From the lamborghini of the ancient world to a surprising find at a yard sale, here
are 9 incredible recent discoveries.
9. Roman Chariot
Earlier this year, archaeologists announced the discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved
ceremonial chariot near a villa outside Pompeii that, like the rest of the surrounding area,
was completely buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.
This place nearby, called Civita Giuliana is getting constantly looted since most of
the security goes to Pompeii. Looters have actually built a 250 foot network of tunnels
already to be able to steal artifacts underground with nobody noticing. The tunnel just missed
this cart.
Made from iron, bronze, and tin, the chariot is adorned with depictions of nymphs, satyrs,
and cupids.
The chariot revealed the well-preserved remains of three horses, including one that was still
saddled and harnessed. Smithsonan magazine reports that
Another major find made at Civita Giuliana came to light last November, when researchers
discovered the remains of a wealthy man of 30 or 40 and a younger enslaved man, both
eerily frozen in their final moments.
While vehicles that were used for practical purposes have been discovered nearby, this
is the first ceremonial chariot archaeologists have found. archaeologist at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst Eric Poehler said he was astounded!! He said many of the vehicles
he studies are wagons like a standard station wagon to take your kids to soccer practice
today. But this, this was like a lamborghini!!
It would have been used for community festivals such as parades and processions,” Pompeii
archaeological site director Massimo Osanna told Reuters.
Described by Italy’s culture ministry as an unprecedented find, the discovery “advances
our understanding of the ancient world.
Excavations at Pompeii are ongoing, despite being rediscovered long ago during the 16th
century. Roughly two-thirds of the 165-acre site have been unearthed, meaning more fascinating
discoveries are yet to be found.
8. Mayan Stairway Hieroglyphics An ancient Maya stairway rising 69 feet into
the air, features 62 steps covered with over 1250 blocks of stone. Each one is carved with
hieroglyphics numbering over 2,200 making this staircase the longest Maya text ever
discovered. No one was able to read it until recently!
And it tells quite an interesting story. Around 1,300 years ago, a Maya ambassador named Ajpach'
Waal brokered an alliance between the powerful Maya king of Copán, who was headquartered
in what is now Honduras, and Maya king of Calakmul in modern-day southern Mexico. The
translated text, found in Waal’s burial, also tells of how he traveled 350 miles to
make it happen but the alliance failed, causing him to lose his fortune and slip into relative
obscurity until his death. A new study describing the inscription emphasizes
how politics could affect the social ranking of a nonroyal elite of Late Classic period
Maya society (600-850 A.D.). We don’t know very much about nonroyal life or their burial
practices.
The stairway was discovered in an ancient Maya plaza in El Palmar, Mexico near the borders
of Belize and Guatemala.
Ajpach’ Waal inherited his position as ambassador from his father. He spent his career traveling
from city to city on diplomatic missions, carrying a banner to identify himself along
the way. The man was buried in a small chamber adjacent to a platform he constructed, a type
of apparatus that only powerful individuals were allowed to build and which were used
as stages on which to perform rituals for audiences.
Although Ajpach’ Waal achieved an elite status throughout his lifetime, his teeth
and bones show signs of illness or malnourishment, which he may have suffered as a child, and
he was only buried with two clay pots. He also suffered from heart and dental problems
as an adult.
In a statement, senior researcher Kenichiro Tsukamoto summed up the findings in his own
words, stating: “Many people say that the elite enjoyed their lives, but the story is
usually more complex.” Life is always complicated, no matter who you are!!
7. Oldest Wooden Statue
New research is shedding light on the true age of the oldest known surviving wooden statue,
which is evidently even older than experts previously thought.
Known as the Shigir Idol after the peat bog where it was discovered in Russia’s Ural
Mountains in 1890, the artifact measures 17.4 feet (5.3 meters) tall and is decorated with
geometric motifs and several human faces.
It was originally dated back to around 11,500 years ago in a 2018 study, which averaged
out the results of radiocarbon dated samples ranging between 12,500 years ago and 8,600
years ago. But when the team of scientists took a second look at the statue, they realized
that wax and wood pigment had been used to repair it over the last 120 years and as recently
as the 1990s. This may have altered some of the radiocarbon samples by making the idol
appear younger than it is.
After revisiting their original findings and examining the samples taken from the innermost
part of the artifact, farthest away from these newer materials, the team now estimates the
wood’s age at around 12,250 years old. In determining the age of the actual artifact,
they considered the fact that the statue was crafted with wood from the heart of the tree,
which would have died long before it was used.
“Because we are dealing with a sample from the central part of the trunk, the felling
of the tree can be dated to about 150 years later,” the study explains. “With that
background, it can be suggested to date the sculpture to around 10,100 B.C.”
The idol’s imagery, which contains elements of Late Paleolithic and Early Mesolithic artwork
seen in other artifacts dating back around 12,100 years, supports this theory.
6. Ancient Australian DNA In An Unlikely Place
Back in 2015, researchers discovered that several indigenous South American tribes carry
traces of ancient Australian DNA. Expanding on these findings, a team from the University
of São Paulo recently found that this genetic presence is more widespread than they originally
thought. A senior researcher said the results showed that the Australasian genetic signal,
previously described as exclusive to Amazonian groups, was also identified in people from
the Pacific coast. The previous study established a connection
between the people of Australasia, which includes indigenous Australians and Melanesians (people
from the islands of Oceania), and the Karitiana and the Suruí tribes in Brazil.
After sampling a larger data set from 383 indigenous participants, Hünemeier and her
team found the shared genetic marker, dubbed the “Y signal,” in several more tribes,
including the Chotuna people of Peru and the Guaraní Kaiowá and Xavánte people of
Brazil.
Describing the link between Australasian and Native American DNA as “one of the most
intriguing and poorly understood events in human history,” the new study confirms researchers’
suspicions that there were more genetic connections like this to be found.
Hünemeier and co-lead researcher Castro e Silva emphasized how DNA “is an ally to
unravel unrecorded histories and populations” that European colonization obscured.
Experts theorize that the people who crossed the Bering Land Bridge into the Americas around
20,000 years ago -- in other words, the first Americans -- started their journey from southeast
Asia, carrying Australian DNA with them. The first settlers lived mostly along the coast,
from Alaska to southern Chile, before a second wave of people moved inland and into the Amazon.
While this theory fails to explain why North American indigenous groups lack the “Y signal,”
it’s an important piece of the puzzle in unraveling ancient human migration patterns
and indigenous history.
And now for a lucky find at a yard sale! But first wanted to give a big shout out to Jerane
Naidoo and Laura Eisenbarth!! YOU guys rock!! If you are new here be sure to subscribe for
more videos like these!
5. A Yard Sale Score!
Sometime last year, a yard sale customer in Connecticut bought a porcelain bowl bearing
a floral design for $35. Something about the object compelled the buyer to consult experts
at Sotheby’s, who identified it as a rare 15th-century Chinese bowl dating back to the
Yongle Emperor, the third ruler of the Ming Dynasty who reigned from 1403 to 1424.
Dang!! What kind of yard sale was this??
Only six other companion bowls are known to exist, putting the recently discovered artifact’s
estimated value somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000. But, much to the surprise of
its owner and even the appraisers, it recently sold for $721,800 at the Sotheby’s Important
Chinese Art auction in New York after a battle between four bidders.
The bowl was made for the Yongle Court, which introduced a new artistic style to China that
the Sotheby’s listing described as “immediately recognizable, never surpassed, and defining
the craft still in the 18th century.”
Angela McAteer, Sotheby’s Head of Chinese Works of Art Department in New York said in
a statement: “Upon viewing the bowl for the first time, our team immediately recognized
the quality of this undisputed gem, and it is a reminder that precious works of art remain
hidden in plain sight just waiting to be found.”
Have you ever found anything cool at a yard sale or a second hand store? Anything like
that? Let me know in the comments below!!
4. Deepest Known Shipwreck
On October 25, 1944, during the World War II battle of Leyte Gulf, the U.S. Navy destroyer
USS Johnston sank to the bottom of the Philippine Sea off Samar Island. The 377-foot-long (115
meters) vessel was rediscovered in 2019 at its final resting place nearly 21,325 feet
(6,500 meters) below the water’s surface.
Last month, an exploration team descended almost four miles (6.4 km) in a submersible
to reach the ship, completing the deepest known shipwreck dive in history.
Victor Vescovo, the submersible’s pilot, Tweeted that the team located “the front
2/3 of the ship, upright and intact” and surveyed the vessel over two eight-hour dives,
while also paying their respects to the 186 crew members who perished in the battle and
the sinking. The hull number “557” is still visible and several fixtures remain
in place, including full five-inch gun turrets, twin torpedo racks, and multiple gun mounts.
The USS Johnston also bears the damage it sustained from the Japanese Navy battleship
Yamato which, at the time, was the largest warship ever constructed, according to team
navigator and historian Parks Stephenson.
Navy records show that 141 of the ship’s 327 crew members survived, while around 50
were killed by enemy action and 45 died from their injuries on rafts. Captain Ernest Evans
and 91 other crewmembers initially survived the sinking and made it onto rafts, but were
never seen or heard from again.
3. Who were the Hobbits?
Nicknamed the “hobbits” for their markedly small stature compared to modern humans and
many of our ancestors, Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis are extinct species that scientists
originally believed were our distant relatives. But new research indicates that they may occupy
a much closer branch to us on the human family tree through possible interbreeding with the
extinct archaic species known as the Denisovans, a close Neanderthal relative that interbred
with us when they were still around.
The study detected relatively high concentrations of Denisovan DNA in modern people living in
the islands of Southeast Asia, suggesting that the ancestors of modern Papuans and South
Asians interbred with a branch of the Denisovans. But no Denisovan fossils have ever been found
in the region, leading the team to wonder if either or both of the “hobbit” species
were actually southern Denisovans.
H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis went extinct between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, long
after humans began migrating out of Africa.
These geographical and time overlaps with our species makes the idea of us and them
breeding entirely plausible.
It could perhaps explain the conspicuous absence of the Denisovan fossils scientists expected
to find near modern populations containing their DNA.
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to untangling the messy web of human DNA and
establishing if, how, and where ancient hominid species intersected. And some scholars disagree
that the “hobbits” are more closely related to us than scientists originally thought,
noting that their established presence in Southeast Asia as far back as a million to
700,000 years ago was too early for them to be Denisovans.
2. Oldest Bedding In Scandinavia
Sometime during the seventh century, two respected warriors in what is now Sweden were buried
in boats atop soft feather-stuffed pillows. The lavish bedding is unique among the 15
boat burials at the Valsgärde Iron Age cemetery near the country’s southeastern coast.
It contains graves dating between the third century B.C. and the 12th century A.D.
Known as Valsgärde 7 and Valsgärde 8, the “richly equipped boats” that the warriors
were buried in are positioned with their sterns pointing toward the nearby River, perhaps
as a send-off to the afterlife. The deceased were laid to rest with shields over their
bodies and helmets, swords, and knives beside them.
There were several animals in the graves, including horses, birds, and a decapitated
Eurasian eagle owl, which may have had ritual significance in the burial.
A new study dates the pillows to roughly 1,400 years ago, making them Scandinavia’s oldest
known bedding-related artifacts. Thanks to their remarkably preserved state, they gave
researchers a rare opportunity to study the feathers, which degrade quickly and consequently
have a limited presence in the archaeological record.
Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the research describes an
analysis of the feathers, which may have had symbolic meaning. Those used in Valsgärde
7 were from ducks, geese, landfowl (such as chickens), songbirds, wading birds, and the
beheaded eagle owl. Their presence suggests that Nordic funerary traditions involving
bird feathers that are known to date back to the 18th century may have gotten their
start much earlier.
Antikythera Man One of the most famous shipwrecks of the ancient
world is probably the Antikythera shipwreck, discovered off the coast of Greece, near the
island of the same name. You’ve probably heard of it already because of the famous
Antikythera Mechanism, considered to be the world’s oldest computer. It may have been
used to plan religious rituals, agricultura activities and perhaps even the Olympic games!
The wreck was first discovered in 1900 but underwater missions have been ongoing. And
now thanks to new advanced equipment, underwater archaeologists have been able to uncover even
more. Most of the site has remained unexplored because of how deep it is and because of the
shape of the seafloor which makes it difficult to access.
There are hundreds of treasures that have been found at the site including bronze and
marble sculptures, coins, gold jewelry and perhaps even more important, a skeleton! With
new technology scientists can now analyze the DNA of an ancient mariner!! Human remains
from ancient wrecks are extremely uncommon as you can imagine.
The man may have been trapped below deck when the ship hit the rocks and sank. More human
remains and precious cargo might still be at the underwater site and the international
team is hoping to uncover even more of the shipwreck’s secrets!!
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