1 - King of Rats

(Wikimedia Commons / Naturkundliches Museum Mauritianum Altenburg)

Did you see this bizarre thing in the image above? Known as the "King of Rats, " what you saw is no sinister sculpture or anything, but it is a tangle of mice that curl up their tails and end up dying together like this. The problem is that no one can explain how this rodent knot exactly forms, and while many believe these structures are human fabrications, others argue that it is technically possible for them to form naturally (or accidentally ...).

2 - The Ubaid Lizard Men

(Ancient Origins)

The statuette above of a lizard-like humanoid is one of a few figures that were discovered at an archaeological site known as Al-Ubaid in Iraq. They were carved around 7, 000 years ago or so by a pre-Sumerian culture that occupied the region, and the intriguing thing about these lizard men is that no one knows what they stand for. Although some argue that the statues would symbolize gods, there are scholars who claim they were carved with different postures than ritual artifacts.

3 - The Stone of Lake Winnipesaukee

(Wikimedia Commons / John Phelan)

The curious egg-shaped stone above was discovered by a group of workers on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, USA, in 1872. The relic is suspected to have been produced by some native North American culture, but no one could determine who her sculptures were or for what purpose she was created.

4 - The London Hammer

(Ian Juby)

The image above shows an iron hammer that was discovered in the city of London, Texas (yes, Texas itself) in the 1930s - and has already caused much controversy. The artifact was found partially encapsulated in a 400-million-year-old rock that formed around it, long before humans appeared on Earth. Geologists who evaluated the piece believe it was knocked over the rock and that minerals on its surface were reacting in the presence of water and gradually "swallowing" the item. However, nobody knows exactly when the hammer landed there, and estimates range from 700 to 100, 000 years.

5 - Dogu

(Wikimedia Commons / Rc 13)

"Dogu" is the name given to small Japanese statuettes carved during the Jomon period - the name of the first culture that occupied the islands that make up Japan about 14, 000 years ago - and which are usually discovered in ancient graves of that time. Made of ceramics, they are among the oldest examples of art produced with this material in the world, but no one knows what its real function was. Some believe that the figures were used in religious rituals or as fertility statues and, of course, there are those who attributed the origin of these artifacts to alien beings.

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