Went to Gobekli Tepe the other year, the sheer mystical feeling there had me in awe, almost 10,000 BC, insane what humans were capable of even then it’s incomprehensible
Göbekli Tepe should be way higher than 20th. First ever known temple, first signs of religion, first known human settlement, first known monolith... 20th on the list? Cmon guys.
Sites like these fascinate me so much...I want to visit these places of awesome history some day
Some of these are very random…that said Göbekli Tepe definitely deserves to be in top 3 of discoveries
I think Gobekli Tepe is by far the most significant of the 20. While I have a deep appreciation for all archaeology, Gobekli Tepe challenges what we think we know about ancient humans. This site predates many ancient civilizations by 6-7000 years. The monoliths weighed tens of tons. It really doesn’t add up that hunter gatherers constructed this marvelous site. This challenges our knowledge and excites me!
Cave art is a very important part of History. It was humanity's first way of documenting events in history. If it wasn't for cave art then Jon Snow may have never convinced Daenerys to help them fight the Night King and we wouldn't even be here.
People never talk about Herculaneum, the town up the coast from Pompeii. They found the most amazingly preserved artifacts and humans. They found statues that I’ve always believed were white were actually colorfully painted. Beautifully painted furniture. They were able to analyze the sewers to determine local diets for both upper class and lower class people. Truly more astonishing than Pompeii, imo. If you’ve not heard of it, I’d highly recommend YouTubing a documentary! Edited for nitpicking. The point is it’s a cool discovery that a lot of people don’t know about. Like jfc touch some grass.
No. 1 is truly an amazing and fortunate find. To have the same text written in 3 different languages on a rock. Wow.
It's amazing that so many of these were (re)discovered in my lifetime. I remember each of the ones in my life were discovered/announced. I remember being fascinated by Dr. Leakey and Olduvai Gorge as an 11-year old in 1979. I had the great fortune to go on a month-long dig in 1987 in Southern California... much newer history but just as fascinating.
Thank-you for this video, WatchMojo. I have never heard of some if discoveries before like Mojenjo Daru.
I'd say Gobekli Tepe is one of, if not the most, important discoveries ever made. The site literally turned what we understood as "ancient history" on it's head.
Oh man I’ve seen the Madaba Map. It’s beautiful and detailed and it’s hard to believe that’s it’s thousands of years old. The mosaic tiles found throughout the Middle East are some of the most beautiful art work in the world that should be recognized more often by the world.
Fun fact: Troy's emplacement was common knoweldege at least up to the fifteenth century. It is mentioned in 1406 account of the trip of the Castilian ambassador Gonzalo Ruy Clavijo, who was sent in 1403 to establish an alliance between the king Enrique the Third of Castile with the emperor Timur. The ambassadors met Timur but the embassy finished with their host demise in 1405, so they simply returned to Spain. The chronicle describes in detail the trip from Southern Spain to Samarkand, all along the Mediterranean Sea up to the Black Sea and then by land from what is todaty Northern Turkey to Uzbekistan. The detailed description includes places like Gaeta, Rhodes, Constantinople, Trebisond, Tehran or Samarkand. Troy is explicitily cited when the expedition enters the Dardanelles strait (mentioned as the 'Romanian Mouths') and it said that is 'in the land of Turkey' (at the time the North Western bank of the strait was still Greek, except Gallipoli while the South Eastern bank was already Turkish). It is also described a 'Four Ways Cape' (which I could not have located but it may be modern Kumkale where 'there was a city and ancient castle where the Greeks established their base against Troy'). It is possible that the emplacement was forgotten to Western Europeans with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, while the Turks may have simply ignored it as Homer's writings were not part of their cultural heritage,
I would be cool if you also do one of this with all the archeological findings un the Americas, not just Asia and Europe. South America also have mummies, one of the oldest cities in the world.
I’m a huge history/genealogy/archaeology fan . I would have loved to dig with Mick Aston (RIP) or Phil Harding both from time team. Archaeology is brilliant m, just seeing and then holding history in your hands
Great list! Hope to visit/see one of these discoveries in person.
Wow, starting out with Göbekle Tepe at the bottom of the list? Dis gon be good!
For my 15th birthday I wanted to go see the emperor of the sun exhibit in Seattle Washington. They had 4 of the Terra Cotta soldiers there. I was amazed with all the artifacts on display
I'm a bit surprised none of the central and South American sites made it.
@WatchMojo