All archaeological finds are invaluable, yet some are more priceless than others. Some tell stories so ancient yet so familiar that we can’t help but smile as we realize how little some things have changed these past thousands of years.

10 Unguentarium

Like the ancient Egyptians, the Romans took their funerary practices seriously lest the dead remain eternally trapped in uneventful purgatory. A by-the-book funeral could consist of five parts, starting with a procession and ending with a grand feast to ensure the departed’s successful voyage to the immortal domain. Afterward, Romans celebrated the dead during specified “holidays,” kind of like Mexico’s famed Day of the Dead.

Strangely enough, gravesites throughout the Roman world often surrendered vaselike sculptures called unguentaria. According to legend, they held the tears of family members grieving over the departed, although that appears to be a romantic myth. It’s now generally agreed that unguentaria—“unguent” meaning “ointment”—stored perishable goods for the living rather than commemorations for the dead.

Unguentaria served as old-timey equivalents of plastics, and the specimens unearthed contained cosmetics or fragrances. In his terrestrial treatise, Natural History, Pliny the Elder records that Romans preferred scents of marjoram, roses, and saffron. He also said that the women of the house utilized as many beauty products as women do today, including lotions for soft, smooth skin.

9 Fetus Paper

Before the days of Office Depot, paper was a luxury that was often made from less than savory ingredients. For example, the first collection of portable Bibles in Europe, all 20,000 of them, was said to be printed on parchment made from stillborn barnyard critters.

Known as uterine vellum, or abortivum parchment in Latin, these names suggested that the supremely thin pages came from calf and sheep fetuses. To put the issue to rest, an unexpectedly large collaboration between British, Irish, French, Danish, Belgian, and American scientists devised an innovative way to test the delicate paper without destroying it. They used a rubber eraser.

After a good rubdown, the electrostatic charge elicited from the eraser-on-paper action attracted tiny protein fragments from the pages. Analyzing the meaty dust revealed that the vellum was not, in fact, gruesomely manufactured from aborted animals. Instead, it was made from cows or other hoofed adult animals as per tradition. How medieval artisans were able to create such fine, thin sheets remains a mystery for another day.

8 Unexpected Mummy

Peru’s 5,000-year-old Caral-Supe (aka Caral) predates the Mayan, Incan, and Aztecan cultures by thousands of years. The 630-hectare, pyramid-boasting sacred site is South America’s oldest center of civilization and marks the start of city living in the region.

Due to a lack of records, we know little of ancient Peruvians, but a recently discovered female mummy suggests a progressive culture that valued women and men as equals. The 4,500-year-old corpse reposed in the ruins of Aspero, a quaint fishing village 25 kilometers (15 mi) from Caral and under the auspices of its mysterious creators.

The circumstances of the woman’s burial indicate her importance. Likely between the ages of 40 and 50 when she died, archaeologists found her laid to rest in the fetal position and placed atop a variety of charms. These included four figurines (known as tupus) carved in the likenesses of monkeys and birds, a seashell necklace, and a pendant made from a Spondylus mollusk.

The circumstances of the woman’s burial and the recovered items offer evidence that women could attain high status just as men could—a historical rarity and a candid glimpse into the hidden life of the Norte Chico peoples.

7 Etruscan Slab

The supremely religious Etruscan culture imparted great knowledge to Greece and Rome and left behind an ugly alphabet. Sadly, we don’t know much of their language, and most of what we’ve gleaned comes from funerary stones or inscriptions on household knickknacks.

Recently, archaeologists have unearthed a cipher of sorts on an old slab unearthed from beneath an Etruscan temple that dates back at least 2,500 years. It’s one of the longest, most substantial pieces of Etruscan literature ever recovered, containing at least 70 legible characters that are all nicely punctuated and a bevy of new words and phrases. The chipped, burned slab survived remarkably well, considering it was used as part of the foundation and bore the temple’s weight on its stony shoulders.

Similar tablets have provided windows into the surprises of everyday Etruscan life, like a female version of the Greek Olympics that included topless javelin and bare-breasted equine events. In fact, women enjoyed many freedoms withheld from their Grecian and Roman counterparts. Etruscan women were allowed to enjoy wine, socialize freely, and train as soldiers.

6 Jockey’s Monument

The Anatolian province of Konya served as the capital to the Seljuk culture of 1,000 years ago and afterward flourished as a prominent Ottoman city. It housed a hippodrome and horse-breeding center of some import according to a 2,000-year-old tablet, which paints Konya’s bygone inhabitants as avid race fans.

In the Beysehir district exists a monument to a once-famous jockey and bachelor named Lukuyanus, who died at a young age before fulfilling his jockeying potential. So a memorial was carved into the sacred Anatolian mountains to honor the youth after his tragic death. On it, archaeologists found still-legible text, including a lament to the unmarried hero and some information on the gentlemanly pursuit of horse racing.

The stone-etched document describes one long-abolished cardinal rule that would demolish modern horse racing as a profitable business: Winning horses were disqualified from further races. Victorious owners were excluded along with their horses in a magnanimous effort to share the wealth.

5 Chinese Gnomon

The ancient Chinese looked to celestial bodies to forecast the future affairs of men and developed an array of fancy stargazing tools to do so. These included gnomons, simplified sundials of Babylonian invention that were used to measure the Sun’s declination.

The earliest Chinese gnomons were sticks, which were set out at midday along the north-south axis. The length of the shadow cast indicated solar slant and the changing seasons, useful agricultural information that also led to the construction of calendars.

A more sophisticated, two-piece version was found in the over 2,000-year-old tomb of a Western Han dynasty marquis known as Xiahou Zao. For a while, it was known only as “lacquerware of unknown names.” Finally, it was realized that the two pieces belonged together to form a latitude-specific equatorial display.

The gnarliest gnomon was developed over 600 years ago by Guo Shoujing during the Yuan dynasty. It used a taller crossbar and longer base to accurately measure the length of the shadow and therefore the Sun’s height in the sky.

4 Roman Wine Vessel

The ancient Romans’ sense of humor did not adhere to modern principles of modesty but would have fit right in on the Internet. Case in point, an 1,800-year-old Roman drinking vessel covered with phalli.

The phallus cup was unearthed over 50 years ago, probably in Great Chesterford, Essex. But it was denied to us for the half a century that it collected dust in the private collection of Lord Braybrooke.

The vessel comes from a Roman camp where Rabelaisian soldiers—on break from pillaging Britain’s precious metals—quaffed diluted wine from it and laughed at its raunchy depictions like common frat boys.

One scene looks like it came straight from a reddit joke: A nude woman commands a chariot pulled by four disembodied phalli. Observant naturalists, the Romans realized that the male organ has no natural means of locomotion, so in their representation, they have innovatively grafted chicken legs onto each phallus.

3 Quids

The Anasazi (aka Ancestral Puebloans), the predecessors of the Pueblo culture of today, populated the American Southwest as far back as AD 100. Research shows that they enjoyed a common vice—chewing tobacco.

From the prehistoric equivalent of a compost heap found in Antelope Cave in Arizona, archaeologists recovered 345 small, fiber-wrapped balls of unknown purpose. Dubbed “quids,” similar bundles have popped up across the American Southwest, often embedded with teeth marks. At first, it was assumed that old-timey folk chewed on these during periods of food scarcity to simulate eating and to draw in the tiny bits of trace nutrients that remained.

Then researchers checked the bundles under a microscope. Peering deep past the 1,200-year-old fibrous coating, they discovered that the quids contained several types of wild tobacco, including coyote tobacco (pictured above). It’s likely that the tobacco fed daily addictions rather than sacred yearnings because the used quids were found in the trash. But many others have not been tested, and researchers are excited about what other substances may be inside.

2 Lake Baikal ‘Venus’ Figurines

The ideal female form is a popular motif for ancient sculptures, including the Mal’ta figurines recovered at Angara River in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk Oblast. Or so it seemed. But magnification unveiled the figures as faithful depictions of the Mal’ta-Buret’ women, men, and children that lived 20,000 years ago.

Carved from mammoth tusk, most were supposedly female nudes. So archaeologists borrowed a set from Russia’s Hermitage Museum for, uh, research and threw them under a microscope. The scans revealed a glut of detailed garments—they aren’t nude at all, only smoothed over by time and dirt.

The figurines are clad in period-specific clothing such as bracelets, hats, shoes, packs, and bags. With other features invisible to the naked eye, artisans labored to create different hairstyles and even used different cuts to give the illusion of fur or leather.

Overalls seem to be overwhelmingly popular, as are a variety of furry helmets and hoods to keep the cold out. Mysteriously, the figurines are scored with tiny holes, presumably so they can be worn as charms or ornaments.

1 Babylonian Complaint

Shysters have always existed, and some have even been immortalized. For example, Ea-nasir appears on a nearly immaculate Babylonian complaint tablet recovered from Ur, one of Mesopotamia’s ancient capitals.

An ancient 0-star review, the nearly 3,800-year-old grievance was filed by a disgruntled customer, Nanni, against Ea-nasir, a shady businessman and purveyor of copper. The unscrupulous merchant promised Nanni a quantity of premium copper yet delivered ingots of downright insulting quality.

So Nanni sent messengers multiple times to exact a refund and apology from Ea-nasir. But Ea-nasir only offered salty remarks, and the messengers were sent back through enemy territory without money each time.

The tablet only recently gained fame. But it was translated way back in 1967 by Assyriologist Leo Oppenheim, who published the story and others like it in his book Letters from Mesopotamia. The tablet itself resided in what is believed to be Ea-nasir’s house. Though given everything we know about his unsavory character from this letter, he probably kept it for laughs.

Widespread reports of ISIS selling illicitly obtained artifacts have brought to light the importance of ensuring the legality of purchased items. Museums, and to a lesser extent private collectors, often claim to have followed the letter of the law. More often than should be acceptable, their claims have been proven false. Here are 10 interesting cases of archaeological or artistic theft.

10 Italian Conquest Of Ethiopia

In 1937, just before the onset of World War II, Italian soldiers under the direction of Benito Mussolini came to the town of Aksum (or Axum), which housed one of Ethiopia’s most revered treasures—the Obelisk of Aksum, a monument which dates back to the fourth century AD. (Technically, it’s a stele, as it doesn’t have a pyramid at the top.) The city of Aksum was of the holiest places in Ethiopia and a central figure in the rise of Coptic Christianity in the country.

The Italians were pushed out of Ethiopia at the end the war and signed a peace treaty just a few years later, which included the condition that they return any looted artifacts within 18 months. While many items were repatriated, the stele remained outside a United Nations building in Rome. Two more treaties were signed over the coming decades, each with the condition of repatriation, but it never budged. It was finally returned in 2005, though it had to be broken into three pieces for the voyage, as it stands over 24 meters (79 ft) tall and weighs 160 tons. (It was rebuilt when it arrived in Ethiopia.) The stele was described as the largest and heaviest object to ever be transported by air.

One of the main concerns that the Italians raised (one commonly raised by countries asked to return stolen goods) was that the Ethiopians would not take care of it. Italy’s deputy minister of culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, said at the time: “Italy cannot give its consent for a monument well kept and restored to be taken to a war zone, and leave it there with the risk of having it destroyed.” He even threatened to resign if the stele was ever returned, though he didn’t follow through with it. When it was damaged in a severe thunderstorm, he finally relented, saying, “After all, it has already been damaged, so we might as well give it back.”

9 Looting Of The Old Summer Palace

Following the defeat of Chinese forces in the Second Opium War, the United Kingdom found itself in Beijing and also in need of, shall we say, “compensation.” To that end, British forces, with a little help from the French, descended on the city and made a beeline straight to Yuanmingyuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness). Since looting had been a recognized byproduct of war for millennia as well as the fact that they need to pay their soldiers and defer the cost of the dead, the Europeans began to take anything they could lay their hands on, while an envoy went to the Chinese to discuss peace talks.

However, the envoy never reached its goal, as they were taken prisoner by the Chinese and tortured until they were dead. Angered beyond belief and out for vengeance, the commander of the British forces, the eighth earl of Elgin, ordered his army to burn Yuanmingyuan to the ground. (If the name Elgin sounds familiar, it’s because his father was the same Lord Elgin who “acquired” the Parthenon [aka Elgin] Marbles.) One of the items stolen was a Pekinese dog, which was given to Queen Victoria and named “Looty.”

Chinese officials estimate that about 1.5 million items were pilfered from the site by the end of the war, with nothing but rubble left behind. Its looting is still a sore spot for the Chinese. Yuanmingyuan was purported to be the greatest collection of art and architecture in the entire country, and virtually nothing survived the British destruction. Even the British recognized its beauty, as a participating officer said at the time: “You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them.”

Investigators have spent decades trying to recover the artifacts, with most of their requests falling on deaf ears. One of Elgin’s descendants, showing a complete lack of understanding, said, “These things happen. It’s important to go ahead, rather than look back all the time.”

8 Russo-Japanese War

Fought between two countries with imperialistic ambitions in Manchuria and Korea, the Russo-Japanese war lasted for nearly two years just after the beginning of the 20th century. In the end, Japan emerged victorious, and it was the first major military conflict in modern times in which an Asian country defeated a European nation. As the area known as Manchuria spans territory both in Russia as well as in China, Japanese forces often found themselves on Chinese land.

Though an estimated 3.6 million artifacts were looted in the time between the First Sino-Japanese War and the end of WWII, one of the most sought after relics was stolen during the Russo-Japanese War—the Honglujing Stele. With its construction dating back nearly 1,300 years, the stele is believed to be of the utmost importance in the study of the Bohai Kingdom. Very few people, even Japanese researchers, have been allowed to look at it.

Housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace for over a century, the Japanese consider the 9-ton Honglujing Stele to be a “trophy” of their victory in the war as well as the property of the emperor. Thus, they’ve rebuffed Chinese demands to return it.

7 Construction Of The East Indian Railway

Much like the more famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, the Sultanganj Buddha has been a point of contention between the Indian and British governments since its removal from India in 1861. It was discovered by E.B. Harris, the local engineer for the British, during the construction of a station yard at the North Indian town of Sultanganj. It was believed to have been buried in an effort to hide it. Harris himself said, “From these discoveries I conclude that the resident monks had only just time to bury the colossal copper statue of Buddha before making their escape from the Vihar.” The Sultanganj Buddha was whisked away to Britain in the following months and brought to Birmingham by an industrialist involved in the construction of the railway.

Atop a list of stolen treasures that the Indian government would like returned, the statue, which dates back as far as AD 500, has remained in Birmingham. Like all British museums, the Birmingham Museum has steadfastly refused to return it, standing by laws which forbid it from returning major artifacts. (Small, in other words less valuable, items are routinely returned, however.) The British maintain that they have proper ownership of the bronze Buddha, claiming that Harris was the only one who realized its value and saved it from being melted down by the locals.

6 The Morean War

Though the Republic of Venice longer exists, and its naval commander, Franceso Morosini, is more well-known for his destruction and subsequent looting of the Parthenon in Athens, they were also responsible for the theft of a number of artifacts, chief among them being the Piraeus Lion. Thanks to their veneration of Saint Mark, their patron saint, the Venetians would often search for depictions of lions to loot during their conquests.

During the Great Turkish War, a conflict waged between the Ottoman Empire and a collection of European nations collectively known as the Holy League. Various smaller wars between the countries broke out as well. One of them was known as the Morean War, and it was basically between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. As the war raged on, the Venetians and Morosini found themselves in Athens and were determined to take the city. Once they succeeded, the looting began, with the most valuable monument being the white marble lion located in Piraeus, the Athenian harbor.

With its construction dating back to the fourth century BC, the Piraeus Lion had stood in the Greek city for nearly 1,500 years before Morosini and his Venetian soldiers looted it and brought it to the Venetian Arsenal, where it remains to this day.

5 Napoleon’s Conquest Of Italy

Setting an example for future dictators like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, Napoleon Bonaparte wished to fill his newly constructed Louvre museum with a virtual encyclopedia of artistic history. He, and much of France’s elite, believed that the French people had better taste and would appreciate the plundered artifacts better than anyone else. Setting themselves apart from most entries on this list, however, they actually stole from fellow Europeans.

First on Napoleon’s long list of victims, which included one of the first coordinated lootings of Egypt, was Italy. The Louvre, briefly known as the Musee Napoleon, was to be the home for the spoils of war, an idea which owes its origins to the Convention Nationale, which deemed valuable works of art as viable for payment for war debts. Some of Italy’s greatest works, including Correggio’s Madonna of St. Jerome and Raphael’s Transfiguration, found their way to France thanks to that decision.

When he was done looting, Napoleon referred to the plundered art as harvest, saying that they would have “all that there is of the beautiful in Italy.” Although they initially felt the legality of their acquisition to be beyond reproach, the French government returned many of the paintings after Napoleon’s abdication and subsequent exile. Some, however still remain in Paris.

4 Excavation Of The Karun Treasure

While they weren’t personally involved in the excavation and eventual theft and export of nearly 200 pieces from the Karun Treasure, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art was well aware that they were illicitly obtained and are just as culpable. In fact, they knew from the beginning. Thomas Hoving, the director of the Met, said in his memoirs, “If the Turks come up with the proof from there side, we’ll give the East Greek treasure back. [ . . . ]We took our chances when we bought the material.” (This was very much in the middle of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” period for US museums.)

Collectively known as the Karun Treasure or the Lydian Hoard, the pieces were discovered in 1965, looted from Iron Age burial mounds in western Turkey. Nearly 2,500 years old, the 363 artifacts were unearthed by local treasure hunters and smuggled out of the country over the following two years. Though they were briefly displayed at the Met during the 1980s, the pieces were eventually returned to Turkey in 1993.

To add even more intrigue to this story, one of the most prized pieces in the collection, a hippocamp brooch purported to belong to King Croesus of Lydia, was found to be a replica in 2006. The director of the museum in which they were held later admitted to swapping out the real one in order to settle gambling debts. (He blamed his bad luck on an ancient curse said to reside in the brooch.) It was eventually found a few years later and returned to the museum.

3 Looting Of Berlin During WWII

Though Russia has since returned a handful of the artifacts that their armed forces looted during the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s surrender, many of them still remain locked away in Russian museums and private collections. (However, if you ask Russia, they’ll say that over 90 percent of them have been returned.) Chief among them is Priam’s Treasure, a collection of artifacts discovered at Hisarlik, which is generally accepted to be site of ancient Troy.

Unearthed by an amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann, the find dates back 4,500 years, centuries before the originally purported owner, King Priam of Troy, was said to have lived. Originally illegally smuggled out of Turkey, the collection of copper artifacts, which includes an exquisite diadem known as the “Jewels of Helen,” found their way to Berlin, where they remained until the Soviets looted them in 1945. Seen by the Russians as the spoils of war (or “trophy art”) the very existence of Priam’s Treasure was denied for decades before it finally turned up in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1993.

The artifacts’ return, either to Germany or Turkey, seems unlikely, as the Russian government has deemed the artwork and artifacts that they’ve kept as payment for the “moral crimes” which Nazi Germany perpetrated on the Russian people. To sum up their attitude, the longtime director of the Pushkin Museum said in an interview in 2012: “A country is liable, with its own cultural treasures, for the damage it inflicts on the cultural heritage of another nation.”

2 Amarna Excavation

Dating back 3,500 years, the bust of Queen Nefertiti, wife of the infamous pharaoh Akhenaten, was discovered by a German archaeologist named Ludwig Borchardt on December 6, 1912. Found in the remains of Thutmose’s workshop in the dig site known as Amarna, the bust was smuggled out of the country and hidden from Egyptian authorities, who had agreed to split the found artifacts. Germany disputes this version of events, claiming that everything was legal and aboveboard.

Recognizing the value of the piece, which has since gone on to gain a reputation as an icon of feminine beauty, Borchardt was said to have “wanted to save the bust for us,” according to a secretary in the German Oriental Company, who was present at the time. It was initially kept in the private residence of the excavation’s financier. Later, it was displayed as a counterpoint to Tutankhamun’s funerary mask, which had brought worldwide acclaim to the British when it was showcased.

Egyptian efforts to repatriate the bust have proved fruitless over the decades, as countless German officials have refused to give the notion a second glance. Adolf Hitler himself declared: “I will never relinquish the head of the Queen,” as it was one of his favorite pieces.

1 Benin Expedition Of 1897

A punitive expedition in retaliation for an attack on the British military known as the Benin Massacre, the Benin Expedition of 1897 was led by Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, and it had the express intent of destroying every Benin town or village and plundering anything of value along the way as reparations. By the end of Britain’s reign of destruction, the Kingdom of Benin was no more, wiped off the face of the Earth.

When Benin artifacts finally made their way to London, their reception was incredible, with every museum from Europe and the United States hoping to get their hands on a piece of the treasure. (Germany was especially enamored with the looted artwork.) Perhaps the most noteworthy of all the artwork are the Benin Bronzes, a collection of more than 1,000 metal plaques which commemorate the battles, kings, queens, and mythology of the Edo people. They date back to the 13th century AD. Europeans became enamored with African culture after their “discovery,” astonished that a culture so “primitive” and “savage” could have produced something of such high quality.

We’re always amazed when archaeologists come upon extraordinary and magnificent discoveries. Sometimes, the discoveries are rather small and maybe insignificant (such as a single coin from centuries ago), and sometimes, they’re bigger and incredibly important (such as a forgotten ancient city). While some important discoveries are made as part of well-planned expeditions and aren’t especially surprising, incredible archaeological discoveries are sometimes made by pure chance. Below is a list of 10 important archaeological discoveries that were uncovered completely by accident.

10 19th-Century Brothel

In 1997, the Smithsonian Institution commissioned an archaeological study of the site upon which the National Museum of the American Indian was to be built and found artifacts, buried and untouched for more than a century, that could have only been from a wealthy household. These high-quality, expensive items were an unusual find in an area that was known to previously have been working-class neighborhood, and as a result, old maps and real estate records were consulted. It was then confirmed that the artifacts were what remained of a 19th-century brothel which was run by Mary Ann Hall, a mysterious, successful entrepreneur.

Prior to the dig, archaeologists didn’t know exactly what they were going to find, although they did have their suspicions. Archival research done before the archaeological excavations revealed that the house was occupied by a rather large number of females, a fact which the researchers and archaeologists found rather odd. However, it was the artifacts that pointed to the actual, slightly scandalous nature of the establishment. Hundreds of champagne corks and broken bottles, shards of expensive porcelain, seeds from exotic fruits, and women’s grooming items made it obvious that the house was indeed a brothel. It was no ordinary brothel, however. It stood in close proximity to Capitol Hill and was visited by elite clientele.

Today, many of the artifacts remaining from Mary Ann Hall’s brothel are kept at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, and can be viewed with an appointment.

9 Herculaneum

Most people are familiar with the destruction of Pompeii, which occurred in AD 79. After all, it’s now one of the biggest tourist attractions in Italy and draws thousands of tourists each year. However, a significantly smaller number of people are aware that the day Mount Vesuvius erupted, it also destroyed another Roman city called Herculaneum.

On the day of the eruption, Pompeii was downwind from the volcano and was thus quickly buried under a covering of ash. Herculaneum, on the other hand, was upwind and was destroyed more than 12 hours later when it was hit by a blast of scorching ash, rock, and volcanic gas. The blast was of such high temperature that it instantly carbonized everything in the city, leaving Herculaneum extremely well-preserved (more so than Pompeii, in fact).

While the city of Herculaneum was never quite lost or forgotten, it nevertheless wasn’t until the 18th century that it was “rediscovered”—completely by accident. In 1709, a farmer was digging a well and found some elaborate marble stonework. It was later realized that he had actually discovered the remains of the magnificent Roman theater of Herculaneum, which had been lying undisturbed beneath his fields for over a 1,000 years.

After the initial accidental discovery, a series of “robber” shafts and tunnels were dug to strip the site of any valuable items. Not long after, however, Herculaneum was explored on a more scientific basis for King Charles of Bourbon. In the 20th century, archaeological excavations recommenced on a far more modern and scientific basis, which resulted in the discovery of more interesting Roman artifacts.

8 The Edinburgh Vaults

In 1785, the construction of the Edinburgh Vaults commenced under the South Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was completed and opened in 1788. The South Bridge’s surface was thus dotted with numerous booming businesses with their workshops located underneath them, while still below this, living quarters existed. The lower you were under the bridge, the lower your social status was.

Life under the bridge was in constant motion and development. Criminals moved illegal materials through the tunnels in a black market, a red-light district with gambling venues cropped up, pubs and brothels were established, and crime and murder prospered. It is even said that at one point, serial killers were able to murder over a dozen victims and store the bodies in the vaults without being detected or stopped.

However, the conditions in the vaults were so bad that even the poorest citizens were leaving their underground slums between 1835 and 1875. The vaults were eventually shut down and forgotten.

In the 1980s, a rugby player and bar owner named Norrie Rowan tried to help his Romanian colleague Cristian Raducanu (who had defected to the UK) escape the Romanian secret police and discovered a tunnel underneath his bar that led to the Edinburgh Vaults. The find led to Raducanu’s successful escape as well as the vaults’ revival. The tunnels and chambers were excavated and restored. When children’s toys, medicine, and other household items were discovered, it was realized that the Edinburgh Vaults were home to many unfortunates. Today, the vaults are a major tourist attraction for those seeking the thrill of ghost tours.

7 The Venus De Milo

The famous sculpture of Venus de Milo was discovered in 1820 by a farmer named Georgios (or Yourgos) Kentrotas on the Aegean Island of Melos (aka Milos or Milo). Kentrotas was in the process of plowing a field when he came upon a cave which contained within it half of a statue of the goddess Aphrodite.

The events that followed are not quite clear, and different sources provide slightly different accounts of what happened next: Some sources claim that Kentrotas hid the statue in a barn, wishing to keep it for himself, but the statue was eventually discovered and confiscated by Turkish authorities. Shortly after, the French ambassador to Turkey bought it and (after some repair work) presented it to King Louis XVIII of France, who placed it in the Louvre, where it remains to this day.

Other sources claim that a French officer named Olivier Voutier was visiting Melos at the time when Kentrotas found the statue and urged him to look for the other half of it. Kentrotas obliged and soon discovered the other half, along with a sixth-century BC statue of young Hermes and Hercules as an old man. Voutier made a sketch of the statue of Aphrodite and sent it to Louis Brest, the French vice-consul for Melos, who in turn sent it to the French consul in Constantinople. The latter decided to obtain the statue of Aphrodite for France and sent an envoy to Melos. In the meantime, however, Kentrotas sold the statue to another man on behalf of the prince of Moldavia. The statue was ready to be placed aboard a ship for Romania when the French ship sailed in. After some bargaining, the envoy and Louis Brest bought the statue as a gift for Louis XVIII. Venus de Milo then appeared in the Louvre on March 1, 1821.

It’s interesting to note that a pedestal, a piece of an upper left arm, and a left hand holding an apple were found along with the statue. However, it’s not clear whether these fragments belonged to the Venus de Milo, and while attempts to create a design to replace the missing arms were made, it was eventually decided to leave the statue in the state it was in when it was accidentally found by the Greek farmer.

6 Chinese Mummy

In 2011 in Taizhou, a city located on the eastern coast of China’s Jiangsu province, road workers were in the process of widening a road, which involved clearing the way by digging several feet into the ground. When the workers were digging about 2 meters (6 ft) below the surface, they struck a large, solid object. Realizing that the object they’d accidentally found might be of significant value, they contacted a team of archaeologists to excavate the area.

The archaeologists then determined that the object was actually a tomb with a three-layered coffin inside it. When the main coffin was opened, layers of silk and linen covered in brown liquid were noticed, but the biggest surprise still awaited: Beneath the linens and silks, they discovered the remains of a female body. The remains were so well-preserved that the eyebrows, hair, and skin of the woman were still intact after more than 600 years.

5 Palatial Roman Villa

When the designer Luke Irwin and his wife decided to convert an old barn on their newly acquired property in England into a room for table tennis, they came upon a most extraordinary find—a palatial Roman villa just 18 meters (60 ft) from their front door.

In an effort to put their table tennis room together, the Irwins hired electricians to lay cables for lights. The spectacular discovery almost wasn’t made at all: The electricians initially suggested stringing up an overhead cable from the Irwins’ house in order to supply the power to the barn, but thankfully, Irwin insisted on an underground cable being laid instead. The electricians gave in, and soon, the drilling process began. Just 46 centimeters (18 in) below the surface, they hit a strange, hard layer. The layer consisted of pieces of mosaics.

Irwin quickly sent a photograph of the mosaic to the council, and shortly after, archaeologists arrived at their house, ready to excavate the site. They found that the mosaic formed part of the floor of an elaborate and extremely well-preserved villa, which dates back from between AD 175 and 220. The dig also unearthed hundreds of oyster shells, high-status pottery, brooches, coins, and the bones of wild animals. Other finds included a Roman well and the stone coffin of a Roman child, which had been previously used as a flower bed. The site hadn’t been touched since the villa collapsed more than 1,400 years ago. As a consequence, it has been unsurprisingly been declared extremely important.

4 The Lyceum

Plato was the founder of the first university in the Western World, called the Academy. Aristotle was a star pupil of the Academy, and in 335 BC, he went on to start his own school, called the Lyceum, in Athens. Over time, however, the Lyceum was lost, and efforts made by archaeologists to find the famous school were fruitless for over more than 100 years.

Nonetheless, in 1997, the Lyceum was accidentally discovered by workers working on a construction site for the projected Museum of Modern Art. Imagine the surprise when excavations carried out by the workers on an unpaved parking lot revealed an ancient complex with a central courtyard and a wrestling area (known as palaestra)! Archaeologists later confirmed that the magnificent discovery was part of the Lyceum. Of course, the spectacular discovery of the ancient school meant that an alternative site would have to be chosen for the art museum, since the remains of the Lyceum have been turned into an outdoor museum.

3 The Banwell Caves

The Banwell Caves consist of the “Stalactite Cave” and the “Bone Cave.” The Stalactite Cave was discovered by chance by local miners in 1757 but was left untouched until 1824, when it reopened with the goal of attracting paying visitors and raising money for a parochial school. However, access to the cave was difficult, and thus, an attempt was made to create a more convenient entrance. The attempt failed, but it led to the accidental discovery of the Bone Cave. The Bone Cave is so named because upon its discovery, it was filled with mud containing bones of animals that were up to 80,000 years old and no longer native to England.

The site where the discovery occurred was owned by the bishop of Bath and Wells, George Henry Law. A cottage was built on the side of the hill and was gradually enlarged. Various ornamental buildings were also built. The best bones from the Bone Cave were displayed in one such building. It’s interesting to note that the bishop firmly believed that the discovery of animal bones was proof of Noah’s flood. The caves continued to operate for some time after the bishop’s death but eventually closed to the public in 1865.

2 The Ruins Of Serdica

In 2012, engineers excavating a new line for the metro in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia came upon the remains of the cosmopolitan city of Serdica, where Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, lived for a year while looking for a new capital for his empire. Serdica was a major metropolis and contains physical traces of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine cultures.

The ruins discovered are mostly from the time when Serdica was the capital of the Roman province of Inner Dacia—the time when the city was at its largest and most flourishing. Archaeological excavations of the site unearthed floor mosaics containing symbolic Roman vine leaves, early sewage systems, a wheel of fortune (which was probably used for bringing good fortune to the inhabitants), and private bath houses of ancient Romans who lived there.

Today, the site where the ruins of the ancient city of Serdica were found has been transformed into an open-air museum.

1 The Artwork Of Lascaux Cave

In 1940, a group of teenagers accidentally discovered the ancient artwork in Lascaux Cave near Montignac, France, after following their dog into a cavern. Shortly after, archaeologists were notified of the find and called in to investigate.

The Lascaux Cave is decorated with around 600 painted drawings of animals and symbols as well as almost 1,500 engravings. The drawings are mostly of animals, including horses, rhinos, deer, stags, and mythical creatures. Only one human figure has been drawn inside the cave—a bird-headed man with an erect penis. The paintings found in the cave are considered to be the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic Period. Archaeologists believe that the cave was a center for hunting and religious rites.

The Lascaux Cave was opened to public in 1948 but was closed in 1963 because the artificial lights and carbon dioxide had caused damage to the delicate artwork. A replica of the cave was opened in 1983 and receives thousands of visitors each year.

A student from Ireland in love with books, writing, coffee, and cats.

Egypt was one of the earliest cultures to start keeping extensive records for future generations. Their monuments like the Great Pyramids of Giza remain to impress and awe us to this day. However, just because we have made many important finds throughout history doesn’t mean every last secret of ancient Egypt has been exhausted. In fact, in just the past few years, we have uncovered impressive finds which give us even more knowledge into the lives of the Egyptians of the past.

10 Iron From Meteorites

In the northern Egyptian city of Gerzeh in 1911, archaeologists found a tomb that contained nine beads that appeared to be made of iron. The only problem is that they were dated from 2,000 years before Egypt had the capability to smelt iron. Since then, historians have puzzled over where the ancient Egyptians either found iron or learned to create it so early in their history.

The Egyptian hieroglyphics for iron literally translate to “metal from heaven,” which gives a pretty good clue as to its origins. Because of the rarity of the metal, it was mainly associated with wealth and power. It was mainly crafted into jewelry and trinkets for royalty rather than weapons as it was later used.

In the 1980s, chemical analysis showed levels of nickel, a metal associated with meteorites, but levels were too low to confirm. Recently, however, tests have conclusively shown that the iron did indeed come from fallen meteorites which would explain why the metal appeared thousands of years before the Egyptians learned to smelt it.

Interestingly, this would also explain the mystery of King Tut’s dagger. Along with a gold blade, a mysterious dagger apparently made of iron was found at Tutankhamen’s side. Since King Tut died before iron was smelted, it was theorized that his dagger came from fallen meteorites. After testing, this theory was finally proven true.

9 Religious Tattoos

Today, many people will get tattoos for a variety of reasons: to remember a loved one, to express uniqueness, or to show off their interests. But a mummy found in the village of Deir el-Medina shows what the ancient Egyptians may have used them for. Along with other mummies with visible tattoos, the Deir el-Medina mummy sheds light on a possible ancient religious practice.

The Deir el-Medina mummy is a headless, limbless torso that belonged to a woman from between 1300 and 1070 BC who lived in an artisanal village near the Valley of the Kings. Using infrared lights, 30 identifiable tattoos were found on her.

What’s unique about her is that the tattoos appear to have been put on her during her lifetime rather than after death for a religious ritual. She also has the first symbols that have significance rather than abstract designs.

These symbolic designs range from the so-called Wadjet eyes on her neck, shoulders, and back (which represent divine watching from every angle) to cows related to the powerful god Hathor. Other symbols were found on her neck and what remained of her arms. Most likely, they were also related to Hathor and were supposed to be a sort of boost for singing and playing music.

When the discovery of the tops was made, many Egyptologists were stunned because no tattoos of the sort had been found before. Three similar mummies were found, and their markings were most likely for women who wanted to express their religious piety. To get the tattoos would have been test enough because the method used was probably excruciatingly painful.

8 Depiction Of Demons

As far back as 4,000 years ago, Egyptians feared demons and what they would do to these ancient people. Of course, the ancient Egyptians were very religious people and their beliefs were passed down so effectively that we have a good grasp on their deities and practices today. However, when it comes to demons in Egyptian’s minds from the distant past, we were mostly in the dark as to what they imagined them to be—until now.

Two demons found on a coffin from the Middle Kingdom (around 4,500 years ago and the oldest depictions thus far) show exactly what the Egyptians believed were out there and what they would do to you. One named In-tep is a doglike baboon and the other named Chery-benut is an unspecified creature with a human head. They are depicted as two guards of an entrance but what they actually did is unknown.

According to archaeologists, In-tep may have punished intruders who entered sacred spaces by gruesomely decapitating them. Ikenty, a third demon also found on a Middle Kingdom coffin, was depicted as a large bird with a feline head. But an even older depiction found on a Cairo scroll describes it as a demon that could very quickly identify victims and hold them in its inescapable grasp.

Although demons were commonly depicted in Egyptian findings from the New Kingdom (1,000 years after the Middle Kingdom), it shows that belief in evil spirits by the ancient Egyptians occurred far earlier than previously thought by experts.

7 Ancient Heart Disease

Atherosclerosis, the hardening of the coronary arteries, is a common disease in modern populations. Sedentary lifestyles, diets rich in fatty foods, and more contribute to this disease. Seeing as most of its causes were almost nonexistent in the past, it would stand to reason that atherosclerosis would not be common in ancient populations. According to Egyptologists, it was actually a common affliction.

A study of 52 mummies at the National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo showed that 20 of them exhibited signs of calcification, which means that they most likely suffered from atherosclerosis during their lifetimes. As one would expect, those who had the disease had lived the longest. Their ages averaged around 45, and they lived during the 16th century BC.

One of the mummies was royalty: Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon who lived in Thebes and died in her forties. She is the oldest recognized person to have coronary heart disease. A scan of her arteries showed that enough were clogged to warrant bypass surgery if she were alive today.

However, her diet and that of other ancient Egyptians was the exact opposite of most heart disease victims today: fruit, vegetables, wheat, beer, and lean domesticated meats. So why was heart disease common?

Parasitic infections were frequent in ancient Egypt, and the inflammation would have caused some to become more susceptible to heart disease. Salt for preservation may have been another factor. Finally, in the case of the princess, a diet of luxuries like meat, cheese, and butter could have caused her heart disease like most people today.

6 Egyptian Hair Work

When a woman’s hair starts to thin out today, there are multiple options to fix it. Apparently, women in the past had the same problem because the body of a woman found in the ruined Egyptian city of Amarna had 70 hair extensions similar to those we have today. The extensions were so well done that they were preserved to this day even though the rest of her body decomposed.

The woman’s body wasn’t mummified but remained in fairly good condition considering that she most likely died 3,300 years ago. Although it is believed that the hair extensions were placed on her for burial, evidence suggests that people at the time also used the same extensions in everyday life.

In the cemetery in which the woman was buried, other bodies with interesting hair work were found. One woman with graying hair was actually found to have dyed her hair using the henna plant. She had dyed her hair for the same reason that we do today. She wanted to cover up her gray spots.

All together, there were 28 skeletons with hair still attached, all displaying different hairstyles. The most common was tight braids around the ears. To keep the hair in place after death, some kind of fat was used. It seems to have worked well because the hair is still preserved to this day.

5 The Mummified Fetus

About 100 years ago, a 45-centimeter (17 in) coffin was unearthed in Giza. It was transported to Cambridge University where it was put away and left unchecked for the next century. At the time, all that was made of the bundle inside was that it was just some organs put into the tiny coffin for some unknown reason. However, after researchers found the coffin, they examined the bundle and came to a startling new conclusion.

A CT scan showed that it was actually a fetus and that it had been carefully preserved and buried in its own specially built coffin that contained intricate designs and decorations. Aged just 16–18 weeks, it is the youngest mummy ever found as of mid-2016 and the only academically verified, mummified fetus from this gestational period discovered thus far.

It shows just what lengths the ancient Egyptians would go to honor the dead and especially their young during the first weeks of life. It was most likely a miscarriage, a significant occurrence in ancient Egypt considering the care given to other mummified fetuses that have been discovered. Two mummies found in King Tut’s tomb were buried in individual coffins of their own.

The baby itself was mummified using the same methods as full-size mummies. Its arms were crossed over each other as other mummies are and had no deformations of any kinds. In the words of the museum where the mummy now resides: The efforts taken for the mummy, “coupled with the intricacy of the tiny coffin and its decoration, are clear indications of the importance and time given to this burial in Egyptian society.”

4 Cancer In Egyptians

Like heart disease, cancer has been described by some as a strictly modern disease, and it is true that cancer is mostly absent from historical records. However, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t occur in the ancient world. Discoveries in the past few years have shown that cancer did indeed show up in ancient Egypt, and we still have the proof. Two mummies, male and female, both show signs that they suffered from the disease.

In 2015, a Spanish university found a mummy that showed evidence of deterioration from breast cancer. Authorities now say that the mummy is the oldest victim of breast cancer in history. The 4,200-year-old mummy lived during the sixth pharaonic dynasty, and her bones showed extreme deterioration that is consistent with cancer.

According to the Egyptian antiquities minister: “The study of her remains shows the typical destructive damage provoked by the extension of a breast cancer as a metastasis.” She lived in Elephantine, the southernmost town in ancient Egypt at the time. A 3,000-year-old mummy found in Sudan near Elephantine also showed breast cancer, which suggests that it was in the Nile Valley at the time.

In 2011, a 2,250-year-old male mummy known as M1 was found with the oldest case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt. Researchers have suggested that the reason cancer wasn’t often found in mummies in the past was simply a matter of available technology. We now have scanners that can detect tumors as small as 1.0 centimeter (0.4 in) that are commonly found on the spine after prostate cancer spreads. Possible causes for cancer in ancient times range from the bitumen used for building boats to smoke from wood-burning chimneys.

3 The Oldest Papyri In The World

In 2011, archaeologist Pierre Tallet made a remarkable discovery in a remote area of Egypt far away from any civilization. Thirty honeycombed caves in a limestone cliff turned out to have been a sort of boat storage depot in ancient Egypt. But even more stunning was a discovery he made a few years later in 2013—a series of papyri written in both hieroglyphics and hieratic (an informal, everyday sort of writing by ancient Egyptians) that are the oldest papyri ever discovered.

Tallet had used instructions given by an Englishman in the 19th century and French pilots in the 1950s to find the caves. The papyri are so old that the author actually wrote about the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza. They also show that Egypt at the time had a bustling shipping economy that stretched across the entire empire. During the construction of the pyramids, all of Egypt was interconnected to enable the massive project.

The journal of an official named Merer was among the papyri. Apparently, Merer supervised a group of 200 men responsible for crisscrossing ancient Egypt and gathering supplies like food for workers or the massive amounts of copper needed to sand the limestone for the Great Pyramid’s exterior.

They went to Tura, a city on the Nile River famous for its limestone quarries, and actually dealt with Ankh-haf, the half brother of Khufu. The journals of Merer come from the last known years of Khufu’s reign and provide an account of the finishing touches of the first and largest of the pyramids in Giza.

It is the only account we have of the building of the Great Pyramids. According to Zahi Hawass, former chief inspector of the pyramid site, this makes the journals “the greatest discovery in Egypt in the 21st century.”

2 Ancient Egyptian Brain Drain

In 525 BC, Persian King Cambyses marched into the Egyptian capital of Memphis, which began a century-long rule over Egypt by Persia. During this time, most of the great Egyptian minds and artists were taken to Persia to serve the empire there. Meanwhile, back in Egypt, there was a sort of brain drain in which they were left with artists who were not talented enough for the Persians.

This is evident from a coffin discovered in 2014. Although whoever was buried in it is now gone, tests show that the coffin dates from around the time of the Persian occupation. Even more interesting are the designs on the coffin, which can be described as incredibly mediocre. They are so poorly done that some experts initially believed that the coffin was a fake.

However, the coffin was authenticated when it was proven to have the ancient Egyptian pigment known as Egyptian blue. The shoddy work was, in fact, the result of the best Egyptian artisans being taken to work in Persia.

There are a variety of bizarre images on the coffin, including poorly drawn falcons (representative of the god Horus) that appear fishlike, four jars with the heads of the four sons of Horus that are described as “goofy,” the only known image of a bed with the head of the deity Ba, and the goddess Hathor depicted with a snake-shaped crown that is also an oddity in ancient Egypt.

Other clumsy mistakes made by the artist have made experts wonder just how bad the art world in Egypt deteriorated during this period. Ancient texts by Diodoros Siculus, who died in 30 BC, record that all precious metals and artists were removed by Cambyses during the Persian occupation and that King Darius I of Persia reportedly bragged about the Egyptian artisans that he had gathered to build his palace in Susa.

1 Egyptian Sex Spells

In 2016, two papyrus scrolls from the third century AD were deciphered from the Greek in which they were written. Over 1,700 years old, the scrolls had been found a century ago with several scrolls that were held at the University of Oxford in England until recently when they were translated. The subject of the two scrolls was sex spells to make whomever the caster wanted love them in return.

The spells were not exclusive since you could essentially put whatever name you wanted in them to get the desired effects. Apparently, one of the spells invokes the gods to “burn the heart” of a woman until she loved the caster. Another one for females was supposed to allow the caster to “subject” the male to whatever she wanted to force him to do.

The author of the spells is unknown, but they were apparently Gnostic as several Gnostic gods are actually mentioned in the spells. The spells give an interesting insight into the superstitions and beliefs of Egyptians so many centuries ago.

With the men’s spell, the caster was supposed to burn various ingredients in a bathhouse (the list of ingredients didn’t survive the degradation of the scroll) and then write a set of words on the bathhouse walls. The spell then lists magic words and the names of several gods. Finally, the scroll says: “Holy names, inflame in this way and burn the heart of her” and so on until the subject falls in love with the caster.

The spell for females says to inscribe a certain text in a copper plate and then attach it to one of the subject’s possessions. The result was to make him do whatever the caster wanted. Interestingly, the back of the scrolls contained recipes for various potions, including a mixture of honey and bird droppings that was supposed to “promote pleasure.”

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects, but until he finishes one, he will write for for his bread and butter. You can write him at [email protected].

New discoveries are made all the time that change the way we regard events and cultures of our past. Just in the last few years, many archaeological finds provided us with new perspectives on established chapters of history.

10 Bobcat Ceremonial Burial

While going through the Illinois State Museum’s collection of Native American artifacts, anthropologist Angela Perri found a box labeled “puppy” which she expected to be filled with dog bones excavated from a burial mound of the Hopewell culture. Instead, the bones belonged to a bobcat.

The discovery was notable for two reasons: It was the only decorated wildcat burial found in North America and the only animal ever found buried alone in its own mound.

Since the bobcat was only a kitten when it died, anthropologists suspect that it was raised as a pet. Inside the mound, they also found a necklace which Perri believed served as the cat’s collar.

However, zooarchaeologist Melinda Zeder has a different hypothesis. She believes that the bobcat held a much higher symbolic status for the native culture, possibly as a connection to nature.

9 Roman Terror Weapons

A recent discovery suggests that the Romans employed psychological warfare using whistling slingshot bullets. They used a staff sling called a fustibalus which could throw lemon-sized rocks over a long distance. But certain bullets found at one site in Scotland have a peculiar characteristic—they are drilled through their center.

The stone bullets were found at Burnswark Hill, the site of a massive fight between Romans and Scots about 1,800 years ago. Drilling the holes would have been a time-consuming endeavor, especially for something used only once.

Archaeologist John Reid was puzzled by the stones’ purpose. But Reid’s brother, a keen fisherman, deduced the purpose of the bullets based on his experience of using holed-out lures. When thrown, the bullets caused a sharp whistling noise. Only small stones were drilled, so multiple bullets could be thrown at once, creating a stereo effect for added terror.

8 Celtic Hybrid Boneyard

Until recently, we didn’t think that Iron Age Celtic mythology contained hybrid monsters. Now, one gravesite in Dorset suggests that the Celts had their own mythological creatures which they recreated in real life.

The discovery was made at Duropolis. The “cemetery” consists of pits with animal skeletons rearranged to form hybrid beasts. These include a cow with horse legs and a sheep with a bull’s head on its rear end.

The most bizarre discovery involved the skeleton of a woman found on top of a layer of animal bones which mirrored the arrangement of the human bones. Her head was resting on a “bed” of animal skulls, her legs were on top of animal leg bones, etc.

Archaeologist Paul Cheetham believes that the skeletons (including the woman) represent sacrifices. The pits were initially used as food storage. When a new pit was dug, a sacrifice was placed in the old one before being buried.

7 Oldest Dress In The World

The Tarkhan Dress is now the oldest woven garment in the world. Recovered from an Egyptian tomb, it is dated between 3400 BC and 3100 BC. Most recovered ancient clothing is no older than 2,000 years because neither animal skins nor plant fibers survive degradation well.

The dress has a V-neck, narrow pleats, and tailored sleeves. Creases formed at the elbows and armpits indicate that it was worn repeatedly.

There are a few clothing items of similar age, but those are ceremonial garments wrapped or draped over a body. The Tarkhan Dress remains a unique ancient Egyptian fashion statement as it was tailor-made by a specialized craftsman and worn by somebody of great wealth.

6 Philadelphia’s History Down The Toilet

In 2017, Philadelphia will open the Museum of the American Revolution. When excavation for the museum started in 2014, workers uncovered a system of privies that served households and businesses in the 18th century. The pits were literally clogged with historical items, and so far, archaeologists have recovered over 82,000 artifacts.

At that time, privies also served as garbage dumps for household waste. While these items might not have immense value, some historians prefer them over jewelry or art for the unique look they provide of common people of that time.

One especially fascinating pit belonged to Benjamin and Mary Humphreys and was dug around the start of the American Revolution. Although their house was registered as a private residence, archaeologists found tobacco pipes, broken punch bowls, and empty liquor bottles there.

In 1783, Mary was arrested for running a “disorderly house.” The couple was actually running an illegal tavern.

5 First Philistine Cemetery

The Philistines were a mysterious ancient people heavily featured in the Bible and described as the archenemies of the Israelites. In modern times, certain historians considered the Philistines a sea people, likely Aegean in origin, who came to Levant, settled in five main cities, and formed the pentapolis of Philistia.

The Philistines disappeared around the eighth century BC with little trace, but archaeologists recently announced the discovery of a Philistine cemetery with over 150 graves and countless artifacts. The cemetery was actually discovered 30 years ago, but it took this long to excavate it. No bones have been analyzed so far, but the burial of the dead sheds light on Philistine society.

The discovery reveals that the Philistines were not hostile to culture despite their name. They were buried with jewelry, decorated jugs filled with perfumed oils or wine, and weapons.

4 Oldest Document Of Roman Britain

While excavating for Bloomberg’s new European headquarters in London, workers uncovered the largest collection of Roman writing tablets in Britain’s history. The collection contains around 400 tablets and boasts the earliest mention of London, predating Tacitus’s Annals by 50 years. The still-legible tablets have been translated and published in a monograph titled Roman London’s First Voices, which provides us with unparalleled context for life in Londinium 2,000 years ago.

The find also contains the oldest document of Roman Britain, dated January 8, AD 57. The document is an IOU, fittingly found in London’s financial district. It specifies that Tibullus, freedman of Venustus, owes Gratus, freedman of Spurius, 105 denarii for merchandise which was sold and delivered.

3 Buddha’s Skull Bone

Between 2007 and 2010, archaeologists excavated a Buddhist temple in Nanjing. The highlight of the find was a 1,000-year-old model stupa which contained the remains of several saints. The stupa might have also contained the most revered Buddhist artifact in history—the skull bone of Buddha.

The inscriptions make it clear that the parietal bone placed inside the chest belonged to Buddha. It was sent to the temple after his body was cremated in India around 2,400 years ago. About 1,400 years ago, the temple was destroyed by war and rebuilt by Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty. The description even names the people who donated money and materials to build the new temple.

It’s difficult to say if the parietal bone belonged to Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhists already revere it and visit it in pilgrimage. The Western world just found out because the discovery has only recently been covered in English.

2 Untouched Mycenaean Tomb

A minor excavation of a stone shaft turned into one of the biggest Greek archaeological finds in decades. Explorers uncovered the intact 3,500-year-old tomb of a Mycenaean warrior. Although the warrior remains unidentified, he must have been quite wealthy and important as he was buried with over 1,400 objects displayed on and around his body.

We have little information about the infant stages of Mycenaean Greece around 1,500 BC. In fact, the dig was part of an ongoing project to determine the influential extent of Mycenaean culture on the Minoan civilization and vice versa.

Already, the tomb has raised several questions for archaeologists. Among the warrior’s possessions were beads, combs, and a mirror, objects typically buried with wealthy women. Group burial was common practice back then, even for Mycenaean elite. One such grave was found just 90 meters (300 ft) away from the tomb, which makes archaeologists question why this Mycenaean warrior was buried alone.

1 Oldest Stone Tools

Using tools is considered an essential step in the evolution of mankind. The Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania used to be the place where the earliest toolmaking practice (known as the Oldowan industry) occurred. The oldest tools recovered there were 2.6 million years old.

Now we’ve found tools which are 700,000 years older. On the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, archaeologists discovered sharp stone flakes for cutting that are 3.3 million years old.

The most significant implication is that the tools predate humans. Until this point, we thought that the first tools were made by members of the Homo genus, but it seems that earlier hominins also developed this skill. The most likely culprit is Kenyanthropus platyops. It’s a fossil discovered in the same area in 1999 that some claim should be its own genus. Others see it as a species of Australopithecus.

The actual day-to-day of archaeology and other similar professions may not be that exciting, as they often have to carefully spend time removing dirt from artifacts that may not be worth much of anything individually. Still, their collective work has inspired our imaginations and helped create countless fantasy works, as well as many lively discussions about the ancient past. 

That work has also given us a window into what we know to be true about these ancient civilizations, and also what we have come to suspect could be true based on archaeological evidence. Let’s take a look at some of the most fascinating theories of historical cultures, based on what’s been gathered by these curators of the past…

10. The Aztecs Sacrificed Countless People Due To A Protein Shortage

It’s pretty widely known that Aztec people took part in cannibalism during their human sacrifices, but it was anthropologist Michael Harner who put forth a controversial theory in an attempt to further explain the “why” behind their religious ideology. The theory goes that their population was booming, but at the same time, the available game for protein was decreasing. Getting all eight essential amino acids and protein from maize and beans would require large quantities of food, making it relatively impractical. He also cited times of famine where even nobles sold their children into slavery to buy food and suggested the poor class could fight in wars to get POWs so they could cannibalize them in a blood ritual and eat them for protein.  

Of course, there’s a competing theory by anthropologist and historian Bernard Ortiz De Montellano who argues that the rituals where cannibalism occurred were nearly always done at harvest time, as part of a celebration, and not during times of famine. Further, the cities where these blood sacrifices were known to take place were the bigger cities that received food tributes and weren’t particularly worried about food, even in general times of famine. Montellano argues that sacrificial victims’ bodies were sacred and that the reason for ingesting the body was to ingest a part of the gods themselves and was never connected in any official literature to protein deficiency. 

9. The City Of Pavlopetri Was The Fabled Lost City Of Atlantis

In 2009, a group of Anglo-Greek marine geologists and archaeologists went to work to survey a promising area off the Southern Peloponnese that more primitive technology had suggested was a hotspot for discovery some 40 years earlier, and they made an amazing discovery. They found the ruins of an ancient city, mostly intact, that had sunk beneath the sea floor about 5,000 years ago, during the days of Homer’s epic legends. 

The researchers believe it could have sunk due to a tsunami, earthquake, or both, somewhere around 1000 BC, leaving it resting below the waves for future discovery. While mapping it with modern digital technology they discovered 9,000 square meters of new buildings, and a very large Megaron, which was a structure used by elites for public gatherings, suggesting the city was used by important members of Mycenaean society. Due to the time period to which the city is dated, how quickly it disappeared beneath the waters, and the potential elite status of its inhabitants, some have suggested it could have been the fabled lost city of Atlantis. 

8. Noah’s Story Was An Allegory For Survivors Of A Really Bad Local Flood

Even those who aren’t Christian are well aware of the story of Noah’s Ark, and his quest to save two of every animal from a great flood that would encompass the entire earth. But Noah’s was not the only similar story. The epic of Gilgamesh, the Qur’an, and many others have a story of an all-encompassing flood in which people had to go to great lengths, often using boats to survive. Now, while stories about bad local floods, or even allegorical stories of worldwide floods, are not confined to one area, there is a very large concentration of them coming from Ancient Mesopotamia — which is now modern-day Iraq. 

This has caused researchers to consider whether the stories could have been allegories about a really bad local flood. While the geological record of the earth does not support a global flood, the geological record of Iraq does support the possibility of a bad flood, or even floods, back in the days of Ancient Mesopotamia. This flood (or floods) could have drowned many, destroyed their homes, and taken months to properly recede due to the geography of the area. With no internet or telephones to check outside their area, and all their known geography flooded, they wrote stories of the entire world being lost beneath a catastrophic deluge because as far as they knew, their entire world was flooded.

7. Contrary To Recent Popular Belief, Some Christians May Have Been Thrown To Lions

It used to be accepted that Christians, and many other malcontents, were thrown to the lions during the days of the Romans and it was believed to be a fact. Now, many historians and debunkers have told you that it isn’t true and that there is not a single corroborating text that states Christians were thrown to lions. However, the Romans didn’t always keep the best records. 

During the early era of the Christian Church, when many Christians were being executed, throwing people to the beasts was a popular method of execution. This method involved all kinds of animals including lions, and one text tells of a Priest called Saturas, whom they first tried to kill with a boar, then with a bear, and then finally finished off with a leopard. As for the crueler Roman Emperors, Nero was known to cover Christians in animal skins before throwing them to the dogs. Now, as we stated, there is no extant evidence of lion-on-Christian action, but considering how popular it was to throw people to the animals, it would seem more like a bizarre accident than anything if they never got their chance to sink their teeth into any early Christian flesh. 

6. Spartan Warriors Were Not That Amazing, It Was Mostly Propaganda

The Spartan reputation today is such that many still see them as the epitome of the most fearsome and powerful warrior. However, the truth is that much of what we think about the Spartans may have been nothing more than propaganda by the Greek historian Herodotus, and much of it from the Spartans themselves.

The Spartan state had a population of slaves known as helots that consisted, at any given time, of a much larger percentage of the population than the free Spartans themselves, and the Spartans felt fear was a good way to keep people in line, which only worked for a time as the helots did ultimately successfully rebel.

Now, when it comes to the facts, the Spartan won-loss record in battle was a little under 50%, which for warriors with such a reputation, is pretty bad. There is still some reason to believe that Spartans had slightly better unit organization and that many of their regular troops were slightly above the regular Greek average in terms of skill, but not to any amazing level. Further, individual skill only mattered for so much, as most battles back then consisted mainly of forming into a phalanx and smashing your soldiers into your enemy counterparts.

5. Scientists Have New Evidence Of City-States Dotting The Maya Lowlands

Back in 2016, surveyors flew over the area that once comprised the Ancient Maya Empire, and used laser imaging to map 830 square miles of the ruins — which is an area larger than the island of Maui. When the surveyors looked at the results, it proved a theory that had fallen out of favor and took their breath away. Many archaeologists had theorized that the Maya, who had an extensive economic and social system, had interconnected city-states dotted throughout the Maya Lowlands. But that theory had started to fall out of favor for lack of direct evidence. 

However, this laser imaging changed everything, and in one fell swoop revealed over 60,000 new potential sites of interest. These included 60 miles of causeways, roads, and canals to connect cities, large maize farms, houses of all sizes, and even defensive fortifications that suggested they had come under attack from the Western edges of their borders. All in all, it has given researchers a wealth of new Maya ruins to explore, and reminded us all just how advanced many ancient civilizations were. 

4. Are The Hanging Gardens Of Babylon Myth, Or Were We Looking In The Wrong Place?

The ancient stories tell of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amytis, because she missed the lush gardens of her native lands. They were said to have flowing waterfalls and all types of vegetation, with wonderful aromas of various plants wafting through the air — a magical oasis, in the middle of the desert. Now, the problem is that no evidence has ever been found in the site where Babylon once lay, and all records about it are after-the-fact stories, so some historians have started to believe it is nothing more than a historical mirage in the desert. 

However, Dr. Stephanie Dalley, a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of England’s Oxford University, believes that the only reason we have not found evidence of its existence is because we are looking in the wrong place. According to Dr. Dalley, who is an expert at reading ancient Mesopotamian texts, the Hanging Gardens were actually built in nearby Nineveh by King Sennacherib. Now, this is something that archaeological evidence backs up, as the ruins of Nineveh (Mosul in modern-day Iraq) have remnants of an aqueduct system, artwork depicting lush, hanging gardens, and an inscription from Sennacherib bragging about how he had managed to bring water a long distance. 

3. Homer’s Epics Iliad And Odyssey Were First Written Down By A Woman

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey combine to create one of the greatest epics of all time, but for all the cultural importance they have had over the years, we know precious little about their actual origination. This is largely because Homer remains a pretty big mystery to historians, other than his being an ancient bard who didn’t actually put pen to paper himself. That second part is quite normal, of course, as most Ancient Greek legends were passed down through oral storytelling and embellished over time. 

The bigger question for many historians is who really transcribed them. Andrew Dalby, the author of “Rediscovering Homer” suggests that it was a woman who finally recorded the stories for posterity. He theorizes that because being a public poet and getting to put on a live performance was a male’s job, they wouldn’t want to give up that position for a long slog writing down a poetic epic, especially since it was unlikely to net them much of a return. He suggests that a rich backer, who would have had to buy all the necessary goatskin, had a woman pen the epics anonymously. 

2. Permanent Human Settlements May Have Predated Ancient Agriculture

One of the most commonly accepted pieces of wisdom when it comes to the rise of human civilization, is that humans only formed communities after they created agriculture, which they did as a necessity. In other words, the human community only exists because we had to stop being nomadic hunter-gatherer raiders who clubbed each other to death over territory, and settle down and grow food instead. However, recent evidence has not only put that theory into question but almost entirely overturned it, at least as any kind of absolute truth. Archaeologists have found evidence of permanent human settlements from hunter-gatherer tribes in the area that is now Israel and Jordan, some dating as far back as 14,000 years ago. 

This suggests that the idea that humans could only come together and stop being loosely connected tribes of a few nomadic hunters (at best) when they had no choice but to work together is nothing more than hokum. Humans are social creatures who generally like being around other humans, and would want to have their company to enjoy whether they needed that arrangement for efficient resource management or not. 

1. Ancient Native Americans Burned Down Many Trees In The Plains States

If you’ve ever visited the area, you might wonder why the Great Plains of the United States have so few trees. Many of the early settlers were so shocked by these long grasslands they were convinced that the plains would be a bad place to grow crops, and often made dangerous trips up to Oregon instead.

The truth is, long before European settlers came to the continent, there is reason to believe the Great Plains were once covered in forestland. As to how most of it disappeared, multiple potential explanations have been put forth. The area, while still getting a lot of rain, has more of a chance to experience temporary drought than many surrounding areas, gets hit by a lot of lightning strikes, which can cause fires, and the Native Americans were known to burn down trees to create land better for grazing for game animals. 

What we don’t know is how much effect the Native Americans’ burning had, as we have no idea how sophisticated their methods were. We also don’t know how big an offender lightning strikes may have been, creating fires that could race across the landscape at speeds of 15-20 kilometers per hour. Either way, the landscape was irreparably altered, and we can only imagine what it once looked like.

Every year, our knowledge of the past improves a little bit. 2016 has been no different. Scientists have made several discoveries and revelations which have helped us better understand (and, in some cases, drastically altered) our history.

10 Ancient Chinese Beer

We’ve known for a while that the ancient Chinese enjoyed a drink due to evidence of fermented beverages derived from rice found at a 9,000-year-old site in the Henan Province. However, in 2016, we learned that the Chinese were also beer lovers. Archaeologists excavating the Shaanxi Province found beer-making equipment dating to 3400–2900 BC.

This marks the first direct evidence of beer being made on-site in China. Residue found in the vessels also revealed the ingredients of the ancient beer, including broomcorn millet, lily, a grain called Job’s tears, and barley.

The presence of barley was especially surprising as it pushed back the arrival of the crop in China by 1,000 years. According to current evidence, the ancient Chinese used barley for beer centuries before using it for food.

9 A Man And His Dog

Dogs were man’s best friend 7,000 years ago according to evidence found at Blick Mead near Stonehenge. Archaeologist David Jacques found a dog’s tooth that belonged to an animal originally from an area known today as the Vale of York.

The dog served as a companion to a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer. The two undertook a 400-kilometer (250 mi) trip from York to Wiltshire which is now considered the oldest known journey in British history. Jacques argued that the dog was domesticated, part of a human tribe, and most likely used for hunting.

Durham University later confirmed his findings through isotope analysis performed on the tooth enamel. It showed that the dog drank from water in the Vale of York area. They also believe that the dog would have looked similar to a modern Alsatian with wolflike features.

8 King Tut’s Extraterrestrial Dagger

In mid-2016, scientists were able to wrap up a mystery that had been puzzling archaeologists since Howard Carter found King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. Among the many items buried with the young pharaoh was a dagger made of iron. This was unusual as ironwork in Egypt 3,300 years ago was incredibly rare and the dagger had not rusted.

An examination with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer revealed that the metal used for the dagger was of extraterrestrial origin. The high levels of cobalt and nickel matched that of known meteorites recovered from the Red Sea.

Another iron artifact from ancient Egypt was tested in 2013 and was also made using meteorite fragments. Archaeologists suspected this outcome due to ancient texts referencing “iron of the sky.” Now they believe that other items recovered from the pharaoh’s tomb were also made using meteorite iron.

7 Greek Bureaucracy

The ancient city of Teos in modern-day Turkey has been an archaeological boon as hundreds of steles were recovered from the site. One remarkably intact stele features 58 legible lines that represent a 2,200-year-old rental agreement. It shows us that bureaucracy was just as much a part of ancient Greek society as it is today.

The document describes a group of gymnasium students who inherited a piece of land (complete with buildings, altar, and slaves) and then rented it at auction. The official document also mentions a guarantor (in this case, the renter’s father) and witnesses from the city’s administration.

The owners retained the privilege of using the land three days a year as well as annual inspections to ensure that the renters didn’t damage the property. In fact, half the agreement deals with various punishments for damages or not paying rent on time.

6 Neanderthal STDs

A few years ago when scientists mapped out the human genome, they were surprised to discover that we have about 4 percent Neanderthal DNA due to cross-species breeding. However, our ancestors got something else from their Neanderthal cousins—a primitive version of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Through statistical modeling, scientists were able to recreate the evolutionary steps of the HPV16 virus. When modern humans and Neanderthals split into different species, the virus also split into two distinct strains.

Initially, the HPV16A virus was only carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans. When humans migrated out of Africa, they only carried the B, C, and D strains.

However, when they reached Europe and Asia and started having sex with Neanderthals, they gained the HPV16A strain, too. Further study into our genetic history could explain why the virus can cause cancer in some people but clear right up for others.

5 Unearthing A Dead Language

Even though it hasn’t been used for almost 2,000 years, Etruscan remains one of the most intriguing dead languages. It had a large influence on Latin which, in turn, influenced many European languages we still speak today. However, samples of Etruscan texts of any significant length are few and far between. Even so, in 2016, archaeologists uncovered a 1.2-meter (4 ft) stele inscribed in Etruscan.

The 2,500-year-old stone slab was found while excavating a temple in Tuscany. It was well-preserved because it was reused as a foundation for the temple. Coincidentally, one other major Etruscan artifact, the Linen Book of Zagreb, also was preserved by being repurposed as mummy wrappings.

Despite its condition, the stele still featured chips and abrasions. So scholars want to clean and preserve it thoroughly before attempting to read it. They suspect that the text is religious and will provide us with new insight into the Etruscan religion.

4 The Elusive Higgs Bison

This year, a new animal species was discovered using a unique method—ancient cave art. Researchers studied paintings from caves in Lascaux and Pergouset and noticed several changes between the bison painted 20,000 years ago and the ones painted 5,000 years later. The changes included different body types and different horns.

While the earlier paintings were reminiscent of the steppe bison, scientists believed that the newer drawings depicted an entirely different species. To confirm their hypothesis, they examined DNA evidence from bison bones and teeth that were recovered from numerous sites across Europe.

These bones and teeth originated between 22,000 and 12,000 years ago. The scientists concluded that, indeed, the later bison was a new species descending from the steppe bison and the aurochs.

The new revelation ends a decade of confusion regarding the sequencing of the steppe bison genome which sometimes had sections out of place. The newly found elusive species has been named the Higgs bison.

3 First Right-Handed People

A new study in the Journal of Human Evolution gives proof of the first recorded instance of right-handedness in hominins—and it’s not for Homo sapiens. Paleoanthropologist David Frayer has found evidence of this phenomenon in Homo habilis from 1.8 million years ago.

The study looked at teeth fossils from Homo habilis and found scrapes that were indicative of right-handed tool use. Frayer and his team tried to recreate the hominins’ behavior. Modern subjects would hold meat with their mouths and left hands while using their right hands to tear away flesh using stone tools. Scratches left on mouth guards were similar to those found on the fossils.

While not everyone agrees with Frayer’s methods, more significant here is the mere existence of hand dominance in Homo habilis. This trait is still poorly understood in modern humans, and it seems to be much older than we previously thought. Further study might help to explain this phenomenon and provide new insight into the evolution of the human brain.

2 Humanity’s New Mystery Ancestor

New discoveries made on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi suggest that it might have once been inhabited by an as-yet-undetermined hominin. Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of stone tools which are at least 118,000 years old. However, all evidence indicates that modern humans first set foot on the island between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

The existence of a new species of hominin is very plausible. Sulawesi is located near the island of Flores. In 2003, archaeologists found another hominin there called Homo floresiensis (the so-called “hobbits”) which evolved independently on the island before going extinct 50,000 years ago.

Perhaps it is a new ancestor in our evolutionary timeline. Or maybe Homo floresiensis somehow made its way to the neighboring island. Or humans reached Sulawesi much earlier than we think. Archaeologists are now digging for fossils that would enable them to know for sure.

1 The Cannabis Road

Current thinking says that ancient China was the place where cannabis was first used and perhaps cultivated as a crop around 10,000 years ago. However, the Free University of Berlin recently compiled a database of all available archaeological evidence of cannabis that showed Eastern Europe and Japan developing cannabis usage around the same time as China.

Moreover, cannabis use throughout Western Eurasia remains consistent throughout the years while the record is spotty in China until it intensifies in the Bronze Age. Scholars speculate that cannabis had become a tradable commodity by this time and spread throughout Eurasia using a trade network akin to the iconic Silk Road.

The hypothesis is backed up by other crops like wheat that also became more widely available around the same time. Scholars even identified the nomadic Yamnaya culture as the possible ancient dope dealers who, according to DNA studies, traveled this route at that time.

Some approaches to Biblical archaeology can be controversial: Rather than analyzing material evidence in an objective way, many archaeologists involved in this field have been accused of “forcing” the evidence to fit predetermined notions derived from a desire to “confirm” the veracity of the Bible. Archaeologists cannot “prove” that the Bible is “true;” all they can do is to uncover and interpret materials the best they can. Many of the discoveries they make seem to be consistent with Biblical accounts.

10 The Biblical Flood

Many scholars have argued that the source of Biblical Flood story was most likely a great and destructive flood that affected the region of Mesopotamia. If so, then the proportions of such a flood were enhanced by the imagination of the authors of the story.

During the 1928–1929 excavation season in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), British archaeologist Leonard Woolley uncovered 3 meters (10 ft) of waterborne sediment in the ancient city of Ur. Woolley interpreted this as evidence of the biblical flood. The layer was dated to 4000 to 3500 BC. Similar evidence has been found at many other sites in the region, but not all of them are consistent with the dates of the layer found by Woolley.

Flooding in the Mesopotamian river basin was a frequent phenomenon. Although there is no archaeological evidence in favor of a flood of planetary proportions, there is general support for a catastrophic flood (or several) in Mesopotamia during the dawn of history. These floods could well be the inspiration for the many flood stories in the Mesopotamian tradition and also the Biblical Flood.

9 Abraham’s Genealogy

Abraham’s story begins with him and his family living in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, where he begins his journey to Canaan. In the second half of Genesis 11, we have a detailed account of Abraham’s family tree, mentioning dozens of names. During excavations at Mari, an ancient city on the Euphrates in present-day Syria, an impressive royal palace was discovered, which yielded thousands of inscribed tablets that were once part of a proud royal archive.

Modern estimations on Abraham’s chronology fall somewhere between 2000 and 1500 BC: The archive found at Mari was in use from around 2300 to 1760 BC, and the names on these tablets show that the names in Abraham’s genealogy were in use in this area during this time. This find does not confirm the validity of Abraham’s family tree, but it suggests that the story might not have been a purely fictional creation.

8 Abraham’s Handmaiden

Genesis 16 tells us that Abraham’s wife, Sarai, could not bear children. She agreed that Abraham could take a second wife to beget a son: their Egyptian handmaiden named Hagar. This practice is attested to in many texts found by archaeologists. The Alalakh Texts (18th century BC) and even the Code of Hammurabi all agree that procuring a son in this way was an accepted custom.

The Nuzi Tablets are a group of texts particularly relevant to this episode. Dated to the second half of the 15th century BC, they were retrieved from an ancient Hurrian site in present-day Iraq. These texts mention that a sterile wife could provide a slave girl to her husband in order to beget a son. In ancient times, infertility was almost always attributed to sterile women; ancient sources rarely blame the man when it comes to this issue.

7 City Of Sodom

Genesis 19 describes the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as a result of the deviant behavior and sins of their inhabitants. A group of archaeologists believes they’ve uncovered the ruins of the ancient city of Sodom, located in Tall el Hammam, east of the Jordan river. The dates of the site are consistent with the early historical period of the Bible. The city is estimated to have been occupied between 3500 and 1540 BC.

The site is considerably larger compared to other sites in the region. Its location isn’t the only reason why it seems to be the ancient city of Sodom. Archaeologists believe that the city was abandoned suddenly toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age, which fits the Biblical picture of Sodom being suddenly destroyed.

6 Ketef Hinnom Amulets

The Ketef Hinnom site is composed of a series of rock-hewn burial chambers, located southwest of Jerusalem’s Old City, on the road to Bethlehem. In 1979, archaeologists made an important discovery: two silver plates rolled together with text written on them in Old Hebrew. These items are believed to have been used as amulets and were dated to the seventh century BC.

The texts on these amulets are a passage of the Hebrew Bible, Numbers 6: 24-26. This is an important passage of the Book of Numbers known as the Priestly Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.

The inscriptions on the Ketef Hinnom Amulets, now displayed at the Israel Museum, are considered the oldest Biblical text yet discovered.

5 Deir ‘Alla Inscription

During the Exodus, the Israelites passed through the Sinai Peninsula into Transjordania and came in touch with the kingdoms of Edom and Moab. In Numbers 22, there is an account where the king of Moab, distressed by the presence of the Israelites, requests a prophet named Balaam to curse the people of Israel.

About 8 kilometers (5 mi) from the Jordan river, a late sanctuary dated to the Bronze Age was excavated. This site is known as Deir ‘Alla. An ancient Aramaic inscription has been retrieved from the site, containing the prophetic curse of Balaam.

The inscription describes a divine vision anticipating the destruction and punishment of the “Malevolent Gods.” It also employs the expression “Shaddai gods,” which resembles the Biblical El Shaddai, “God Almighty.” The title mentioned in the text reads, “The misfortunes of the Book of Balaam, son of Beor.”

4 Samaritan Captivity

Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. Assyrian records claim that King Sargon II captured 27,290 prisoners and took them into exile to different locations, including Halah and Habor and other places under Assyrian control.

This account is confirmed in 2 Kings 17.6 and further supported by material evidence. At these Mesopotamian sites, archaeologists have unearthed examples of ostraca (pottery fragments with writing on their surface) listing Israelite names.

3 Assyrian Invasion

In 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judah. Many cities fell to the invading army, including the southern city of Lachish mentioned in 2 Kings 18.13-17. After a siege, the city was captured by the Assyrians, and several archaeological finds are consistent with this event.

At the site of Lachish, archaeologists have uncovered arrowheads, a siege ramp, a counter-ramp, the crest of a helmet, and a chain used by the defenders against the siege ram. At the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh (northern Iraq), a relief sculpture depicting the capture of Lachish was retrieved from the palace of Sennacherib and is currently displayed in the British Museum.

2 End Of The Babylonian Exile

When the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BC, he ordered the liberation of the Jews and other groups who remained in captivity. This historical episode is described in the Book of Ezra, and there are other historical documents consistent with Cyrus’s policy to allow many inhabitants of Babylon to return to their homeland.

One of the most famous of these documents is the Cyrus Cylinder, a small clay cylinder written in cuneiform script dated to the conquest of Cyrus, currently displayed at the British Museum. One of its passages reads:

I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there, to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.

Other documents retrieved by archaeologists also contain many Jewish names from those families who chose to remain in Mesopotamia after they were set free. The Murashu texts, for example, list roughly 100 Jewish names who prospered in Mesopotamia shortly after the time of Cyrus.

1 Herod’s Palace

Traces of the ambitious building projects driven by Herod the Great have been found all over Palestine. The suspected remains of King Herod’s palace have been discovered during the excavation of an abandoned building in Jerusalem’s Old City, not far from the Tower of David Museum.

The significance of this find is that some archaeologists believe this was the setting of one of the most important chapters of the gospels. It is where the trial of Jesus took place and where the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate sentenced Jesus to death.

Swamps aren’t just for Hollywood anacondas. They’re perfect history pockets. Their general inaccessibility allows artifacts, bodies, and even cities to await discovery without being damaged or looted. The physical conditions of marshlands can sometimes slow down deterioration, taking snapshots of the past that would otherwise have been lost.

10Swamp Ghost

Months after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, US bombers raided the Japanese at Simpson Harbor, Papua New Guinea. One plane made a second run after its bomb bay malfunctioned. Even though it worked the second time, a hot fight ensued between her crew and the enemy. The Flying Fortress managed to not explode in a spectacular fashion, but she never made it back to base. Badly whipped, she belly landed in a deep swamp.

Her crew stumbled to safety a few days later, bringing with them a tale of survival and a fresh dose of malaria. The war bird was only rediscovered in 1972, and its haunting appearance quickly earned her the name “Swamp Ghost.” Roughly three more decades would pass before conservation efforts freed the bomber in 2006. Today, Swamp Ghost enjoys a much better home at the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor.

9The Hidden Community

The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina was once runaway central. Fleeing Native Americans, wanted whites, and escaped slaves saw freedom inside the near-inaccessible environment. They received it for 10 generations. At one point, they numbered in their thousands. Then the elusive inhabitants of the swamp just disappeared.

Artifacts show they were self-sufficient and innovative, building cabins, weapons and tools, even clay pipes. They honored chiefs and followed an Africanized religion. One Dismal Swamp maroon, called Charlie, was later tracked down in Canada. He added that labor was communal and described how they made their own furniture and musical instruments. Why they vanished remains unclear. All archaeological evidence of this survivor community ends after the Civil War. One theory suggests that after the war, they blended back into society as free people.

8Ancient Floor Game

A swamp in Mexico holds an artificial island that is 5,000 years old. Mostly made of discarded clam shells, it grew to such a size that the fisher folk who created it started using it as a food processing station. To prevent the shells from cutting their feet to ribbons, they laid clay floors. Holes in the platforms fit the pattern of wooden racks, perhaps used to dry fish.

The site of Tlacuachero also has other head-scratching holes nobody can fully explain. These oddities are arranged in ovals, are smaller, and dent specific areas of the floors. Decorated clay disks found at Tlacuachero hint that the workers could have played some sort of floor board game. If true, it could be the oldest clue to how the ancients amused themselves in the Americas.

7The Windover Cemetery

In 1982, a peat pond in Florida revealed 168 bodies. They weren’t freakishly preserved like other bog corpses, but about half were found to still have their brains. They’re old. The Windover site was used by a hunter-gatherer community to bury their dead 3,500 years before the Pyramids.

The discovery clarified a few misconceptions about prehistoric people, if only about this bunch. Finely woven shrouds proved they weren’t figures running around in crude animal skins. Some walked this Earth for 70-plus years, and their tools were also incredibly sophisticated. They ate well, didn’t move around like hunter-gatherers usually did, and (unlike most ancient cemeteries) the Windover group had little evidence of violent deaths. If you wanted peace, plenty, and a ripe old age thousands of years ago, this was apparently the place to be.

6Houses On Stilts

Once upon a time, a village of stilt homes perched above water until fire destroyed it. After the settlement collapsed into the river below, it became frozen in time for 3,000 years. When rediscovered in the East Anglian Fens, the site was heralded as historic. Not only are the roundhouses the best preserved Bronze Age homes in Britain, but archaeologists are getting a good look at what their domestic life looked like—and it’s not what they thought.

The wooden huts yielded goods bearing a sophistication never before credited to this era: rich textiles, intricate jewelry, crockery, and a carpentry excellence that included a timber palisade around the houses. Remarkably, even the footprints of the prehistoric villagers remained preserved at the site.

5The Bridge Battle

In a zombie-movie moment, a human arm was found sticking from a riverbank. Soon, more human remains were unearthed in the Tollense Valley, Germany. Their wounds and numbers were horrifying. At the 10 percent mark of the investigation, 130 skeletons were already dug out of the marshy soil. Archaeologists realized that they were standing on an epic battlefield.

Thousands took up arms, and the slain changed the story about Europe’s Bronze Age men. Most researchers favored the idea that they were peaceful and focused on trading. However, this battle unearthed professional fighters and warfare on a scale never before seen in the area. The Tollense skeletons may even be the earliest example of direct conflict between warriors with weapons. The deadly confrontation probably sparked when both sides wanted control of the river’s bridge where the fighting started.

4Istanbul’s True Age

Archaeologists were delighted to discover 30 ships from the Byzantine era in Istanbul. During excavations, they stumbled on an even greater treasure: the city’s real age. At the heart of Istanbul, an ancient swamp revealed a grave that knocked its age back by a whopping 6,000 years.

Previously, the history books pinned Istanbul’s beginnings at around 700 BC. What appeared to be a family burial, two adults, and two kids, dated back to the Neolithic era when people first started to live in permanent locations. Traces of houses and tools nearby proved that there was a settlement, one that was almost certainly the earliest roots of the great Turkish city.

3The Fallen Russians

In 1983, Ilya Prokoviev found boots protruding from a swamp. What turned out to be an accidental discovery of a fallen World War II Russian soldier became a lifelong passion for Prokoviev, a former army officer himself. Together with volunteers, he scours known battlefields for his comrades—four million of them who are still considered missing in action on the Eastern Front. They don’t have to look very hard. The dead are everywhere, sometimes only covered by leaves.

Despite hardships, the diggers are committed. Some have been killed by explosives. Others cannot forget the mass graves that they have seen. All race against looters who strip bodies of their valuables and dignity. But thanks to their ongoing efforts, half a million soldiers have been returned to their families for burial.

2Paestum

During a relaxing swamp stroll, it might come as a surprise to see a huge Greek temple–especially in the middle of mosquito-infested nowhere. Imagine finding three together, all remarkably intact.

This is the last footprint of Paestum, a settlement that once thrived in the south of Naples. Dedicated to the goddesses Hera and Athena, they were constructed in the sixth and fifth centuries BC by the Greeks. The sacred sites were the only buildings to survive when the Romans destroyed the colony of Poseidonia and replaced it with their own city, Paestum. The next few centuries saw Paestum slide into obscurity and malarial marshes before being abandoned.

Rediscovered in the 18th century, the temples changed architectural history. At first considered primitive against later Roman styles, scholars now promote Paestum as evidence that the Greek Dorian style conceived classical Roman architecture.

1Atlantis In Spain

Atlantis has been found everywhere, so why not in a marsh, too?

In yet another claim that the mythical city is real, a team of US archaeologists and geologists point to southern Spain. Their high tech surveillance show that something is definitely there. Submerged in the marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, it’s big and multi-ringed just like the ancient metropolis. It’s not just the shape of the strange formation that makes this particular Atlantis more credible to the researchers. About 150 miles away, they found what they called “memorial cities” and believe the ruins are remnants of Atlantean hands who built them in the image of their lost home.

The story of France goes back thousands of years. Unsurprisingly, the region is packed with ancient remains. Certain villages contain secret codes, weird graveyards lurk inside kindergartens, and some towns even turn out to be lost cities.

History also has a dark side. From shackled bodies to massacres, the violence of ancient France left a disturbing trail throughout the archaeological record.

10 Oldest Muslim Graves

In 2016, excavations in Nimes uncovered around 20 graves. Found at Roman ruins, the graves were too disorderly to be a cemetery. Further investigation also found three unexpected individuals. Several clues suggested that the medieval burials were Muslim. Their faces were turned toward Mecca, and the socket shape of their tombs matched other Muslim graves.

Historically, the medieval Arab-Islamic conquest left traces around the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula. In France itself, Muslim graves had already been found at Marseille and Montpellier.

However, those burials dated to the 12th and 13th centuries, respectively, while the graves at Nimes were dug between the seventh and ninth centuries. This made them the oldest Muslim graves in France.

As surprising as the burials were, their presence was not entirely out of place. Records showed that Muslims were in France during that time. As to the identities of the three men, DNA tests suggested that they were Berbers, a North African group that had adopted the Arab religion during the early Middle Ages.^[1]

9 The Kindergarten Bones

In 2006, playtime for a group of toddlers took a gruesome turn. An adult noticed that the kids were pulling human bones from the ground and alerted the police.

It turned out that the kindergarten in the town of Saint-Laurent-Medoc was sitting on an ancient burial mound. Archaeologists identified 30 skeletons that likely belonged to a Bronze Age group called the Bell-Beaker culture.

A recent study reviewed the so-called Le Tumulus des Sables burial mound and found an extraordinary mystery. For reasons unknown, people returned to the mound for 2,000 years (3600 BC to 1250 BC) to bury their dead. Archaeologists cannot understand why the shallow, unadorned site remained in use for so long.^[2]

The analysis also showed that only six individuals were from the Bell-Beaker culture. Unexpectedly, they appeared to have been born as locals. Most Bell-Beaker remains indicate a people constantly on the move throughout Europe.

Another oddity was their diet. Dental chemicals showed that they ate no fish or seafood despite the region’s proximity to estuaries, rivers, and the Atlantic Ocean.

8 Shackled Skeletons

In 2014, researchers returned to a cemetery they had found a year earlier. The necropolis was constructed centuries ago by the Romans near the town of Saintes.

The team uncovered hundreds of graves, including several individuals who were in chains. They were not just temporarily cuffed, either. Three men had iron shackles fused permanently around their ankles.

Another adult, whose gender could not be determined, wore a metal “bondage collar.” This type of restraint resembled a large ring fastened around the neck. Sadly, the body of a child showed similar treatment. The youngster had been buried with a restraint around the wrist.^[3]

No grave goods accompanied the shackled skeletons, suggesting that their social status must have been low in life. Although nothing is known about them, they were likely kept as slaves by the Romans during the second century AD.

7 The Arago Tooth

In 2015, Valentin Loescher volunteered at an archaeological dig. The 20-year-old was assigned to Arago cave in southwestern France. The site had already produced the famous Tautavel man, a Neanderthal ancestor who died around 450,000 years ago.

While brushing away dirt, Loescher found a large human tooth. A single snapper sounds like a worthless find, but it is immensely useful. A fossil tooth’s wear and tear can reveal things about a person’s diet and health. Teeth also contain DNA, which can add genetic information like gender and ethnicity.

While future studies could paint the profile of the person who lost the tooth, dating tests showed that it was around 560,000 years old. That alone made it a major discovery. Not only did it predate Tautavel man by over 100,000 years but it also could reveal more about somebody who lived during a time that left few human traces in Europe.^[4]

6 The Aurochs Slab

There are many ancient rock shelters in France. In 2012, archaeologists applied their craft in a shelter located in the southwestern part of the country. While investigating the cave, they found a block of limestone on the floor. When they turned the piece over, it showed what could be among Europe’s oldest art.

Around 38,000 years ago, an artist drew the now-extinct cattle called aurochs. The person also added dots numbering in the dozens. The decision to dig at the cave, called Abri Blanchard, was based on the fact that the region—and the shelter itself—had already produced carved slabs and art in the past.

Abri Blanchard would have been a winter shelter for the first Homo sapiens who arrived in Europe. Known as the Aurignacians, one of them would also have created the dotty aurochs. While similarly aligned spots are known from other Aurignacian artifacts, researchers called the mix of an animal figure with the geometric decorations “exceptional.”^[5]

5 The Hidden Fossil

Near the town of Toulouse, a farmer found something unusual in 2014. The enormous skull resembled that of an elephant, but instead of two tusks, the fossil had four. Fearing that the discovery would cause his land to be trampled by amateur fossil hunters, he decided to keep it a secret.

However, a few years later, he approached the town’s Natural History Museum. The delighted staff identified the fossil as Gomphotherium pyrenaicum, an elephant relative that bore the usual two tusks with an additional pair curving out of the lower jaw.

This species is painfully rare in the fossil record and known only from tusks found 150 years ago in the same region. The creatures, which roamed Toulouse around 12 million years ago, were faceless until this skull popped up. This made the fossil priceless to researchers. For the first time in millennia, the species had a face again.^[6]

4 The Secret Code

In northwest France is a village named Plougastel-Daoulas. A few years ago, somebody walked on a nearby beach and found a rock with carvings. The symbols included a sailing vessel and a heart. The boulder also carried the capital letters “ROC AR B . . . DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES BAOAVEL . . . R I OBBIIE: BRISBVILAR . . . FROIK . . . AL.”

Some letters were not clear enough to read. But overall, nothing made sense.

The facts are sparse. Around 230 years ago, somebody chiseled the marks, which are only visible during low tide. The age was determined from the dates 1786 and 1787, both of which were clearly inscribed into the rock.

Around that time, artillery batteries were being constructed to protect a local fort. However, it remains unclear whether there is a link between the builders and the puzzle. In 2019, the village offered 2,000 euros ($2,240) to anyone who could decipher the inscription.^[7]

3 The Body Pit

In 2012, archaeologists stumbled upon 60 silos, or pits dug in the ground. Situated near Bergheim, a French village near Germany’s border, one pit was horrific. Stuffed with human remains, the nearly 6,000-year-old silo contained amputated arms, fingers, hands, and seven bodies.

Whatever brutal event transpired, children were not spared. One arm was hacked off a child aged between 12 and 16. Four of the bodies were those of children, and another belonged to a small infant barely a year old.

A middle-aged man had a particularly violent end. His arm was cut off, and he had suffered several blows, including a vicious swipe to the head that probably killed him. The man’s remains were at the bottom of the 2-meter-deep (6.5 ft) pit.^[8]

At the top, things looked a little different. Centuries after the slaughter, it appeared that the silo was used again as a grave. A woman was interred, but unlike the rest, her body showed no signs of violence. Researchers speculated that the Stone Age group was punished for some transgression or died during warfare.

2 A Fire-Preserved Neighborhood

In 2017, a suburb in Sainte-Colombe was earmarked for a new housing complex. The standard practice called for archaeologists to survey the area first, and what they found was astounding.

As excavations continued, a Roman neighborhood from the first century AD revealed itself. There were 7,000 square meters (75,000 ft²) of houses, artifacts, shops, mosaics, the largest Roman market square discovered in France, a warehouse, a temple, and what could have been a school of philosophy.

It was so well-preserved that the site quickly earned the nickname of “Little Pompeii.” The neighborhood was used for at least 300 years, during which the residents faced two great fires.

The first occurred during the second century AD, but another from the third century killed the settlement. It was so catastrophic that families fled, leaving almost everything behind. However, there was a silver lining—for researchers, at least. The extreme heat of the fires was the thing that preserved the site so well.^[9]

1 A Lost City

The city of Ucetia was known only from an inscription found in Nimes, another ancient city in France. The name “Ucetia” was listed on a stela along with 11 other Roman settlements in the region.

For some time, researchers suggested that Ucetia was modern-day Uzes, a town north of Nimes. In 2016, plans to erect a boarding school at Uzes prompted archaeologists to sweep the area. Fearing that new buildings could forever cover the lost city, excavations began in earnest. Sure enough, they found Ucetia.

By the 2017 excavation season, the area uncovered had reached 4,000 square meters (43,056 ft²) and revealed immense structures. Ucetia’s origins were thousands of years old. The oldest buildings dated to over 2,000 years ago, well before the Romans conquered France.^[10]

The city also showed signs of activity as recently as the Middle Ages (seventh century). Mysteriously, it was temporarily abandoned between the third and fourth centuries. But the most surprising find was floor mosaics done in a style thought to have been invented about 200 years later during the first century AD.