7 STRANGEST Historical Mysteries that Will BAFFLE You

Human history is littered with unexplained questions about ancient civilizations and events which nobody can as yet answer. Was Atlantis real? Why was Stonehenge built? And who was the first human to think sucking milk out of a cow boob was a great idea? But instead of the more obvious mysteries like those, we're going to look at a few more interesting historical knowledge gaps, such as… Who built this ancient computer? Did Christopher Columbus really exist? And why have huge populations of people repeatedly disappeared off the face of the Earth? So shut up and settle down for our list of the 7 seriously strange historical mysteries. At 7, the drastic DNA detour. A few millennia ago, ancient Europeans were getting along just fine, inventing the baguette and hunting unicorns to extinction. But sometime around 2500 BC, a mysterious and unknown event occurred, one which was to change the genetic makeup of European people forever. In an investigation published by Nature Communications, two sets of European human skeletons were studied, one group from 4500 years ago and another set from 7500 years ago, and the results were astounding to say the least. The genetic group from 7500 years ago basically vanished off the face of the Earth, and were almost entirely replaced by a new group of Europeans within 3000 years. A population shift this huge could only be caused by a cataclysmic event. So what was it? A deadly plague? A terrible war which went undocumented by human history? Or was it something else? The revenge of the unicorn ghost army? Ancient scholars say yes. Number 6. The Discovery That Changes Everything The development of human civilization from hunter-gatherers to a more permanent existence in towns and cities is believed to have begun around 8000 BC, and the typical process went something like this. Find a nice patch of land, build a few homes, raise some animals and crops, and then construct a temple or monument to the almighty god to thank him for providing you with such a delightful place to live. But the discoveries made at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey has caused historians and archaeologists to radically redefine how modern civilization came to be. At Göbekli Tepe, a series of over 200 huge stone pillars were found arranged in 20 circles dating back to between 8 and 10 thousand years ago, making it the world's oldest known place of worship. However, those who built it were mostly nomadic hunters, who did not discover agriculture until 5 centuries later. So rather than basing their settlement around a suitable site for farming, they built a monument and constructed a dwelling around it, which is the exact opposite of how we thought towns and cities were formed. Nobody can explain how or why a group of wandering nomads came together to build such a structure. But with only a small part of the area excavated, perhaps the answers are just waiting for us to uncover them. 5. The Disappearing Indians The Indus Valley people were a Bronze Age civilization whose population of 5 million people straddled the areas of modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. They were a prosperous and self-sustaining society, whose advanced cities even had their own sophisticated water and sewage draining systems, something Flint, Michigan doesn't even have today. But having first settled the area in 3000 B.C., by 1700 B.C. the entire population of the Indus Valley had been wiped out. In a set of circumstances eerily similar to the mysterious disappearance of European people, there is no evidence to suggest disease, famine, or war caused the decimation of the Indus Valley people. So where did they all go? Did they even leave a goodbye note? How is it possible for major populations around the world to just disappear? And could the same thing happen today? 4. Who Built The Ancient Computer? In July 1901, a 2,000-year-old Greek cargo ship was discovered at the bottom of the ocean just off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. And within its ruins was this, the Antikythera Mechanism. The Antikythera Mechanism was basically an ancient analog computer made of bronze clockwork gears which the Greeks used to predict the positions of moons, stars, and planets. Maybe also to look up some ancient Greek pornos when everyone had gone to bed. The complexity of this bronze behemoth flabbergasted those who had discovered it, because devices this advanced were not seen again for another 1,000 years. Ancient Greeks were known to be an intellectually advanced civilization, but this is evidence of some high function and point dexters right here. So who were the geniuses of antiquity who built such a brilliant piece of equipment? Where did they obtain the knowledge to do such a thing? And what other amazing unknown contraptions did the Greeks invent? 3. What Happened At Tunguska? On the morning of June 30th, 1908, a huge fireball was seen barreling towards the earth, causing an explosion in eastern Siberia which obliterated more than 2,000 square kilometers of forest and wildlife. Yet nobody knows exactly what caused this devastating incident. Thankfully no humans died as this area was not densely populated, but the explosion which hit with a force 2,000 times greater than the bombing of Hiroshima sure made mincemeat out of any cute bunnies or reindeer nearby. It was initially theorized that Tunguska was caused by a meteorite impact, but no craters or other evidence to support this has ever been discovered. The possibility of an airburst explosion was ruled out as improbable, and 1908 was far too early for those mad Russians to have any weaponry capable of such an explosion. Other crazier explanations put forward include an unidentified flying object whose wreckage was confiscated by the government, an out-of-control experiment by scientist Nikola Tesla, or the possibility that a small black hole passed through the earth. Whatever it was, let's hope it doesn't happen again any time soon. 2. Who Discovered America? Regardless of what was said in your high school history textbooks, it is now universally agreed that Christopher Columbus was not the first person to discover America. Obviously, the indigenous Native Americans technically discovered America first by virtue of actually living there, but historians continue to disagree on who was the first outsider to pay them a visit. A group of British sailors led by Venetian explorer Juan Caboto reportedly touched down a whole year before Columbus did, but there is evidence to suggest that a group of Vikings may have beaten him too. By as many as 500 years, the remains of a Viking settlement in Canada's L'Anse-aux-Meadows and clues from Old Norse tales seem to confirm that the honour of shouting first goes to either Leif Erikson or Bajarni, son of Harrioth. However, before we go building a badass Viking statue to commemorate this, you've also got to consider various evidence which points to the possibility that America had been already visited by the Arabs in 900 AD, the Romans in 180 AD, the Chinese in 1200 BC, and the Japanese right, 2000 BC. Ouch. Sorry, Mr. Columbus. This land wasn't as untouched and virginal as you thought. Oh, and we've got more bad news for you, Chris. At one, did Christopher Columbus even exist? History refers to Christopher Columbus as a nobleman explorer with Italian heritage who sprung from the Republic of Genoa to traverse the globe. But a forthcoming book by Mexican historian Modesto Manuel Duval seeks to confirm the long-standing rumours that Christopher Columbus never existed. And his entire life and adventures were actually undertaken by a man known as Pedro Madruga. Madruga was a count in the Galatian area of modern-day Spain. And an investigation into the supposed existence of both men reveals some amazing coincidences. A study of their handwriting by expert calligraphers showed identical technique, and records show that the two men shared many of the same friends and enemies. Also, a large number of the areas Columbus discovered were known to have been visited by Madruga too, and upon discovering them, Columbus gave them names which used Galatian rather than Italian language. Columbus was known to speak very little Italian, but perfect Spanish and Galatian, which is strange for someone supposedly born in Italy. The prevailing theory is that Pedro Madruga may have changed his identity to Christopher Columbus sometime in the early 1500s to escape debts and a bad reputation amongst European nobility. But if these revelations are eventually proven, the main thing I'm concerned about is, will Americans still get a day off on October 12th?