Anomaly•Registry
Category

Ciphers, Codes and Artifacts

Objects and texts that exist, can be examined, and have not been read.

30 records

Records in this category

See the whole register
Record Case Date Status
AR-0020 The Voynich Manuscript An illustrated codex written in an unknown script. Still undeciphered after a century of attempts. c. 1404 to 1438 Unsolved
AR-0021 The Zodiac Ciphers Four ciphers. Two solved, one of them only in 2020. The sender was never identified. 1969 onward Partially explained
AR-0022 Kryptos An encrypted sculpture at CIA headquarters. Three sections solved; the fourth is still open. 1990 Partially explained
AR-0023 The Phaistos Disc Stamped symbols on Bronze Age clay, undeciphered. Authenticity has occasionally been questioned. c. 1700 BCE Unsolved
AR-0024 The Antikythera Mechanism A corroded geared device from a shipwreck, identified as an ancient astronomical calculator. c. 2nd to 1st century BCE Later explained
AR-0025 The Beale Ciphers Three ciphertexts said to locate a buried treasure. The story is older than the words it uses. 1885 pamphlet Debunked
AR-0066 Rongorongo The only writing system ever developed in Oceania. Nobody alive can read it. Recorded from 1864 Unsolved
AR-0067 Linear A Its successor, Linear B, was cracked in 1952. Linear A has resisted everything since. c. 1800 to 1450 BCE Unsolved
AR-0068 The Indus Script Thousands of inscriptions from a Bronze Age civilisation. It is not even agreed that it is writing. c. 2600 to 1900 BCE Unsolved
AR-0069 The Copiale Cipher 105 encrypted pages. Cracked in 2011 by machine translation. It was a secret society devoted to the eye. c. 1760 to 1780 Later explained
AR-0070 The Dorabella Cipher Eighty-seven characters, written by Edward Elgar to a friend. Never read. 14 July 1897 Unsolved
AR-0071 The Rohonc Codex Four hundred pages in an unknown script. Long called a forgery, and still not securely read. Surfaced 1838 Partially explained
AR-0072 The Baghdad Battery The ancient battery that was not a battery. It has no leads, and the vessels resemble known scroll jars. c. 250 BCE to 650 CE Debunked
AR-0073 The Oak Island Money Pit Two centuries of digging. The geology of the island explains most of what was found. 1795 to present Partially explained
AR-0074 The Crystal Skulls Pre-Columbian, supposedly. Electron microscopy found rotary tool marks that did not exist in the Americas. Surfaced from the 1860s Debunked
AR-0103 Piltdown Man Presented in 1912 as an early human from a Sussex gravel pit. It was a recent orangutan jaw and human skull pieces, filed and stained. 1912 to 1953 Debunked
AR-0110 The Shroud of Turin A linen cloth with the image of a crucified man. Radiocarbon dates it to 1260 to 1390; how the image was made is not established. Documented from the 1350s Partially explained
AR-0117 The Vinland Map Unveiled in 1965 as a pre-Columbian map of Norse America. The parchment is medieval; the ink holds a pigment of the 1920s. 1965 to 2021 Debunked
AR-0124 Mary, Queen of Scots' Lost Letters Cipher letters catalogued in Paris as Italian papers of the early 1500s. Deciphered, they proved to be Mary, Queen of Scots' letters from captivity. 1578 to 1584 Later explained
AR-0131 The Shugborough Inscription Eight letters under an 18th-century marble copy of a Poussin at Shugborough Hall. Many readings fit them; none can be checked against anything else. Mid-18th century Unsolved
AR-0138 The Nebra Sky Disc A bronze disc inlaid with a gold sky, looted in 1999 and seized in 2002. Its date comes from swords buried with it, a link disputed in 2020. c. 1600 BC; found 1999 Partially explained
AR-0145 The Kensington Runestone A stone found on a Minnesota farm in 1898 tells of Norsemen in 1362. Its runes and grammar belong to the Swedish of the 19th century. Found 1898 Debunked
AR-0152 Roman Dodecahedra Hollow, twelve-sided bronze objects from Roman Gaul, the Germanies and Britain. About 134 are known, and no ancient text says what they were for. c. AD 200 to late 4th century Unsolved
AR-0159 The Lycurgus Cup A Roman glass cup that is green in reflected light and red with light behind it. The cause is silver-gold nanoparticles formed in the glass. 4th century AD; explained 1990 Later explained
AR-0166 Greek Fire A Byzantine incendiary liquid, projected through tubes from warships, first recorded in the 670s. Its recipe was a state secret, and none survives. From the 670s Unsolved
AR-0173 The Cardiff Giant A ten-foot 'petrified man' dug up near Cardiff, New York, in 1869 drew paying crowds. It was a gypsum statue carved in Chicago the year before. 1869 Debunked
AR-0187 Proto-Elamite One of the earliest scripts: some 1,700 tablets from Iran, still mostly unread. c. 3300 to 2900 BC Unsolved
AR-0188 The Ricky McCormick Notes Two coded notes in a dead man’s pockets, published by the FBI in 2011, still unread. 1999 to present Unsolved
AR-0189 The Chaocipher A 1918 cipher its inventor called unbreakable. Its method went public 92 years later. 1918 to 2016 Later explained
AR-0190 The Dropa Stones Alien stone discs that trace back to a 1962 German vegetarian magazine. 1962 to present Debunked

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