5 Incredible Treasures that Have Been Found in 2023

With how many incredible discoveries have already been made by archaeologists and amateur treasure hunters alike, it would be easy to think that, at some point, the pace of these incredible finds would have to slow down. However, that does not seem to be the case, and new artifacts continue to be discovered every year.

Whether its valuable caches of gold, priceless artwork from ancient times, or even discoveries made in photos taken by spy satellites, there seems to be a never ending supply of lost and buried treasure just waiting to be found. Today we’ll be looking at five such discoveries that were made over the course of 2023.

The Great Kentucky Horde

It’s the dream of every metal detectorist and bored child alike: to dig a hole in your backyard and discover a giant cache of treasure that would even make old-timey pirates jealous. But for one Kentucky man in 2023, that dream became a reality.

An anonymous man was digging in his cornfield in an unspecified part of Kentucky when he discovered a number of gold coins in the ground. In a brief, 20 second video, he described it as “the most insane thing ever” while pointing the camera at the seemingly endless supply of gold coins he had just uncovered.

This discovery, later named The Great Kentucky Horde, contained roughly 800 coins. Of those, 95% were $1 gold coins, with the rest being a mix of $10 and $20 gold coins, and a handful of silver coins as well. Though the discovery of this massive supply of gold was surprising, the location was not. Well, the specific cornfield was a surprise, especially for the owner of the land who found them, but such a hoard being found specifically in Kentucky was not only somewhat expected, but potentially long overdue.

These coins were all minted around the time of the Civil War, with the dates ranging from 1840 through 1863. Kentucky had declared neutrality at the start of the Civil War before officially joining the Union, and there are rumours that a number of wealthy Kentuckians buried large sums of money in order to prevent it from being seized by Confederate soldiers. These rumours weren’t just crazy conspiracy theories or urban legends either, as a number of these wealthy individuals explicitly stated what they had done.

A letter from James Langstaff claimed that he had buried $20,000, and William Pettit wrote than he buried $80,000. There are other claims as well, though neither of those two stashes have ever been found.

As for the value of these coins, needless to say it was a lot. Though some US gold coins are so common as to lack numismatic value and are “only” worth their weight in gold, these coins were a bit different. Civil War era coins tend to be much rarer, with the rarest in the collection being the 1863-P $20 Liberty gold coin. A single one of these coins in good condition can go for six figures at auction, and the Great Kentucky Horde had 18 of them.

Overall the coins found were in surprisingly good condition, though one had been damaged from farm equipment. According to one expert, “our opinion is that the total value of the hoard exceeds $2 million. When something like this comes in, which is extraordinarily rare, I can only compare it to shipwreck discoveries.”

Unfortunately for historians, because the discovery was made on private land there is no law in the US requiring the discovery to be reported to an archaeologist. As such, the coins were sent to be certified and sold at auction without any potentially useful information being gathered from the site, other than the quantity, dates, and denominations of the coins themselves.

3,000 Year Old Swords in Germany

In June, 2023, archaeologists made a stunning discovery while excavating a grave outside the Bavarian town of Nördlingen in Germany. There, buried beneath the soil, was a Bronze Age sword that was over 3,000 years old. It was dated as having been forged in the 14th century BC, and according to the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, the sword had been preserved in such flawless condition that “it almost shines”.

Although thousands of Bronze Age swords have been discovered, this was still an exceptionally rare find. To start, finding such an item in this particular area is exceedingly rare thanks to 3,000 years of grave robbers looting these burial mounds for valuables. Not only is finding artifacts like this at a burial site a rare occurrence in Bavaria, but the sword is also of unusually high quality.

The sword featured an extremely intricately designed, octagonal hilt. The hilt was produced using overlay casting, a technique where the blade is cast first and then the hilt is cast over the blade. Since the result is essentially a single piece of metal this greatly improves durability of the weapon, but it is also an advanced technique that few bronze smiths would have been skilled enough to pull off, especially so early in the Bronze Age when the sword was created. The high quality of the sword, especially for its age, combined with the incredible condition it was found in, make this a truly valuable and unique find.

Although the sword was the most impressive discovery in the grave, other bronze items were found as well, as were the bodies of a man, woman, and child. Though that certainly suggests that it was a family grave, further testing and analysis is planned to attempt to determine the causes of death and whether or not all three died at the same time, as well as DNA analysis to confirm if they were indeed biologically related.

The bronze sword found within this grave did not show any signs of battle wear, though based on its center of gravity archaeologists believe it was in fact a real weapon rather than just an ornamental or ceremonial one. As an interesting side note, whether or not bronze swords were ever used as weapons was a highly debated topic until very recently. It was long argued that bronze swords were too soft and fragile to use in actual combat, but in 2020 researchers staged battles that showed bronze weapons were in fact capable weapons, though they would have required considerable skill and training due to the material’s limitations.

Ironically, although bronze swords being found in present day Germany are now rare thanks to looting, just a few months after this discovery, seven more 3,000 year old bronze swords were found in the German town of Mirow. These were discovered by volunteer conservationists in a marshy area, though they were much lower quality than the blade discovered in Nördlingen.

All seven of the swords were broken into fragments and were missing their hilts. It’s believed that these weapons may have been left in the lowland marshes as part of a ritual or sacrificial offering.

The Tomb of Cerberus

In areas of historical significance, or near where archaeological findings have been made in the past, it’s common for an archaeological survey to take place before beginning any construction projects. That’s exactly what happened in late 2023 in the city of Giugliano, a suburb of Naples, Italy. New pipelines were going to be laid to update the area’s water supply system, so a survey needed to be conducted to ensure nothing of historical value was destroyed by the construction.

The initial search turned up an ancient necropolis containing numerous well preserved but modest tombs. However, after several weeks of excavating the site, archaeologists discovered something entirely unexpected. Sealed off with a slab of tuff, a light, porous rock made from volcanic ash, was a tomb far more impressive than the others found within the necropolis.

Once the tomb was unsealed, it revealed an area roughly 3 meters by 4 meters, with the walls and ceilings covered in frescoes. The most prominent of these paintings depicted the twelfth and final labour of Hercules: the capture of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the underworld, preventing the dead from leaving and the living from entering. Thanks to this painting adorning the back wall, the location has been named The Tomb of Cerberus. The front wall featured a fresco of two ichthyocentaurs, a mythical creature that looks like the result of a centaur having sex with a mermaid.

This discovery was significant for two major reasons. The first is that nothing like this had previously been found in the region, but perhaps more importantly is that the contents of the tomb, including the paintings, were perfectly preserved. This included the two sarcophagi containing skeletal remains and funerary objects, as well as another skeleton placed on a large table. Though the third skeleton is believed to have been placed inside the tomb at a later date than the sarcophagi were interred, it is believed that the tomb has remained sealed for over 2,000 years.

Other objects found within the tomb include typical vases, jugs, and other pottery, as well as a number of bronze and glass objects as well, all in pristine condition. Though there are no reports of the tomb overflowing with gold, gems, and other riches, there will undoubtedly be more priceless relics found within the necropolis. Excavations were paused after the initial discovery, and though the Tomb of Cerberus is likely to be the most impressive tomb thanks to its preserved frescoes, it is expected that there is still much more to find at this location.

396 Roman Forts

It’s unusual for a discovery made in 2023 to have been made in the 1960s and 70s. It’s so unusual, in fact, that some clarification of what that sentence even means is probably needed. During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States ran two spy satellite programs named CORONA and HEXAGON. Over 860,000 images of Earth’s surface were taken by these satellites, and these images all remained classified until 1995 when they were finally declassified by executive order.

Of course, that’s a whole lot of images, so it was going to take quite a while for archaeologists to examine all of the aerial photos and publish their results. Aerial photography as a tool is nothing new for archaeologists, with the practice beginning about 100 years ago. One of the pioneers of this technique, and the one most known for aerial observations in the Syrian steppe, was Antoine Poidebard.

Poidebard identified 116 Roman forts in Syria and Iraq across the Syrian steppe. Based on their formation, he believed that these forts were a defensive wall designed to protect the eastern Roman Empire from attacks by the Arabs or Persians. This theory was largely accepted, though even those that disputed the purpose of the forts agreed that they created a very clear north to south border. But the 2023 publication of a new study in the journal Antiquity provides evidence for one of the competing theories of these forts.

Hidden within the declassified Cold War spy satellite images were 396 previously undiscovered Roman forts across Syria and Iraq. Most notably, these forts did not appear to form a clear north to south defensive border as Poidebard had previously observed. Instead, these forts spread not only north to south but also east to west, covering a large area rather than forming a delineated border.

Not only was the location and distribution of these forts significant, but their design was as well. The forts seemed to lack the fortified, defensive structures that would be expected if these structures were designed to repel potential attackers. Based on the 2023 findings, it is suggested that these forts didn’t represent a wall, but rather a road used to facilitate trade. The buildings could provide a place for travelers to eat and rest, as well as having water for camels and other traveling livestock.

This discovery essentially rewrites history, challenging our previous understanding of Roman activity in the region with a more integrated and prosperous alternative. However, despite the incredible historical significance of these previously undiscovered Roman structures, the true value of this discovery can only be understood by taking note of what wasn’t there.

When Poidebard flew his biplane to take aerial photos of the Syrian steppe, he discovered 116 Roman forts that became the foundation of his theory. However, in the spy satellite images taken just a few decades later, only 38 of those original 116 forts could be identified. And of the new forts discovered in the declassified photos, many were already destroyed in the time between the photos being taken and their release to the public.

The fact that these ancient Roman structures keep disappearing only makes the existing photos more valuable, but it does also present a problem for analyzing their meaning. As the authors of the 2023 paper note, the distribution of forts that have been discovered is, at least in some part, the product of preservation bias. Forts that were built in more habitable areas were much more likely to be destroyed as the land was repurposed by other settlers. But even if archaeologists are still working off an incomplete data set, the value of this discovery and its potential to rewrite history cannot be overstated.

Underwater Egyptian Temple

For centuries, the Egyptian city of Thonis and the Greek city of Heracleion were both the stuff of legends. There were many ancient Greek references to Heracleion, though only a few Egyptian references to Thonis. Both were described as port cities near the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, but no archaeological evidence of either city existing had ever been found.

That all changed in the year 2000 with the discovery of an underwater city buried beneath the floor of the Nile. Historians had long believed that the two cities were both on the Egyptian mainland, but a reexamining of historical texts led some to believe perhaps they had been built on islands which eventually were submerged. In 2000, a team led by French underwater archeologist Franck Goddio finally discovered the ruins of a city 7 km off the mainland shore.

The city had been buried under silt and debris, making it impossible for anyone to have accidentally stumbled across the ruins. While that had hindered archaeological searches, it also meant that the newly uncovered ruins had spent thousands of years completely isolated from the meddling hands of potential looters, leaving everything completely intact.

Among the first discoveries was the second of two steles containing the Decree of Nectanebo. With this discovery it finally became clear that Thonis-Heracleion was a single city with two names. But in 2023, two new locations were discovered within the ruins that contained valuable information about the city’s history.

The first was an Egyptian temple to the god Amun, and the second was a sanctuary to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The latter discovery suggested that not only did the city have both Egyptian and Greek names, but that Greeks were allowed to freely relocate to and worship in Thonis-Heracleion. Though for how long this arrangement was in place is unclear, the city had thrived for over a millennium before a series of natural disasters, including tsunamis and earthquakes, caused the clay soil to liquefy and send the city structures collapsing into the water.

While the buildings themselves are priceless treasures with immense historical significance, each was filled with the more traditional kind of treasures as well. The sanctuary to Aphrodite contained numerous Greek weapons, all preserved in incredible condition. Not only are these specimens extremely valuable, they indicate that Greek soldiers had a hand in defending the Egyptian city.

Inside the temple to Amun was a variety of valuable Egyptian relics. The temple was filled with gold jewelry, giant alabaster containers once used to hold perfume, and silver instruments used for various rituals performed at the temple.

This cache of valuables is just one of many discoveries made in the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion, and there will undoubtedly be many more to come in the future.

Key Takeaways

• The Great Kentucky Horde, discovered in 2023, consisted of 800 gold coins from the Civil War era, valued at over $2 million.
• A 3,000-year-old Bronze Age sword with an intricate hilt was found in Germany, challenging assumptions about bronze weapon durability.
• The Tomb of Cerberus in Italy, discovered in 2023, features well-preserved frescoes and remains, offering unique historical insights.
• Declassified spy satellite images from the 1960s and 1970s revealed 396 previously unknown Roman forts, suggesting a trade network rather than a defensive wall.
• In 2023, an underwater Egyptian temple to Amun and a sanctuary to Aphrodite were discovered in the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion.

Sources

• Original Side Projects video: 5 Incredible Treasures that Have Been Found in 2023
• Hero image source by BlueShirtz / openverse, by.

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