Archaeological discoveries

• Thousands of seals, remnants of a huge papyrus archive, found in a cave in Israel

  The ancient city of Maresha (founded in the Iron Age), near present-day Beth Guvrin in south-central Israel, and known in the Hellenistic period as Marisa , is one of the richest archaeological sites of this last period, between the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. At that time the city was an important

• The 12 most important archaeological discoveries in Greece in the last decade

  Making a list of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last decade is complicated, whatever the country, region or place in the world chosen. But in Greece above all, due to the abundance and proliferation of finds, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages. Therefore, what better than to go

• 500,000 ancient papyri are preserved in the world, a good part accessible through the internet

  Paper, invented in China around the 2nd century BC, did not spread to the rest of the world until much later, since it did not leave the country for half a millennium and it would take until the 11th century for the Muslims to bring it to Europe, specifically to Al Andalus. Until then, other support

• The Kurkh Monolith, the first documentary allusion to Israel and the Arabs

  One of the most curious, interesting and controversial archaeological pieces preserved by the British Museum is the so-called Kurkh Monolith. It is a fairly large Assyrian stela that bears inscribed descriptions of King Shalmaneser III. The information it provides is essential to understand the sove

• When Cicero found the tomb of Archimedes in Syracuse

  Archimedes was probably the greatest mathematician of antiquity. He was born in the Sicilian city of Syracuse in 287 BC, then an independent Greek colony. It is surprising how little we know about him and his life, as well as the oblivion in which he fell a few years after his death. His friend He

• Fort Samaipata, the largest work of cave architecture in the world

  Despite the fact that Machu Picchu monopolizes the worlds media and tourist attention massively on the Andean zone, it is extraordinarily rich in historical heritage and abundant archaeological sites can be found scattered throughout the countries that make it up, from the Cañarí ruins of Ingapirca

• The oldest portrait in the world, carved in ivory 26,000 years ago

  Near the Czech town of Dolní Věstonice in Moravia is the archaeological site of the same name. A place that, since before systematic excavations began in 1924, had already provided researchers with abundant prehistoric materials from the Gravettian period (which took place between 27,000 and 20,000

• The solar alignment that occurs twice a year in the temple of Abu Simbel

  Three millennia ago, Egypt it was at the height of his empire. After the war campaigns of Sesostris III and a period of splendor and pax Egyptian during the government of Amenophis III, and having saved a phase of weakness and decline led by pharaohs such as Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, the good times

• Brattahlíð, Erik the Red's farm in Greenland

  When the Vikings arrived in Greenland in the year 985, they found a land almost completely covered by snow and ice. Except for a few clearings of vegetation, mainly in the extreme south, where they built their settlements. One of them was the Qinngua valley, where the only natural forest in Greenla

• The oldest bridge in the world, in the Sumerian city of Ngirsu

  At present-day Tel Telloh in the Iraqi province of Dhi Qar is the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Ngirsu (sometimes transliterated as Girsu). It is about 25 kilometers northwest of Lagash, one of the two main Sumerian city-states, to which it was connected by one of the branches of the Euphrate

• The sinking of the San Diego, the Spanish galleon that carried Japanese mercenaries to stop a Dutch invasion

  You may have heard of Frank Goddio. He is an underwater archaeologist, born in Morocco but of French nationality, who a couple of decades ago discovered the location under the sea of ​​the Egyptian city of Heracleion and has also directed some important excavations around Alexandria. But, above all,

• The first Roman boxing gloves, found at the Vindolanda site

  The British site of Vindolanda continues to provide archaeologists with pleasant surprises. In February 2018 it was announced that last summer, to the fantastic finds of writing tablets, swords, shoes, combs and dice, we must add the only preserved Roman boxing gloves. Initially, the researchers wh

• The Vyne ring, the object stolen in the fourth century that could have inspired Tolkien

  Was J.R.R. Tolkien in an authentic archaeological piece to conceive that Unique Ring that is the leiv motiv of his novels? He never said anything about it, so its impossible to know for sure. However, in 1929, that is, eight years before writing the first book in which the object appears, The Hobb

• Archaeologists discover the body of Chinese warlord Cao Cao

  Within the vast history of China, the figure of Cao Cao occupies a special place, due to his singularity. Someone who, after being one of the most outstanding prime ministers of the Han dynasty stage and undisputed protagonist of the period known as the Three Kingdoms, an expert in martial arts and

• The oldest wooden tools used by Neanderthals, found at a site in the Basque Country

  An article published in PLOS ONE reveals that the wooden tools found in 2015 in the archaeological excavations of Aranbaltza in the Basque Country are the oldest found used by Neanderthals. The study, directed by Joseba Ríos-Garaizar, from the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH

• 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets seized by the US government come from a city not yet found

  Among the antiquities and artifacts acquired by the US company Hobby Lobby, the US government seized in July 2017 a set of 450 cuneiform tablets that had been illegally extracted from Iraq. These tablets are about 4,000 years old, most dating between 2100 and 1600 BC. They generally contain adminis

• Assyrian tablets reveal the location of the ancient royal city of Mardaman

  The translation of tablets with Assyrian cuneiform writing found by archaeologists from the University of Tübingen last summer has revealed a singular mystery:that the place where they were found, the town of Bassetki in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Iraq, is the ancient royal city from Mard

• The Ljubljana Marsh Wheel is the oldest wooden wheel discovered in the world and is over 5,000 years old.

  There is no doubt that one of the great milestones of Humanity has been the invention of the wheel. Obviously, the exact moment in which it appears in our history is unknown and until relatively recently the oldest reference was the Mesopotamian civilization. But that changed in 2002, when archaeolo

• The inscriptions found in Tintagel, the place of origin of the legend of King Arthur

  In 2016 we talked about the discovery on the promontory of Tintagel, in Cornwall, of the remains of a fortress from the 5th century. Precisely that is the time in which the defenders of the historicity of King Arthur place the character. Archaeologists have continued to work on the site, uncovering

• The day the Egyptians stopped writing hieroglyphs

  The year 392 AD Emperor Theodosius decreed the closure of all Egyptian temples. The Eastern Roman Empire was officially Christian from the Edict of Thessalonica of 380 AD. and the persecution of pagans was the order of the day:their temples were destroyed and they were deprived of funds to maintain