Flipboard 2025 Archaeology And Discoveries

Archaeologists in Bulgaria unearthed a significant historical treasure hidden in the sewer system below an ancient city—but its discovery is not what’s making history.

History is full of unsolved mysteries, but sometimes, new technology leads historians to answers. Here are some historical mysteries that we’ve recently figured out.

Humans share almost every part of our anatomy with the rest of the animal kingdom—bones, muscles, organs, reflexes, even facial expressions. But there’s one tiny feature sitting right on our faces that only we have. And the strangest part? Evolution still hasn’t given us a clear answer for why they exist.

Archaeologists in Turkey discovered an ancient sundial at the site of Aigai, an ancient Greek city in Aeolis.

Deep in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, beneath layers of desert sand, archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery in 2021. A limestone statue, standing just over 40 inches tall, emerged from its 4,300-year slumber to challenge everything experts thought they knew about Old Kingdom art.

Preventive excavations along a construction corridor in southern France revealed a Roman road segment that had remained sealed beneath layers of soil for nearly two millennia. Archaeologists uncovered the structure while assessing the land before modern development, a standard procedure in regions with long settlement histories.

Stonehenge always seemed mysterious enough on its own, but a discovery around the site added an unexpected layer. The ground reveals something huge, and the monument starts to look like only one piece of a much larger plan.

In the rolling hills of central Italy, about 43 miles northwest of Rome, a team of archaeologists led by Baylor University's Dr Davide Zori made a discovery that historians are calling one of the most significant Etruscan finds in decades. The region, long known for its layered ancient scenery, has produced countless artifacts, but rarely something preserved with such integrity. While investigating the ancient necropolis surrounding San Giuliano, the research team encountered something rare—a completely sealed Etruscan tomb that had remained untouched for 2,600 years. Its undisturbed state immediately signaled that the excavation could reveal information often lost to looting or earlier excavations that relied on outdated methods.

A stray goat led a young shepherd toward caves hiding manuscripts untouched for nearly two millennia. Scholars soon realized these fragile scraps shed light on lost history and traditions that could have been lost under the sand.

A sealed doorway in 1922 opened far more than a tomb. It revived a young ruler’s world and reshaped how ancient Egypt is understood. More than 100 years later, the life and death of Tutankhamun still raise questions.

You don’t need a marble palace to learn something new about the Roman Empire. Sometimes a construction project does the job. At Saint Romain-en-Gal, just outside Lyon, archaeologists uncovered a monumental mausoleum built by a wealthy Gallo-Roman family in the first century AD. Its plan echoed the celebrated Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome, and that parallel says a lot about how local elites displayed influence. Curious about how one burial structure alters long-held assumptions about power and identity in Roman Gaul? Then stick around, this discovery is worth your time.

It’s wild how a quiet hillside can suddenly rewrite everything we thought we knew. A buried Roman tomb just surfaced in Albania, and it’s packed with clues about belief and the kind of wealth nobody expected to find there.