1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Southern Chile is a miracle 5 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: of nature. Bordered by the Bio Bio River and the 6 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 1: Andes Mountains. The Zona Sir the Southern Zone, runs along 7 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: Chile's lower western coast. It's home to lakes as blue 8 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:45,199 Speaker 1: as the sky, steaming hot springs, and dense rainforests. It's 9 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: idyllic northern area is known to be well suited for 10 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: raising livestock, and cattle can often be seen grazing in 11 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: green fields with snow capped mountains off in the distance. 12 00:00:55,640 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: Like I said, idyllic. As for the human population, Chile 13 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: is made up of people from all over. Many come 14 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: from Europe, including Italy, Germany and Spain. There is also 15 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,040 Speaker 1: an extensive indigenous population consisting of nine different groups, the 16 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: largest being the Mapuche, who have lived there since six BC. 17 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: But they weren't the first. The prevailing theory among historians 18 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: and archaeologists has been that humans first came to the 19 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: Americas through the bearing straight roughly thirteen thousand, five hundred 20 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: years ago, Following packs of big game like mastodon and bison, 21 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: they traveled down through North America and spread out across Canada, 22 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: the United States, and down into South America. These early 23 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: travelers were known as the Clovis, and we have evidence 24 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: of their presence by way of the spearheads they left behind. 25 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: But the problem with any theory is that it can 26 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,040 Speaker 1: be easily challenged, which is exactly what happened. In nineteen 27 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: a veterinary student visiting Chile was explored in an area 28 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: known as Monte Verde, on the banks of the Chinchwapee Creek, 29 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: not far from the Pacific Ocean. Some locals showed the 30 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: student a bone fragment they discovered after logging in the 31 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: area had eroded much of the soil away. They thought 32 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 1: it was a cow bone, The student, though, I wasn't 33 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,239 Speaker 1: so sure. After being tested and verified, the fragment was 34 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 1: determined to be far more unique than a simple cowbone. 35 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: It belonged to a gompher there, a prehistoric animal bearing 36 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: a strong resemblance to modern day elephants. But unrelated news 37 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: of the discovery made it back to American professor Tom 38 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,519 Speaker 1: de la Haye, who happened to be teaching at a 39 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: university in Chile. He had a feeling there was something 40 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,679 Speaker 1: bigger brewing under the soil, so he and a team 41 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: of archaeologists organized a dig, and they found a lot 42 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: more than just one bone. Surprisingly, everything below the surface 43 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: was preserved better than they had expected. The environment had 44 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 1: flooded thousands of years ago, and the peat or decaying 45 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: the agetation that filled the area had prevented bacteria from 46 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 1: eating away at the artifacts. As they dug, hearts, both 47 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,679 Speaker 1: large and small, began to appear. Little by little, the 48 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,799 Speaker 1: soil was brushed away and the remains of other animals 49 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 1: saw sunlight for the first time in millennia. Large wooden 50 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: posts from about a dozen huts were unearthed, as well 51 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: as a footprint, hides used for clothing, and a piece 52 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: of meat with d n A still preserved inside. That 53 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,079 Speaker 1: was how scientists were able to tell the kind of 54 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: game that had been hunted and consumed in the area, 55 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: But the site's contents didn't align with the current theory 56 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,119 Speaker 1: on how humans had migrated to Monteverde and other parts 57 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: of the coast. The roughly people who had lived there 58 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: on that site hadn't come through the bearing straight and 59 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: worked their way south to Chile. They had traveled by 60 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: boat down the west coast until finally stopping at Monteverde. 61 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:59,120 Speaker 1: These early settlers built tools from rocks and clamshells. They 62 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: thrived in a way other cultures could not, well, in 63 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: a way modern scientists and anthropologists couldn't conceive of. Because, 64 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: of course, humans have always been resourceful and adaptive, sometimes 65 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: taking the harder route for a greater payoff, and this 66 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: culture was old. The settlement and items found under the 67 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,359 Speaker 1: soil predate the Mapuche in the area by almost sixteen 68 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: thousand years. They predate the original North American settlers by 69 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: over a thousand. Their existence turns everything we thought we 70 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: knew about human migration on its head. Who were these 71 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 1: travelers and what happened to them? We may never know. 72 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: Some curiosities, it seems, have yet to be answered. Germany 73 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: and nearby Austria have produced some of the most brilliant 74 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: minds of all time. Albert Einstein, mathematician Carl Frederick Gouss, 75 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts are among the region's most 76 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: influential and revered individuals. Within their time on Earth, they 77 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: each made immeasurable contributions to science, math, and the arts, 78 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: and those contributions have gone on to inspire others to 79 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: continue their work. However, some of the more intelligent folks 80 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: from that part of Europe did not go on to 81 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,599 Speaker 1: great acclaim. They did not change the face of music 82 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: or make earth shattering discoveries, but that didn't mean they 83 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 1: weren't extraordinary in their own right. These people were able 84 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: to capitalize on that intelligence and go far in life 85 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: as scholars rather than creators. One such scholar was Jean 86 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: Philippe Barattier. He was born near Nuremberg in seventeen twenty 87 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:52,839 Speaker 1: one and seemed destined to lead a life dedicated to learning. 88 00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:57,280 Speaker 1: His father, a French Protestant minister, only spoke Latin to him, 89 00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: his mother only spoke French, and their evan's communicated only 90 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: in High Dutch. He spent his time reading the Bible, 91 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 1: both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Well reading 92 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,600 Speaker 1: is putting it lightly. He read them in Greek, then 93 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: spent years translating them into Latin and Hebrew. In fact, 94 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,640 Speaker 1: due to his upbringing and his passion for learning, he 95 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: was able to speak all of those languages fluently. His 96 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 1: translation work earned him recognition among his contemporaries, including English 97 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 1: dictionary author Dr Samuel Johnson, as well as the prolific 98 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: writer and philosopher Voltaire. There wasn't a subject Jean Philippe 99 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: couldn't conquer, and that thirst for knowledge earned him a 100 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: Master's of Arts when he was only fourteen years old. 101 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: A prodigy, if there ever was one, he'd lived a 102 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:49,040 Speaker 1: life fuller than most. Unfortunately, poor Jean Philippe suffered from 103 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: a condition that had rendered his body frail, though his 104 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,479 Speaker 1: mind only grew sharper with each passing day. Those translations 105 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: of the Greek Bible, he completed them when he was 106 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: only eight years old. He was even inducted as a 107 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: life member of the Berlin Royal Academy, where he studied 108 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:08,480 Speaker 1: nautical longitude. However, the pressure of his numerous studies proved 109 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: too much for his system to take, and at nineteen 110 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: years of age, he passed away. The nature of his 111 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: condition was never known. Jean Philippe was not the only 112 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: young genius of the era. There was another just like 113 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: him named Christian Heinrich Heineken, also known as the infant 114 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: scholar of Luebeck. Born the same year as John Philippe, 115 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: Christian spoke perfect German at only ten months of age. 116 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: By the time he was one, he was reading the 117 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: Pentateuch or the first five books of the Torah. He 118 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 1: started reading the Old and New Testaments when he turned two, 119 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:43,880 Speaker 1: and by the time he turned three he'd finished them 120 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: in Latin. Not unlike Jean Philippe. At three years old, 121 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: he wrote his own history of Denmark. The King of 122 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: Denmark invited him to read it before the courts, which 123 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 1: he accepted graciously. Everyone loved him. They were charmed by 124 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: his intelligence as such young age, and spread word of 125 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: his talents all over Europe. He became what some might 126 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:10,720 Speaker 1: call a minor celebrity. Christians family decided to tour Europe 127 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: with their son as their star attraction. It was around 128 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: this time when his mother began to wean him off breastfeeding, 129 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: and christians health problems bubbled to the surface. As he 130 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: gave up his mother's milk, he started eating more grains, 131 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: unknowingly corrupting his tiny system. Christian suffered from Celiac disease 132 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: before anyone knew what it was. Without a proper diagnosis. 133 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,199 Speaker 1: He passed away at only four years old, a tragic 134 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:39,959 Speaker 1: end to an incredible little boy with limitless potential. But 135 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: don't feel too bad. Christian saw his death coming. True 136 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: to his sharp wit, he predicted it would happen months 137 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:53,679 Speaker 1: before it finally did. But knowing him, I wouldn't expect 138 00:08:53,840 --> 00:09:00,360 Speaker 1: anything less. I hope you've enjoyed today's guide, a tour 139 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:04,559 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 140 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,199 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 141 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,240 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 142 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 143 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 144 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:22,199 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 145 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 146 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.