Plot Synopsis

Using new research and innovative technologies, STRANGEST THINGS is a one-hour documentary series that reveals the unbelievable, the ancient and the truly bizarre objects on Earth. They were created by cultures from across the world, yet they all share one thing in common -- each one of them has confounded or amazed experts, sometimes for centuries. Now, by rebuilding them, pulling them apart and zooming in to microscopic evidence, STRANGEST THINGS examines them in extraordinary detail to reveal the truth.

In 2009, a phone shaped clay tablet is handed in to the British Museum for investigation. Experts quickly realize the artifact is covered in Babylonian Cuneiform writing -- the earliest known form of writing on Earth -- dating the tablet back at least 3,700 years. By deciphering the 60 lines of text, experts now believe the tablet is an instruction manual to build a boat of colossal size and an oddly round shape. Could this tablet prove that Noah's Ark could've been real? Was the boat outlined on the tablet ever built? And could a second tablet be hidden away somewhere holding the answers experts are desperate to find?

Shaped like a miniature, modern-day carousel, the Tempest Prognosticator is one of the strangest and most mysterious scientific instruments in history. Driven by a 19th century obsession with weather prediction, this Victorian-era barometer is unlike any object before or since -- because it is powered by leeches. Leeches were popular in the medical communities of the time, but one man believed they could do much more; by sensing atmospheric conditions and forecasting storms. This strange thing was praised in the press for its powers of prediction and displayed at the Great Exhibition as an example of British scientific skill. But if the Tempest Prognosticator is so great, what happens to it? And why don't today's forecasters use leeches for weather prediction?

In 1881, archaeologists discover a hoard of coffins in Egypt crammed into a tomb near the River Nile. But even amongst this astonishing trove of finds, one coffin stands out. It carries no inscription or identifying marks and inside they uncover the bizarre, shocking corpse of a young man. His hands and feet had been bound, his face is frozen in an agonizing scream. The body has riddled archaeologists for decades. Who was this man? And what had he done to be treated like this? Now, with the help of DNA analysis and CT scans, experts believe they may be able to finally reveal the true story behind the "screaming mummy."