12 Most Amazing Treasure Finds

what do archaeologists pirates and metal detectorists have in common they're all obsessed with finding treasure making an important treasure discovery is easier said than done but when it does happen it can be life-changing for both the person that finds it and the experts who study it even among treasure discoveries there are some that matter more than others though and it's the story of those discoveries you're about to see in this video coin discoveries are so common that you need to make a spectacular one if you want to stand out from the crowd and spectacular is definitely how we describe this swiss treasure discovery from late 2015. it's an enormous collection of more than 4 000 silver and bronze ancient roman coins which were buried beneath a swiss cherry orchard in until the farmer who owns the orchard discovered them by accident while trying to flatten a molehill he immediately contacted the swiss archaeology service who confirmed it was the single largest roman coin find in swiss history the majority of the coins were minted during the time of emperor aurelian in the year 274 and beyond with a few from emperor maximian's time the most recent coins in the collection come from the year 294 such as the condition of the coins that it's thought they never went into general circulation after being minted and instead were held as the savings of either a wealthy individual or institution whoever owned them obviously never came back for their money we can't help but wonder why a shipwreck is a good place to go looking for treasure if you have the necessary equipment and resources to do so underwater archaeologists have been recovering ancient treasures from around the greek island of casos for several years but in late 2020 an ancient roman shipwreck was identified in the vicinity it's hoped that the treasures on it will give us a greater insight into the history of mediterranean trade because of casos's position between crete and carpathos it was a vital stop on the ancient trade route that connected the aegean with the middle east it's also an archaeologically significant island because it was once populated by the minoans and played a role in the trojan war by building ships so far treasures obtained from the sunken 2 300 year old ship include m4i tableware wine and food it's understood that larger treasures are hiding within the wreck and although they'll be difficult to extract it's these as yet unseen treasures that may have the most to say about this ancient shipping route of course the real mystery is how a full-sized roman shipwreck has stayed hidden for so long in an area that's so well known to archaeologists millions of people all over the world are obsessed with money today but money hasn't always existed in the time before money people had to use other things to barter and trade with thanks to a spate of recent discoveries in mainland europe we're beginning to get a better idea of what these pre-coinage forms of currency looked like it appears that in the early bronze age these rib shaped bronze artifacts were used in bartering they came in standardized shapes and weights which would have made it easy for traders to determine quantities and values ribs weren't the only form of currency in use in bronze age europe though archaeologists have also found rings and even axe blades that appear to have been used for the same purpose the objects aren't totally identical to each other but they're close enough for the average human not to notice the difference it's fairly easy for us to work out the exchange rate between the us dollar and the euro today but working out the correct exchange rate between an axe head and a rib might have been a little more difficult so many people have gone in search of captain kidd's legendary treasure without success that the story of its loss was thought to be a myth that was until 2015 when if the story is to be believed the first evidence of the treasure was found in the waters of madagascar captain kidd was a 17th century scottish pirate who was noted for his success but also his brutality he was appointed by the british government to fight pirates but switch sides dan became one of the most prolific pirates of his era until he was captured and executed in 1701 american explorer barry clifford claims to have located the treasure and in evidence he's presented an eight-pound engraved silver bar which according to him comes from the wreck of kids vessel named the adventure galley the vessel is believed to have sunk in 1698 fully laid in with kids ill-gotten gains clifford claims to have seen much more treasure in the vicinity of this bar and the shipwreck but so far this one silver bar is the only evidence he's provided the hidden sea treasure is another of history's great treasure collections and unlike captain kidd's treasure there's no debate that this one exists it's the largest and most valuable collection of viking jewelry ever discovered in germany and it was found on the tiny island of hidden sea in 1873. it's thought to have been manufactured during the 10th century and might even have belonged to the family of harold bluetooth the legendary danish king losing this treasure collection must have been a huge blow to the family and the loss appears to have happened at sea it wasn't found until it was washed up on nuendorf beach after a storm where it was recovered by local fishermen aside from its importance from a historical perspective the collection is also notable because it contains some of the finest examples of ancient scandinavian goldsmithery while history often writes the vikings off as violent marauding savages the existence of treasures like these reminds us that they were also highly capable artisans and enjoyed a rich cultural life all 16 items that make up the treasure are now displayed at the strasland museum of cultural history [Music] our next treasure discovery is every bit as significant to british historians as the hidden z treasure is to the danes it's spoken about in almost biblical terms this collection of 6 000 gold artifacts valued at more than five million dollars is thought to be the war horde of merchant king panda taken by the king from anglo-saxon regions during the so-called holy war of the dark ages in the year 650 amazingly the supremely valuable treasure was discovered by an amateur archaeologist using a five dollar second hand metal detector in fields close to litchfield in 2009 among the many artifacts in the collection is a religious battle shrine which appears to have been deliberately broken before being intentionally buried the collection is now known as the staffordshire horde and comes from a time in history when gold suddenly became much easier to acquire and so was sculpted and molded into golden artifacts for warrior kings and their allies it's likely that the horde was buried for safe keeping with the intention of coming back for it one day but obviously that day never came until that lucky metal detectorist turned up almost 1 400 years later warlords often build up treasure collections as they successfully invaded and conquered territories and there may have been no warlord in history more successful than genghis khan unsurprisingly the capital city of his former empire in central asia has turned up plenty of fine treasures over the years stunning 14th century gold alloy bracelets are par for the course when it comes to discoveries at the old mongol capital of karakoram which once hosted the fabulous palace of the great khan legend has it that the palace contained such riches that even the fountains were made from silver and although that silver fountain is yet to be found enough artifacts have been recovered recently for archaeologists to feel fairly confident that they found the site of the destroyed building it seems that khan was quite a collector aside from all the gold items archaeologists have recovered obsidian masks fine chinese pottery arabic coins and chinese turret decorations that were presumably once on the roof historians sometimes say that the mongols didn't have an artistic tradition of their own looking at these treasures it strikes us that they didn't need to they simply went out and stole everybody else's if you want to go and see the shors treasury today you'll have to travel to the british museum it wasn't discovered there though as the name implies this treasure horde was found in the village of schurs in northern france in 1883 and is still the only thing the village is known for more than a century later this is an incredible collection of roman silver dating back to the second and third centuries it's among the most ornate and beautiful table service collections ever found anywhere in the world and it all appears to have belonged to one family many of the plates are inscribed with the names cavarianis and geniales leading historians to believe these are the names of the original owners if that's true cavarianis in genealos had impeccable taste of the 39 artifacts that make up the horde 38 are silver the only exception is an ornate mirror made of bronze and silver people are sometimes thrown by the presence of a swastika at the center of one of the silver plates but the symbol doesn't mean the collection was defaced by the nazis it simply comes from a time long before the symbol came to take on an unpleasant meaning during the 20th century [Music] we're heading back to england now to check out the winchester horde which was hailed as the first great british archaeological discovery of the 21st century when it was found by amateur metal detectorist kevin halls in a field in winchester in late 2000 in truth this collection of iron age gold artifacts would have been an impressive discovery in any century no matter how early in the century it might have occurred the inherent value of the horde is obvious because of its high gold content but it's a discovery that comes with a mystery there's no sign of an ancient temple or even an ancient settlement anywhere near the farmer's land where the discovery was made without that evidence we have to conclude that the collection was deliberately carried far from civilization and buried on what would then have been woodland presumably whoever buried it wanted to ensure that nobody would ever find it perhaps they hid it so well that they were unable to find it themselves the design of the pieces is typical of the latin style that was popular more than 2 000 years ago and are some of the best examples of their kind that goes some way to explaining why the total collection has been valued at more than half a million dollars a few moments ago we discussed the idea that the vikings are sometimes unfairly portrayed as uncultured warriors perhaps we should make the same point about the celts like the vikings they also fought and pillaged their way across much of europe but also like the vikings they were gifted craftspeople and made some incredible objects you'll find the best of their wares on display at the british museum where you'll find another link between them and the vikings while the idea that vikings wore pointed helmets is a myth the celts genuinely did wear horned helmets and some of them have made the display the bulk of the most fascinating items come from the eaton bronze age horde which contains a collection of axes and spearheads dating back more than four thousand years from that alone we can see that the celts were capable of manufacturing weaponry on an almost industrial scale the battersea shield is also a stunning artifact though showcasing the finest artisanal defensive weapon design of 2700 years ago from swords with iron and glass inlays to bronze animal-shaped battle horns the celts were incredibly innovative [Music] next up we have the treasure of nagsent miklos and while that might be tough to pronounce it's well worth taking the time to understand and appreciate it this is one of the most outstanding treasure collections of the early middle ages in europe it was found inside a discarded iron chest by serbian farmer nero vuen close to the hungarian town of nagin mitclose in july 1799 experts think that the 23 gold vessels that make up the horde were buried inside the chest somewhere between the years 795 and 803 nobody's truly sure who made these fabulous ornamental pieces perhaps there are some clues within the inscriptions on their surfaces but nobody's ever been able to translate them in full the writing appears to be a strange blend of ancient greek and runiform script and doesn't create coherent sentences some historians believe the treasures were created by the avvars but that doesn't really help us the avars were a nomadic culture of which little is known including their origin and language so we understand even less about them than we do about the treasure they may or may not have created [Music] marie antoinette is best known for being the french queen who allegedly said let them eat cake when she was told her people had no bread to eat but perhaps she ought to have been just as well known for her astonishing jewelry collection the fact that she was so disastrously out of touch with the mood of her nation during troubled times is unsurprising she was the daughter of holy roman empress maria theresa and the wife of king louis xvi of france so she was as aristocratic as anyone who's ever lived when she was executed in october 1793 the event was seen as symbolic of the victory of the french revolutionaries her massive jewelry collection disappeared from public view shortly after her execution but as of late 2018 it's come out of the shadows and some of it is even headed to auction houses items that went under the hammer that year included a huge pearl pendant pearl necklaces pearl earrings and fine diamond pieces the highlight of the whole collection is a diamond and pearl pendant somewhat unimaginatively known as queen marie antoinette's pearl and is worth two million dollars on its own most of the items are thought to have been packed away by the queen and sent abroad ahead of her attempt to flee but she never got the chance 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 soon

Channel: Amazing Stock

Views: 69,206

Keywords: 12 Most Amazing Treasure Finds, ancient treasure, treasure finds, artifacts finds, amazing treasure, mysterious finds, ancient finds, archaeology, ancient archaeology, mysterious artifacts, 12 most, top 12, most amazing

Id: 0BJtFUGNVz0

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021