12 Most Amazing Recent Archaeological Finds

archaeology is really all about telling stories when an artifact is found it helps us to tell the story of the people who made it and how they lived when something larger is found a whole ancient city for example it's almost like we can literally step into the shoes of our ancestors and walk around their streets experiencing life as it was for them we've seen some incredible archaeological discoveries come to light recently here are the best of them there are few things we know for sure about the ancient scythian race who lived in eurasia a little over two thousand years ago now it seems that one of those few things we thought we knew about them may not be correct we've always known they were mighty warriors and that opinion hasn't changed but most historians thought that they were a nomadic people who roamed across the land rather than laying down roots a new study published in march 2021 challenges that notion according to alicia ventresca miller of the university of michigan and her research team the scythians built happy settled lives for themselves in ukraine the study group tested teeth and bones taken from several sydian burial sites in the area and concluded that their owners had lived on a diet that included domesticated crops if they had domesticated crops they must have been farming and if they were farming they must have stuck around the same area for a while while it's undoubtedly true that some city and tribes traveled long distances in their lifetimes we should no longer assume that all of them lived the same way laying the dead to rest with dignity was an important step in the development of our ancient ancestors burial practices and rituals vary dramatically from place to place and era to era but archaeologists are surprised about the sophistication of this newly discovered burial site in the southeast of poland it's a huge row of megalithic barrows that once contained 12 150 foot long stone-lined tombs the walls were supported by wooden palisades one of which has survived to the present day with an entrance to one end and an atrium in the middle this would have been quite an elaborate place for the dead to be buried and also for relatives to come and visit them considering it was built around 5 500 years ago it's amazingly advanced for its time it may not however have been the final resting place of the people placed within it archaeological evidence at the site suggests that bodies were periodically taken out to be replaced by new ones so it might be that people were placed in here for a brief morning period before being permanently buried elsewhere the castle of maitlane on the greek island of lesbos is not a new archaeological discovery it's been standing since the 6th century what is new however is the discovery of a large byzantine doorway hidden inside the castle which had somehow gone unnoticed until march 2021 this was an extremely grand doorway for the sixth century it's ten feet high seven feet wide and a further seven feet deep there would once have been a wooden door set into the marble frame but that's long since rotted away however the ornate carvings around it including ribbon patterns and convex waves are still visible the castle was extensively developed and expanded over several centuries up to and including the 15th but the doorway is thought to be a relic of one of its early building phases it might even be collected to the former residential settlement of melanaudi which is known to have existed within the castle's walls but has disappeared without a trace perhaps it was right behind this door which has been buried under brick and ash since someone built a bathhouse on top of it during the 16th century cologne is one of the most ancient cities in germany with a history that can be traced all the way back to the middle of the first century that makes it the best place in the country to go looking for ancient roman ruins ruins like this incredible ancient roman library the library has been hidden beneath the streets of cologne's busy city center for centuries and was finally found after a protestant church was demolished in 2017. archaeologists were invited to come and survey the site after the demolition but it wasn't until 2019 that the first signs of the old church were found while you or i would struggle to identify these crumbling walls as belonging to a library the giveaway for archaeologists is the placement of little holes in the walls into which scrolls would be placed for storage the experts believe that there may have been up to 20 000 scrolls stored within the library which would easily have made this the largest library in germany in ancient times in fact it might even be germany's oldest library in 1863 a 55-foot long schooner called the daring was built in mangaway new zealand just two years later it was dashed on the shores of its home country during a heavy storm that's where it stayed until the remarkably well-preserved shipwreck was exposed via shifting sands on the beach in may 2018. the enormous shipwreck is new zealand's oldest and has proved to be a rich bed of discoveries for archaeologists one of the most enigmatic artifacts found within it recently is this neckerchief which was found inside the ship's bilges in late 2020 it's since been restored and so archaeologists and historians have been able to identify several masonic symbols on its surface that doesn't necessarily mean that its owner was masonic though the symbols overlap with both christian and jewish symbols it's likely that the scarf was printed using steel engraved plates of the kind that would be used to make banknotes which points to a probable british origin for the silk necker chief that means the scarf and possibly its owner too were a very long way from home when the ship went down monastic life hasn't changed much in the past couple of thousand years modern day monks don't watch television don't have phones and don't go online so they'd have a lot in common with the monks who lived in these newly discovered cells and churches in egypt the site was identified and excavated in early 2021 and the archaeologists working there believe that it was built in the early 4th century the cells the monks lived in are tiny and are covered in biblical inscriptions that were probably carved into them by different occupants over hundreds of years surprisingly for a religious building the complex at baharia oasis is a somewhat ad hoc affair some of it is made of basalt other parts of it are carved straight into the bedrock and mud bricks have been used in some places to fill in the gaps in the walls the structure which doesn't quite correspond with the usual definition of a monastery is divided into six sections including three different churches and dozens of living quarters the biblical passages on the walls are written in greek based on the evidence available at the scene it appears that the facility was at its busiest during the 5th and 6th centuries before dwindling and becoming abandoned by the 8th the sahara is the most famous desert in the world and has become a byword for extreme heat on a very hot day you might hear someone say that it feels like being in the sahara it hasn't always been that way though in february 2021 prehistoric engravings of crocodiles and giraffes were found in the northern regions of the sahara that proves that people used to live here and so did the animals they carved into the rocks that's a reminder that this part of the desert was once green and it's gone through multiple greenings over the long history of its existence there's even a stone age painting in a cave that shows people swimming so there were rivers and lakes here too scientists are currently working on a theory that the sahara has fertile periods that last 5 000 years and then hot dry periods that last just as long the last fertile period might even have been crucial when it came to the migratory movement of early humans across north africa one thousand years from now our descendants might be struggling to imagine the leafy green sahara of their time as the arid dry desert we know today archaeologists in sweden are still puzzling over a recent discovery they made at the site of oscar there within the remains of what appears to be a great hall mounted on a platform they've found 22 gold foil squares which when carefully opened and examined show human-like figures embracing they might be depictions of people dancing although they can confirm that the ornate creations are around 1300 years old so far they have no idea who made them or why fragments of even more of them have been found so there may be over 30 by the time they've finished putting them all back together gold leaf figures like this have been found in other places in sweden but there are no mentions or descriptions of them in any written records from the time they're always found in clusters which suggests that they were brought to the same place and left there that might make them vote of offerings but they could just as easily have been decorations for posts in large feasting halls they're definitely an ancient form of art even if it's a form of art we know nothing about pottery and ceramics are among the most common discoveries archaeologists can make and if we're being totally honest they're often boring things to find they don't all deserve to be tarred with the same brush though in february 2021 a pottery discovery in malta gave us new information about the residents of the bronze age settlement of eoclesia tal barija and how they lived their lives the contents of the pots that have been found at the site tell us that the native people ate porridge which isn't all that surprising and probably had a way of storing crops after they'd been harvested what's more surprising though is that they appear to have been able to make cheese which is quite surprising for 4 500 years ago and they also seem to have farmed cattle one of the containers tested positive for traces of bovine milk other larger storage jars contained cereals that implies they knew when they had a surplus and what to do about it and also that they had a fairly sophisticated system of bovine farming and milk processing you know that old joke about what the first person to milk a cow thought they were doing perhaps we should ask the maltese here in the 21st century we are all aware of the environmental benefits of recycling but recycling isn't a new idea in fact it's one of the oldest ideas in the world in january 2021 ancient shipwrecks were found on the shoreline of tallinn in estonia at first archaeologists were surprised to find that the ships appeared to have been beached deliberately during the middle ages but then they worked out why most of the damage caused to the ships wasn't suffered in their beaching instead every valuable piece of the wrecks had been deliberately sawn off or torn away from the timber to the sails the ropes and any metal attachments the giveaway is that all the sawn off pieces are just above the waterline of the ancient vessels it seems that anything of value was removed from these old ships and then taken away to be used in other building projects they might have been used to make new ships or even in the construction of new buildings elsewhere in the city sourcing building materials could be every bit as expensive and difficult in ancient times as it is today so it made sense to reuse what you already had rather than finding something new it's a well-known fact that many of the world's most valuable archaeological artifacts have ended up in the british museum regardless of whether or not they have any business being there not all such discoveries turn up in the country's biggest museum though some of them turn up in average british addicts in march 2019 a british couple performing some home renovations found a box tucked away in the corner of their attic they didn't bring it with them when they moved in so it must have belonged to the previous occupant inside the box delicately wrapped in old newspapers were treasures that once belonged to indian ruler tifu sultan it's likely that the objects which include his beautifully ornate gun with its hand-carved decorations were confiscated by the duke of wellington's forces after they defeated his armies in battle in 1799 his gold seal ring and four of his swords were also found inside the box the most likely explanation is that major thomas hart brought them home with him after the end of the war and then stashed them away for safe keeping they then somehow became forgotten about until this home renovation project the lucky couple has since sold their lucky finds at auction making a little over six million dollars in the process the merits of the bible as a historical document can and have been debated for centuries but every so often someone makes a discovery that supports the things the bible tells us about the ancient world in august 2019 a stone altar was found within a sanctuary in aderoth jordan the cylindrical artifact is approximately 2 800 years old there in the ancient moabite script of the inscriptions is a record of a rebellion against the kingdom of israel biblical scholars say that this is a perfect match to a passage in the hebrew bible that says that moab used to give one thousand lambs as a tribute to israel each year before the mesha rebellion the inscription goes on to say that mesha ultimately conquered aderoth again this is consistent with the biblical text as the inscription and the artifact it's etched onto comfortably predates the bible we can count this as compelling supporting evidence aside from being a fantastic discovery for that reason the writing on the altar is also thought to be the earliest ever example of moabite's script as far as archaeological discoveries go this is like getting two for the price of one subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and you will be the 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Channel: Amazing Stock

Views: 30,176

Rating: 4.928401 out of 5

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

Id: tEMIyUCqnxM

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021