We know that the dinosaurs disappeared approximately 65 million years ago, but what we don’t know are the reasons why they don’t exist anymore. A theory says that a huge meteorite crashed to Earth, somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico and soon after that, the dinosaurs started to die. The problem is that paleontologists have not been able to find evidence and dinosaur skeletons in rocks, that can confirm the theory. Some evidence seems to indicate that all of these animals disappeared before the meteorite hit our planet.
Although we don’t know what exactly caused the death of the dinosaurs, we know that scientists and historians have discovered some amazing things, that also carry a lot of stories with them. With that being said, let’s talk about some of the historical discoveries that were made in the last 20 years.
1. The world’s oldest known examples of storytelling /// Indonesia
Everything comes back to storytelling. We used to listen to stories before we could even walk or talk. Storytelling is the oldest method of communication, either written, verbal or through some simplistic drawings.
Think about it like this: there are wars that have a story at its base. This includes movies, books etc. Storytelling is even mentioned in the Bible. Actually, everything that exists has a story. The first form of communication through drawings or rudimentary drawings was actually what is known today as graffiti. People were writing symbols, numbers or small figures on rocks for marking their territory or just for telling other people what they found there. It was like a journal where they recorded anything they thought was important or special.
In 2019, a team of archeologists on the the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia found cave paintings that were much older than the ones in Lascaux and Chauvet. These drawings showed human-like figures, wild pigs and cows and also a complete scene where humans were pursuing some animals for food. Archeologists think that these storytelling figures were made at least 43, 900 years ago.
2. One of the oldest beer recipes in the world /// China
“To beer or not to beer? That is the question”.
In 2016, a group of archeologists in China discovered some pots and vessels for making beer. They analyzed the trace residues and succeeded in hacking a 5000-year-old beer recipe. It turns out that that barley was cultivated in China longer than we previously thought, approximately 1000 years earlier.
3. The oldest human hairs /// South Africa
For many years, it was thought that the oldest human hairs belonged to a mummy that was buried 9000 years ago. In 2009, some researchers in South Africa found human hairs that were up to 257,000 years old. The interesting fact is that the hair survived this long because it was covered in fossilized hyena dung – well, guess we’ve just discovered how to preserve wigs made out of human hair!
4. A 4000-year-old board game /// Azerbaijan
In 2018, a group of archaeologists in Azerbaijan found an unusual pattern that was chiseled into the stones of an extremely old rock shelter. After they examined it, the experts realized that the carving was a 4000-year-old example of the Game of 58 Holes.
Imagine our ancestors playing a a board game on the Weekends, while talking about how their week was.
5. A treasure of Anglo-Saxon Gold /// United Kingdom
In 2009, Terry Herbert, an amateur metal detectorist, was scanning a farm when he discovered a trove of jewel-encrusted weapons and approximately 4000 pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold. This treasure is known as The Staffordshire Hoard and was worth $5 million. The archeologist Chris Fern said that it is “one of the greatest finds of British archaeology”.
Thinking about buying a metal detector? Me too.
Who knows what valuable things we have now that in 2,000 years will become real treasures? I guess we won’t find that out either, just like we are not sure about the dinosaurs. One thing is for sure: the valuable things and the truth will always be discovered.
