12 Most Amazing Recent Artifacts Finds

the word artifact can be used to refer to almost any object made by human beings your smartphone is an artifact as is your computer your watch and the mug you drink your coffee from to qualify as a remarkable artifact an object has to be a little more historically or culturally significant than your average watch or phone though everything you're about to see in this video is a remarkable artifact and in some cases they're artifacts that come with more questions than answers [Music] is it us or do the eyes of this incredible ancient dossian helmet appear to stare back at you when you look into them this beautiful piece of headgear is in remarkably good condition considering the fact that it's more than 2000 years old it was discovered in the romanian village of polana carafenesti in early 1928 and immediately attracted attention from archaeologists because it would so obviously have been useless in battle while there's a space for the ears to protrude from these sides there aren't any eye holes in the front the moment anyone put this helmet on they wouldn't have been able to see a thing for that reason it's more likely that it had a ceremonial use than a combat one and the idea is backed up by the fact that it's made from thick sheets of gold for all of its value gold isn't hard enough to offer much protection in a combat situation while historians and archaeologists can't be sure of the identity of the helmet's original owner they think it's possible that it might have been zalmoxus the dossier king who was treated as a living god and ruled during the 5th century bce while we're talking about remarkable headgear that might be connected with legendary historical figures let's check out a discovery that was made in mexico in 2018. it's a mask that's thought to be an accurate representation of the face of kaenek jannab pakal who ruled the mayan civilization during the 7th century and is considered to be one of the most important leaders in mayan history he was only 12 when he took the throne but reigned for 68 years and oversaw the renovation and expansion of the great city of palenque it was within the ruins of that city that the mask was found the facial features of the person depicted on the mask are those of an old man so this was probably made somewhere toward the end of his life it might even be a death mask when the mask was found archaeologists also discovered small fish bones placed beneath it perhaps signifying a connection between the owner of the mask and water as the name palenque literally translates as big water we can think of no figure from mayan history more likely to be connected to it this way than pecal translating ancient languages is hard work but that hard work can be made easier by the discovery of bilingual records and artifacts that help us to bridge the gap between one language and another the rosetta stone is probably the world's most famous example of this but the peergy gold tablets are also very important found in the ancient port of pirgi in southern italy in 1964 the tablets are inscribed in both ancient etruscan and phoenician and were written and bound together more than 2500 years ago the content of the documents isn't especially significant consisting of a little more than a dedication to the phoenician goddess ishtar by little-known king thefari valianus but as a historical record they represent the oldest known source of pre-roman writing in italy the fact that a phoenician translation was included has helped researchers to decode a little more of the etruscan written language which still isn't fully understood or translated today it's believed that it was commonplace in the ancient world for wealthy people to write works of religion devotion on sheets of gold as a way of showing that they prized their faith over their wealth the bronze matrix of sarmesa gatuchia regia romania is a historical artifact so fascinating that even though it was discovered in 2013 it wasn't presented to the wider world until 2016 after researchers had spent three years studying it the hexagonal piece is more than 2 000 years old and is a fascinating example of ancient abstract art it's the only one of its kind that's ever been discovered in europe and it might never have been found had it not been for a storm that uprooted a tree in romania's sarmasa gatusa regia archaeological park revealing the matrix hiding among its roots the purpose of this object was to create other objects usually decorative ones by a combination of stamping and casting that's why the exterior faces of the matrix are covered in carvings of mythological creatures drawn from the folklore of many early european civilizations along with real world animals like lions rhinos bears wolves and antelope aside from being a one of a kind find this ancient mold is also remarkable for being in such good condition it must surely have been used to make hundreds of ornate pieces in its time and yet after the mud from the tree roots was washed away it was found to be in a near immaculate state when human beings come across aliens in science fiction movies they use universal translators to communicate with them archaeologists very much wish that universal translators existed in the real world if they did we might be able to decipher the inscription on this curious looking tuxless statuette it appears to be a representation of either a human or a humanoid wearing robes and either sticking out a very long tongue or wearing a mask similar to a duck's beak the artifact which is believed to be unique was discovered by a farmer close to the touchless mountains of veracruz mexico in 1902 it was initially assumed to be of mayan design but examinations and tests have shown that it predates the maya and was most likely made by the epi omega culture around 2300 years ago we know very little about them because we've never been able to translate their isthmian script of their written language and unfortunately it's this script that's wrapped around the sides of the figure without further information we might never know what the inscription says which means we might never understand who this mysterious figure in the duck mask was or what they represent [Music] you never know what you might find when you go digging in golan heights in the levant a part of the world that's been a cultural melting pot for centuries archaeological digs have been going on in the area for the past few decades and in october 2020 they turned up evidence of a mesopotamian cult who worshipped a moon god 3000 years ago archaeologists have found a pair of tiny carved figurines inside an ancient fort that might have belonged to the kingdom of gesher ancient allies of the famous israeli king david while it's possible that the horns represent bulls historians who are familiar with the area believe that it's more likely that they represent the crescent moon on its side we already know that moon worship was popular in the kingdom of gesher because of the steel of the moon god at bethsaida which was the capital city the fact that the practice might have spread as far as golden heights though is new information and leads to the question of whether ancient israelites also believed in moon gods before the more familiar religions took hold in the area in january 2019 new evidence emerged that the roman conquest of britain during the first century might have been to borrow a phrase from conspiracy theorists and inside job the controversial new idea is based on this old roman cavalry helmet which may not actually be roman at all it's known as the hallaton helmet and it's becoming a contentious artifact among british historians it's an elaborately decorated piece covered in depictions of mighty warriors beautiful women and fierce creatures and was almost certainly worn by someone who held a significant rank within the roman military we now think that person may have been either a briton or a celt fighting against their own people that idea is based on the fact that it was found at an iron age shrine in a part of the country that would at the time of the helmet's creation have been controlled by the celts while it might be possible that the helmet was taken from a roman warrior in battle as a prize there's also evidence that native britons served in the roman army as auxiliaries helping to take down their own country from the inside the romans had already used this tactic to great effect in gaul where german auxiliaries fought alongside the romans so there's no reason they wouldn't try it again in england our next remarkable artifact is called the lamashtu plaque but it's perhaps better known by its nickname the hell plaque its proper name comes not from the deity it's dedicated to but from the deity it's supposed to protect its bearer from you'd have found this item or something very similar to it hanging either above or at the foot of the bed of someone suffering from severe illness during the days of the assyrian empire this particular example is the finest of its kind and was made from bronze around 2 800 years ago according to assyrian beliefs lamashtu was a female demon who caused both illness and preyed upon the set as a defense against her a plaque like this was used in an attempt to drive her away images of her husband pazuzu were often etched in the back of the plaques in an attempt to appeal to her better nature assuming of course that a demon even has a better nature to begin with you could classify the plaques as an early attempt at what christians would later refer to as exorcism sometimes finding evidence of our ancient ancestors is no more complicated than taking a wander into a cave and finding out what's hiding there in the dark when the three sons of a french count did that in 1912 they discovered the bison of tukde autobear which had been hiding and undiscovered in the damp and the dark for more than fifteen thousand years the sculptures which can be found in the cave known as tukde autobear or monteca soy avante france are remarkably detailed and well preserved given their age they've been made from the same clay that lines the walls of the cave and seem lifelike despite being barely two feet tall and three feet long oddly the footprints imprinted in the rock around the bison appear to belong exclusively to children which begs the question of whether the artist who created the bison was also a child historians believe that's unlikely and think a better explanation might be that a ritual involving children running around the bison went on in the cave they're at a loss to explain what that ritual might have been though and it might be one of those things that we're never able to discover perhaps we should just appreciate the sculptures as fine examples of prehistoric art [Music] we've seen a couple of helmets of disputed origin and ownership already in this video but there's no controversy or disagreement about who owned or wore this fine piece of headgear it's the war helmet of mesquilum dug the feared and supremely powerful king of kish and the ruler of the first dynasty of ur 4 600 years ago there's a catch though we don't know if it belongs to the younger mezcallum doug or the older masculine dog one was the grandson of the other and both of them ruled over a cod and some air the grave of one of the two rulers was found in 1924 by leonard wooley a british archaeologist of note the helmet along with many other fine burial goods was found inside the grave woolly estimated that the graves occupant was around 30 years old at the time of death which might point toward the younger muscalum doug being the owner of the helmet but being 30 didn't mean you couldn't be a grandfather in ancient times the gold helmet is of a design that's only been found in the graves of two other people and adam and sargon the great as both were kings of kish it seems likely that this was the equivalent of a crown aside from being culturally significant historical artifacts are often financially valuable on the black market that makes them targets for thieves so sometimes discoveries are made when the police capture thieves and confiscate their black market goods that's what happened in turkey in march 2019 when the police intercepted an ancient leather hebrew manuscript that's thought to have been stolen from a museum in syria years earlier the manuscript which is thankfully still in good condition was hidden under a rug in the backseat of a stolen car there are only 16 pages in the book most of which are taken up by large illustrations of birds but it's notable for its elaborately decorative cover which includes a redstone and a strange hexagonal shape it's now back in the hands of the same syrian museum that reported it stolen in the past in truth the theft and subsequent recovery might turn out to be a good thing the book was never fully understood before it went missing and the wave of publicity that came with its safe return might provide fresh impetus for it to be studied properly [Music] when is a chess piece not a chess piece when might a chess piece actually be evidence of early whale hunting in the north of europe to understand that we need to take a closer look at these ancient viking game pieces which belong to an early precursor of chess known as henefatiful the game appears to have been wildly popular across almost all vendor controlled territories in the 6th 7th and 8th centuries as game pieces often turn up inside vendle graves the earliest examples of the pieces are made from stone reindeer bone or antlers as the viking age arrived though the pieces started to be made from whale bone the majority of the bones can be traced to the norwegian sea and point to the existence of an industrial scale whaling operation happening during ancient times in the northernmost reaches of scandinavia the older examples of whale bone game pieces are only found in the graves of wealthy people but later examples turn up in the graves of people of average wealth and means suggesting they became cheaper to own for them to become cheaper they must have become commonplace items which implies that there was a whole lot of whale bone going spare by the 8th century [Music] 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: 549,198

Rating: 4.7931142 out of 5

Keywords: 12 Most Amazing Recent Artifacts Finds, mysterious artifacts, ancient artifacts, artifacts found, amazing artifacts, ancient archaeology, recent finds, archaeology mystery, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: WRPRbKRzFT0

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020