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
Any role
Any roleArchaeologistLinguistAssyriologistAuthorCo-authorGeologistAstronomerDirectorPhysicistEpigrapherHistorianEgyptologistExcavatorEpigraphist
Any period
Any periodBefore 18001800s1900–19491950–1999Since 2000
With a portraitClear
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WB
W. Brent SealesComputer scientist, University of Kentucky; pioneer of virtual unwrapping
Herculaneum Papyri and the Vesuvius Challenge
WG
W. G. FastLed the 1960s tree-fall direction surveys
1908 Tunguska event
WW
W. W. NewcombAnthropologist at the University of Texas; defined the Pecos River style
White Shaman Mural
Walter HautLieutenant, public information officer who issued the release · 1922–2005
Roswell, 1947
WG
Wang GuoweiHistorian who in 1917 matched the ancestors and kings named in the inscriptions to Sima Qian's Shang king list, confirming the list with cor
WY
Wang YirongQing official and antiquarian who in 1899 first recognised the marks on the Anyang bones as ancient writing; he died in August 1900 during t
WD
Warren D. RayleNASA Lewis Research Center; author of the 1966 survey
Ball lightning
WF
William F. AlbrightOrientalist who published the fullest decipherment of the Sinai texts in 1966 · 1891–1971
Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet
WN
William Neil McCaslandRetired Air Force major general; commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory 2011–13; missing since 27 February 2026
America's missing scientists, 2021–2026
WN
William NoelCurator; director of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project · 1965–2024
Archimedes Palimpsest
WW
William W. 'Mac' BrazelRancher who found the debris
Roswell, 1947