While archeology doesn't offer the adventure often seen in movies, it is certainly far from boring. Dig sites around the world have served to not only educate but to provide questions and mystery as well as fascinating backstories and interesting theories. Mysterious Archaeological Discoveries ____________________________________ Follow Weird Alien: Subscribe ▶ https://goo.gl/0a6vAY Facebook ▶ http://goo.gl/AefdIf Twitter ▶ https://goo.gl/0apytF Google+ ▶ https://goo.gl/SxPCsb ____________________________________ 1. The Mummy Found Inside Buddha An old Chinese statue of a sitting Buddha turned out to be hiding an odd and old mystery. During the restoration of the statue a few years ago, preservationist discovered what appeared to be a 1,000 year old mummified monk. The statue is believed to have once resided in a Southeast China monastery until it was removed from the country during the Cultural Revolution. The statue went through a few different owners before arriving in the hands of a private owner who decided to have it restored. During the process, the statue was removed from its stand which revealed two pillows containing Chinese text that had been under the statues bent knees. Once the pillows were removed, the mummy was discovered. Though the mummies true identity has not yet been discovered, the text found with the mummy suggested that he was most likely a Liuquan, a high status monk, who was once worshipped as a Buddha. 2. The Tiny Coffins Of Arthur's Seat In Arthur's Seat, set in Edinburgh, five young boys who were out for a hunt made an amazing discovery in 1836. Upon entering a cave they found seventeen miniature coffins in three tiered stacks. Further investigation showed the coffins contained wooden figures wearing black boots and different sets of hand crafted clothing. Though no one has been able to uncover what these tiny coffins are or who created them, numerous theories have made their rounds through the years. Some thought the figures must have somehow been linked to witchcraft, while others thought they might be good luck charms used by sailors to keep away death. Perhaps they were used in burials in place of those who were lost at sea. The most logical theory is that these figures represent the victims of Burke and Hare, Edinburgh's famous serial killers. The only problem with this theory is that all the figures in the coffins appear to be males, while 12 of the murder victims were actually female. Sadly, only eight of these figures are still around today, the other nine were lost to age and mistreatment. 3. The 2,000 Year Old Corpse That Refuses to Rot In 1971, the discovery of Lady Xin Zhui was discovered. As a privileged woman during the Han dynasty she was able to live quite a comfortable lifestyle which probably contributed to the heart attack that eventually killed her in 163 BCE. What makes the discovery of her remains so interesting is that while you would expect to just locate a pile of 2,000 year old bones, what scientists actually discovered in 1971 was a perfectly preserved mummy. Her limbs were still able to flex and her skin was soft to the touch. The body does not to appear to have been embalmed so no one is exactly sure what has prevented deterioration to these remains for the past 2,000 years. 4. Prehistoric Plague House A small village house in northeast China that is around 5,000 years old doesn't sound like it would be too mysterious, but what the house contained certainly was. Inside the house, scientists discovered the remains of 97 different bodies, ranging in age from juveniles to middle aged adults. It appeared at some point the house had been burned, though no one is sure if it was an intentional fire or accidental. While research is still ongoing with this site, scientists so far believe that the people in the house suffered a prehistoric disaster, meaning people died faster than they could be buried. The site is similar to a site in Miaozigou, China where researchers found a similar prehistoric mass burial. It is believed that some sort of disease outbreak caused the mass deaths. 5. The Venetian Vampire The remains of an unusually old female, dating back to the Middle Ages, has proved how real the fear of vampires were during the 16th century. The remains, discovered on the island of Lazaretto Nuovo, was discovered with a brick forced between her upper and lower jaw in order to prevent her from feeding on plague victims. The remains were in a mass grave with other plague victims. It's believed that grave diggers would come across dead bodies that were bloated or leaking blood or fluids and mistook this as signs that the bodies were coming back to life. People of the Middle Ages also believed that vampires were to blame for the spread of the plague in order to gain more victims to drain.

• published: 20 Nov 2015
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