From lost paintings, to historical marvels thought lost forever, join me as I reveal
to you 10 incredible, yet accidental, historical discoveries.
10.
Lascaux Cave There are many caves in the world today, and
many of them are unexplored.
So it's not surprising when a group of teenagers wandered into a cave and found art that was
truly historic.
This particular accidental discovery happened in France in 1940, which given the time period
is actually quite extraordinary, as that was near the peak of World War II.
These particular kids weren't looking for a cave, rather, they were roaming around the
forests near Montignac.
Suddenly, one of their dogs got a scent of something, and the teens followed it until
they found the entrance to a cave.
The nose of a dog is incredibly sensitive, but to pick up a scent of what they found
is truly intriguing.
One of the teens went into the cave that they found, and to his surprise, he found himself
looking at thousands of cave paintings.
That must have been a truly unique sight and experience.
Being teens, they decided to keep this secret to themselves for a while so they could explore
it.
But eventually, they told their schoolteacher (which makes a lot of sense when you consider
they were teens and didn't know who else to talk to about this), and that teacher informed
an expert about it, and the cave was later verified as very real and authentic.
After some research and study about the place it was later labeled the "Sistine Chapel of
the Prehistoric Art", and made open to the public for viewing.
Even more fascinating though is that estimates on the art put it at 15,000-17,000 years old.
Which is incredible because it means it lasted through many events that could've destroyed
it, but instead, remained perfectly intact, and just waiting to be discovered.
9.
New Dead Sea Scrolls Cave Without a doubt, the discovery of the Dead
Sea Scrolls is one of the most important finds in the history of archaeology.
Because not only was a great find in terms of the Christian religion, it was some of
the oldest texts found within that religion ever.
Plus, those were found by kids too!
11 caves contained many scrolls and parchments and other artifacts linked to the scrolls.
And then, in 2017, another accident led to another discovery concerning the scrolls.
Mainly, a new cave with new scrolls had been found.
To be clear though, another remnant from the Dead Sea Scrolls wasn't technically found.
Rather a scroll that was clearly prepped to be written on soon was found.
However, with such a cave existing, it proves that other remnants of the Dead Sea Scrolls
could be out there right now.
“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea Scrolls
in 60 years,” said Dr. Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at Hebrew University’s Institute
of Archaeology and director of the excavation.
“Although at the end of the day no scroll was found…the findings indicate beyond any
doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen.”
The search is now on to see where other fragments or pieces of the scrolls could be.
8.
The tomb of Childeric I The date was May 27th, 1563.
A man was working at a church of Saint-Brice in Tournai.
As he was doing his work and digging in the dirt, he came across something he didn't expect:
gold coins.
Naturally intrigued, he went and kept digging, and while he did find more gold, he also found
a tomb.
One filled with treasures.
One of which was a ring that revealed that this was the tomb of a former king, Childeric
the first.
He was the king of the Salian Franks, and he was put to rest around 481 CE.
And remember what I said about the gold he found?
Well it wasn't just a few coins, it was actually: a hundred more coins, gold and garnet-ornamented
swords, horse fittings and buckles, a solid gold torc, a gold bull's head, 300 gold bees
and a gold signet ring.
Sadly, this accidental discovery doesn't have a happy ending.
For 200 years after it was discovered, some thieves decided to break in and steal just
about the entire treasure trove.
Only a few pieces were left when they were done.
Still, for a few hundred years, it was a magnificent thing to behold.
And proof that history is sometimes just waiting to be dug up.
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7.
The Venus de Milo If you didn't believe me in regards to history
just waiting to be "dug up", here's another great example of that happening in history.
On the Greek Island of Melos, a couple of men were digging for antiques on an ancient
ruin on the island.
So basically your standard archaeology when you think about it.
Of the diggers was a man named Yorgos Kentrotas, but he wasn't looking for treasures, rather,
he was looking for marble for building blocks.
A common practice in that time.
As he continued to dig though, he discovered a part of a statue that is known as the Venus
De Milo.
Nearby, a navy officer of all things named Olivier Voutier saw this, and he convinced
Kentrotas to help him in digging it up in full.
They were very grateful that they did.
Because after realizing what they had found, Voutier went to the French Ambassador of the
Ottoman Empire and had him purchase it.
The statue was then given as a gift to King Louie the 18th, who gave it to the Louvre.
Where it remains to this day for people to observe and appreciate.
The Venus De Milo is considered one of the greatest works of ancient Greek sculptures,
and was made by Alexandros of Antioch.
It's believed to be a sculpture of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who is the goddess of love
and fertility.
That being said, there is still some mystery around the Venus De Milo.
Because if you can't tell somehow, certain pieces of it are missing.
Mainly, the arms.
To that end, because there is no photo evidence of what it's supposed to be, the true "meaning"
or position of the Venus De Milo is unknown, and likely lost to history.
Unlike the statue.
6.
Olduvai Gorge The true point of archaeology is to learn
more about the past of the world itself.
And in Tanzania, the past of the world got a bit clearer via an accidental discovery
in a place called Olduvai Gorge.
In the 1930's, a husband/wife duo of paleoanthropologists went to the gorge to do some digging, and
when they did, they found the skull of an ancient primate.
One that was said to be 25 million years old.
Nearly 30 years later, that same duo made another discovery, but this time, it was of
a human skull.
One that dated about 1.7 million years ago.
Which at the time made it the oldest remains of a human ever discovered.
This gorge, for whatever reason, was a big site for remains.
Because over the next couple decades, even more bones and fossils were founds of humans
and other creatures.
Including even older humans than the ones originally found there.
All of this points to a simple thing that many have believed, that Africa (as that's
where Tanzania is) is the place where humans first started to evolve.
5.
A Villa In My Backward Imagine this, you're doing some work on your
house, specifically the backyard.
You're getting some electrical work done with some professionals.
You realize that if you have wires above ground it could cause problems, so you ask them to
dig down and put them blow.
They comply, only for them to note a short time later that they found something.
What kind of something?
Oh you know, an ancient Roman villa.
Fantasy story?
Not even close.
This actually happened in Britain (which the Romans occupied in part during their reign),
where a Roman villa was found a mere 18 inches beneath the surface of a man's house.
Not only was it there, it was mostly intact, complete with a mosaic that was there for
all to see.
What might be even more shocking is that when archaeologists got to take a look at it, they
couldn't believe it was there either.
It seems the history of Rome and Britain aren't as fleshed out as some people believe.
And this discovery is said to have helped put the pieces together in terms of the history
between these two great empires.
4.
Otzi The Iceman This is not meant to be a horror story, but
rather a find that is honestly rather...chilling.
You see, in 1991, two German tourists were going along the mountain pass on Hauslabjoch
and Tisenjoch when they came across a frozen body.
Given the height they were at, and the placement of the body, the two thought it was the body
of a hiker who had gotten trapped in the snow.
Which is very plausible as hiking accidents like this do happen somewhat often.
However, in regards to the truth of the body, it was much more interesting.
For the body was old, and more importantly, it was mummified.
They had accidentally found Europe's oldest and naturally found mummy.
Meaning that it wasn't made by human hands.
It was later named Otzi because of the mountain in the Alps from which he was found.
This mummy has led to new light being shined on early Europeans, and many scientists are
dissecting every little piece of information they get on the body to find out even more.
While the discovery itself is a very important part of history, there is a bit of a dark
side to this.
Because like many mummies found on accident, there were ramifications.
Mainly, the two hikers that found Otzi died not too long after the discovery.
3.
Ancient Boat In The Sea Of Galilee Sometimes, the biggest kinds of accidental
discoveries are ones that come from nature itself and not exactly from mankind exactly.
For example, there were two brothers named Moshe and Yuval Lufan, and they were young
archaeologists with a dream of finding out about Israel's past via artifacts in the ground.
Yet their biggest discovery only came when the Sea of Galilee suffered a great drought,
and thus lowered the water levels immensely.
When the water level dropped, it revealed a massive boat for them to learn more about.
The dig to uncover the boat took 12 days and nights due to the size of it and where it
was in the lakebed.
And when it was fully uncovered, it was everything that the brothers, and the team who helped
dig out the boat, hoped that it was.
Because this was an ancient boat that the ancients Jews were said to use on lakes like
these.
Plus, this was also the type of boat described by the Gospels in regards to when the disciples
and Jesus were said to have said across the lake.
That's quite a find, and it's all thanks to timing and mother nature.
2.
Nazca Lines Ok, this one is a bit tricky.
Because in South America, on the coastal plateau of Peru, there are massive etchings on the
ground made by the ancient people of the land, the Nazca.
These etchings are miles long, and can only be viewed in their true beauty from a high
place.
What makes them special isn't just the size and accuracy of the "drawings", but rather,
their age.
The oldest one is said to be from 500 B.C.
Making many wonder how exactly the Nazca made them all.
As for discovery, that's up for debate.
Because they've been there for thousands of years, and the local people knew about them
at some point because the hills nearby where the lines are were high enough to show off
their shapes.
But, it wasn't until the 1940's that the lines were actually heavily researched.
And despite the time that has passed since, we honestly don't have any more clues as to
why or how the Nazca Lines were made or what their purpose was.
1.
Rosetta Stone History is filled with important discoveries
and finds that changed the game if you will in terms of how the world looked at itself.
And when it comes to the Rosetta Stone, this is a top tier find.
Which makes it all the more incredible that it was found completely by accident.
This all happened near the town of Rosetta, a group of soldiers was fortifying a fort
when they decided to take down a certain wall.
As they did, Pierre-Francois Bouchard found a slab of stone that was unlike anything he'd
seen before.
Mainly because this stone had numerous writing on it.
This was how the Rosetta Stone was discovered.
Knowing they had quite the finding on their hands, they made to research it at length.
The stone was dated to 2 B.C, but just as important, the text on the slab wasn't one
language, it was three.
Hieroglyphics, the symbols seen on Egyptian tombs and pyramids.
Demotic, another Egyptian language, and then, there was Greek.
Something that many people were surprised to find on the slab.
After Napoleon was defeated, the British got the slab, which led to Jean-Francois Champollion
and Thomas Young examining and deciphering it all.
Through the Greek part of the text, they were able to translate both sections of the Egyptian
text.
To be clear, this was a major breakthrough in the world of history.
At the time, the Hieroglyphs and Demotic languages were basically gibberish to those who weren't
Egyptian, and even some Egyptians couldn't read them as it was a dead language of sorts.
The Rosetta Stone changed all of that.
We now know great chunks of Egyptian history because we're able to read the memories of
the past.
The impact of the Rosetta stone can be felt to this day, and it's not only a cultural
icon in and of itself, it's referenced many times to mean a way to translate something.
Which is exactly what it did.
And the world should be grateful that a remnant found during a war led to a great deal of
understanding about history.