Mysterious Ancient Caves that Could Rewrite History

Caves are more than just hollow places in our earthly ground; they play a very indispensable role in the story of mankind. Aside from serving as a shelter for our earliest ancestors, ancient caves also serve as a rich source of many extraordinary artifacts, mysterious undeciphered symbols, and traces of unknown human civilizations in different parts of the world. For some old cultures, several of which still endure to this day, these caves were seen in a mystical and a magical light, while some archaeologists have discovered evidence in these places that raise several compelling and unanswered questions about our distant past.

And so, in this list, let us talk about seven of the most mysterious ancient caves that could re-write history as we know it.

2. Theopetra Cave – Thessaly, Greece

Located at the foot of the Chasia mountain range, which serves as the natural boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia prefectures, the Theopetra Cave is a unique archaeological site that holds many ancient secrets. The site contains one of the longest archaeological sequences in Greece as it contained cultural remains from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic as well as Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, bridging the Pleistocene epoch with the Holocene. Earliest estimation of human inhabitants in the cave dates back to 130,000 years ago, and the site is also the home to the oldest known example of man-made structure – an ancient stone wall that is believed to have been constructed 23,000 years ago as a probable barrier against cold winds. Excavations of the Theopetra Cave started in 1987, and over the years, more and more groundbreaking discoveries have been uncovered by experts in this ancient place.

2. Ciur-Izbuc Cave – Transylvania, Romania

In 1965, Ciur-Izbuc Cave in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania was found to contain around 400 ancient human footprints. At the time of its discovery, researchers were of the opinion that the footprints were made by a man, woman and child who was in the cave approximately 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. However, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the ancient human footprints found in the Romanian cave are actually more than 35,000 years old. Radiocarbon testing on the bear bones found buried just beneath some of the footprints revealed that they are tens of thousands of years older than the initial estimate. To scientists, the footprints found in the Ciur-Izbuc Cave are evidence of the earliest known humans in Europe, which was only previously determined through the discovery of animal bones and stone tools.

3. Royston Cave – Hertfordshire, England

The Royston Cave is an artificial cave that was discovered in August 1742. When it was found, the cave was half-filled with dirt and rock, but once the earth was removed, they found several sculptures and carvings, which date as far back as 1200 AD. The images of the artifacts found in the cave are mostly religious in nature, including a depiction of the Holy Family and the Crucifixion. It remains unknown who created the artificial cave or what its purpose was when it was made, but there has been much speculation in answering this mystery. Some believe that the Royston Cave was used by the Knights Templar, while others think it may have been an Augustinian store mine. However, none of these theories have been substantiated yet, leaving the origin of the cave to continue as an enigma even until now.

4. Huashan Caves – Huangshan, China

Manually chiseled more than 1700 years ago, the Huashan caves are steeped in ancient and mysterious legends. Each cave ranges from 10 to 20 meters in height, with their variously-shaped stone columns supporting the ceilings. A total of 36 chambers have been found among the Huashan Hills, and their neatly chiseled walls and roofs, big pillars and stone stairs indicate that these caves were excavated by men. Because there are currently no historical records revealing why our ancestors in China dug the Huashan Caves, a variety of guesses have been presented in an attempt to resolve this mystery. Some believe the caves were dug to produce stone which probably had been used to build a nearby town. Another theory suggests that the caves were once used to station troops. There is also speculation that the caves were used as imperial tombs but were somehow abandoned later on. However, despite these interesting guesses, the true purpose of the Huashan Caves remains a mystery left unanswered by modern man.

5. Ellora Caves – Maharashtra, India

Situated not far from Aurangabad, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the site is home to 34 monasteries and temples, extending over a distance of more than 2 kilometers. Unlike past examples in history, where the dominant religion of a particular time and place brought down the temples and structures of other groups, replacing them with their own, the Ellora Caves is proof that tolerance, acceptance, and co-existence of different religions are possible. The caves are a unique sanctuary that blends the art and culture of three religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. It is unclear when these caves were built, but estimates range from between 200 B.C. and 600 A.D. to 600 A.D. and 1000 A.D.

6. Piyang Caves – Tibet

The Piyan Caves are among the most important caves of Tibet, situated in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau and close vicinity of the sacred Mount of Kailash. There are over 1,100 caves at the site of different shapes and sizes – some are habitation sites, while other locations are believed to be meditation or ritual caves governed by gods and spirits. Humans inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least 21,000 years ago, so there are speculations that numerous ancient artifacts and relics are hidden in the caves, tunnels, dark subterranean passages and other mysterious areas at the site, many of which have yet to be localized. The Piyang region covers an area of 10,000 square meters, making it difficult to explore. In the many temples built in the vicinity, there are prehistoric castle walls, murals, sculptures, pagodas and Buddhist niches filled with priceless paintings. However, no one really knows for sure where all the ancient scriptures, historical paper scrolls and prehistoric books believed to be safeguarded in the caves are really hidden.

7. Denisova Cave – Siberia, Russia

Located in the northwestern Altai Mountains some 6 kilometers away from the village of Chernyi Anui, the Denisova Cave is a rock shelter where a series of scientific discoveries on man’s origins have been made in recent years. In 2008, a finger bone fragment of a juvenile female – referred to as the “X woman” – was found at the site. Experts have estimated that the female lived around 41,000 years ago, and analysis has indicated that this creature was genetically distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans. This previously unknown and long extinct hominin species or subspecies has been named Denisovan after the cave where the bone fragment was discovered. In 2010, analysis on an upper molar from a young adult which was found in the cave ten years earlier was also determined to be from a Denisova hominin. The cave is located in a region thought to have also been inhabited concurrently in the past by Neanderthals and modern humans, making the site the one place we know so far where all three human forms have lived at one time or another.

The ancient caves we have mentioned are just a few of many archaeological sites that have the potential to rewrite history as we know it. These ancient sites and their abundant resources of historical and archaeological evidences are still being extensively explored and studied until now, as many believe that these caves still hide an abundance of secrets and discoveries that could fill the missing pieces in the origins of humanity.

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Sources:

http://www.messagetoeagle.com/10-mysterious-ancient-caves-that-could-re-write-history/
http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places/ten-amazing-caves-ancient-world-002957?nopaging=1
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/ancient-secrets-of-the-theopetra-cave-worlds-oldest-man-made-structure-and-home-to-humans-130000-years-ago/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theopetra_cave
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/oldest-european-human-footprints-romanian-cave-102003
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/unanswered-questions-related-to-the-mysterious-huashan-caves/
http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/magnificent-ellora-caves-india-001605
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/ancient-secrets-hidden-in-the-piyang-caves-mysterious-sacred-caves-of-tibet/
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/first-unique-view-inside-denisova-cave-ancient-history/#.V9Mi4_mLSM9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisova_Cave
https://www.thoughtco.com/denisova-cave-only-evidence-denisovan-people-170604

3 ‘Modern’ Inventions That Existed Millions of Years Ago: Nuclear Reactor, Telescope, Clothes

Some mainstream scientists may have people believe that humans evolved from lower life forms over the last 10,000 years or so, however, archaeologists have already discovered many artifacts of various ancient human civilizations that are millions of years old according to scientific carbon isotope dating. And guess what, these artifacts provide evidence that these ancient humans were even more advanced than we are today. 

1. Nuclear Reactor 1.8 BILLION Years Old

The Oklo, Gabon Republic, nuclear reactor site. (NASA)

In 1972 at a uranium mine in the Gabon Republic of Africa, an open-air large-scale nuclear reactor with a highly sophisticated layout was discovered and calculated to have been built 1.8 BILLION years go and active for 500,000 years. A French manufacturer importing uranium ore from here found it had strangely already been used, so they send scientists to examine the site. They concluded the uranium here was more than twice as powerful as normal uranium and practically impossible to have naturally occurred. 

"The reaction sites consists of several compact bodies of uranium ore with a very high uranium concentration. Altogether, over 500 tons of uranium took part in the reactions (perhaps even more, for fresh ore bodies have just been discovered). The energy released must have amounted to almost 1011 kWh. At some points the integrated neutron flux exceeded 1.5 X 1021 n/cm2 , and samples with a 235U concentration of as little as 0.29% (as compared with 0.72% in natural uranium of normal isotopic composition) have been found. For such values to be attained, there must have been extremely effective mechanisms for controlling the nuclear reactions, mechanisms which have not yet been fully elucidated. Even more remarkable is the state of preservation of these "fossilized nuclear reactors"; in fact the uranium has retained its configuration from the time of the reactions so faithfully that the reaction rate distributions through the ground can be interpreted in terms of neutron physics. This implies a quite exceptional conjunction of circumstances, and it is expected to be possible to reconstruct the progress of the phenomenon in some detail. Thanks to the innumerable "traceurs" resulting from the nuclear reactions, it is possible to study a whole episode in geological history extending from the deposition of these very heavy concentrations of uranium about 1,800 million years ago to quite recent modifications."  -- The Oklo Phenomenon by Roger Naudet, 1975 International International Atomic Energy Agency Symposium

Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg was head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Nobel Prize winner for synthesizing heavy elements who believes this highly concentrated uranium site was not a natural phenomenon but in fact a man-made nuclear reactor. This reactor is more advanced than anything we can build today, being miles long yet remarkably only heating it's surroundings within 130 feet while containing all radioactive waste in the nearby earth. Reactor engineering specialists believe this Oklo site's uranium could not contain such high concentrations of U-235 for nuclear reactions to naturally occur. Plus, extremely pure water is required for uranium to "burn" in a reaction, which does not exist naturally anywhere in the world. 

2. Stone Engraving of Telescope & Modern Clothing 65 MILLION Years Old

a 65 million year old stone engraving of a person holding a telescope, an invention believed to be created in 1609 by Galileo. (Courtesy of Eugenia Cabrera/Museo Cabrera)

In the National University of Peru, there is a 65 MILLION year old engraving on a rock with a person wearing modern clothes and observing the stars with a telescope. It's was previously believed that the European astronomer, Galileo Galilei invented the telescope in 1609 but this finding proves otherwise.

Ica stone showing ancient person riding triceratops dinosaur. Credit: Dennis Swift

There are 10,000 other stones in the Cabrera Museum in Ica, Peru showing more ancient humans with clothes, shoes, and headdresses. There are also medical scenes of blood transfusions, organ transplants, and cesarean sections — even riding dinosaurs!

Dr. Dennis Swift, author of "Secrets of the Ica Stones and Nazca Lines" and archaeologist from the University of New Mexico, recorded evidence that these stones are from Pre-Columbian times. He has been around the world and collected similar artifacts depicting the lives of ancient peoples proving than mankind is much older than many know.

3. Well Dressed Humans in 14,000 Year Old Cave Paintings

Cave painting from the cave of Altamira in the Anthropos Pavilion of The Moravian Museum in the Czech Republic. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 1937 Léon Péricard found 14,000 year old paintings in the La Marche caves of western France of people with tailored clothing, groomed beards, short hair, and riding horses. This proves that ancient humans were much more sophisticated than the infamous "caveman" concept with ragged animal skins and messy long hair. 

In 2002, Dr. Michael Rappenglueck reevaluated Péricard’s findings and believes they are genuine and noted that many floor paintings and etchings, which may contain even more valuable relics, were damaged during the earlier excavations.

Rappenglueck also believes that this, and other such discoveries, are ignored or even kept hidden by modern science. For example, some pieces from La Marche cave are displayed in Paris' Museum of Man except for the best ones that show the sophisticated culture of these ancient people. 

“For some years it has been left to broader media coverage (in the form of printed matter, audio-visual material, electronic media and planetarium programs) to raise awareness of proto-astronomy (as well as proto-mathematics and other proto-sciences) during Palaeolithic times.” 

Thankfully, now we can share information so easily and quickly. In this information age, stubborn incorrect notions are being rectified by the newly revealed truths. 

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Sources

• http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/345446-3-modern-inventions-that-existed-millions-of-years-ago-nuclear-reactor-telescope-clothes/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marche_(cave)
• www.DinosaursAndMan.com

Did Ancient Civilizations Possess Knowledge of Time Travel?

source: humansarefree

Time travel has always been a fascinating topic that’s been largely explored in a multitude of written works of science fiction and countless sci-fi films for many, many years. But what’s even more interesting is that tales of time travel go much further back in our history, with some ancient texts that have existed for hundreds or thousands of years mentioning or describing cases of people traveling forward in time. 
 
With the existence of a variety of ancient legends and myths from different parts of the world which seem to be literary interpretations of what could be actual examples of time traveling, some of us just can’t help but ask: Did certain ancient civilizations possess some knowledge of time travel?
 
Well, though we can’t answer this definitively just yet, for now, let us look into some of the ancient texts which mention tales of people who have supposedly defied all laws of logic, space and time. 

1. Story of the Seven Sleepers

source: wikipedia

The story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is a tale that is quite significant in both the Christian and Islamic tradition. The Christian interpretation of the story goes like this:

During the persecutions overseen by the Roman emperor Decius sometime in 250 AD, seven young men were accused of being worshippers of Christianity. These individuals were given some time to renounce their faith, but instead, they chose to surrender their material possessions by giving them to the poor and retiring to a mountain cave. Inside this cave, the seven young men prayed and eventually fell asleep. When they awoke, they thought they had only slept for a day, but when they wandered into the city to buy food, they were astounded to find buildings with the crosses of Christianity attached to them. And so, they came to the stunning realization that they had not slept for just one night, but for two hundred years, and they had awakened at a time when Christianity had already spread across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire. 

A similar tale about these sleepers can be found in Surah 18 of the Qur’an. Referred to as the story of the Companions of the Cave, it tells almost the same story as the Christian version; only the Qur’an does not provide the exact number of the People of the Cave who had miraculously been transported a couple of centuries into the future.

2. Bible - The Book of Baruch - Disappearance of Jeremiah

Source: ken raggio

There are also several examples of time travel found in the Bible, and one of them is a story about the disappearance of Jeremiah as told in the deuterocanonical Book of Baruch. 
 
In the first part of this book, Jeremiah is told by God that Jerusalem will be destroyed and that he has to bury and protect the vestments of the temple. After that, he is to go into exile with his people until the day comes that God would allow them to return. But before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah instructed Abimelech, a eunuch, to bring back figs from the orchard of Agrippa. Abimelech, however, ends up falling asleep in the orchard. And when he woke up, he was told by an old man that he had slept miraculously for the last 66 years. 

3. Mahabharata - Story of King Raivata Kakudmi

Source: a brief history of time travel

One of the very first stories that describe time travel can be found in the Hindu epic, Mahabharata – an ancient text which is believed to have been written no later than 400 BCE. This tale in that text follows a king, his daughter, and their quest to find her the most suitable husband. 

Revati was the only daughter of King Raivata Kakudmi, a monarch who ruled the prosperous kingdom of Kusasthali. Because the king thought her daughter was so beautiful and accomplished that no could prove good enough to marry her, Kakudmi took Revati to Brahmaloka, the home of the creator Brahma, to seek the powerful god’s help in finding his previous daughter the perfect suitor. 

When they arrived, Brahma was listening to a musical performance so they had to patiently wait until the performance was completed before Kakudmi could pay his respects and make his request to the god. However, once he did so, Brahma only laughed at the foolishness of the king. The God revealed that during the time they had waited in Brahmaloka, 108 yugas had already passed on Earth, with each yuga representing around 4 million years. 
 
With Kakudmi and Revati completely astonished over how so much time had passed on Earth during their short stay in Brahma’s domain, Brahma had to explain to them that time runs differently in different places of existence, which is interestingly similar to how modern physicists and astronomers conceptualize space-time today.  

4. Buddhist Text - Pali Canon - Heaven of the 30 Devas

buddha's real teachings

Another ancient text that we will be discussing is the Buddhist text of Pali Canon, which, like the previous stories, also mentions the relativity of time. 
 
It is written in this collection of scriptures in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition that in the heaven of the thirty Devas, or the place of the Gods, “time passes at a different pace, and people live much longer.” For example, one hundred years on Earth is equivalent to just a single day passing in the heaven of the Gods. 

5. Japan - Legend of Urashima Taro

source: wikia, ayakashi: ghost guild

Urashima Taro is the protagonist of the legend about a fisherman who rescued a turtle from harm, who turned out to be the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryujin. To personally thank him and reward him for his actions, Taro was brought to the bottom of the sea to visit the Palace of the Dragon God where she met the Emperor and Princess Otohime.
 
Taro stayed in the underwater palace for three days, but he eventually decided to go back home to his village where his aging mother lived. And so, he asked the princess’s permission to leave, and before he left, she gave him a mysterious box that will supposedly protect him from danger so long as he never opens it. 
 
However, when he reached land, he discovered that 300 years had already passed since he had left the village and traveled to the bottom of the sea. In grief of all that he had lost, he opened the box the princess gave him, which let out a cloud of white smoke. Suddenly, Taro aged rapidly, and from the sea, he heard the voice of the princess reveal that kept inside the special box she gave him was actually his old age. 
 
All the stories and texts I have just mentioned all paint the idea of time travel in the same way that modern science has theorized it today: that time is relative and not absolute; and that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. And while these myths and legends may just be stories concocted from the brilliant imagination of their writers, they have opened an avenue of discourse that compels us to contemplate what it could mean for humanity if there are those among us who have the means to travel through time as well as the power to modify our history. 

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//publics/pseudepig/ParJer-Eng.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-unexplained-phenomena/time-travel-ancient-mythology-modern-science-001242?nopaging=1
http://the-wanderling.com/mahabharata.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakudmi#Meeting_with_Brahma
https://www.ancient-code.com/time-travel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81li_Canon#Sutta_Pitaka
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/did-ancient-civilizations-possess-knowledge-of-time-travel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel

New Fossil Discovery in Morocco Will rewrite Human History

Well, time to change the text books…

Until now, researchers believed that the first ever modern humans or Homo sapiens, came out of East Africa about 200,000 years ago. But in Jebel Irhoud a remote region of Morocco in what was once a cave. A team of European and Moroccan scientists has found five fossil remains that dates back to about 315,000 years ago, which would make them the oldest modern humans ever found.

This is a huge breakthrough because it would mean our species evolved across africa more than 100,000 years earlier.

Shannon McPherron/Nature

According to a report in the Journal Nature, The international team of researchers led by Jean-Jacques Hublin who directs the department of human evolution at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology uncovered a skull, bones along with some stone tools.

In a statement Hublin said: "This material represents the very root of our species, the oldest Homo sapiens ever found in Africa or elsewhere,"

“We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200, 000 years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago,” he explains

He added “Until now, the common wisdom was that our species emerged probably rather quickly somewhere in a ‘Garden of Eden’ that was located most likely in sub-Saharan Africa,”

“Long before the out-of-Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens, there was dispersal within Africa,” says Hublin.

The fossils found were surrounded by gazelle and other animal bones and scientists believe that these homo sapiens mainly hunted for their food. The fossil also shows that although our ancestors brains functioned differently they did have similar faces as our own.

The discovery of the site was not new, a few pieces of skull and flint blades were found by moroccan miners at the Jebel Irhoud site in 1961, but the horrendous dating techniques used back then estimated the remains to be only 40,000 years old. It wasn't until the 1980s when Jean-Jacques Hublin took a closer look at one jawbone that he realized something didn’t add up.

Hublin said although the teeth was similar to modern humans, the shape seemed very primitive. Thus starting in 2004 Dr. Hublin and his team started to excavate Jebel Irhoud once again and found more fossils, including five skull bones and burnt flint blades. Scientists used  a method called thermoluminescence to estimate how long it has been since the blades were burned and estimated the blades to be around 300,000 years old.

Of course a claim so big could not be without its detractors.

John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin said that it was a plausible idea, but that recent discoveries of fossils from the same era raise the possibility that they were used by other hominins. The only way to resolve the question will be to find more hominin fossils from the time when our species emerged.