A newly discovered 200-year-old shipwreck was found 200 miles off the Gulf Coast in more than 4,000 feet of water by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The wooden hull of the ship has nearly disintegrated, but a greenish copper shell that once protected the ship's wood remains behind.Not many details are available at the moment, but just imagine the story behind this incredible find!
 |
| Image: Mihai Barbu, Reuters via National Geographic |
Most of the 2,000-year-old accessories tip the scales at about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) each, more than some laptops—a heft that materials scientist Paul Craddock found "surprising."
"Yes," Craddock concluded, "they did have a lot of gold."
"They" are the Dacian people, mysterious contemporaries of the ancient Romans. Ruling Transylvania centuries before Bram Stoker dreamed up Dracula, the Dacians left behind no writings but, the bracelets suggest, were apparently flush with treasure—as historians have long suspected, given the mineral wealth of the region's mountains and rivers.
Previous artifact discoveries had shown people reaching Cyprus, a few other Greek islands and possibly Sardinia no earlier than 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.The oldest established early marine travel anywhere was the sea-crossing migration of anatomically modern Homo sapiens to Australia, beginning about 60,000 years ago. There is also a suggestive trickle of evidence, notably the skeletons and artifacts on the Indonesian island of Flores, of more ancient hominids making their way by water to new habitats.Even more intriguing, the archaeologists who found the tools on Crete noted that the style of the hand axes suggested that they could be up to 700,000 years old. That may be a stretch, they conceded, but the tools resemble artifacts from the stone technology known as Acheulean, which originated with prehuman populations in Africa.More than 2,000 artifacts were recovered from the site, so this appears to be a mega find re-writing the history books. And in what qualifies as best sci-fi inspiring quote from the article:
“We were flummoxed,” Dr. Runnels said in an interview. “These things were just not supposed to be there.”Indeed! But still amazingly cool that these things not only existed, but in huge numbers. Now wouldn't it be cool if they discovered Atlantis and Lemuria! ;)
National Geographic has listed their Top 10 Archeology Finds for the past year, which includes some really great discoveries. My personal favorites:
Who wouldn't want to get their hands on some genuine pirate booty? (Okay, let me rephrase). Who wouldn't want to get their hands on a real-life pirate chest? (Oh, nevermind!) Read the article you scallywags:Some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate. ""We feel pretty comfortable that that's what this is," said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology....and...
Navigational instruments were favorite targets of looting pirates, because the tools could easily be sold or traded, said archaeologist David Moore of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, who is working on the wreck site.
These WWII era submarines discovered off the coast of Hawaii were at the peak of naval stealth technology for the age and even carried folding-wing planes for sneak attacks. Maybe they should be called Ninja Subs? From the article:Specifically designed for a stealth attack on the U.S. East Coast--perhaps targeting Washington D.C., and New York City--the "samurai subs" were fast, far-ranging, and in some cases carried folding-wing aircraft, according to Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, speaking in the new National Geographic documentary Hunt for the Samurai Subs.
Cue the sci-fi music, this one is just plain eerie. Archeologists found this site spanning nearly 500 acres when they examined aerial photos of crop circles. What they found were the remains of an undiscovered 6,000 year-old temple complex complete with tombs and burial mounds. From the article:During the late Stone Age, it's believed, people in the region left their dead in the open to be picked clean by birds and other animals.
Skulls and other bones of people who were for some reason deemed significant were later placed inside the burial mounds, Wickstead explained.
"These are bone houses, in a way," she said. "Instead of whole bodies, [the tombs contain] parts of ancestors."
This one is among my favorites because there are so many unanswered questions. Were the crop circles just coincidence? Or do they exist to draw attention to the site? Be sure to check out both pages of this article on Nat Geo's site.
Read the complete list--it's chock full of fodder for pulp adventure, including the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure every discovered (pictured up top). Wait, let's try that again. I also take no small pride in that I covered one of the discoveries about the "Vampire crypt" on this blog, back in August. Score!
So there's like, 10 new ideas for you--now go have fun!
All photos: National Geographic
...and...A few years back, when I was working as part of an archaeological mission in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, I unearthed a slab of white limestone covered in ancient paint smears. More of that later. First, however, I should tell you about the 3,000 year-old gold jewelry.
I found the jewelry in a tomb known as KV56 (all burials in the Valley of the Kings are designated with a KV number, the most famous being KV62 -- Tutankhamun).
Among other objects, we pulled out a series of lotus-shaped gold necklace pendants, a miniature beaten-gold head of the goddess Hathor and a rectangular gold pectoral (chest-plate) link stamped with the cartouche, or royal name, of the pharaoh Seti ll (Davis had found 13 similar links which can now be viewed in the Cairo Museum). Exquisitely worked and perfectly preserved, these objects were the first, and to date only items of jewelry to have been found in the Valley since Howard Carter unearthed Tutankhamun in 1922.Read more...
