From a baby born inside a coffin to an
underwater pirate graveyard! Here are ten shocking archaeological discoveries!
10: FBI Mummy Mystery
In 2009, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts displayed some amazing artifacts recovered from an Egyptian
tomb. It was excavated nearly 100 years earlier from a site in Deir el-Bersha and everything
had been sitting in storage. One of their most prized relics was an item labeled 10A.
While this is not that exciting 10A was a mummified severed head! But whose was it?
Thanks to the FBI, they have now been able to learn the identity of the 4000-year-old head!
It was originally found in a tomb that belonged to a local governor from the Middle Kingdom.
The governor was buried with his wife, but archaeologists didn't know whether the head
belonged to the governor himself or the governor's wife. They needed extra help so they enlisted the
FBI to help them solve the case! A forensics lab took a molar extracted from the mummy's head,
with veteran DNA analyst and Forensic Scientist Odile Loreille helping out. Odile has already
recovered DNA from victims of the Titanic, two children from the murdered Romanov family, as well
as ancient cave bears. With her help, they were able to identify strands of DNA inside the tooth.
According to Odile’s findings, the skull belonged to the male governor. To confirm the results,
the F.B.I. team sent samples to Harvard and the Department of Homeland Security for further
testing. And while this might not seem like that big of a deal, it was one of the first
times that proper DNA was collected from an Egyptian mummy. This means that in the future,
archaeologists will be able to better identify the ancient corpses they find inside coffins.
However, the mystery continues because there were actually two governors with the same name
that ruled the same area in Ancient Egypt so we may never know exactly who it belonged to.
9: Black Sam Bellamy Black Sam Bellamy was an English sailor who
turned into a pirate. He left England as a teenager, sailed for the British Navy,
and came up with plans in 1715 to gather a crew and travel around the Caribbean Sea.
Black Sam wanted to plunder Spanish treasure and became extremely successful!! He attacked
and robbed at least 45 ships throughout his career and has been labeled “the Robin Hood of the sea”.
He stole from the rich, and he employed former slaves on his ship and treated them as equals,
which was unheard of for the time. But before he could ever settle down,
his ship The Whydah got caught in a storm near Cape Cod and sank, taking down Sam Bellamy,
his entire crew, and all of his treasure. The body of Sam Bellamy was never found.
The Whydah was first discovered off the coast of Cape Cod in 1982.
But it wasn’t until now thanks to new technology that archaeologists actually discovered
six skeletons in the wreckage of Black Sam’s ship. Finding skeletons underwater is extremely rare!
One of the skeletons could be the infamous pirate himself. The bones were discovered
inside the wreckage, stuck inside of concretions (solid chunks of matter)
that had accumulated since the ship sunk. Archaeologists are still working to remove the
pirate bones from the concretions and do whatever DNA tests are necessary to find out who they were.
If Sam Bellamy is indeed found, he will be buried in his local graveyard in Massachusetts.
8: The Maya Dog Trade A new study of the bones and teeth from animals
uncovered at ancient Maya sites in Guatemala have revealed some of the earliest evidence of a dog
trade in the Americas. It turns out that the Maya may have been some of the first trading breeders
in the dog world, managing, raising, and trading dogs. Not only that, but the bones and teeth
analyzed from the 3000-year-old archaeological site have shown evidence of animal sacrifice,
with some archaeologists saying sacrificing captive animals could have played a crucial
role in how Maya society developed. The truth is that animal domestication has
played a huge role in human society for the past 9000 years. But this was mostly in Asia and Europe
where cultures began raising sheep and pigs thousands of years ago. They didn't really
do that in Mesoamerica. They cultivated crops but didn't domesticate that many animals. According to
National Geographic, researchers took the remains of dogs and cats excavated at Ceibal in Guatemala,
dated back to between 700 and 350 BC, and found evidence of a corn-based diet in the animals.
They even found the remains of what they believed to be a jaguar,
and saw that it too had a corn-based diet. What this means is that the Maya were
raising animals for the purpose of ceremonial activities. Even though the Maya weren't using
animals as part of their agriculture, they were still raising them – only for ceremonial use.
Instead of raising chickens to eat, they raised dogs and big cats to sacrifice!
7: The Coffin Birth In one of the most shocking
archaeological discoveries of all time, a pregnant woman was found to have given birth while inside
of a medieval grave. It happened in either the 7th or 8th century, when a pregnant woman died and was
buried in the small Italian town of Imola. Back then, and throughout history death
during pregnancy or childbirth was quite common. It happened all the time. But when
her grave was uncovered in 2002 and excavated by archaeologists, they found a small pile of little
bones by her legs. They later identified these bones as the remains of her fetus.
The baby was born after she had died. Analysis by scientists working with the University of Bologna
determined the woman was between 25 and 35 and in her 38th week of gestation. She was two weeks
shy of coming to term but when she died she was buried. . The baby was born anyway after death, an
extremely rare occurrence of what scientists call post-mortem fetal extrusion. AKA: coffin birth.
Even more shocking is that a small hole was found in the woman's skull.
Researchers concluded that she had been given a crude surgical procedure called a trepanation.
This type of surgery started being performed back in the Neolithic era and was believed to
relieve all kinds of health problems, from fevers to convulsions. The woman probably
died from the surgery or whatever illness she may have had before giving birth in her coffin.
6: Theopetra Cave The Theopetra Cave was occupied by human beings
130,000 years ago. It's an amazing archaeological site located in the region of Meteora, Greece.
There have been many archaeological excavations done here throughout the years.
Experts have discovered physical evidence of uninterrupted human habitation
all the way from the Middle Paleolithic to the end of the Neolithic. In other words, people
lived inside of this cave while evolving from primitive cavemen to more advanced Neanderthals.
Archaeological excavations began in 1987 and went on until 2007, with the project being directed by
Dr. Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika. When excavations first began,
the cave was being used by sheepherders. The most shocking thing discovered inside
Theopetra Cave is what scientists are still calling the oldest wall in the world. Scientists
were able to date the wall back 23,000 years. That coincides with the last glacial age. The wall was
probably built by the early inhabitants of the cave out of mud and rock to keep out the cold. The
wall is now recognized as potentially the oldest structure built by human hands in the world.
What makes this exceptionally interesting is that it took over 100,000 years of continuous
human occupation for someone to finally build a wall inside the cave to keep out the cold. We
are literally looking at the slow evolution of our own species inside of the Theopetra Cave.
5: Iron Age Hoard One of the coolest Iron Age hoards ever
discovered came out of Schmallenberg, Germany. The Wallburg Wilzenberg Hillfort dates back to 300 BC,
a time when the area was ruled by Iron Age Pre-Romans. Today, there's not much left
of the ancient hillfort other than traces of raised embankments and a few crumbling stone
and wood fortifications. Studies in the 1950s unearthed a trove of fascinating Iron Age weapons,
including spear tips and lance tips, and swords that had been deliberately bent.
A more recent discovery was made by a local history researcher named Matthias Dickhaus.
Matthias conducted a survey with a metal detector and found over 100 fragments of
spears and shields, along with tools and harnesses for horses. And don’t forget more bent swords. The
evidence has pointed to a great battle unfolding over 2000 years ago in the area. Perhaps the most
fascinating aspect of the battlefield has been that the swords found here were bent on purpose,
and archaeologists are now saying it was probably the victors of the battle who
destroyed the weapons on purpose as a kind of last humiliation to the defeated enemy. It was a way to
exhibit the inferiority of their opponents. However, nobody actually knows who fought
the battle. There hasn't been any concrete evidence to say which culture was on which side,
who walked away victorious, or just what in the world the fight had been about in the first place!
4: Ape Brains According to a
new study published in the journal Science, early humans had brains just like great apes. The study
found that humans only evolved our advanced thinking skills about 1.5 million years ago.
What that means is that 1 million years after the Homo genus came to be and the first ever
Homo erectus left Africa, we developed our big juicy brains. But for those first million years,
the first Homo genus had brains just like apes! These findings came thanks to fossilized endocasts
of the region inside the skull that houses the human brain. Human brains don't actually fossilize
so the only way to check out an ancient human brain is to look at the imprint leftover inside
of the skull. Scientists had to look at the skulls of great apes and then compare them to
the fossilized remains of 40 ancient human skulls from around the world. According to Livescience,
the finding overturns a previously held view that humans' frontal lobe — the part of the brain
that processes complex cognitive tasks, including social thought, tool use and language — developed
at the transition from Australopithecus to Homo, which happened roughly 2.8 million to
2.5 million years ago, the researchers said. With the help of new and improved computed
tomography scans, also known as CT scans, scientists and paleontologists were able
to image the interior of fossilized skulls belonging to our very ancient
ancestors. The results showed that Homo erectus had the same frontal lobe as a modern ape.
3: Rare Medieval Knife A metal detectorist in
Scotland got very lucky when he made a shocking discovery. He stumbled upon a medieval knife
still in its original sheath. Craig Johnstone was out in the woods near Edinburgh exploring.
He had researched the area and discovered that where he found the medieval knife
was likely used as an escape route from a battle that happened in 1666
as part of a rebellion by Scottish Covenanters who didn't like the religious policies of Charles II.
When the Scottish Covenanters advanced on Edinburgh, they were ambushed and defeated,
causing many of the rebels to run away. One of those defeated rebels probably dropped his
knife – and there it stayed hidden under the dirt for over 300 years before Craig found it!
The knife was beautifully decorated and was quite a rare find. It was stuck inside the scabbard,
covered in mud and Craig said that he first thought it was the top of a railing!
Scottish law says that any historical find by a metal detectorist must be presented to
the authorities. So, that’s what Craig did. He took the knife to an archaeologist at the
Midlothian Council, who informed him how to pull the blade from its scabbard without damaging it.
Craig had to put the knife in the oven with the door open on low temperature to cook the years of
mud off the knife. Then he was able to open it. He said it was like an Excalibur moment, pulling out
the little handle of the sharp ancient knife. 2: Japanese Armor
Workers paving a road near a farm in Japan accidentally stumbled upon an underground
tomb dating back 1500 years. Archaeologists found a huge stone coffin, some creepy human remains,
and a piece of armor in surprisingly good condition. According to Archaeology News Network,
the remains probably belonged to a local chieftain while the armor – which was a
single breastplate – is known as a tanko. The armor could have been a gift from the
imperial court in Yamato. The tomb itself probably belonged to a powerful leader in the region with
direct ties to the Yamato imperial court. The grave dates back to the Kofun Period of Japan,
between the 3rd and 7th century. Along with the armor and the single skeleton, archaeologists also
found at least 20 burial accessories, more than in any other rock tomb found throughout the region.
1: Emerald Mining Network New archaeological excavations
in the Egyptian Eastern Desert have revealed some pretty shocking finds. The region has been known
as a hotspot for emerald mines from the Roman era for the last century. But up until 2018,
there hadn't been a whole lot of excavating going on here. Then between 2018 and 2020,
archaeologists focused on the main site of Sikait, where they found some pretty cool artifacts.
One of the first structures to be investigated is what archaeologists believe was a type of
administrative building once used as a temple, back between the 1st and 5th centuries.
Researchers found 19 coins and other items such as incense burners and
curious figurines that suggest the temple had been used in ritual religious ceremonies.
What's really interesting is that the temple was part of a larger complex used in mining emeralds
thousands of years ago. The finds have confirmed for archaeologists the significance that religion
played in small mining settlements. So far, the Roman site in Sikait has yielded the highest
concentration of cult spaces inside of an ancient mine. However, researchers are still unsure why
the Romans gave up control of the area. There is still more work to be done if archaeologists want
to uncover the full story of Rome’s extraction and commercialization of Egyptian emeralds.
Thanks for watching!! Which of these discoveries was your favorite? Let me know in the comments
below! My favorite is definitely the emerald mine! If you haven’t already,
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