Terrifying Archaeological Discoveries Found Around the World

Number 10: Mummified remains of Moa.

In 1986, inside a dark cave on Mount Owen in New Zealand, an archaeological team found a huge, well-preserved claw that appeared to belong to a dinosaur, though the scaly evidence of Godzilla was not.

You see, this is actually a piece of a 3,300-year-old prehistoric bird called the Upland Moa.

There were once 10 different species of moa that roamed the Earth before the Megafauna extinction occurred.

It was the largest bird on Earth, with some species of moa reaching a whopping 10 feet in height.

The Upland Moa was usually 4.2 feet tall, although this still makes it quite a large bird.

Thanks to this claw and other well-preserved remains, it is possible that DNA cloning could bring the moa back to life with the help of some chicken embryos.

Mad science at its finest.

Number 9: Cannibal attack on an entire family.

It's terrible enough when a family is murdered, but there are simply no words to describe how terrifying it is when a family group is murdered AND cannibalized.

In 1994, researchers found a group of Neanderthal skeletons consisting of three children, three adolescents, and six adults in a cave system called El Sidrón in northwestern Spain.

They are believed to have died around 49,000 years ago.

The heavily fragmented bones showed that they had all been quickly killed, and their bones and skulls were split open to extract brains, tongues, and even bone marrow.

Furthermore, no evidence of fire was found, so it seems that a raw meal was the order of the day.

This heavy activity was apparently not totally out of character for Neanderthals, as archaeologists have uncovered more cases of Neanderthal cannibalism, though this is by far the largest.

It seems that they did not hesitate to use each other as a food source if circumstances required it.

Number 8: Mass grave of chained youths.

Mass graves of shackled youths

The haunting sight of 80 skeletons, many shackled and gaping, have been unearthed by archaeologists in an ancient Greek burial ground.

Much doubt and speculation surrounds his death, but one plausible explanation for his execution is that the skeletons were once followers of the Athenian Cylon nobleman.

Cylon attempted a coup in 632 BC. C., but failed miserably.

Although he escaped, the historical record tells us that all Cylon followers were executed.

The skeletons have been dated to between 650 and 625 BC. C. and appeared to be young people in good health.

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Nor were they thrown to the ground like common criminals.

They seem to have been buried respectfully.

These factors make it quite likely that this theory is true.

Number 7.

Vampire burials in Bulgaria.

VAMPIRE BURIALS IN BULGARIA
Archaeological excavations have discovered that Bulgaria is home to many vampire burials.

In the Balkans during the Middle Ages, vampire superstition was widespread.

Due to these beliefs, people sometimes took preventative measures to prevent the dead from turning into vampires and disturbing the living.

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This was the case for people who suffered unusual deaths, particularly when it was a death by suicide.

At Perperikon, a man in his 40s was found to have had an iron bar hammered into his chest to hold him in place, and his leg had been removed to immobilize him.

Other skeletons have been found with metal objects driven into their ribcages, close to where their hearts should be, or even through the solar plexus.

Such a vampire was Krivich, the cruel ruler of the Sozopol Fortress.

He was found with an iron rod piercing his chest to prevent him from terrorizing the city after his death.

Number 6. 100 dead babies-

The only thing that could be scarier than dead prehistoric creatures or dead humans is the discovery of dead babies.

Archaeologists discovered about 100 baby skeletons in a sewer in 1988.

The sewer was under a Roman bathhouse in Ashkelon, an ancient seaport on Israel's Mediterranean coast.

A mass grave of babies is something you should never have to hear about.

Sadly, this discovery was the largest finding of deceased babies in one location.

The baby's bones were forensically examined and it was determined that all of these babies died when they were less than 1 week old, but had been healthy while they lived.

There is a theory that these were unwanted children, born to workers or prostitutes who worked in the bathhouse.

Surprisingly, newborns were not seen as fully human in Roman times.

This explains why they were so carelessly discarded, although it is still hard for us to understand today.

Number 5: Alien skulls in Mexico.

FOREIGN SKULLS IN MEXICO
Finally, evidence of extraterrestrial life has been discovered.

Well not really.

Residents of a small Mexican town called Onavas were building an irrigation canal in 1999 when they discovered an ancient pre-Hispanic cemetery.

Inside they found skeletons with strange elongated skulls.

It would be easy to get hysterical and say that these skulls belonged to aliens.

The truth is that it is evidence of the practice of cranial deformation that was done to some children while they were growing up.

In Central America, elongated, pointy skulls were achieved by tying wooden boards to children's heads, exerting enough pressure to influence how the skull grew.

Sometimes the teeth were also filed into unusual shapes.

Treating kids this way seems so much scarier than seeing aliens good.

So why was it done?

Well, why this particular group did it is not known, but other societies have used it for rituals or to form distinctions within or between social groups.

FROZEN SLAUGHTERED CHILDREN
Number 4: Children frozen and sacrificed Llullaillaco Volcano, Argentina.

Imagine investigating a shrine and discovering children who had been sacrificed and frozen to death, forever preserving their history.

This is exactly what happened in 1999 at a sanctuary near the top of the Llullaillaco volcano in Argentina.

It seems that around 500 years ago, these three unfortunate children were chosen for the Inca sacrificial ritual called Capacocha.

Archaeologists have named the younger children Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl.

The 13-year-old maiden of Llullaillaco is believed to be the most important of the three, as she was adorned with elaborate braids and a feathered headdress.

For a year before her death, the children took part in elaborate ceremonies and fed the food of the elite.

Unfortunately, they also consumed a lot of corn, beer, and coconut leaves, leaving them drunk and high most of the time.

It seems likely that this was to keep them in conformity with their impending deaths, which were meant to appease the gods.

Number 3: Genocide Pit at Sacred Ridge.

GENOCIDE WELL AT SACRED RIDGE
At a Native American settlement called Sacred Ridge in Colorado, archaeologists were busy in their merry task of cataloging artifacts when they realized the group of 22 pit houses was littered with mangled and splattered pieces of human bodies and the weapon of choice. .

Well, this was easily deduced, because they also found many bloody double-headed axes.

It turns out that around 1,200 years ago, 35 of the villagers had been limped, beaten on the ankles, smashed in the face, hacked to pieces, and burned.

Oh, and they were scalped at some point in the horrible process.

This surprise massacre was perpetrated by the residents of the town.

Why, it seems they were killed for their elite position.

This was an ethnically distinct clan that had once wielded control over a couple of other groups in the Ridge's Basin, and it seems those neighbors decided to overthrow them like ax murderers.

Scientists are arguing over whether to call it genocide, ethnocide, or just a run-of-the-mill massacre.

Whatever it's called, a killing hole certainly ranks up there with terrifying archaeological discoveries.

Number 2.

MODERN HUMAN PETRIFICATION
Modern Human Petrification Warning: You may feel an intense urge to scream when you watch modern humans being petrified by the innovative yet terrifying Doctor Segato.

The Italian Girolamo Segato studied mummification practices in Egypt around 1820.

He was obsessed with methods to preserve the human body and even developed his own method, which was never documented.

His method was so successful that the faces and bodies he worked on seem to have turned to stone.

Unfortunately he combined his scientific method with the art of tomb raiding to carry out his obsessive petrification process.

He covertly obtained new corpses from grave diggers and hospitals without the permission of the bereaved family.

His own tomb in Florence is inscribed: "Here lies the decayed Girolamo Segato of Belluno, who might have been utterly petrified if his art had not died with him."

Isn't that a fitting end to a disordered mind?

SCREAMING MUMMIES
Number 1: Screaming Mummies As if we haven't given you enough nightmare stuff yet, here's the scariest archaeological discovery in our book, and it's the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies that appear to have died screaming at the top of their lungs.

Fortunately, the reason they appear in this terrifying way is much less disturbing than previously thought.

You see, mummy wrapping techniques often lacked a secure loop around the jaw.

As the body decomposed, the jaw actually opened.

One of the screaming mummies is known as Unknown Man E. He was found in an unmarked sarcophagus in 1881.

With no name on his sarcophagus, he was cursed for eternity, never to reach the afterlife.

There is a theory as to who this unfortunate man was.

It is quite possible that he was Prince Pentaware.

He was dishonored by.

He was accused of planning the murder of his father, the pharaoh.

A CT scan of his remains shows that he possessed some of the hallmarks of an Egyptian royal lineage.

It seems that despite the respect paid to dead Egyptian nobles, their gaping jaws and contorted faces are forever preserved to horrify generations to come.

Do you know of other terrifying archaeological discoveries?

Let me know in the comments below.

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