25 Most Amazing Ancient Artifacts Finds

Time travel hasn't been invented yet. Because of that, we can't find out about the lives of our ancestors by meeting them and asking them questions. We have to study the things they left behind instead. And that's what the field of archaeology is all about. Through studying artifacts from another time and place, we find out more about the way our ancestors lived their lives. Let's see what we can learn from this collection. You've probably heard of China's Terracotta Army. But that isn't the only fascinating collection of terracotta figures from the ancient world. In February 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of almost 100 clay figures in Turkey, figures that were crafted by the people of ancient Myra. The statues, which include representations of animals, men, women, and deities, are all approximately 2,000 years old. They're so well-preserved that some of them still feature their original colorful paint schemes and legible inscriptions. Myra, which is now known as Damra, was once the most important city in the strategically important Mediterranean region of Lycia. The archaeologists responsible for the discovery were actually hoping to find an old Hellenistic theater, so the terracotta collection came as something as a surprise. They still haven't found the theater, but they're happy to take this discovery as consolation for now. They're still trying to work out what the inscriptions on the statues mean, but the current theory is that they're the names of the people who made them. The invention of rope was a significant breakthrough in early human development. We think of it as a simple process now, but someone still had to come up with the concept and show others how to do it. We think that happened roughly 40,000 years ago in Germany. That's an assumption that's based on a rope-making tool that was found in Hohlafels Cave in the southwest of the country in 2016. The tool is made from mammoth ivory and contains four different sized holes, which would have allowed people to make ropes of four different thicknesses depending on their needs. Artifacts like this have been discovered before, but were misinterpreted as abstract works of art or primitive musical instruments. This find could have been misfiled the same way, but researchers have been able to demonstrate that rope could be made by feeding plant fibers through the holes and twisting them. Once our ancient ancestors had mastered this trick, they could turn their minds to bigger concepts, like binding wood together with rope to make boats and houses. It's not quite as significant as the invention of the wheel, but it's almost as important. Chess has been one of the world's most popular board games for centuries, but there's no single origin point for the game. It evolved from several popular ancient world board games, the most notable of which was probably Neffetal. This is an old Viking game that started in Scandinavia and then spread across Europe, with a name that translates into English as King's Table. Neffetal boards have been recovered from many Viking tombs, along with full sets of pieces, but sadly nobody's yet found a surviving copy of the rules. You'll find several interpretations of possible rules written by modern-day historians on the internet, but nobody can be sure which of them, if any, are correct. What we do know is that if Viking warriors loved it enough to have their boards buried with them along with their weapons and jewelry, the game must have had some kind of special significance. Perhaps it was more than a game to them. Maybe it had some kind of spiritual meaning. Frustratingly, we have no way of knowing, and perhaps we never will. You don't have to be a professional archaeologist to make an incredible discovery. All you need is a metal detector, some time on your hands, and a bit of luck. That's what led Reijo Hivonen to a remarkable discovery on the Finnish island of Podonsari in May 2016. There, he discovered a one-of-a-kind three-headed eagle pendant, dating back to the Iron Age. The archaeologists and historians who've had the opportunity to examine Reijo's discovery are mystified by it, but they think that the three heads might be intended to represent three different human souls. Double-headed eagles appear in the mythology of many ancient cultures, but three-headed eagles are less common and were totally unknown in Finland until this discovery. The ornate nature of the piece has led some experts to believe that it was intended as a tribute, and may have been left with the body of a deceased loved one to aid their passage into the afterlife. On the other hand, maybe there was just someone living on this island during the Iron Age who really liked eagles. That's the problem with trying to interpret ancient artifacts. It involves a lot of guesswork. Our next artifact is an ancient Aztec skull carving, and if you think it looks horrific, you should hear when it's blown. This is a fine example of a type of artifact known to archaeologists as an Aztec death whistle. Variants of the design are still used today on Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, but the original instruments were used in battle. Aztec warriors would blow into the whistles before they descended upon their enemies, making a noise like the dead had risen and returned to life to take on the living. You can think of it as an early example of psychological warfare. They might also have a connection to the grisly Aztec practice of human sacrifice. A sacrificial victim discovered several years ago inside a temple dedicated to Ehecatl, the Aztec wind god, was found still clutching an Aztec death whistle to his bony ribcage. That reflects an old Aztec belief that the dead, even dead enemies and sacrifice victims, deserve respect and assistance on their way to the afterlife. That being said, the fact they carved the whistles into the shape of skulls was almost certainly intended to create fear. Aside from being a fantastic piece of sculpture, this pendant mask is also a testimony to an ancient Benin king's dedication to his mother. It's known as the Queen Mother Pendant Mask, and it dates back to the Benin Kingdom of the 16th century in what's now Nigeria. The revered Benin king Esigi, considered to be the greatest African ruler of his century, wore the pendant as a breastplate during ceremonies. It's modeled on his mother, Aidia, who served at his side as his counselor. The pendant mask is made from a mixture of copper, iron, and ivory and is a testimony to the great wealth of the kingdom at this point in history. While the focus of the piece is Aidia's face, around the edges of it, we find tiny depictions of the Portuguese traders who brought the kingdom its wealth and double-headed fish, which presumably have a symbolic meaning that's lost on our modern eyes. We guess the king was a mummy's boy, although we sincerely doubt anybody ever told him that to his face. In 1938, archaeologist Luther Cressman discovered an ancient pair of sandals inside Fort Rock Cave, Oregon, USA. Then he found another. The more he looked, the more he found. By the time he was done, he'd collected more than 100 pairs of sandals, all of which have survived because they were buried under the ash of a volcanic eruption approximately 9,500 years ago. To this day, they're still considered the oldest pair of shoes in the world, and they weren't new when they were covered by the volcanic ash. Experts believe that the oldest of the sandals is close to 11,000. Despite their great age, they're not entirely dissimilar to the style of sandals that we see in the world today. They're made of closed twining with a flat sole and open toes to allow air to circulate. There's even a cord to wrap around the ankle and make sure they don't slip off. While we can't say for sure that the human habit of sandal wearing began with the Native American cavemen of 11,000 years ago, we're yet to see any evidence to the contrary. In Greece's Delphi Archaeological Museum, you'll find a stone artifact known as the Omphalos of Delphi. It was recovered from the archaeological site of Delphi where it used to stand in a position that was believed by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the world. According to Greek myth and legend, the marble monument is a representation of a stone that was thrown by Zeus to determine the position of the middle of the planet. Even the name Omphalos can be interpreted as the navel of the earth. Archaeologists can't agree whether this is the first Omphalos or a recreation. If it's the latter, it's a very ancient one. The second century writings of the Greek traveler Pausanias tell us that he saw the artifact standing in position at Delphi when he visited the city, and the object in the museum is believed to be the one he saw. Pausanias recalls seeing it covered by a woolen cloth mesh and covered in precious stones, with two gilded eagles affixed to the top. They haven't survived the passage of time, but the stone is still standing. There was a big win for the British Museum in 2008 when the institution received £350,000 of funding, allowing it to keep hold of a rare and unique astrolabe that was discovered during building work in Kent three years earlier. The artifact, which was made in the 14th century, is the ancient equivalent of a pocket calculator. It's one of only eight of its kind that are known to exist anywhere in the world. Aside from being able to tell the time, the astrolabe can measure height and depth and can even be used to map the stars. It's now known as the Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant and is on display within the museum. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, was known to be an expert on astrolabes, and so considering this one was found in Canterbury and was almost certainly made during the author's lifetime, who's to say it didn't once belong to him? It might look primitive, but this was among the most sophisticated calculation tools available to the human race prior to the invention of the computer. The so-called Stone Club Head of Messalem was found a long time ago, 1881 to be exact, and yet its meaning still isn't fully understood today. The curious artifact was found at the site of Tello, within the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Gursu. Upon the surface of the carved monument is an inscription that connects it with Messalem, the king of Kish, and proclaims him to be the builder of the temple of Ningirsu. It goes on to say that the king presented it as a gift for Entamina, who's recorded as being a prince of Lagash. That raises the possibility that it was a peace offering aimed at smoothing relations after a dispute between the city-states of Lagash and Uma, which probably caused a headache for the kingdom and its ruler at the time. Messalem sat on the throne during Sumer's early dynastic third period approximately 4,400 years ago, which dates the artifact to the same period. Notably, the sculpture includes a depiction of a mace, which was a brand new invention at that time and so was viewed as a symbol of power. The Pazrik rug is thought to oldest surviving rug or carpet in the world, and so is a testament to both the craftsmanship and sophistication of the ancient Pazrik nomads of Siberia. It might not look like it's in great condition now, but its scuffs, marks, and tears can be forgiven when you take into account the fact that it will soon be 2,600 years old. The floor covering was found within the burial mound of a Scythian prince by Sergei Rudenko, a Russian archaeologist, in 1949. Perhaps the most surprising thing about it is that both in composition and style, it's very similar to many traditional rugs that are still made today. Materials like this wouldn't normally survive thousands of years, but we got lucky with the Pazrik rug because the burial mound had been broken open long before Sergei found it, which exposed it to the freezing Mongolian cold and preserved everything inside it perfectly. While it may have been found in Siberia, experts can't say whether it was made there. The tomb was in the middle of what was once a busy trade route between China and Asia, so its origins could lay anywhere along that route. Hand grenades are enormously destructive weapons, and they've caused havoc on battlefields for over a thousand years. If you thought they were a relatively modern invention, you're wrong. It's probably fair to classify the infamous Greek fire that was used on the Byzantine Empire's enemies during the 7th century as a form of grenade, but there's no debate to be had about this 14th-century artifact. It looks and functions like a hand grenade, and so there's no other way to describe it. The object was found off the Israeli coast during 2016, where it's thought to have been in hiding since the days of the Crusades. It's made from clay, with a hole in the top for flammable liquid to be poured into. A fuse would then be affixed and lit, and then the assailant could throw the weapon at their enemies. While it wouldn't have exploded in every direction as a modern grenade would, it would spread burning liquid across every surface it touched. That would be a huge problem if it landed on a wooden ship, and so devices like this were probably responsible for a lot of 14th-century sinkings. When it's sunny outside, you might consider wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes from the brightness of our native star. We associate sunglasses with hot weather, but it's sometimes just as important to wear them when it's cold. When sunlight reflects off snow and ice, it can lead to snow blindness. That's why snow goggles are a vital tool in the arsenal of every Arctic explorer, and they're an older invention than you might imagine. This pair of Inuit snow goggles is currently among the collection of the Science Museum in London, England. They're made of rawhide and pine, with tiny slits in the rawhide that allow the wearer to see where they're going. They even have a handy wooden case for the owner to keep them in. They'd still be useful for protecting your vision in the snowiest reaches of North America today, which is remarkable when you consider the fact that they were made in 1801. Most modern sunglasses are fashion items, but when these were made, their inventors were more concerned about health and safety. Learning to express ourselves through art was an important stage in the development of human civilization and culture, and it started longer ago than most people probably imagine. An excellent example of what we're talking about is this female figurine carved from mammoth tusk ivory. It was found in Chechya, and it was created by an unknown craftsperson roughly 26,000 years ago. That makes it easily the oldest known work of art of its kind. Like the Inuit snow goggles, it's also now on display in London, England, albeit this time in the British Museum. Mammoth ivory appears to have been a popular material for ancient Europeans to use for arts and crafts. Some of the oldest musical instruments ever found in Europe were pulled out of Germany's River Danube recently. They were also made of mammoth ivory and are roughly 43,000 years old. It's thought that the figure is a relic of the Aurignacian culture, which first appeared at the start of the late Paleolithic era. Sadly, we don't know who or what the figure represents. Perhaps it's a self-portrait of the artist? Sticking with artifacts in the British Museum for a moment, here's the most famous ancient Roman sword of them all. It's known as the Sword of Tiberius, and it's a very impressive example of ancient Roman weaponry. The iron blade itself is a little worse for wear, but the tin and gilded bronze scabbard is still beautiful. The weapon was found in 1848 on the banks of the River Rhine in Germany, not far from Mainz. In the distant past, Mainz hosted a fortress that acted as a military command center for the entire German frontier under Roman command. Upon the sword's scabbard, we see a scene depicting Emperor Tiberius greeting his adopted son Germanicus, who was commander-in-chief of the Roman army at the fortress. That helps us to identify the sword as being around 2,000 years old, probably made during Tiberius's reign in the first century. While it almost certainly didn't belong to Germanicus himself, this was probably the personal sword of one of the most high-ranking officers in the region. Given the location of its discovery, it was probably lost in battle against a local Germanic tribe. Archaeologists are sometimes guilty of getting a little too excited when they find interesting artifacts, so we're usually a little wary when someone describes something as the find of the century. The experts who found this ancient Celtic shield in December 2019 used that description, but are they exaggerating? We'll let you decide. The shield was the standout find inside the tomb of a Celtic warrior that also contained a chariot, the skeletons of ponies buried standing upright, and many more weapons. The burial site, which is in Pucklington, East Yorkshire, England, is roughly 2,300 years old. While humans have been found buried with chariots in the UK before, this is the first and only example of such a burial that also includes horses or ponies. What makes the shield so unusual is its scalloped border design, which is totally unlike any other Iron Age shield ever found in Europe. Metal-faced shields with elaborate designs were previously thought to have been used exclusively in ceremonies rather than in battle, but the telltale signs of repair work carried out on this artifact suggests it saw battle more than once. The unusual design is either a reflection of the owner having a unique personality or perhaps the owner being someone of unique importance. These days, displaying your middle finger to someone is considered offensive, but that's not why Galileo's middle finger is on display at the Galileo Museum in Florence, Italy. Under normal circumstances, we'd refer to this artifact as a reliquary, but such objects usually contain body parts taken from a saint. It's perhaps ironic that the owner of the bony finger in this egg-shaped object belongs to a man who many of his peers thought of as a heretic. The circumstances of Galileo's finger ending up like this are a little shady. It's said that a man named Anton Francesco Gori snapped it off his hand in 1737. By that time, Galileo had been dead for almost a century. Other pieces of Galileo have subsequently turned up with private sellers and later found their way to the museum, including his thumb, index finger, and one of his teeth. There are two ways of interpreting Galileo's finger in this pose. You could say it's pointing to the heavens, which he spent his whole life watching, or perhaps he really is telling his critics in the church what he thinks of them after all. Like sculpture, poetry was also an important early form of expressionism. If you lived in the Mediterranean 2,700 years ago and spoke Greek, your favorite poet probably would have been Sappho of Lesbos. We know how highly regarded she was because there are so many contemporary records of her greatness. But sadly, very little of her work has survived to the present day. Most of it was long gone even by the Middle Ages, by which time only one complete poem was left, along with scraps and pieces of four more. But then in 2014, something amazing happened. Two more complete Sappho poems were found on a piece of papyrus from the 3rd century. They'd gone unnoticed for all this time because the papyrus had passed from private collector to private collector, none of whom were aware of the importance of the contents of the papyrus. The first of the poems tells the story of Larichos and Charaxos, Sappho's real-life brothers, whereas the second is a prayer to Aphrodite. Herodotus once described Charaxos as a seafaring trader, a detail seemingly confirmed in the poem. This is one of the most important literary discoveries of the 21st century so far. We've made a passing reference to ancient music, so let's look at the oldest surviving song in the world. Its discovery was extremely fortuitous. It was found by railway engineer Edward Purser in 1883, as he worked on the Smyrna-Aden-Ottoman Railway in Turkey. You might be wondering how a railway engineer can find a song. The explanation is that the song has been recorded in stone. This is the Cyclos Epitaph, and it's roughly 1,900 years old. Pieces of ancient musical notation have been found on even older cuneiform tablets, but this is the only ancient musical work recorded in completion from start to finish. The inscription on the surface of the stelae identifies it as a tombstone marking the grave of Cyclos, but also contains the lyrics of a song written by Cyclos, and the melody of the song in ancient Greek musical notation. It was written for the lyre and deals with the timeless theme of seizing the moment and taking opportunities while you're still young enough to do so. The song actually sounds quite mournful when it's played, but perhaps that was the style of the time. There's a modest farm on the Danish island of Zeeland that may once have been a royal settlement. The theory comes from the discovery of a late Iron Age and Viking Age jewelry on land belonging to the farm during an archaeological survey that took place in 2007. The jewelry alone wouldn't be enough to suggest a royal presence, but that same survey also identified the remains of 21 pit houses and 18 longhouses. Based on the evidence, it seems the site was developed in phases from the 7th century to the 11th. The value of the jewelry far exceeds anything you'd expect to find in an average Viking settlement. Many of the brooches and pendants are intricately carved and detailed, with fine examples of gilding. The classic poem Beowulf might also support the idea that there was once a royal seat here. It speaks of the presence of the Skilding clan, the first ruling Danish dynasty, in Lejre. Lejre is only six miles from the farm. Perhaps the author of Beowulf was slightly off with their geography, or perhaps Lejre was so large that this settlement was part of it. The Codex Propyraeus Rosanissus is an ancient Byzantine text held in very high regard by historians because it's one of the oldest known illustrated manuscripts of the New Testament. The text on the pages has faded over time, but the illustrations are still so clear that it's hard to believe that they're 1500 years old. In 2016, scientists discovered the secret of the long-lasting dyes used to make it, and it's a surprising one. The vivid purple color that the Codex is named for was made using a mixture of weeds and fermented urine. Ancient purple dyes, often associated with royalty, were usually made using sea snail shells. Perhaps that wasn't available when the author of the manuscript went about their work. They used orsine, a natural dye found in lichen, and processed it with fermented urine to create the shade. We don't even want to know how they came up with that idea! The same 2016 study that picked up the urine also proved that the color red was created using an elderberry-based dye that wasn't thought to have been created until much later. You should always wash your hands before and after touching such an ancient document. But now we know what went into making this one, there's all the more reason to. The ancient Minoans left plenty of artifacts behind for archaeologists to find. But despite that, we still understand their history very poorly. Even some of the most detailed and spectacular of their artifacts are confusing. Take the Hagia Triada sarcophagus, for example. Some experts believe it demonstrates a close cultural relationship between the Minoans and the Egyptians. Others think it contains encoded information about the original occupants of Crete. The sarcophagus was found in 1903 at the westernmost point of Crete and has been puzzling historians ever since. It was created 3,500 years ago and covered in paintings that are undeniably Egyptian in style. There's even a boat seemingly carrying a man to the afterlife, a specifically Egyptian belief. Did the Egyptians come this far across the sea during the 18th dynasty and meet the Minoans? Or could the first Minoans actually have emigrated from Egypt? We've always thought of the ancient Minoans and the ancient Egyptians as two different civilizations and cultures. But could they actually have been one and the same? If so, we've been getting a lot wrong about Mediterranean history for a very long time. When images of our next discovery first circulated on the internet in 2017, historians quickly wrote it off as a hoax. More recently, though, they've been coming around to the idea that it might be real. If we take it at face value, this is a cabinet of poisonous substances hidden away inside a book that was bound in the year 1600. Each of the tiny drawers in the cabinet is labeled, indicating that it once contained a deadly nightshade, valerian, thorn apple, castor oil plant, and several other poisons that had the potential to kill you if you consumed them. The one remaining green bottle inside the cabinet is labeled with a message written in Latin that translates as, it is inevitable that all men must one day die. That seems a little on the nose for this to have been an assassin's cabinet. But perhaps the assassin who owned it was something of an eccentric. Those who believe it to be a genuine artifact are keen to point out that it could just as easily be an apothecary. Poison and medicine weren't that far apart at the start of the 17th century. So small doses of poison might have been used as medication. When the Vindolanda tablets were found at the site of the Vindolanda Fort in the north of England in 1973, they were the oldest handwritten documents ever to be discovered in the UK. Their discovery taught us an important historical lesson, that the practice of soldiers on the front line of a war exchanging letters with their loved ones back home dates back at least 2,000 years, and perhaps even further. What makes these wooden leaf tablets so interesting is that rather than being written by stuffy ancient officials, they record the lives of everyday people. One of the letters is written by a soldier's wife, in which she confirms that she's done as asked and sent him new socks, sandals, and underwear. Another contains an invitation to a friend's birthday party that's to be held in the year 100. Before these tablets were discovered, we didn't even know that the Romans ever wrote on wood. We thought they exclusively used papyrus for communications. More than 700 letters have been recovered from the site of the old fort so far. New archaeological expeditions go there all the time, so there might even be more to find.