240Kviews
50 Very Old Human Creations That Still Surprise Us Today, As Shared In This Online Group
We love to emphasize human development. And for good reason, it's amazing how far we've come in the last centuries, decades, and even years. Science advances in leaps, introducing one groundbreaking invention after the other, fueling our minds with thoughts about the next big thing.
But that doesn't mean that we were clueless in the past. If we were to dig a little bit in history, it would reveal that people have always had the capacity to outdo themselves. Yes, the tools might have been different and not so sophisticated, but some of the artifacts that survived the test of time still surprise us to this day.
Here's a collection of man-made things shared on arguably the biggest online history catalog, Museum of Artifacts. They definitely didn't lose the "wow" factor!
More info: Museum Of Artifacts | Reddit | Facebook | Instagram
This post may include affiliate links.
An 8-mile long "canvas" filled with ice age drawings of extinct animals has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest.
Michelangelo's Moses is a marble sculpture made in 1513–15. One of the many details of this masterpiece is one very small muscle in the forearms that contracts only when lifting the pinky, otherwise it is invisible. Moses is lifting the pinky, therefore that tiny muscle is contracted.
Wonderful 2000-year-old sapphire ring presumably belonged to Roman emperor Caligula, thought depicting his fourth wife Caesonia.
In 1965, excavations in Mezhyrich, Ukraine, revealed the presence of 4 huts, made up of a total of 149 mammoth bones. These dwellings, which are about 15,000 years old, are some of the oldest shelters known to have been constructed by pre-historic man.
A newspaper ad from 1865 of an 18 year old man looking for a wife.
Oh, Olivia, don't go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.
Load More Replies...Hard worker... I like how he's non-specific about the kind of woman he's looking for. I think he might have done it. Hope he found himself a lovely "person of the female persuasion" to spend his life with.
I think this boy is absolutely pure and adorable and I hope he found the love of his wife. His focus is on what he can contribute to a partnership and not on what a future wife can do for him. His honesty is inspiring.
Yes! And I think in those times it really was important to a woman to expect in a marriage and that the man is able to provide a good life.
Load More Replies...I think he spoke quite well for himself, actually. I'm a nice, decent guy, good work ethics, & successful enough to support us. Healthy, & want to treat you well. Sign me up lol!
seems like a much nicer guy tgan "nice guys" today haha
Load More Replies...How crazy is it that just over 150 years ago, an EIGHTEEN year old could afford to own all of this?! If he lived now, he'd have to settle for a cramped studio with a charming kitchenette/toilet combo, above a laundromat
Well, 150 yrs ago there was a lot of vacant land and a low population. Probably built the house and barn mostly by himself and may have gotten the livestock through his own labor or for barter. Clearly a hard worker (with good teeth).
Load More Replies...You don't need him! Buy one like this yourself! :p https://www.scottsofstow.co.uk/indoor-illuminated-waterfall-sculpture/ HoDe-Creat...25f91a.jpg
Load More Replies...The person says "I don't know how to do it". Still people are judging him in comment section.
This is how my grandpa found my grandma! He put out an ad in the local paper looking for a wife to help take care of his mom and help with chores on the farm! Grandma answered and they were together until grandpa passed at 95.
This is sad and heartwarming all at all. He wants to buy her hoop skirts and waterfalls:)
I'm guessing Andrew Johnson, 17th POTUS. He was in office from April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
Load More Replies...This young lad sounds incredibly sweet and quite the catch. I hope that he found a lovely wife and they enjoyed butter and gazing at waterfalls together.
I wonder if he succeeded, and has descendants, and they know about this. They probably don't.
aww this is so pure and wholesome compared to what people write today! I hope he found someone to buy bread and butter for
I don't want to brag, but I also have many fine, burlap chairs around my oak stump, I am book learned to a 2nd grade level, and please don't be picky, I wasn't.
I'd really love to find someone who could trace this guy down somehow and find out if he found his person, and if they have descendants today. What a wonderful story of how your parents / grandparents / great grandparents met to be able to pass down the generations!
This fella sounds absolutely adorable!! I sincerely hope he got the gal he wanted to share those dreams with.
This is how marriage was then - a financial contract. This kid really had it together. At 18, he was prospering. I'm sure a few women replied to this ad.
Yeah, he knows his classic 90's RnB and know we'll just go chase them otherwise.
Load More Replies...Eighteen years old and he's got his own land. Eighteen acres is a good size plot, which he cleared himself and planted by himself. He even bought his own livestock. Most eighteen year olds these days can't even make their own beds.
I'D GO, IF I WERE A YOUNG LADY READING THAT AD, BACK THEN. WE'D FIGURE IT ALL OUT TOGETHER.
I love it. At the very least he is sincere and prepared, also articulate.
My goodness... he has done all this at 18! One heck of a good prospect!
I would rush into his arms and say yes..it is the 'waterfalls' that got to me and his amazing success and ambitions at 18.
Actually I wonder how many replies he received and did he find his bride?
Load More Replies...I assume Andy Johnson is the racist president who got the job after Lincoln was assassinated. He undid all the work and change the Civil War accomplished.
I knew they had mail order brides but seeing this ad puts it in another dimension.
That's actually kind of romantic. I wonder how many 21st century 18 year olds have game like him.
I hope he found what he was looking for. Any man that wants to buy you a waterfall is a keeper.
Back the instead of lying about your height and job to impress potential mates you instead lied about how much livestock you have on hand. "You're head over heals for Earl, sweetie, but that poppy only has 3 cattle, you can do better"
Aroostook County 150 years ago!? No wonder he put an ad in the paper. It's STILL all farms and potatoes and trees.
This is quite adorable and he seemed like a good guy. I love how his focus was on making himself seem desirable by describing what he can provide and saying how he wants to treat the wife and he’s not specific in what kind of woman he wants. I hope he found a wonderful woman to marry
What a gem, I hope he found his lovely lady and they had a good life together.
He was the president that came after lincoln
Load More Replies...A lot of millennials could learn from this guy's effort and hard work. He likely accomplished more at 18 than millennials will in their entire lives.
Nice judging someone from 1865 from your 2021 viewpoint. It’s almost like you had expected him to hop on Tinder and list his likes and dislikes.
Load More Replies...The Veiled Christ, a 1753 marble sculpture by Giuseppe Sanmartino exhibited in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples. Due to its incredible detail, there was a legend that said that the statue was covered by real veil and slowly transformed over time into marble via chemical processes.
Is there a sculptor alive today that could create something like this? Using the same tools??..
1,500-year-old Ceramic Maya Figurine with Removable Helmet, from El Perú-Waka', Petén, Guatemala.
First ever drawings of the moon made by Galileo Galeili after observing it through his telescope in 1609.
Prague's astrological clock is the oldest still functioning clock in the world, 1410.
In the small village of Nashtifan, Iran, some of the oldest windmills in the world still spin. Made of natural clay, straw, and wood, the windmills have been milling grain for flour for an estimated 1,000 years.
An early example of a successful cranioplasty (Peru, ca. 400 CE). The patient survived, as evidenced by the well-healed in situ cranioplasty made from a gold inlay. Now on display at the Gold Museum of Peru and Weapons of the World in Lima.
A 17th-century Ottoman three-mast tent made of silk and gilded leather. Now on display at the Turkish Chamber in the Dresden Armoury.
Detail of the Hercules armor of the Emperor Maximilian II of Austria. Made in 1555, it's now on display at the Kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna.
Bowl with Fish, Iran, probably Kashan (late 13th–mid-14th century).
2300 years old Scythian woman's boot preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains.
A Viking era ring inscribed with the words 'for Allah', found in the grave of a woman who was buried 1200 years ago in Birka, 25 km west of modern-day Stockholm. The ring constitutes a unique material evidence of direct contact between the Vikings and the Abbasid Caliphate.
This is for the people who pretend to be educated while complaining about “diversity” in media or books set in the past. We used to travel much more than we think and while we weren’t as diverse as now, things were not as simple as old media portrays. For example there were black citizens in medieval- renaissance Europe, mostly ex slaves or their descendants from AlAndalus (Arabian country in the Iberian peninsula). Some quite successful, Like Juan de Pareja (Velazquez’s servant and later apprentice).
Ancient ‘Beware of Dog’ Sign From 2,000 Years Ago. A mosaic in front of a Roman poet's house in Pompeii, 1st Century AD. "Cave Canem"/caveat canine/beware of dog.
Samurai helmet (kabuko) shaped like an octopus. 1700s, Japan.
An ancient Egyptian gold ring with a carnelian bezel in form of a cat. From the Third Intermediate Period (1070–712 BC), it's now in the collection of the British Museum.
2000-year-old Roman face cream/lotion. Dating back to II AD. Object was found in the temple complex dedicated to Mars. It's world's oldest cosmetic face cream and it has finger marks in the lid.
Googled it: The researchers report in this week's Nature that the two major components, each making up about 40% of the total, were starch and animal fat, which probably came from the carcass of a cow or goat. They think the starch was added to reduce the greasy feeling of fat on the skin. It is still used for the same purpose today in body lotions and hand creams. The remaining ingredient was synthetic tin oxide (or cassiterite). Although it is greyish in its natural state, it would have coloured the cream white"
Incan Wall, a fine example of master Stonemasonry. Cuzco, 1400's.
Small sculpture of death with a bow made in 1520 Germany.
"Ratto di Proserpina" is a large Baroque marble sculptural group by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed between 1621 and 1622. Bernini was only 23 years old at its completion. Now on display at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.
Detail from the "unswept floor" mosaic made by Heraclitus, showing a mouse eating a walnut. 2nd century CE, now on display at the Vatican Museums.
3400 yo painter's palette from ancient Egypt, Amenhotep III era.
as an artist, I love this... how amazing. Really is a treasure, it must have been worth a fortune in its time let alone now
A Roman bathhouse still in use after 2,000 years in Khenchela, Algeria.
Mourning clothes worn by count Magnus Brahe at the funeral of king Karl XIV Johan of Sweden in 1844.
Elaborate Ottoman-era birdhouses resembling miniature palaces and mosques.
Ivory carving of a skull and coiled snake with carnelian eyes. Japan, Edo period, 1860.
A gun hidden within a bible, made for Francesco Morozini, Doge of Venice (1619-1694). The owner of the bible could pull the silk bookmark to shoot while the book was still closed. Now on display at the Museo Correr in Venice.
Stockings, 1830, cotton/silk.
The left's on the right and the right's on the left. It hurts my brain!
An amateur treasure hunter with a metal detector turned up a Medieval, gold ring that was set with a sapphire stone in Sherwood Forest—haunt of the legendary (or real) Robin Hood. Experts have examined the ring and believe it may date to the 14 th century.
14000 years old bisons sculptures found in Le Tuc d'Audoubert cave. Ariege, France.
Two books I picked up from the Goodwill where I work. The one on the left was printed in 1711 and is a collection of Pliny the Younger’s letters. The one on the right was printed in 1771 and is a school book about Greek Mythology.
Abuna Yemata Guh is a monolithic church located in the Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is situated at a height of 2,580 metres (its entrance is highlighted by a red circle) and has to be climbed on foot to reach. It is notable for its wall paintings dating back to the 5th century.
An Inuit otter amulet. Engraved and pigmented ivory, c.1870-1880.
2000 year-old glass mosaics, from the ancient city of Zeugma in Turkey.
Crystal spearhead found in a 5,000-year-old megalithic tomb in Spain. The tomb had the remains of 25 individuals, several of whom had consumed a poisonous substance.
A Roman toddler's footprint in a red clay tile, imprinted as it was drying ~2000 years ago. Vaison-la-Romaine (ancient Vasio Vocontiorum).
One of the 4000-year-old well-preserved wagons unearthed in the Lchashen village in the vicinity of Lake Sevan. Made of oak, they are the oldest known wagons in the world. Now on display at the History Museum of Armenia.
Chand Baori, the largest and deepest stepwell in India. It consists of 3500 narrow steps over 13 stories and extends 30 m into the ground. The oldest parts of the stepwell date from the 8th century, while the upper stories with the columned arcade around it were built in the 18th century.
The Da Vinci Globe, dated 1504, is the oldest known globe to show the New World. Engraved with immaculate detail on two conjoined lower halves of ostrich eggs.
Thirteen-year-old Israeli goes foraging for mushrooms, stumbles upon a Byzantine burial inscription.
The ceiling of the 2000 years old hypostyle hall of the temple of Hathor in Dendera, Egypt.
(1528-29) German hunting knife that's also a gun, that's also a calendar.
9000 year old cave painting in Tassili cave Algeria. Depicting a shaman during psychedelic mushroom use.
Oldest surviving pair of Levis jeans, 1879.
My thighs managed to rub friction holes into every pair of jeans I own, except for Levi´s and Mustang.
A cabin on board the Aachen, a 19th-century steamship hit by a torpedo in July 1915. Now located at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Breastplate Armor of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1549.
Many interesting details that say something about the time, like Virgin Mary standing on a crest moon. This was in the time when Ottomans had spread their empire deep into Europe, but were eventually forced to retreat, so the battle of Christianity vs. Islam was a defining theme of the era.
Curious Artefacts: Hitler's Telephone, one of the deadliest weapons of all times [1000x562]
Note: this post originally had 116 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Starting counting years BC and AC feels wrong now. It really shows that some thought that the center of creation, but there was so much more before that. Beautiful civilizations with art, respect for women, engineers. We aren't that different, they weren't dirty people with rags. We haven't progressed that much from them. Maybe even deteriorated, with the amount of waste and pollution we create. in 1000 years what will they find of us? Heaps of garbage? Dirty diapers in piles? Plastic rubbish? We call the industrial age a dark/dirty time, but it still continues. It's not black coal smoke now, but brightly coloured plastic.
We should agree on a start from the beginning of the Holocene, which would make this 11021 or so.
Load More Replies...Now, that was cool stuff! More of such articles on BP rather than social issues please.
Everything was made with such pride and beauty and one stands in awe. I espeically love the silver items made.
Mass production has really deadened people's appreciation of artistry and craftsmanship.
Load More Replies...This was one of the more beautiful posts I have seen in a while. It's so easy for me to forget or ignore how much man is capable of and has accomplished, and this post slapped some appreciation into me! Time is a wondrous thing but the ability to withstand it is something that one can only admire in awe.
This is the most fascinating collection of items I have ever seen. I'm simply floored.
Long time no seeing a wonderful thread. All pieces are incredible important culturally aesthetically and of great curiosity, congratulations!
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It is estimated that it was created 87 B.C.
this is something i like to know ,its good to know somrthing new once in a while
Look around at the amazing quantity of art, music, literature, poetry, etc that is now available for almost every living person to appreciate. These works were produced for the elites in a time when most people woupd never travel more than a few miles from their birthplace, and none of this would have been accessible to the common man. We just don't appreciate how spoiled we truly are.
Load More Replies...Just think of all the history we never discover yet all the inventions we haven't invented yet we are nothing more than a footnote in history. Because yesterday I heard Dave Chapelle say something about Emmett Till. He said the lady that said till complemented her said on her death bed that she lied. But that lie cause a person to lose there life, but that death really helped the civil rights movement what I'm saying even doe we are only a footnote I. History sometimes a footnote can leave a foot print
This is the best article to date... pun intended. I have read about many of these items, dates and histories, but seeing them together is wonderful.
wow such beautiful and wonderful artifacts so much patience and persaverica and care in their work... it's so amazing what our past has left us to admire O.O
I’m going to inscribe twitters most popular post into stone just so future generations will know of the real difference we made at this time
Starting counting years BC and AC feels wrong now. It really shows that some thought that the center of creation, but there was so much more before that. Beautiful civilizations with art, respect for women, engineers. We aren't that different, they weren't dirty people with rags. We haven't progressed that much from them. Maybe even deteriorated, with the amount of waste and pollution we create. in 1000 years what will they find of us? Heaps of garbage? Dirty diapers in piles? Plastic rubbish? We call the industrial age a dark/dirty time, but it still continues. It's not black coal smoke now, but brightly coloured plastic.
We should agree on a start from the beginning of the Holocene, which would make this 11021 or so.
Load More Replies...Now, that was cool stuff! More of such articles on BP rather than social issues please.
Everything was made with such pride and beauty and one stands in awe. I espeically love the silver items made.
Mass production has really deadened people's appreciation of artistry and craftsmanship.
Load More Replies...This was one of the more beautiful posts I have seen in a while. It's so easy for me to forget or ignore how much man is capable of and has accomplished, and this post slapped some appreciation into me! Time is a wondrous thing but the ability to withstand it is something that one can only admire in awe.
This is the most fascinating collection of items I have ever seen. I'm simply floored.
Long time no seeing a wonderful thread. All pieces are incredible important culturally aesthetically and of great curiosity, congratulations!
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It is estimated that it was created 87 B.C.
this is something i like to know ,its good to know somrthing new once in a while
Look around at the amazing quantity of art, music, literature, poetry, etc that is now available for almost every living person to appreciate. These works were produced for the elites in a time when most people woupd never travel more than a few miles from their birthplace, and none of this would have been accessible to the common man. We just don't appreciate how spoiled we truly are.
Load More Replies...Just think of all the history we never discover yet all the inventions we haven't invented yet we are nothing more than a footnote in history. Because yesterday I heard Dave Chapelle say something about Emmett Till. He said the lady that said till complemented her said on her death bed that she lied. But that lie cause a person to lose there life, but that death really helped the civil rights movement what I'm saying even doe we are only a footnote I. History sometimes a footnote can leave a foot print
This is the best article to date... pun intended. I have read about many of these items, dates and histories, but seeing them together is wonderful.
wow such beautiful and wonderful artifacts so much patience and persaverica and care in their work... it's so amazing what our past has left us to admire O.O
I’m going to inscribe twitters most popular post into stone just so future generations will know of the real difference we made at this time