From an ancient lost city to a mastodon skeleton, here are 9 amazing historical discoveries
that were found by accident!!
The next discovery could be yours!!
9.
Mary Ann Hall's Brothel Weren’t expecting this to start off a historical
discoveries list, were you?
Well, to be fair, this brothel was found by accident and more importantly than that, it
actually has an important historical significance.
So, how was it discovered?
Well, in 1997, the Smithsonian decided to do a study on some land in Washington DC that
was going to be used to build the National Museum of the American Indian.
However, as they started to dig around, they found artifacts that had been buried for more
than a century.
This made them wonder, what was once there?
The area itself was a middle-class neighborhood, yet they were finding items that seemingly
belonged to wealthy people.
What was going on?
Desperate for answers, because you know how scientists can get, they consulted old maps
and official records, and found that the land was once home to a brothel!
One in the 19th century.
Even more fascinating was that it was owned by Mary Ann Hall, who built the 4 story brick
house in her early twenties and had it nicely furnished to be able to serve officers and
other men’s needs...if you know what I mean.
Adding to the fun of this was that this brothel was in very close proximity to Capitol Hill,
and was documented to have had some very "elite" clientele.
The black book of names and clients has not been found or has been destroyed.
So as you can see, sometimes the most odd and unusual discoveries can be ones that shed
light on history.
8.
Terracotta Army In 1974, not long after the Chinese New Year,
farmer Yang Zhifa, his 5 brothers and friend who all worked together decided to dig a well
to water the crops of the cooperative farm.
After a couple of days of digging, the seven farmers hit what they thought was an old kiln.
Turns out they had shoveled off a head of one of the soldiers.
They kept digging and found some bronze items.
As they uncovered the figure of the soldier and more, Yang who had been in the military,
realized the importance of their find and reported it to a museum.
Archaeologists came and as they continued to excavate, they found more and more of these
statues.
It was discovered that they had found the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi
Huang.
Each soldier has a lot of interesting little details that went into them.
Each and every member of the Terracotta army had his own unique face.
Imagine how long it would take to do such a thing.
They were all painted with bright, expensive colors even though you can’t see much of
it today.
And it wasn’t the only thing they made, there were also terracotta horses and chariots
with enormous amounts of detail.
This was widely regarded as one of the greatest archaeological finds in all of China.
I am sad to say that the farmers who found them are rarely credited with the discovery
and live in poverty.
Their farmland was taken away and their homes demolished.
Yang later said that he believed the soldiers should have been left alone.
And now for number 7, but first, do you know what is considered the greatest manuscript
discovery of all time??
Let us know in the comments!
The answer is coming up!!
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7.
Herculaneum Most everyone knows the story of Pompeii,
where the volcano known as Mount Vesuvius erupted in such a violent way that it destroyed
the entire city, creating both a legend and a horror story all at once.
Yet, that volcano also killed another city, one that wasn't "rediscovered" for many centuries,
Herculaneum.
Why wasn't it mentioned in the legend?
Well, it was 12 hours after the fall of Pompeii that this happened.
What's more, because it was upwind of the volcano, the effects of the eruption not just
wiped it out, but actually preserved it perfectly.
Some say that Herculaneum is actually in better shape than Pompeii.
Fast forward to the 18th century, and a farmer was doing work on his own land ...but little
did he know that he was above an ancient city!!
He was out digging minding his own business and found some marble in the ground that he
couldn't explain.
The land itself shouldn't have had any.
It was later realized that he had dug up part of the Roman Theater that was in the forgotten
Roman city of Herculaneum.
King Charles of Bourbon made a more official expedition to rediscover the city, one that
continued in the 20th century.
The digs have been very fruitful, and we now know there is more to the legend of Pompeii
than was previous told.
6.
The Venus de Milo Speaking of buried objects, let’s head to
the Greek Island of Melos, where a couple of men were digging for antiques on an ancient
ruin on the island.
One of them named Yorgos Kentrotas was looking for marble for building blocks.
As he continued to dig though, he discovered a part of a statue that is now 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 dig it up in full.
After realizing it’s beauty, Voutier went to the French Ambassador of the Ottoman Empire
and sold it to him.
The statue was then given as a gift to King Louie the 18th, who gave it to the Louvre.
This piece 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.
To this day though, people don't know what the "true" form of the statue is and it is
not quite clear what the entire statue looked like.
What was she doing with her arms? 5.
Edinburgh Vaults In 1788, under the South Bridge in Edinburgh,
Scotland, a series of "vaults" were made.
The South Bridge was known for its businesses, and under the bridge were the workshops of
those businesses.
However, under that were living quarters, if you can even call them that.
Basically, it was a Caste system under a bridge.
The lower you were, the lower you were in society's eyes.
Despite the terrible living conditions, the Edinburgh Vaults actually thrived at one time.
They were home to criminal enterprises, gambling, and even brothels.
Yet, the vaults were also used to dispose of bodies after murders.
After all, who would look for them in there?
Eventually though, the people did get tired of the place, and they were abandoned.
The vaults were officially closed in 1875, probably because they were a health hazard,
and were forgotten to time.
That is, until a Rugby player in the 1980's wanted to help smuggle his defecting friend
escape the police and get to the UK.
He found a tunnel underneath his bar that actually led to the Edinburgh Vaults, which
they used to get the man out.
After being rediscovered, they were explored, restored, and opened up as a tourist attraction.
4.
Derinkuyu Underground City From underground tunnels to a literal underground
city, Turkey is known for having many of these.
This happens specifically in the Cappadocia region of the country, and these cities were
hand carved from the volcanic ash that lies within.
One of the biggest and most famous of them all though is the Derinkuyu Underground City.
This place is 18 stories is size, and was so well crafted that it could've housed around
20,000 people.It was huge!!
And the air filtration and engineering was incredible!
Fraggle rock anyone?
Now, as for how it was found, it was truly an accident!
A man in Turkey was trying to renovate his home in 1963.
As he knocked down a wall to his house, he found himself looking at a secret tunnel,
one that led to the city of Derinkuyu.
What??
One of the biggest mysteries of this city is that it's unclear who made the city, and
when it was inhabited.
Whoever lived here had a thriving society, and there were shops, stables, meeting halls
and much more!
3.
Mastodon Skeleton The beautiful thing about archaeological discoveries
is that you never know where you might find one!!
This mastodon skeleton was found in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where a group of construction
workers came across this big guy.
How does that happen?
As part of a housing development construction job, they were doing some digging to prepare
for a road.
As they dug, they came across some bones that they couldn't identity.
So, they took the bones to the University of Michigan to have them examined, and a few
days later, they found out they were the proud discoverers of a 10,000 year old Mastodon.
The bones they had found were part of its skull, including part of its jaw.
Needless to say, the workers were shocked at the news, and it was an exciting find for
scientists!
2.
Lascaux Caves You never know what you might find in a cave,
but when a group of teenagers were playing around in 1940, they accidentally came across
one of the greatest historical discoveries in history!
The cave paintings of Lascaux The kids were out and about roaming through
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.
One of the teens went in, and to his surprise, he found himself looking at thousands of cave
paintings.
Most of them are of large animals that lived in the area during the paleolithic era.
They decided to keep this secret to themselves for a while so they could explore it.
But eventually, they told their schoolteacher, who informed an expert about it, and the cave
was later verified as very real and authentic.
Eventually, it became a very public attraction, and was even labeled the "Sistine Chapel of
Prehistoric Art".
1.
The Dead Sea Scrolls As the story goes, in 1947 a Bedouin shepherd
went into some caves to look for a stray sheep.
SInce it was so dark he threw a rock inside and was surprised to hear the sound of clay
shattering.
He had found the jars containing the dead sea scrolls.
They took the scrolls to an antiquities dealer and word started to spread that some ancient
documents of importance had been found.
The ancient papyrus contained biblical text over 1,000 years older than any existing biblical
text.
Similar finds were made in nearby caves over the next 10 years.
There are some 800 documents with tens of thousands of fragments that were written in
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
And for those of you that guessed, The Dead Sea Scrolls have been shown all over the world,
and are considered the greatest manuscript find in history, and one of the greatest archaeological
finds of the 20th century.
The shepherds sold the manuscripts for around $50.
Now a tiny scrap of the Dead Sea Scrolls is valued at millions and the larger scrolls
are priceless.
So why are these scrolls so important?
They are invaluable to our understanding of the history of Judaism, the development of
the Hebrew Bible, and the beginnings of Christianity.
Many of the scrolls give insight into what The Bible was like 2,000 years ago.
The Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is the canon of sacred scriptures of Jews and Christians
alike, and it is also highly respected by Muslims.
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Maybe you might make the next discovery!
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