From golden treasures to prehistoric fossils, here are 9 ancient unintentionally-discovered
antiquities.
Number 9 Thracian Treasure The Thracians once inhabited a large area
in Central and Southeastern Europe, with Bulgaria representing the cradle of their civilization.
The ancient gladiator Spartacus is an often-cited example of Thracian warrior prowess and military
leadership.
However, the Thracians were more than a people of warriors; they were also excellent craftsmen,
capable of producing beautiful ornate gold and silver objects.
Much of their skill is reflected in the Panagyurishte Treasure, which consists of nine decorated
vessels, made from 24-karat gold and totaling about 13.5 pounds.
They date back to 4th-3rd centuries BC and are believed to have been part of a ceremonial
set used by the Thracian king Seuthes III.
The vessels were accidentally discovered in December 1949, by Pavel, Petko and Michail
Deikov, and called “the richest treasure to have been unearthed in Europe since World
War II”.
When they found the precious items, the Deikov brothers were working at a tile factory, near
the Bulgarian town of Panagyurishte.
Number 8 Ancient Scythian Artifacts These 2,400-year-old Scythian artifacts were
accidentally found in Russia, during excavations to make room for power lines.
The Scythians were a nomadic warrior people that ruled vast parts of Eurasia, from the
9th century BC to the 4th century AD.
The items had been buried in a chamber, then lined with stones and covered by a thick layer
of clay.
The find totaled about 8 pounds of solid gold.
There were cups, neck rings and two other items that surprised archeologists.
Before we move on, answer this question.
What did the surprising Scythian artifacts consist of?
a.
Ceremonial Weapons b.
Ancient Bongs c.
Strange Sculptures d.
Musical Instruments Let us know what you think in the comments
section below and stay tuned to find out the right answer.
Number 7 Derinkuyu Numerous underground cities cover Turkey’s
Cappadocia region, which in ancient times, were hand-carved by its inhabitants from soft
volcanic rock.
One of these remarkable underground cities is called Derinkuyu, first built in the 8th
or 7th century BC.
It was extended and refined as time passed.
Derinkuyu extends 200 feet down, on multiple stories and is large enough to house 20,000
people along with their livestock.
Heavy stone doors protected Derinkuyu’s inhabitants from danger and the excavations
revealed that the underground metropolis also had its own shops, freshwater wells, meeting
halls, chapels, storage rooms and stables.
Despite its staggering size Derinkuyu was forgotten by the modern world up until the
early 1960s.
A local man decided to renovate his home and tore down one of its walls.
That’s when he found a passageway which led to a vast underground network of stone
chambers and tunnels.
Number 6 Lascaux Cave This cave system, near the French village
of Montignac, is home to one of the most significant architectural finds in history.
More than 600 paintings cover the walls and ceiling of the cave’s interior.
It’s believed that several generations have contributed to creating the drawings which
date back about 17,000 years.
Most of the paintings depict large animals consistent with the fauna of the Upper Paleolithic.
There are also paintings of human figures and abstract signs.
Studying the Lascaux cave system wouldn’t have been possible without a teenager and
his dog.
In 1940, Marcel’s Ravidat’s pet fell in a hole connected to the caves.
18-year-old Ravidat returned to the site alongside three of his friends and entered the cave
through a shaft that was about 50 feet deep.
The boys thought they had stumbled upon a secret passageway to the Lascaux Mansion,
which was located nearby.
They soon discovered that the walls were covered with paintings of animals and alerted the
local authorities.
Number 5 Terracotta Army The Terracotta Army is widely regarded as
one of China’s most important archeological finds.
However, uncovering the 8,000 life-sized terracotta replicas of soldiers, chariots and horses
was completely unintentional.
It happened in 1974, while a seven-man team was digging a well near the city of Xian.
Then, one of them struck the head of a buried statue.
The team thought they’d stumbled upon an old Buddha statue or an ancient bust.
Further excavations revealed the army created to guard Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first
emperor of the Qin Dynasty, in the afterlife.
Number 4 Uluburun Shipwreck While swimming in the Mediterranean in 1982,
sponge diver Mehmet Çakir made a remarkable discovery.
Off Turkey’s Uluburun coast he found what has been described as one the world’s oldest
shipwrecks.
Much of the ancient ship’s 50-foot-long hull had been consumed by sea water.
Nevertheless, a team followed up on Cakir’s reports and discovered a plethora of relics
dating back to the Late Bronze Age.
There were hundreds of glass, copper and tin ingots as well as weapons, tools, pottery
objects, elephant tusks and hippopotamus teeth.
There was also jewellery made out of gold and silver, including a unique gold scarab
inscribed with the name of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
Dating the wreck has been difficult but according to the latest reports it sank towards the
end of the 14th century BC while heading towards a port in the Aegean Sea.
Objects recovered from the shipwreck were the product of nine or ten cultures, ranging
from Africa to northern Europe, as far east as Mesopotamia and as far west as Sicily.
This has led many to suspect it was a merchant vessel manned by an international crew that
covered a thriving commercial sea network.
Number 3 Ötzi Ötzi is the name attributed to the well-preserved
natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BC.
The discovery offered ground-breaking insight into the lives of Copper Age Europeans.
The corpse was extensively analyzed in a laboratory setting.
At the time of his death, Ötzi weighed about 110 pounds, stood 5.3 feet tall and was about
45-years-old.
His clothes were all made from the leather of various animals, except for his cloak which
was made out of woven grass.
Based on the equipment found with him, Ötzi had most likely been a hunter or a warrior.
He had a total of 61 tattoos on his body, consisting of groups of black lines.
Among the items found with him there was a copper axe with a yew handle, a knife made
of sedimentary rock, with an ash handle, and a quiver with 14 arrows.
Based on some examinations, Ötzi bled to death after an arrowhead got lodged in his
shoulder, damaging nerves and blood vessels.
DNA analysis found traces of blood from at least four other people on his gear.
According to some interpretations, the man had killed two people with the same arrow
and was able to retrieve it each time.
Then, he was shot with an arrow and perhaps further struck, judging from the presence
of bruises as well as cerebral trauma.
Ötzi was named after the Ötzal Alps, where he was discovered by accident.
On September 19, 1991, tourists Helmut and Erika Simon stumbled upon Ötzi as they were
walking a path at an elevation of about 10,500 feet.
The mummy’s lower half was still frozen in the glacier while its upper half lay face-down.
It was so well-preserved that the Simons thought the body was that of a recently deceased mountaineer.
So, what did the Scythian artifacts consist of?
The right answer is b, probably the oldest bongs in existence.
The thick black residue found inside the solid gold artifacts came from cannabis and opium,
most likely smoked by tribal chieftains.
According to several historians, including Herodotus, the Scythians smoked the plants
during a ceremony to alter their mind state before going into battle.
Number 2 Venus de Milo The Venus de Milo is one of the best-known
sculptures in the world and its discovery was completely accidental.
The marble masterpiece was found on the Island of Milos, in the Aegean Sea.
While there is some debate as to whose responsible for finding the statue, the various sources
agree it was accidental.
They also concur that it took place in 1820, when Milos was still part of the Ottoman Empire,
and that the statue was found in two large pieces, the lower draped legs and the upper
torso.
The version of events that’s most commonly circulated is that a peasant named Yorgos
Kentrotas found Venus inside a buried niche, in the ancient ruins of the city.
The 6ft8 statue of the goddess is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum
in Paris.
Number 1 Elephant Butte State Park Mastodon In the summer of 2014, a bachelor party in
New Mexico discovered a very well-preserved mastodon skull, complete with the attached
tusks.
As the men were hiking through Elephant Butte State Park, something protruding from the
ground caught their eye.
They then dug a bit deeper in the sand and the fossil started to reveal itself.
It wasn’t trapped in rock, so extracting the find without damaging it would have been
a relatively simple task.
The partygoers were subsequently commended for not trying to remove the skull themselves
and for notifying the proper authorities.
The head paleontologist from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science described
it as the most complete mastodon skull he’d seen in two decades.
Mastodons were Ice Age distant relatives of modern-day elephants, which migrated to North
America about 15 million years ago.
They were approximately 9 feet tall and weighed up to 10 tons.
Mastodons went extinct about 10,000 years ago and the main reason for that is widely
believed to have been overhunting by humans.
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather…find fossils from a new dinosaur that you’d get to name or find
a treasure that you get to keep a small part of, but you wouldn’t get any credit for
the discovery?
Let us know in the comments section below!