Posted on 04/25/2024 8:59:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
Something about one of the floor tiles in his parents’ newly renovated European home seemed extremely strange. That’s because the man who made the discovery, a dentist, recognized the bizarre, out-of-place object he had just found.
The unusual discovery was made when Reddit user Kidipadeli75 noticed a floor tile located in a portion of the home leading out onto a patio area that seemed to have something very strange embedded in it.
Naturally, he did what anyone would do in our modern era of internet sleuthing: he posted an image of the oddity online.
The curious object in the photo appears to be a cross-section of an ancient human mandible with several teeth visible. The Reddit user who made the unsettling discovery has chosen to remain anonymous to ensure his parents’ privacy.
So how, precisely, do human remains find their way into stone flooring tiles?
The portion of the home where the apparent human mandible had been found is composed of travertine, a variety of limestone that, geologically speaking, can form relatively quickly. In this instance, the travertine used in the home renovation had been imported from Turkey and was likely as much as 1.8 million years old.
“Travertine is a type of limestone that occurs in freshwater and terrestrial settings,” according to Dr. Andrew Leier, a geologist and Associate Professor with the School of Earth Ocean, and Environment at the University of South Carolina. In an email to The Debrief, Leier explained that limestone is a sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of the mineral calcite CaCO3.
“When we think of Limestone and CaCO3, we almost always think of the ocean because that is where most of the limestone is precipitated from marine waters. The shells of most clams and oysters are made of CaCO3, as are most corals.
Travertine, by contrast, is different because its formation occurs mostly on land.
“It typically forms near springs, particularly hot springs, as waters emerge from the ground,” Leier told The Debrief. “These waters are saturated with dissolved calcium (Ca) – and when the waters reach the surface the different chemical conditions cause the dissolved Ca to precipitate as CaCO3.”
“In practical terms, what we typically see are widespread laminations or ‘sheets’ of precipitated limestone around the springs. As the waters continue to emerge from the ground, more and more travertine (limestone) is precipitated, forming layer upon layer of this rock,” Leier said.
“You can have several meter-thick buildups of travertine that form over 1000 or even 100s of years. That is a rapid process when compared to most in geology,” Leier added.
In other words, despite the speed at which travertine can form, the human remains discovered in the European home following its renovation represent the fossils of one of our archaic human ancestors preserved in very ancient stone, giving rise to a discovery that has attracted the attention of anthropologists who are reportedly planning to study the unique specimen.
“This naturally raises a broader question,” wrote paleoanthropologist John Hawks in a posting on his website discussing the bizarre discovery. “How many other people have installed travertine with hominin fossils inside?”
Although Hawks says that most fossils that appear in travertine are those of plants, shellfish, and other small animals, these limestone deposits can preserve the remains of much larger animals, which may sometimes include our hominin ancestors.
Hawks references past hominin fossils recovered during archaeological investigations near Bilzingsleben, Germany, where portions of two ancient skulls and a mandible were found preserved in travertine. In another instance from 2002, a cross-section of a hominin skull was found in travertine from Turkey by geologist Mehmet Cihat Alçiçek.
So while discoveries have certainly been made involving human remains in travertine, that isn’t to say that discovering hominin fossils in this way is a common occurrence, according to Leier.
“Anything that falls onto the area around a spring with travertine can become ‘entombed’ in the travertine. It is common to find plant fossils (leaf imprints) and other similar features in travertine,” Leier told The Debrief. “Human fossils are much more rare. They are not typically found in travertine. However, there have been some cases of hominin skull fragments and other bone pieces found in travertine. So it is rare, but not impossible. In general, there is a high probability that human bones have been fossilized in travertine – but to actually find these fossils, and then have them quarried and sent to someone’s home – that is extremely unlikely.”
Leier told The Debrief he thinks the individual associated with the fossilized bones in question may have died at the spring where the travertine formed, which slowly buried the bones as the stone formed over time. “It is also possible that the individual died near the springs and the bones were washed into the area of the spring and eventually covered by travertine,” Leier says.
In likelihood, had the Reddit user who made the recent discovery not been a dentist, the mandible he found preserved in his parent’s floor might have gone unnoticed for much longer since the stony inclusions and minor defects that are common in travertine can make spotting any fossils it contains tricky at times.
So if you’ve ever wondered about that odd-looking flaw or defect in the stone floor of your family home, it might warrant a closer look. You might even be walking on a piece of ancient human history.
This article was updated on April 24, 2024, to include quotes from geologist Andrew Leier, Ph.D.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.
Looks like our posts crossed. I didn't think to ping you, yet here we are!
Why would there be a floor tile in a wood shed?
Must be a really ritzy wood shed...................
Now that’s a fascinating one, Red. Thanks for posting that.
How long until they determine which of the 57 genders that person was?
Sometimes it’s best for people to keep their mouths shut.
Imagine how many forms he’ll be filling out.
It’s enough to make anyone go numb.
“had the Reddit user who made the recent discovery not been a dentist, the mandible he found preserved in his parent’s floor might have gone unnoticed for much longer”
At first glance it clearly looked like teeth to me, and I’m no dentist.
Anyhow, it’s kinda cool. Weird, but cool.
It would be more unsettling if it were from this year.
Hillary got away with another one
What was the one doing, such that he was waiting for the axe to fall?
As the story continues,
The Gemara asks: What was he doing, that priest who noticed the misplaced tile? Rabbi Ḥelbo said: He was occupied with his axe, i.e., he was banging the floor with his axe. He thereby discovered an empty space under a tile, which he guessed was the opening of a tunnel. The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Two blemished priests were sorting wormy wood when the axe of one of them dropped and fell there, into the hole in the floor. Blemished priests were appointed to inspect the wood for worms, as these logs were unfit for use on the altar. And fire burst out and consumed that priest, so the exact location remains unknown.
So did they get the axe?.................
It’s good it wasn’t at Mar-A-Lago. Had it been, Trump would be on trial for murder and disposing of a dead body.
Bring me my chariot of fire!
That's what you get for letting your sword sleep in your hand....
Hoover Dam
This is the kind of story I can really get my teeth into.
Thanks Red Badger. Hoffa.
So I guess Jimmy Hoffa isn’t sleeping with the fishes after all.
We do know that they were both caught red-handed.So did they get the axe?.................
It's risky even to axe these sorts of questions anymore, but Top Men have been working on them. At this point in time, in 2024, the intel is merely hanging about.
It's really a matter of putting... 2 and 2 together, where it all adds up:
1. Everyone who's anyone knows that the Ark was lost in a US Government warehouse. In Hangar 51 to be specific.
2. The Jewish world in particular understands that the US is the head of Edom [אדום], 51, "red".
Na, the numeral 51 [נ"א] is the word:
נָא ᴵ interj. please, I pray, I pray you. [Related to Syr. נֵא, נִי (= I pray, I pray you), Ethiop. na‘ā, Amharic nā (= welcome’).]
The Parent Trap (1961) - Let's Get Together
The Reddit user who made the unsettling discovery has chosen to remain anonymous to ensure his parents’ privacy.
Right. Mum's the word regarding a world-famous redhead, "a Bostonian volunteer for the Red Cross". 🤫 🤣
+
Somebody fought “Tooth and Nail” to finish building that patio on time!
Well, it's not like the hominids are using them anymore.
Ebed-melech, who was an Ethiopian eunuch at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, took the Ark to Ethiopia.
Being an Ethiopian, the Babylonians were not interested in him, only the Jews.
He was able to touch the Ark because the Presence / Holy Spirit had already left it according to Ezekiel, so it was safe..............
Sneaked it right on down to
Ax’em
Because nobody thought to question...
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