Archaeology and Discoveries
What excavations, shipwrecks and unsolved mysteries have revealed.
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The Uluburun Shipwreck: Bronze Age Trade off KaşThe Uluburun shipwreck carried copper, tin, colored glass, and precious objects when it sank off Kaş around 1320 BCE. Its cargo reveals Bronze Age trade in…8 min read · 9 sources
Priam’s Treasure: Smuggled from Troy, Hidden in MoscowHeinrich Schliemann discovered Priam’s Treasure at Troy in 1873 and illegally took it to Athens, although the objects predate the king whose name they bear. After…8 min read · 8 sources
The Moche and the Lord of Sipán: Peru’s TutankhamunA police report about tomb looting led Walter Alva to Sipán, where an archaeological team discovered an unlooted ruler's burial in 1987. Its ceremonial objects connected…8 min read · 16 sources
The Column of Constantine: Relics Beneath Çemberlitaş?The Column of Constantine still stands in its original location in Istanbul, although its imperial statue and later cross have disappeared. Byzantine traditions place sacred objects…8 min read · 7 sources
Where Is Alexander the Great’s Tomb? Lost in AlexandriaAlexander the Great’s burial place in Alexandria has not been securely identified, despite ancient accounts describing his tomb and its visitors. His body’s journey through Egypt…8 min read · 13 sources
Palenque and the Tomb of Pakal: The ‘Astronaut’ ClaimPalenque’s Temple of the Inscriptions holds the tomb of Pakal, the Maya king who ruled from 615 to 683. Its carved sarcophagus lid depicts death and…7 min read · 10 sources
Kekova and the sunken city of Simena: Lycia’s drowned townKekova’s submerged buildings face Simena, the Lycian settlement at modern Kaleköy, across a narrow stretch of sea. Their remains reveal a history of coastal settlement, changing…7 min read · 8 sourcesPercy Fawcett and the Lost City of Z: Vanished ExplorerPercy Fawcett was a British surveyor who vanished in 1925 with his son Jack and Raleigh Rimell while searching for a lost city he called Z.…7 min read · 8 sources
Lydian Hoard: How the Croesus Treasure Was Smuggled, ReturnedThe Lydian Hoard, also called the Karun Treasure, was looted from burial mounds near Uşak in the 1960s and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.…7 min read · 9 sources
How Hittite Was Deciphered: Hrozný’s Bread and Water SentenceIn 1915 the Czech scholar Bedřich Hrozný showed that Hittite was an Indo-European language. He did it by reading a sentence about eating bread and drinking…7 min read · 15 sources
The Lascaux Cave: Why Its Ancient Paintings Closed to VisitorsLascaux, a painted cave in southwestern France, was closed to the public on 20 April 1963 after crowds changed its climate and let algae and calcite…7 min read · 15 sources
Aboriginal Australians: 65,000 Years and the Cost of ColonisationAboriginal Australians belong to some of the world's oldest continuous cultures. Excavations at Madjedbebe suggest settlement about 65,000 years ago, though researchers still debate that date,…8 min read · 24 sources
The Shroud of Turin: Burial Cloth of Jesus or Medieval Forgery?The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth with a faint image of a man, and its documented history begins in 14th-century France. Three-laboratory radiocarbon dating…9 min read · 12 sources
The Rosetta Stone: How Hieroglyphs Were DecipheredThe Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a stele carrying a 196 BC decree in two languages and three scripts. Found in Egypt in 1799 and…7 min read · 9 sources
The Dead Sea Scrolls: 2,000-Year-Old Texts Found in a CaveThe Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish texts found in caves near Qumran from 1947 onward, mostly dated between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century…8 min read · 14 sources
Is Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat? Claims and ScienceNo scientific evidence confirms that Noah's Ark exists, and the boat-shaped Durupınar formation near Ağrı is explained by geologists as a natural limestone block. In October…7 min read · 12 sources
Was Atlantis Real? A Scientific Look at Plato’s Lost ContinentThe earliest known account of Atlantis is in Plato's Timaeus and Critias, and no archaeologist has confirmed a city by that name. Santorini's eruption and the…7 min read · 9 sources
Where Is the Ark of the Covenant? Ethiopia to the VaticanNo verified evidence places the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia, Rome or anywhere else. This article compares the Aksum tradition, the medieval Lateran claim, the…8 min read · 14 sources
The Voynich Manuscript: The Book No One Can ReadThe Voynich Manuscript is an illustrated book in an unidentified script, written on parchment dated to 1404–1438 and kept today at Yale's Beinecke Library as MS…8 min read · 11 sources
Tutankhamun: The Boy Pharaoh and the Curse of His TombTutankhamun was an 18th Dynasty pharaoh who took the throne at about 8 or 9 and died at about 18 or 19; his tomb KV62, found…8 min read · 15 sources