12 Unsolved Mysteries From History

12 Unsolved Mysteries From History

Because historical documentation is grounded in dates, places, events, and outcomes, it's tempting to believe it consists of concrete subject matter with easily traceable, identifiable answers to every question posed by history enthusiasts and curious readers. If a solution isn't immediately evident, we assume that time will reveal the truth.

In reality, history is full of mysteries and, contrary to logic, sometimes the answers become more elusive as time passes. As the years erode evidence and real unsolved cases evolve into mythological tales, these baffling stories threaten never to be solved.

Still, that doesn't keep us from wanting to know more about them and pondering their possible explanations. From strange medieval illnesses that remain unidentified to enigmatic orphans who left us with more questions than answers, this list features unsolved mysteries from history.

On September 8, 1863, a mysterious man washed up on the shores of Sandy Cove in Nova Scotia, on the coast of the Bay of Fundy. He was remarkably still alive, but both legs had been amputated above the knee, and he could not speak.

Acadian families took the man in until his passing in 1912, and the Nova Scotian government provided for his needs. His tombstone simply reads “Jerome,” the name he supposedly uttered among his occasional grunts throughout his lifetime. 

Some people believe he was an Italian aristocrat who was tortured before being released, and that he kept silent to avoid further punishment. Others claimed he was a native of Ireland who had migrated to the US to avoid his family, or that he had suffered debilitating injuries working as a lumberjack. 

Jerome took his secrets to his grave, and the mystery only evolved from there. While a whirlwind of hypotheses and wild tales of the man have been concocted over the years, who he was, what happened to him, and how he was found upon the beach shores remains a mystery.

The Amber Room of Russia was once considered the "Eighth Wonder of the World." Then, it disappeared after Nazi forces stole it during World War II. 

The majestic room, made of amber walls worth the equivalent of $142 million today, was a gift to Peter the Great from the King of Prussia (Frederick William I) in 1716. During its time with Russian royalty, the room served as a meditative space for Czarina Elizabeth, a social space for Catherine the Great, and Alexander II's trophy room. 

As Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Russian palace curators and officials hastily worked to remove the valuable amber from the wonderous walls. As it began to crumble, they recognized that the only option was to disguise the amber with a thin layer of wallpaper and hope it fooled the marauders. 

German soldiers recognized the room immediately. Within 36 hours, they had disassembled it and shipped the amber pieces to the Königsberg Castle museum in Germany, where it remained on display for two years. As the war's end approached, museum director Alfred Rohde realized the room was in danger and ordered it packed away. The following August, bombs rained down on the city, destroying the castle museum and its contents. 

Many historians agree that the amber pieces were most likely ruined during the bomb raids. Others believe the crates were sent to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, never to be recovered. A piece of the amber allegedly appeared in 1997 when a German tried to sell it. Upon further investigation, the potential salesman turned out to be the descendant of a soldier, and the amber's origin could not be confirmed.

Around 1150, two children with green-tinted skin arrived in the English town of Woolpit acting very strangely, speaking gibberish, and having an appetite only for green beans. Sir Richard de Calne took the odd duo in and cared for them.

Over time, the brother and sister started eating a wider variety of foods and lost their green pallor. Most tellings of the tale say the boy passed a short time later from an unknown illness, while a few say he lived for several years. 

The girl, at least, eventually learned English and described the series of events that led to her and her brother's discovery in Woolpit. After she recounted that they had fallen into a trance in their father's field and suddenly awakened near Sir Richard's land, she described their home as an underground community unexposed to light:

The sun does not rise upon our countrymen; our land is little cheered by its beams; we are contented with that twilight, which, among you, precedes the sun-rise, or follows the sunset. Moreover, a certain luminous country is seen, not far distant from ours, and divided from it by a very considerable river.

Agnes - the name the girl received upon her English baptism - eventually married and became a mother. Her and her brother's origin remains a mystery. Scholars believe the children may have been orphaned Flemish immigrants whose parents were executed by King Stephen or King Henry II. To the English, the pair's native language would have sounded like gibberish, and their greenish skin could have been caused by arsenic poisoning or a severe iron deficiency. No theories have been proven.

In 2010, archaeologists came across an abundance of treasure concealed within Sandby Borg on the coast of Sweden. They discovered valuables including jewelry, bells, and Roman coins, which led them to continue excavating in the following years until they came across a disturbing scene.

Buried with the treasure troves were the 1,500-year-old corpses of 26 males, ranging in age from newborn to elderly. The lack of wounds on their forearms suggested the men were entirely unprepared for the attack and unable to defend themselves. Additionally, many showed apparent signs of being slaughtered from behind. Because none had been properly buried or given any funeral rights, experts believe the people were left exactly as they fell.

The massacre occurred during a period known as the Migration, as the Roman Empire collapsed and the Huns invaded Roman lands. However, while the inhabitants of the Iron Age ring fort traded with the Roman Empire, the civilization was never under Roman rule. The jewelry left behind suggests that women also lived within the fort's confines, but their fates are still unknown. Because the community's treasures remained untouched, archaeologists believe the attack was a demonstration of power and control.

According to ancient texts, Cleopatra ended her life in 30 BCE by allowing a poisonous snake - an asp - to bite her after her capture by Octavian near the end of the Battle of Actium. While the texts also claimed she was placed in a tomb with her lover, Marc Antony, modern scholars and archaeologists have been unsuccessful in locating the mausoleum.

Archaeologists believed they were on the verge of discovering the tomb at a site called Taposiris Magna, around 30 miles west of Alexandria. While they have unearthed numerous artifacts that date back to Cleopatra's lifetime over the last 15 years, the last Egyptian queen's body remains missing. 

Former Egyptian Minister of the State for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, believes the tomb will never be discovered. Since Cleopatra's reign more than 2,000 years ago, coastal erosion has completely submerged her palace; he suspects her tomb was nearby and met a similar fate. Other scholars think it might possibly be buried somewhere beneath the modern architectural structures of Alexandria.

As it swept through Europe multiple times from 1485 through 1551, the sweating sickness epidemic caused panicked hysteria in royalty and peasant classes alike. To this day, no one knows what the mysterious illness was or where it came from, but modern medical professionals suspect it may have been some type of hantavirus or insect-borne arbovirus. Whatever it was, historians think the mercenaries King Henry VII hired to end the War of the Roses may have brought the contagion into England with them.

The symptoms seemed to come out of nowhere and progressed rapidly. Initially, people generally experienced anxiety, giddiness, chills and fever, headaches, and prostration. Soon after came extreme sweating, severe headaches, a rapid pulse, and delirium. If someone survived for at least 24 hours, they usually survived, but the mortality rate was high - from 30% to 50%.

Unlike the Black Death, no visible signs on an ill person's skin were present, making the illness even more terrifying. Cases seemed to surge after significant rainfall, but also sprung up randomly and without warning. Henry VIII was so frightened by the thought of catching the malady that he slept in a different bed every night in the summer of 1528.