In 2024, archaeologists made significant discoveries buried deep underground for thousands of years, unearthing lost shipwrecks, and making new findings through DNA analysis.
In addition to archaeological techniques and tools that have been applied for many years, modern technological advancements have contributed significantly to scientists discovering remarkable archaeological evidence. Ground-based sensing technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have both contributed to important discoveries in 2024.
Hundreds of drawings on the Nazca plateau
The Nazca Lines (Peru) have been discovered and discussed for many years. Scientists spent nearly a century discovering 430 of them. This year, using AI technology, a research team from Yamagata University (Japan) took only six months to map the lines and identify an additional 300 mysterious shapes on the Nazca plateau.
The Nazca lines on the Peruvian plateau were discovered this year with the help of AI.
The drawings are believed to have been created by people from a pre-Inca civilization 2,000 years ago, who lived in the Nazca region of southern Peru from 200 BC to 700 AD. First discovered in 1927, the drawings were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to AFP. What motivated these ancient people to create these drawings remains a mystery. Some scientists suggest they held astrological and religious significance.
The Lost City in the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest may look like a fertile place, but growing food there is very difficult. Therefore, archaeologists have never before found traces of an ancient city in the Amazon.
Things changed in 2024 when archaeologists discovered the oldest settlements in the Amazon. Using LIDAR – a sensor technology that can see through trees – scientists discovered more than 6,000 interconnected earthen platforms in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, dating back 2,000 years, as evidence of structures once built there. These remains are similar to the architecture of the Mayan civilization in Mexico and Guatemala.
DNA sequencing of the people of Pompeii.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and its inhabitants. In the 1800s, scientists discovered several skeletons lying side-by-side in Pompeii, raising suspicions that these individuals belonged to the same family and were related. However, the first DNA sequenced in Pompeii, mentioned in a study published in November 2024 in the journal Cell , revealed two sets of remains found side-by-side: one of a man and one of an infant, and two unrelated individuals. Two other sets of remains, belonging to two women who died embracing each other, also showed no connection.
The gypsum remains of the people of Pompeii, petrified by the heat of volcanic ash in 79 AD, are preserved in Italy.
PHOTO: POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
Ancient cave paintings
This year, archaeologists discovered cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi dating back at least 51,200 years, making them the oldest cave carvings ever found. The paintings depict humans hunting what appears to be a pig. Previously, the oldest cave carving discovered, also in Indonesia, depicted a pig and was believed to be around 5,000 years old.
Cave paintings on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, are believed to be 51,000 years old.
3,500-year-old cheese
Scientists have discovered the world's oldest cheese, dating back 3,500 years, buried in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. According to Live Science in September, the research team found goat DNA and fermentation bacteria in Bronze Age samples scattered around the neck of mummies in coffins at the Xiaohe Cemetery in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang. The ancient cheese discovered after DNA analysis is kefir, made from goat's milk. Kefir is believed to have helped ancient people solve the problem of lactose intolerance and make the most of what their goat herds provided.
Mummies found in a cemetery in Xinjiang are believed to contain cheese dating back more than 3,500 years.
Bronze Age shipwreck far offshore
In June 2024, a robotic explorer discovered the Canaanite shipwreck, more than 3,300 years old, lying at a depth of 2 km about 90 km off the coast of Israel. What's remarkable is that the wreck is located far from the coast, whereas earlier Bronze Age shipwrecks are typically found closer to sea, due to the shipbuilding techniques of that era not yet being capable of creating vessels capable of deep-sea travel. This discovery raises the hypothesis that some Bronze Age seafarers chose a more adventurous and perilous route, relying on starlight to reach distant shores. Israeli officials stated that this is the first and oldest shipwreck discovered in the deep waters of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient wine vessels were found in the Canaanite shipwreck area off the coast of Israel.
PHOTO: ISRAELI ANTIQUES
World War 2 shipwreck
In August, maritime organizations and agencies coordinated a search and discovered the wreck of the U.S. destroyer USS Stewart off the coast of California. The ship had been captured by Japanese forces in Indonesia in 1942 and later returned to U.S. control after World War II. It was decommissioned and used as a target by the U.S. Navy in 1946, eventually being sunk. The wreck lay at the bottom of the sea off California for 78 years.
Additionally, a US Navy submarine, the USS Harder, which sank in the South China Sea in 1944, was discovered in May off the coast of Luzon Island, Philippines.
The wreck of the destroyer USS Stewart was discovered in 2024.
When did humans meet Neanderthals?
Almost everyone in the world today carries a small amount of Neanderthal DNA – a close relative of humans. This is because the first humans to leave Africa may have encountered Neanderthals in the Middle East and had children with them before migrating throughout the world.
According to research published in Nature in December 2024, DNA sequencing from the remains of people who lived in Europe about 45,000 years ago shows they had links to Neanderthals several thousand years earlier. This means that humans may have encountered Neanderthals between 49,000 and 45,000 years ago.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/choang-ngop-nhung-phat-hien-sau-trong-long-dat-185241226005510678.htm
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