Mystery Timeline｜1868–1945
From the age of The Legends of Tono to the days when Nessie and the coelacanth made headlines around the world: mysteries from the Meiji era to the end of World War II.
A dark, egg-shaped stone found near Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, in 1872. It is carved with a human face, ears of corn, arrowheads and moons, and has holes drilled through both ends. Who made it, when and why remain unknown.
Rock crystal carved into the shape of a human skull. Presented as relics of the ancient Maya or Aztecs, they inspired legends such as "when thirteen are gathered, humanity's secrets will be revealed." Studies by the British Museum and others found marks of modern tools, and they are now thought to date from the 19th century or later.
Fossil dinosaur footprints from the Cretaceous on the bed of the Paluxy River in Texas. Some claimed giant human-like footprints beside them proved dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Research has shown they are elongated dinosaur tracks or fakes carved later.
More than 30,000 clay figures collected in Acambaro, Mexico, in the 1940s by the German-born businessman Waldemar Julsrud. Many look just like dinosaurs, and they were hailed as evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, but most archaeologists think they were made in modern times.
