LEVEL 3 ALERT!
Night Raider Scramble
Night Raider Scramble
For more infomation >> Soy Luna - Kdo je Kdo? Michael vs. Simón | CZ Titulky - Duration: 3:03. 
For more infomation >> Chanson à boire©Steph Legault 2017 - Duration: 3:38. 
For more infomation >> DE FALLA - "Seguidille", mélodie pour chant et piano - Clara LELOUP, soprano - Duration: 2:24. 
For more infomation >> Apprendre le braille de mère en fille - Duration: 4:01. 
For more infomation >> TV3 - Tot o res - 27/03/2017 - Duration: 36:09. 
For more infomation >> Le temps de toucher… Retrouvez le sens! Parc national Forillon - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> AWAKE - ÉBERSÉG Paramahansa Yogananda élete - Official Trailer - Duration: 2:31. 
For more infomation >> Opel Insignia sports tourer 1.4 ecoflex bi-fuel business+ start/stop - Duration: 0:58. 
For more infomation >> Moana As Told By LEGO
For more infomation >> Kat Von D Artistry Collective - meet TARA BUENROSTRO! - Duration: 6:17. 
For more infomation >> Subaru Trezia 1.4D Luxury trekhaak! camera! keyless! dealer onderhouden! 1e eigenaar! VERKOCHT! - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> DAWAJ NA SOLÓWE - Duration: 3:36. 
For more infomation >> 5 MINUTE MAKE UP CHALLENGE! TÜRKÇE ALTYAZILI - Duration: 9:35. 
For more infomation >> Giorgia - Prince Tribute - Oronero Tour Assago 24/03/17 - Duration: 6:43. 
For more infomation >> En förvirrad Svensk bov. - Duration: 2:59. 
12 Unexplained Mysteries That We Have Failed To Figure Out
You've most likely heard of the Bermuda Triangle (also known as the Devil's Triangle)
and the lost city of Atlantis, two of the most widely known mysteries in human history.
These are just two of the many unexplained mysteries that remain to this day. Even though
our technological and scientific advancements have helped us clarify many bizarre cases
and phenomena we once couldn't, that doesn't mean time or progress can always shed light
on every mystery. Oddities continue to baffle modern science and elude the growing power
of technology as experts continue—in vain in some cases—to search for rational explanations
to some of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries, which are as confounding as they
are exhilarating. For example, most of us know and admire the magnificent Parthenon,
but you might be surprised to learn that many mysteries surround this iconic structure's
construction. Another example is "the Babushka Lady," the unknown woman who was right in
front of the action when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Who was
she? Why was she there? Did she take photos of the assassination? we simply don't know.
Take a look at these 25 Unexplained Mysteries That We Have Failed To Figure Out to see even
more mysteries that beg to be resolved. 1. The lost land of Paititi
A French writer and adventurer plans to explore one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian
Amazon in search of a "lost" or "secret city" that may have been built by the Incas, but
there are fears that the expedition could endanger the health of isolated tribes that
have never been exposed to common human diseases. Thierry Jamin believes that the city, which
he calls "Paititi", could lie somewhere in a 215,000-hectare protected area called the
Megantoni National Sanctuary in the Cuzco region of south-east Peru.
"The magnificent discoveries realised by my group in the valleys of Lacco, Chunchusmayo
and Cusirini in the north of the department of Cuzco lead towards a precise zone situated
in the national sanctuary of Megantoni," Jamin told the Guardian via email.
"Several natives of the forest – Matsiguengas – assert that 'monumental ruins' exist at
the top of a strange square mountain. I think that we are very close to officialise the
existence of this big archaeological site." According to his website, Jamin is planning
a six-week expedition starting in July. He will be assisted by an NGO based in Cuzco
that he leads and a group of Machiguengas from a village near the sanctuary.
His website describes Paititi, or "Paititi-Eldorado", as the "Incas' secret city" – "one of the
most fascinating stories of the Inca mythology", the "biggest archaeological enigma of South
America", and the place where the Incas hid "all the treasures of [their] empire" when
Europeans invaded. The search for Paititi or an Inca "lost city"
has attracted scores of people and considerable controversy ever since the 16th century, with
conflicting theories and ideas about where it might be and whether it really exists.
But some experts fear that such an expedition would pose a threat to isolated indigenous
Nanti people – sometimes called "Kugapakoris" – within the sanctuary. One of the main
reasons for the sanctuary's creation 10 years ago was to protect groups of indigenous people
who have had little or no contact with outsiders and are extremely vulnerable to infectious
diseases because of their lack of resistance. According to the sanctuary's "master plan"
for 2007-2011 – a 160-page government document outlining strategies and programmes to manage
the area – the 215,000 hectares are divided into a number of "zones" where different activities
are permitted. The biggest, most remote zone is in the sanctuary's far east and is called
the "Strict Protection Zone" (ZPA). Its first stated aim is to protect "voluntarily isolated
indigenous people", with scientific investigation only allowed in "exceptional circumstances".
Jamin is keeping the precise destination of the expedition a secret, but told the Guardian
he intended to travel up the river Ticumpinia – not the river Timpia where he said there
were "numerous Kuga-Pakuri communities". "We don't want to tell anyone about our study
zones, nor disseminate the exact locations of the sites we have found," he said.
Lelis Rivera, who works for the NGO Cedia and played a key role in the sanctuary's creation,
pointed out that the presence of any outsiders in the sanctuary "could cause danger to the
people living there" and that entering the ZPA in particular is "completely prohibited"
by Peruvian law. "Any people currently living in the upper
Timpia or Ticumpinia regions are extremely vulnerable to germ transmission – that's
the nature of living in relative social and immunological isolation," said anthropologist
Christine Beier from the NGO Cabeceras Aid Project and one of the world's leading experts
on Nanti society and history. Jamin told the Guardian that he will apply
to the ministry of environment, which oversees management of "protected natural areas", for
permission to enter the Megantoni sanctuary. He said he has already applied for permission
from the ministry of culture. However, Ramon Rivero Mejia at the culture
ministry says it has received no application from either Jamin, any member of his team
or the NGO that Jamin presides over. Some experts doubt that Paititi is where Jamin
thinks it is. "The Incas conquered territories of the Machiguenga and Piro and built roads,
bridges and some fortified settlements, meaning it's possible that in Megantoni some Inca-type
buildings and objects will be found," said Martti Parssinen, a Finnish archaeologist
and historian who has researched Peru and the Incas for decades.
"Nevertheless, Paititi is not there … At first, it was located from the confluence
of the Madre de Díos and the Beni rivers toward the east or south, but during the colonial
period some Inca refugees probably reestablished it near the present Brazilian Pacaas Novos
mountains." Asked by the Guardian why he thinks archaeological
remains in Megantoni might be related to the Incas, Jamin said: "We don't know if they're
Inca or pre-Inca. One of the objectives of our 2014 campaign will be to establish that."
2. The mysteries of the Parthenon It is a familiar structure and a hallmark
of classical Greek architecture: the Parthenon, originally built in honor of Athena, patron
goddess of Athens. Construction started in 447 BCE and was completed by 438 BCE. It featured
tall columns and the building stretched to 228 feet by 101 feet. Scholars believe that
it was built on the site of an earlier temple to Athena, one that was destroyed by the Persians
at some ancient time.
The timing was right. During the 4th and 5th centuries BCE, Athens became a central power
in the Grecian area and was an important site for the arts and commerce.
The building of the temple was costly and labor-intensive. Huge slabs of marble had
to be moved from Mount Pentelicus to Athens, a journey of ten miles. Additionally, an article
in Smithsonian magazine states that the cost was 800 silver talents, which was "a considerable
sum in an age when a single talent could pay a month's wages for 170 oarsmen on a Greek
warship."
For a structure that was meant to last forever in honor of a Greek deity, the Parthenon has
seen its share of battles and multiple owners. In 276 CE, Heruli pirates destroyed much of
Athens, including the Parthenon. Approximately 100 years later, the structure was repaired,
most likely during the reign of Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (332 – 363 CE).
After Christianity replaced the ancient Greek religion in the area, the Parthenon became
a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary—and in the 15th century the building became a
mosque for a time. Later, in the late 17th century, the Ottoman
Empire's army conquered Greece and held little regard for the heritage sites such
as the Parthenon. The Turks used the building as a storage facility for gunpowder, and soon
after a Venetian mortar round destroyed much of the inner temple, killing almost 300 people.
But the Parthenon is not solely the property of war scholars and cartographers. The building
is full of mysteries that continue to puzzle historians and archeologists to this day.
When modern scholars began studying the building, they noticed that some of the marble blocks
fit together with open spaces of a millimeter or less between them. How was this possible
without modern tools? Also, the building employs the use of several
optical illusions. To correct for imperfections of our sense of sight, the columns were widened
by a few inches in the middle to make them appear absolutely straight, and the floor
dips slightly toward the center to give the appearance of a clean and flat surface.
In modern times, the building and its decorations have become the victims of "civilized looting."
In the early 19th century, a Scottish Earl removed several of the statues from the site,
saying he did so with the permission of the ruling Ottoman Empire. The modern Greeks disagree
and are trying to get the statues back. The statues of dispute are currently housed in
London's British Museum. Not forgetting the floor and the columns and
the block alignment, the biggest puzzle is the time line. According to ancient records
kept by officials, it took eight to nine years to complete the building of the temple. This
is almost too much to believe. A similar site in modern day Turkey, a temple to the Greek
god Apollo, took more than 600 years to create and was never finished. The repair work of
the Parthenon has, to date, taken 34 years and is still ongoing. Skilled workmen can
take up to three months repairing and/or rebuilding a single marble block.
How were ancient peoples able to construct such a "perfect" building in such a short
time—much shorter than modern craftsmen and modern tools can do similar work today?
The Greeks of that time must have either had multitudes of workers toiling away at the
single site or perhaps had a little help from the gods.
3. The Palpa Flat Mountain The giant flat Mountaintops at Nazca have
remained a profound mystery for decades. Even today, archaeologists are unable to explain
how and why 'ancient man' created massive, flat 'runway-like' marks thousands of
years ago. We have all been fascinated by the Nazca and
Palpa lines for decades. These incredible pieces of ancient 'art' are located in
the arid Peruvian coastal plain approximately 400 kilometers south of modern-day Lima. The
staggering geoglyphs cover around 450 kilometers and were created on the arid floor sometime
between 500 BC and 500 AD.
The Nazca and Palpa lines are considered one of archaeology's greatest mystery, mostly
because of their size, quantity and nature. Some of the lines depict living creatures,
stylized plants, and imaginary beings, as well as geometric figures several kilometers
long.
According to studies, the largest of the Nazca figures is approximately 1000 feet, and the
longest geoglyph goes on for around 9 miles.
However, the most mysterious discovery at Nazca are the enigmatic mountain tops that
eerily resemble modern-day runways. The mountaintops of some of the surrounding mountains at Nazca
look as if something literally pressed down —with incredible force— the top of the
mountain. Many researchers have said that the mysterious mountaintops look as if something
managed to 'perfectly' cut through the mountain top, creating incredible flat surfaces.
So how is it possible that these giant 'runway-like' mountains even exist? And if the Nazca are
known for having created the incredible desert-art, intricate figures of animals, plants and geometric
shapes, why would they even bother and create these huge flat surfaces?
There are numerous questions that remain unanswered at Nazca. Were these giant figures meant to
be seen from above? Do hey mimic constellations in the sky? What were the ancient's trying
to say to future generations? Were the Nazca lines mere ancient art? If so… why would
ancient mankind create art that cannot be fully appreciated from the ground?
Is it possible that –as Ancient Astronaut theorists suggest– the ancient 'runways'
seen at Nazca are in fact navigational markers used by advanced extraterrestrials which visited
the area thousands of years ago? And is it possible that some of the giant, flat triangles
were created by massive spacecraft that touched down in the distant past? What if the 'gods'
used these paths in the distant past to visit the people in Peru? And what if, ancient people
created figurines such as the Nazca Astronaut in honor of those "gods" who came from
above? Interestingly, according to some local legends,
the mysterious Incan creator god Viracocha, commissioned the Nazca Lines and glyphs in
the past. These lines are said to be created by the Viracocha himself. He was the great
teacher God of the Andes.
Skeptics remain positive that these giant figures, flat mountaintops were not created
by advanced flying machines. But, could the ancient Nazca people have created perfectly-shaped
triangles, thousands of meters in diameter with their feet as some researchers suggest?
And if so, then how can we explain the flat mountaintops located around the Nazca lines?
Today when it comes to the Nazca and Palpa lines, the most accepted theories are that
these are giant astronomical calendars, ceremonial sites, coordinate systems, and last but not
least, giant landing strips created by our cosmic neighbor's thousands of years ago.
What do you think they are? 4. Kenneth Arnold's "flying saucers"
On June 24, 1947, an amateur pilot named Kenneth Arnold was flying a small plane near Mount
Rainier in Washington state when he saw something extraordinarily strange. Directly to his left,
about 20 to 25 miles north of him and at the same altitude, a chain of nine objects shot
across the sky, glinting in the sun as they traveled.
By comparing their size to that of a distant airplane, Arnold gauged the objects to be
about 45 to 50 feet wide. They flew between two mountains spaced 50 miles apart in just
1 minute, 42 seconds, he observed, implying an astonishing speed of 1,700 miles per hour,
or three times faster than any manned aircraft of the era. However, as if controlled, the
flying objects seemed to dip and swerve around obstacles in the terrain.
When the objects faded into the distance, Arnold flew to Yakima, Wash., landed and immediately
told the airport staff of the unidentified flying objects he had spotted. The next day,
he was interviewed by reporters, and the story spread like wildfire across the nation.
"At that time there was still some thought that Mars or perhaps Venus might have a habitable
surface ," Robert Sheaffer, an author of UFO books (and a skeptic), told Life's Little
Mysteries. "People thought these UFOs were Martians who had come to keep an eye on us
now that we had nuclear weapons." As time would prove, this was but the first
of many outlandish theories behind visits of an extraterrestrial nature. The era of
UFO sightings had begun. Reporting error.
Arnold's sighting was "such a sensation that it made front page news across the nation,"
UFO-logist and author Martin Kottmeyer wrote in an article ("The Saucer Error," REALL News,
1993). "Soon everyone was looking for these new aircraft
which according to the papers were saucer-like in shape," Kottmeyer continued. "Within weeks
hundreds of reports of these flying saucers were made across the nation. While people
presumably thought they were seeing the same things that Kenneth Arnold saw, there was
a major irony that nobody at the time realized. Kenneth Arnold hadn't reported seeing flying
saucers." In fact, Arnold had told the press that the
objects had flown erratically, "like a saucer if you skip it across the water." They were
thin and flat when viewed on edge, he said, but crescent-shaped when viewed from the top
down as they turned. Nonetheless, a reporter named Bill Bequette of the United Press interpreted
Arnold's statement to mean that the objects he saw were round discs. According to Benjamin
Radford, UFO expert and deputy editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, "It was one of the most
significant reporter misquotes in history." "The phrase 'flying saucers' provided the
mold which shaped the UFO myth at its beginning," Kottmeyer wrote. UFOs took the form of flying
saucers, he noted, in artist's renderings, hoax photos, sci-fi films, TV shows and even
the vast majority of alien abduction and sighting reports for the rest of modern history, up
until the present day. "Bequette's error may not prove to be the
ultimate refutation of the extraterrestrial theory for everyone. But it does leave their
advocates in one helluva paradox: Why would extraterrestrials redesign their craft to
conform to Bequette's mistake?" Kottmeyer wrote.
For the birds. Though he didn't see flying saucers, most
of Arnold's contemporaries believed that he really had seen something that day. The Army
report on the sighting states: "[If] Mr. Arnold could write a report of such a character and
did not see the objects he was in the wrong business and should be engaged in writing
Buck Rogers fiction." His account was very convincing.
So if he did see something, what was it exactly? One theory holds that it was a fireball — a
meteor breaking up upon entry into the atmosphere. If a meteor hit the atmosphere at a shallow
angle to the Earth, its pieces would approach the surface traveling almost horizontally.
Furthermore, the pieces of meteor would travel in a chain like the one Arnold saw, would
shine very brightly, and would travel at thousands of miles per hour.
But most historians think the objects weren't from outer space at all: "It was probably
pelicans flying in formation," Sheaffer said. "Probably Arnold misjudged the distance and
thought they were huge objects at a great distance but they were actually much closer."
After all, the boomerang shape that Arnold drew in a picture of the objects he had seen
looks very much like a bird with its wings outstretched.
5. The mystery of the Somerton Beach man An unidentified man was found dead on Somerton
Beach, Adelaide, Australia, on December 1st, 1948. He had an athletic V-frame physique
and yet was 40-45 years old. The man wore a smart suit and tie, but the labels were
removed from his clothes. There was no ID on the body and there were no signs of violence.
The dry sand around him was undisturbed. The mystery deepened when the autopsy was unable
to find a cause of death. To this day we don't know who he is or how he died.
Was he poisoned or did he die accidentally? Why were the labels removed from his clothes?
Was he a secret agent or a jilted lover? Intriguingly, a slip of paper was found in one of his pockets
with the printed words "Tamám Shud," meaning "ended" or "finished" in Persian.
It was torn from a page of a book of poetry, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam.
No one reported him missing and no one was able to identify the corpse. In desperation,
the police asked the public to check their copies of Omar Khayyam for a torn page. A
most surprising break occurred six months after the death — a local man handed in
the correct book. He reported that he found the book on the back seat of his car some
six months earlier. The Jestyn Enigma.
The police found a phone number penciled on the back of the book in tiny handwriting.
The phone number led them to a house that was only a short 5-minute walk from where
the man was found dead. A 27-year-old woman answered the door. She denied any knowledge
of the man and the police found her evasive. The woman told the police that she was married;
however, recent investigations have revealed that she was not married until 1950. She told
the police that she was a nurse, although new findings show that she had not completed
her final nursing exams due to a pregnancy. As the funeral of the man had taken place,
the police took the woman to see a plaster bust that was molded from the cadaver to see
if she could recognize the man. She stared at the floor for the whole interview with
her eyes averted from the bust. Despite this, the police astonishingly dropped their best
lead and agreed to not release her identity to the press. The media referred to her using
the pseudonym "Jestyn," although investigators knew her true identity.
In 2013, her daughter came forward on a television documentary and Jestyn's real identity,
Jessica "Jo" Thomson (née Jessie Ellen Harkness, b. 1921 - d. 2007), finally became
public. She was generally known as Jess Harkness, and then after 1947 as Jo Thomson.
Was the Somerton Man an American? The Somerton Man possessed a number of items
that raise the question of him being American or perhaps having lived in the USA. There
was a packet of Wrigley's chewing gum in his pocket. In the 1940s it would have been
much more common for a US adult to chew gum than an Australian. The stripes on the man's
tie slanted the US way, and not the British or Australian way. The jacket he was wearing
was determined to be of US origin, due to the machined featherstitching. The man possessed
an aluminum comb — these were rare in Australia at the time — and the police indicated that
aluminum combs were associated with US personnel. The Somerton Man's Putative Son.
Here's where the story becomes stranger than fiction: back in 1949, it was noted the
Somerton Man had pronounced calf muscles, high up the leg, as if he were trained as
a ballet dancer. It transpires that Jo Thomson's son, Robin McMahon Thomson (b. 1947 - d. 2009)
became a professional ballet dancer. Is this purely a coincidence? The evidence that Robin
Thomson may well be the son of the Somerton Man becomes rather compelling when we find
that they share a rare dental trait: they both have their canine teeth next to their
central teeth. Moreover, there's a rare feature of the ear shape that both men share.
DNA Extraction. Full extraction of the Somerton Man's autosomal
DNA will not be possible until the South Australian Attorney General gives official approval for
an exhumation. This form of DNA allows one to find cousins on a genealogical database.
This is how experts find the birth parents of adopted children — by triangulating the
family tree from DNA cousins. Samples of the Somerton Man's hair exist
in a museum, but unfortunately concentration levels of viable autosomal DNA are too low
in such old hair. As an initial test, The University of Adelaide team successfully determined
that the Somerton Man's mother belongs to DNA haplogroup H.
Sadly, Robin died of prostate cancer in 2009. He was cremated, and so his DNA is unavailable.
However, Robin's DNA profile has been obtained indirectly by 'subtracting' the DNA of
his spouse, Roma Egan, from his descendant — this is called phased DNA.
A DNA heritage admixture test shows that Robin possesses a small percentage of Amerindian.
Robin's maternal line is well-documented, and so this result points to a paternal American
line. The Thomas Jefferson Link.
By scanning genealogical DNA databases, it turns out that Robin has a large number of
cousins in the USA. More significantly, 40 of the closer matches tend to have roots in
Virginia. Some of these are connected to Thomas Jefferson's tree who consistently match
with Robin on Chromosome #8. Remarkably, Robin is within the 3rd cousin range to a direct
descendant of Jefferson's grandfather, Isham Randolph.
Of course, there is further research to do and the hypothesis that the Somerton Man is
American needs further testing and verification. The current overall evidence is sufficiently
compelling for investigators to focus efforts on the USA as a key to this puzzle. For example,
searches of US-Australian ship's passenger logs, for the 1940s, now become a tantalizing
line of inquiry.
6. The lost cosmonauts of the Soviet Union We all know that Yuri Gagarin was the first
man in space… but what if he wasn't? What if the truth were more complex, and that Gagarin's
true feat was being the first man in space who survived?
The space race was the best thing to come out of the Cold War; the tensions between
the US and the USSR threatened to destroy the world but they also sparked the greatest
advancements in human history. Both nations were desperate to beat the other, and for
a while the Russians had a distinct advantage, with Sputnik being the first artificial satellite
put into orbit and then Gagarin being the first human to escape Earth's atmosphere.
The competition was so fierce that safety was sometimes a secondary concern; there were
some in the US government who thought we should send an astronaut on a one-way trip to the
Moon so we could get there first. Once the astronaut was on the Moon we could then begin
worrying about how to bring him home. That recklessness - and the Soviet Union's
penchant for denials and cover-ups of setbacks and disasters - led to rumors of a top secret
Soviet space program that was sending humans into space long before Gagarin's journey.
As far back as 1959 there were stories circulating that the Soviets had lost multiple cosmonauts
- including a woman - in attempted suborbital flights. Some of these rumors came from misunderstandings,
such as the 1962 death of Colonel Pyotr Dolgov. Dolgov parachuted from a balloon at almost
94,000 feet but didn't survive; he hit the visor of his helmet while jumping from the
balloon gondola and his suit depressurized, killing him. At least that's the official
story. Some of the "Lost Cosmonaut" theories
have the spacefarers dying in space or on the launchpad, but the conspiracy theory surrounding
famed Soviet test pilot Vladimir Ilyushin is much more entertaining. Ilyushin, some
claim, beat Gagarin to space by five days, launching on April 7th, 1961. But Ilyushin's
trip didn't make the history books because it was a major embarrassment to the USSR,
as a malfunction supposedly brought Ilyushin's capsule down in China. He was taken prisoner
and held for a year. There's some plausibility to this tale, especially when you realize
that unlike the US space program the Russians kept their launches secret. Gagarin's feat
was only publicized when he got home safely, so is it impossible that Ilyushin's mission
would be scrubbed from the records? In 1999 Nikita Kruschev's son told documentary filmmakers
that the story was true, but Ilyushin himself never spoke of it, taking the truth to his
grave in 2010. The spookiest and strangest "Lost Cosmonaut"
story actually has audio evidence to back it up. In 1960 Italian brothers Achille and
Giovanni Judica-Cordiglia set up an amateur radio listening station and began picking
up transmissions from space. They listened in on and recorded some huge moments in space
history, including Gagarin's first flight and John Glenn's conversations with mission
control from the Friendship 7 capsule. But they also claimed they picked up secret transmissions,
and some of what they heard was terrifying. That first year they claimed to hear two different
Soviet space capsules get lost in space, with one sending an SOS message that got fainter
as it drifted off into the interstellar reaches. In 1961 they listened in as a capsule orbited
the Earth three times… days before Yuri Gagarin's launch (did they hear Ilyushin's
ill-fated trip?). That year they picked up the sounds of a cosmonaut suffocating to death.
They listened in as a number of Soviet capsules supposedly veered off course and disappeared
into the solar system. The most bloodcurdling recording the Judica-Cordiglia
brothers made captures the sounds of a female cosmonaut burning up on re-entry in 1963:
"Come in… come in… come in… Listen! Come in! Talk to me! I am hot! I am hot! Come
in! What? Forty-five? What? Fifty? Yes. Yes, yes, breathing. Oxygen, oxygen… I am hot.
This… isn't this dangerous?" "Transmission begins now. Forty-one. Yes,
I feel hot. I feel hot, it's all… it's all hot. I can see a flame! I can see a flame!
I can see a flame! Thirty-two… thirty-two. Am I going to crash? Yes, yes I feel hot…
I am listening, I feel hot, I will re-enter. I'm hot!"
Experts have questioned the veracity of the recordings, but it remains possible that the
Italian brothers did stumble upon the dark truth behind one of the great legends of the
Cold War. 7. The Black Knight satellite
A LEGENDARY "alien satellite", that is said to have orbited Earth for nearly 13,000 years,
has been TWICE caught on camera passing the International Space Station (ISS) and the
Moon, UFO hunters claim. Footage which could show the mysterious Black
Knight satellite passing the ISS emerged on YouTube following an earlier photograph, which
appeared to show it pass the Moon, during July 31's Blue Moon (two full moons in the
same month) event, according to alien researchers. Now a separate clip has emerged said to have
been taken on July 31 by another person, which appears to show the object passing the moon
on video. Sarah Roth, from the US, posted a link on
this story to a YouTube video she uploaded of the sighting filmed from an undisclosed
location. She posted with the video: "Last night while
taking pictures and video of the Blue Moon, a black object went hurling past. Could be
any number of things from space debris, Black Knight satellite to UFO."
The Black Knight satellite is the name that has been given to a object captured on camera
by Nasa astronauts during a 1998 space shuttle mission.
There are alien conspiracy theorists who claim the satellite is an object of extraterrestrial
origin, possibly up to 13,000 years old orbiting Earth in near-polar orbit.
Now YouTube UFO channel - Mister Enigma - has posted a video entitled "Black Knight Satellite
Seen Right In Front Of ISS Camera." It purports to be a recording taken from the
Nasa ISS camera and shows a strange object floating seemingly at the same speed as the
space station for about six minutes before slowly fading away.
The video maker posted subtitles on the film adding that he initially thought it was part
of the ISS until it disappeared and posed the question: "Could this be the famous Black
Knight Satellite?" Viewers of the footage seem intrigued by it.
One posted: "Very strange activity and it does look a bit like the Black Knight satellite."
Another added: "Very interesting, you can see the lights on the hull of the craft change
colours especially early in the footage." However, Mr Enigma, a channel run by Robert
Simmons, based in Wisconsin, USA, has been accused before of posting hoax UFO footage
in the past. Several claims were made that another video
released by Mister Enigma, of a UFO appearing to pass a tree, was a CGI hoax, after the
tree was found to have been made by repeatedly using the same section of a real tree.
He has denied hoaxing his videos. Mister Enigma's new Black Knight video followed
the posting on a US UFO sighting website of a photograph of the Moon taken during the
Blue Moon event of July 31. It shows an odd-shaped object which viewers
have also suggested looks like the Black Knight Satellite.
The unnamed witness who posted the picture, said: "I was taking pictures the night of
the blue moon in West Covina, California, somewhere between two and 4am, I noticed the
triangular object when I was checking my pics the next day.
"The dark triangle or Delta shaped object is located on the lower left side of the picture
of the moon. It looked like a craft of some sort to me. I'm not sure so I'm looking for
some feed back as to what it is." One viewer asked: "Is that the Black Knight
satellite passing the Moon?" The legend of the alien satellite seems to
have retrospectively started in 1899 when Nicola Tesla announced he was picking up radio
waves coming from space, prompting people to suggest something alien was out there.
Experiments in 1928 in Oslow, Norway, picked up the same signals.
In 1954, US state newspapers carried quotes from Donald Keyhoe, a retired naval aviation
major and UFO researcher, claiming the US Air Force had detected two satellites orbiting
Earth, despite none yet being launched from our planet.
Time then ran a 1960 piece, following the launch of satellites from Earth, stating that
the US Navy detected a dark object, possibly a Soviet spy satellite, with a highly irregular
orbit. The myth developed in 1963 when NASA astronaut
Gordon Cooper was reported as saying he had seen the Black Knight Satellite while in space,
but there was a media blackout upon his return and the US space agency allegedly put it down
to cosmic hallucinations. It has been reported that a decade later in
1973, a researcher from Scotland, Duncan Lunan, looked back at the Norwegian scientists' data
from 1928, before claiming the "messages" suggested the Black Knight was sent by aliens
from Epsilon Boötis, as a welcome message to Earth 12,600 years ago.
In 1998, the first alleged photographs of the satellite emerged and were taken by astronauts
on the space shuttle Endeavor, as it made its first flight to the ISS.
However, many sceptics claim the legend was retrospectively created after the 1998 pictures
emerged, with the preceding odd events weaved into the story to make it more convincing.
The noises from 1899 and 1928 remain a mystery, but the possible causes do not so far include
an alien satellite, according to scientists.
They insist research shows that in 1954 Mr Keyhoe had been promoting a UFO book and the
articles had been written in a tongue-in-cheek fashion by the papers.
A follow-up, but less widely read, article in Time also confirmed that the strange satellite
had in fact beenthe remains of an Air Force Discoverer satellite that had gone astray,
they found. There are reports that Mr Cooper, although
maintaining he saw a number of UFOs in space, never claimed to have seen the Black Knight
satellite on that mission or at all. Yet David Bryant, a UK astronomer and Ufologist,
said he had discussed the Black Knight with several Nasa astronauts and one assured him:
"It's a satellite, we just don't know where it came from."
And Mr Lunan is also later reported to have denied suggesting any alien satellite had
its origins 12,600 years ago and that his conclusion that the noises were a star map
were from unscientific methods. Nasa has since explained the 1998 images as
being a thermal blanket lost by the shuttle crew.
Martina Redpath of Armagh Planetarium in, Northern Ireland, who researched the legend,
concluded: "Black Knight is a jumble of completely unrelated stories, reports of unusual science
observations, authors promoting fringe ideas, classified spy satellites and people over-interpreting
photos. "These ingredients have chopped up, stirred
together and stewed on the internet to one rambling and inconsistent dollop of myth."
So if the Black Knight satellite never even existed, what could the new objects caught
passing the ISS and Moon be? 8. The abandoned lifeboat at world's end
Bouvet Island is the most isolated uninhabited place on Earth. When people say "out in
the middle of nowhere" about an area where they could potentially walk to civilization,
they are not thinking of Bouvet Island. Imagine a place that is nearly covered in ice and
surrounded by the coldest ocean in the world and you would have a good idea of what Bouvet
Island is like. It is not Antarctica, but Antarctica is the closest piece of land to
the island. Bouvet Island is situated between the tip of Africa and the coldest continent
on Earth. It is not the sort of place where it is likely you would find yourself shipwrecked.
It is hard for even people who know where it is to find it. How is then that an expedition
discovered an abandoned lifeboat on Bouvet Island?
Only the most adventurous travelers visit Bouvet Island and only a very unfortunate
soul would wind up there in a lifeboat, unless it was a landing craft. Most modern expeditions
onto the island are made by helicopter because landing a boat on Bouvet Island is difficult
under the best conditions and impossible under average conditions. It is 90% covered in glaciers,
under which is an active volcano. The sides of the island are almost all sheer, icy cliffs.
Let's put it this way, if you find yourself lost and stuck on Bouvet Island, you will
probably be spending the rest of your now short life there with no food and maybe water,
if you have something with which to melt ice.
Because of its location, weather researchers have long thought it a great place to put
a weather tower. In 1964, Lieutenant Commander Allan Crawford was sent to the island to investigate
a new area of the land, created by lava flow ten years prior to the expedition. He and
his team landed via helicopter and began checking out the landscape. There, Crawford saw a lagoon
with a very strange feature — an abandoned lifeboat.
Crawford later reported that the abandoned lifeboat on Bouvet Island had no markings
on it that would suggest its origins. It also had no motor and no sails. He found the oars
on shore, along with a flattened copper tank and a barrel. He was unable to do a thorough
search of the area, given the harsh nature of the terrain and the work he had come to
do, but what he was able to search of the landscape turned up nothing else. There was
no evidence that people had stayed on the island or died on the island. There was nothing.
Two years after Crawford's Bouvet Island expedition, another expedition did a survey
of the area around the lagoon. They described the lagoon, but made no mention of a lifeboat,
so it must have disappeared by then, but where could it have gone? It is unlikely that another
expedition would have retrieved it, as dragging an extra boat back into the water or bringing
a lifeboat onto a helicopter are far-fetched scenarios. There is the possibility that it
sank into the lagoon. However, without knowing how deep the lagoon is, it is hard to say.
All we do know is that Crawford's lifeboat is gone.
As for the origins of the lifeboat on Bouvet Island, no one has come forward to say it
was theirs. It could have been left by an expedition, but the lagoon was no more than
ten years old, so there is only a small space of time during which the lifeboat could have
appeared. Research into who visited Bouvet Island during that ten-year span has turned
up nothing about an abandoned boat.
It seems unlikely that the lifeboat came from a shipwreck, as Bouvet Island is a small speck
in a vast land-free ocean. Visibility is extremely poor, as well. Then, there is also the question
of why the boat was left there at all. Did a shipwreck victim or the victim of a failed
expedition die there? If so, why did he not use his boat for shelter? Why did he not camp
near the lagoon? Did he camp, but have the traces of his stay later wiped out by the
weather? There are just too many unanswerable questions regarding the mysterious lifeboat
of Bouvet Island. It seems we will never know if it signified a disaster or if it was simply
unable to return to a bigger ship during a successful expedition.
9. The identity of the Man in the Iron Mask L'Homme au Masque de Fer ( The Man in the
Iron Mask ) is the name given to a prisoner arrested in c. 1669, and condemned to the
cruel fate of having his head clamped within an iron mask, or so the story goes. The legend
of the Man in the Iron Mask, is based on the true life story of Eustache Dauger. Over time,
however, the story became legend, and the legend faded into myth, retold dozens of times
in children's books, novels, and movies throughout the world.
Much of what we know about Eustache Dauger comes from the correspondence between his
jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, and his superiors in Paris, so there is very
little information about him prior to his prison time, such as the circumstances of
his arrest, and how came to be wearing the mask. Incidentally, there is no historical
evidence to suggest that the mask was made out of anything but black velvet. It is believed
that it was only later that stories came to refer to an iron mask.
The earliest record of the masked prisoner dates to 1669 AD and was a a letter sent from
the Marquis de Louvois, King Louis XIV's minister, to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor
of the Pignerol prison in Pinerolo, Piedmont, then part of France. In his letter, Louvois
informed Saint-Mars that a prisoner named Eustache Dauger was due to arrive in the next
month or so (late august of that year). This missive revealed several interesting notes,
including one concerning the "accommodation" of the prisoner. Louvois instructed Saint-Mars
to prepare a cell with multiple doors, one closing upon the other, which were to prevent
anyone from the outside listening in. Only one visit at day was authorized to the governor,
in order to provide food and whatever else the prisoner needed. The prisoner was also
to be told that if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed,
but as stated by Louvois, the prisoner should not require much since he was "only a valet".
According to many versions of this legend, the prisoner wore the mask at all times.
According to records, Eustache Dauger really did serve as valet to another guest of the
prison, Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis of Belle-Île, a former superintendent of finances who had
been jailed by Louis XIV on the charge of embezzlement. We must consider that Pinerol
wasn't exactly a common jail, but was reserved for a handful of men who were considered an
embarrassment to the state. Dauger was allowed to attend the marquis when his main servant,
La Rivière, was unwell. The fact that Dauger served as a valet is
a focal point, especially regarding some speculations that Dauger was actually a member of the French
royal family. Many researchers and historians have argued that 17th-century protocol made
it unthinkable that a man of royal blood would serve as a manservant, casting some doubt
on those suggestions that Dauger was related to the king.
The most popular of all the legends regarding this prisoner pertains to his lineage. It
has been said that The Man in the Iron Mask, was the son of Anne of Austria and Cardinal
Mazarin, and therefore an illegitimate half-brother of King Louis XIV, an idea transformed into
a book by Alexandre Dumas called "The Vicomte de Bragelonne". However, the book introduced
a substantial change: he made the prisoner an identical twin of Louis XIV. The story
goes on to say that the man was kept hidden because of his rights to the throne. Twins
were a threat to orderly succession, but no one could kill a prince of royal blood, so
the second twin was masked and imprisoned. Other stories say that the prisoner was indeed
the king's brother, but not his twin. Another interesting theory belongs to Louis
Gendron, a french military historian who came across some coded letters, later passed to
Etienne Bazeries in the French Army's cryptographic department during the 1890s. After three long
years of decrypting, Bazeries managed to read some messages in the Great Cipher of Louis
XIV. One of them referred to a prisoner and identified him as General Vivien de Bulonde.
One of the letters written by Louvois made specific reference to de Bulonde's crime.
De Bulonde was accused of cowardace during the siege of Cuneo in 1691. Worried about
the incoming presence of enemy troops arriving from Austria, he ordered a hasty withdrawal,
leaving behind his munitions and wounded men. This made the king furious, who ordered him
"to be conducted to the fortress at Pignerol where he will be locked in a cell and under
guard at night, and permitted to walk the battlements during the day with a 330 309".
It has been suggested that the "330" stood for masque and the 309 for "full stop". However,
this theory has not been verified and the dates are also inconsistent with other records.
10. The curious case of Rudolph Fentz And we thought that guy in the grubby Elmo
costume was a strange sight for Times Square. Late one summer evening in 1950, a young man
dressed in Victorian clothing and sporting a gnarly set of mutton chops materialized
in Times Square. Witnesses contend the man was bewildered as he struggled through the
crowd, seemingly terrified by the bright neon lights and booming city noise. The stranger
pushed his way to the sidewalk's edge, then tumbled into the street. Seconds later, he
was struck dead by a speeding taxi. Morgue officials collected the man's body
and cataloged his belongings. The following items were found in his coat pocket:
• A copper token for a beer worth 5 cents, emblazoned with the name of a saloon no one
could remember. • A bill for the boarding of a horse and
washing of a carriage, issued by a livery stable on Lexington Avenue.
• Around 70 dollars in very old bank notes. • A business card with the name Rudolph
Fentz and an address on Fifth Avenue. • An unopened letter sent to the address
listed on the card, postmarked June 1876.
None of the objects showed signs of aging, despite their antique condition.
Captain Hubert V. Rihm, a superbly named officer of the Missing Persons Department, took on
the case. He visited the Fifth Avenue address and found a working establishment. The current
owner had never heard of Rudolph Fentz. A search through that year's city phonebook
turned up nothing; the man's fingerprints matched no records, and no one had recently
filed a missing person's report. Undeterred, Captain Rihm continued his investigation.
He found a listing for Rudolph Fentz Jr. in a telephone book from 1939. Rihm spoke to
the residents of the corresponding apartment building; they remembered the man and described
him as about 60 years old. He worked in the neighborhood, they told Rihm, but took off
when he retired. Rihm followed the lead to a bank account, where bank officials explained
that Rudolph had died in Florida four years ago, where his wife still lived. The Captain
tracked down the widow's phone number; he gave her a call. She informed him that her
late husband's father had disappeared in 1876, at the age of 29. He simply left the
house one evening, and never returned. Captain Rihm searched the missing persons
archive for Rudolph Fentz. Sure enough, he found a report from 1876. The man's appearance
and clothing matched precisely the description of the dead man from Times Square. The case
remained open. Fearing the department would declare him mentally insane, Rihm kept his
discovery a secret and refused to update the file.
So: Is this an actual case of time travel? For some time the strange tale of Rudolph
Fentz circulated as fact. It appeared in numerous books and periodicals throughout the 1970s,
including the Journal of Borderland Research and in the works of Austrian paranormal expert
Victor Farkas. The Fentz story gained new life in the Internet age, where it spread
like wildfire across message boards and chat rooms dedicated to the paranormal.
In 2000, all this caught the attention of folklore researcher Chris Aubeck. After some
significant digging, Aubeck found what he believed to be the source of the tale: a short
piece published in a science fiction fanzine from 1953 by Robert M. Holland. Soon after
the folklorist's findings went public, Ohio Pastor George Murphy contacted Aubeck to inform
him that the story in question went back further still. Holland had either copied the Fentz
tale from a 1952 anthology published by Robert Heinlein (Tomorrow, The Stars), or from an
issue of Collier's magazine published in 1951.
The actual author was famed science fiction scribe Jack Finney, creator of "The Invasion
of the Body Snatchers" franchise. His short story, "I'm Scared", details the bizarre
case of a bewildered Rudolph Fentz who meets the same mysterious end as described in the
urban legend. A cop by the name of Captain Hubert V. Rihm narrates the tale, which, clearly,
is just too good to be true. 11. The Archanthropus of Petralona
This is the account of the discovery of a skull that has the potential to change what
we know about human evolution, and a suppression and cover-up which followed.
In 1959, in an area called Chalkidiki in Petralona, Northern Greece, a shepherd came across a
small opening to a cave, which became visible when a thick covering of snow finally melted.
He gathered a group of villagers to help him clear the entrance so they could go inside
and explore. They found a cave rich in stalactites and stalagmites. But they also found something
surprising – a human skull embedded in the wall (later research also uncovered a huge
number of fossils including pre-human species, animal hair, fossilized wood, and stone and
bone tools). The skull was given to the University of Thessaloniki
in Greece by the President of the Petralona Community. The agreement was that once the
research was done, a museum would be opened featuring the findings from the Petralona
cave, and the skull would be returned to be displayed in the museum – something that
never happened. Dr Aris Poulianos, member of the UNESCO's
IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences), later founder
of the Anthropological Association of Greece , and an expert anthropologist who was working
at the University of Moscow at the time, was invited by the Prime Minister of Greece to
return to Greece to take a position of a University Chair in Athens. This was due to the publication
of his book, 'The Origins of the Greeks', which provides excellent research showing
that Greek people didn't originate from the Slavic nations but were indigenous to
Greece. Upon his return to Greece, Dr Poulianos was made aware of the discovery of the skull
at Petralona, and immediately started studying the Petralona cave and skull.
The 'Petralona man', or Archanthropus of Petralona, as it has since been called,
was found to be 700,000 years old, making it the oldest human europeoid (presenting
European traits) of that age ever discovered in Europe. Dr Poulianos' research showed
that the Petralona man evolved separately in Europe and was not an ancestor of a species
that came out of Africa. In 1964, independent German researchers, Breitinger
and Sickenberg, tried to dismiss Dr Poulianos' findings, arguing that the skull was only
50,000 years old and was indeed an ancestor that came from Africa. However, research published
in the US in 1971 in the prestigious Archaeology magazine, backed up the findings that the
skull was indeed 700,000 years old. This was based on an analysis of the cave's stratigraphy
and the sediment in which the skull was embedded. Further research in the cave discovered isolated
teeth and two pre-human skeletons dating back 800,000 years, as well as other fossils of
various species. Today, most academics who have analyzed the
Petralona remains say that the cranium of the Archanthropus of Petralona belongs to
an archaic hominid distinguished from Homo erectus, and from both the classic Neanderthals
and anatomically modern humans, but showing characterists of all those species and presenting
strong European traits. A skull dating back 700,000 which is either Homo sapien or part
Homo sapien is in direct conflict with the Out of Africa theory of human evolution.
Further excavations continued in the cave of Petralona with the participation of international
researchers (46 specialists from 12 separate countries), which provided further proof of
Dr Poulianos' claims, including remarkable findings like fossilized pieces of wood, an
oak leaf, animal hair and coprolites, which enabled accurate dating, as well as the almost
continuous presence of stone and bone tools of the Archanthropus evolutionary stage, from
the lower (750,000 years) to the upper (550,000 years) layers of sediment within the cave.
The research, after an interruption due to the dictatorship in Greece, continued up to
1983. It was then ordered by the government that all excavations at the site were forbidden
to anyone, including the original archaeological team, and for 15 years nobody had access to
the site or to the findings – no reason was provided by the government. Was this denial
of access to prevent the extraction of whatever new scientific conclusions remained hidden
within the incredible fossils embedded within the layers of the caves' walls?
After the Anthropological Society of Greece took the case to the courts, 15 years later
they were again allowed access to the cave. Since then the Ministry of Culture is trying
in any way to overcome the Courts decision and further trials proceed.
12. The Roman Ninth Legion's mysterious vanishing.
The mysterious disappearance of the famous Ninth Legion has always sparked off the interest
of historians. Could the rebellion of the Scottish tribes have brought about its dissolution,
and led to the consolidation of a very strong border in the north, or is the explanation
a totally different one, one in which the Pictish tribes play a lesser part? Legend
has it that one of the best trained military forces of the Roman empire was totally overwhelmed,
and hammered by a group of local barbarians, forever vanishing in the dark mists of Caledonia.
The improbable triumph of this 'inferior' population contributed to the consolidation,
of the national feelings of both the Scottish and the English. For the English it is the
successful story of little "Davids" who smashed a ruthless "Goliath". To the Scots
it means even more, it is an expression of supreme freedom, since Roman imperialism also
tends to symbolize English one as well. But is there any truth in this?
The legend was offered a coherent approach thanks to novelist Rosemary Sutcliff, who
published in 1954 a book which immediately became a bestseller:"The Eagle of the Ninth".
Ever since this moment people have been enchanted, and thrilled by the story of the young officer
Marcus Aquila, who dares to travel past Hadrian's wall in order to unveil the truth about his
father who perishes along with the other soldiers serving in the legion. He is also determined
to bring back the banner, the bronze eagle, so as to regain a bit of Roman honor. A noble
task, however many historians dismissed the novel, claiming that the Ninth is actually
the victim of a strategic transfer in the Middle East, where it perished fighting the
Parthiians.
Evidence of such a transfer form Britain is yet slim, comprising three imprinted bricks
found at Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In fact, the last certain piece of evidence that confirms
the existence of the legion is dated back to the year 108 AD, in York. Later in the
second century, when a full list of all the legions is commissioned, the Ninth no longer
appears in documents. The story of this military unit seems to be slightly more complicated
and misfortunate.
The legion was founded by Pompey in 65 BC, during his wars in Hispania. Four years later
it ends up under the command of Julius Caesar, who transfers it in Gaul and uses it in his
long conquest campaigns. The commander mentions it when he speaks about the context of his
battles with the Belgian tribes. During the civil wars the legion takes part in the battle
of Ilerda, Hispania. The soldiers must have been truly impressed with the general, since
they join him and cross the river Rubicon, aiding him in the decisive fight at Pharsalus.
As a reward, Caesar disbands the troops and settles the veterans in western Italy. The
misfortunes of the legion begin after the general's death, because Octavian, in dire
need of troops, calls it back to arms in order to crush a rebellion in Sicily initiated by
Pompey's son. Afterwards he sends it to Macedonia and the soldiers engage his rival's
army at Actium, in 31 BC.
These great efforts prove not so advantageous for the soldiers, since they are once more
sent to Hispania to take part in Augustus' wars with the Cantabri. Then their journey
continues till they reach the Germanic tribes. Here the legion was supposedly commanded by
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and after the Roman disaster in the Teutoburg Forrest, it suffered
another transfer, this time in Pannonia. In the year 43 AD emperor Claudius summons
the legionaries to join him in his conquest of Britain, and from now on the fate of the
Ninth will be bound to the future Roman province. 17 years later, the Iceni tribe led by the
masterful queen Boudicca organize a dangerous rebellion, aiming at first to the city of
Camulodunum (Colchester). The local population call on governor Catus Decianus, who sends
some auxiliary troops, yet to few to resist the overwhelming enemy. Although Decianus
flees in Gaul, it is highly likely that he ordered the legion controlled by Quintus Petilius
Cerialis to make haste to the city which was under siege and the locals gathered in the
temple of Claudius. Nonetheless, the legion was, as many others, scattered in forts and
encampments, which made it impossible for Cerialis to gather more than one cohort and
pieces of other two. Only the cavalry is capable of holding up against the Iceni.
In 77 AD, we find the legion dwelling in York, from where it must defend the problematic
northern border, replacing Legio II Adiutrix. Cerialis resumes its command after some wars
in the Rhine region and this time he will have to face another vindictive tribe, the
Brigantes led by Venutius. Cerialis manages to break down his forces using both the Ninth
and Legio XX Valeria Victrix. Six years later, commander Agricola marches with the troops
beyond the wall, because scouts report that the Caledonian tribes have grown weak and
disunited. He divides his military into three groups for a coordinated attack, but apparently
they could not resist the guerilla warfare of their Pictish rivals. Some researchers
believe that the Ninth was stationed in the Castra Pinnata, whom the Caledonians invaded.
Tacitus mentions that the guards fell asleep and the lack of vigilance cost the legion
two thirds of its men. Despite the great loss, the legion is reshaped.
Did it perish or not?
Legend has it that the new army stationed at York/ Eboracum engaged in several other
wars north of the wall, and all of a sudden it was wiped out of history, probably around
117/118 AD. This theory is backed up by the fact that soon, after the Sixth will be transferred
here and the Ninth is no longer present in textual evidence. Nevertheless, there are
some clues that argue against such a sudden disappearance. The stamps from Nijmegen are
dated in the year 121, and it seems that there are a few officers still in service after
118; one Lucius Aemilius Karus even becomes governor of Arabia in 142.
But it is equally possible that the legion may indeed have been hammered down in Scotland,
and the stamps only represent some leftovers after the transfer of the legion. Other hypotheses
state that the Ninth could have been destroyed during the Jewish revolt led by Simon ben
Kosiba in 132 - 136, or in Cappadocia in 161, or during a rebellion on the Danube in 162.
Either case, the inscription listing all the legions and dating back to the reign of emperor
Marcus Aurelius makes no reference to the Legio IX Hispanica.
The last inscription naming it, the one from 108, speaks about a building project in the
reign of Trajan. Emil Hűbner, who collaborates with Theodor Mommsen to compile the great
work Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, introduces this inscription as well in the section Inscriptiones
Britanniae Latinae, in 1873. Moreover, one common textbook about Roman Britain was "Britannia
Romana:The Roman Antiquities of Britain", written by antiquarian John Horsley in 1732.
He manages to identify the Roman legions of Britain. He knows Legio XIV Gemina who leaves
in 70 AD, as well as about Legio II Augusta, XX Valeria Victrix, and he is surprised that
there is no word about the Ninth in the period between Tacitus and Hadrian. He also reminds
us of Legio VI Victrix, which according to one inscription about Marcus Pontius Laelianus,
consul in 144 and legionary tribune seven years earlier, arrived in Britain around 120
AD, about at the same time with the new governor, Aulus Platorius Nepos. So what happened to
the Ninth? Antiquarian John Horsley claims it was indeed
smashed, but there are no records of the event, just like in the case of the one destroyed
by Parthians. Like Horsley, Bartolomeo Borghesi finds its disappearance very odd and suggests
the likelihood of a tribal rebellion that sealed the soldiers' fate. Moreover, Mommsen
quotes Hadrian's biographer who mentioned that the Picts could not be controlled at
all, and Marcus Cornelius Fronto writes to Marcus Aurelius telling him about the massive
damage caused both by Scots and by Jews. Information regarding a potential war in Britain is vague:
could the coins depicting a personified Britain during the reign of Hadrian hint at such a
confrontation? They might as well hint at his visits here.
When Emil Riterling publishes his study about Roman legions in the Realencyclopädie in
1925, the theory of a brutal destruction of the Ninth was generally accepted among researchers.
But he notices that the transfer of the Sixth did not necessarily mean an annihilation of
the previous military force. And the evidence concerning a British campaign in 118/119 is
not that convincing. The arrival of these new troops may have also expressed the emperor's
desire to cement Roman presence south of the wall he wanted to build.
Ritterling's arguments are based of prosopography:he notices that some of the officers reach their
career peak too late to be considered that they only served in the legion during Trajan's
reign. One of them is the aforementioned Lucius Aemilius Karus, whose service in the legion
might have been simultaneous with that of Laelianus in the Sixth. Another tribune, Lucius
Novius Crispinus Martialis, consul in 150 after resigning from his post as legatus Augusti
pro praetore provinciae Africae, couldn't have served in the legion earlier than 123.
Similar data therefore imply that a British war around 119 was quite improbable.
Archaeologist Eris Birley has two scenarios in mind:either the Ninth was transferred from
Britain under the circumstances of the Parthian wars, or the Sixth was brought here to fill
up the military gaps and secure the area. In this case the Ninth may as well have been
transferred to Judaea in the time of emperor Hadrian. Ian Richmond on the other hand is
the one who cemented the myth in his work "Roman Britain" (1955), unbendingly advocating
the idea that the legion was exterminated in a battle with local tribes around the year
119. Rosemary Sutcliff also added fuel to the legend, but she was more inspired by the
Cambridge Ancient History and Rudyard Kipling.
In 1959 archaeologists uncover the stamped bricks at Nijmegen, but they also discover
the same seal on objects at DE Holdeurn, 5 km. away. Till then the area was only documented
with the presence of Legio X Gemina, who is compelled to abandon the camp at Hunerberg
because of the Dacian wars. The inscription Vex(illatio) Brit(annica) is present, but
it is highly unlikely that a vexillatio signed the bricks with the name of the legion. One
possibility would be that the fort was occupied by troops sent from Britain and the legion
settled in Germania Inferior. This is also supported by the existence of an altar dedicated
to Apollo near Aquae Granni (Aaachen), erected by Lucius Licinius Macer, primus pilus (the
main centurion), promoted in the rank of praefectus castrorum. He must have been a more important
character than a soldier from a vexillatio
One theory of ceramologist Brian Hartley suggests that the legion station at Carlisle in the
first years of Hadrian's reign. Stamped bricks are being produced at Scalesceough,
not far from Carlisle, and they bear the inscription LEG VIIII HISP, like those from Nijmegen,
and not LEG IX HISP, like those from York, so there may have been some production continuity
in Germania Inferior. There are further clues to support this claim, such as the stamp of
the legion on a pendant attached to a harness. Other names of officers support the continuity
hypothesis:Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus becomes proconsul in Gallia Narbonensis in
127 after serving as a legatus legionis, or Quintus Numisius Iunior, another legatus,
becomes consul in 161, so he couldn't have began his career earlier than 119.
All in all, debates continue regarding the fate of the Ninth, even though the few shreds
of information apparently point out that the legion lasted more than its myths tells us.
Where and why did it perish? Due to later Pictish revolts? Was it transferred in the
east? Did it perish with Severianus at Elegeia under the Parthian sword in 162? We can only
hope for more epigraphic material to shed light on this matter.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment