Thread by @JamesLucasIT

Thread of surreal archeological discoveries 🧵

1. Roman mosaic found under Italian vineyard

2. This Roman mosaic discovered in Antakya, Turkey, was so well-made that it maintained the wave effect of an earthquake without breaking the pattern.

3. In 2011, a worker at a Canadian mine discovered an almost perfectly preserved 110-million-year-old nodosaur.

Scientists consider this the best-preserved dinosaur ever found, with its skin, armor, and internal organs remarkably intact.

4. A stunning 2000 year old Roman Mosaic on the bank of the river Euphrates, Turkey

5. In 2022, archaeologists working on a site in Southwark Street uncovered the largest area of Roman mosaic discovered in London in half a century.

6. The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered in a 2,000-year-old shipwreck in 1901, is known as history's first analogue computer.

It predicted astronomical positions and eclipses, puzzling researchers about its origin and the millennium-long disappearance of the technology.

7. The Swedish warship Vasa sank in 1628 less than a mile into its maiden voyage and was recovered from the sea floor after 333 years almost completely intact.

It is now housed at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm and is considered the world's best-preserved 17th-century ship.

8. The world’s oldest wine bottle

The Speyer wine bottle, dating back to the 4th century AD, is considered the world's oldest unopened bottle of wine. It was found in 1867 when archaeologists discovered a Roman tomb near Speyer, Germany.

9. In 2021, archaeologists unearthed the statue head of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, during excavations in the ancient city of Aizanoi, Turkey.

10. This 2,400 year-old skeleton mosaic discovered in Turkey says: “Be cheerful, enjoy your life”

11. In 2020, archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, made the extraordinary find of a frescoed hot food and drinks shop, offering the ancient equivalent of street food.

12. This is the oldest known leather shoe in the world, dating back 5,500 years. It was discovered in 2008 in the well-preserved Areni-1 cave in Armenia.

13. In 2022, archaeologists unearthed an extraordinary collection of Roman mosaics in the city streets of Stari Grad on Hvar Island, Croatia.

14. Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Göbekli Tepe has revolutionized archaeologists' understanding of early civilization.

Discovered in Turkey in 1963, it features massive stone pillars that are among the world's oldest known megaliths.

Under 5% of the site is excavated.

15. These loaves of bread from the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were carbonized by volcanic pyroclastic flows from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

16. A 2000-year-old Roman blue glass bowl was unearthed in immaculate condition at an archaeological dig in Nijmegen in 2021.

17. In 2008, archaeologists discovered a 2000-year-old Thracian chariot with horse skeletons in Bulgaria.

18. An astonishing 3,000-year-old bronze sword discovered in the southern Bavarian town of Nördlingen in Germany.

It's so well-preserved that it “almost still shines”.

19. A "Beware of Dog" sign from 2,000 years ago. This mosaic was found at the entrance to the house of a Roman poet in Pompeii, Italy.

The Latin phrase "Cave Canem" means beware of the dog.

20. The theater and temple complex of San Nicola was rediscovered by chance in 2000 by a paraglider in Pietravairano, Italy.

Dating back to the 4th century BC, it features both a theater and a temple situated on a hill 520 meters above sea level.

21. An unbroken Roman glass bottle of olive oil from Pompeii, still sealed with its cork stopper.

22. The excavation of the Ancient Greek Stadium of Magnesia on the Maeander, located in modern day Turkey.

23. One of history's greatest archaeological discoveries took place in 1972, when the Riace Bronzes (c. 450 BC) were unearthed in Calabria, Italy.

24. The unbroken seal on Tutankhamun’s tomb, 1922

The discovery of the intact necropolis seal on the third of four great gilded shrines in the burial chamber confirmed that the King's body remained undisturbed, despite the tomb having looted multiple times in antiquity.

25. A pair of 2,000 year-old Roman children's shoes found in the ruins of Palmyra.

26. This is a stele from the lost city of Thonis-Heracleion, which underwent a series of natural catastrophes and eventually sank into the Mediterranean Sea.

Most historians believed that Thonis and Heracleion were two separate cities and even doubted their existence, until the legendary city was discovered in 2000 by Franck Goddio and his team of underwater archaeologists.

A stele of the Decree of Nectanebo I was found at the temple of Heracleion, containing an order from Nectanebo I stating that it should be placed in the city of Thonis. This discovery proves that Thonis and Heracleion were indeed one and the same.

27. This terracotta warrior is among the few found almost entirely intact. Check out the intricate sole detail on his shoe.

Discovered in 1974, the Terracotta Army consists of 8,000 life-size clay warriors buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE to protect him in the afterlife.

28. A 900-year-old Crusader sword found off Israel's northern coast in October 2021.

It likely belonged to a Crusader knight who was sailing to the Holy Land around 1100 AD.

29. This is a 3200-year old attendance sheet found in Deir el-Medina, Egypt.

Reasons for workers being absent include "brewing beer", "embalming brother", "drinking with Khonsu" and "bitten by a scorpion".

30. In 2008, archeologists uncovered the colossal marble foot of a statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180 A.D.) in Sagalassos, Turkey.

The legendary emperor, often likened to Plato's ideal of a "philosopher king," wore army boots decorated with lion skins.

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