Category: Ancient

ARCHAEOLOGISTS continue to be baffled and amazed by the incredible discoveries made at Sutton Hoo, with one revealing to Express.co.uk the “weird beasts” they found etched into an artefact. The site, in Woodbridge, Suffolk, was at the centre of an incredible breakthrough in 1939 when an Anglo-Saxon burial was uncovered. Archaeologist Basil Brown found two…

An ancient lamassu was excavated after it was buried in Iraq, officials said. Mustafa Yahya and Alaa Thamer via Iraq’s General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage More than 2,700 years ago, Assyrian king Sargon II ordered the construction of his own city in what is now Iraq. Known as Dur Sharrukin, or modern day Khorsabad,…

During Sir Charles Leonard Woolley’s excavation of Ur from 1922 to 1934, any burial without a tomb chamber was given the name ‘death pit’ (known also as ‘grave pits’). Arguably the most impressive death pit excavated by Woolley and his team was PG 1237, which Woolley dubbed as ‘The Great Death Pit’, due to the…

A medieval sword found buried under a birch tree in Siberia may have belonged to Ivan the Terrible, archaeologists have claimed. The rare 12th century blade, discovered in 1975 and nicknamed Siberia’s Excalibur, was found three kilometres from where the lieutenant of a Cossack leader favoured by the tsar is thought to have died. Until…

A stunning 3,600-year-old Nebra Sky Disc that is widely believed to be the world’s oldest map of the stars is to go on display at the British Museum. The 12-inch bronze disc sports a blue–green patina with inlaid gold symbols thought to represent the moon, sun, solstices and stars including the Pleiades cluster. It was unearthed…

Archaeologists have stumbled upon an extremely rare Bronze Age sword at an ancient burial site in Germany. The weapon, believed to be 3,000 years old, was dug up in the small town of Nordlingen last week. Experts were shocked it was so well preserved that it actually shined, despite laying in a grave of three…

Four remarkably preserved Roman swords “in almost mint condition” — with their wooden and leather hilts and steel blades still intact after 1,900 years — have been discovered inside a remote cave near the Dead Sea. The trove of ancient artifacts – four swords and the head of a javelin known as a “pilum” —…

A ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ gold necklace, estimated to be 1,300 years old, has been discovered in a grave in Harpole, Northamptonshire. While the grave also contained other treasures, the necklace is said to be the richest of its kind ever uncovered, bearing Roman coins, garnets and semi-precious stones. The necklace, which was found during a dig in…

Inside this imposing and elaborate gilded canopic shrine was the alabaster сһeѕt that contained the four canopic miniature coffins. At each side of this shrine stands an elegant statue of one of the four female divinities in сһагɡe of protecting the deceased king, their faces turned ѕɩіɡһtɩу to one side and their arms ѕtгetсһed oᴜt…