Mysteries Department
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People

625 people in 95 mysteries

Researchers, witnesses, makers and the missing: everyone the mysteries' records name, with what they did in each.

All mysteries
All mysteries1908 Tunguska event1979 Vela incident1I/'Oumuamua2004 Nimitz encounter and the Navy videosAmber RoomAmerica's missing scientists, 2021–2026Antikythera MechanismArchimedes PalimpsestBall lightningBeale ciphersBermuda TriangleBloop and NOAA's unexplained ocean soundsCarnac alignmentsCascajal block and Isthmian writingCicada 3301Copiale cipherCretan HieroglyphicCypro-MinoanDead Sea Scrolls: dating, scribes and provenanceDhofari scriptDisappearance of Amelia EarhartDorabella cipherDyatlov Pass incidentEarth flyby anomalyEaster Island moaiEtruscan: the readable language that cannot be fully translatedEye of the Sahara and AtlantisFast radio bursts and the origin of the one-off burstsFlor de la MarFranklin expedition (HMS Erebus and HMS Terror)Gallo-Roman dodecahedraGreat Sphinx of GizaGreat houses of Chaco CanyonGunung PadangGöbekli TepeHD 139139, the "Random Transiter"Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archivesHerculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius ChallengeHessdalen lightsHijacking of Northwest 305 (D. B. Cooper)Homo floresiensis, the origin of the Flores "hobbits"Homo naledi and the Rising Star burial claimsHow the Great Pyramid was builtHurrian songs of UgaritIberian language and Palaeohispanic scriptsIndus scriptInka khipus: the knotted-cord recordsKensington RunestoneKryptosLate Bronze Age collapseLinear ALoch NessLost Colony of RoanokeLost Dutchman's gold mineMalaysia Airlines Flight MH370Marfa lightsMars methane puzzleMary CelesteMeroiticMonte Sierpe, the "Band of Holes"Nazca LinesNebra Sky DiscOak Island money pitPatterson-Gimlin filmPhaistos DiscPhoenix Lights, 13 March 1997Phosphine in the clouds of VenusPictish symbol stonesProto-Elamite and Linear ElamiteProto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabetProto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of UrukPuma Punku and TiwanakuRendlesham Forest, December 1980Ricky McCormick's notesRohonc CodexRongorongoRoswell, 1947San José galleonSanxingdui and its sacrificial pitsShroud of TurinShugborough inscriptionSkinwalker RanchSomerton Man (Tamam Shud)StonehengeStradivari "secret"Tabby's star (KIC 8462852)Tarim Basin mummies (Xiaohe)US government UAP disclosuresUVB-76, "the Buzzer"Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of SumerianWhite Shaman MuralWho were the Denisovans? The Harbin "Dragon Man" craniumWow! signalYounger Dryas impact hypothesisZodiac ciphers
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Any roleArchaeologistLinguistAssyriologistAuthorCo-authorGeologistAstronomerDirectorPhysicistEpigrapherHistorianEgyptologistExcavatorEpigraphist
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Any periodBefore 18001800s1900–19491950–1999Since 2000
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P 26

PL
Patricia L. CrownArchaeologist; cacao residues and Room 28
Great houses of Chaco Canyon
PD
Paul DevereuxBritish researcher of "earth lights"; led a field visit to Marfa in March 1994
Marfa lights
PH
Paul H. G. M. DirksGeologist; led the geological and dating work
Homo naledi and the Rising Star burial claims
PH
Paul HorleyPhysicist; carving technique and new tracings
Rongorongo
PI
Paul IversenEpigrapher; the Corinthian calendar argument
Antikythera Mechanism
PD
Paul-Marie DuvalFrench archaeologist of Roman Gaul · 1912–1997
Gallo-Roman dodecahedra
Pete HegsethSecretary of War · born 1980
US government UAP disclosures
PB
Peter BrownPalaeoanthropologist, University of New England; described LB1
Homo floresiensis, the origin of the Flores "hobbits"
PD
Peter DamerowHistorian of science; numerical systems and the proto-writing position · 1939–2011
Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
PS
Peter SavodnikJournalist; visited Povarovo for Wired
UVB-76, "the Buzzer"
Peter ScheemakersSculptor of the relief · 1691–1781
Shugborough inscription
PS
Peter ScottNaturalist; co-named Nessiteras rhombopteryx
Loch Ness
PM
Petra M. GoedegebuureHittitologist at the University of Chicago; argued in 2010 that Hattic is an active language with an ergative base
Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives
PL
Phil LobelBoston University marine biologist quoted on a biological source
Bloop and NOAA's unexplained ocean sounds
PL
Philip L. RichardsonPhysical oceanographer, Woods Hole; drift modelling
Mary Celeste
PM
Philip MorrisCostume maker; claims to have sold Patterson a suit
Patterson-Gimlin film
PM
Philippa M. SteeleClassicist (Cambridge); catalogue and linguistic study of Eteocypriot, 2013
PO
Philodemus of GadaraEpicurean philosopher; author of much of the opened library · -011–-003
Herculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius Challenge
PM
Piero MeriggiLinguist; 1971 sign list
Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite
PC
Pierpont C. BicknellJournalist whose 1895 article made the legend
Lost Dutchman's gold mine
Pierre TalletEgyptologist, Sorbonne; director of the Wadi al-Jarf excavation · born 1966
How the Great Pyramid was built
PY
Ping YuanPhysicist, Northwest Normal University; led the team that recorded the 2012 ball
Ball lightning
PS
Piotr SteinkellerAssyriologist (Harvard); reviewer of ZATU and defender of Sumerian readings
Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
P
PlatoAthenian philosopher; told the Atlantis story in the Timaeus and Critias
Eye of the Sahara and Atlantis
PO
Ponciano Ortíz CeballosINAH archaeologist; registered and published the block
Cascajal block and Isthmian writing
Puzur-InshushinakKing of Awan and Susa, c. 2150 to 2100 BC; author of the bilinguals
Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite