Original subtitles

Can this strange device really look into

people's souls?

Wouldn't it be cool if you could

put something on someone's head and

read their entire personality?

Why was the wearer of this

strange gold mask treated so bizarrely? His

head was placed underneath

and his head was separated from his body

and what secret does

this ancient Greek vessel

probably hold? This jug,

animal sacrifice and the iron nail were used in

rituals of black magic.

Fascinating mysterious

objects long hidden in museums,

laboratories and

archives. Now we can use the latest

technology to reveal their secrets.

We can recreate them

so

forgotten hidden and bizarre

reveal these are the strangest

things in the

world

in the Science Museum in Minnesota there is

one of the strangest devices ever

developed this device is completely

bizarre with the help of the most modern technology

we can get this unusual object

working again this is a

so-called

psychograph It consists of almost 2000

individual parts and looks like a

future drying

hood. There is a kind of wire bell hanging on a pole

that is lowered onto the head.

This is

connected to a mahogany box via a few

electrical

cables. Inside the hood there are

32 tiny steel probes which are

mounted on swivel joints are and can

press specifically against the skull. Their

creator claimed to be able to accurately record the

mental and weaknesses of people.

This device could supposedly

detect what kind of person you were and

what job you were

suitable for. When this device was

presented to the public, it was

one Sensation, people are

lining up to have their brains read,

but is something like that even

possible? Where did such an idea come from and

why did this scientific device end up

in a

Wisconsin shopping center? In

1901, the inventor and self-proclaimed

pioneer Henry Charles Lavery plans to

build a revolutionary

machine. Lavery was a car mechanic by

profession but he had big dreams in

his hometown superior he was called

the Thomas Edison of

Wisconsin lavery is convinced that

his machine will change the world

because it should be able to read

and

categorize a person's personality the idea was that this

device The head shape would measure and

provide values ​​that could be from one to 5 above

or below the average.

These values ​​should then

be the basis for revealing the character and

intelligence of a person.

The basic idea was that thought and

behavior patterns as well as talents depend on

certain brain structures In

1931, by presents the finished

device almost 30 years after he

started working,

he gives it a

promising name, the

psychographer, how did he come up with the idea for

such a bizarre device?

Over 2,000 years ago,

philosophers such as

Pythagoras and Pythagoras represented ancient Greece Aristotle came up with the idea that

people could be judged by their facial features

and their physiognomy. This gave rise to

the concept of

physiognomics. Physiognomics was based

on the assumption that there is a

connection between the external

appearance, the mental

abilities and the personality of a

person.

Pythagoras is said to have introduced this concept as early as

500 Christ used in the selection of his

students to recognize their

character traits and intelligence

and to

accept or reject them accordingly. Over a

century later, Aristotle goes even

further. Aristotle published a

detailed treatise in which he

explained how one can determine a person's personality based on physical

appearance

could be

based on body type, hair color and

even

gait, so a person who

had a big head was cunning, someone who

had a broad face was slow, someone who

had soft hair was cowardly, people

with a firm ha, on the other hand, robust and

courageous sounds crazy but in fact

we also judge ours People

often

form

an opinion based on their first

impression, they infer

certain

characteristics based on their appearance. This is a normal

mechanism for judging people,

even if it is not always accurate.

Over the centuries,

physiognomy has become increasingly popular

Popularity and leads to some extremely

bizarre

ideas In the 16th century, the

Italian scholar wrote

a book about human

physiognomy. He compared certain external

characteristics of people and animals and

concluded that, given

these characteristics, there were corresponding

similarities in their behavior.

The autodidact assumed that the

similarity with A sheep can be inferred to have a

simple and mean

character, characteristics

that he attributes to sheep. However, the

psychographer comes into play.

The German doctor Franz Josef

Gall first developed this idea in the 18th century.

Theses were based on his

experiences from his

school days. He had observed that

classmates with prominent ones

Eyes and a prominent forehead seemed to

have the best ability to remember.

From this he concluded that there

was a memory organ directly behind the

eyes and this

gall expressed accordingly divided the brain

into 27 independent

[music]

regions believed that the brain was made up of

many different smaller organs

each of which

controls a different aspect of our character, our personality or our behavior and the size of the regions

determined how strong these characteristics

were. According to GAL, the respective

regions shape the shape of the skull and

create bumps and bumps that

can be measured on the top of the skull, which is exactly what they

should be The psychographer with his tiny

sensors did at the beginning of the 19th century

with his theses the

galsche skullhere also known as

phrenology, having one's head measured with a sieve

became

a new trend in the European upper class

in the USA the brothers Lorenzo

and lazier used phrenology In order to build a

business empire,

the Fauler brothers created

a phrenological

cabinet. They owned thousands of

skulls of shady characters from

well-known criminals to

pirates

Wal whtman as well as the doctor and

writer Sir Arthur Colin do and

the great inventor Thomas ALV

Edison but the idea of ​​the psychographer

also has a dark

side. In the collection of the brothers

Fauler there was, among other things, the

skull of the Apache chief Mangas

Colororades, who

tortured and killed American soldiers

The Faulers claimed that his

skull showed character traits of the

Native Americans that

differed significantly from the white settlers who came from Europe. The entire science

of phenology was divided by a deeply

racist mindset,

despite the fact that

the inventor Henry Ly sees

phenology as a lucrative business idea

He wants to enable companies

to select the perfect employees, but

the old-fashioned manual measurement method does

not fit his new

business model. Manual measurement

was very time-consuming and, above all,

very

subjective.

He wanted to develop a device that

automated this process and made it

faster, more accurate and consistent,

so he became a psychographer

born lavery explains that a

futuristic device could

make an exact measurement in just 90 seconds

how exactly does the whole thing work

the hood was lowered over the head

and tightened with a button on the front

inside there were 32

sensors that took measurements at 32 points on the skull

and supposedly the values ​​for

32 personality traits such as humor,

ambition or fighting

on pens adapt to the shape of the

skull and are connected to five

electrical contacts.

Each of these 32 sensors measures,

for example, the size of a bump on the skull.

This signal is sent to the device and

thus received For a small dent you get a

1, for a slightly larger one you get a 2 and so

on on a scale of five

points. When everything is ready,

a

belt-driven motor is activated via a switch,

which controls the printer in the wooden box.

The printer receives information from each of

these 32 sensors a signal and punches

a

number from 1 to 5 for each personality trait.

The measured values ​​of the 32 probes

promise an almost unlimited

number of possible

profiles. The results appear on

a 40 cm long piece of paper

[music]

it wasn't just about making an objective

assessment of personality

but also about

career advice. It was analyzed

which professions you

might be suitable for, ranging from the hotel manager to

the

[music]

prizefighter. The machine looks impressive,

but its construction is also based

on a scientific basis.

It is actually possible to determine a person's health

based on the bumps on their

head There is definitely something to it as measured by Gal's

cranial ear, according to which the brain

is divided into different regions.

The porcelain skulls from back then, where

certain personality traits

were attributed to certain areas of the brain, are not that

far away from the more modern

neurological findings of the mid-

19th century In the 1900s,

brain research made great

progress, particularly through the

work of the French doctor Paul

Brocker. Brocker finds that

stroke patients with

language difficulties have damage in the left

frontal region of the brain.

He draws the correct conclusion

that this area controls our language center -

this white area or, in the

other picture, black area Area shows

a serious blow to

this part of the brain is now

known as brockeraral but galsthe to

character and koporm remains

unconfirmed of course

certain regions of the brain correspond to each other

which affects our mind

but not in the simple

way that Gall

assumed During GAL's lifetime,

skepticism about phrenology grew, so a

century in advance,

a problem with phenology was that there was

no consensus about which parts

of the brain were responsible for which function and

which personality trait.

There was also no

consensus regarding the external characteristics, and there is still a concept

More serious

problem the shape and thickness of the skull

have no

apparent connection to the brain the

shape of the skull can vary for all sorts of

reasons

the idea that you can

just put something on someone's head

and mechanically capture their complex personality

is a nice

but not very convincing idea to

start with In the 20th century,

phrenology has been almost

completely refuted by science. Why does

Henry Lavery still spend 30 years

developing his

psychographics?

Glavy obviously doesn't care that the construction lacks a credible scientific foundation because

he has no intention of selling the apparatus to

research

Psychographers

suddenly appeared in the strangest places

in cinema lobbies in department stores on

cruise ships and even in

doctors' parlors. They served as public

entertainment with the false promise

that people could learn something new about themselves. In

1934 the phrenology machine

even made it to the World's Fair in Chicago

but the psychographer was not presented together

with the technical innovations of this

time

he was part of the freaks

between rip curiosities exhibition and

the

flcircus the sphere of

pseudoscience and popular

entertainment

connected about 45 machines are built

but in

1938 the psychograph bubble bursts lavery

is forced to mothball his machines

the psychograph falls into

oblivion but the spirit of

phrenology lives

on, these ideas can still be found

in idioms in English today,

the term low brro means something

like ordinary highbro, on the other hand, stands for

intellectual, which reflects the old

idea, the shape of the forehead

suggests the intellect, i.e.

who has a low one

Despite their controversial

past, the

pseudo-scientific idea behind

this bizarre machine cannot be killed.

In a museum in northern Peru there is

a strange mask that looks like an

elaborately decorated face,

it is evidence of extraordinary

craftsmanship But the latest analyzes

lead into a dark world of ancient

macabre

rituals. New research has given us completely new

insights.

Digital technology allows us to

examine this strange relic in microscopic detail. This is the Sikan mask. It

is made of solid gold. It is 46 cm

wide and 29 cm high. The eyes are 29 cm high Equipped with

beads made of polished amber and

emeralds, it is also decorated with

a nose clip and artistic

earrings.

The craftsmanship shows its

high value.

The bright red on the

mask, which is over 1000 years old, has lost none of

its intensity. There is

a gruesome reason why who has this

Mask made what was it used for and

what are the gruesome secrets that

modern research

has revealed from it the northwest coast of

Peru 91, a team

led by Professor Isumi Shimada undertook

an archaeological excavation in the forest of Pomac,

this is one of four

areas in Peru that are under National

protection because they are of historical

interest

in the tropical dry forest

lie 36 hand-made

pyramids spread over an area of ​​​​almost 60

square kilometers.

They are all that is left of the culture

that was at home here for almost 700

years until it was around

650 years ago

the sikan disappeared. They were very religious. They

built huge temples, the

so-called huakas. These were

built from unfired clay bricks and

housed the graves of important

personalities. Many of these

monumental temple mountains are still

visible today and, although somewhat

weathered, protrude from the forest area.

Archaeological excavations on the site

The former capital is a

challenge for the scientists

because the cities were plundered to a large extent.

In order to learn more about this culture,

the archaeological team had to

find a tomb that was still untouched

[music]

on the

Hakaloro temple hill at the bottom of an 11 meter deep

vertical shaft you will find what you have been

looking for for so long an

untouched sikang grave full of

treasures they have recovered over a ton of

grave goods about a third

of them made of

metal among the treasures are crowns

gold feather jewelry gold earrings and

a he a

gold the archaeologists also discover the

remains of two women

and two children they lay carefully

arranged around a fifth skeleton

of a

man, his bones lay on the

remains of a cloak that was decorated with

hundreds of tiny gold plates and

there was gold

shin jewelry and a few pearls in

the reconstruction shows how the

women and children around it The man was

positioned around them, their positions

seemed bizarre,

but the man in the middle was the most puzzling.

He was placed in a crouching position

and his body was

painted red, but it gets even

stranger.

He was placed upside down

and his head was separated from the

body

Rotated 180° and in this position the

head was attached together with the red mask,

the mask gold, the

aenindigranenel seem as if they were

literally

poking you, but the most striking thing about it

is this bright red color whose

color intensity has been preserved over the centuries,

these details hide a

horrifying secret that has just

been discovered the mask is around 1000 years old

and formed from a 0.6 mm thin sheet metal

it weighs 7 g and demonstrates the

high artistry of the

Sikan culture When designing the mask

you had to find the perfect balance

it had to be thin enough but also

strong enough to maintain its shape

the iris and pupils are

made of amber and emeralds as the

final touch the striking red

color was applied the impressive

red color comes from a mineral

called zinoba a

mercury sulfite zinoba has been used

by many

cultures for at least 12,000 years Valued around the world as a

valuable resource,

it is a fantastic

dye and was often used to

convey the symbolic meaning of blood. Cinnabar red was also used to

depict triumphal processions.

Many ancient statues were

originally painted with strong red tones

but behind the The bright color

of this mask hides a dark

[music]

secret. For this you first need

a pigment, i.e. a

substance that carries the color as a

solid particle.

In the case of the mask it is

the red mercury sulphite

zinoba, then you need something that contains this

substance liquefied in order to be able to distribute it

as well as a type of binding agent that

holds the applied color mass together. New research has

revealed something completely expected in the case of the mask. In 2021, the

composition of the red material on

the mask was

analyzed. A technique

called ftir was used, an

infrared technique with the You can

recognize and identify organic molecules on surfaces. It was

determined

that the binding agent

must have been animal protein.

Further analysis shows that it was

egg yolk from bird eggs,

probably from musk ducks that the

locals bred for consumption at the time.

Egg yolk is an excellent

binder why because it is quite

sticky

the use of egg yolk as a

binder in conjunction with a

pigment is an ancient technique

called eempera Egyptian mummy pictures from the

first century AD were

often made with tempera paints, for example,

the use of egg yolk is not

surprising but the Scientists

discover something else in the

color. During the analysis, they

discovered two additional proteins that occur in

human blood.

This deep red color comes

from blood. Human blood

who was beheaded here and had a

mask painted with human blood mounted on the

reattached head.

The archaeologists were During their

excavations, they often came across shallow Sikan graves,

most likely from

simple people. However, the grave

of Wakaloro in which the mask

was found has a completely different

dimension. According to calculations, it

took around 20 people Z weeks to

build the grave and the production of all the grave items

certainly took a lot more requires more time and

work, obviously the

deceased was very important that so many

resources and work were invested in his grave,

the fact that the mask

is made of gold gives another indication of

what kind of man was buried here,

such gold jewelry indicates

a very high social status

This precious metal was reserved for the rulers

of the dynasty,

the objects that lay in the

grave, the mask that

was placed on the dead person and the way

the grave items were arranged around the dead person -

all of this shows that

this person occupied a high position in

Sikan society

As a member of the

social elite, the owner of the

mansion was certainly also involved in

religious

practices. He probably also wore

a fabulous headdress during his lifetime,

as well as this mask and a

gold robe that

made noises and

glittered when he moved, and this jingling sound was certainly intended to be

in the eyes of the worldly being Giving the viewer a

divine aura,

the human blood on

this strange mask was part of a

religious ritual, was it

given voluntarily or was it

forcibly

taken from human victims? In 2011, archaeologists

studying the Sikan culture made a

shocking discovery

near the grave where the

mask was discovered Archiologists found

the remains of over 150 people who were

probably sacrificed during special rituals

around the temples. When

the bones were examined, the

skeletons did not show any fatal injuries.

These people were probably

buried alive. The bioarchaeological analysis

of the female skeletons from the

mask grave shows that The women

were healthy at the time of their death, which

indicates that they were also sacrificed.

Why did these healthy

young women have to die?

Next to the dead one, the skeletons

of two women were found. One of them was lying as if

she was about to

give birth, the other was squatting like a

midwife

The positioning of the two women

points to the idea behind this

extraordinary grounding in which he

should be reborn in the sense of

an ancestor cult in which he

enters the next phase of life in order to

be worshiped there. This would also explain why

his body

was placed upside down like that At

birth, two children were also buried in the grave.

There are various possible explanations for this.

Perhaps they were

sacrifices or were intended to accompany this high-ranking

member of society in life after

his rebirth, which is why

the dead man's head with

the mask was first severed remains

a mystery. Experts assume that from the fact that

the gruesome ingredient in the bright red

color, the human blood, was intended to

serve one's own rebirth.

As it seems, blood symbolized

fertility and life in the Sikan culture,

so it can be assumed that the

blood of perhaps the deceased himself was intended to

reinforce this strange ritual.

So far, this gold mask is the only one

where human blood was discovered,

but it is also the only one that

has been analyzed as a result. This

discovery is so new that

further specimens need to be examined

to find out whether the use of

human blood on gold masks

was common in this lost culture -

it remains

[music]

Excitingly in a museum in Athens there is

this seemingly simple ceramic pot,

but this is not just any old jug.

This jug is characterized by curses, witchcraft and

dark magic.

With the help of digital image technology

we can examine the clay vessel from the inside

and outside.

It is called the cursed

chicken pot. It is around 11 cm high

has a round bottom with a diameter of 13 cm

and a handle on one

side. At first glance it is

an unspectacular glazeless

brown vessel like those found thousands of times in

ancient archaeological cities in

Greece,

but as soon as you enlarge it

it stands out Mass out because it is

covered with ancient Greek inscriptions that

were scratched into the clay. This was obviously done for an

important reason

and the inside of the pot also has it

in

it. There was a chicken head inside. What do

the inscriptions on

the

outside mean? Why is it in the pot?

Inside a severed chicken head,

this clay jug is really cursed

[Music]

The strange vessel was

discovered in Athens on the site of the

ancient

Agora. The Agura of Athens was one of the

most important market and

meeting places in

ancient Greece. At that time, Athens was one of the

most important cities in the world and the

Agora was its

heart.

The Agora was a central place of

civil life. Courts

and public meetings were held here.

Commemorations were held and it was noted that it was the

center of the ancient

city. In 2006, archaeologists are carrying out

an excavation in the agur in an area

that was used by craftsmen in ancient Athens

Digging at a building that

I was in the AG, they came across

a fairly simple-looking

jug. The item dates back to

between

325 and 270 BC. At first

glance, it looks like a completely

ordinary Greek

clay pot. We often throw something like that just put it

in the bucket these jugs are quite

commonplace we didn't expect

this piece to be so fascinating

when the archaeologists take a closer look

they notice that this jug has something

strange about it there

are a lot of characters on it

about 30 names are legible alongside many

others than them Analyzing the jar further,

the archaeologists discover

another strange

clue. The only words that are still recognizable

that are not individual names

are we

bind. Everything is strange but not

particularly

exciting. Only when the archaeologists

take a look into the jar do they start to

wonder about the jar There was a chicken head

and

[music]

chicken bones but the huh is

n't even the strangest thing that's

inside.

In the jug there was a nail that

was pushed into the ground from above

without

breaking it. This fragile clay vessel

was definitely not accidentally

pierced into terracotta Well, fired

clay is known to be very brittle. You do

n't stick a big nail

into a terracotta

vessel for fun.

If you want to make a hole in such a clay vessel

then you don't hit it,

you have to drill into it very carefully

so that no cracks

appear which then continue

contribute to the jar

breaking because obviously

this hole had an important

purpose and it gets even stranger because

in addition to the chicken bones and the nail there

is something else in the jar at the top of

the nail a small coin was

discovered you couldn't tell from

which period of rule it is from

but it probably had a small

value why would someone put this strange

combination of things in a jug let's

look at this digital

reconstruction up

close the strange carved

shafts could point to the jug's true purpose

[music]

the key to the secret of

this jug lies in the engraved

names. Today we can only decipher about 30

of them,

but it is quite possible that

there were originally up to 55 names on the surface, but it is not the names that

tell us what the jug was used for,

but the two ancient Greek words

deomän die mean we

bind there is every reason to

believe that this combination of jug

offering and iron nail

was used for black magic a so-called

binding spell in Greek

katathesmos could this strange jug

really be cursed or even store curses did

the ancient Greeks have any magic at all

[music]

Believed in our imagination,

ancient Greece stood for logic and

reason, but magic and superstition were

widespread, there were spells and

potions as well as prayers against enemies to whom

one wanted to cause harm, curses were

used for many reasons, they were used for business

purposes,

legal disputes and sometimes out of

hatred But even when it came to love,

as it seems almost everyone in

ancient Greece had to do with magic and

curses,

we know that the city-states

commissioned certain magical rituals

while others were forbidden by law,

so it was something

that was widely believed So-

called curse tablets were

used for this purpose, usually these were

sheets of lead that were folded

and pierced with an iron nail.

The curse tablet was then

either buried with a deceased person

because it was believed that the dead person could bring the

message to the gods more quickly,

or it was placed in one

place where the target

of the curse

was

[music]

this chicken pot is perhaps a

kind of

curse tablet, the names could refer to people who were

wanted to be cursed, the words we bind indicate

that this object

was aimed at someone who was to be subjected to a

so-called binding spell,

which is typical

The coin in the nail head also speaks for curse tablets.

This could have been an offering of money to the

gods so that they could

carry out the curse. You always had to make sacrifices for a

curse. The

coin was probably part of this

offering, but there is

usually

no reference to animals on ancient Greek curse tablets So what's the deal

with the chicken

the huh was supposed to bind the curse whoever

carried out this ritual

wanted to transfer the helplessness ability

to protect themselves to the target person

also the H itself is

important because chickens originally came

from distant Asia

[ Music]

Europe in ancient Greece the

chicken was still an exotic animal that's why

it was very suitable for sacrificial rituals

because it was something

special but who was this fl

the jug was found in the floor of the AG in a

workshop

we know that flying tablets are

usually buried there were where the

target persons often

stayed, it was obvious that this jug or

this flight had something to

do with the competition between the craftsmen. A curse should probably be placed on the craftsmen.

In the case of curses with many names,

it was often a

legal dispute with many people. There are

many examples of curse tablets that

were intended to influence legal proceedings the argument that

this jug was intended to curse competitors

is also supported by the

fact that

other curse tablets

have already been found in this area of ​​the agora, so

another fl ent would not be

surprising - examination of the

engraved names also provides

one

Note about a third of the names are

women's names, which is interesting.

Court proceedings were not uncommon at this time.

Such curses were

not only aimed at the opponents in

court but also at all witnesses

or supporters of the opposing

side. That would explain the many women's names.

Presumably these were the

wives Mothers or daughters of the

targets but did the curse

actually

work we will never know whether

the curse of the ancient agora worked

or not we don't even know exactly

what it was supposed to do should it

end a business or harm people

who worked for the competition

playing for us but that doesn't matter, it's

really interesting to see how

strongly the people of ancient Athens believed in

black magic, is

this

harmless-looking jug actually

a curse carrier that was supposed to

harm the people mentioned on it, in

fact, black magic is

the only explanation that makes sense here

[Applause]

appears