625 people in 95 mysteries

D 28 on this page

David FravorRetired Navy commander; 2004 Nimitz witness

US government UAP disclosures

David FravorCommanding officer, VFA-41; flight lead on 14 November 2004

2004 Nimitz encounter and the Navy videos

David GruschFormer NGA officer and UAP Task Force member; whistleblower · born 1987

US government UAP disclosures

DJ

David J. DaeglingBiological anthropologist; sceptical analyst

Patterson-Gimlin film

David KippingColumbia University astronomer; repeating-beacon analysis

Wow! signal

DL

David L. ClementsImperial College London; leads reporting of JCMT-Venus

Phosphine in the clouds of Venus

DN

David N. KeightleyBerkeley historian whose Sources of Shang History (1978) made the method of reading the inscriptions available in English and catalogued the

DN

David NashGeographer, University of Brighton; sarsen provenance

Stonehenge

DO

David OranchakSoftware developer; co-solver of Z340; maintains the transcriptions

Zodiac ciphers

DR

David Reed MorehouseMaster of the Dei Gratia

Mary Celeste

DS

David SteinCIA analyst; solved K1 to K3 in 1998

Kryptos

DS

David StupplesSignals intelligence specialist, City, University of London

UVB-76, "the Buzzer"

DW

David W. HoodlessPrincipal, Central Medical School, Suva; examined the bones in 1941

Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

DW

David WulstanBritish musicologist who analysed the Ur tuning text with Gurney (1968) and published the first realization of h.6 (1971). · 1937–2017

Hurrian songs of Ugarit

DS

Denise Schmandt-BesseratArchaeologist; author of the token theory of the origin of writing · born 1933

Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk

DA

Derek AbbottProfessor of electrical engineering, University of Adelaide

Somerton Man (Tamam Shud)

Derek de Solla PriceFirst full study, 1974

Antikythera Mechanism

DH

Donald HardenSalinas teacher; solved Z408 with his wife

Zodiac ciphers

Donald TrumpPresident; ordered the 2026 release · born 1946

US government UAP disclosures

DT

Donald TrumpUS President; said the cases were "pretty serious stuff", then on 30 April 2026 that there was "not much of a connection"

America's missing scientists, 2021–2026

DW

Donald WittPhysicist, Sul Ross State University; investigated the lights in the 1970s

Marfa lights

DZ

Dong ZuobinArchaeologist who began the scientific excavation of Anyang in October 1928 and in 1933 published the ten criteria that divide the inscripti

DP

Dora PennyRecipient; published the note in 1937

Dorabella cipher

DG

Dorothy GarrodBritish Palaeolithic archaeologist, later the first woman professor at Cambridge, who sat on the international commission that dug at Glozel

DJ

Douglas J. KennettLead author of the Room 33 genomic study

Great houses of Chaco Canyon

DR

Douglas R. StentonArchaeologist, University of Waterloo; leads the DNA identification work · born 1953

Franklin expedition (HMS Erebus and HMS Terror)

DS

Drew SullinsCaptain, Maryland ANG spokesman

Phoenix Lights, 13 March 1997

Duncan R. LorimerAstronomer, West Virginia University; reported the first burst · born 1969

Fast radio bursts and the origin of the one-off bursts

E 22 on this page

EB

E. B. BanningArchaeologist, University of Toronto; author of the house reading

Göbekli Tepe

EO

Eduardo Orduña AznarLinguist; numerals and the Basque-Iberian hypothesis; designed the Hesperia database

Iberian language and Palaeohispanic scripts

EC

Edward CabansagAirman, security police; first patrol

Rendlesham Forest, December 1980

Edward ElgarComposer; author of the note · 1857–1934

Dorabella cipher

ES

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

Kryptos

EB

Edwin BarkerAstronomer, McDonald Observatory; led the scientists who watched for the lights for Unsolved Mysteries in 1989

Marfa lights

ER

Elisabeth RiekenMarburg Indo-Europeanist who identified the Kalašma language as Anatolian and co-edited the tablet

Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives

ET

Emanuel TovEditor-in-chief of the scroll publications; co-author of the 1995 radiocarbon series

Dead Sea Scrolls: dating, scribes and provenance

EF

Emil ForrerSwiss Assyriologist who in 1919 sorted the Boğazköy tablets into eight languages and isolated Hattic · 1894–1986

Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives

EM

Emilia MassonEpigraphist; the CM1, CM2, CM3 classification

Cypro-Minoan

EL

Emmanuel LarocheFrench Hittitologist and Hurrian specialist who edited the Hurrian texts from Ugarit (1955, 1968). · 1914–1991

Hurrian songs of Ugarit

EJ

Enrique JiménezAssyriologist at LMU Munich who leads the electronic Babylonian Library and its Fragmentarium.

Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian

EB

Eric BurlisonUS Representative (R-Missouri); pressed for FBI involvement and added names to the list

America's missing scientists, 2021–2026

EH

Eric H. ClineArchaeologist, George Washington University; author of 1177 B.C. · born 1960

Late Bronze Age collapse

ES

Eric SamsMusicologist; 1970 reading · 1926–2004

Dorabella cipher

EU

Eric UlisIndependent researcher; sued the FBI for the tie

Hijacking of Northwest 305 (D. B. Cooper)

EM

Erik MarshArchaeologist; Tiwanaku chronology

Puma Punku and Tiwanaku

EW

Erik WahlgrenScandinavianist; author of the 1958 study · 1909–1990

Kensington Runestone

EP

Erling P. StrandEngineer; led Project Hessdalen from 1983, Østfold University College

Hessdalen lights

EP

Ernst PernickaArchaeometallurgist; led the metal and isotope analyses

Nebra Sky Disc

ES

Ester SalgarellaCo-creator of SigLA; author of Aegean Linear Script(s)

Linear A

EB

Evelyn BilloRock art photographer; made the 2009 GigaPan of the mural with Bob Mark

White Shaman Mural

F 10 on this page