Do you think that great archaeological discoveries are done only by scientists? No, it’s not that. Sometimes the most ordinary person can find such things that scientist also gets amazed of. And those people who make such discoveries forever remain in history. So let’s have a look at some of the incredible discoveries done by the most ordinary people.
Childeric’s Treasures
On May 27, 1653, the excavator Adrienne Quinkin worked in the courtyard of the Church of St. Brice in the French (now Belgian) Tournai. Among the lumps of earth, which he was throwing out of the hole with a shovel.The excavator saw gold coins. As it turned out, Quincinus found the grave of Childenik I, the leader of the Franks, who, after his death in 481 AD, was buried in his capital in Tournai. A pleasant addition to the find was a mountain of gold that was in the tomb of the king.
Lyceum
Aristotle created an educational institution, where he himself taught to students, in 335 BC, and called it a lyceum. For a long time, modern archaeologists could not find the remains of this university of antiquity. The ruins of the famous Aristotelian Lyceum were found in 1996 by simple builders who were preparing the site for the construction of the Museum of Modern Art.
Chinese mummy
In 2011, in Taizhou, road workers widening a road stumbled upon a large solid object at a depth of about two meters. Realizing that they were in front of a certain historical artifact, the workers called in archaeologists. As it turned out, under the road was a tomb with a mummy, which today is considered the most intact of all found in China.
Venus de Milo
One of the most famous sculptures in the world was buried for several centuries on the Greek island of Milos. And it was found by a simple peasant who was looking underground for ancient marble slabs for construction. Only later did it fall into the hands of archaeologists, and then into the museum.
Chinese imperial vase
In Britain, a brother and sister, who were sorting things out in their parents’ house, found an unusual half-meter vase and took it to an appraiser. He was amazed to inform them that the vase dates back to the 18th century and once belonged to the Qianlong imperial dynasty that ruled in China at that time. After being put up for auction, after a heated battle of bidders, the rarity was sold for $ 88 million.
Ancient Roman villa
A certain Italian, out of curiosity looking at his city on Google Earth maps, noticed the remains of an oval-shaped structure, where the interweaving of shadows from the protrusions on the ground resembled buildings. He posted the screenshot on his blog and called the local archaeologists. Those, having begun excavations at the indicated place, discovered an ancient Roman villa underground.
Underground city
Builders, who were demolishing old houses in a small town in the Turkish province of Neveshir, found an ancient city under them, at a depth of about one hundred meters. Scientists still do not know its exact area – according to preliminary calculations, it is equal to half a square kilometer.
Hoxno treasure
One of the most valuable exhibits of the British Museum is the Hoxno Treasure – a collection of ancient coins and household items. It was discovered by Eric Lowell, a resident of the village of Hoxney, Suffolk, in 1992. Having lost the hammer, Eric began to search for it with a metal detector, but instead he found 14,865 silver coins, more than 200 pieces of silver dishes and many gold jewelry. The treasure was dated 407 AD. Its approximate cost is 1.75 million pounds.
An early printed copy of the Declaration of Independence
In 1989, an unremarkable collector bought a painting for $ 4 at a flea market, solely because he liked the frame. When he took the picture out of the frame, he found an old document between it and the canvas. It turned out to be one of the first prints of the US Declaration of Independence.
Messerschmitt Luftwaffe BF-019
A resident of Denmark named Klaus decided to help his son do his homework on the history of his region. In the process of research, they discovered a wartime BF-109 on their Messerschmitt farm. According to his grandfather, who managed to forget the history of the war years, the plane crashed on the farm in the last year of the war.
Also, read Can We Dig A Pit To Center Of The Earth, Where It Was dug, Read Its Secrets
