Over the years, countless culturally and historically important artifacts have slipped out of public view. These 10 forgotten artifacts have resurfaced—often by sheer happenstance—providing fresh windows into our past.
10 Forgotten Artifacts: A Journey Through Time
10 A Neolithic Figurine
During the 1850s, archaeologists uncovered a tiny whalebone figure at Skara Brae, the famed UNESCO World Heritage settlement perched on Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Radiocarbon dating places the piece at roughly five millennia old, measuring a modest 9.5 cm tall by 7.5 cm wide. Its significance lies in being one of the earliest known human-shaped sculptures from that region.
The statue earned the nickname “Buddo,” meaning “friend” in the ancient Orkney tongue. After its initial discovery, Buddo was tucked away in the Stromness Museum’s archives and gradually slipped from memory. It wasn’t until a systematic review of Skara Brae artifacts that curators stumbled upon the long‑forgotten figurine.
When Buddo resurfaced, it instantly claimed the title of the oldest anthropomorphic carving identified in Orkney. Scholars still debate its precise role, but many suspect it served either as a ritual idol or a symbolic object left behind when the Neolithic community migrated elsewhere.
9 Edition Copy Of The Map That Changed The World
William Smith, heralded as the “Father of English Geology,” produced what is now celebrated as the map that reshaped scientific cartography. Published in the early 19th century, this pioneering geological chart of Great Britain required roughly fifteen years of painstaking fieldwork.
Out of an original print run of 370 copies, only about 70 survive today. Like Buddo, Smith’s masterpiece lay dormant in a secure repository, its existence fading from collective awareness. The last recorded sighting dates back four to five decades ago, when it was safely nestled inside a leather‑bound case at the Geological Society’s archives.
Its rarity is amplified by its status as a first edition; experts estimate it belongs to the very first ten copies ever produced. Consequently, its market value is believed to sit comfortably in the six‑figure range, a testament to its historical and scientific importance.
8 Oldest Surviving Cannonball In England
The protracted Wars of the Roses, a dynastic clash between the houses of York and Lancaster, produced countless relics, yet one particular projectile stands out: the oldest surviving English cannonball. This massive iron sphere was fired during the 1460 Battle of Northampton, a pivotal engagement within the broader conflict.
Although the cannonball’s age and battlefield provenance earned it immediate scholarly interest, it vanished from the record until 2014, when archaeologist Glenn Foard of the University of Huddersfield rediscovered it during a systematic survey of the battlefield site.
Historical accounts clarify that the Lancastrians were unable to deploy their artillery that day due to inclement weather, strongly suggesting that the Yorkist forces were responsible for launching this particular shot.
7 Sculpture Of Cleopatra And Marc Antony’s Twin Babies
In 1918, excavators near the Dendera temple unearthed a striking sandstone group portraying two nude children. For many decades the piece rested in the Egyptian Museum, its true identity obscured from casual observers and even museum staff.
It was only after Egyptologist Giuseppina Capriotti conducted a meticulous re‑examination that the figures were identified as Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene—the twin offspring of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. Each child clutches a serpent with one hand while the other arm rests on the sibling’s shoulder. Crowning their heads are distinct discs: the girl’s bears a lunar crescent, while the boy’s displays the solar disc, both incorporating the protective Udjat eye motif.
Although the sculpture remains in relatively good condition, the facial features have suffered erosion, leaving many details indistinct. The twins themselves are historically elusive; while Alexander Helios disappears from the record alongside his brother Ptolemy Philadelphus, Cleopatra Selene later married King Juba II of Mauretania.
6 Oldest Pharaoh Carvings
In the 1890s, British archaeologist Archibald Sayce documented a series of enigmatic reliefs at the Egyptian village of Nag el‑Hamdulab. The carvings, however, received scant attention at the time and were only partially reproduced in a scholarly volume.
Decades later, Egyptian specialist Labib Habachi revisited the site, capturing detailed photographs that, puzzlingly, never made it into formal publication. The images lay dormant until 2008, when Yale scholar Maria Gatto stumbled upon Habachi’s archive and realized the significance of the reliefs.
These panels are now recognized as the earliest known depictions of a ruler, likely representing the unifier Narmer, who amalgamated Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 BC. The scenes illustrate a white‑crowned figure navigating ceremonial processions and traveling aboard sleek, sickle‑shaped vessels, possibly symbolizing a royal tax‑collecting expedition.
5 Murals Of Crusaders And Medieval Military Orders
In Jerusalem’s Saint‑Louis Hospice, a series of wall murals painted by French aristocrat Comte Marie Paul Amedée de Piellat in the 1800s had been hidden for nearly a century. The frescoes, depicting crusading knights and medieval military orders, were concealed beneath layers of black paint during World I, when Ottoman forces occupied the hospital.
Following the war, de Piellat attempted a restoration, but he passed away before completing the work. The paintings remained obscured until 2014, when nuns reorganizing a storage area uncovered sections of the artwork. A coincidental burst water pipe stripped away modern plaster and paint, revealing the original murals in vivid detail.
Despite their historical value, the hospice’s administrators have chosen not to commercialize the murals, opting to keep the facility focused on its ongoing medical mission for chronic and terminal patients.
4 World’s Oldest Complete Torah
The Torah holds supreme religious importance within Judaism, making any ancient copy a treasure of immense cultural weight. In 2013, Professor Mauro Perani of the University of Bologna—Europe’s oldest university—identified what is now accepted as the world’s oldest complete Torah scroll.
Originally miscatalogued by an 1889 librarian as a 17th‑century manuscript, the scroll languished unnoticed in the university’s library for over a century. Perani’s re‑examination highlighted a script style rooted in the Babylonian tradition and the presence of forbidden letters and symbols, clues that signaled an earlier origin.
Carbon‑14 analysis placed the scroll’s creation between 1155 and 1225 AD, predating the previously oldest known Torah fragment by several centuries. This discovery reshapes our understanding of medieval Jewish textual transmission.
3 Bear Claw Necklace From The Lewis And Clark Expedition
During their famed exploration of the American West, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark received a striking piece of Native American jewelry: a bear‑claw necklace composed of 38 individual claws, each roughly 7.5 cm long. In many indigenous cultures, such adornments symbolize bravery and warrior status.
The necklace entered Harvard’s Peabody Museum collection in 1941, but a clerical error misfiled it among South Pacific artifacts. Consequently, the piece remained hidden for decades, its true provenance unrecognized.
In December 2003, two collection assistants sorting the Oceania storage rooms noticed the necklace’s unmistakably non‑Oceanic characteristics. Their curiosity led to the artifact’s re‑cataloguing and the revelation that it was, in fact, a relic from the Lewis and Clark expedition.
2 Noah’s Skeleton
More than eighty years after its initial excavation, a 6,500‑year‑old human skeleton resurfaced in scholarly circles. Though not the biblical Noah, the remains earned the nickname “Noah” after researchers determined the individual survived a massive flood event akin to the story of the Ark.
The skeleton, dated to roughly 4500 BC, was uncovered at the Royal Cemetery of Ur in modern‑day Iraq by Sir Leonard Woolley during a joint British Museum‑Penn Museum expedition. Osteological analysis described the individual as a robust 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) tall male who lived to about 50 years of age.
For decades the bones lay in the Penn Museum’s basement, their existence obscured until 2014 when the institution embarked on a digitisation project of its early‑20th‑century expedition records. This digital audit finally brought Noah’s remains back into academic focus, opening new avenues for studying diet, health, and burial practices of ancient Mesopotamia.
1 Isaac Newton’s Recipe For The Philosopher’s Stone
Sir Isaac Newton is celebrated worldwide for his groundbreaking contributions to physics, yet few recall his fervent fascination with alchemy. For years he pursued the elusive philosopher’s stone—a legendary substance said to transmute base metals into gold.
In 2016, a handwritten manuscript believed to be Newton’s own formulation for the philosopher’s stone emerged from the private collection of an undisclosed owner. The document, now housed by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, offers a rare glimpse into Newton’s experimental procedures, complete with cryptic symbols and detailed instructions.
Had Cambridge University, Newton’s alma mater, accepted his alchemical papers in 1888, the recipe would likely have been preserved in a university archive. Instead, the manuscript languished unnoticed until a recent acquisition allowed scholars to digitise and publish the images and transcription, making the content accessible to the public.
Paul Jongko is a freelance writer who spends his time writing interesting stuff and managing MeBook. When not busy working, Paul creates piano covers, masters his capoeira skills, and does progressive calisthenics training. Follow him on Twitter.