Archeological Finds: Ancient Civilizations / Artifacts / Discoveries: recent, random, new and update

So, with this being one of my favorite topics to date, I thought I would round up some of the latest archological and ancient civilization discoveries for 2010 / 2011. I know some have already been posted before, but some new information mayt have been added since. As always some of the items below come from non main stream sources, so read with an open mind.

As days go by, we are slowly discovering, or should I say accepting, the fact that our history is not 100% concrete. Recent discoveries of buildings dating back to 10,000+ BC has challenged main stream science and their thought process, and slowly but surely we are taking a second look, or closer, look at some of these sites.

Every time we find an answer about our past, we seem to stumble upon more and more questions. We seem to be a species with amnesia, and that is supported by the number of civilizations that we have recently discovered as well as the number of cities being found underneath the worlds oceans.Their is evidence present of a global civilization going back into antiquity, from the Pyramids to celestial alignment to recent discoveries of ancient civilization interaction.

For the most part I have stuck to archeological finds that are currently undergoing exploration. I've thrown in a few oddballs here and there to keep this intresting so people can get through the wall of text. Some of the items have been posted before and are presented here with some information updates. At the bottom of the post are some sources that I used to pull the info here. Feel free to puruse those lists as they contain a lot more information.

Enjoy - Feedback / Critique welcome

March 03, 2011
12,000-Year-Old Fishing Tackle Found In Southern California
Found: fine American fishing tackle, 12 millennia old
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2dd44887b216.jpg[/atsimg]

A treasure trove of finely crafted fishing spearheads from 12,000 years ago has been discovered on the Channel Islands of California. They are a clue to the lifestyles of some of the earliest American settlers, and suggest that two separate cultures lived in North America at the time: one, the well-known Clovis culture, lived inland and feasted on mammoths, mastodons and other mammals; the other was a coastal culture with a taste for seafood.

2011 -
Was Lost City of Atlantis Found in Spanish Marsh?
Finding Atlantis
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0894016c367b.jpg[/atsimg]

Could the fabled lost city of Atlantis have been located? Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar and underwater technology, experts are now surveying marshlands in Spain to look for proof of the ancient city. If the team can match geological formations to Plato's descriptions and date artifacts back to the time of Atlantis, we may be closer to solving one of the world's greatest mysteries.

Read more: channel.nationalgeographic.com...

2010 -
Archaeology: 8000 year-old Sun temple found in Bulgaria
8,000 year old sun temple discovered
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/13430107cc26.jpg[/atsimg]

Sofia Echo

The oldest temple of the Sun has been discovered in northwest Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa, aged at more then 8000 years, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 15 2010.
The Bulgarian 'Stonehenge' is hence about 3000 years older than its illustrious English counterpart. But unlike its more renowned English cousin, the Bulgarian sun temple was not on the surface, rather it was dug out from under tons of earth and is shaped in the form of a horse shoe, the report said.

2002 -
Lost city 'could rewrite history'
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/83a8b6103d8e.jpg[/atsimg]

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history.

Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old.

The vast city - which is five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

2008 -
Mystery Pyramid Built by Newfound Ancient Culture?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/278b9a10b2c8.jpg[/atsimg]

Several stone sculptures recently found in central Mexico point to a previously unknown culture that likely built a mysterious pyramid in the region, archaeologists say.

Archaeologists first found the objects about 15 years ago in the valley of Tulancingo, a major canyon that drops off into Mexico's Gulf Coast. (See Mexico map.) Most of the 41 artifacts "do not fit into any of the known cultures of the Valley of Tulancingo, or the highlands of central Mexico," said Carlos Hernández, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History in the central state of Hidalgo.

2008 -
Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c68a9a2ef4c1.jpg[/atsimg]

A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves—some underwater—have been uncovered on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists announced last week.

The discovery has experts wondering whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the underground complex—or vice versa.

2010 -
Ancient Amazon Civilization Discovered - Previously unknown civilization found in Brazil.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e510fa6f96a0.jpg[/atsimg]

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an unknown, ancient civilization in the Amazon.

Roads and buildings were spotted from the air and confirmed through satellite imagery after deforestation uncovered the society. The 150-mile area is in a region of Brazil on the border with Bolivia, according to Sphere.com .

Clay tablet holds clue to asteroid mystery
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1fb692951084.jpg[/atsimg]

British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago.

Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.

Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth – which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.

Easter Island's Rongorongo Script - The other mystery
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e185aa5ec9bf.gif[/atsimg]

In 1864, the French lay missionary Eugène Eyraud -- the first known non-Polynesian resident of Earth's most isolated inhabited island, Easter Island or Rapanui -- reported in a letter to his superior that he had seen there "in all the houses" hundreds of tablets and staffs incised with thousands of hieroglyphic figures [Figure 1]. Two years later, only a small handful of these incised artefacts were left. Most rongorongo, as the unique objects were subsequently called, had by then been burnt, hidden away in caves, or deftly cannibalized for boat planks, fishing lines, or honorific skeins of human hair. The few Rapanui survivors of recent slave raids and contagions evidently no longer feared the objects' erstwhile tapu or sacred prohibition.

Tarim mummies
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2053b372460d.png[/atsimg]

During an excavation beneath the Tarim Basin of western China, archeologists were pleasantly surprised to discover a little over 100 mummified corpses dating back over 2000 years ago. But Victor Mair, a college professor, was downright stupefied when he came skull-to-skull with some of the blonde-haired and long nosed Tarim mummies being displayed at a museum. So in 1993, Mair returned to collect DNA samples and the tests validated his hunch that the bodies were of European genetic stock. Ancient Chinese texts from the first millennium BC do mention groups of far-east dwelling caucasian people referred to as the Bai, Yeuzhi, and Tocharians. None, though, fully reveal how or why these people ended up there.

Japan researcher says has found an Asian Atlantis - possible update - Mu located?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6d47d6bccd8f.jpg[/atsimg]

Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura says he has identified the ruins of a city off the coast of Yonaguni Island on the southwestern tip of Japan.

He has worked for decades to prove the rocks found by scuba diving tourists in 1985 are from an ancient city, which he says may have sparked the fable of Mu — a Pacific equivalent of the tale of the lost city of Atlantis.

“Judging by the design and the disposition of the ruins, the city must have looked just like an ancient Roman city,” said Kimura, a professor at Ryukyu University and the chairman of the non-profit Marine Science and Culture Heritage Research Association.

Russia has discovered a 2500 year old advanced civilization.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f143849e0d34.jpg[/atsimg]

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization at the bottom of Lake Issyk Kul in the Kyrgyz mountains in Russia.

According to a report in RIA Novosti, the team consisted of Kyrgyz historians, led by Vladimir Ploskikh, vice president of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, and other Russian colleagues, like historian Svetlana Lukashova.

The expedition resulted in sensational finds, including the discovery of major settlements, presently buried underwater.

Was there an ancient "lost civilization" in Cuba?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2bf30fbc8a3f.jpg[/atsimg]

Today, the public’s perspective of Native American history is often based on the appearance of the New World when European colonists first occupied the lands of indigenous peoples. Mexico, Central America and Peru are viewed as the locations of the most advanced native civilizations. In the United States, the location of indigenous ethnic groups in 1776 has in the past been assumed to have been their location for the previous 1000 years. However, the facts uncovered by archaeologists in the late 20th century have radically changed our understanding of the Western Hemisphere’s ancient history.

Prior to around 1600 BC, the most advanced societies...............

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Was there an ancient "lost civilization" in Cuba? - National Architecture & Design | Examiner.com www.examiner.com...

Archaeologi sts Uncover Evidence of a Minoan Presence Among Ancient Canaanites
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ec57b6d7326b.jpg[/atsimg]

A recent and ongoing excavation at the remains of an expansive Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace in the western Galilee region of present-day Israel is opening a new window on the possible presence of ancient Minoans at an ancient Canaanite palace, revealing what may be the earliest known Western art found in the eastern Mediterranean.

Known as Tel Kabri (located near its namesake kibbutz not far from historic Acco and the resort town of Nahariya on the coast of Israel), the site features an early Middle Bronze Age (MB I) palace dated to the 19th century B.C.E., making it, along with ancient Aphek and possibly Megiddo, the earliest MB palace discovered in present-day Israel.

Britannia Superior: Why Roman roads may not be quite as Roman as we think
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/283671279b77.jpg[/atsimg]

The long-held belief that the Romans introduced "proper" roads to the UK has been thrown into doubt after the discovery of a thoroughfare engineered by iron age Britons.

Archaeologists working at a quarry in Shropshire have found a metalled and cambered road dated to the first century BC – around 100 years before the Roman invasion.

The discovery seems to show that the iron age Britons were better and more imaginative engineers than they are generally given credit for.

It may also give an insight into the relationship between the tribes that lived in the region, as the road was almost certainly created to take heavy traffic, suggesting a thriving trade route.

Archaeological research in upper Mustang has uncovered astonishing facts about a previously unknown Himalayan cave culture, said the Department of Archaeology (DOA).

KATHMANDU, Feb 26: Arduous archaeological research in upper Mustang has uncovered astonishing facts about a previously unknown Himalayan cave culture, said the Department of Archaeology (DOA).

The research involving highly skilled archaeologists and other experts who rummaged through remote cave complexes for five years has come up with the remains of an ancient cave people, their arts and manuscripts, providing a new look into ancient Himalayan civilization.

According to DAO, the researchers discovered the remains of 27 individuals buried in caves at 13,800 feet. Adult men, women, adolescents, even children, along with cattle, were deposited in a wooden structure and hidden inside a cliff-top communal grave for some 1,500 years. “The researchers believe the culture they have uncovered carried with it the origins of the sky burial practice of the Tibetan plateau,” DAO said in its report.

Some websites I came across while looking around the internet.
Archeologica.org[
ScienceCentral
MysteriesZone
Unexplained
Lascaux Caves
Science Daily

This was built supposedly by humans just one step AWAY from being "Stone age cavemen"

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/143a4dfe3be2.jpg[/atsimg]
Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old

[

reply to post by SLAYER69


I was trying to hit some of the topics that werent brought up, or were just a blurb on this site to keep it somewhat new. Yeah ive seen a bunch of stuff about that site. Some of the stones weigh in excess of 100 tons, which begs the question of how they were quarried and moved into place. I am buying less and less of the slave labor argument that pops up. If we dont have the technology today to life something like that, then we really should be opening our eyes to the past to find out what they knew that we forgot.

We are a planet with amnesia.

Although I have seen some of this, there were enough new [to me]. Thanks for putting all of these together. It will make it easier to reference in the future thank you.

Originally posted by hangedman13
Although I have seen some of this, there were enough new [to me]. Thanks for putting all of these together. It will make it easier to reference in the future thank you.

No problem.. I was doing my best to avoid overlaps. Some of the overlaps have updated information, like the Japanese underwater blocks.

Im still digging around for more info on some that I didnt post because of the sources.

A few quick comments:

Most of these new discoveries were found by archaeologists and other 'mainstream'.

The city in Cambay turned out to be a false report

The Japanese underwater ridge line isn't a city

The info on the new civilization in Cuba was badly written and has a number of flaws in it. The story was written by a journalist with little archaeological knowledge

But other than that a nice coverage of a few of the last decades new discoveries and additions to our view of the world by professional scientists. Probably the most important changes in the history of mankind in the last decade have been the finding of the Hobbit and Denisova plus genetic information of our having taken in Neanderthal genes.IMHO

reply to post by Hanslune


Thanks for the feedback. I made it a point in the opening shpeel to point out issues with some of the sources. I tried to locate scientific articles to back up, but that was not possible with all discoveries. I was trying to put some stuff up that has not been completely covered on here, or old topics that contained new info, like th Japanese item.

Thanks for the feedback.. This is one of my favorite topics so I will try to do a better job next time around.

Thanks!

Cheers dude, S&F

I dont think anyone who knows anything about archeaology could deny we dont have the whole story of our past.
Ive heard people argue that if the ancients were so advanced why did they only build in stone?
Maybe they did have skyscrapers and megamalls, if we stopped maintaining our buildings roads etc there would be practically no trace of us after only 150 years or so, In fact the stuff left behind by the romans would last longer than our modern marvels due to the cement they used being far superior to ours.

All thats left is the stone megaliths and hopefully after we find enough of them and get some more info we can start teaching our children a truer version of history.

To the OP top job once again and thanks,some stuff to read for the next few days

reply to post by Xcathdra


great compilation, thanks for putting it together!
it never ceases to amaze me how little we really know about our own history. it seems like these stories come out all the time casting doubt on the conventional wisdom, yet mainstream archaeology still views man as a straight line progression from bad and stupid to great and smart. they did all of the things that we do, sometimes even better than we can now.
i'm definitely going to keep my eye on the Brazilian civilization and the Spain "atlantis" find. though it annoys me that every "sunken city" found is supposed to be Atlantis. i fully believe in a true society inspiring the myths, but i think people are too quick to sensationalize what could be a really cool find, even if it isn't atlantis.
keep up the good work!

reply to post by IkNOwSTuff


awesome points! the best buy down the street isn't going to last as long as stonehenge after we stop maintaining it! i love how the skeptics deny the existence of the Baghdad Battery or the Pyramid Light Bulbs by saying "if they had this kind of technology, there'd be wires and computers laying around all over the place!" scavengers come and repurpose valuable things, and the rest is literally, as you said, swallowed up by the earth and its processes of erosion. if the only things that stood the test of time were megalithic structures which we could not duplicate using today's technology, imagine all of the stuff that crumbled into dust!

I just found this info this weekend. Have you heard anything more about it. It seems to be an amazing technological discovery that derived from a pigment compound nearly 2500 years old.

Here is a link.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Please take a look and tell me what you think.

This info is amazing. Great job keeping it alive. I love reading this stuff. S and f thank you for you work.

reply to post by Xcathdra


to Xcathdra: love your work!

thanks

another clue as to who we are,

another wake up call to those who think we are the first "real" civilised ones that have been here...

thanks again, that is a load of awesome work...

seeya

Originally posted by IkNOwSTuff

I dont think anyone who knows anything about archeaology could deny we dont have the whole story of our past.

Ive heard people argue that if the ancients were so advanced why did they only build in stone?
Maybe they did have skyscrapers and megamalls, if we stopped maintaining our buildings roads etc there would be practically no trace of us after only 150 years or so, In fact the stuff left behind by the romans would last longer than our modern marvels due to the cement they used being far superior to ours.

All thats left is the stone megaliths and hopefully after we find enough of them and get some more info we can start teaching our children a truer version of history.

To the OP top job once again and thanks,some stuff to read for the next few days

Howdy Iknowstuff

Yep no real archaeologists thinks we know everything. One of my first profs (Boggs and Solheim) demonstrated this by throwing a pencil against the wall of a 700 seat theatre. The tiny pencil mark it made on that vast wall they pointed out was the amount of material recovered on early man.

If you build stuff it disturbs the soil and that is retained, a great deal of material does survive, the rule of thumb is that 99.99% percent of stuff is lost but the tiny bit that remains or those special sites where nature works for us (Pompeii, etc) we recover masses of stuff. There would be massive traces after just 150 years unless in a very extreme environment. If you walk around most anywhere in the Middle East you can find pottery shards, tens of thousands of them - they are still there after many thousands of years and will last as long as rock.

This special is great if you can find the whole program. I believe it's on Netflix. I especially like the part about the Human footprint next to the dinosaur ones in Texas.

www.youtube.com...

embed code not working so copy paste

reply to post by Hanslune


Hey dude,

Cool, so your an actual Archeaologist!!!!
What are your personal beliefs on human history? do you think our history started 5000BC or do you think its much older?

Im only an armchair expert, I did study ancient history at Uni but I left after 1.5 years and didnt get into the science of it a great deal.

In my post I was reffering to above ground visible structures.

If there was a global catastrophe and we were put back into the stone age and it took 1000's of years to get back to somewhere like where we are today there would be bugger all left, just a few tantalising teasers that hinted at our level of advancement.

I have always believed the above statement but have never heard from or asked an expert, is the above true or not really?

Very interested to hear your opinion

Cheers

Originally posted by IkNOwSTuff
Ive heard people argue that if the ancients were so advanced why did they only build in stone?
Maybe they did have skyscrapers and megamalls, if we stopped maintaining our buildings roads etc there would be practically no trace of us after only 150 years or so

The ancients were advanced in techniques, but very primitive in material development. And if our civilization were to vanish right now, in 150 years our buildings would indeed still stand proud. There would be some broken glass and other damage as a result of neglect, but the structures would be quite intact. I wouldn't be surprised if they were still identifiable as built structures in tens of thousands of years in fact. Most people have no idea how resistant to seismic and storm activity modern construction is. Even if all the countries of the world started nuking each other into oblivion there would still be plenty of evidence left behind that any future society would know full well a very advanced culture had preceded them.

Originally posted by IkNOwSTuff
In fact the stuff left behind by the romans would last longer than our modern marvels due to the cement they used being far superior to ours.

I'm in the construction industry, and every time I hear someone on ATS say this it makes me wonder where they get their information. First of all, you're talking about "concrete", not "cement". Cement is the powdery ingredient that is mixed with water and aggregate to make concrete. Second, the Romans did not use reinforcing in their concrete which renders it very weak in tensile strength. There is absolutely no comparison to modern reinforced concrete, modern concrete is far stronger and more durable than that which the Romans placed. They did great things with concrete to be sure, and it's especially impressive considering their lack of technology. But again, it can't compare to modern concrete. If some of their unreinforced construction has lasted this long one can only imagine how long ours would last.

reply to post by SavedOne


Good info.. I guess the closest example we can use would be Chernobyl incident. Its been over 20 years since the town was shut down, and while things are degrading, buildings are still standing.

I remeber the series on the History channel called after man (least I think that was the name). It explored what would happen if man were to suddenly die off completely. How long the power would still work, water, etc etc etc. Almost all scenarios involved nature reclaiming the land where cities stood in a few thousand years. They stated if the planet was visited far after man had died off that they would still find structures (think mayan city buried in the amazon jungle setup).

As far as building material goes, our ancestors seemed to have been a little more intelligent based on the material availoable. Choosing a material that does not break down all that quickly is what is allowing us to find these older cities. 20 years later and Chernobyl is degrading, while we have structure made of stone lastine 10k years...

One of the things I have always found unusual is how these cities are found. Why abandon them? Like the Mayan cities. Its like they just packed up one night and slipped into the darkness, leaving everything behind. We also have to take into account how long those cities were abandonded. Its documented showin where one civilization evolves into the next because of war, enlightenment etc... Roots can be traced, like the US back to Europe, back to, back to back to.

I have seen some newer theories suggesting some of the Pacific coast civilizations have commonalities with Asian and Polynesian cultures. Even then we are still finding lost civilizations we knew nothing about..

Its weird to watch humanity plost a future while not knowing our past.

It will take centuries of work to obtain a full view of man's history and even that will be predicated on what little remains. We should be able to determine the broad flow and ebb of ours ancestors but certainly many details will be lost. At this time there has only been a through study of less than 1% of the earth and much less actual excavation.

I suspect we will find a number of small communities that grew up during the neolithic but were abandoned or destroyed. A lost civilization? Probably not - some years ago I did a thread here on that question - would we be able to detect an ancient civilization in the archaeological record the summary was:

The smaller it is the less chance we would find it

The older it is the less chance we would find it

If by chance they took a path of development that was hard to detect (no stone tools, destroying bodies, no permanent structure,etc. of course this would be really tought for them and even harder for Archaeologists to find them. We can detect nomadic tribal groups but their footprint is small. This 'maybe' group would be even harder

At the present there is no evidence (real evidence not the fringe stuff) for any large advanced civilization nor of any other intelligent being or species. That might change, it's possible but not probable

I'll give an example, lets say an alien probe entered our atmosphere 14,750,000 years ago, it then wandered the earth for a few centuries and finally broke down. Would we find it? Probably not

If a group of humans had the luck to have an Einstein, Edison or other genius or leader who drove the civilization up and they created a village then city and were wiped out by barbarians, disease, nature or religion, would we find it? Maybe but not yet!

This thread looks great but unfortunatly I don't have the time to read it right now . So a quick comment to bump and to bookmark.

ALS