15 STUNNING Archaeological Discoveries

archaeologists make amazing discoveries and uncover how our ancient ancestors used to live today we'll take a look at 2 000 year old graffiti ancient cities long lost to time here are the top 15 stunning archaeological finds number 15 the kuwait tomb with many thousands of years of history egypt is one of the most archaeological rich countries on the planet and just when researchers think they've uncovered all that there is to find they discover something else of historical importance in early 2019 it was announced that archaeologists working in south sakara found a previously unknown tomb that had been built for pharaoh deja kara issy but this was no ordinary burial site thought to have been the final resting place of a high-ranking official called kuwai it's one of the most colorful and best preserved tombs to have ever been opened despite being an estimated 4 400 years old the hieroglyphs found around the tomb explain why kuwai was given such a lavish send-off to the underworld he was one of the most senior administrators in the pharaoh's court with titles that included overseer of the kentuchi of the great house and great one of the ten of upper egypt unfortunately grave robbers in ancient times appear to have taken most of the valuables including the sarcophagus and most of the mummy so only fragments of these remain but the inscriptions themselves have revealed long forgotten details of what life was like at the time and the tomb itself has taught researchers about how burial complexes were built and mainly to the discovery of many more number 14 ancient peruvian mural excavation at an ancient site in the huwara province of peru which is around 90 miles north of lima began in 2007 and since then a number of antiquities have been found the place known as vichalma is thought to have once been an agricultural and fishing community that was part of the karel civilization that lived in the region around 5000 years ago all traces of their existence disappeared less than fifteen hundred years later and a recent find of ishama may provide clues as to what happened to the people in august of 2019 researchers announced the discovery of an ancient mural that dates back to the year 1800 bc it was unearthed inside the former site of a public ceremonial building and depicts several images including what appears to be a human-like toad and a number of other characters according to experts of the carol civilization toads represented water and the face beneath the creature signifies humans waiting for the water to come from the heavens a further image which shows four human heads that are surrounded by snakes suggest that the mural was created during a time when crops were failing probably because of the drastically reduced rainfall it's quite possible that this was a drought that the civilization was never able to overcome and was the reason why they died out number 13. pompeii graffiti pompei is one of the most famous ancient cities in the world thanks in part to the catastrophic way that life in the coastal roman resort came to an end in 79 a.d when mount vesuvius erupted and covered the buildings and residents in a thick layer of hot ash and rock the way that the structures were preserved has provided a valuable insight into roman life since pompeii first began being excavated more than one and a half centuries ago despite being the longest continually excavated site on the planet it's thought that only two-thirds of the city have so far been uncovered which means that there's still plenty to be found amazingly one of the most important discoveries was only revealed in mid-2020 and it's forced a rewrite of the history of the region it had long been thought that the eruption that destroyed pompeii and several other towns in the nearby area took place on august 24th in 79 a.d the only record that points to this date however was a letter that had been written by pliny the younger who had been safely on the other side of the bay of naples at the time this new discovery however was a piece of graffiti etched in charcoal on a wall that was dated as 16 days before the calends of november in the roman calendar which equates to the 17th of october the charcoal itself wouldn't have survived for long on the wall unless it had been covered by the volcanic ash soon after it was written so it's compelling proof that this is a much more accurate way of determining when the eruption happened number 12 lost israeli city construction works of modern buildings and transport routes are common ways by which ancient remains are found and in 2019 one of the most important archaeological discoveries in israel was made while foundations were being prepared for a highway interchange located between the cities of tel aviv and haifa is a 160 acre site called nsura which is now believed to have been a major city during the bronze age around 5 000 years ago it lies on the crossroad between two ancient trade routes and would have had extremely fertile soil and two springs at the time this made it the ideal place to build a large community which would have housed as many as 6 000 people and would have been one of the first large urban centers like this to have been built in the region to give an example of how significant to find a city as large as this was researchers compared it to the ancient city of jericho which at the time of ennesur would have been just a tenth of its size what happened to the people of venezuela is not exactly clear though as the site was abandoned just a few hundred years after first being built number 11 vampire graves mystical creatures from literature and movies are often nothing more than fictional creations but there are some that cultures have long believed to be real with vampires being one of them the idea that people can return from the dead to feast on the blood of the living have been a part of cultures throughout bulgaria serbia and other balkan states for centuries and it was these that inspired bram stoker to write about dracula in the first place with such strongly held beliefs in powerful creatures like vampires came a set of strange rituals particularly when burying the dead and researchers are often finding evidence of this to this day one of the most shocking is how dead bodies before being buried had iron rods thrust to their chests into the wood of the coffin and over a hundred of these vampire burials have been found in bulgaria alone most date back to medieval times such as the two that were found in 2012 in the town of solsepoll but even more surprising is the fact that this was a common practice all the way up until the beginning of the 20th century number 10 spanish stonehenge while stonehenge in england may be the world's most famous megalithic monument it's far from being the only one ancient civilizations across the world constructed arrangements of large rocks and in 2019 a previously undiscovered one was found in spain's velikonus reservoir this was the latest in a series of new finds that have happened as a result of climate change whereby falling water levels have revealed structures that had long been lost this one which had been nicknamed the spanish stonehenge is officially known as the dolmen of guadaperral and is made up of around 150 standing stones some of which are more than six feet tall it's thought that it was built at some time between the fourth or fifth millennium bc which could mean that it's several thousand years older than stonehenge and it probably once had a huge stone cap on top of it that provided an enclosed space for rituals to be performed in its true purpose isn't known however and the race is now on to learn as much about it as possible before it's covered with water again number nine the world's largest child sacrifice it may seem horrific to us today but human sacrifices used to be commonplace around the world in ancient civilizations by offering souls to the gods it was believed that communities could bring good fortune upon themselves the most valuable sacrifices were those of the youngest of society a number of sites have been found that contain the remains of children that were killed in a ritualistic fashion but one of the most shocking was only discovered recently in 2011. researchers at a site in peru called juanchaquito las lamas noticed what looked like bones protruding from a dune and began to dig away at the dirt in total they found the skeletons of 137 boys and girls each of whom were between the ages of 5 and 14 when they died along with the bones of 200 llamas every one of them had cut marks on their breast bones and their ribs had been displaced which suggests that the sacrifice involved cutting open their chests and having their hearts removed but why would the leaders of the chimu culture have found this to be necessary around the year 1450ad the answers say archaeologists can also be found in the ground which shows signs of extreme rainfall in the weeks and months leading up to it it's likely they were so worried about the unfavorable weather conditions that they felt they had no option but to perform history's largest known mass child sacrifice we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight fossilized nodosaur dinosaur fossils can be found in various sites around the world but rarely are complete specimens ever found usually just a few remains are unearthed which leaves paleontologists to fill in the missing pieces and guess what the rest of the creature would have looked like occasionally however a remarkable pristine fossil is found and in 2011 researchers discovered something remarkable a virtually complete nodosaur fossil one that was from a brand new species in a previously unknown genus it had been buried in the ground of an oil sands mine in alberta canada and after seven thousand hours of reconstruction work all the pieces had been put together at eighteen feet long and with an estimated weight of three thousand pounds when it was alive this was the most well-preserved armored dinosaur to have ever been on earth the oldest ever to have been found in canada having roamed the lands around 110 million years ago one of the most startling things about this fossil is that instead of simply being made up of bones you can't even see the creature's skeleton because it's covered in a thick layer of fossilized skin and is in effect still sporting its thick body armor that would have protected it against predators further investigations are now taking place at the mine because if a specimen like this was preserved so perfectly there could quite well be many more like it just waiting to be found [Music] number seven paleolithic rock carvings human communities have lived in europe for many thousands of years but it's only by finding proof of ancient settlements that archaeologists are able to determine for certain how populations spread throughout the world the iberian peninsula in spain is home to several important discoveries such as altamira where paintings were found from 36 000 years ago and in 2019 researchers made another incredible find they've been forced to suspend work in a cave in catalonia because of rising flood waters once the water receded they were able to enter again they found that the layer of sediment had been removed from the walls to reveal intricate carvings that were made around 15 000 years ago in total there are at least 100 images that depict animals such as deer horses and oxen as well as several shapes and symbols rather than being painted these were etched into the soft sandy walls of the cova de la font major and had lain hidden for so long because the cave itself is so difficult to reach it's thought that an ancient community would have used this site as a shrine or religious sanctuary and focus is now turned to the floor where archaeologists think they may find evidence of rituals or sacrifices [Music] number six ancient maya capital city maya communities once lived across what we now call south america but instead of being part of one large civilization there were countless smaller ones that vied for control over the surrounding area one of these was called the saxi kingdom and researchers have long known about them from inscriptions that have been found in cities from other kingdoms but until recently had no idea where they were based or much about them at all in march of 2020 however it was announced that the capital city of the little-known empire had been found near the border between mexico and guatemala the owner of a cattle ranch had found a strange stone tablet and archaeologists were called in to take a closer look what they found were the remains of a city-state with a downtown area that was about a third of a mile long and had several pyramids a palace a ball court and a number of houses life would have been tough for the saxi with a population of between five and ten thousand people they wouldn't have been the strongest or most powerful and their leaders were quite often kidnapped by neighboring states they would have been in a constant state of war and made efforts to negotiate peace with the superpowers of the day but despite lasting for around 1600 years the city was eventually captured and destroyed around the year 900 a.d number five 66 year old eggs for those interested in prehistoric history particularly with the time of the dinosaurs one of the greatest dreams is to find a new fossil that had spent the best part of the past 66 million years buried beneath the ground some paleontologists can spend entire careers without finding anything of any significance but in 2019 a ten-year-old chinese boy found something extraordinary he was walking through a field by the dong river in search of a rock to crack open some walnuts with when he noticed a strange stone in the soil he had recently been to a nearby dinosaur museum where he had seen some fossilized eggs and instantly recognized that these two could be the shells of an ancient species he and his mother called the police for assistance and the authorities in turn called in a team of experts from the heiwan dinosaur museum to assess the fine they confirmed what the boy had found was indeed a dinosaur egg and after excavating the area around it they found a further 10 eggs that would have been part of the same nest each one was around three and a half inches in length and had been dated to the late cretaceous period but as for the species they came from experts aren't sure yet while this is certainly an incredible find it's not all that unexpected the city of haiyuan is known as china's home of dinosaurs and after the first fossilized egg was found there in 1996 a further seventeen thousand have been unearthed the museum alone has more than ten thousand which suggests this region would have been a dinosaur nursery where various species from across the continent would have gone to breed number four mammoth bone circle during the last ice age temperatures plummeted and humans were forced to find new ways to survive in the increasingly hostile environment while many migrated to regions with warmer climates closer to the equator there were large communities who were unable to do so and it's only recently that researchers have begun to understand how they managed to endure in march of 2020 archaeologists announced the discovery of a huge bone circle at a site around 300 miles to the south of moscow made up of 51 lower jaws and 64 skulls from woolly mammoths they were used to build walls around a 30 by 30 foot structure and within the perimeter evidence has been found of wood fires that would have kept their resonance warm within the sheltered space it's thought that instead of hunting the mammoths for this purpose the bones were instead sourced from local animal graveyards where they had died naturally and this site was chosen in particular because there's a natural spring nearby which would have been one of the only sources of liquid water for hundreds of miles around the encampment known as kostenki 11 is an extremely rare example of how hunter-gatherers from the paleolithic era were able to live in such a harsh environment and shows how adaptable people of the time were number three egyptian sarcophagi for archaeologists there's perhaps nothing as exciting as finding a new burial site in egypt thanks to the combination of artistic and valuable artifacts and the wealth of knowledge that's unlocked with each one despite the country being meticulously explored for more than two centuries new finds are continually being made and in september of 2020 it was announced that 27 new sarcophagi had been found at the sacred site of saqqara which has long been known to be a place of significance it was used by the ancient egyptians as a burial ground for more than 3 000 years and the latest discoveries are thought to be at least 2 500 years old what's amazing about these ones in particular is that the initial investigation show that they are still fully closed and have remained sealed ever since they were buried this is important because quite often tombs and burial sites were raided by robbers soon after being placed in the ground leaving very little for researchers to analyze sarcophagi were found at the bottom of a 36 foot deep well and were remarkably preserved made from wood they were still covered in colorful paint and surrounded by a number of other artifacts including statues jewelry and religious offerings while the people buried in these coffins were far from the royalty who would have been interred in dedicated tombs it helps us understand in greater detail the way that ordinary citizens of ancient egypt were treated after death and gives a greater insight into egyptian society as a whole number two ancient stone tools in mexico after originating in modern day africa humans eventually spread to the furthest reaches of the world while this is of course a known fact based on where communities live today the exact process and timing of mankind's migration has always been a subject of debate in north america for example it was thought that the first people arrived around fifteen thousand years ago a recent discovery has forced a complete rethink researchers who were excavating the high-altitude chicago cave in central mexico have found evidence that humans have been using the site for more than 20 thousand years and even more astonishing are the tools and other artifacts that have been found some of which date back to more than 33 000 years ago no traces of human bones or dna have been found at the site but the tools could have only been made by people which means the original assumption that our ancestors first made the journey to america via a land bridge between russia and alaska around 13 000 years ago must be wrong not only does this change our understanding of human history of the continent but it also means previously accepted models of land development need to be adjusted too to explain how it was possible for primitive communities to reach north america which even with this latest evidence is still believed to have been the last major continent to be inhabited number one the durrington shafts as one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world stonehenge has been extensively investigated particularly over the past century and is a continual focus for archaeologists who are trying to learn more about why and how such structures were built around the world you'd have thought though that after using this ground penetrating radar excavating every mountain hill that looks unusual and performing countless other investigative techniques that all the large structures in the area have been found but amazingly the region around the site continues to reveal huge surprises the most recent was announced in june of 2020 and was uncovered just 1.9 miles to the northeast of stonehenge near to the previously discovered durrington walls hinge here researchers found a series of at least 20 deep shafts which form a circle that's around 1.2 miles in diameter the shafts themselves are huge each being more than 16 feet deep and 32 feet wide carbon dating has proved that they were dug around 4 500 years ago which means they were most likely created by the same people who built stonehenge quite what their purpose was is unclear of course but the team behind the discovery point out that digging these shafts with stone tools would have been just as complex and difficult as transporting stones used in stonehenge and may have even required much greater engineering abilities it's amazing to think that one of the world's most explored ancient sites can still surprise researchers with a discovery like this and makes you wonder what else remains and what the landscapes would have truly looked like during the time of the druids watch our binge watching playlist if you'd like to watch all of our most popular top 15 videos grab a drink grab a snack and get ready to binge you

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 221,842

Rating: 4.8561153 out of 5

Keywords: Archaeological Discoveries, archaeologist finds, ancient discoveries, artifacts

Id: QM1MbP1hNu8

Length: 20min 11sec (1211 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020