcome to look
into it more and take a crack at it yourself!!
5.
Café Terrace at Night
Café terrace at night is one of Van Gogh’s
most famous paintings, but despite looking
like a portrayal of an evening dinner that’s
been painted in his trademark style, there
are many that think there’s more going on
here… with the suggestion that it’s actually
depicting the last supper.
In the last supper, Christ is said to have
sat down to eat with his 12 disciples and,
in Café Terrace at Night, there are clearly
12 people sitting down to eat, with a long-haired
figure standing among them.
Van Gogh was known to be deeply religious…
he was, after all, the son of a protestant
minister, and had painted a number of other
images that have similar religious connections…
so could this be another example of religious
symbolism within an otherwise non-religious
artwork?
4.
Witches Marks
Creswell Crags, in Nottinghamshire in the
UK, is a cave that's been used for centuries
by those seeking refuge.
In recent years it's become a tourist attraction
for those wanting to venture underground,
and for a long time, it was thought that the
walls were covered in a form of ancient graffiti.
Recently, though, researchers have re-classified
the extensive series of marks and carvings…
and they are believed to have been made by
witches in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Thought to be the largest collection of protective
marks to have been found in a British cave,
these inscriptions were made to prevent evil
spirits from rising from the underworld.
In total, there are hundreds of different
marks… including a ‘double v' which means
‘Virgin of Virgins', ‘PM' which means
‘Pace Maria', and countless diagonal lines,
boxes, and mazes that are symbols designed
to capture evil.
Why there’s such a concentration of marks
in this particular cave is unknown, but it
could be a step in uncovering the extent to
which witches were active in the area, and
how this affected others that lived close
by.
3.
Scheveningen Sands
Quite often, artworks that we think we understand
are found to harbor secret meanings or images…
and it's not uncommon for paintings to have
been changed over the years to keep them in
line with current tastes and values.
This act of altering images is perhaps no
clearer seen than in the case of Scheveningen
Sands, which was painted by Hendrick van Anthonissen
in 1641.
Long thought to have been an unremarkable
painting, it had always been a mystery why
there was a crowd of people on the beach looking
at an empty stretch of water.
In 2014, a restorer at the Fitzwilliam Museum
in Cambridge decided to scalpel some of the
paint, and she found a surprising image of
a man hovering in the sky.
After further investigation, she found that
rather than looking at the water, the original
painting had the people looking at a large
beached whale… one that had been painted
over.
But why would someone have felt the need to
cover up the dead creature which was such
an integral part of the painting?
It’s thought that it was done by a prospective
seller in the 18th century, who felt like
the subject matter would reduce the artwork’s
value, and so decided to make some home alterations
to raise the price.
2.
The Algol Star
The Algol star, also known as the demon star,
is a star in the Perseus constellation and,
as part of a three-star system, varies in
brightness.
This variation was thought to have been first
recorded in 1667 by the Italian astronomer
Geminiano Montanari… but the discovery of
an ancient Egyptian manuscript shows that
they had observed the star more than 3,000
years earlier.
The papyrus, called the Cairo Calendar, was
written at some point between 1244 and 1163
BC.
It predicted whether each day would be ‘good'
or ‘bad', and showed the expected behavior
of various astronomical objects, including
Algol.
The Egyptians believed the stars to be linked
to the gods, and Algol was actually thought
to have been Horus, one of their most important
deities.
Despite their beliefs about what stars were,
the precision with which the Algol star is
measured in the document shows a much more
advanced understanding of the heavenly objects
than was previously thought possible.
It is the oldest known account of a star's
brightness, and has help astronomers learn
an incredible amount about the star's behavior,
because they can now determine how it's developed
over the past 3000 years.
1.
The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel, which depict nine different
stories from the Book of Genesis, are some
of the most revered pieces of art to have
ever been created.
He was scientifically minded, and supposedly
dissected corpses in the graveyard when he
was a young man, which informed his understanding
of the human form and allowed him to paint
his masterpieces to such a degree of realism.
This love of science, though, led to conflict
with the church who, in his view, refused
to accept scientific fact.
It's thought that he protested this by adding
anatomical objects into his artwork, and two
of the Sistine Chapel murals show this clearly.
The first is the ‘Separation of Light from
Darkness'.
In it, the neck and chin of god looks very
much like a human brain.
If you're not seeing it there, though, how
about the most famous image from the Sistine
Chapel- the Creation of Adam?
Here, God is reaching out to transmit the
spark of life to Adam, and is being carried
by 12 figures.
Surrounding them all is a flowing cloak, which
very clearly resembles the structure of the
brain.
Was this Michelangelo making a not-so-subtle
point against the church, or was it merely
a coincidence?
We'll never know for sure, but what do you
think?
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