Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered who lived in your home before
Speaker 1: you did, or what the land was used for before
Speaker 1: your home was built there. Most of the time the
Speaker 1: answer is nothing unusual. Before you and your family, there
Speaker 1: was another family, or before someone built the house, there
Speaker 1: was probably empty land, or farmland or an orchard. Sometimes
Speaker 1: there are more shocking stories, though, like people finding artifacts
Speaker 1: in their cellar walls or a burial ground discovered in
Speaker 1: their backyard. It makes you think you never really know
Speaker 1: the story of the space you occupy, who was there,
Speaker 1: or what they did. But in the early nineties, some
Speaker 1: waterside communities in Virginia and Maryland got an answer to
Speaker 1: this question that they never expected. It started in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine when a fleet of trucks rolled onto the
Speaker 1: Culvert Peninsula on Virginia's eastern shore. The peninsula juts into
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Bay, which is a pretty elaborate body of water.
Speaker 1: Its inlets reach into the land like vanes. The shorelines
Speaker 1: looked like crackling ice on a window. It makes a
Speaker 1: lot of people wonder how the bay got that way,
Speaker 1: But the people in these trucks weren't thinking about that.
Speaker 1: You see, these were seismic survey trucks owned by oil
Speaker 1: company Texico. The workers were sending sound waves into the
Speaker 1: ground in hopes of finding petroleum. Two other men happened
Speaker 1: to be strolling the peninsula that day, and when they
Speaker 1: saw the trucks and the crew, they approached them and
Speaker 1: asked what they were doing. The Texico workers told them,
Speaker 1: but they wouldn't say anything about their findings. But these
Speaker 1: two men weren't just curious onlookers. They had a hunch
Speaker 1: that the oil workers might have gotten their hands on
Speaker 1: precious data. That's because these men were employees of the
Speaker 1: US Geological Survey. One of them was named doctor David Powers,
Speaker 1: and he knew that he needed to get his hands
Speaker 1: on the Texico findings. It took him four years to
Speaker 1: get the data, and it was worth the weight. You see.
Speaker 1: Texico didn't know it, but their survey proved something that
Speaker 1: powers long suspected. An enormous, ancient pile of geological rubble
Speaker 1: sat at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. Now, to understand
Speaker 1: what's so important about this pile of rubble, we need
Speaker 1: to dive a little deeper into the shape of the bay.
Speaker 1: To start. Let's compare the rivers on the Chesapeake to
Speaker 1: others on the East Coast. Other rivers curved gently into
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean, but the James, the York, and the
Speaker 1: Rappahannock have sudden bends at angles. Plus, the Chesapeake region
Speaker 1: is dotted with groundwater aquifers, which are basically water bearing rocks.
Speaker 1: These facts alone stumped geologists for decades, but a discovery
Speaker 1: made in nineteen eighty three gave them a huge hint.
Speaker 1: A couple hundred miles off the coast of New Jersey,
Speaker 1: deep sea drillers excavated a slab of molten glass that
Speaker 1: was ten centimeters thick. This glass wasn't just some litter
Speaker 1: that had found its way to the ocean floor from
Speaker 1: Atlantic City. It was a special kind of glass. It
Speaker 1: could only have been formed under serious heat and pressure.
Speaker 1: The scientists who found it knew that it was evidence
Speaker 1: of an asteroid impact. Further studies showed that the material
Speaker 1: was thirty five million years old. Identical materials had previously
Speaker 1: been found in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 1: This means that all those years ago, a single asteroid
Speaker 1: crashed into the Earth and rained debris hundreds of miles
Speaker 1: in every direction. And this brings us back to the
Speaker 1: rubble that texacoat uncovered, the one that doctor Powers knew
Speaker 1: was a huge discovery. Once he had his hands on
Speaker 1: the Texaco records, Powers contacted a US Geological Survey colleague
Speaker 1: who was studying an underwater crater further north, and this
Speaker 1: colleague confirmed that Powers was indeed looking at an asteroid impact.
Speaker 1: Powers published his finding, and Chesapeake locals and researchers had
Speaker 1: an explanation for the bay's spindly shape. However, not everyone
Speaker 1: in the scientific community was sold on powers research, so
Speaker 1: he returned to the bay and collected samples of the rubble.
Speaker 1: His samples matched the ones found in New Jersey a
Speaker 1: few years prior, and this was enough to convince the skeptics.
Speaker 1: The massive impact changed the geology in a matter of seconds.
Speaker 1: Sediment deposits cracked the shorelines and thirty five million years later,
Speaker 1: boaters and crabbers have seemingly endless inlets and islands to explore.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but the debris that went flying
Speaker 1: created a link between the Chesapeake and other regions, states,
Speaker 1: and countries. Before humans even walked the earth, an object
Speaker 1: crashed down and gave us all something in common. We
Speaker 1: talk a lot on this show about what the past
Speaker 1: can teach us about our present day lives. We learned
Speaker 1: about how our ancestors prevailed and how they might have failed.
Speaker 1: Today's story exists within blurred lines. It raises more questions
Speaker 1: than answers, and the realities it poses force us to
Speaker 1: take a cold, hard look at what it means to
Speaker 1: be human, what it means to sacrifice and to suffer.
Speaker 1: But don't worry. This story is also filled with the
Speaker 1: mysteries of science and the natural world. As disturbing as
Speaker 1: it might be, there's also plenty to make you feel
Speaker 1: lucky to be alive at this time. So let's begin.
Speaker 1: Imagine a scene, a serene landscape, cloaked and mist with
Speaker 1: the faint echoes of history whispering through the air. It's here,
Speaker 1: amidst the tranquil beauty of the bog that our taiale unfolds.
Speaker 1: As a couple wanders along a secluded path, their eyes
Speaker 1: are drawn to a curious shape protruding from the earth.
Speaker 1: They approach cautiously, unsure of what they might find, and
Speaker 1: what they discover are the perfectly preserved remains of a
Speaker 1: human body, a man lying in repose amidst the peat.
Speaker 1: His skin and clothes are entirely browned, as if he
Speaker 1: were a sculpture in bronze, but it's clear to the
Speaker 1: couple that this was a living person. The stubble on
Speaker 1: his chin is still visible, perhaps almost shockingly as well,
Speaker 1: the couple can see a rope still tied around the
Speaker 1: man's neck. Bewildered, they alert the authorities, setting in motion
Speaker 1: a chain of events that will unravel the mysteries of
Speaker 1: the bog enter our intrepid investigators tasked with unraveling the
Speaker 1: secrets of these remains. This might sound like a typical
Speaker 1: murder investigation, but there is a twist. This body is
Speaker 1: believed to be thousands of years old. The remains the
Speaker 1: couple found are something known as a bog body. For centuries,
Speaker 1: these enigmatic figures have captured the imagination of historians and
Speaker 1: archaeologists alike. Preserved by the bog's natural gases, these ancient
Speaker 1: remains offer a glimpse into the lives and deaths of
Speaker 1: our distant ancestors. The body in question is one of
Speaker 1: the most famous bog bodies ever. He's come to be
Speaker 1: known as the Toland Man, named after the bog where
Speaker 1: he was discovered in nineteen fifty. Toland Man is one
Speaker 1: of the most famous bog bodies ever found. Radiocarbon dating
Speaker 1: places his death during the Iron Age, but who he
Speaker 1: was or how he came to rest in the depths
Speaker 1: of the bog are a mystery. Using advanced imaging technology,
Speaker 1: the investigators peered inside tolan Man's body, examining his internal
Speaker 1: organs with a level of detail that would have been
Speaker 1: unimaginable to our ancient ancestors. What they discovered is evidence
Speaker 1: of tolan Man's robust health and vitality despite the harsh
Speaker 1: conditions of his time. Researchers believe that tolan Man hailed
Speaker 1: from a nearby village where he lived as a member
Speaker 1: of a small farming community. One prevailing theory surrounding his
Speaker 1: death is that he was a sacrificial victim offered up
Speaker 1: to the gods in a ritualistic ceremony. The manner of
Speaker 1: his death supports this theory too. He was found with
Speaker 1: a rope tightly wound around his neck, indicating that he
Speaker 1: had been hanged. Some experts believe that tolan Man may
Speaker 1: have been a willing participant in his own demise, perhaps
Speaker 1: offering himself up in times of hardship or crisis. Others
Speaker 1: suggest that he may have been chosen to atone for
Speaker 1: the sins of his community. It's possible he was even
Speaker 1: chosen when he was a child and lived his life
Speaker 1: knowing what his ultimate fate would be. Peter Glob, a
Speaker 1: Danish archaeology professor and author of the book called The
Speaker 1: Bog People, thinks that tolan Man and many others likely
Speaker 1: met their fate as sacrifices to Nerthus the Earth Mother,
Speaker 1: in hopes of securing a bountiful harvest. Glob explains that
Speaker 1: images of the goddess show her decorated in neck rings
Speaker 1: and a headband. He compares those accessories to the rope
Speaker 1: found around tolan Man's neck and similar ones on other
Speaker 1: bog bodies. Based on the placement of the rope, Glob
Speaker 1: confirms that tolan Man was probably hanged. Investigators also found
Speaker 1: that the contents of tolan Man's stomach at the time
Speaker 1: of his death consisted of winter foods like barley, indicating
Speaker 1: that it was winter when he died. Glob notes that
Speaker 1: tolan Man's contemporaries probably wanting to hasten the spring season.
Speaker 1: There's a lot that we still don't know about tolin
Speaker 1: Man and bog people in general. For now, his body
Speaker 1: is on display at the Silkborg Museum, where thousands of
Speaker 1: people from all over the world come to see him.
Speaker 1: The museum's director said that people tend to have a
Speaker 1: strong emotional reaction to him, and some even faint. Tolan
Speaker 1: Man lived and died in a time and place far
Speaker 1: removed from that of our own, yet his legacy lives on.
Speaker 1: His tail is but one of many buried beneath the
Speaker 1: Earth's surface, waiting to be uncovered. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how stuff works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And
Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.