This Week In History News, Dec. 16 – 22

Published December 21, 2018

Possible world's oldest pyramid discovered, 18th-century rockets unearthed, CIA dog experiments from the Cold War revealed.

Gunung Padang Is The Oldest Pyramid On Earth, Research Claims

Ancient Indonesian Pyramid Gunung Padang

Wikimedia CommonsThe Gunung Padang site.

Though few seem to know it, there’s been an ancient pyramid that’s been hiding underneath a mountain in Indonesia for centuries. It’s known as Gunung Padang and one researcher has reason to believe that this may be the oldest pyramid still standing on Earth.

ScienceAlert reported that new research presented at the AGU (American Geophysical Union) 2018 Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. proposed that the site of the world’s oldest known pyramid-like structure is actually at the Gunung Padang megalithic site, located in the West Java Province of Indonesia.

Dig deeper in this look at Gunung Padang.

More Than 1,000 Unexploded 18th-Century Rockets Were Just Discovered In India

Unexploded Rockets In India

AFP/Ganesh GANIA crowd stands around the unexploded 18th-century rockets found in Nagara, India.

More than 1,000 unexploded 18th-century rockets have just been recovered from an abandoned well at a fort in the Karnataka state in southern India.

The rockets are believed to have belonged to the Muslim warrior king Tipu Sultan, who ruled over Karnataka’s Shivamogga district at the time, according to Archaeology.

The rockets were discovered when the well that’s located at Nagara Fort was undergoing renovations and repairs.

Read more here.

CIA Project MKUltra Achieved Dog Mind Control During The Cold War, Declassified Documents Reveal

Canine Brain Surgery Diagram

CIAA diagram of the electrode harness device used to control the dogs.

It’s been widely speculated that the CIA has dabbled in human mind control projects in the past, especially during the Cold War. But now, newly uncovered documents reveal that humans weren’t the only test subject of interest.

The infamous “behavior modification” (a.k.a. mind control) experiments carried out under the banner of Project MKUltra employed the likes of psychotropic drugs, electrical shocks, and radio waves to control human minds. However, the documents from 1967 now available thanks to the Freedom of Information Act paints a much broader picture of what the CIA was trying to accomplish with the notorious MKUltra.

According to Newsweek, the documents were handed over at the request of John Greenewald, founder of The Black Vault, a site specializing in declassified government records. And one letter reveals that animal mind control was not off the table at the CIA.

See more in this report.

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All That's Interesting
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Established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together a dedicated staff of digital publishing veterans and subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science. From the lesser-known byways of human history to the uncharted corners of the world, we seek out stories that bring our past, present, and future to life. Privately-owned since its founding, All That's Interesting maintains a commitment to unbiased reporting while taking great care in fact-checking and research to ensure that we meet the highest standards of accuracy.
editor
John Kuroski
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John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.