One Hour of Obscure Ancient Mysteries

History is riddled with ancient mysteries and fascinating emerging academic theories. Today, we spend over an hour diving deep into four of my favorite conundrums currently puzzling historians and enthusiasts alike.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Disappearance of Zannanza

12:00 - "PseudoTheodosius" An Imperial Impersonator?

33:24 - "Population Y": Austronesian Ancestry in South America

53:41 - "Red Sirius": A Star That May Have Changed Color

Sources:

Zannanza Affair -

This topic primarily relied on Eric Cline's '1177: The Year Civilization Collapsed", a work where the historian examines the bronze age collapse with a macro lens and dedicates a brief chapter to this mysterious affair. Cline's work largely relies on the 'The Deeds of Suppiluliuma' tablet, excavated from Hattusa and currently in the custody of the Turkish Department of Antiquities.

PseudoTheodosius-

Primary sources come from Adrian Goldsworthy's 'Rome and Persia: A 700 Year Rivalry", which itself examines the struggle between the two empires in a macro context but dives deep into their late antiquity conflicts and thus spends some time discussing the Imperial claiment.

James Howard Johnston's 'The Last Great War of Antiquity' focuses entirely on this conflict and speaks to the fate of Theodosius in much greater detail.

Population Y -

Razib Khan's substack post exploring the population Y question:

While Amazon and substack links have been provided to make the material more accessible and support the actual experts, I have no affiliation with any of the cited sources nor receive any financial compensation for purchases made.

[AgentJTV]

So glad you started making these mystery videos from our world. I can seriously listen to you talk about cool stuff for hours. And I will

[patrickb]

Wait isn’t this the Fallout mystery guy? No way, as a person with a history degree. Way to hit the crossover 😂

[StewNoodleOfficial]

1 hour of Skyrim but irl mysteries (its literally just history)

[Palasid]

Man this real life game looks great, how have I never heard of it?
The lore sounds sick

[streakingclothed]

As it turns out, it’s Nate’s voice and storytelling style that we really love. Talk about whatever you want man, we’ll listen

[Plague_Crow]

Getting mogged by the bloody sphinx is not how I wanted to log off my lunch shift, but here we go...

[trevorturner]

This is exactly what I was hoping! So glad you are making content you enjoy making, we are all here for it!

[TheVicarstownSentinel]

Wait, Nate getting to real life actual historical mysteries?! NEAT!

[rageshot]

Im not usually a history buff, but this is actually entertaining. Well done nate!

[mossbugprincess]

man so glad youre doing more of these, you dont talk down, you seem to respect other cultures and you dont dip into conspiracies that corrode our understanding of history even more then the little we know, huge respects man

[Jonkenstonk]

He has escaped the confinement of video games and brought his powers of mystery into the real world

[spookieloop]

Absolutely love the disclaimer at the end. It's very important to note that you're NOT a professional historian - this isn't an academic class, this is a fun jaunt into historical mysteries, reported by an enthusiast to other enthusiasts. Not enough content creators actually offer that kind of explanation.

Love this content!

[djhollis]

Nate, I can honestly say I’ve never heard of any of these mysteries. If anybody is the master at finding the most obscure information possible, it’s gotta be you. Good job 👍🏻

[Ahad-bjcz]

Nate’s mysteries are keeping me big as hell.

[Waka]

Maybe his disappearance is Zananza your business 0:27

[SSPARROWW]

Just want to say, I was mostly here for fallout and skyrim lore but, I really appreciate the branching out into different new content. Keep doing what you love!

[BubbaGumpk]

i gotta say...its wild hearing real life stuff laid out the same way you laid out stories from Skyrim and Fallout :D

[KnicksBasketball]

As a history buff I’m super Happy to see you delving into history now, can’t wait to see what else you got planned for the future

[AwkwardBrendan]

I have been watching this channel for a while, in the background while I work, clean up around the house, go to bed for the night, etc. In all honesty I don't interact (like and/or comment) with a lot of videos but this one truly got me, it peaked my curiosity. Thank you for the wonderful contribution you are to the platform Nate.

[georgehouliaras]

I like history, it's like an irl prequel dlc. I'm currently reading the Macedonian Empire expansion pack. Alexander the Great was OP.