Top 10 Bizarre & Controversial Archeological
Discoveries
10.
Acámbaro Figures
Discovered: 1944
The Acámbaro Figures are a collection of
small ceramic figurines allegedly found in
Acámbaro, Guanajuato, Mexico.
They were discovered by Waldemar Julsrud in
July of 1944.
According to accounts, Julsrud stumbled upon
the artifacts while riding his horse in the
Acámbaro area.
He hired a local farmer to dig up the remaining
figures, paying him for each object he found.
Eventually, the farmer and his assistants
discovered over 32,000 figures, which included
representations of everything from dinosaurs
to people from all over the world, including
Egyptians, Sumerians, and bearded Caucasians.
The Acámbaro Figures have been cited as out
of place artifacts, as they are clearly human
made and portray a large variety of dinosaur
species.
According to all history books, humans did
not live in the time of the dinosaurs.
Upon the discovery of the figures, many creationists
from all over the world proclaimed the artifacts
legitimate.
If these figures are genuine, it could stand
as credible evidence for the coexistence of
dinosaurs and humans, which would severely
damage the theory of evolution and offer support
for the literal interpretation of the Bible.
To date though, no credible scholars of archaeology
or paleontology accept the discovery as valid.
9.
The Dropa Stones
Discovered: 1938
In 1938, an archeological expedition was sent
to investigate a secluded area of the Baian-Kara-Ula
Mountains on the border that divides China
and Tibet.
The group discovered a series of caves at
the summit of the mountains.
The archeologists uncovered the graves and
discovered the remains of ancient beings.
The skeletons were a little more than three
feet tall, with abnormally large skulls.
Inside of the tombs a collection of stone
disks were recovered.
The disks were almost twelve inches in diameter,
with a hole in the center.
The disks were labeled the Dropa Stones.
Subsequent investigations have found a total
of 716 Dropa Stones in the caves.
The Dropa Stones were sent to a variety of
scholars for investigation.
One of them, Professor Tsum Um Nui of the
Beijing Academy for Ancient Studies, found
that the spiral grooves were actually a line
of characters written in an unknown language.
Tsum Um Nui claims that an alien spacecraft
crashed in the Bayan Har Shan region 12,000
years ago.
The occupants were aliens called Dropa or
Dzopa.
The Dropa could not repair their craft, so
they tried to adapt to the conditions on Earth.
Many people have challenged these claims and
Tsum Um Nui was forced to resign from the
Beijing Academy.
8.
Horned Human Skull
Discovered: 1880s
Sayre is a borough in Bradford County, Pennsylvania,
59 miles northwest of Scranton.
The exact year is not clear, but during the
1880s a large burial mound was discovered
in Sayre.
It was reported that a group of Americans
uncovered several strange human skulls and
bones.
The skeletons belonged to anatomically normal
men with the exception of bony projections
located about two inches above the eyebrows.
It appeared that the skulls had horns.
It was not the first time that gigantic horned
skulls have been unearthed in North America.
During the 19th century, similar skulls were
discovered near Wellsville, New York and in
a mining village close to El Paso, Texas.
According to historical accounts, the Sayre
bones were allegedly sent to the American
Investigating Museum in Philadelphia.
However, the artifacts were stolen and never
seen again.
Apparent pictures of the skulls do exist,
but many people claim the discovery to be
a hoax.
7.
Map of the Creator
Discovered: 1999
In 1999, a professor at Bashkir State University
in Russia named Alexander Chuvyrov made a
remarkable archeological discovery.
He was called to the house of Vladimir Krainov,
who reported a strange slab buried in his
backyard.
Chuvyrov was instantly intrigued, as he had
been searching for similar slabs that have
been cited in various historical manuscripts.
The slab was so heavy that it took over a
week to unearth.
The stone was investigated and determined
to be some sort of three-dimensional relief
map of the Ural Region.
The Dashka stone reportedly contains representations
of civil engineering work, weirs, an irrigation
system, and powerful dams.
To date, the ancient technology used to make
the map is unknown and extremely advanced.
The map also contains numerous inscriptions.
At first, the scientists thought that it was
an Old Chinese language, although it was later
reported that the inscriptions were done in
a hieroglyphic-syllabic language of unknown
origin.
If the Map of the Creator is genuine then
it would suggest the existence of an ancient
highly developed civilization.
The Dashka stone continues to undergo scientific
testing and is not available for public viewing.
6.
Aluminium Wedge of Aiud
Discovered: 1974
The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud is a wedge-shaped
object found two kilometers east of Aiud,
Romania in 1974.
The object was reported to be unearthed 35
feet under sand and alongside two mastodon
bones.
Physically, the artifact looked similar to
the head of a hammer.
The wedge was allegedly taken to the Archeological
Institute of Cluj-Napoca to be examined, where
it was found to be made of an alloy of aluminum
encased in a thin layer of oxide.
This artifact is considered strange because
aluminum was not discovered until 1808 and
not produced in quantity until 1885.
The fact that the wedge was found in the same
layer of earth as mastodon bones would make
it at least 11,000 years old.
Many people have claimed that the artifact
is proof that aliens visited Earth.
Engineers have reported that the object resembles
the foot of landing gear, not unlike the technology
used on spaceships.
The scientific community believes the wedge
was made on earth and its purpose is not yet
identified.
Due to the limited amount of information that
exists on the subject, the antiquity and origin
of the artifact is unclear.
5.
Los Lunas Decalogue Stone
Discovered: 1880s
The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a large boulder
on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas,
New Mexico, about 35 miles south of Albuquerque.
The stone bears a regular inscription carved
into a flat panel.
The inscription is interpreted by some to
be an abridged version of the Ten Commandments
in a form of Paleo-Hebrew.
The first recorded mention of the artifact
is from 1933 when Professor Frank Hibben,
an archaeologist from the University of New
Mexico, reportedly saw it.
Hibben was led to the stone by an unnamed
guide who claimed to have found it as a boy
in the 1880s.
If this information is accurate, a forgery
would be unlikely because the Paleo-Hebrew
script was unknown to scholars in the 1880s.
One argument against the stone’s authenticity
is the apparent use of Modern Hebrew punctuation,
although epigrapher Barry Fell argued that
the punctuation is consistent with antiquity.
The stone is controversial because many feel
the artifact is Pre-Columbian and proof of
early Semitic contact with the Americas, providing
evidence that people from Israel settled in
America.
4.
Piri Reis Map
Discovered: 1929
The Topkap Palace is a historical structure
that is located in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Piri Reis map was discovered here in 1929.
The map drew immediate attention as it was
one of the earliest maps of America, and the
only 16th century map that shows South America
in its proper longitudinal position in relation
to Africa.
The map is drawn on gazelle skin and was compiled
in 1513 by Ottoman-Turkish military admiral
and cartographer Piri Reis.
The most puzzling aspect of the map is its
depiction of Antarctica.
According to the history books, the first
confirmed sighting of Antarctica occurred
in 1820.
The Piri Reis map not only shows a land mass
near present day Antarctica, but it depicts
Antarctica’s topography as not being masked
by ice and in great detail.
Many people have raised the question, how
could a Turksih admiral from half a millennium
ago map a continent’s topography that has
been covered with ice for thousands of years?
Reports have been published claiming that
the Ottoman Empire had knowledge of some form
of ancient Ice Age civilization.
However, these claims are generally considered
to be pseudo-scholarship.
3.
Giants of North America
Giant human remains are classified as any
bones representative of a person between seven
and twelve feet in stature.
A human skeleton measuring 12 feet tall was
unearthed at Lompock Rancho, California, in
1833 by soldiers digging a pit for a powder
magazine.
In 1856, a decaying human skeleton measuring
10 feet 9 inches tall was unearthed by laborers
plowing a vineyard in what is now West Virginia.
A mound discovered near Toledo, Ohio in 1895
held 20 skeletons; they were seated and facing
east with jaws and teeth “twice as large
as those of present day people.”
The list of these discoveries is quite extensive
and many claims have been made about the origin
of these giant bones, usually starting and
ending with Sasquatch.
No physical archeological evidence of these
claims has ever been displayed.
2.
Kensington Runestone
Discovered: 1898
In 1898, a Swedish American farmer named Olof
Öhman claims to have discovered a large stone
while clearing his land of trees and stumps.
The object was attached to the roots of a
small tree.
Öhman didn’t realize what he had discovered,
so he took the 200 pound stone to the prominent
citizens of Kensington, a settlement in Douglas
County, Minnesota.
The Kensington Runestone is full of ancient
writing and carved text.
It is thirty-one inches high, sixteen inches
wide, and six inches thick.
Nine years after the discovery of the artifact,
Hjalmer R. Holand from Wisconsin University
announced that he had deciphered the writings.
He claims the text to read “8 Goths and
22 Norwegians on exploration journey from
Vinland over the west.
We camp by 2 skerries one day-journey from
this stone.
We were and fished one day.
After we came home, 10 men red with blood
and tortured.
Hail Virgin Mary, save from evil.
Have 10 men by the sea to look after our ship,
14 day -journeys from this island year 1362.”
After Holand published his findings, a massive
investigation was conducted.
If the translation is correct, the Kensington
Runestone would provide evidence that Scandinavian
explorers reached the middle of North America
in the 14th century, nearly 130 years before
Christopher Columbus.
The runestone has been analyzed and dismissed
repeatedly.
Almost all runologists and linguists consider
the artifact to be a hoax.
1.
The Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing
the image of a man who appears to have suffered
physical trauma in a manner consistent with
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The shroud is wrapped in red silk and has
been kept in a silver chest in the Chapel
of the Holy Shroud in the Cathedral of St.
John the Baptist in Turin, Italy since 1578.
Believers contend that the shroud is the cloth
that was placed on the body of Jesus Christ
at the time of his burial, and that the face
image is the Holy Face of Jesus.
Detractors contend that the shroud cloth material
postdates the crucifixion of Jesus by more
than a millennium.
In 1988, radiocarbon dating was done on the
shroud in an attempt to determine the relic’s
authenticity.
The test indicated that the cloth was woven
between 1260 and 1390 A.D, much later than
the time of Jesus.
These results have been challenged by peer-reviewed
journals and many critics have raised questions
about the original nature of the sample used
in 
the test.
