Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art paid a handsome sum for the statue. In The forty dollar price tag was the equivalent of nearly six hundred thousand dollars today, but to the Met it was worth the price. The statue, known as the Big Warrior, stood nearly seven feet tall and showed the likeness of a soldier from the Etruscan civilization. They were a people group that lived in central Italy, but were absorbed into the Roman Empire as it grew and took over the region. It's an older and less own culture, and relics from that period are incredibly difficult to find, So yeah, the Met knew a good deal when it saw one. The statue was part of a collection that the met purchased over the span of six years from a team of restoration experts in Italy. The Big Warrior had been pieced back together by this team. Two brothers and their sons, all with the last name Ricardi, but other items were in a less complete state. One example was the four foot tall sculpture of a warrior's head, the body lost to time. Experts of the met concluded that when it was new, the head sat atop a statue nearly twenty five ft tall. The last item purchased was another warrior of similar height to the big warrior. This one was put on display as the old warrior, but it was in much worse shape. The entire right arm had been lost, as had the thumb from the left hand, but it was still beautiful and made for a great addition to their growing Etruscan collection. The exhibit featuring them opened in nineteen thirty three, but right from the start there were scholars who had doubts. There were debates and papers published from both sides of the argument, but by the nineteen sixties most archaeologists were in agreement the Etruscan statues were fakes. There were a number of pieces of evidence that helped seal the case. Part of it came down to the chemical analysis of the glaze used on the terra cotta, but there were also some discrepancies regarding the way these statues were crafted and fired. Etrushcans made everything in one piece, while these were clearly built in segments and later assembled. Finally, in nineteen sixty one, an elderly man named Alfredo Fioravanti slowly walked into the American Consul in Rome, where he sat down and wrote out a formal confession. He had been a sculptor employed by the Riccardi's back in the early nineteen hundreds, helping them craft allow forgeries that were later sold to museums like the met in New York. Even had photographs of the statues to show them. Furavanti told them how they did it too. They would work for months to craft a statue and get it just right, and then when it was finished, they would push it over and watch it shatter into hundreds of pieces. Then painstakingly they would reassemble it, as any restoration expert might do with a broken archaeological find. If parts were ever missing, that was entirely by design, as in the case of the Old Warrior. The authorities were skeptical, though one man decades later claiming to have answers to a long forgotten mystery. Well, that's the stuff of movie plots and paperback thrillers. Not real life, but the old man insisted he was telling the truth. To prove it, he pulled a small object out of his pocket and placed it on the table. The authorities there gave him a puzzled look before picking the item up and turning it over in their hands. When they realized what it was, they knew the mystery had been solved. It was a piece of the old Warrior that no one had ever seen before, but everyone had assume existed once the missing left thumb. It's one of the many tales of the founding of America. Settlers from England were exploring more and more of the New World, and as they did, they set up new communities far from the comfort of home. We know these stories as well as the backs of our hands, if not in detail, then at least in theme. Most of the original states have a story that echoes these themes. But there's one tale in particular that I want to tell you. Some think it begins as far back as the late sixteen seventies, when English settlers began to cross over the Appalachian Mountains. First there were dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands. They made their homes in an area that was part of the far western edge of the colonies of North Carolina and Virginia, Settling along the Wattuauga River Valley, they farmed and hunted for years, making a new life for themselves. But in seventeen sixty three, England declared it to be illegal to cross the mountains into the west, so they had a choice returned to North Carolina's legal territory or become united and support themselves. They had fought to be there, after all, defending themselves against the Cherokee tribe of Native Americans. They didn't want to give up on all of that. In seventeen seventy two, they drafted a document that foreshadowed the coming declaration of independence. With it, they formed the Wattuauga Association, set up courts and a militia, and continued to defend their territory. A few years later, the British sent troops over the mountains to attack them, but these frontiersmen were stronger than they seemed. They met the British at the foot of King's Mountain and sent them retreating back into the eastern colonies. After the war was over, they tried their hand at being a satellite colony of North Carolina, But after being taxed almost as severely as they had under the Crown, they succeeded to go it alone. In seventeen eighty four, they set up their own state, America's fourteenth in fact, and elected a governor named John Seviere. Thomas Jefferson even backed their move and helped them make a formal request to the government to be recognized as a new American state. Sadly, they failed to get the votes necessary, and their entire enterprise fell apart about four years after becoming an independent state. Their lands were repossessed by North Carolina, and Sevier was a reested as a trader, which is why you've never heard of the first fourteenth state in American history, a state named after one of the heroes of the Revolution, Benjamin Franklin. Yes, the State of Franklin was shut down before it could even begin its new official life, but the spirit that gave birth to it, the strength of the frontier settlers and their fierce independence, helped keep the dream alive. In seventeen nineties, six twelve years after their first failure, the people of the territory were successfully admitted to the Union as a state. They changed the name from Franklin to Tennessee, and it's stuck ever since. Oh and their first governor none other than John Seviere. Naturally, It's a powerful lesson wrapped up in a bit of lost bizarre history. Our failures often hurt, but over time most people will forget about them. What's truly important, it seems, is to ever give up. You never know how things will turn out in the end. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.

Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art paid a handsome sum for the statue. In The forty dollar price tag was the equivalent of nearly six hundred thousand dollars today, but to the Met it was worth the price. The statue, known as the Big Warrior, stood nearly seven feet tall and showed the likeness of a soldier from the Etruscan civilization. They were a people group that lived in central Italy, but were absorbed into the Roman Empire as it grew and took over the region. It's an older and less own culture, and relics from that period are incredibly difficult to find, So yeah, the Met knew a good deal when it saw one. The statue was part of a collection that the met purchased over the span of six years from a team of restoration experts in Italy. The Big Warrior had been pieced back together by this team. Two brothers and their sons, all with the last name Ricardi, but other items were in a less complete state. One example was the four foot tall sculpture of a warrior's head, the body lost to time. Experts of the met concluded that when it was new, the head sat atop a statue nearly twenty five ft tall. The last item purchased was another warrior of similar height to the big warrior. This one was put on display as the old warrior, but it was in much worse shape. The entire right arm had been lost, as had the thumb from the left hand, but it was still beautiful and made for a great addition to their growing Etruscan collection. The exhibit featuring them opened in nineteen thirty three, but right from the start there were scholars who had doubts. There were debates and papers published from both sides of the argument, but by the nineteen sixties most archaeologists were in agreement the Etruscan statues were fakes. There were a number of pieces of evidence that helped seal the case. Part of it came down to the chemical analysis of the glaze used on the terra cotta, but there were also some discrepancies regarding the way these statues were crafted and fired. Etrushcans made everything in one piece, while these were clearly built in segments and later assembled. Finally, in nineteen sixty one, an elderly man named Alfredo Fioravanti slowly walked into the American Consul in Rome, where he sat down and wrote out a formal confession. He had been a sculptor employed by the Riccardi's back in the early nineteen hundreds, helping them craft allow forgeries that were later sold to museums like the met in New York. Even had photographs of the statues to show them. Furavanti told them how they did it too. They would work for months to craft a statue and get it just right, and then when it was finished, they would push it over and watch it shatter into hundreds of pieces. Then painstakingly they would reassemble it, as any restoration expert might do with a broken archaeological find. If parts were ever missing, that was entirely by design, as in the case of the Old Warrior. The authorities were skeptical, though one man decades later claiming to have answers to a long forgotten mystery. Well, that's the stuff of movie plots and paperback thrillers. Not real life, but the old man insisted he was telling the truth. To prove it, he pulled a small object out of his pocket and placed it on the table. The authorities there gave him a puzzled look before picking the item up and turning it over in their hands. When they realized what it was, they knew the mystery had been solved. It was a piece of the old Warrior that no one had ever seen before, but everyone had assume existed once the missing left thumb. It's one of the many tales of the founding of America. Settlers from England were exploring more and more of the New World, and as they did, they set up new communities far from the comfort of home. We know these stories as well as the backs of our hands, if not in detail, then at least in theme. Most of the original states have a story that echoes these themes. But there's one tale in particular that I want to tell you. Some think it begins as far back as the late sixteen seventies, when English settlers began to cross over the Appalachian Mountains. First there were dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands. They made their homes in an area that was part of the far western edge of the colonies of North Carolina and Virginia, Settling along the Wattuauga River Valley, they farmed and hunted for years, making a new life for themselves. But in seventeen sixty three, England declared it to be illegal to cross the mountains into the west, so they had a choice returned to North Carolina's legal territory or become united and support themselves. They had fought to be there, after all, defending themselves against the Cherokee tribe of Native Americans. They didn't want to give up on all of that. In seventeen seventy two, they drafted a document that foreshadowed the coming declaration of independence. With it, they formed the Wattuauga Association, set up courts and a militia, and continued to defend their territory. A few years later, the British sent troops over the mountains to attack them, but these frontiersmen were stronger than they seemed. They met the British at the foot of King's Mountain and sent them retreating back into the eastern colonies. After the war was over, they tried their hand at being a satellite colony of North Carolina, But after being taxed almost as severely as they had under the Crown, they succeeded to go it alone. In seventeen eighty four, they set up their own state, America's fourteenth in fact, and elected a governor named John Seviere. Thomas Jefferson even backed their move and helped them make a formal request to the government to be recognized as a new American state. Sadly, they failed to get the votes necessary, and their entire enterprise fell apart about four years after becoming an independent state. Their lands were repossessed by North Carolina, and Sevier was a reested as a trader, which is why you've never heard of the first fourteenth state in American history, a state named after one of the heroes of the Revolution, Benjamin Franklin. Yes, the State of Franklin was shut down before it could even begin its new official life, but the spirit that gave birth to it, the strength of the frontier settlers and their fierce independence, helped keep the dream alive. In seventeen nineties, six twelve years after their first failure, the people of the territory were successfully admitted to the Union as a state. They changed the name from Franklin to Tennessee, and it's stuck ever since. Oh and their first governor none other than John Seviere. Naturally, It's a powerful lesson wrapped up in a bit of lost bizarre history. Our failures often hurt, but over time most people will forget about them. What's truly important, it seems, is to ever give up. You never know how things will turn out in the end. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.