5 Ancient Mysteries We Still Haven't Solved

Don't forget the oldest mystery: How does one get a job without experience, and how does one get experience without a job?

I'm convinced that Simon's ultimate goal is host ALL the channels on YouTube

A thought; sometime ago I read a book by an English fellow who was convinced that the ancient people of Nazca, had the use of “smoke balloons” capable of carrying men up high enough to see these lines. He got Raven Industries (recreational hot-air ballon manufacturers) to make a smoke ballon out of the type of cloth available to the Nazca people of former times (known because of funeral cloth on the mummies from the area) and modeled after some illustrations on pottery shards. The craft was successfully flown in the area and as far as I know, was promptly forgotten by historical authorities. The idea presented was that natives of the Amazon for a very long time, had sent prayers to the gods in much smaller hot air balloon’s, not only that, but one such Amazon native went back to Europe with missionaries and worked with the Montgolfier brothers on their hot air balloons. Interesting if true. A good read as I recall, though I can’t recall the name of the author

Simon has the most informative videos on YouTube.. Simon, you magnificent bastard. Single greatest personality/teacher/guide on YouTube. Huge props.

the real mystery is how simon manages to be married, narrate 27 YouTube channels, and 6 podcasts.

You could also do a video on ancient mysteries that HAVE been solved within the last 5 to 10 years. First set up the background, i.e. why it was a "great mystery", and explain why we previously didn't know the answer. Then explain the breakthrough that solved the mystery and the current understanding. What would be interesting about such a video is that the spark or inspiration that leads to the answer could come from random unexpected sources.

Lesson from the Ninth Legion: if you retire a bunch of veterans to farms and then recall them years later, don’t expect them to do well.

As a military historian, I suspect that the 9th Legion was broken up into detachments following Agricola's campaign in Scotland as a consequence of the heavy losses. Replacements from Rome would have been hard to come by in Britain, and small detachments were always needed in the more distant parts of the Empire. My guess would be that some of the ended up on the Rhine frontier, which would account for the limited evidence from the Netherlands.

Now, when you say "worst serial killer in history" are you implying he killed the most, or he just hilariously bad at it?

6th mystery: when future historians will wonder why 97% of the internet was simon videos

This had me chuckling. The "thinking of you Gengis Khan" and "still waiting on that scientists" about immortality are comedy gold 👌

And still today, history is "less about facts and information than it is about telling a good story," because it's always the winners who get to write the history books.

2:00 1) Zaroaster 4:32 2) Bronze Age 6:57 3) Genghis Khan 9:14 4) Ninth Legion 12:30 5) Nazca Lines

"Religious purposes" is archeologist for "I have no idea."

Loved the transition from Bronze Age to Gengis Kahn. It was so abrupt, for a second I thought he was blaming him for the Bronze Age collapse xD

the nazca lines were created for the same reason that islanders of Easter Island started carving giant heads. One guy does it, then another guy wants to outdo him, next thing you know carving heads or digging lines becomes a competition, and then it takes on religious significance and eventually becomes all consuming, and then they all die from exhaustion.

1:50 - Chapter 1 - Zororaster 4:35 - Chapter 2 - The bronze age collapse 7:00 - Chapter 3 - The tomb of genghis khan 9:20 - Chapter 4 - Legio IX Hispania 12:35 - Chapter 5 - The nazca lines

I'm still trying to solve the mystery of how my clothes dryer can make socks disappear.

I'd like to see someone take a shot at explaining the Serapeum boxes.

The Nasca lines, like the plethora of similar but smaller geoglyphs to be found across North and Central America, now are believed to have bee created for processions...basically a prehistoric conga line. There are several geogyph (also know as intaglio) sites in the area where I live, along the Colorado River where California, Arizona and Nevada meet and stretching southward to the Gulf of California. Many sites contain a geometric design along with two human figures linked to tribes' creation myths alongside various animals, like horses and dogs . Monkey depictions often appear at geoplyph sites in central America. As Simon said, they appear as simple lines on the ground where the top soil (or rocky layer known as "desert pavement") has been brushed away to uncover the substrate, - a different color and texture of sand beneath. At all locations mapped so far, they are easy to miss unless seen from high above. Archaeologists pretty much agree that ancient native cultures made them as ceremonial sites for dance processions, which explains why they almost always consist of a single unbroken line forming each separate design...the dance procession ended at the same place where it started. How they were made is obvious and how they were used has been postulated, but when they were made and how long continuous use lasted may remain a mystery. Since few or no artifacts have been found at the sites; it's difficult to scientifically date when people first moved a small amount of topsoil, and evidence of maintenance makes dating their initial creation even harder. Local tribes say their ancestors made them but don't know how long ago, and the rituals performed there have been forgotten by their creators' descendants. Best guesses on the Colorado River valley geoglyph sites is that they're at least 300 years old, and some researchers believe they may be closer to 1,000 years old or more. Many of these sites are nearby to petroglyphs that carry the same or similar geometric design. Thankfully nearly all these sites are now being preserved for posterity, but in years past some had roads built through them or were on private property and destroyed for "modern" land uses.