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Every year archaeologists make exciting new discoveries, and these discoveries – every
single one of them – rewrite history in some way.
And for those of you who aren’t aware, there are so many finds being made all the time
that I do a monthly livestream going over some of the more interesting artifacts found
in a single month.
But now it is time to look back at the whole year.
And so I have picked out what I think are the 20 best discoveries in archaeology.
Mind you, since I am a historian of ancient times, I have chosen only the discoveries
relating to ancient times.
So nothing here from prehistory or medieval times.
Still, there is much here to marvel at.
I hope you enjoy hearing about these as much as I did.
So here we go.
#20 Bronze age network of enclosures in Serbia More than 100 previously-unknown structures
have been identified in Serbia using Google Earth and aircraft reconnaissance. 3600-year-old
walls and ditches (this is their Bronze Age) were found in the Pannonian Plain, an area
that includes parts of Romania, Hungary, and Serbia.
These sites were thought to be isolated during the Bronze Age, but this discovery by archaeologists
from the University College of Dublin reveal that the sites may have been part of a network
of settlements, seasonal gatherings, ceremonials, or cattle pens, stretching over 90 miles along
the Tisza River.
#19 Ancient Chinese Water Conservation Facility
Chinese researchers excavating the Qianqui Gate site in the ancient capital city of Luoyang
have discovered over 80 meters of water channels dating back to the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220
to 420 CE).
The channels display advanced water conservation techniques coupled with efficient resource
utilization (like rainwater collection).
The discovery, including stone culverts running parallel, and illustrating a unified construction
plan, not only has contributed to our understanding of Luoyang's royal garden layout, but has
shown technology we didn’t know that had at the time.
#18 Multiple new discoveries at Saqqara
The tomb of Panehsy (the steward of the Amun Temple during the early Ramesside period),
four well-preserved tomb chapels, (one belonging to a man named Yuyu a gold foil-maker for
the Pharaoh's treasury), and two complete embalming workshops for both humans and animals
were discovered in the Saqqara Necropolis.
The first embalming workshop dates to 380-343 BCE, the second to 305-30 BCE, and the tombs
date to the Old and New Kingdoms of Egypt.
Panehsy's tomb resembles a freestanding temple with a gate entrance, and is located next
to that of Maya, a high ranking official during the reign of Tutankhamun, which I visited
last year.
The walls of Panehsy’s tomb are adorned with colorful reliefs, and depict Panehsy,
his wife Baia, priests, and offering bearers.
#17 World Oldest Shipyard
The world's largest and oldest known ancient shipyard was discovered on Dana Island in
Türkiye's Mersin province by the Department of Cultural Heritage Preservation and Restoration
at Akdeniz University.
The shipyard was built during the Greek Dark Age, shortly after 1200 BCE, and it is possible
that this island was the original home of the Denyen, one of the tribes of the Sea Peoples.
Later it would have been taken by the Greeks.
The shipyard began to be uncovered in 2015, but only now its full size has been determined.
It includes 294 slipways, allowing for nearly 300 warships to be built simultaneously.
The archaeologists say that this many slipways could have significantly influenced Mediterranean
political, military, and commercial balances.
The ships built at Dana Island played roles in various historic naval battles, including
conflicts between Greeks and Persians.
#16 4,000-Year-Old Temple in Peru
Archaeologists at UNSM in Peru discovered a 4000-year-old U-shaped temple at the Miraflores
archaeological site in western Peru.
And the temple features a chakana carved into a frieze.
This chakana (an ancient cross symbol used by the later Andean peoples) is the oldest
complete representation found in the Andes and reinforces the long cultural and religious
tradition related to this symbol in ancient Peruvian cultures, from as early as 4000 years
ago up to the Inca period!
Very interesting.
#15 Sunken Greco-Egyptian Temples
A joint Egyptian-French archaeological mission headed by Frank Goddio and the Department
of Underwater Archaeology of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the submerged
city of Thonis-Heraklion (near Alexandria) discovered temples dedicated to the ancient
Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Egyptian god Amun.
Aphrodite’s temple contained Greek bronze and ceramic artifacts, and Amun’s contained
silver ritual instruments, gold jewelry, and alabaster containers for perfumes.
Both discoveries were sitting on top of wooden posts and beams that have been carbon dated
to the fifth century BCE.
These discoveries were made possible thanks to new geophysical prospecting technologies
that allowed the teams to detect objects underneath multiple layers of clay.
These finds help to reinforce the significance of Thonis-Heraklion as Egypt's largest Mediterranean
port prior to Alexandria's founding.
#14 Zapotec Tunnels under Catholic Church
Have you heard of the Zapotecs?
They were an ancient Mesoamerican culture.
Mexican researchers using cutting edge ground scanning technology have found beneath the
San Pablo Apostol church in Mitla, Oaxaca, a hidden "underworld" (consisting of a chamber
and tunnel system) that was connected to the Zapotec cult of the dead.
The Zapotecs, thriving near Oaxaca since the late sixth century BCE, built this complex
system of chambers and tunnels.
The church is on the spot of a once-important Zapotec religious center, and the findings
confirm historical accounts of rituals and ceremonies conducted in subterranean chambers
associated with the dead.
#13 Han Dynasty tombs in China
In two places in China this year, tombs from the Han Dynasty were discovered.
On a local hill in Laozhuangshi, in Henan province, a cluster of 22 ancient tombs spanning
nearly 1600 years has been discovered.
Two of the tombs are from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE).
The others are from the later Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
Then in the Wulong District near Chongqing, a collection of tombs dating from the Han
Dynasty to the Six Dynasties period (222-589 CE) were found.
The most significant of these tombs was one from the Western Han Dynasty, which they were
able to date precisely to 193 BCE.
Found in it were more than 600 precious artifacts, including lacquerware, wood ware, bamboo ware,
pottery, and bronze ware.
This is the largest quantity of lacquered wood and bamboo wares ever found in one place
in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Further study of the tomb contents will no doubt shine more light on this period.
#12 Five-Story-Tall Pyramids in the Yucatán.
While working in the Yucátan peninsula’s jungle, Archaeologists from Mexico’s National
Institute for Anthropology and History and the University of Houston discovered an entire
ancient Maya city, known as Ocomtún, or ‘Stone Column’.
They found the site using airborne laser scanning.
Containing 45+ foot tall Pyramid-like structures, this late classic Maya city was inhabited
between 600 and 800 CE (The Late Classic).
#11 New Fragments of the Fasti Ostienses
For those who don’t know, the Fasti Ostienses are inscriptions that make up a list of Roman
magistrates and significant events.
They were originally engraved on marble slabs and exhibited publicly in Ostia, a port town
near Rome.
But in later times the marble was reused for other buildings.
So pieces of them can be found all over the place.
Well, new fragments of the Fasti Ostienses have been discovered at the Ostia Antica Archaeological
Park in Italy by the Ostia Post Scriptum excavation project.
One of the newly recovered fasti fragments fits together with another previously found
fragment, which dates to 128 CE during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, and which details
events from that year, including Hadrian receiving the title pater patriae (father of his country)
on January 10, and his wife Sabina receiving the title of Augusta.
Other important information is contained on these fragments as well.
This is important, because the Fasti are one of the most important sources for the chronology
of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.
So far, all the known fragments cover the period 49 BCE to 175 CE.
#10 Shang Dynasty town in Northern China.
At the Zhaigou archaeological site in northern China, a complete Bronze Age town was discovered.
The town dates back to the early Shang Dynasty, over 3000 years ago, and holds hundreds of
artifacts like bronze drinking vessels, painted pottery, and jade ornaments.
Covering over 1.2 square miles, the Zhaigou archaeological site is one of the largest
from the Shang Dynasty and provides insights into their cultural and social organization.
Archaeologists also found nine aristocratic tombs here, indicating that the site may have
been the capital of a state later assimilated by the Shang Dynasty.
#9 Oldest known town gate in Israel
Near Kiryat at Tel Erani, a 5500-year-old town gate made of huge stones and mud bricks
was discovered.
The gate dates to the Bronze IB period and suggests that settlements in the area date
to as early as 3500 BCE.
The excavations site director described the gate as an indication of transition from scattered
living to urbanized city life with fortified walls.
The gate was likely a mandatory passageway for all entering the city, serving both as
a defense and a symbol of the town’s importance.
This discovery surpasses the prior oldest known gate from Tel Arad, which dates to approximately
5200 years old.
#8 2500-Year-Old Tartessian Stone Busts
Spanish archeologists have discovered five life-size stone busts depicting gods of the
ancient Tartessos civilization (5th century BCE) in a sealed pit in southern Spain near
Guadiana valley.
The site is home to an adobe temple at Casas del Turuñuelo, and revealed two nearly complete
figurative reliefs, likely representing female divinities adorned with gold earrings, and
fragments of three others, one identified as a warrior wearing a helmet.
This discovery has helped to change scholars’ views of Tartessian culture, which was previously
understood as aniconic, or only proscribing divinity via animal and plant motifs, not
human figures.
#7 10,000 Jiandu
In China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, at the Hebosuo archeological site, more than
10,000 bamboo and wooden “slips” known as Jiandu were discovered.
Jiandu represents a form of book created before the invention of paper.
The majority of the Jiandu found at the site are administrative and contain names of counties
and people within the Yizhou Prefecture, established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (although
some do contain analects from Confucius).
Official seals from 20 of the 24 counties ruled by the ancient Dian kingdom, a non-Han
culture known for agriculture and advanced metalworking, which was annexed by Emperor
Wu in 109 BCE were also found at the site.
This indicates a well-designed social administrative system and suggests that special political
roles were set up by the Han government.
The discovery is now viewed as evidence of this period of China as a unified country
of multi-ethnic cultures.
#6 3400-year-old pyramid in Kazakhstan
In the Karagada region of Kazakhstan, a pyramid from the Begazy-Dandybai culture (from the
last phase of the Andronovo period in the late Bronze Age) was discovered.
The excavation was conducted by archaeologists from Karaganda University atop a hill overlooking
the Taldy River in the Shet district of Karaganda and revealed via carbon-14 analyses that the
pyramids’ construction dates to between the 14th and 12th century BCE.
Within the pyramid's burial chamber were found decorated ceramic vessels, one with markings
that could represent proto-writing, a bronze and gold-ringed arrowhead, and a skull.
The people who lived here may be proto-Scythians or ancestors of the Turks.
#5 New chambers in the Pyramid of Sahura at Abusir
Egyptian and German archaeologists from the University of Würzburg have discovered eight
previously undocumented storage rooms at the pyramid of Sahura.
Sahura was the second king of Egypt's Fifth Dynasty, reigning in the 25th century BCE.
The interior of the pyramid was so damaged that in times past it was very difficult to
explore it any further.
But times have changed.
The discovery was made during work on conservation and restoration, which involved a 3-D survey
of the pyramid’s corridors and chambers.
During this survey, the team found a passage leading to at least eight damaged storerooms,
with only traces of original walls and parts of the floor remaining.
This discovery should help researchers learn more about the structure of pyramids at this
time and their development.
#4 Roman forts in Syria and Iraq.
Declassified Cold War-era U.S. spy satellite photos recently revealed hundreds of previously
unknown Roman-era forts in Iraq and Syria.
The discovery challenges the previous belief that these forts were primarily defensive
structures.
The images, which are from the Corona and Hexagon satellite programs, show that they
appear to have instead been built to protect routes frequented by caravans and travelers.
Now that we know where they are, it’s just a matter of excavating.
#3 Hidden Structures in the Amazon Rainforest Lidar mapping has recently revealed structures
in the Amazon rainforest which include geoglyphs, ponds, ditches, and wells that date back as
far as 1500 years ago.
900 earthworks, and 24 ceremonial sites and fortified villages have been discovered so
far, and these scans only covered 0.1% of the Amazon!
Researchers estimate there could be as many as 16,187 earthwork sites that remain to be
discovered!
The suggestion that the Amazon was an untouched forest is rapidly deteriorating.
#2 Assyrian Administrative Building with Tablets
In a combined Italian and Iraqi effort, two cultural layers of Assyrian settlements have
been discovered in Ninevah, Iraq.
The first belongs to the old Assyrian period, dated using an old mudbrick administrative
building that spans the 20th to the 7th centuries BCE!
Inside the building, 120 clay tablets covered in literary texts were found.
These texts will help researchers understand even more about Assyrian culture, language,
literature, administrative practices, and their way of life.
The second layer belongs to the more modern period of Assyria and hints that there may
be more to be discovered at the site.
And now we get to #1!
Near modern-day Tello in Southern Iraq is the Sumerian site of Girsu, which was discovered
in the 19th century, but the British Museum under the guidance of the Iraqi State Board
of Antiquities is undertaking new excavations there.
This year several amazing new finds were announced.
In 2022, through the use of remote sensing technology, a complex of structures was identified
under Tablet Hill on the site, and some mudbrick walls, believed to be part of a palace were
then uncovered and more than 200 cuneiform tablets.
This year, the main sanctuary of the great Sumerian god, Ningirsu was discovered.
The temple is known from Sumerian texts.
It was known as Eninnu and was revered as one of the most important temples of Mesopotamia.
Archaeologists have been wanting to find this temple for a long time.
And now they have!
Also, a "civilization-saving" water channel was discovered.
The ancient water channel or “water flume” was designed to combat droughts by transporting
water to distant agricultural areas using the “Venturi” effect and predates similar
Western technologies by thousands of years!
(Western versions appeared in the 1800s).
And there you have it.
My top 20 picks for the best archaeological finds of 2023.
If you think I missed anything, let me know in the comment below.
And don’t forget to check out my monthly livestreams to keep up on the latest in archaeology
news.
You might like my little e-booklet, Why Ancient History Matters.
It's designed to persuade people that the subject is important, even in the modern world.
You might also wish to use it to help spread the word, so feel free to share it with someone
you know.
It's free for anyone who wants it.
I've left a link in the description box below the video for you to grab a copy.