Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of curiosities. The human body is
Speaker 1: not meant to handle the extreme cold. Scores of aspiring
Speaker 1: hikers of Parish trying to scale the deadly amount everest
Speaker 1: souls were lost when the Titanic sank in, many of
Speaker 1: whom froze to death in the frigid North Atlantic. When
Speaker 1: our internal body temperature drops below degrees, hypothermia begins to
Speaker 1: set in. Our breathing slows down, our pulse weakens, our
Speaker 1: brain starts to lose function, and words become slurred while
Speaker 1: our motor control falters. You don't want to get caught
Speaker 1: in the cold, especially with no warmth or shelter nearby.
Speaker 1: Aside from hypothermia, frostbite can claim fingers, toes and entire
Speaker 1: limbs without proper treatment. Folks in places like Minnesota know
Speaker 1: all about handling harsh winters and sub zero temperatures, if
Speaker 1: only they'd been nearby when Jean Hilliard needed them. It
Speaker 1: was a winter's night in nineteen eighty when Jeane lost
Speaker 1: control of her car and ended up in a ditch.
Speaker 1: The snow and ice prevented her from getting the car
Speaker 1: back on the road. The temperature had reached minus twenty
Speaker 1: two and the area was pretty rural. She caught sign
Speaker 1: of a farmhouse not far from her position and decided
Speaker 1: to trudge through the snow toward it. They'd have a
Speaker 1: phone and she could call someone to come pick her up,
Speaker 1: except when she got there, she learned it was empty.
Speaker 1: She tried the next door neighbor's house, same result. Nobody
Speaker 1: was home. Being farm country in Minnesota, neighbors weren't easy
Speaker 1: to come by, and there wasn't an their house anywhere
Speaker 1: in the area, but Jean remembered one about two miles back.
Speaker 1: With no other options than to freeze in her car
Speaker 1: until daybreak, she started walking the way she'd come. The
Speaker 1: next day, the owner of the house, Wally Nelson, stepped
Speaker 1: outside and noticed something in the snow. It was big
Speaker 1: and it wasn't moving, so he inched toward it for
Speaker 1: a closer look. It was a girl, Jean. In fact,
Speaker 1: she had collapsed fifteen feet away from Wally's front door.
Speaker 1: Her body had frozen solid and her skin had been
Speaker 1: hardened by the cold. It was clear she had died overnight,
Speaker 1: but while he was at a loss for what to
Speaker 1: do about her. He could call the authorities, but they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to get to him for some time,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't just leave her in the snow. And
Speaker 1: then he heard something faint, like a whisper. Jean moaned
Speaker 1: at his feet. He carried her to his car and
Speaker 1: placed her in the back seat while he turned on
Speaker 1: the heat. He drove her to the nearest hospital, hoping
Speaker 1: doctors might be able to save her. Her joints refused
Speaker 1: to bend. The thermometers they used were useless on someone
Speaker 1: so cold. They couldn't remove her boots either, as her
Speaker 1: feet had frozen into the shape of their insides, and
Speaker 1: her pulse was practically non existent. At twelve beats per minute.
Speaker 1: By all measures, Jean was essentially dead and not expected
Speaker 1: to survive the next twenty four hours. The doctor on duty,
Speaker 1: doctor George Sather, heard the same faint moan as Wally,
Speaker 1: and he knew he couldn't just let her go. He
Speaker 1: wrapped her in an electric blanket and gave her oxygen.
Speaker 1: Two hours later, her temperature had returned to nine degrees.
Speaker 1: She burst back to life with a seizure before calming
Speaker 1: down and getting her bearings. Despite her brief confusion as
Speaker 1: to what had happened to her, Jeane was fine. Her
Speaker 1: brain was still fully functional, and she didn't require physical
Speaker 1: therapy once she got back on her feet. In fact,
Speaker 1: doctors thought even if she did survive, they'd have to
Speaker 1: amputate her legs from severe frost bite that they had sustained.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the case. The frost bite started to
Speaker 1: fade away and her skin slowly returned to normal. It
Speaker 1: was a miracle, they thought. Until tests came back they
Speaker 1: revealed the simple explanation as to why Jean had survived overnight.
Speaker 1: It wasn't because Wally had found her in time, nor
Speaker 1: had there been any divine intervention. She merely had a
Speaker 1: few drinks in her system when her car broke down.
Speaker 1: The alcohol had prevented her organs from freezing, meaning her
Speaker 1: skin had taken the brunt of the cold. Jean had
Speaker 1: gotten a second chance at life, and I think it
Speaker 1: would be fair to say that anyone would consider that
Speaker 1: a sobering experience. History is a record, It tells future
Speaker 1: generations where we came from and how we got to
Speaker 1: where we are today. History is chock full of failures, successes,
Speaker 1: and everything in between. It is a journey of cultures.
Speaker 1: Yet many cultures have been lost to time, to invaders,
Speaker 1: to fire and floods, and we have no way of
Speaker 1: learning about them aside from the few clues that remain.
Speaker 1: The ancient Egyptians left behind pyramids, temples, and tombs with
Speaker 1: the story of their people illustrated on their walls. We
Speaker 1: have statues and writings from the ancient Greeks to shed
Speaker 1: light on their way of life and how they contributed
Speaker 1: to the world at large. And then there's ancient Summer,
Speaker 1: the basis for modern civilization as we know it today.
Speaker 1: The Sumerians originally settled in Mesopotamia, a region in southern Iraq,
Speaker 1: about four thousand BC. They made great advances in agriculture, technology,
Speaker 1: and most importantly language. Sumerian was the primary tongue in
Speaker 1: mesopotam Ama for over a thousand years before other languages
Speaker 1: started to take hold. Canea form. Their written language lasted
Speaker 1: for two thousand years longer. It was comprised of triangular
Speaker 1: shaped markings etched into clay tablets it was used for
Speaker 1: all sorts of communications. A message from King Xerxes was
Speaker 1: uncovered in Turkey. Etched into the side of a mountain.
Speaker 1: It described the great deeds accomplished by his family in
Speaker 1: the region. Canea formed tablets have been found all across
Speaker 1: the Middle East, but one has perplexed historians for decades.
Speaker 1: It was a German American man named Herman Hilprecht who
Speaker 1: first discovered it at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: Known as the Sumerian King List, it details the names
Speaker 1: of ancient rulers across the region and the lengths of
Speaker 1: their reign. There are a few things surprising about it, though, First,
Speaker 1: there are several versions of the text known to exist.
Speaker 1: At least eighteen stone tablets have been found. However, the
Speaker 1: most comprehensive version is known as the Old Blundel Prism,
Speaker 1: a long eight inch column with four sides each side
Speaker 1: jam packed with the names of ancient Sumerian kings. This
Speaker 1: list is more than a chronology, though, it opens up
Speaker 1: the door to endless questions about our past and what
Speaker 1: we think we know. According to the list, many of
Speaker 1: the ancient kings ruled for hundreds of years, such as
Speaker 1: the mythical Gilgamesh. Sumerian kingship was meant for the divinely chosen.
Speaker 1: According to one translation, one king ruled for twenty eight thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred years, immediately followed by another king who reigned
Speaker 1: for thirty six thousand years. That's two kings who ruled
Speaker 1: for a combined sixty five thousand years. In fact, over
Speaker 1: the course of more than two hundred forty one thousand years,
Speaker 1: only eight kings ruled Summer, a staggering number. Even when
Speaker 1: those reigns are broken down into more realistic ranges using
Speaker 1: a variety of formulas and mathematical computations, those realistic reign
Speaker 1: just number in the tens of hundreds of years, which
Speaker 1: are still well outside our modern expectations. People just don't
Speaker 1: live that long, and so historians have been left with
Speaker 1: a puzzle to solve. Did the ancient Sumerian kings actually
Speaker 1: reign for thousands of years? Or are we missing a
Speaker 1: piece that unlocks the true meaning of these numbers. Perhaps
Speaker 1: more information could be gleaned from other lists we haven't
Speaker 1: found yet, that is, if they exist. Until then, we'll
Speaker 1: have to keep looking. Although rare new stone tablets show
Speaker 1: up from time to time, but it's hard to predict
Speaker 1: how helpful they'll be. Some allow us to connect one
Speaker 1: more dot, while others just make the mystery a little
Speaker 1: more foggy. In the end, our best chance is to
Speaker 1: keep looking, keep thinking, and keep putting the pieces together.
Speaker 1: Oh and to make sure to never leave a stone unturned.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.