Recent Archaeological Discoveries That Are Rewriting Human History

It’s just plain fascinating, isn’t it? History. We’re all curious to know more about where we came from, where our journey has taken us, and how we ended up here today.

Most of what we know about the past, especially the really ancient stuff, comes from what our ancestors left behind: structures, tools, documents, and books. But let’s be real, these rare remnants don’t always tell the whole story. Even with all the history books and scientific documents we have, new discoveries are constantly being made that challenge what we think we know about our own past.

Here are a few recent discoveries from around the world that are actively rewriting certain aspects of human history.

1. Challenging the Origins of Agriculture in South Asia

Way over in the Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran, researchers claim to have found the actual people who introduced agriculture to South Asia.

The old theory was that hunter-gatherers developed farming in the Middle East some 10,000 years ago and then spread these techniques across Europe, Asia, and Africa by mixing with those populations.

The new discovery in Iran, however, suggests that agriculture might have been discovered by diverse groups of people around the world, not just one region in the Middle East. Researchers found the human remains of people who supposedly started farming at the same time as the Middle Eastern hunter-gatherers. The DNA of one bone fragment belonged to a dark-skinned man whose diet included cereal, meaning he understood agriculture and crop cultivation.

Interestingly, these ancient Iranian farmers were very different from the people who brought agriculture to Europe. This makes scientists believe the two farming populations never mixed, but they might have known of and even learned from one another.

2. The Mystery of the Third Oldest Writing System

In eastern Georgia, at a site called Grakliani Hill, archaeologists uncovered something truly remarkable. Back in 2015, on two altars in a 7th-century BC temple, they found an unidentified script. They had no initial information on its age or content.

But recently, carbon dating concluded that the writing dates back 3,000 years, potentially making it the third-oldest piece of writing ever discovered! Even more puzzling, the script is bilingual, comprised of two unique writing systems, both of which are currently unknown to us.

This is a massive discovery because written language is intrinsically linked to the rise of civilisations. Researchers are now wondering if there is an entirely new, undiscovered civilisation waiting to be found. This new script has pushed Georgia’s previously oldest inscriptions down the list, essentially changing what we know about the history of writing systems globally.

3. Rewriting the Colonisation of the Americas

A find in Florida is poised to change the prevailing theory of how the Americas were first colonised.

In 2012, a team of archaeologists led by Mike Waters from Texas A&M began excavating a swampy site in Florida called Page-Ladson. After years of work, they unearthed a double-sided stone knife and five sharpened rocks. Just a few months ago, a published report stated the artefacts are over 14,000 years old.

This suggests people were living in Florida 1,000 years earlier than what has been widely accepted. This discovery supports a 1980s excavation in the same area that found a Mastodon tusk estimated to be over 14,400 years old. Most anthropologists had previously doubted that date, favouring the “Clovis people” theory, which suggested they were the first to migrate to the Americas around 13,000 years ago.

Now, this new evidence strengthens the “pre-Clovis” theory. The team concluded that the Mastodon was actually killed by the pre-Clovis people, contradicting the theory that the arrival of the Clovis people caused the extinction of megafauna like mammoths and bison. It seems these giant creatures may have coexisted with humans for more than 1,500 years.

4. Massive Cities Hidden Beneath Cambodia

In the beautiful nation of Cambodia, an exciting journey began when Australian archaeologist Damian Evans visited the area in 2015. He found evidence of an actual city hidden beneath Mount Kulen.

Thanks to laser scanning technology (Lidar), multiple cities dating from 900 to 1,400 years old were revealed. Some of these newly discovered underground cities are absolutely massive, comparable in size to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, which stretches across 262 square miles!

The team also found intricate, advanced water systems built way ahead of their time. These discoveries may challenge older theories about the development of Cambodian empires and paint a new, complex picture of the region’s historical water management.

5. Roman Artefacts in North America?

This next discovery hints that the Romans may have made it to North America long before the Norse, who are traditionally thought to be the first “Old World” explorers to reach the continent about a thousand years ago.

Historical investigator Jay Hutton found a well-preserved Roman ceremonial sword, reportedly hauled up by a fishing boat decades ago. Tests on the sword revealed metallic properties with traces of arsenic and lead that match other Roman artefacts. Hutton and his team claim to have unearthed numerous other pieces of evidence to support the history-changing theory that Romans arrived in the New World more than 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus.

6. A Pre-Viking Gold Cross in Denmark

Finally, a discovery that proves the professionals aren’t the only ones who can rewrite history: an amateur archaeologist with a metal detector, Dennis Holm, found a gold crucifix necklace on the island of Funen in Denmark in 2016.

Experts have dated the necklace to between 900 and 950 AD. This is significant because, if authentic, it predates the Jelling Stone (from 965 AD), which is considered the oldest known representation of Christ on a cross in the area. This find could indicate that the Danish adoption of Christianity began much earlier than previously believed.