It turns out that the profession of archaeologist and the museum caretaker are not at all safe, as it seems at first glance. Sometimes so-welcome artifacts of antiquity contain deadly surprises. They can be covered with poisonous material or have a hidden poison inside. In the past, toxic chemicals were sometimes used in everyday subjects, since their harmful health effects were not yet discovered. The poisons were also used throughout history, for example, to get rid of political rivals or problem lovers. Therefore, sometimes items from the past are deadly.
In the International Museum of Spies in Washington there is a couple of glasses with a secret. Inside the rim there is a small tablet of cyano potassium, which is deadly for man when entering the body. If the secret agent was caught, and there was a threat of issuing secret information, he could, as if, begin to start chewing his glasses. It released a tablet inside a plastic handle, which led to the rapid death of the agent. These points were used in the CIA, although similar items were used in other agencies.
2. Assassin book
In 2008, the German auction house made a fake book of the XVII century for sale, which hid inside the many poisons. Inside the book there were no pages, and instead of them there were 11 small boxes with pasted shortcuts denoting poisonous plants. Also in the hollow book contained a small green bank and a skeleton pattern.
The drawers were empty, and the analysis of any residual traces of the poison is only to be held. Considering that the book dates back to the time when the art of cooking poisons and medicine was very similar, scientists suggested that the book belonged to the healer. However, on the labels of three boxes appear acronite, a poisonous and wolper-year laurel, which are very toxic. It is not known whether they were used in medicinal purposes at the time.
3. Death bacteria
This is not quite poison, but in 2017 an 800-year-old skeleton containing bacteria was discovered in the north-west of Turkey. The skeleton belonged to a pregnant woman about thirty years old, who found two calcined nodes under the bottom ribs. When they were analyzed, the researchers discovered that they contain bacteria of staphylococcus saprofite and Gardnelli Vaginis. Probably these bacteria and killed a woman.
4. Deadly books
In the library collection of South University Denmark, three books containing deadly levels of arsenic were accidentally discovered. Books telling about various historical events are dated XVI and XVII centuries. In many books of this time, antique texts were used to strengthen the book binding, for example, copies of old Roman laws. The researchers tried to read and analyze these texts, but they were smeared with green paint.
To better see the letters, X-rays were made. At the same time it was found that in the green paint contained arsenic in a deadly dose. Arsenic was used to create bright green paint before people realized that he was poisonous and can cause cancer and death. It is believed that arsenic in books was used to prevent the appearance of insects.
5. Death Wallpaper
Arsenic is also present in a sample of wallpaper exhibited in Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian design museum in Manhattan. In 1775, a green pigment was invented, called "Green Shelele", in which arsenic was used. It began to be used for painting wallpaper, and this meant that people at home gradually received more and more poisoning.
When the wallpaper was reacted with moisture in the air, arsenic was released in a gaseous form. Unfortunately, because of this, the children died in their own bedrooms simply due to the fact that the toxic substance was inhaling. The museum keeps a piece of wallpaper of 1836, and although most of the drawing on them disappeared, the green color is still bright and today. If you are next to this 180-year wallpaper for too long, a person will even poison arsenic today. Therefore, wallpapers are exhibited behind the glass, and when they are stored in the store, they are securely pack.
6. Dangerous fashion
Many historical items that were poisonous contained arsenic because it was also used for painting dresses and hats in the Victorian era. After death in 1861, a young woman who made green artificial flowers for headdress, scientists explored green dye. It was estimated that the headdress on average contained enough arsenic to poison 20 people.
In the usual ballot dress, 900 arsenic grazing was often kept, of which about 60 grains sniffed in just one evening during dancing. Since the adult deadly dose is four or five grains, this is a very disturbing find. Not only a woman who wore such a dress, and the people surrounding it, but also the people who did such clothes. Daily exposed to arsenic, those who worked with green clothing and accessories, often ill. In the Museum of the Castle York you can see one of these dangerous green ballroom dresses. To take a dress in the hands, the museum curators must wear gloves, as arsenic is still covered with fabric.
7. Mad hats
Not only arsenic made clothes dangerous in the past: mercury-covered hats also caused severe diseases from their manufacturers in the UK and France. Hat manufacturers in the XVII and XIX centuries began to use mercury to highlight the fur of the hares and rabbits, which was used to produce felt hats. By doing this, they breathed mercury, which in the body came directly to the brain. Mercury poisoning begins with uncontrolled tremor and salivation, and then teeth began to fall out, problems with heart and breathing, severe paranoia, hallucination and eventually death.
What is interesting, those who wore hats with mercury were exposed to danger much less because it was partially protected from mercury lining in hats. For this reason, mercury was never found illegal in the production of hats, and she stopped used only when fetal hats came out of fashion. One such hat is kept in the Museum of Bata Shoe in Toronto. The tests confirmed that it still contains mercury.
8. Toxic clothing
In 2018, in Serro-Esmeralda in the northern part of Chile, burial was discovered, dating from 1399 - 1475, in which there were mums of two girls with age 9 and 18 years. They were buried with luxury, clothes in bright red clothes. Chemical analysis of clothing showed that instead of using iron hematite to achieve a red shade, as was customary, manufacturers used a cinnaker, which contains a high level of mercury. The nearest mines kinovari was at a distance of more than 1600 kilometers north of modern Lima, Peru. Since the chemical substance was not so easy to acquire, it is assumed that the burial was very important, and Kinovar added consciously to scare the robbers.
9. Poisoned arrows
Armal poisoning is a practice that was used in many places around the world. When the Museum of Victoria and Albert in England received a collection of objects from the Ost-India company in 1880, including arrows, a note was attached to them that the arrows were poisoned. However, when they analyzed literally recently, scientists were surprised to find that the inflicted poison could be active for 1300 years, and the person is still able to kill a person. The arrows brought from Indian Assam, as well as from the Karen tribe in Burma, which used poisoned arrows for animal hunting. The poison was mined from juice or crushed seeds of local trees, after which the arrow tip was lubricated them. If it enters the blood, it causes paralysis, cramps and a heart stop.
10. Ring with a secret
In 2013, at Cape Kaliakra in Bulgaria, a ring with a small hidden capacity inside used for storing something is detected. From more than 30 found jewelry in this place it was the only decoration with a secret compartment. It is believed that inside the poison was kept, because a small hole was found on the inside of the ring, which could be used to quickly add poison to someone's drink. The ring dates back to the XIV century and is considered to be owned by a kindness, boyarian, which ruled this area in the second half of the century. Perhaps this ring was the reason that many other high-ranking members of society who were close to him died for inexplicably reasons.
