12 Most Amazing Ancient Artifacts Finds

the best archaeological discoveries aren't the ones that you can pick up and understand immediately they're the ones that require extensive study and research before we can fully understand them the more we study them the more we find out about the lives and cultures of our ancient ancestors every amazing artifact you're about to see in this video is like a mini-history lesson if land is transferred from one person to another today a digital record of the transfer is made with hard copies available on request things were a little more set in stone in ancient times and we mean set in stone quite literally this is the kaduru of melishihu the inscriptions and carvings on its surface are beautiful but they also serve a practical purpose they contain records of gifts and the bestowing of land to people by the various cassite dynasty kings of ancient babylon the fact that its cascite helps us to date the stone artifact which is approximately 3 200 years old the most surprising of all the transactions it details is the transfer of four regions of cultivated land and all the settlements built upon them from king melly cepac ii to a man named marduk abla adina who's described as the king's servant historians can't agree on what's meant by this it would be highly irregular for a king to give whole towns or villages to a servant so marduk applaudina could be the king's son his nephew or even his lover british east asia india company soldier james lewis led a double life in the 19th century he was also known as charles mason and in his guys as misson he was a noted archaeologist arguably the greatest of all his discoveries was the baimaran casket which he found during his stay in afghanistan in the 1830s it's often described as a reliquary but there's no evidence that it ever contained human remains however it did contain some very controversial coins both the casket and the coins date back to the first century bce and the latter are stamped with the name of indo-scithian king azaz ii the controversy here is that several historians don't believe ozess the second ever existed and that the person thought to be ozess the second is actually azez the first returning for a second reign as king just as controversial is the depiction of the buddha on the casket's decorative inscriptions which are said to be the oldest known depictions of the buddha in any form and show him an atypical dress and pose archaeologists are confident they have the age of the artifact right but the combination of coins from a non-existent king and an unfamiliar buddha makes many historians view the by marin casket with suspicion during the second world war the germans believed their enigma code machines would help them win the war what they didn't know is that british scientist alan turing and his colleagues cracked the code in 1941 and understood all of their coded transmissions the nazis protected the code machines even in the final days of the war going as far as throwing them overboard from ships and submarines to prevent their capture experts think that's how this one enigma code machine m522 ended up on the seabed close to flensburg fjord in jutland where it was found by a fisherman in the 1990s it's been on display in the post-intelli museum in copenhagen denmark ever since its discovery but in 2016 researchers found out their exhibit was even more special than they already believed it to be by comparing records of serial numbers they discovered that this is the oldest known surviving enigma machine in the world the first enigma machine was invented in 1932 and while this wouldn't have been built that year it probably already existed by the time the second world war broke out an experienced archaeologist will see dozens of tombs during their career so it's worth paying attention when one of them describes the tomb as exceptional in march 2015 this exceptional tomb was found in the champaign region of france close to the town of lavao experts say that the tomb is approximately 2500 years old and was most likely built for a celtic prince if they're right it proves there was some cultural fusion happening in europe 2500 years ago the celts mostly kept to their tribes but some of their figurines carvings and other artifacts recovered from the tomb show ancient greek and etruscan influences the burial mound is enormous measuring 130 feet across the center with the suspected prince buried in his chariot right at the heart of it chariot burials were considered a significant honor among celtic tribes but the chariot wasn't the only thing that this person was honored with he also went to his grave with a variety of iron and metal goods including a stunning bronze wine cauldron historians think the celts probably didn't create such objects themselves and instead obtained them through trade with their neighbors archaeologists aren't the only people with a keen interest in ancient artifacts criminals are always looking to get their hands on them too there's an enormous black market trade in valuable artifacts but sometimes those black market goods get intercepted by the police in 2015 police in toket turkey managed to seize this incredible 1000 year old gold leaf bible it's one of the most spectacular bibles of this era ever found the language inscribed upon its pages is ancient assyrian but what makes it especially unusual is the number of illustrations upon its pages many of them are pictures of christ looking very different from the way he's portrayed in western bibles the cover of the tome has been almost totally destroyed by the ravages of time but the 10 pages within it are in surprisingly good condition finding out who made it will probably never be possible but an analysis of the pages suggests it was made in anatolia very few christian artifacts from the dark ages have survived to the present day so this rare artifact might yet shed new light on how the religion survived and progressed during those years [Music] how many archaeological questions can be raised by a simple decorated seashell well take a look at this one and find out it's a type of ornamental seashell known as a gorget and was found in newtown ohio usa in february 2015. the image etched into its surface seems to be half bird and half cat three holes have been drilled into the artifact for unknown reasons although it's possible that the one in the middle allowed it to be attached to a wall or perhaps even a piece of clothing half-cat half-bird designs are usually referred to as griffins but the native americans aren't thought to have had any concept of such a creature instead historians believe that this might be an abstract representation of a carolina parakeet the bird is extinct now but would have been a common sight in the area when the seashell was made 1500 years ago the shell itself has been traced to either the gulf coast or the southern atlantic region which implies it was traded across a long distance before it was decorated was there a ceremonial importance to this or is it just a 1500 year old doodle nature sometimes gives archaeologists a helping hand when it comes to making ancient discoveries heavy rain or storms can disturb the top layer of soil revealing objects that have been buried for centuries that was the case with this stunning thirty five hundred year old egyptian seal which was found in karnai hatan israel by a hiker in february 2016. the area is known locally as the horns of hatton on account of the presence of a twin peak volcano that's been extinct for thousands of years there was a fortified citadel here in the bronze age which probably explains the presence of the egyptian seal the hiker handed their lucky find to the israeli antiquities authority which was able to date it quickly because of the design of the scarab on its seal it's a specific representation of the egyptian pharaoh thutmose iii who ruled between 1481 and 1425 bce his cartouche also appears on the tiny seal it was thutmose who set up a governmental administrative system in canon so his influence was felt keenly in this part of the world the seal probably belonged to one of his emissaries who would have used it as proof of their authenticity [Music] our ancient ancestors had ways of marking time that didn't include clocks and they also had ways of mapping the stars that didn't involve telescopes combine those two things together and you get something like this star calendar from the underground library of king ashurbanipal in nineveh iraq the library which was built roughly 2650 years ago is thought to contain the sum total of all babylonian knowledge there's an enormous cache of clay and stone tablets in the library but perhaps none so fascinating as this flat disc it's inscribed with the names of the babylonian months written in assyrian cuneiform and also features the names of important stars along with their positions in the night sky experts think that the calendar combines elements of both the solar and lunar cycle to provide a definable and predictable beginning for each year based on this the babylonian new year happened around the time of the spring equinox this might only be a fragment of the full calendar but it also shows that many of the constellations we recognize today were first recorded by the babylonians who passed them on to the greeks and then eventually to us back in the summer of 2015 archaeologists conducted an extended dig at the site of kirby el ika not far from the sea of galilee they were hoping to find artifacts that might help them to date the settlement of the nearby hills and they found exactly what they were looking for this bronze tool which historians believe was used to shovel incense is around 2200 years old this is the first hard evidence to support a theory that kerbet al-aika was founded 2300 years ago before being destroyed about 200 years later going on to be repopulated by non-jewish people in the third century and then coming under jewish rule toward the end of the hellenistic period the style of incense shovel is distinctively pagan with greco-roman influences it might even have been imported here from roads or coasts rather than being a product of the local people items like these would have been considered luxuries by the standards of the time so whoever owned it presumably lived a comfortable lifestyle it's even been hypothesized that the first occupants of the area were a community of gentiles and pacifists who were easily crushed by the hasmonean dynasty but further hard evidence would be required to prove that many of the world's ancient civilizations believed in the powers of mystic shamans supposed wise men who had the power to heal the human body and perhaps also predict the future the precise powers ascribed to a shaman varied from location to location as did the outfits they wore it wasn't uncommon for a shaman to wear a mask but most such masks weren't quite as terrifying as this one from tibet it was used during either the 13th or 14th century and it's carved from a single human skull the amount of work that must have gone into creating the mask is incredible it's been lined with brass and gilded copper and then decorated with coral silver and gold the intricacy of the carvings at the top of the skull means that it must have taken days just to craft this single mask it's likely that the shaman who owned this also owned several more in case of breakages or laws as for what the mask might have symbolized we have no idea one theory is that wearing the face of someone who's died might allow a shaman to communicate with the afterlife but that's just a best guess you don't have to go back thousands of years in time to find curious inventions and artifacts here's one from 1870 a mere 150 years ago in historical terms that's little more than the blink of an eye it's a mauling hanson writing ball and was hailed as the greatest invention of the year two years earlier the typewriter had been invented but the writing ball was briefly considered to be a better alternative once you are comfortable with the unusual positioning of the keys typing along the ball was apparently faster than typing using a conventional typewriter after exhibiting the machine all over the world rasmus malling hansen made it commercially available in 1875 but continued making improvements on it all the way up until his death in 1890 unfortunately for the commercial prospects of the writing ball every single unit of it had to be handmade so production was slow it was far easier for offices and riders to get their hands on mass-produced typewriters so typewriters won the commercial battle despite the inferiority of the product had malling hanson made his machine a little easier to build and replicate the familiar qwerty keyboard would never have caught on as an idea you've probably heard it said that people didn't have to lock their doors in the olden days because nobody stole from their neighbors your parents might have said it to you about it in their youths and their grandparents probably told the same story to them it's always been a lie people have been locking their doors to protect their property since the invention of the lock in evidence here's the oldest known door lock in the world it comes from egypt and it's approximately 4 000 years old it's actually a remarkable technological achievement for the people of the time with both the lock and the key made out of wood keys warping or braking must have been common problems for the locksmiths of the time to add to the practicality problems the average key was one foot long so it's not exactly the sort of thing you'd pick up and take out of the house with you also the door could only be locked or unlocked from the outside you could lock your home if you were going out for the day but if you were inside your home you had to leave the door open unless you climbed out the window and locked it subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and you will be the first to know when a new video comes out thank you for watching and see you in the next video

Channel: Inforado

Views: 54,073

Rating: 4.8989549 out of 5

Keywords: 12 Most Amazing Ancient Artifacts Finds, artifacts finds, archaeological finds, ancient artifacts, ancient finds, ancient archaeology, mysterious, archaeological artifacts, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: dqoiTxsfL_E

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 20 2021