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Unexplained

The Dorset Ooser

Melbury Osmond, Dorset

A horned wooden mask that terrified villagers, then disappeared.

The Ooser was a huge carved wooden mask with bull's horns, a grinning mouth and a beard, kept by a family in Melbury Osmond. It was used in old folk customs to frighten people who had misbehaved.

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When
Vanished c.1897
Where
50.8600, -2.6200
Group
Unexplained

Visiting

See the replica at the Dorset Museum in Dorchester. Melbury Osmond is a pretty village near Yeovil.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Artifacts and Civilizations by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Artifacts and Civilizations

Not every mystery needs a lost continent. This book investigates fifty-nine real and often overlooked puzzles from the ancient and modern world: a temple older than farming itself, astonishing structures, out-of-place artifacts, and technologies lost to time. Each case is weighed honestly, with a clear ledger of the case for and against, so you can make up your own mind. Some cases collapse under scrutiny. Others remain genuinely unexplained. All of them are stranger than Atlantis.

Buy on AmazonAll books by Cale Mills

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