Redditor InsertBurnsHere wanted to discuss the world's most unresolved issues, so they asked:
"What is the biggest unsolved mystery in human history?"
The mysteries that haunt me are all murder stories.
When will we find the killers?!
The Absconded
Bank Robbery Heist GIF by ADWEEKGiphy"Who was behind the Gardner Museum heist? Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art was taken, and we have little to no clue who was behind it, and none of the paintings have surfaced."
Stillwater215
The Linear Truth
"In 1893, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchased some ancient stones with mysterious inscriptions on them at a flea market in Athens. On a later trip to the excavations at Knossos on the island of Crete, he recognized one of the symbols from his stones and began a study of the engraved tablets being uncovered at various sites on the island."
"He discovered two different systems, which he called Linear A and Linear B. While Linear B was deciphered in the early 1950s (it turned out to represent an early form of Greek), Linear A, above, has still not been deciphered."
"There is an entire culture of information that predates much of our history, a window into ancient humanity that is simply locked away from us because we don't know how to read it."
Atamask
Exact Dates
"An active one in the archaeology world is the exact time frame of when humans made it to the Americas. The date keeps getting pushed back with more controversial discoveries that then just turn to evidence as they pile up. It’s a fascinating story to see unfold."
DocAuch22
"Yeah I like this one too, I think many of the traces of early settlement are likely submerged. Sea levels were much lower during the ice age and the majority of human settlements are along the coasts so a huge piece of our history is probably lying on the seafloor completely undisturbed and possibly well preserved."
who519
Monarchs
"So the Monarch Butterfly migrates to Mexico and back every year. During the year there are a full 4 generations of butterflies that live and die during the journey. Upon returning back from Mexico, the butterfly manages to find the same trees it's relative started out at despite never having been there."
MasonS98
Dark Energy
Loop Space GIF by xponentialdesignGiphy"We like to think we understand the universe and that physics is a well grounded discipline, and in some ways it is. However we have no idea what dark matter or dark energy is and yet we think it makes up 27% and 68% of the universe respectively."
Ok_Passenger_4202
The Universe is vast and scary, like the sea.
The End
Kimmy Schmidt Netflix GIF by Unbreakable Kimmy SchmidtGiphy"The final words of the emperor Titus were 'I have but one regret'. We don't know and never will what that regret was."
Ayearinbooks
5000 BCE
"That most of human history is undocumented and we will never know our entire history as a species. We didn’t start recording our history until 5000 BCE, we do know we shifted to agrarian societies around 10,000 BCE but beyond that we have no idea what we were like as a species, we will never know the undocumented parts of our history that spans 10s of thousands of years."
"We are often baffled by the technological progress of our ancient ancestors, like those in SE Asia who must have been masters of the sea to have colonized the variety of islands there and sailed vast stretches of ocean to land on Australia and New Zealand."
"What is ironic is we currently have an immense amount of information about our world today and the limited documented history of our early days as a species but that is only a small fraction of our entire history."
patlaff91
How Big?
"I don't know about 'biggest,' but I always thought the Voynich Manuscript was very interesting. A huge book written in an unknown language or cipher that has never been translated or decoded with diagrams of plant species that don't exist. Lots of theories surrounding it, but no definitive answers as to the origins or the content."
AbortionSurvivor777
Who made it?
"Not sure if it's THE biggest mystery. But the Antikythera mechanism is pretty wild."
"Dated to at least 60BC, possibly as old as 200BC, it's as complex as clockworks that didn't show up until the 1400s, over a millennium later!"
"It's just such a strange technological anomaly. Who made it? What else did they make and why haven't we found more stuff as advanced?"
SmokedMessias
Magic Tins
Video Recycle GIF by Jenny LorenzoGiphy"Why did we all just globally decide that those blue Dutch cookie tins hold sewing supplies?"
MysteriousStaff3388
"They’re large enough to hold sewing scissors, along with other notions, and made of metal so that the scissors and needles can’t poke through them. Or at least that’s the consensus r/sewing seems to have come to."
butter_milk
My grandma had like 20 of those tins.
Good times.
Do you have any mysteries to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Most mysteries start at the beginning... of life that is. The world holds secrets that even the best detective or adventurer can't seem to discover. Some secrets have to do with species and science and others with government and cover up. Either way, there is always going to be a trail to follow.
How Big?
What deep sea creatures exist that we haven't found yet?
Just how big is the largest squid out there...
Panama
The Panama papers...LOADS of wealthy people involved and murders attached to it also.
You should know there are loads of other equally large tax avoidance schemes that have floated around since basically forever. Panama was the one that leaked but there are so, sooo many others.
Guess...
jurassic park dilophosaurus GIFGiphyI'd like to know what dinosaurs really looked like. I'm not even super into dinosaurs but I've always wondered how close we are in our guesses.
Mysteries fester and they can drive us to distraction because we know that there IS an answer. Somebody has it, but where? That is the key to the obsession for answers. It is especially difficult when the unknown is personal. When it hits home or just resinates with you, it becomes a haunting. Or you carry it like a responsibility.
12/6
The truth from when my gran died and the weeks leading up to it. She died on the 6th December She cancelled her life insurance just days before her death Wrapped every single present for the whole family and name tagged them (over 30 family members) when she usually wrapped them on Xmas eve She worked in a small gift shop along with the owner- both of them died within 3 hours of each other.
Has puzzled me for years and hopefully some truth comes out before I pass away.
"Tamam Shud"
I gotta go with the first ever unsolved mystery that really made me think. Mystery of the Somerton Man. In the 1948 a guy was found dead on a beach in Adelaide, Australia. He was never identified and months after finding his body they found a fake pocket in his pants. It was torn from a copy of the book Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam (I googled that) and had a phrase on it which said "Tamam Shud" which means ended or finished in Persian.
They found the book that it came from but the owner denied ever knowing the guy. There was an encrypted message in the book that they found and it still hasn't been cracked. Apparently there's been a development recently that might identify him as H.C. Reynolds but it's not 100% certain. It's super interesting
Edit: thank you to u/Young_old-soul who has informed me that tamam shod actually means it's over instead of finished or ended.
What about Grandma?
A month before mom had a massive stroke and ended up in a nursing home she was obsessed with finishing some family photo albums. These albums and pictures were years and sometimes decades old but she wanted them in order and wrote notes explaining who was who and what was going on in the picture. She worked on them constantly. She said she had to get them done now and couldn't wait. Looking back I just think sometimes people know things are going to happen but just can't or won't explain it. Sorry about your grandmother.
Bye grampie...
My grandfather, one day, just walked out the door and never came back. This was before I was born (I'm 27). He left behind my grandmother and his three children. There was a state-wide search. My mom's family never got closure.
Although, me thinks he might've had another family that he ran away to. But it still baffles me sometimes at night. My grandmother finally held a pseudo-funeral/memorial for him last year.
Edit: Wow, I did not think this would get so much traction. I appreciate everyone for chiming in. Thank you for the silver, kind stranger, and everyone for your interaction.
So often a great mystery leaves you reeling. They have an effect on your daily thinking. I'm often left wondering about unknown answers after a rabbit hole day on the internet. Imagine what I'm going to be like for the next week after writing this article? When I'm done, I'm going to start research Reddit by Reddit. Just like the following group...
Jennifer...
Jennifer Fairgate/Fergate. It's a fascinating mystery - a woman checks into the Oslo Plaza Hotel, a five-star establishment, and is found dead in her room three days later. Initially assumed to have committed a suicide, but there's no blood on her hands, no gunshot residue, no fingerprints on the bullets in the gun or the gun itself, which in addition to the odd position in which she is found on her bed really starts looking more like homicide. Additionally, no personal belongings in the room besides clothes, shoes, a travel bag and an attaché full of bullets.
Clothes and shoes have all producer labels/designations removed as well. Contents of her stomach indicate that she had died the day before she was found, but a member of staff who knocked on her door heard a gunshot go off right after that, indicating someone's presence inside. The door was also locked from the inside but no one was there when they got in. Probably my favourite true crime thing.
The Blood...
The Korovina Group (i think that's the name)
Basically a group of seven hikers start hiking the mountains when six of them start bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. They all scream, start seizing, one even starts bashing their head on a rock. The remaining survivor flees, but later comes back to the bodies to get supplies.
She's found a few days later but refused to talk about it
A lot of people say its a deadly nerve agent that Russia was using (this happened in Siberia? I think) but that doesn't explain why the last one survived, even going back and still being unaffected.
HER
Wait What Wtf GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphyWhen my grandmother was actively dying, she gasped and said "Bill (my grandfather who had already passed) is here and he brought a black lady," then she died. All of us there were looking at each other like WTF?
Like I said before, some mysteries are just going to stay that way. That is an outrageously unfortunate cold hard fact. Many, many, many of us will go to the grave never getting an answer about some of life's greatest mysteries. I myself would love to crack every cold case featured on "Dateline NBC," and learn the identity of "Jack the Ripper," but that will never happen. Let's hope there is an "other side" and when we pass we learn it all.
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Who is out There?
Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. Do they exist? Have they ever been here? How close is the nearest planet with intelligent life? Is faster than light travel possible through the distortion of space or some other means?
Genghis.....
No idea why, but i'm just so interested in finding Genghis Khan's grave. The brutal extent they went through to keep it secret, is truly messed up.
I heard an interesting conspiracy theory once. Perhaps Genghis Khan actually had a simple cremation and the legend of his grand burial was used to keep his empire 'hungry' for conquest and glory.
Find the Treasure.
Where is all of the missing art the Nazis looted during WWII? More than likely, what are the hundreds of locations of the art?
This is going to sound like a conspiracy theory; Swiss bank vaults used as collateral by the Nazis. When the Third Reich was defeated and collapsed, the Swiss would have GROSSLY violated their quote-unquote "neutrality" if they revealed they had the stuff. They couldn't sell it openly, and there weren't exactly factions friendly to the idea of paying for Europe's stolen masterpieces.
My argument for the Swiss having them is based in their admittance tat they dealt in gold and what would today be considered war-profiteering. It is likely, therefore, that the Art was indeed destroyed to absolve those who possessed them of guilt and/or responsibility.
Bronzed.
The details of the Bronze Age collapse.
We only know very generally what happened (read 1177 by Eric Cline for details) , but precious little specifics, esp who did what and why. Droughts, famines, revolts, piracy, population movement, trade collapse etc are all involved. Mycenae, Minoans, Troy, Hittites, Ugarites etc Every city from Greece to the levant was burned down and every civ collapsed. Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia didn't collapse but were severely weakened for centuries.
Age Old Tale....
suspicious los angeles GIF by TNT DramaGiphyWho committed the Black Dahlia murder.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hodel#:~:text=George%20Hill%20Hodel%20Jr.&text=third%20legal%20wife-,George%20Hill%20Hodel%20Jr.,to%20consider%20Hodel%20a%20suspect. His son did some research into the case and believes it was his father... I can't remember what I watched... I'll post it if I can find it.
The Tombs.
Where cleopatras tomb is located.
And Alexander the Great's.
I read a pretty interesting theory about this. His tomb was supposedly in Alexandria, and during a Christian uprising his body was hidden and "lost" around the same time that the body of St Mark appears. And the church of St Mark in Alexandria was built on the site where Alexander's tomb was. Fast forward to when Egypt was under Muslim rule, and some merchants from Venice decided to steal the body of St Mark and take it to Venice, where the body is now kept in St Marks basilica. Further evidence stated that St Marks body was burnt when he died so there wouldn't be a body of St Mark to steal! It would be really easy to determine if it is Alexander with a DNA test (like they did with his father when they found his tomb) but that would mean desecrating the tomb of St Mark so the church won't allow it.
This is where I read it from, quite an old story now but interesting nonetheless! www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/does-the-tomb-of-st-mark-in-venice-really-contain-the-bones-of-alexander-the-great-732020.html%3famp
Shelly.
What happened to Shelly Miscavige. She just went missing, while the church of Scientology claims that she's working there, I don't believe it, same people that believe in Xenu and damn soul catchers.
All Over Europe.
Who the Isdal woman really was, what she was doing, how she ended up dead in such a remote valley, in Bergen, Norway. No one has been able to identify her in 50 years.
Edit: What's especially strange about this case is that she had about 8 different aliases which she used all over Europe, and then was found burned alive in the middle of a Norwegian valley. All eye witness reports from people who crossed paths with her state that she stood out, and always seemed to be on high alert.
Cicada.
Who was behind Cicada 3301 and what the actual purpose of it was, it just disappeared into thin air.
A new Cicada puzzle has been around for a while, but it proving extremely difficult to crack. It involves a book of runes. Some pages have been solved using old Norse runes, but no one's got any farther.
Ghost Ship.
Ghost Ship GIF by Sea of ThievesGiphyThe Mary Celeste, I believe that's the name, it was a U.S. merchant ship that was found completely abandoned floating in the ocean in the 1800s. I would also like to find out what happened to another ghost ship that was found with everyone frozen.
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