A 1000 Year Old Sword Was Unearthed By Archaeologists From Beneath A Lake's Waves

Archeologists have discovered something mysterious beneath the waves of a lake. It would have been buried in Lake Lednica in Poland for about 1000 years. Archeologists initially thought it was just another random object, but little did they know its value.

Lake Lednica is located in Poland, approximately 23 miles from Pozna. The body of water is nestled within a beautiful protected landscape, safely away from the country's third-largest city. However, the lake's tranquil appearance today belies its historical significance in Poland.

Lednica is known for its spiritual significance every June. Every June, young people gather on the lake's shores for annual devotional meetings. The religious festivities last two days and culminate in a nighttime walk beneath a massive metal fish structure.

When Experts Dug Up A Russian Dance Floor, They Untangled A Massive Napoleonic Mystery

Archeologists are carefully removing soil in an unlikely location. They’re digging below the surface of an outdoor dance floor in the city of Smolensk, which lies about 250 miles to the west of Russia’s capital, Moscow. And what they’re about to uncover will solve a 200-year-old mystery associated with Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s ill-fated invasion of Russia.

The myth of Gawain and the Green Knight

Dig into the myth of the Green Knight, who comes to King Arthur’s court to challenge the honor and bravery of Camelot’s knights.

It was Christmas in Camelot and King Arthur was throwing a party. In the midst of the revelry, a towering knight proposed a game. He challenged the warriors present to attack him with his own axe. If they could strike him down, they would win his powerful weapon. However, he would be allowed to return the blow in one year. Dan Kwartler details the myth of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

12 Most Amazing Archaeological Finds

If you’re looking for recent archaeological discoveries, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve always got our noses to the ground in pursuit of the latest and greatest archaeological news, and we’ve found plenty of it. Some amazing things have been discovered recently, and we’re excited to share them with you in this video. Let’s jump straight into it!

Abraham Lincoln Family Tree

In the following video we will investigate Abraham Lincoln’s family tree. Watch the video for more and enjoy!

Babylon: The City at the Center of the World - The Concise History of Babylonia (2000-539 BC)

This program explores the history of the ancient city of Babylon and the land once known as Babylonia. We'll uncover the story of this great city over the course of fifteen centuries and learn about its impact and why it was so beloved as well as hated by so many in the ancient world. We'll also meet an interesting and rather eclectic cast of kings including Hammurabi, Zimri-Lim, Rim-Sin, Samsu-iluna, Marduk-apla-iddina II, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar I & II, Nabonidus, Cyrus the Great and many more.

Is Jesus Historical? What Do The Romans Say About Him?

On this video we will have a deep historical research into the most important mentions in Latin about Jesus of Nazareth by non Christian authors such as Roman emperors, magistrates, lawyers, military officers etc. We will discuss the validity of such testimonies, and try to understand if Jesus of Nazareth really is a historical figure or if his existence was just a myth.

New Nazca Lines Hypothesis + 168 New Discoveries

The Nazca Lines are one of the world’s most famous ancient enigmas, a collection of giant geoglyphs and they’re located in the Peruvian coastal plain, around 250 miles south of Lima, Peru.

They were created between 500 BC and 500 AD and made by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving differently-coloured dirt exposed.

In November 2019, a research group at Yamagata University announced the discovery of 143 new geoglyphs and in December 2022, they announced 168 more, and this is all with the help of AI technology.

Some have said they were ceremonial walkways and that they had religious symbolism, others have said they’re an astronomical calendar, and yes some believe they are landing pads for UFOs.

This week, Masato Sakai, one of the Yamagata University researchers who has been working to find new geoglyphs, has had his say, offering a new interpretation. Watch this video to learn more and also to see a gallery of new geoglyph discoveries since 2019.

The Sphinx's Secret: The Hidden Room That Could Rewrite History

In this video we uncover the mystery of an ancient time capsule hidden deep beneath the Great Sphinx of Egypt. For centuries, researchers have speculated about the existence of a secret chamber within the iconic statue, and now, using the latest technology and archaeology techniques, we may finally have the answers. From ancient artifacts to long-forgotten texts, this video offers a glimpse into the history and mystery of one of the world's most iconic monuments.

80 Years After This Nevada Lake Dried Up, Its 14000 Year Old Relics Solved An Ancient Mystery

For thousands of years, the Paiute people have made the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation their home. It’s an area steeped in Native American history and has long been a source of fascination for experts. However, nobody knew just how unusual this area was until a single geologist stumbled upon some strange-looking boulders where Winnemucca Lake once stood. And once the curious scientist decided to get a closer look, he quickly realized there was no going back.

Greek Farmer Accidentally Discovers 3,400-Year-Old Minoan Tomb Hidden Under Olive Grove

Sometime between 1400 and 1200 B.C., two Minoan men were laid to rest in an underground enclosure carved out of the soft limestone native to southeast Crete. Both were entombed within larnakes—intricately embossed clay coffins popular in Bronze Age Minoan society—and surrounded by colorful funerary vases that hinted at their owners’ high status. Eventually, the burial site was sealed with stone masonry and forgotten, leaving the deceased undisturbed for roughly 3,400 years.

On 2018, a local farmer accidentally brought the pair’s millenia-long rest to an abrupt end, George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. The farmer was attempting to park his vehicle beneath a shaded olive grove on his property when the ground gave way, forcing him to find a new parking spot. As he started to drive off, the unidentified local noticed a four-foot wide hole that had emerged in the patch of land he’d just vacated. Perched on the edge of the gaping space, the man realized he’d unintentionally unearthed “a wonderful thing.”

According to a statement, archaeologists from the local heritage ministry, Lassithi Ephorate of Antiquities, launched excavations below the farmer’s olive grove at Rousses, a small village just northeast of Kentri, Ierapetra, in southeast Crete. They identified the Minoan tomb, nearly perfectly preserved despite its advanced age, in a pit measuring roughly four feet across and eight feet deep. The space’s interior was divided into three carved niches accessible by a vertical trench.

In the northernmost niche, archaeologists found a coffin and an array of vessels scattered across the ground. The southernmost niche yielded a second sealed coffin, as well as 14 ritual Greek jars called amphorae and a bowl.

Forbes’ Kristina Kilgrove writes that the high quality of the pottery left in the tomb indicates the individuals buried were relatively affluent. She notes, however, that other burial sites dating to the same Late Minoan period feature more elaborate beehive-style tombs.

“These [men] could be wealthy,” Kilgrove states, “but not the wealthiest.”

Unlike many ancient tombs, the Kentri grave was never discovered by thieves, Argyris Pantazis, deputy mayor of Local Communities, Agrarian and Tourism of Ierapetra, tells local news outlet Cretapost. In fact, the site likely would have remained sealed in perpetuity if not for the chance intervention of a broken irrigation pipe, which watered down the soil surrounding the farmer’s olive grove and led to his unexpected parking debacle.

“We are particularly pleased with this great archaeological discovery as it is expected to further enhance our culture and history,” Pantazis added in his interview with Cretapost. “Indeed, this is also a response to all those who doubt that there were Minoans in Ierapetra.”

According to Archaeology News Network, most Minoan settlements found on Crete are located in the lowlands and plains rather than the mountainous regions of Ierapetra. Still, a 2012 excavation in Anatoli, Ierapetra, revealed a Minoan mansion dating to between 1600 and 1400 B.C., roughly the same time period as the Kentri tomb.

This latest find offers further proof of the ancient civilization’s presence—as Mark Cartwright notes for Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Minoans are most renowned for their labyrinthine palace complexes, which likely inspired the classic Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. According to legend, Queen Pasiphae of Crete gave birth to the Minotaur, a fierce half-man, half-bull hybrid, after falling for a bull sent to Earth by the Greek god Zeus. The Minotaur, doomed to an eternity spent wandering the halls of an underground labyrinth and killing anyone it encountered, was eventually defeated by the demigod Theseus, who relied on an enchanted ball of thread provided by the king’s daughter, Ariadne, to escape the maze.

Much of the Minoans’ history remains unclear, but Forbes’ Kilgrove reports that natural disasters, including the eruption of the Thera volcano, an earthquake and a tsunami, contributed to the group’s downfall, enabling enemies such as the Mycenaeans to easily invade. Analysis of the excavated Kentri tomb may offer further insights on the Minoan-Mycenaean rivalry, as well as the Cretan civilization’s eventual demise.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/...

Archaeologists in Peru uneагth Eight Colonial Era Skeletonѕ

Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed eight centuries-old mummies at a site in the country's capital, an important find that experts say could point a colonial-era cemetery.

Archaeologists on October 2022 were hard at work in Lima's Park of Legends on the coast of central Peru, carefully cleaning the ancient preserved corpses found under the site, including the remains of children.

Park official Lucenida Carrion said the latest find follows an earlier discovery of three mummies, one of which was holding a wooden cross, in early August 2022.

"This finding backs our hypothesis that this could be cemetery from the colonial period, at the time of conversion to Christianity or Catholicism," she said.

The mummies were found in unusual positions and with a mix of textiles that pointed to the influence of Spanish colonials, added field manager Manuel Moron.

Spain's bloody conquest of Peru's Inca empire began in 1532 and lasted four decades. Government officials said the site had been occupied by the Lima and Ychsma people before the Incas.

Other monuments discovered at the same site date back some 2,000 years.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/arc...

Kilkis, Greece: An ancient city with a wall of at least 4 meters was discovered

During an archaeological excavation, an ancient city was uncovered at the gates of the city of Kilkis, between the communities of Kampanis and Pedinos of the municipality of Kilkis. The hoe unearthed a wall at least four meters high, which surrounded a city with a dense urban fabric. The base of the wall, about 5.5 meters wide, consists of a stone base and the rest consists of bricks covered with tiles.

Today, if you leave the prefecture of Thessaloniki behind and drive towards Kilkis, in the south of the prefecture, just after Nea Santa, you will see a series of hills which, if you are not familiar with them, you might think are natural hills. However, several of them are hills with a trapezoidal top. In the language of archaeologists, they are called "banks" with settlement remains, formed from the overlapping layers of ancient settlements.

In 2018, archaeologist and head of the Antiquities Department of Kilkis, Dr. Georgia Stratouli, and archaeologist Dr. Nektarios Poulakakis, head of the Department of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Antiquities Department of Kilkis, visited a site that has been proclaimed since the 1980s and is protected by the Archaeology Law. During their tour there, they found, among other things, broken pieces of vases on the surface, which they "read" to make an initial estimate of their dating.

"It was in November 2018 when we first conducted a targeted surface survey on the prominent Kampanis Pedinos bank and we realized we were stepping on a wall," Georgia Stratoulis told the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency. "We immediately decided not only to use the possibilities of excavation investigation, but also to carry out a geophysical survey of the soil, i.e. a method of scanning the ground, with the help of qualified researchers and special machines," he added.

This was done in collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in particular with the Geophysical Research Laboratory headed by Professor Grigoris Tsokas, who proved the existence of a wall that surrounded an ancient city with a dense urban organization. "It is very important to find a fortified city from the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the interior of Central Macedonia, because we do not know many cities that have preserved their fortifications. From the synopsis and the lore registered from time to time in the Archaeological Museum of Kilkis, it is clear that it is an ancient city that dates back at least to the 4th century BC. Moreover, based on the geophysical surveys, we have the certainty that there are public spaces outside the wall and very close to it, which we intend to uncover in the next excavation periods", he stresses.

What came to light and what are the further plans

In the small and temporary excavations in 2021 and 2022, with only 130,000 euros and a single-digit number of craftsmen, the monumental central gate of the ancient city, on the south side of the wall, and about 60 meters of the southeastern section were uncovered. In addition, a square tower was uncovered about 30 meters east of the gate, while, as Ms. Stratouli estimates based on geophysical analysis, there will almost certainly be another to the west of the gate. "We have at least five or six towers that we recognise from the geophysical survey, with the possibility of another semicircular tower in the SE corner of the wall," he says.

In the near future, Ms. Stratouli and her team will submit applications for a more systematic excavation of the wall's perimeter, so that at least the southern and eastern sides of the wall will soon be visible. Indeed, these sides will be visible from the Thessaloniki-Kilkis provincial road that passes through the settlements of Mandres and Kampanis. "Apart from the excavations, we want to make the already exposed part of the wall visible. It could be partially restored by conventional means or with the use of modern technology. If we manage to deploy at least two excavation teams in 2023, we could complete the exposure of the entire southern wall and extend it to the eastern side in the next two years", said Ms. Stratoulis.

As Ms. Stratouli says, the desired goal is that the Ephorate of Antiquities, with the support of the Ministry of Antiquities, can gradually shape a new emblematic archaeological site that will contribute to the development of Kilkis and Central Macedonia.