History's greatest archaeological discoveries

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Chichén Itzá​

Chichén Itzá is one of the most visited archeological sites in Mexico, with the Temple of Kukulcán (El Castillo) dominating the center of the ancient city. Once lost to the jungle, the site was rediscovered in 1841 by American explorer John L. Stephens (1805–1852), a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization.

 

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Skara Brae​

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland, was discovered in the winter of 1850 after being exposed by a fierce storm. One of the most perfectly preserved Stone Age villages in Europe, Skara Brae was inhabited from about 3200 to 2200 BCE.

 

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The Acropolis of Athens​

The Acropolis of Athens is the most striking and complete ancient Greek monumental complex still existing in our times. Built during the second half of the 5th century BCE, the citadel is crowned by the magnificent Parthenon. Researchers began restoring and preserving the site around the turn of the 20th century.

 

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Tikal​

The ruins of Tikal, an ancient pre-Columbian Maya city found deep in the rain forests of what today is Guatemala, were only excavated in 1956, by a team of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

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Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum​

Discovered accidently in 1902 by a construction team cutting cisterns for a new housing development, Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum in Paola, Malta, is a Neolithic subterranean structure dating to the Saflieni phase (3300– 3000 BCE) in Maltese prehistory.

 

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Angkor Wat​

The enormous 12th-century Buddhist temple complex located in northern Cambodia known as Angkor Wat was rediscovered in the 1840s by the French explorer Henri Mouhot (1826–1861).

 

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Homo luzonensis​

In 2019, the unearthing of a previously unknown species of human that lived on an island in today's Philippines some 50,000 years ago effectively meant the human family tree acquired a new branch. The species, dubbed Homo luzonensis after the island of Luzon, where it was found, is not a direct ancestor of modern-day humans, but rather a distant ancient relative. This picture shows the fossils and teeth of the early ancestor.

 

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Serra da Capivara National Park​

Established in 1979, Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil bears exceptional testimony to one of the oldest populations to inhabit South America. Scattered throughout the rock shelters that stud the park are numerous cave paintings, some of which date back 25,000 years. In fact, the Serra da Capivara area has the largest and oldest concentration of prehistoric sites in the Americas.

 

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Akrotiri​

Situated on the Greek island of Santorini, the Minoan Bronze Age Akrotiri archaeological site is one of the most important of its kind in the Aegean. Destroyed in the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BCE and buried under ash, the site was rediscovered in the mid-1960s and excavated since 1967.