The Mystery of the Skeletons of Roopkund Lake | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and uh it's just. us for now but Jerry says she's going to. be coming in sooner or later and uh this. this stuff you should know yeah Jerry. will come in probably in our most. intense point when we're talking to each. other and you guys won't hear this but.

hear like just full Jerry full volume. we'll hear ourselves echoing cuz Jerry. doesn't like headphones you guys. recording what's going. on uh so yeah when that point comes. we'll probably edit it out who knows. even if we don't want to edit it out. Jerry might anyway I saw Jerry yesterday. uh you know our daughters go to school. together now which the public at large. doesn't know which is kind of fun MH and.

uh saw her a pickup for the first time. this year what kind of pickup does she. have. you. S10 oh really that's a she has p a cyber. truck right that's our Jerry cyber truck. and visor sunglasses no not at the. pickup but at you know kid pickup you. know I got you I got you yeah fun it. could have gone either way and I went. the wrong way yeah uh So speaking of. Jerry Chuck there's a lake high up in.

the Indian. Himalayas it is extremely remote it's. extremely high up and it's it's part of. a a mountain called trle one of the. highest mountains in. India and this lake is in a very. desolate very remote area essentially if. you look at a picture of it did you see. that picture heck yeah it's nuts it's a. lake that's at the edge of a cliff at.

the bottom of another Cliff Way high. above like a ridge it's just looking at. that picture I'm like I would fall off. there so. hard I would definitely die there and it. turns out that if I did die there it. would be part of a uh long-standing. tradition that's right uh you were. speaking of rund Lake r o o p KU n d uh. you mentioned it's high it's about three. times as high as Denver Colorado Yeah.

you mentioned remote and you mentioned. being in good company if you died there. because rupen lake is well known for. being the lake of. Bones yeah apparently locally it's. called skeleton Lake yeah uh and like I. said it's remote the nearest Village is. a village called Wan it's a a group of. traditional houses I read and that's. about it um and the people who live. there apparently take it upon themselves. to help out strangers and travelers who.

are who find themselves in a bad way. which is pretty nice but Juan is only 19. mil down about 30 kmet in the valley. below rotund which I mean 19 miles. that's a that's a little bit of a far. piece but it takes three to five days to. get from Juan to Lake rupen because the. the the path is just so treacherous up. the mountain yeah it is tough to get. there and again that three times higher.

than Denver the altitude is rough mhm uh. rot can technically is called a Tarn. which is an Old Norse word for pool uh. but it's a glacial Lake and if you've. ever been to a glacial Lake like I have. and maybe you have have you ever been to. a glacial Lake I haven't they're. beautiful they're really really clear. that water you can uh most times you. know see right down to the bottom of. that Lake uh you wouldn't have to look. far in this case because this is a. pretty small one uh only about 10 ft. deep at its widest point it's about 130.

ft wide and save August and September. that thing is basically frozen solid and. all of those which is kind of great in a. way as far as an archaeological site. goes because all of the skeletons are. really well preserved because they're. frozen you know uh 10 12ths of the Year. 10 12ths yeah 10 12s you you nailed it 5. six yeah exactly two and a half thirds.

oh boy um so uh when that snow and ice. melts though those skeletons like you. said are revealed and it's not like. there's a couple of skeletons laying. around they've estimated and these are. scientists and researchers who studied. this area that there's up to 800. individual skeletons in this tiny little. Lake and scattered around the shores of. the lake it's a lot a lot of dead people. and no one knows who these people are or.

how they got there it's a genuine. historic mystery one of my favorite. historic mysteries of all time uh it's. the The Mystery of the skeletons at. Rubin. link where did you hear about this first. uh it was a New Yorker article by. Douglas Preston that I went back and. reread I'm like man this is so good uh. it's called skeletons at the lake and um. he goes off on a bunch of other tangents. too gets really into like um.

evolutionary genetics and all that uh. because that's applied to this this um. particular topic but he he discourses on. it way way more deeply it's a really. cool article it's definitely worth. reading Awesome um so this has been uh. one of the great uh natural Mysteries. since 1942 when a a gentleman named HK. modwall who is a forest official uh from. India was sent there uh to gather some. Himalayan flowers for research and study.

mhm and he was like oh my God look at. the bones oh my God oh my God as you as. you would say and reported over you know. the course of a few years because again. you can only um you know these things. only thaw out for a couple of months. over the year so any kind of study over. the years and as you'll see there's been. a lot since the 1950s once uh once. scientists got involved because they. kind of kept it a secret or at least. kept it quiet uh in India for a little. while and eventually when they announced. it in the 1950s of course science got on.

board um but they've got a pretty narrow. window to go and like actually collect. and study this stuff like uh like I. mentioned between August and September. generally and it seems like. 1956 uh a couple of weeks in September. there was when a lot of that initial. collection took place right yeah there. were three different Expeditions that. arrived at the lake in a twoe period in. 19 September. 1956 and I saw that I guess some of them. were unsuccessful but at least one.

gathered some artifacts and some remains. and took them back to the. anthropological Survey of India in. Kolkata Kolkata which used to be called. Kolkata what did they find uh they found. dozens of leather slippers okay uh the. remains of parasols made of bamboo and. Birch found a lot of rings they found. the remnants of some musical instruments. it's a party yeah and then really. importantly crucially as we'll find.

Bal like those bracelets that your. grandmother who really loves Jin wears. that clink around all the time not. suzanah hofs uh is she from oh no from. the Bengals that's right nice yeah no or. Jane. um Wheeland no she was from Goos right. oh yeah that's who I'm. thinking sorry go and Bal she's a fun. follow on Instagram by the way okay good. to know she's great um so immediately of.

course science is like all right we got. to figure this out this is a great. mystery we got all these bones here we. don't know who these people are so some. theories emerged and we're going to go. over the 1 2 3 4 five six seven theories. and then bust bust them apart right. after that yeah uh the first of which is. perhaps these were soldiers from India. who may have been trying to get into. Tibet or flee Tibet over the centuries.

uh they kind of narrowed it down to one. campaign between May and June of. 1841 uh which was repelled uh and they. say this may have been it like they were. trying to get into Tibet they were. repelled they got the heck out of there. and then they perished like a storm. caught them or something and they died. here by this Lake yeah because here's. the thing you have to account for a big. group of people who all died. simultaneously it seems around around. this Lake right so a like a big troop of.

soldiers would would certainly fit that. bill uh and then another kind of solders. so when this was discovered by HK. modwall in. 1942 um World War II was in full swing. and as far as I know the India was still. administered by the British government. so the people running the show in India. the Brits running the show in India were. really concerned about a land invasion. of India by the Japanese in particular. so they worried that what they had. stumbled upon was a um.

an unsuccessful Japanese invasion of. India which I think is one of the. reasons why they kept it quiet for years. okay well that makes perfect sense. actually sure because I wondered about. that uh another theory that popped up. was maybe these were just Traders uh. they were Tibetans on the Silk Road. maybe another trade route that we don't. know about yet yeah uh or maybe they. were just villagers who lived nearby and. died of an epidemic and they you know if. you die of some uh nasty plague or. disease you don't bury everybody right.

there where you're living you kind of. take them away a bit and maybe that's. what that was right uh another theory is. well there's a bunch of different spots. sacred spots around India where you. would ritually take your own life either. out self-sacrifice or as an act of. Devotion to one of the Hindu gods and. they're like well maybe rupen lake is. one of these lesser known spots for. ritual suicide and that's what happened. to all these people yeah that's a pretty. good one what else uh there's another.

one that this pretty pretty low hanging. fruit but it makes a lot of sense. somebody spoke up and said guys what if. it's just a. cemeter. yeah that would explain all the dead. people don't you think and everyone was. like oh God Phil Jesus every time yeah. you get us every time Phil you can. really see through the Clutter you know. what Phil's nickname is what loow. hanging fruit Phil that's that's a great. name and then finally after everyone you. know kicked Phil out of the office and.

told him to go get everyone coffee they. said Phil's kind of on to something. butuh also uh what if it's not like a a. cemetery per se but it was just people. it's now a cemetery because they were. victims of a landslide or something and. that that's just where they are now yeah. it's possible so the problem is is that. none of these theories really fully fit. the evidence that they found at the lake. so far right yeah soldiers whether. they're Japanese Indian or any kind they.

don't make any sense because none of the. artifacts were covered at the lake were. weapons they found a single spearhead. made of iron but of all the artifacts. they found that was the only thing that. could remotely be used as a weapon at. the lake so if there's a bunch of. soldiers there that died suddenly they. they their weapons wouldn't have. evaporated over time you'd find. something and then similarly um the. Japanese soldiers in particular that.

theory held Zero Water cuz there had. been an earlier unofficial sighting by a. British climber named TG long stuff if. you can believe that yeah he saw them. first in 1907 as as far as Europeans go. um and so they couldn't possibly have. been there because of World War II that. reminds me of the old joke from uh. Rodney Dangerfield and back to. school would you come over and help me. straighten out my Long Fellow yeah man.

what a great movie yeah I haven't seen. that in a long time I saw that in the. theaters did you really I totally did uh. I don't know if I would have been. allowed to is that rated R that probably. wasn't rated R was it I I could see it. rated R my mom took me if I'm not. mistaken that's sweet yeah I love it the. triple Lindy thanks Mom yeah uh what oh. there's one other thing that kind of. rules out um some an idea because of the. lack of weapons one of the other.

theories is that this is a group of. victims of a some sort of attack. somebody raised the idea of the thuggies. um oh you remember them the secret Cult. of bandits in India that may or may not. have existed like Jerry but they're like. no somebody would have dropped their. weapons way more than just one iron. spear had these people been victims of. murder so the soldiers the violence um. at the hands of other humans that just. doesn't really hold up doesn't hold up. uh so Silk Road Trader first of all was.

not along the Silk Road that was pretty. easy to rule out big one uh but then. there were you know of course they. earlier had said yeah but maybe it's. something like the Silk Road just a. trade route we didn't know about uh they. looked and looked they couldn't find any. uh traces of a trade route uh where they. were and also it was again so rural so. high up there um they just don't think. that was a likely candidate to be any. kind of normal route yeah the Traders. theory was proposed by the other Phil F.

Phil because anytime he open his mouth. everybody'd say F Phil come on. yeah uh can we get away with fact these. days I think so things have gotten way. more risque all the kids sing about. being high all the time that's true uh. what else man well uh the epidemic one. sounded pretty good to me but um they. actually can examine those bones. forensically and you know kind of tell. whether that's true or not.

uh def uh definitively so they did that. uh they were like no everyone here. seemed like they were doing pretty well. uh no signs of disease um so that also. kind of rules out the cemetery and. burial ground uh along with the fact. that there were no um there were no. babies there there were no children's. remains found if it was a cemetery you'd. probably find some of that stuff yeah so. I saw both a lot of people very. confidently say that there were babies. and children found really yes I also saw.

um that other people said there are no. babies or children found so I'm not. that's not definitive I'm not 100%. certain that but just the fact that. these people their age range was like 18. to 35 and there weren't any very old. people at least found among the the. remains suggest that it wasn't a. cemetery too so the idea is like none of. these initial theories panned out they. all got shot down boop boop boop one. after the other but we're still left. with this huge question a cliffhanger.

question if you ask me what is the. reason that these skeletons ended up as. many as 800 dead people at this tiny. little Lake. 16,500 ft more than 5,000 m in the. Indian. himalayans should we take a break or are. you just setting me up for something. let's take a break all right we'll be. right back. [Music].

so Chuck I don't remember what episode. it was in but we've talked about. geoarchaeological mythological study. there was another another term for it. that was less clumsy but essentially.

it's taking um local Legends especially. very old local Legends especially among. indigenous people and assuming that. there's some kernel of truth that you. know the the Earth opening up and. swallowing everybody in a village might. have been some huge earthquake that you. know a fault line opened at some point. and then they use that and try to figure. out what specific event this mythology. is talking about well it just so happens. that there's local Legend among the.

people who live around the ruband lake. area that hundreds and hundreds of years. ago there was a traveling group of. people who were struck down because the. goddess Nanda devie uh was very unhappy. with the way that they were um. celebrating her or showing their. Devotion to her on a longstanding. pilgrimage to honor Nanda Debbie yeah so. this is a pil Gage that would be. undertaken every Dozen Years uh to uh.

again to honor that God you spoke of. nand devie who is uh we should say in. this case a. manifestation as a mountain um from the. goddess Parvati very big goddess in uh. the Hindu Pantheon and the goddess of. like a good goddess goddess of like. great things love marriage uh devotion. Beauty like all all the goodness and. kind of ly things that's funny I noticed. you left out fertility and children.

yeah that's not the. goodness uh so pavari uh again can um. embody a lot of different forms in this. case it was a mountain and so this. pilgrimage would take place every 12. years and rupin is on that route one of. 19 stops and the last stop uh on the way. to the Final Destination which is uh. what is it a mountain called hamund it's. well it's another glacial Lake on the. other side of that really treacherous. Cliff that's above um rupin okay so this.

is the final lake or the the penultimate. Lake before the final Lake right and uh. so this pilgrimage like this exists the. the there's one coming up in 2026 where. people who just haven't undertaken it. before travel this incredibly dangerous. they consider it's the most dangerous. pilgrimage in the Hindu religion um and. a lot of them sure a lot of them do it. Barefoot over the course of about 3. weeks. um and when they get to rkin the second.

to last stop and they continue on up. this very treacherous scary Ridge. Barefoot at 16,000 ft in elevation they. go down another tht to hund where they. um release a ram that they've carried. with them and then the ram is believed. to carry Nanda devie onward to the home. of Lord Shiva her consort who lives just. higher up in the mountain and then. everybody turns around and goes back. down the mountain the way they they came. so we know this pilgrimage actually does.

exist it's called the nandadevi Raj. yatra and um this local Legend says that. hundreds of years ago a king and a queen. king Y sadal and queen Bala who were. rulers of kaj which is still around um. they undertook this pilgrimage but they. weren't taking it seriously enough and. bad things happen to them well yeah. earlier when I I mentioned like sounds. like a party with the parasol and the. musical instruments and stuff that's.

exactly what the theory holds is that uh. they brought along some singers and. dancers on this pilgrimage uh they were. having a good time and nand de deie was. not too fond of this approach did not. like this atmosphere and so rained hell. upon them uh via Giant hailstones and. killed everybody and that is what that. large traveling party was was people. that were killed by a hail storm uh as a. sort of Revenge from a God who didn't.

appreciate how this pilgrimage the the. lack of solemnity for this pilgrimage. right so um this is this is a local. Legend that's been around for a very. long time and when the team of. archaeologists who conducted a study in. 2004 I think this was the first actual. like big study done on what the heck was. going on at rupen Lake um when they. looked into this local lore they're like. actually a lot of the evidence supports. this Legend yeah uh so they started kind.

of really digging into it a little more. uh and they found that um the age range. I think I said of the people involved. were between 18 and 35 yeah so there. weren't any kids at least uh from what. the sample they took was and there. weren't any old people so you could say. all right well this is um possibly a. royal Entourage it would account for it. the thing that really kind of gives that. away is there it was evenly split pretty. much between male and female so we know. it wasn't some sort of military party. because number one weapons are missing.

and number two you would expect it to be. almost exclusively male and then the the. skulls that they sampled bore signs of. trauma like massive trauma to the skulls. that were unhealed which would strongly. support the idea that this person was. killed by a Hailstone and died basically. instantly yeah uh that was one part of. the skull there were some other skulls. or I guess some other U findings on. those skulls that showed indentations in. the same place along the fore head and.

if you have a um you know a an assistant. a local Porter that's like carrying a. bunch of heavy stuff A lot of times. they'll carry things on their backs but. have a strap attached to that thing that. goes around their forehead and if you've. been doing that for long enough like. they would have been then they might. have these you know indentations in the. same place so everything is sort of. lining up here uh they also carbon dated. the bones between 800 and 900 CE which. would have fit the timeline so Phil is. getting pretty excited at this point.

that's right there was another really um. there's another piece of really solid. circumstantial evidence that supported. the legend remember they found a bunch. of Bengals and the remains of parasols. well even still today nand Dei devot who. followed the nand Dei Raj yatra the. pilgrimage I know nice work um they. travel with brightly adorned parasols. and they wear Bangles as part of their. devotion and Ananda devie um and they.

again they found a lot of parasols a lot. of Bengals so it also really strongly. suggest that this was a group of. pilgrims who were struck down around the. time that this local Legend says this. King and queen's party was struck down. on their. pilgrimage all right so you got all this. evidence it all seems to fit uh there. was an analysis in 2004 that I think you. said that was one of the first like big. studies and a archaeologist named Tom. hium from Oxford University said you.

know what I think this is what happened. you guys it all fits and we we do like. to follow the uh the lead of the Le the. local folklore because that can often. yield you know clues or hints to a. direction and we think their directions. right we think hail storms happen around. here uh in the Himalayas it's very. likely that this is probably what. happened uh like nearby there have been. hail storms that have killed hundreds of. people and thousands of livestock with. extremely large hail so uh we think and.

this the those were people who could. have like sheltered even so they're like. all right I think this is it guys let's. shut down the science department yeah. the the incident you're talking about. happened in 1888 it killed 230 people. and so you can imagine if these people. could run for shelter and 230 of them. still died a group of hundreds of people. on a pilgrimage who had no shelter would. have stood zero chance to uh like giant. hail stones that would rain down upon.

them so the theory is that these people. were killed in a single um Mass death. event um they were unlucky enough to get. caught out in a sudden unexpected hail. storm and the people in the um Royal. party the Royal Entourage and their. Porters were all killed the the thing. that they weren't quite clear on is. whether they were all killed at the lake. or higher up on the ridge that leads to. hund um and then eventually their bodies. were deposited by Rock slides down to.

the lake not 100% clear on that but it. didn't matter they felt like they had. solved the mystery finally of what all. these skeletons were doing at rund all. right well let's take our second break. here and we'll come back because the. story is not over you guys and we're. going to talk about what happened right. after this. [Music].

all right so that theory is hanging out. there in 2004 hangs out for about 10. years everyone's feeling pretty good. about it the book is not closed but the. book is you know it's almost closed sure. and then in 2014. I guess it was Phil said maybe we should.

take another look at these samples. everybody this is lwh hanging fruit Phil. yeah like things have come a long way in. the 10 years in science so maybe we. could glean something so a five-year. study kicked off in 2014 involving 16. labs around the world and they sampled. Bones from 38 of those individuals uh. sent them to all these labs and got some. really really interesting results uh in. that out of the 38. 23 belong the these are all different.

people 23 belong to uh the Jee pool that. you would expect to find in that area U. you know some sort of South Asian. ancestry 14 of them had zero South Asian. DNA uh appeared to come from the. Mediterranean and then there was this. one lone person from a third genetic. group maybe Han Chinese some sort of. East Asian ancestry they're like who. who's this guy out of like first of all. why are these people not all the same. people people right uh cuz we can go. ahead and throw that theory out the.

window the first Theory cuz they would. have all been the same you know from the. same ancestry MH so like why are they. from three different groups and why is. there that one weirdo just hanging out. there by himself but also so you could. reasonably see a Han Chinese person. eventually making their way over to. India via Tibet the biggest mystery was. what the heck a group of people from the. Mediterranean were doing all the way up. in the Indian Himalayas at some point. did not fit no it didn't and so um these.

results were quite astounding as you can. imagine but you said I think 16. different Labs were conducting different. kinds of tests and the other labs tests. came in and supported what they had. found about the genetic makeup the. ancestry of those groups one of the. things that they found was that the. diets among the different groups were. different and they actually matched the. um ancestry that the the genetic testing. had revealed so like the people from the. Mediterranean showed that they were.

raised on wheat and barley and rice. which fits a Mediterranean diet the. people of South Asian ancestry showed uh. that they had eaten a lot of millet. which fits their ancestry as well so it. was clear that these these were like. these findings were true like this. wasn't just some weird random. anomaly yeah for sure uh but it it's. it's like the mystery is just deepened. at this point yeah um they tried to find.

as far as the how how the Mediterranean. people got there uh they looked at other. folklore and and uh literature that was. like can we find anything in here where. they're writing about either someone. from the Mediterranean or a group that. was just different and exotic and like. maybe could have been Mediterranean they. basically struck out on that front so uh. the mystery is is deeper at this point. until we get to our final I guess.

greatest reveal um when the study uh. revealed that the skeletons not only. were different people from different. ancestry but within those groups even. they came from different eras yep so. remember I said that like they were. originally trying to account for a. single Mass death event um that. accounted for all of the dead people the. the Assumption was they'd all died at. once um so not only were these mystery.

people from the Mediterranean part of. this group The the groups of people that. they studied had died a thousand years. apart as a matter of fact so the they. had separated them into three groups. based on their genetic ancestry Rubin a. were the members with South Asian. ancestry the people who you'd expect to. be there Rubin B were the Mediterranean. people and they looked at their genetic. profile and they get this they said that. they closest genetic profile around. today are people who live on C which is.

an island South of Greece in the middle. of the Mediterranean they didn't they. said it's we're not saying that these. people were from C but that's the. closest profile we can find to the. people who are dead up on rkin Lake. right yeah um those people died in the. 18th century is the best guess they have. based on the carbon dating the people. from rupin a they died between the. seventh and the 10th centuries and the.

people in that group didn't even seem to. die at the same time that's right but uh. the group a that perished sometime. between the seventh and 10th centuries. does support if you go back to that. original local Legend of King uh yazda. wal and queen Bala boy love seeing Queen. Bala that's a good one uh it does it. does fit with that timeline um but. within that group uh like you said they. seem to have died from in two separate.

eras separated by a couple of hundred. years so it may not have been one you. know I guess it could have been just a. smaller Royal group yeah that doesn't. rule out and all the evidence still. supports that some group from um r rupen. a group could have been that Royal. Entourage that was part of the local. Legend but because there was one group. that died between 675 and 769 and. another group from r rkin a that died. between 894 and 985 CE um they like they.

don't know who is who like they haven't. been able to sus that out and maybe. never will but this mystery just keeps. getting more and more bizarre you have a. group of mystery people who shouldn't be. there you have the fact that different. separate Mass death events happened at. least three times over the course of a. thousand years um and it's just getting. weirder and weirder so the scientists. who are conducting this Mass. survey or study that actually ran I.

think from 2014 to. 2019 um they started sending each other. samples of the samples they had to make. sure that like the people who had tested. for what kind of diet were working from. the same bones that the people had. tested what the genetic profile was of. these of these people and it all came. back the same like there was no mixup. with the bone powder that was sent to. the different labs they were all working. from the same samples and so these. findings were correct it just deepened.

this mystery and it completely upended. what had like you said previously been. thought of as a a solved mystery. generally yeah uh I love the idea of the. one. Rando uh Chinese person because it sort. of jbes with um you know with just. history how there there could be one. person that ends up with another uh. group of people from another place and. like kind of stays with them um are you. have you watched uh the new Shogun.

series no but didn't it just rack up at. the Emmys it did and I previously I. don't know why it didn't like uh get on. my radar too much but after the emms I. was kind of like oh you know what maybe. I should check this out because I love. fudal Japan and all of that stuff is. just like just the aesthetic of it and. um the the story like it's just a part. of history that I like think is super. cool so I started watching it I'm like. four episodes in and it's awesome and. and you know the whole notion here is. there's this British guy that ends up in.

Japan like maybe the first British guy. in Japan and is sort of in a way taken. in by these people so it's uh those. things happen in history where you would. get this just kind of single person all. of a sudden ends up on another side of. the world because they discovered some. new route uh with their ship and all of. a sudden they're like all right well I. guess I live here now is the the British. guy played by Matt Damon again. no did. heun but that was a different movie um.

no uh nor was it Richard Chamberlain who. okay so is this also um based on James. clell's Shogun it is yeah it's the. original story from that but it's really. really good if you're into that kind of. thing I think you would like it okay. I'll check it out um we should also say. that the the lone Han Chinese person uh. made up Rubin Group C they had their own. group yeah group of one like. Phil well there's two Phils but one's.

liked and the other's disliked actually. they're both kind of disliked but one's. really disliked overly yeah he's he's. definitely in his own group so um the. this whole thing like this mystery is. not solved this is still on going what. we've described and and spoken about is. the the state of the current. understanding or the state of the. current questions about what's going on. up at Rubin lake or what went on and so. leads to the question like are we ever. going to be able to solve this and the.

answer to that is there's a good. possibility we will because if you think. back this this 2014 to 19 study was. working with the bone powder from just. 38 individuals yeah and there's as many. as 800 individuals up there so this is a. really small sample so as we start like. analyzing more and more of the skeletons. who knows what weird data we're going to. get back yeah for sure um one of the. problems with uh research at this spot.

uh well there's a few but one of them is. uh you know it became of course a. popular hiking trick for like commercial. hiking trips and over the decades. climbers would go in there and you know. if you look up this Lake and you you'll. definitely see bones that are arranged. and like Carns and like uh you know. clearly put together by the hand of of a. person um much much later and so they're. they're rearranging things taking things. yeah yeah like taking bones and looting.

artifacts and things like that uh but. what happens when you when you rearrange. stuff like that like a like a num skull. um it it takes away the context um who. knows if the original con like we don't. even know what the original context. would have been or if that even would. have yielded anything but we know it's. not going to yield anything now because. there's bones arranged you know like arm. wrestling each other and playing. football and stuff yeah. one of them's wearing leg warmers on his.

armb bone yeah um so uh yeah without. context took you a second huh without. context that means traditional. Archaeology is sidelined right they. can't help out at this point I mean they. can to an extent but like where they. really swoop in and start interpreting. things correctly is with context and. without context their hands are tied. largely um but luckily as we've seen. there's um molecular biology there's. evolutionary genetics there's a lot of.

other tools in the toolbox which is. constantly expanding that we can use to. analyze stuff and make pretty good. guesses from uh you know the bones. themselves not necessarily just how they. were arranged because like you said. there may have never been any kind of. real context there's a lot of rock. slides in the area there was one as. recent as 2005 that that revealed a new. body that hadn't been um found before uh. so it's possible that these things these. bodies were moved down the mountain over.

the course of a thousand years maybe. even longer yeah so it's possible that. that we wouldn't have had any context. anyway and it's not just a bunch of. jerky mountain climbers who were messing. with the bones in the 10 years that you. could hike past Rubin Lake yeah my money. is on uh that first theory for some of. them M that Entourage because that. definitely explains a lot of the stuff. the parasols and the Bengal and the uh.

the the musical instruments and stuff uh. and then I think the rock slide thing. definitely plays aart because a lot of. Bones could have just you know collected. down there over the. centuries um I don't know like this this. one doesn't seem to me like there's. going to be a single definitive. explanation but a combination of. explanations yeah totally I mean and. there's so many ways to die up there. like not just tail stones or Rock slides. but also just plain old blizzards. getting lost in a blizzard and.

succumbing to the elements is really. easy up there I mean there's just a lot. of ways to die and so yeah it could be. group after group a lot of them on these. this. pilgrimage um that just died over the. years in this one particular spot it's. just that dangerous um but that still. leaves the mystery of what a group of. Mediterraneans possibly from Creek were. doing on a very um I mean outside of. Hindu a pretty obscure pilgrimage like I. certainly had heard of it before and I. got my finger on the pulse of.

pilgrimages around the world and I. hadn't heard of it so how did these. people from the Mediterranean in the. 18th century end up on this pilgrimage. that may be a mystery forever especially. because there's no Legends or folklor. associated with it but I think a lot of. the questions are going to be unlocked. because luckily since the lake itself. has frozen over 10 months of the year um. a lot of the bodies or skeletons or. remains are preserved at the bottom of. this this Lake um because even when it's.

like the Lake's melted it's really cold. and you don't want to go in it and so. all it's going to take is somebody to. take a really. comprehensive uh study of the remains in. the lake and again who knows what what. weird stuff it's going to yield it's one. to keep an eye on and I just I love this. mystery to me it it being uh answered is. preferable to it remaining a mystery. which is kind of like the opposite how a. lot of Unsolved Mysteries are especially.

historic Mysteries yeah for sure uh. another good thing on the hope of. finding something out about this is they. did the government um did shut down that. route to hikers and Commercial hiking so. like that's it's not going to be. disturbed by those uh Knuckleheads. anymore no and I'm guessing because it's. a solemn occasion and the um pilgrims. are taking you know their pilgrimage. seriously they're probably not much. messing with the skeletons at ruband. among the pilgrims themselves so I would.

think so now that you've done away with. the commercial climbers it's probably. fairly safe now yeah agreed uh okay you. got anything else about Rubin Lake and. the Mystery of the skeletons there. nothing else I don't either um hopefully. you guys enjoyed this as much as I have. uh and since I said that of course it's. time for listener. mail uh this is just a very sweet. appreciative email it's um a little long. but it's a good episode for this one.

sure hey guys for the sake of brevity. I'll jump straight in my name is. Samantha I'm uh from Saskatchewan in. Canada and today's my 30th birthday uh. earlier this year I made a list of. individuals who through their work have. greatly impacted my worldview and my. goal was to write to the top 30 people. who have influenced my mindset and you. guys are on that list NE uh my spouse. and I actually only only religiously. consume your content for about a month. out of the entire year during our road. trips. uh you're the voices in our car and have. been for years now you've explained the.

Grand Canyon as we drive through Las. Vegas how tsunamis work so we wind down. the west coast and how dopamine works as. we drive to Cedar Point Amusement Park. yeah it's an it's an odd thing I've. almost come to associate your voices. with my favorite weeks of the year that. I look uh forward to and I simply want. to say thanks for contributing to those. memories in an indirect way that's. awesome uh one comment I made and you're. about to love this part Josh cuz you get. you look pretty good in this oh okay uh. sit up sh up uh one comment I made in my.

spouse during a most recent road trip uh. to BC this summer was how you two speak. to each other uh the complete respect. and appreciation for each other's. personal moments I cannot for the life. of me remember the exact details but. Chuck made some mention in one of the. episodes about being able to relate to a. difficult family environment when. growing up and the feedback given by. Josh was in two parts first to thank him. for sharing that and to apologize uh. that he went through that as a kid and. then to go on to provide commentary and.

move the episode forward that was one of. the many examples of you both being. Stellar holesome human beings and I hope. the people in your life tell you this. often if your audience can see this. trait uh during the episodes I cannot. imagine how much uh more compassionate. and empathetic you are in everyday life. well we may be more so on the show. actually we're not that great uh to. leave one final sentiment though guys if. you ever have days where you grapple. with your purpose question whether what. you're doing has made an impact or feel. the desire to know that what you do.

carries meaning please know that you. have done that for at least one person. for that I cannot thank you enough. Samantha kitel kitel with a z Oh really. even better uh Samantha thank you so. much for that we can't tell you how much. we appreciate you for for writing that. to us that means a lot especially the. part about me and happy happy birthday. and uh also hello to your spouse and we. look forward to the next road trip yeah. be safe on your travels have fun and yes. happy birthday uh and if you want to be.

like Samantha and get in touch with us. you can do that you can send it via. email to stuff podcast iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].