Discover 6 Mystery-Touched Relics From Ancient History

Did you like Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider? Then you might be interested in these real-world ancient artifacts, which include...

• The 2000-Year Old Baghdad... Battery?
• The 12,500-Year-Old Shigir Idol
• The "Ram in a Thicket" (From the "Great Death Pit" of Ur)
• Hatnefer's Hand-Me-Down Heart Scarab
• The Skull Cups of Gough's Cave
• The 40,000-Year-Old Lion Man

The 2000-Year-Old Baghdad... Battery?

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, doesn't it? In 1938 a researcher digging in Khujut Rabu (outside Baghdad) uncovered a 13cm tall Sasanian clay jar containing an iron rod in a copper cylinder, capped with an asphalt stopper. The jar also seemed to have traces of an acidic fluid like vinegar or wine... which taken as a whole, sounds suspiciously like a battery.

Now this certainly was a controversial theory, with the idea of an ancient culture building a battery 2000 years earlier than Alessandro Volta raising quite a few eyebrows. The funny thing is, modern-day replicas of the pot filled with acidic fluids can and do provide an electrical charge... albeit a fairly weak one.

Wilhelm Konig (who discovered the artifact) suggested that this battery could have been used to electroplate jewelry, but the charge simply isn't enough. It might have been able to provide a mild electric shock though - some researchers have suggested it could have been used as a temple prop to demonstrate "magic" to a worshiper.

Of course, it is possible that the jar's potential as a battery is just a happy accident. Some researchers have suggested that it could have been an elaborate way of storing scrolls containing spells, winding papyrus around the iron bar and encasing it in the copper tube. Other scrolls have been discovered in clay jars (including the Dead Sea Scrolls) although that doesn't explain the alleged traces of an acidic fluid.

The "Baghdad Battery" is going to remain an enigma either way, since it disappeared from the National Museum during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The 12,500-Year-Old Shigir Idol

Predating Stonehenge and more than twice as old as the Egyptian Pyramids, the Shigir Idol is a staggering 12,500 years old... which is pretty impressive when you realize it's carved from wood!

The idol was discovered in 1890 by gold prospectors investigating a peat bog at the base of the Ural mountains. The idol itself is in ten fragments and would have stood at an impressive nine feet tall, resembling a totem pole covered in patterns, faces, eyes and limbs. It's thought that it held ritual significance and that it was "mobiliary art" (or portable.)

The idol is thought to have been carved from a single larch tree towards the end of the last ice age. The humans responsible would have been hunter-gatherers, which would explain why the idol needed to be mobile!

The "Ram in a Thicket" (From the "Great Death Pit" of Ur)

So tell me, would you want an artifact taken from the "Great Death Pit" of Ur?

This statuette comprises of a goat (the archeologist who found it took a few creative liberties) standing on its hind legs and resting its forelegs on the branches of a small tree. This motif was used in Mesopotamian art as representation of fertility and agriculture - something they valued very highly. The materials used to make it reflect this value - gold, lapis lazuli, silver, shell, wood and limestone - all of which would have been imported at great expense!

The ram was one of a pair found in the "Royal Tombs" of Ur, so called because of the amount of grave goods and evidence of mass human sacrifice in their location.

Hatnefer's Hand-Me-Down Heart Scarab

The ancient Egyptians believed that their hearts would be weighed against Maat (order and justice) to determine their place in the afterlife. This heart scarab amulet seems to be an attempt to put a thumb on the scale!

Hatnefer was an Egyptian from 1500 BC. Her son is thought to have reached a high status serving the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, resulting in her being buried with a noblewoman's trappings. One of these items was this heart scarab, fashioned in serpentinite and gold.

Heart scarabs were often place on mummified remains to aid their journey to the afterlife. The back of this one is inscribed with a prayer (or spell) from the book of the dead, begging the heart to help secure a favorable judgment. Oddly, the scarab wasn't originally intended for Hatnefer - her name has been inscribed over erased text!

The Skull Cups of Gough's Cave

Quite a few ancient cultures made drinking cups out of skulls, but the earliest known examples come from Gough's Cave in Britain.

Carved bones found in the caves date back around 14,700 years, when Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers were in the area. The caves themselves are littered with animal bones (suggesting the area was fine for hunting) as well as three cups... made from human craniums.

The cups were found in pretty good condition and researchers have been able to determine how they were prepared. The skulls had all soft tissue stripped shortly after death, before the removal of the facial bones and lower skull!

The effort that went into preparing these cups suggests that it wasn't just to get at the nutritious brains, but was much more ceremonial in nature. Another bone found at the site had been filleted and chewed, then been engraved with a zig-zag pattern before finally being cracked for marrow.

The 40,000-Year-Old Lion Man

Did you know that humans were developing an interest in the supernatural 40,000 years ago?

Found at Stadel Cave in 1939 Germany, the Lion Man is a 31cm tall statuette carved from a mammoth tusk. The figure stands upright in a human posture, but with the sleek body of a cat and the head of a lion. It's also the oldest known representation of something that doesn't exist in the real, physical world!

The north-facing Stadel Cave may have served as a shrine for the Lion Man. Sunlight doesn't penetrate the depths, leaving it a particularly harsh place to inhabit... and the only other significant things found in the location were a collection of fox teeth and antlers.

Wear on the carving's body suggests that it was passed from hand to hand, possibly during the telling of a ritualistic story. A lot of effort went into the construction as well - an experiment using stone-age tools suggested that the carving may have taken 400 hours to achieve, which would have been a significant investment for a Stone Age community!

Thanks for reading - you might also like...

• Cursed Objects: Could These Real-Life Artefacts Bring Doom?
• The Roman Shrine That Kills (and 4 other Ancient Wonders)

Sources and Further Info:

• Riddle of 'Baghdad's batteries'
• The Mystery of the Baghdad Battery
• This Wooden Sculpture Is Twice as Old as Stonehenge and the Pyramids
• The 'Ram in a Thicket'
• Heart Scarab of Hatnefer
• The cannibals of Gough's Cave
• The Lion Man: an Ice Age masterpiece