Strangest Things

In 1860, workmen digging a drainage ditch in a Scottish hamlet discover the Towie Ball, a strange and beautiful black stone object about three inches in diameter. It has been painstakingly carved into a bulbous shape from a single block of rock.

In a display case at Harvard University's Warren Anatomical Museum is one of the most astonishing objects in medical science - the shattered skull of a 19th century American railway worker.

The golden Mask of Agamemnon is one of the most iconic and controversial discoveries of ancient Greece. Agamemnon is one of the greatest figures in Greek literature - the king who lays siege to the city of Troy.

In a museum in Minnesota is one of the strangest machines every built. It looks like something out of a steampunk hair salon. A metal dome hangs from a wooden arm allowing it to be lowered onto the subject's head.

This metal sphere is just seven hundredths of an inch across, no bigger than the head of a pin. Yet under extreme magnification it shows two holes that have been precision drilled through it. Each one is just four times the width of a human hair.

150 years ago a strange set of objects are found in the Great Pyramid at Giza. A piece of cedar wood with regular marks etched along its length, a two-pronged bronze hook with two pins sticking into it, and a baseball-sized sphere made of granite.

In 1953, a team of archaeologists digging in the ruins of the ancient city of Jericho unearth a strange object that looks like a misshapen head. It becomes known as the Jericho Head. It is nearly 10,000 years old and appears to be made of clay.

In 1928, a workman digging in the ancient Babylonian city of Ur discovers the decayed remnants of a wooden box that has captivated archaeologists for nearly a century. It's trapezoidal in shape, nineteen inches long, eight and a half inches high.

In a museum in Southwark, south London, is a strange brown felt object. It stands about eight inches high and is covered in 88 teeth... human teeth. It is believed to be nearly 200 years old and comes from the collection of an eccentric Victorian.

Stored in the archives of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Rome is a strange wooden tablet about 12 inches long, eight inches wide and an inch thick. It's known as the Mamari Tablet.