12 Most Amazing Archaeological Artifacts Finds

an artifact is a history lesson in physical form by studying artifacts we find out new information about the civilizations and people of the past the right artifact can put us in touch with our own history not every artifact discovery is interesting or exciting but the ones you're about to see in this video are buckle up it's going to be a wild ride if you're a fan of british comedy you might have heard of the famous monty python dead parrot sketch in that sketch the deceased parrot at the center of the tail is useless the same can't be said of this mummified parrot the recent discovery and study of a mummified parrot in the atacama desert has confirmed the existence of a complicated international trade network stretching across the desert during the 12th century at the time feathered birds were highly valued in the americas and exotic ones were even more valuable they were often used in high status burials as archaeologists believe this one was parrots aren't native to the atacama so this one must have been transported across the andes to reach northern chile keeping a parrot alive in this climate would have been extremely difficult and yet here this parrot mummy is as proof that it happened it came from 300 miles away in the eastern amazon and was probably transported in a llama caravan we'll never know how much this complex transport operation cost the buyer but it must have been a significant sum [Music] it's not always true that having a long impressive name makes an artifact valuable but it's true more often than it isn't it's certainly the case with the golden pectoral of tofsta mojila this ancient scythian treasure was recovered from a burial mound in the south of ukraine in 1971 not far from the city of pakrov when translated into english tov star mojilla means fat barrow which is a fairly inauspicious name for a very auspicious artifact this stunning breastplate probably belonged to a scythian chieftain but may not be sciviene in origin historians think it's more likely that it was made by greek artisans living in pantasepium on the black sea a part of the world we know today is crimea there's some debate about that though the style of the piece is greek but the imagery of it is distinctly scivient because of that it may have been built to order for a skillion who knew that greek craftsmanship was better than anything they would have found closer to home rather than being made from a single piece of gold the breastplate was created by soldering dozens of individually cast pieces a remarkable achievement for someone who lived more than 1 000 years ago one of the christian faiths central tenets is that a good christian should live a humble life it is therefore more than a little odd that the vatican holds so much gold and wealth but that's been the case for several centuries perhaps the most striking example of a pope having taste for gold is the so-called coach of the oceans which belong to pope clement xi clement served his pope from november 1700 to march 1721. he received this coach from king john v of portugal in 1716 who sent it as a gift just one such gift would be generous but the coach of the oceans was one of five cars themed in this way among a collection of 15 that the king sent to the pope in the hope of receiving many blessings in return the stunning boxcar is covered in solid gold adornments lined with red silk velvet and embroidered with gold thread it's typical of a style that was popular with the european monarchs of the time indeed some coaches of this style are still occasionally used by the british royal family what on earth are you supposed to do with a gift like this [Music] the vikings raided conquered and pillaged their way across much of europe in the 9th and 10th centuries when they arrived in scotland local legends say that the native scots put up quite a fight with a particularly large and brutal battle waged in galloway there was no solid evidence of this battle until 2014 when amateur archaeologist derek mclennan discovered the incredible collection of viking treasure that's now known as the galloway horde it's the largest collection of viking treasure ever found on the british isles consisting of just under 100 artifacts all of which are 1000 years old it's hard to say what the most incredible individual artifact in the horde is but many people feel that it's the beautiful anglo-saxon cross such is the ornate quality of this piece that historians believe it could only have belonged to a king or possibly a very important religious leader the cross is made of black and yellow with gold leaf decorations and symbology etched into its surface that refers to gospel authors matthew mark luke and john the cross alone is worth two million dollars the whole collection is worth far more within the state of hesse in germany you'll find the global archaeological site 2 500 years ago global was an important celtic social center and there are plenty of relics of that era still to be discovered buried in the earth there one of the most striking artifacts found at glauberg to date is the so-called globberg prince it's a sculpture that was found inside a burial mount that archaeologists believe belonged to a member of the culture's warrior elite perhaps even a chief the statue might have been a representation of the prince as he looked when he was alive the sandstone figure wears a celtic warrior's trousers and tunic and carries a sword and shield some of the jewelry that can be seen on the figure is identical to real jewelry found elsewhere within the burial mound items like this were probably common grave goods within the tombs of important members of celtic society but very few have survived to the present day the fact that it's in such remarkably good condition has allowed historians their first glimpse at celtic headdresses not all historians think we're looking at headdresses though there's another theory that the celts used lime and tree sap as a form of hair gel and combed it backwards to make themselves look taller so the chief's hair might really have looked like this there are several ancient documents that lay claim to being the world's oldest book and it's almost impossible to say definitively which one of them is correct suppose your definition of a book is a document consisting of pages bound together between a front cover and a back cover in that case it's impossible to escape the conclusion that the title rightfully belongs to the golden orphism book it's a relic of the etruscan civilization and was found in bulgaria in 1955. aside from being historically significant the orphism book is also enormously valuable both the front and back covers are made from 23.82 carat gold the book which contains information about religious beliefs and practices is 2600 years old sadly we know very little about the etruscans so quite how they developed such incredible goldsmith techniques is a mystery to us it's also something of a mystery that it ended up in bulgaria historians believe it must have found its way there through trade but it's unusual for religious artifacts to be traded in such a manner it's now held at the national history museum in sofia where it's being studied by historians today in the hope that they might eventually unlock more of its secrets elsewhere in bulgaria archaeologists found this fragment of a relief of a greek warrior in early 2021 the terracotta artifact was discovered on the black sea coast not far from sosipol the piece is only a tiny fragment of a work of art that must have once been significantly larger but clearly shows two hoplites marching together dressed in corinthian style battle armor complete with breastplates and helmets historians say it's around 2500 years old the soldier at the front of the relief holds a horn to his mouth while the other wields a spear and has a shield strapped to his back based on other rubble and detritus found in the area it seems it was once part of a freeze in a temple dedicated to apollo when sosopol was founded by colonists from greece 2700 years ago it was named apollonia pontica so the whole town was dedicated to apollo in one way or another local archaeologists say that this piece might fit with other pieces found in 2018 and 2019 although it's probably too much to hope that every piece of the freeze is buried somewhere in the region the history of the koreas is long and complicated perhaps even more complicated than the region is today between the 1st century bce and the 7th century ce was the three kingdoms period which is where our next amazing artifact comes from it's a gilt bronze buddha triad and even though it's a little damaged you can still get a sense of what a marvelous thing it must have been to look at when it was brand new the piece was discovered in the ground close to jiji on temple's stone pagoda in yangyang gangwon in october 2017. archaeologists believe that it comes from towards the end of the three kingdoms period probably having been made in the late 6th century at the center of the triad is the bodhisattva avalokitvara with a pair of hyopsy bodhisattvas on either side of them the facial expressions of the figures depicted on the artifact are clearly visible as are the patterns on their clothing this makes it exceptionally rare and valuable because even though other buddha triads from this era have survived few are in better condition crucifixes aren't exactly a rare discovery in europe christianity has been the dominant religion within the continent for well over 1 000 years and so ancient christian iconography turns up almost everywhere it takes a special crucifix to get the attention of historians and this next artifact is a very special crucifix indeed it was found by an amateur metal detectorist in lincolnshire england in september 2017 archaeologists believe it dates back to the 10th century and is one of only three crucifixes of this style ever to be found in the united kingdom that's not surprising even though it was found in the uk this object was almost certainly made overseas the figure of christ is visible on the broken cross and the style of the inscription leads experts to believe that the artifact is scandinavian in origin perhaps even a leftover from the viking age rather than having belonged to anyone of social importance it was probably a personal possession belonging to an everyday person this period of history is known as the dark ages because of the lack of historical or archaeological information that the people of the times left behind so every discovery like this gets us a little closer to understanding who they were and what they believed in 1962 archaeologists discovered the durvini crater in a tomb in durveni greece not too far from thessaloniki although vessels of this type aren't especially rare the durveni crater is considered to be the most elaborate and valuable of its kind ever to be found today it's on display to the public inside a heavily protected glass case in the archaeological museum of thessaloniki the crater looks like it's made from solid gold which was almost certainly the intention of the artisan who created it but that isn't actually the case the durveni crater is actually made from bronze with a surprisingly high 10 content it's the 10 content that gives the artifact its distinctive golden sheen historians believe it was made in athens during the 4th century while we've already noted that ancient greek bases aren't rare discoveries examples of metal work this large are they were often melted down so the material could be recycled by later civilizations and cultures but this beautiful piece managed to escape that fate because it was buried as a funerary urn the tomb it was found inside belongs to a man named ostenuius son of annex auragus of larissa sadly that's all we know about it back in the 16th century there was a building called the temple of the sun just outside lima peru this is where the ancient people of the andes came to worship pakka comic the maker of the earth the temple was sacked by spanish conquistadors in 1533 who burned the temple to the ground and destroyed every religious idol they found there but they missed this tiny wooden figure it was eventually found by archaeologists in 1938 when it was examined using modern technology more recently amazing discoveries were made this idol was ancient even by the time the temple was burned down carbon dating says it was made in the year 731 which means that it's a product of the wari culture not the inca culture that came after them that means the worry and the inca shared at least some of the same religious beliefs furthermore it was once brightly colored there are traces of red mercury paint on the sculpture's body accompanied by white on the teeth and yellow on the headdress red mercury paint comes from cinnabar the closest source of which is more than 250 miles from the place where the idol was found we know it's sometimes necessary to shop around a little to find the perfect shade of paint but this seems excessive [Music] in 99 out of 100 cases the most interesting thing about an ancient mummy is the mummy itself that's not the case with the zagreb mummy the mummy is that of an anonymous woman who passed away and was mummified in tomake egypt and then sold to a hungarian businessman in 1848 who later donated it to the state museum of croatia it wasn't until 1877 that someone took a closer look at the material that the mummy was wrapped in that material is now known as the libert litmus and is among the most important ancient attrition texts ever discovered the words on the material were written 2 300 years ago as we've never been able to fully translate the etruscan written language we're sad to say that we have no idea what the text says as the names of months frequently appear within the text it's possible that it's a calendar although that's by no means certain there are some historians who feel it might be the legendary etrusca an important etruscan religious and cultural text that's mentioned by several ancient roman writers hopefully we'll finally translate the ancient language one day and we'll find out for sure 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

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

Id: Hd3LHBQcWqI

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021