Baboons played a surprising role in solving the mystery of the ancient Land of Punt. For years, historians didn’t know exactly where Punt was located, but it was a major trading partner of Egypt, famous for its exotic goods. Some of those goods included baboons, which the Egyptians imported. Researchers studied ancient mummified baboons and compared their chemical makeup to modern baboons. They found that the baboons likely came from an area around present-day Eritrea or Ethiopia. Thanks to these furry creatures, scientists have a much better idea of where Punt was! Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00There once was a kingdom where the ancient Egyptians traveled to buy gifts for pharaohs,
00:05sort of like an ancient shopping mall.
00:07This kingdom, named the Land of Punt, was rich in luxury goods, including gold, aromatic
00:13resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, and exotic animals like leopards and baboons.
00:19All of these sound like great gift ideas to me!
00:22The Land of Punt was an especially important trading partner for Egypt for over a thousand
00:27years.
00:28So, if you plan to go there, the bad news is that it hasn't survived to these days,
00:33and nobody knows for sure exactly where Punt was located.
00:37We only know about it from records.
00:39The most famous of them were left on the walls of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, who had
00:44sent an expedition to Punt.
00:46Scientists have been trying to find the exact location of this rich land for over 150 years.
00:52It could've been southeast of Egypt, in a coastal region south of it along the Red
00:56Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean.
00:59Or it could've covered the Horn of Africa and the area across the sea in southern Arabia.
01:05Now researchers were finally able to narrow down the possible locations thanks to a study
01:10of baboon mummies.
01:13Ancient Egyptians admired baboons and even thought they were related to the deity of
01:17the moon in wisdom.
01:19One species, the sacred baboon, was often shown in wall paintings, sitting with its
01:24tail curled to the right and was mummified in this position.
01:28Another type, the olive baboon, was wrapped up in one giant cocoon.
01:33Both types were found in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.
01:37But if you remember geography lessons, baboons just don't wander around Egypt.
01:42So they must've been brought there through trade with other regions.
01:45Primatologists, Egyptologists, geographers, and geochemists look at the mummified baboons
01:51from two different time periods in ancient Egypt.
01:54Some were from the New Kingdom period, and others were from the Ptolemaic period.
01:59The scientists did some more hard work and analyzed tissues from 155 baboons from 75
02:06separate places in eastern Africa and southern Arabia.
02:09Those were all areas that they thought could be the ancient land of Punt.
02:13They measured oxygen and strontium in the baboons' bodies.
02:17When animals drink water and eat plants, their teeth, hair, and bones show a geographic signature
02:23of where they've lived thanks to these elements they contain.
02:27Scientists used a special method called isotopic mapping and found out that the New Kingdom
02:31baboons they analyzed came from a location in Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Somalia.
02:38Five mummified baboons from the Ptolemaic period had strontium levels that matched those
02:43found in Egypt.
02:44So ancient Egyptians might've had a special place to breed and keep baboons, probably
02:49in Memphis, a city in Lower Egypt, not Tennessee.
02:53Meanwhile, paleontologists from New Zealand got lucky, as some boulders had split open
02:59from the tide and revealed fossils of the largest penguin that has ever lived on Earth.
03:04The scientists used laser scanners to make 3D models of the ancient penguin bones.
03:09They compared these bones to the flipper size of modern penguins and did some math as to
03:14how much the old penguins might've weighed.
03:17Today, the biggest penguins, emperor penguins, weigh between 55 to 100 pounds.
03:24Researchers think that the penguins from the past that they found weighed around 340 pounds,
03:29real giants in the penguin world.
03:31These huge flightless birds lived in the oceans around New Zealand more than 50 million years
03:36ago, after the dinosaurs went extinct.
03:39They totally took advantage of their big bodies to stay warm in the cold waters.
03:44They might've even traveled the world thanks to it.
03:47And they'd scare off any predators, but they didn't have any.
03:51The asteroid that took down the dinosaurs also got rid of most big marine reptiles,
03:56and the ancestors of seals and whales were still living on land.
04:01Back in 1992, four farmers in China were draining water from their ponds and accidentally bumped
04:08into a ship full of gold and ancient statues worth millions.
04:12Just kidding, they actually found the Longyu Caves.
04:15Those are 24 big caves created by people a long, long time ago.
04:20Even though they are so large and well-made, no one knows who built them, why they were
04:25built, or how they were built.
04:28Experts think the caves are at least 2,000 years old, but they don't understand why
04:32these caves aren't mentioned in any historical records.
04:36All of the Longyu Caverns look the same and aren't connected to each other.
04:40Each cave has one entrance connected to a vertical shaft with a carved staircase.
04:45Rain and water from the surface can flow into the caves through these stairs.
04:49To manage this water, the caves have special grooves, channels, and a system to catch the
04:53water at the bottom.
04:55So it looks like the ancient builders were real pros when it came to drainage and water
04:59management.
05:00Maybe my town could learn a lesson from them as it turns into Venice after every heavy
05:04shower.
05:05Anyway, the caverns were built below a hill, named after a bird that is one of the most
05:10respected creatures in Chinese mythology and culture.
05:14It symbolizes all the best things, like high virtue, grace, and the union of yin and yang.
05:20Scientists think there could be a connection between the caverns and the bird, but it's
05:25just a theory so far.
05:28Experts from the National Institute of Ocean Technology in India were doing their routine
05:33pollution surveys when they found some structures that look like a city underwater.
05:38Using special sonar technology, the team found big geometric shapes on the ocean floor.
05:44They brought up different items from the site, like pottery, beads, sculptures, parts of
05:49walls, and even human bones and teeth.
05:52They thought the ruins belonged to a civilization older than the Bronze Age-induced Valley Civilization,
05:58which is the earliest urban culture of the Indian subcontinent that we know of so far.
06:03But not everyone joined in on celebrating this awesome discovery.
06:07Some archaeologists refused to believe it and thought it could be some computer tricks.
06:12And even when they saw hundreds of artifacts from the ocean floor, they said an ancient
06:16river could've brought them there from someplace else.
06:19The team that discovered the underwater site decided to prove they were right.
06:24They chose a piece of wood as their main evidence.
06:27They tested it and found it was 9,500 years old.
06:31That could be the age of the entire site.
06:34Skeptics still insist that we can't rewrite all human history because of one piece of
06:38wood.
06:39Even 23 years since the discovery, no one is sure about the final answer.
06:44This is partly because it's hard to explore the site.
06:47It's in extremely dangerous waters with strong currents and riptides.
06:52During the cool Antarctica summer, from late November through January, geologists from
06:58the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee climbed the frozen slopes of the McIntyre Promontory
07:03in the Transantarctic Mountains.
07:06High above the ice fields, they looked through the mountains' gray rocks for fossils from
07:10when the continent had green forests.
07:13By the end of their trip, the geologists found fossil pieces from 13 trees.
07:18These fossils show that the trees are over 260 million years old.
07:23This means the forest grew at the end of the Permian period before the first dinosaurs
07:27even appeared.
07:29More than 90% of all species on Earth disappeared back then, including the polar forests.
07:35These trees would've been very tough if they grew in Antarctica and could've survived.
07:40But a huge increase in gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, must've taken them down.
07:46This Antarctic forest is a terrific way for us to see what life was like before the extinction,
07:51and we might even understand what caused it.
07:54It also shows us how plants were different back then from those we are used to now.
08:01That's it for today!
08:02So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:06friends!
08:07Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!