12 Most Amazing Recent Archaeological Finds

on this channel we often ask ourselves what archaeologists have been up to recently and we're rarely disappointed with the answers we get there have been some truly remarkable archaeological discoveries made recently at locations all over the world many of them have helped us to gain a deeper understanding of our ancestors and the people who came before us but some of them have only led to more questions and more confusion without further ado here are some of the most incredible archaeological geological and paleontological finds of recent times [Music] the existence of dark green icebergs in antarctica isn't a new discovery scientists and sailors have known that they're there for years it's just that until very recently they've been at an almost total loss to explain them these so-called emerald icebergs have been baffling everybody who's attempted to study them until march 2019 when a team from the university of washington in the united states announced that they believe they've finally gotten to the bottom of the mystery according to them it's nothing to do with climate change or anything untoward it's simply down to the amount of iron oxide in the water around them the highest concentration of green icebergs in the region can be found at the aimery ice shelf which is also where you'll find the highest concentration of iron oxide it's worth noting that the icebergs aren't really green at all if you cut chunks of ice away from them and bottle it it'd be as white as any other ice they only appear green because of the way the light reflects off them and that's a product of them absorbing so much iron content [Music] for our next recent discovery it's our pleasure to introduce you to baby liuba she's the best preserved and most complete woolly mammoth ever discovered she might not look particularly woolly but that's because she was only around 30 days old when she passed away the cause of death was the mud she inhaled and then choked on as she tried to cross the yama peninsula in siberia 42 000 years ago but that same mud is what preserved her remains for all this time when she was found she still had her eyes skin and internal organs still intact in fact she's so well preserved that she still has her mother's milk in her stomach this unique set of mammoth remains is considered to be one of the most significant prehistoric discoveries ever made in russia so the russian government is reluctant to let it out of its sight they do relent on that stance occasionally though and allow her to travel to australia for an exhibition at the beginning of december 2020. she's also the star of the movie waking the baby mammoth on the national geographic channel [Music] while ancient greece is one of the most popular and well understood civilizations in world history there are still more discoveries to be made in the country that was evident in early december 2020 when archaeologists excavated a set of eight tombs close to the city of ellis while it's little more than an archaeological dig site today ellis was once such an important municipality that it controlled olympia and through that control managed the first ever olympic games these newly discovered tombs date back around 2300 years providing further evidence that the necropolis they're a part of remained in use for several centuries bodies from both the classical period and the hellenistic era have been found at the site in the past archaeologists love sites like this one because people from all levels of society are buried side by side that means they're not just gaining insight into the wealthy or aristocratic class which is so often the case with ancient burial sites this site is teaching them more about life for the average person in ancient greece and their findings might inform the historical textbooks of the future [Music] almost every prehistoric culture and civilization in the world created cave paintings cliff paintings and other forms of rock art but it's rare to see any prehistoric artwork quite as intricate and detailed as that which was discovered in colombia in november 2020 the drawings run on for almost eight miles which makes it incredible that nobody has ever noticed these twelve thousand five hundred year old iron age works of art before it's thought to be so significant that some historians are referring to it as the sistine chapel of the ancient world the fact that the art has never been seen before and remains so well preserved is down to its location and climate it's in a jungle covered hard to hard-to-reach part of colombia's amazon region it's likely that it was created by some of the very first humans to reach this part of the world they've left their handprints on the rocks and they also created surprisingly detailed drawings of horses mastodons sloths and a few creatures that are difficult to identify and might be mythical there are even a few images that appear to depict human beings bungee jumping from wooden towers but that's probably down to us misinterpreting them with our modern eyes it's an inevitable fact of life that if you live close to a beach you'll regularly see the remains of sea creatures washed up on it so the residents of samat sakhan in thailand aren't easily impressed by what washes up on their coast the arrival of this enormous whale skeleton in november 2020 was a different story they'd never seen anything like this before and it took a while to identify it they should be forgiven for that though this whale has been waiting to be found for more than 5 000 years it was doubly unusual because it was found quite a long way from the coastline more than seven and a half miles in fact which demonstrates how much this part of the world has changed in the past few thousand years scientists have been able to confirm that the remains belong to a bride's whale which is a species that still exists in the world today because of that they now hope to be able to compare and contrast this ancient bride's whale to more recent examples of the species to see how the creature has changed over time they might also be able to glean fresh information about how geological conditions have changed around thailand during that time too attempting to prove that the bible is an accurate historical document is a lifelong obsession for some people and in early december 2020 those people believed a breakthrough had been made in their chosen field of research they claimed that the black obelisk of shamanism iii an ancient assyrian king who ruled 2 800 years ago contains the only known references to an israelite king called jehu whose name didn't appear anywhere other than the bible until this discovery proponents of the discovery say that the obelisk doesn't only feature his name but also a picture of him the artifact was created as a commemoration of the assyrian king's achievements but makes a few references to leaders and significant figures in the surrounding area his own name also appears in the book of kings in the old testament there is another possibility though the translation of the inscriptions on the obelisk can be subjective so it's also possible to read it as a reference to king jehoram another king of israel who ruled at the same time as shall manasser we imagine that deciding which theory to believe is a question of faith our next discovery is somewhat of a disturbing one an ancient germanic tomb in which six women have been buried around a cauldron in what's been described by some observers as a cult-like sacrifice aside from the women the tomb also contains the remains of animals and a significant quantity of gold raising the possibility that the main occupant was a lord or someone of significant social or political standing the tomb was found in saxony on alt in september 2020 and is described as the most significant archeological discovery in germany in the past 40 years it's thought to have been completed and sealed around 1500 years ago and sits in the center of more than 50 other smaller tombs the entire site would never have been found at all were it not for the fact that it was accidentally disturbed during the construction of a new chicken farm oddly the remains of the main occupant himself haven't yet been found but archaeologists expect that he may have been cremated and his ashes interred inside the large bronze cauldron the next job will be to find out who he was but with the tomb so unique that's easier said than done [Music] the wombats that live in australia today are small and people tend to think of them as cute the perception of cuteness mostly comes from people who've never got too close to them though those who have done so know that they can become quite aggressive if they don't want you in their territory bearing in mind how aggressive they can be we hate to think what might happen if we encountered one of the giant wombats who lived in the country 25 million years ago the remains of a previously unknown giant species of wombat known as mucapirna nimbensus were discovered in the lake erie basin south australia in july 2020. scientists have described it as the wombat equivalent of a black bear it would have weighed more than 300 pounds when it was alive and so would have been a dominant creature in the rain forest of the olga scene era the remains are the oldest known example of any type of vombatiform a group of animals from which the modern day wombat is descended along with the koala bear we bet this massive wombat would have struggled to build burrows like its modern day equivalence can [Music] the past few years have been especially fruitful for any archaeologist interested in petroglyphs the more we use new technology like google earth to examine some of the world's most remote locations the more we find evidence of the travels of our ancient ancestors the latest set of significant petroglyphs that's been discovered was found in altai south siberia in november 2020 experts believe the rock art which is close to the pasaric burial mounds of the ozenhoski district were created during the medieval era they're fairly typical of the type and include illustrations of human figures animals weapons and what appear to be yurts some though are more expansive depicting hunting scenes and showing animals and humans appearing to dance together in circles one of the images is much older than the others while the majority of them were etched during the turkic era starting in the 6th century there's a single image of a bronze aged chariot that was likely carved into the rock a little over 2 100 years ago this part of the world appears to have been used as a canvas by thousands of nomadic people as they roamed across it for hundreds of years [Music] there's probably a sign on the main road that leads into your town or city informing visitors of the name of the settlement they're about to enter place name signs are no longer truly necessary because of satellite navigation and the internet but they're a tradition that goes back thousands of years as of early december 2020 historians and archaeologists now believe they know where that tradition started they think the first place in the world to get its own name sign was wadi el malik in egypt where there's a naming stone in the sand that's been in situ for more than six thousand years the name written on it isn't wadi l malik though it's the rather more dramatic domain of the scorpion king carefully etched into the surface of the rock and hieroglyphs this has nothing to do with the movie that launched dwayne the rock johnson's acting career but rather the historical figure that inspired it the scorpion king was a prominent figure in the creation of the first territorial state to exist in egypt some five thousand years ago although so little is known of his life that he's become almost a mythical figure now we found this stone we might at least know where he lived [Music] when we think of human life 25 000 years ago we tend to think of clusters of primitive people living in caves ignorant of the fact that life existed in other parts of the world evidence emerging from europe however suggests that wasn't the case in october 2020 a study was performed on bison engravings found on the walls of some spanish caves and the findings of that study appear to suggest that there was a shared art culture spanning the whole of europe at the time the engravings were made the style of the engravings is consistent with the gravity and cultural complex but examples of this style had never previously been recorded in spain the gravity in style is unique and easy to identify it involves the legs and horns of animals being drawn in an almost abstract manner with the horns on the same side of the head and legs depicted as a pair of y shapes it appears in many places in spain and has also been identified in and around the mediterranean but never before on the iberian peninsula this style of painting must have been taught from one group of people to another so there must have been at least some degree of communication between people spanning almost the entirety of the european mainland followers of the jewish faith had their own clearly defined religion to follow two thousand years ago so what's the story behind this strange stamp ring that turned up in the foundations of jerusalem's western wall in november 2020 that's a mystery that archaeologists are still trying to get to the bottom of the ring is unusual because it features a depiction of apollo who was a god to the ancient greeks but definitely wasn't to the ancient jews there's little doubt that it's jewish in origin because it's made of jasper stone which is typical of jewish ring design of its era and it was probably used to sign contracts and seal letters that means whoever the where of this piece interacted with on a professional level would have received hard evidence of the apparent belief in non-jewish gods this might have been a big risk to take given the harsh punishments for blasphemy in those days historians have offered another theory though as it's apparent that this person felt free to wear dedications to apollo openly it might be that it was deemed fine to believe in the positive qualities of gods from other cultures so long as the god wasn't directly worshiped apollo for instance is associated with good health success and positivity whoever wore this ring might have been trying to claim those traits as their own 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: 451,405

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Keywords: 12 Most Amazing Recent Archaeological Finds, recent archaeological finds, archaeological mystery, ancient mystery, ancient artifact, archaeological artifact, recent finds, ancient finds, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: JZZE5rTPXMI

Length: 15min 58sec (958 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021