December 2, 2021 • 9 mins
One man's treasured possession is another's bit of trash. It's all a matter of perspective.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. The treasure trove was enormous. It's a recent
discovery in northwest Saudi Arabia. In fact, just this summer,
archaeologists published their findings after years of work. What they
found stunned them. A massive stockpile deep underground in the
(00:51):
natural tunnel, formed by a hollow lava tube, and the
horde inside hundreds of thousands of treasures. It's a find
that overshadows the usual hordes that are turned up these
days by folks with metal detectors and a keen sense
of ancient burial sites. For instance, someone recently set the
new record for finding the largest Old English treasure hoard.
(01:13):
As important as their discovery is, it was just one
hundred and thirty one gold coins and four more odd
gold objects. That discovery outshines the famous Sutton Who burial ship,
which had only offered up thirty seven coins to archaeologists.
By comparison, the massive scale of the lava tube treasure
surpasses it all by far. We can start to make
(01:34):
sense of that, though, when we realized just how long
it took the hoarders to work their stockpile. It was
the work of generations, you see. Once archaeologists started dating
the objects the unearthed from the horde, they found that
the oldest was placed there nearly seven thousand years ago.
In other places they might not have survived. It was
the extremely dry conditions of the lava tube that preserved them.
(01:56):
But they're not just old. The most recent items date
to about the middle sixteen hundreds. That means that to
create this underground collection in the darkness of the lava tube,
it wasn't just the work of generations, but the work
of millennia. Not that it's a treasure that would attract
anyone though, because this is slightly unusual for a horde.
It wasn't gold or coins, or even an ancient ship.
(02:18):
It was a burial mound though. That's right. The collection
was a horde of bones. They were densely packed into
the lava tube, stretching away into the darkness, and as
the researchers started to pull them out, test their ages,
catalog them, and take notes, they began to see that
this bone horde contained pieces from over fourteen different species
(02:40):
and included the bones of cows, camels, horses, rodents, and
a lot more. The study got really serious though, when
they checked the bones from markings. Sure they found cuts,
and maybe that's what you'd expect, but they also found
the marks of teeth. These bones had been chewed, some
were even partially digect trusted. That tells us that these
(03:01):
bones weren't just a burial mound for the dead. And
here's the thing, it wasn't like these were just the
bones of cows and goats. Know what the researchers found
gave them a chill because some of the bones were human.
In fact, it's human skull fragments that were found among
the other nod bones. But what archaeologists guess about these
(03:22):
skulls is even more gruesome than that. If we go
by their best guests, they think these skulls were scavenged
from graves after the bodies of the dead were buried.
Someone from the clan of hoarders came through sniff them
out and dug them up. Then they lugged them back
to the lava tunnel, where they added them to a
treasure trove. After they gave those skulls a good chew,
(03:43):
of course, and one of the archaeologists even suggested that
these skull caps with tooth marks are the only thing
to survive because the hoarders chewed the rest to splinters.
The pieces of skull candy only survived because they didn't
taste quite as good. All of that would be truly
horrifying if the family packing the lava two with bones
(04:03):
for seven thousand years was human, But as you may
have guessed by now, this family was something else. No,
the builders of this massive treasure trove weren't people, but hyenas.
Striped hyenas. That is, these days they're a threatened species,
but they used to be a mainstay of the region.
So breathe a sigh of relief. But to me, the
(04:24):
fact that it's a family of hyenas passing on the
work of a major treasure trove from parent to child,
that makes seven thousand years of stockpiling skeletons all the
more impressive. By all accounts, he was a nice man.
(04:51):
There's a lot of history to unpack around Henry the
First of England, so much that it reads like an
early draft of Game of Thrones. Henry and his older
brother's Roberts and William, were born to William the Conqueror.
Upon their father's death, the older sons were given land
and power, but Henry was not. He spent much of
his time conspiring with William against Robert in an attempt
(05:12):
to rise to power. The brothers fought often Joscelyn for
land and control. None trusted the other, but both seemed
to have trusted Henry the least honestly. After reading through
the events, it's a wonder the brothers didn't kill each other,
although for a while some historians wondered if one of
them had succeeded. In early August of eleven hundred, an
(05:32):
arrow ended King William's life with no male heir. Robert
and Henry fought bitterly over the kingdom, and in the
end Henry was hastily crowned king. He settled into the kingdom,
marrying and having two children with Queen Matilda and countless
other children with various mistresses. He enjoyed all the riches
the life of a king offered, including power, women, and food.
(05:55):
The royals had an appetite for the unusual, including swans
and peacocks. The king had a fetish for fish. Often
he overindulged in his favorite lamp rays, a type of
eel found in Brooks rivers and the sea. Henry was
so fond of the dish he ate them cooked in
wine and even in a pie. Unfortunately for him, his
favorite dish caused considerable digestive upset, despite his doctor's warnings
(06:19):
to stop eating them. Though the new king believed that
as the king he was free to do as he wished.
That mentality went far beyond the dinner table. Though He
had a man thrown from the top of the castle,
and he imprisoned his brother. After his second brother, Robert, invaded,
Henry had him locked away for the remainder of his life.
His quest for land and power had a king traveling
(06:40):
extensively to the queen. However, never trusted ships or anything
from the sea, and stayed behind. Henry ruled harshly. It
was often quite brutal, which, as you might imagine, didn't
endear him to the people of England. Neighboring kingdoms weren't
exactly fond of him either, and though they tried to
challenge his authority, Henry stayed in pound Her After his
(07:01):
son drowned in eleven twenty, leaving his succession in peril.
Henry took a second wife, although they remained childless after that,
forcing the king to declare his daughter with his first
wife his heir. He quickly married her off to Geoffrey
of Anjou. Henry's relationship with his daughter, as you might imagine,
was rather strained, causing fighting to break out along the
(07:22):
new couple's borders and her father's, but at least he
had his health right one late November, when King Henry
was in his sixties, he arrived in Normandy for some hunting.
By the end of the trip though he'd fallen ill.
Days later, it became clear that he wasn't going to
make it, so he summoned the archbishop along with members
of the court. They settled his estate and wishes, and
(07:45):
then he died on December one of eleven thirty five.
Parts of Henry's internal organs were buried in Normandy and
his body lay in state for an extended period. Finally,
he was returned to England and buried on his birthday
in a ceremony attended by the church and nobles. News
of the king's death spread quickly, and despite Henry's last
wishes that his daughter become queen, a civil war known
(08:08):
as the Anarchy began, lasting eighteen years. The official cause
of King Henry the first death. It hadn't been a
hunting accident like William's demise decades before. No, Henry's death
took a more bizarre twist. You see, during his stay
in Normandy, a host serve the king his favorite food
and all you can eat buffet of eel, as the
(08:28):
British like to say, Henry couldn't resist, and tucked in.
Within a week he was dead. It's not clear if
the meal had caused acute gastritis or if the king's
death had been a case of food poisoning. Either way,
it makes me wonder what they ate at the funeral feast.
Was it lamp ray pie or did the thought of
that simply make them feel a little eel. I hope
(08:55):
you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
(09:17):
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. The treasure trove was enormous. It's a recent
discovery in northwest Saudi Arabia. In fact, just this summer,
archaeologists published their findings after years of work. What they
found stunned them. A massive stockpile deep underground in the
(00:51):
natural tunnel, formed by a hollow lava tube, and the
horde inside hundreds of thousands of treasures. It's a find
that overshadows the usual hordes that are turned up these
days by folks with metal detectors and a keen sense
of ancient burial sites. For instance, someone recently set the
new record for finding the largest Old English treasure hoard.
(01:13):
As important as their discovery is, it was just one
hundred and thirty one gold coins and four more odd
gold objects. That discovery outshines the famous Sutton Who burial ship,
which had only offered up thirty seven coins to archaeologists.
By comparison, the massive scale of the lava tube treasure
surpasses it all by far. We can start to make
(01:34):
sense of that, though, when we realized just how long
it took the hoarders to work their stockpile. It was
the work of generations, you see. Once archaeologists started dating
the objects the unearthed from the horde, they found that
the oldest was placed there nearly seven thousand years ago.
In other places they might not have survived. It was
the extremely dry conditions of the lava tube that preserved them.
(01:56):
But they're not just old. The most recent items date
to about the middle sixteen hundreds. That means that to
create this underground collection in the darkness of the lava tube,
it wasn't just the work of generations, but the work
of millennia. Not that it's a treasure that would attract
anyone though, because this is slightly unusual for a horde.
It wasn't gold or coins, or even an ancient ship.
(02:18):
It was a burial mound though. That's right. The collection
was a horde of bones. They were densely packed into
the lava tube, stretching away into the darkness, and as
the researchers started to pull them out, test their ages,
catalog them, and take notes, they began to see that
this bone horde contained pieces from over fourteen different species
(02:40):
and included the bones of cows, camels, horses, rodents, and
a lot more. The study got really serious though, when
they checked the bones from markings. Sure they found cuts,
and maybe that's what you'd expect, but they also found
the marks of teeth. These bones had been chewed, some
were even partially digect trusted. That tells us that these
(03:01):
bones weren't just a burial mound for the dead. And
here's the thing, it wasn't like these were just the
bones of cows and goats. Know what the researchers found
gave them a chill because some of the bones were human.
In fact, it's human skull fragments that were found among
the other nod bones. But what archaeologists guess about these
(03:22):
skulls is even more gruesome than that. If we go
by their best guests, they think these skulls were scavenged
from graves after the bodies of the dead were buried.
Someone from the clan of hoarders came through sniff them
out and dug them up. Then they lugged them back
to the lava tunnel, where they added them to a
treasure trove. After they gave those skulls a good chew,
(03:43):
of course, and one of the archaeologists even suggested that
these skull caps with tooth marks are the only thing
to survive because the hoarders chewed the rest to splinters.
The pieces of skull candy only survived because they didn't
taste quite as good. All of that would be truly
horrifying if the family packing the lava two with bones
(04:03):
for seven thousand years was human, But as you may
have guessed by now, this family was something else. No,
the builders of this massive treasure trove weren't people, but hyenas.
Striped hyenas. That is, these days they're a threatened species,
but they used to be a mainstay of the region.
So breathe a sigh of relief. But to me, the
(04:24):
fact that it's a family of hyenas passing on the
work of a major treasure trove from parent to child,
that makes seven thousand years of stockpiling skeletons all the
more impressive. By all accounts, he was a nice man.
(04:51):
There's a lot of history to unpack around Henry the
First of England, so much that it reads like an
early draft of Game of Thrones. Henry and his older
brother's Roberts and William, were born to William the Conqueror.
Upon their father's death, the older sons were given land
and power, but Henry was not. He spent much of
his time conspiring with William against Robert in an attempt
(05:12):
to rise to power. The brothers fought often Joscelyn for
land and control. None trusted the other, but both seemed
to have trusted Henry the least honestly. After reading through
the events, it's a wonder the brothers didn't kill each other,
although for a while some historians wondered if one of
them had succeeded. In early August of eleven hundred, an
(05:32):
arrow ended King William's life with no male heir. Robert
and Henry fought bitterly over the kingdom, and in the
end Henry was hastily crowned king. He settled into the kingdom,
marrying and having two children with Queen Matilda and countless
other children with various mistresses. He enjoyed all the riches
the life of a king offered, including power, women, and food.
(05:55):
The royals had an appetite for the unusual, including swans
and peacocks. The king had a fetish for fish. Often
he overindulged in his favorite lamp rays, a type of
eel found in Brooks rivers and the sea. Henry was
so fond of the dish he ate them cooked in
wine and even in a pie. Unfortunately for him, his
favorite dish caused considerable digestive upset, despite his doctor's warnings
(06:19):
to stop eating them. Though the new king believed that
as the king he was free to do as he wished.
That mentality went far beyond the dinner table. Though He
had a man thrown from the top of the castle,
and he imprisoned his brother. After his second brother, Robert, invaded,
Henry had him locked away for the remainder of his life.
His quest for land and power had a king traveling
(06:40):
extensively to the queen. However, never trusted ships or anything
from the sea, and stayed behind. Henry ruled harshly. It
was often quite brutal, which, as you might imagine, didn't
endear him to the people of England. Neighboring kingdoms weren't
exactly fond of him either, and though they tried to
challenge his authority, Henry stayed in pound Her After his
(07:01):
son drowned in eleven twenty, leaving his succession in peril.
Henry took a second wife, although they remained childless after that,
forcing the king to declare his daughter with his first
wife his heir. He quickly married her off to Geoffrey
of Anjou. Henry's relationship with his daughter, as you might imagine,
was rather strained, causing fighting to break out along the
(07:22):
new couple's borders and her father's, but at least he
had his health right one late November, when King Henry
was in his sixties, he arrived in Normandy for some hunting.
By the end of the trip though he'd fallen ill.
Days later, it became clear that he wasn't going to
make it, so he summoned the archbishop along with members
of the court. They settled his estate and wishes, and
(07:45):
then he died on December one of eleven thirty five.
Parts of Henry's internal organs were buried in Normandy and
his body lay in state for an extended period. Finally,
he was returned to England and buried on his birthday
in a ceremony attended by the church and nobles. News
of the king's death spread quickly, and despite Henry's last
wishes that his daughter become queen, a civil war known
(08:08):
as the Anarchy began, lasting eighteen years. The official cause
of King Henry the first death. It hadn't been a
hunting accident like William's demise decades before. No, Henry's death
took a more bizarre twist. You see, during his stay
in Normandy, a host serve the king his favorite food
and all you can eat buffet of eel, as the
(08:28):
British like to say, Henry couldn't resist, and tucked in.
Within a week he was dead. It's not clear if
the meal had caused acute gastritis or if the king's
death had been a case of food poisoning. Either way,
it makes me wonder what they ate at the funeral feast.
Was it lamp ray pie or did the thought of
that simply make them feel a little eel. I hope
(08:55):
you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
(09:17):
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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