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.

Kryptos
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
AllABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ#

D 1

DS
David SteinCIA analyst; solved K1 to K3 in 1998
Kryptos

E 1

ES
Edward ScheidtCIA Office of Communications officer, retiring in the late 1980s; devised the cipher systems with Sanborn
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J 3

JK
Jarett KobekWriter; identified the K4 plaintext in archive photographs in 2025
Kryptos
JG
Jim GilloglyComputer scientist; published K1 to K3 in 1999
Kryptos
JS
Jim SanbornSculptor; author of the ciphers and sole holder of the K4 method until 2025
Kryptos

R 1

RB
Richard ByrneJournalist and playwright; photographed the archive folders in 2025
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