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. For many of us,
Speaker 1: our idea of archaeology comes from a certain set of
Speaker 1: movies starring a fedora clad professor. He follows the clues,
Speaker 1: assembles the puzzle, and at the end he's found whatever
Speaker 1: mystical mcguffin had propelled him into action in the first place,
Speaker 1: and stop the Nazis. Of course, in reality, though, it's
Speaker 1: not as exciting. Sure, an archaeologist might follow a clue
Speaker 1: to the location of a lost city or a set
Speaker 1: of dinosaur bones. But sometimes all it takes is some
Speaker 1: heavy machinery and a bit of dumb luck. It came
Speaker 1: from outer space, at least that's what people thought at
Speaker 1: first when they pulled it out of the ground. In
Speaker 1: It's known as the wedge of aud and upon first
Speaker 1: glance you might not see what all the fuss is about.
Speaker 1: It was found roughly ten meters below the sand in
Speaker 1: aud Romania. Besides two enormous mastodon bones, the fossils and
Speaker 1: the wedge were set for testing in Transylvania, where it
Speaker 1: was determined that the bones were over ten thousand years old.
Speaker 1: The wedge, however, proved a much greater mystery. Its existence
Speaker 1: dumbfounded the scientists. The object was light lighter than any
Speaker 1: metal from that era should have been. Metal objects found
Speaker 1: that deep underground tend to be made of iron or
Speaker 1: some other heavy ore. This was nothing like that. In fact,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't have existed at all. Tests revealed that the
Speaker 1: wedge was composed of copper, silicon, zinc, bismuth, silver, and
Speaker 1: most importantly, aluminum illuminate them to be exact. There was
Speaker 1: just one problem. Metallic aluminum, the kind used in soda
Speaker 1: cans and cell phones, wouldn't be discovered until eighteen twenty five,
Speaker 1: thousands of years after the wedges supposed creation. No one
Speaker 1: outside of Romania knew about it, mainly because of the
Speaker 1: restrictions on sharing information outside of communist Romania at the time. Additionally,
Speaker 1: it had been given to a historical museum in Transylvania,
Speaker 1: where it resided in storage for over twenty years, and
Speaker 1: then in a Romanian UFO magazine. Yes, a Romanian UFO
Speaker 1: magazine discovered it again and That's when the biggest theory
Speaker 1: about the object came to light. The wedge had not
Speaker 1: been man made at all, but by something out of
Speaker 1: this world. Watch any documentary show about ancient civilizations, and
Speaker 1: you're bound to hear one word over and over again aliens.
Speaker 1: After all, how else could humans have mapped thet ours
Speaker 1: or developed irrigation without help from visitors from another planet?
Speaker 1: At least that's the idea. I'm being facetious, of course,
Speaker 1: But Romanian, you aphoologist, Flooring gay or Geta was not.
Speaker 1: She believed the wedge had been part of the landing
Speaker 1: gear on an alien spacecraft that had visited Earth during
Speaker 1: the Ice Age, hence its presence so far deep underground
Speaker 1: and its proximity to those masted on fossils. Skeptics, however,
Speaker 1: have an alternate theory. See Aluminum does not spark the
Speaker 1: way steel does, so it's often used to make tools
Speaker 1: for dangerous jobs, for example, digging foundations for buildings near
Speaker 1: possible gas lines, and when the aluminum is coated in
Speaker 1: a substance called dura linum, it becomes incredibly strong. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: dura lynum has one negative side effect. It oxidizes very quickly.
Speaker 1: In the eyes of the skeptics, the wedge was never
Speaker 1: part of an alien spaceship. Rather, it was a tooth
Speaker 1: that had fallen off an excavator shovel during a construction job.
Speaker 1: This would explain the wedges place of discovery and its
Speaker 1: ancient appearance, But even the skeptics have skeptics that oxidized
Speaker 1: exterior it might not be as new as they thought.
Speaker 1: It has been determined to be around four hundred years old,
Speaker 1: at least two hundred years older than aluminum. Itself hard
Speaker 1: to explain without further testing, but none of it has
Speaker 1: been done. As of yet, we still lack sufficient data
Speaker 1: on the Wedge's origins. For every conspiracy theory that pops up,
Speaker 1: someone is ready with the rational explanation as to why
Speaker 1: the whole thing is just a hoax. We may never
Speaker 1: know where it came from or why it was discovered
Speaker 1: beside a pair of mastodon bonds, but maybe that's okay.
Speaker 1: It was a fun story to entertain, after all, and
Speaker 1: every now and then we all need to find a
Speaker 1: way to wedge a little wonder into our lives, don't we.
Speaker 1: Her name was Locusta and she was born in gaul
Speaker 1: An area known today as present day France during the
Speaker 1: Roman Empire in the first century. Her origins are a mystery.
Speaker 1: It was suspected she was a peasant, but one who
Speaker 1: had developed a green thumb of sorts, not for crops,
Speaker 1: though she didn't care much for growing roses either. She
Speaker 1: went for something with a little more kick. Locusta discovered
Speaker 1: that if she mixed fun guy, deadly nightshade, and other
Speaker 1: types of plants, and even blood, she could create something toxic,
Speaker 1: something poisonous. She started out by testing her various potions
Speaker 1: on animals she found, then adjusted the ratios for maximum potency.
Speaker 1: Her only problem was her location. There just wasn't a
Speaker 1: call for a professional poisoner out in the countryside, where
Speaker 1: people were more concerned with getting by than casting vengeance
Speaker 1: upon her enemies, So she took her services where she
Speaker 1: knew they'd be in demand, the city, namely Rome Jock.
Speaker 1: Full of intrigue and political backstabbing, Locusta fancied herself an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur and saw an opportunity to help the wealthiest Roman
Speaker 1: influencers take each other out without anyone knowing. Oftentimes, her
Speaker 1: assassinations looked like run of the mill heart attacks, enemies
Speaker 1: of Emperor Claudius fell to the ground, clutching their chests
Speaker 1: or their throats as they foamed at the mouth, the
Speaker 1: muscles and their bodies tensing up to the point of
Speaker 1: snapping until all went black. Her talents went viral in
Speaker 1: a way, with her name being passed along through the
Speaker 1: underground networks of ill repute. If you needed someone killed
Speaker 1: without it looking like a murder, you called Locusta the poisoner.
Speaker 1: Of course, once the bad guys knew about her, so
Speaker 1: did the authorities, and Locusta found herself arrested on murder
Speaker 1: charges more than once. It didn't matter, though, because the
Speaker 1: throne saw her as an asset, one royal free from Claudius,
Speaker 1: and moments later she was back to toiling and troubling.
Speaker 1: Claudius's fourth wife, Julia Agrippina, took a liking to Locusta
Speaker 1: and employed her as her own personal poison consultant. Agrippina
Speaker 1: had a history of poisoning her husband's and inheriting their wealth,
Speaker 1: all with an eye on the throne. Not for herself, however,
Speaker 1: but for her son Lucius. She couldn't rule, but she
Speaker 1: could control a ruler from behind the scenes. Lucia's father
Speaker 1: had already died, but Agrippina's third husband, the Emperor Claudius,
Speaker 1: needed an air after his son from a previous wife
Speaker 1: had been deemed unfit to lead. What better way to
Speaker 1: secure a new heir than adopting the one living under
Speaker 1: his own roof, and he did, having the boy changed
Speaker 1: his name to Nero, But it didn't take long for
Speaker 1: Agrippina to grow restless. She didn't want to wait for
Speaker 1: her husband to die and her son to take over
Speaker 1: as emperor, so she paid a little visit to an
Speaker 1: old friend. Locusta, mixed a poise and to get rid
Speaker 1: of the emperor's bodyguard, then paid the royal food taster
Speaker 1: to take the day off so she could enact her plan.
Speaker 1: A few deafcap mushrooms in his stew were all it
Speaker 1: took for Claudius to go down. The emperor's doctor was
Speaker 1: summoned immediately. He performed the standard procedure to help a
Speaker 1: choking victim by sticking a feather down Claudius's throat to
Speaker 1: trigger vomiting. Locusta had seen to that as well, though,
Speaker 1: moments before, she had doused the feather in strychnine Claudius
Speaker 1: died and Nero took his place, with his mother in
Speaker 1: his ear all the time. Agrippina had finally made it
Speaker 1: to the top, well as close as she was going
Speaker 1: to get her personal poisoner. However, did it fare so well.
Speaker 1: There was still one loose end to tie up, so
Speaker 1: Agrippina accused Lacusta of poisoning her husband and had her
Speaker 1: sentence to death. It's okay, though, because Nero knew a
Speaker 1: good thing when he saw it and had a young
Speaker 1: woman released. You see, he had fallen out with his mother,
Speaker 1: who had become a bit too much of a burden
Speaker 1: on him, and the two had parted ways. Locusta didn't
Speaker 1: do too badly after that. She moved into a palace
Speaker 1: and started a school to teach other women the art
Speaker 1: of poisoning. She also developed new formulas and tested them
Speaker 1: out on thieves and slaves and other people she thought
Speaker 1: were deserving of death. But as we've learned, political turmoil
Speaker 1: exacts a heavy toll on everyone involved, and nobody gets
Speaker 1: out unscathed. Locusta has passed eventually caught up with her.
Speaker 1: After Nero's tragic suicide, his successor, Galba had grown sick
Speaker 1: of all the poisoning and the woman behind it. He
Speaker 1: sentenced Locusta to death and had her dragged through the
Speaker 1: streets and chains before being publicly executed. A gruesome end
Speaker 1: for a gruesome person. Experts have called Locusta Histories for
Speaker 1: serial killer, but that title isn't quite right. She didn't
Speaker 1: kill out of compulsion or passion or some sociopathic tendency. No, Acusta,
Speaker 1: the poisoner was something more. She was histories first hit woman.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.