Humans have inhabited the earth for six million years (even though our closest ancestors only date back to 200,00 years) which has allowed plenty of time for things to be created and then forgotten. Just as fossils are constantly found all over the world, there are artifacts from ancient civilizations and our human priors that have gone unnoticed and undetected for the entirety of that time. Whether it was something buried in a landslide, sucked into a tar pit, or frozen in glacial ice, these items hold the highest of value... Because they tell us about the way life was prior to our existence.
Luckily, many of these things have found their way into museums around the world after being feverously studied. However, that doesn't mean every item will always have an origin story - despite years of research, some ancient artifacts remain a mystery, stumping even the most expert of opinions. These are only some of the ancient finds that have scientists scratching their heads, still to this day.
The London Hammer
Imagine going out for a leisurely stroll and randomly finding a tool that dates back roughly 500 million years - this was a reality for one couple who stumbled upon the London hammer. Upon noticing a strange rock attached to a piece of wood, the couple decided to bring it home, chisel it out, and lo and behold, it turned out to be a tool from the Ordovician. According to archeologists, this hammer was once an archaic tool used for early building and craftsmanship.
The exact date the hammer was created is still debated among experts but the consensus is anywhere from 400 to 500 million years ago. In fact, the hammer had aged so much that a portion of the wooden handle had actually begun the process of turning into coal. The discovery of this hammer led to a wide range of discussions, including the question of atmospheric purity, since the iron head of the hammer is 96% pure which would have been nearly impossible to craft without the machinery we have today. This brought up the question of whether the air purity was responsible for 'giants' roaming the earth. Alternatively, some experts have questioned the authenticity of the age of the hammer, due to the fact that even if the rock it was found in dates back millions of years, that doesn't necessarily mean the hammer does, as well.
The Dropa Stones
Highly regarded as one of the most mysterious artifacts in the world, the Dropa stones are suspected to be the first earliest-known records. They were discovered in 1938 on an expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei through the Baian-Kara-Ula in China. Upon entering a cave near the site, the team found many discs such as this one strewn around the cave's floor, covered by a solid layer of dirt and dust.
Upon first glance, it's unclear what these discs are; however, the closer experts examined them, the most they noticed things such as grooves, a perfect nine-inch diameter, and hieroglyphics. All of these things became curiouser and curiouser, as the discs seemed to play a low-frequency hum when 'played' on a special record player, with the discs seeming to hum as something would when an electric charge passes through it. The hieroglyphics hold a different story, though: According to the researcher in charge of examining the discs, Tsun Um Nui, they told the story of spacecraft that crash-landed in the mountains near the area, with pilots going by the name of the Dropa. It's unclear where the stones are stored now or whether research ever continued.
The Piri Reis Map
The Piri Reis map might look like something from a tale of adventurers and myths, something similar to The Odyssey, but it is actually a legitimate map. However, the time frame of the map's creation combined with the knowledge we have of the earliest dates of exploration is what makes this ancient artifact such a mystery. A group of historians discovered the map back in 1929. It was drawn on the skin of a gazelle in 1513 and was determined to be drawn by Piri Reis, who was an admiral in the Turkish navy.
The map in question shows the locations of the Azores, Europe, North America, the Brazilian coast, Africa, the Canary Islands, Antilia, and Antarctica. However, the mysterious aspect of this map comes into play when historians realized that Antarctica wasn't actually discovered until more than 300 years after this map had been created, or so they thought. Furthermore, the actual topography of Antarctica is shown without layers and layers of ice - a phenomenon that was thought to have last occured over 6,000 years prior.