15 Legendary Cultures That Left a Mysterious Mark on History

There’s a lot of history out there. Plenty of it is extremely well-documented — we know a lot of incredibly unexciting details about European royalty and tediously worded bylaws — but there’s a lot that isn’t. Odd, mysterious artifacts that raise a lot more questions than they answer, intriguingly complex objects from an era nobody would expect and indecipherable texts missing any sort of keystone to translate them for modern eyes.
It’s all a reminder that, however important any of us think we are as individuals, or occasionally feel on a big birthday, we’ll all be forgotten. Time moves in a way that we’re powerless against. Names are forgotten, monuments crumble.
Like, imagine if there was a king ages ago who thought he was really important, and made statements like “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!”, but like, as time went on he was just forgotten? Imagine that. Someone should write a poem about that as an idea, it would be really good. Then… forgotten.
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The Mesoamericans Who Mastered Aerial Imagery a Millennium Before Flight

The Seafaring Warriors Who Devastated Ancient Egypt

The Tartessos Civilization

The ‘Lost Colony’ with Its Mysterious Parting Message

Baalbeck’s Physics-Defying Temple

The Neolithic Star-Mappers

The Unreadable Language of Easter Island

The Self-Destructive Chinese Civilization

The World’s Oldest Town, or Temple, or Something

The Civilization That Knew Something We Don’t About Peace

Ancient Discoveries

The Enormous Stone Balls with No Clear Purpose

The Sajama Lines

The Ancient Burial Site We’ve Ruined for Everyone

The Ancient Precursor to Sports Fandom
