In addition to archaeological techniques and tools that have been applied for many years, modern technological advances have contributed significantly to scientists discovering remarkable archaeological evidence. Ground sensor technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are both expected to contribute to important discoveries in 2024.
Hundreds of drawings on the Nazca plateau
The drawings on the Nazca plateau (Peru) were discovered and became a topic of discussion for many years. It took scientists nearly a century to discover 430 drawings. This year, with AI technology, the research team from Yamagata University (Japan) only took 6 months to map the drawings and identify 300 more mysterious shapes on the Nazca plateau.
The drawings on the Nazca plateau, Peru were discovered this year thanks to AI support
The drawings are believed to have been created by people from a pre-Inca civilization 2,000 years ago, with people living in the Nazca region of southern Peru from 200 BC to 700 AD. The drawings were first discovered. discovered in 1927 and recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, according to AFP. What prompted the ancients to create these drawings remains a mystery. Some scientists believe they have astrological and religious significance.
Lost City in the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest may look like a rich place, but growing food in the region is difficult. Therefore, until now archaeologists have never found traces of an ancient city in the Amazon.
Everything changed when in 2024, archaeologists discovered the oldest settlements in the Amazon. Using LIDAR – a sensor technology that can see through trees, scientists have discovered more than 6,000 interconnected grounds in the Amazon forest in the Ecuadorian region, dating back 2,000 years as a marker. The area shows the works that were built here. These vestiges are similar to architecture built in the Mayan civilization in Mexico and Guatemala.
Pompeii DNA sequencing
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and its people. In the 1800s, scientists discovered a number of remains lying next to each other at Pompeii, raising the question that these people belonged to the same family and were related. However, the first DNA at Pompeii was sequenced, mentioned in research published in November 2024 in the journal Cellindicating that there were two sets of remains lying next to each other of a man and an infant and that the two people were not related. The other two sets of remains of two women who died while embracing each other are also unrelated.
Plaster remains of Pompeii people “petrified” by the heat from volcanic ash in 79 AD are kept in Italy
PHOTO: POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
Ancient cave painting
This year, archaeologists discovered cave paintings on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia dating back at least 51,200 years, making them the oldest cave carvings ever discovered. The painting depicts people hunting animals that look like pigs. Previously, the oldest cave carving discovered was also in Indonesia, depicting a pig and believed to be about 5,000 years old.
Cave paintings on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia are believed to be 51,000 years old
3,500 year old cheese
Scientists discovered the world’s oldest cheese, dating back 3,500 years, buried in the Xinjiang autonomous region (China). According to the page Live ScienceIn September, the team found goat DNA and fermentation bacteria from Bronze Age specimens scattered around the neck of a mummy in a coffin in the Xiaohe cemetery in the Tarim basin, Xinjiang. The ancient cheese discovered after DNA analysis is kefir cheese, made from goat’s milk. Kefir is said to have helped the ancients solve the problem of lactose deficiency and make the most of what raised goat herds had to offer.
Mummies at a cemetery in Xinjiang are said to contain cheese dating back more than 3,500 years
Bronze Age shipwreck far from shore
In June 2024, a probe robot discovered the Canaanite shipwreck, which sank more than 3,300 years ago, located at a depth of 2 km about 90 km off the coast of Israel. What’s special is that the shipwreck is located far from the coast, while shipwrecks dating back to the Bronze Age were often found near the sea, for the reason that shipbuilding techniques at that time could not create deep-sea ships. . This discovery raises the hypothesis that some Bronze Age mariners chose a more adventurous and adventurous route, relying on the stars to go to places far from shore. Israeli officials said this is the first and oldest ship discovered in the deep sea of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient wine jars located at the Canaanite shipwreck site off the coast of Israel
PHOTO: ISRAEL ANTIQUES AUTHORITY
Wreck of a World War 2 ship
In August, maritime organizations and agencies coordinated to search and discover the wreck of the US destroyer USS Stewart off the coast of California (USA). This ship was captured by Japanese forces in Indonesia in 1942 and then returned to the US when World War 2 ended. The ship was decommissioned and used by the US Navy as a target for aircraft attacks and sunk in 1946. The wreck lay on the seabed off the coast of California for 78 years.
In addition, a US Navy submarine USS Harder that sank in the East Sea in 1944 was also discovered in May off the coast of Luzon Island, Philippines.
The wreck of the destroyer USS Stewart was discovered in 2024
The time when humans met Neanderthals
Almost everyone in the world today carries a small portion of Neanderthal DNA – closely related to humans. That’s because the first humans to leave Africa may have met Neanderthals in the Middle East and had children with them before migrating around the world.
According to research published in the journal NatureIn December 2024, DNA sequencing from the remains of people who lived in Europe about 45,000 years ago showed that they had links to Neanderthals several thousand years earlier. This means humans may have met Neanderthals about 49,000 – 45,000 years ago.
