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Unexplained Phenomena

Ancient Origins brings a section to explore some of the unexplained phenomena, not only current events and reports, but also those unexplained mysteries of the world. Visit us online to learn more about the mysteries which remain unsolved even today.

Firewalking over hot coals. Source: Tatyana / Adobe Stock
8 July, 2022 - 18:56 Lex Leigh

Hot Trot: The Fascinating Ancient Practice of Firewalking

If you’ve ever seen firewalking in person or online, you may have been amazed by the control and skill of individuals performing such a risky act. Since ancient times, the ability to walk barefoot...
A topographic reconstruction from satellite photos of the Richat Structure with false coloring. False coloring as follows: Brown: bedrock; Yellow/white: sand; Green: vegetation; Blue: salty sediments. Source: NASA/JPL/NIMA / Public domain
21 June, 2022 - 18:59 Mark Johnston

What Do Astronauts, Atlantis, and Africa Share? The Richat Structure!

Tucked away in Mauritania, surrounded by the imposing, shifting dunes of the Sahara Desert, lies the Richat Structure. A spectacular rock formation of many names, the “Eye of the Sahara” has guided...
The Stone of the Pregnant Woman at Baalbek quarry. Source: Lodo27 / CC BY-SA 3.0
18 June, 2022 - 18:46 Molly Dowdeswell

Baalbek’s Stone of the Pregnant Woman: How Was This 1000-Ton Megalith Moved?!

One of the biggest feats of Roman ingenuity lies in Lebanon’s historic Bekaa Valley, home to the ancient city of Heliopolis, now Baalbek. Here, the 2,000-year-old Temple of Jupiter was built on top...
Berenger Sauniere. Source: Angel Aroca Escámez / CC BY-SA 3.0
17 June, 2022 - 22:48 Molly Dowdeswell

Treasure, Jesus and an Elaborate Hoax: The Story of Bérenger Saunière

A potentially corrupt priest, an ancestral link to Jesus Christ and hidden treasure, the story of Bérenger Saunière and Rennes-le-Château is like something one would expect to see in movie theaters,...
A spectacular example of the mysterious “living and moving” trovants of Romania, a rare and complex geological formation. Source: Nicu Buculei / CC BY-SA 3.0
16 June, 2022 - 14:45 Tracy McLoughlin

Romania’s Enigmatic Trovants: Living Rocks That Grow and Move!

Roughly six million years ago, paleo-earthquakes created a type of geological phenomenon called trovants. They are also known as the stones of Costesti, after their most famous location in Romania,...
The Demon Drummer of Tedworth: Exploring The Truth Behind the Story
12 June, 2022 - 14:41 Robbie Mitchell

The Demon Drummer of Tedworth: Exploring The Truth Behind the Story

As a species, mankind has always been obsessed with things that go bump in the night. Whether it be around a campfire, written down in a book, or shown on the big screen, we’ve been telling each...
Legedzine in the Ukraine is home to the remains of remnants of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. Every year it hosts a festival organized by the Trypillian Culture State Historical and Cultural Reserve. Source: Александр Водолазский / CC BY-SA 4.0
7 June, 2022 - 01:58 mrreese

The Mysterious House-Burning of the Forgotten Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture

The discovery of ancient cultures, and artifacts related to those cultures, often brings for new and surprising information about how our ancient ancestors once lived. Some cultures are found to have...
The underground city of Derinkuyu in Turkey. Source: ninelutsk / Adobe Stock
27 May, 2022 - 01:58 johnblack

Home to 20,000, But Who Built it? The Underground City of Derinkuyu

Deep under the Turkish town of Derinkuyu, there’s an entire world reaching 85 meters (279 ft) into the earth. Covering a vast area and with a network of labyrinthine tunnels, Derinkuyu was lost to...
Illustration depicting the mythological Talos god. Source: matiasdelcarmine / Adobe Stock
21 May, 2022 - 23:01 ancient-origins

Talos of Crete: A 2,000-Year-Old Tale of the First Robot God

Believe it or not, but ideas of artificial intelligence and automata were alive and well over 2,000 years ago within Greek mythology. The myth of Talos (‘Τάλως’)—the first robot-like creature in...
Obverse and reverse of the golden Curmsun disc. Source: Tomasz Sielski / CC BY-SA 3.0
12 May, 2022 - 22:55 ashley cowie

Sweden’s Enigmatic Golden Curmsun Disc

In 2014, a young girl living in Malmö, presented her teacher with a small golden disc brought to Sweden by her Polish grandmother. Little did she know that this small golden artifact, now dubbed the...
Brown bear penis bones. Source: Didier Descouens / CC BY-SA 4.0
6 May, 2022 - 19:00 Forest Bauer

What Do Dogs and Other Mammals Have That Humans Don’t? A Penis Bone

In a place before time, life somehow emerged on Earth. It grew and flourished. It changed. It split, and some of it went its different ways. There was life in the water and life on the land. Some...
Large stone disc recently discovered in Russia. Source: Bloknot-Volgograd
27 April, 2022 - 01:58 Joanna Gillan

More Than a Dozen Mysterious Carved Discs Found Near Volgograd, Russia

A team of investigators in Russia found more than a dozen stone discs in the Volgograd region of Russia. At the time of the discovery back in 2015, the team claimed that the discs contain tungsten, a...
The Salar de Uyuni landscape in Bolivia. Source: subbotsky / Adobe Stock
25 April, 2022 - 18:48 Rafael Videla E...

The Gods and an Ancient Andean Calendar at the Salar de Uyuni

Within the Bolivia 2020 Pre-Expedition developed in February 2020 by the Akakor Geographical Exploring team under the direction of Lorenzo Epis, the imposing Salar de Uyuni and surrounding areas in...
Judaculla Rock in Western North Carolina. Source: Onmountain / CC BY-SA 3.0
20 April, 2022 - 02:00 johnblack

The Indecipherable Judaculla Rock

In the mountains of Jackson County in North Carolina lies a large mysterious rock covered in petroglyphs that have yet to be deciphered. For the Cherokee Indians, the rock and and surrounding area is...
Archaeoacoustics and Ancient Architecture: Megaliths, Music and the Mind
15 April, 2022 - 23:00 Linda C. Eneix

Archaeoacoustics and Ancient Architecture: Megaliths, Music and the Mind

Before introducing the Big Question, let’s ponder a minute. Isn’t it amazing that for hundreds of thousands of years, all of humankind lived the same way everywhere on Earth. We were all indigenous...
A Racetrack Playa Sailing Stone.
9 April, 2022 - 02:01 dhwty

Leave No Stone Unturned: What Propels the Racetrack Playa Moving Rocks?

Racetrack Playa is a dried-up lake located in Death Valley, California, USA. This dry lake is notable for its sailing stones, which are known also as sliding stones, rolling stones, or moving rocks...
Many believe that the debris discovered at Roswell was the remains of a UFO. Source: aleciccotelli / Adobe Stock
8 April, 2022 - 22:54 Warren Gray

Beyond Top Secret: Eyewitness Accounts to the Roswell Incident

On the night of July 4, 1947, at 11:27 PM, something highly unusual crashed into the arid desert northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. This event has spawned decades of conspiracy theories, with claims...
One of the Sinaia lead plates. Source: Vatra Stră-Rumînă
2 April, 2022 - 22:47 Jake Leigh-Howarth

The Sinaia Lead Plates: Dacian Treasure Trove or Impressive Fakes?

It was 1875 when 200 mysterious artifacts known as the Sinaia lead plates unexpectedly turned up at the Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest, Romania. They were all rectangular, apart from one, and...
Montage of article images. Source: Various
1 April, 2022 - 01:57 aprilholloway

Ten of the Biggest and Best Geoglyphs from the Ancient World

The most well-known geoglyphs in the world are undoubtedly the Nazca Lines of coastal Peru. Yet, scattered across the globe are thousands of other geoglyphs that are equally as impressive. The earth...
Reconstruction of how the supercontinent Rodinia would have looked. Source: Manuel Mata / Adobe Stock
26 March, 2022 - 21:59 Caleb Strom

Rodinia: The Great Unconformity and the Creation of Life on Earth

The geologic record of Earth’s history is 4.6 billion years long. It contains the history of life on Earth and the formation of the continents and oceans which cover the planet today. There are,...
The Giza Sphinx in Egypt. Source: donyanedomam / Adobe Stock
23 March, 2022 - 00:59 ancient-origins

The Sphinx of Giza: Who Built the World’s Most Famous Sphinx in Egypt?

A sphinx is a monstrous being, a mythical creature with the face of a man, the body of lion, and an eagle’s wings. According to the Greek mythology, the sphinx was sent by the gods to punish the town...
Amazonian rock art at the Serranía La Lindosa in Colombia. Source: Iriarte et al. / Royal Society B
21 March, 2022 - 17:59 Sahir

Does Amazonian Rock Art 'Sistine Chapel' Depict Ice Age Megafauna?

Earlier this month, the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B published detailed analyses and pictures of the spectacular 8 mile (13 km) long rock art mural discovered in the...
Will the Llanganatis treasure ever be found? (Mr.mach /Adobe Stock) Insert: Inca gold figure of a man. (Dorieo/CC BY SA 4.0)
21 March, 2022 - 13:57 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Lost Inca Gold: The Quest for the Llanganatis Treasure

In 1532, following a lengthy civil war with his brother Huascar, Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro who seized the opportunity to conquer the lands of the...
The common perception of the cherubim as baby-faced angels, as depicted in Pieter de Grebber’s Adoration of the Shepherds. Source: Public domain
20 March, 2022 - 13:59 Ken Goudsward

Were the Cherubim of the Hebrew Bible the Chariots of the Gods?

The cherubim are a somewhat mysterious topic that occurs numerous times in the Hebrew Bible, but is never truly explained. We are given only brief glimpses into their role and their nature. Since the...

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