Yeah, it's been a really amazing project.

Welcome to watch mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 archaeological discoveries of the scent so far.

What all of this suggests is that Homo erectus might not have been the first hominid to leave africa for this list.

We'll be looking at the most fascinating findings from the year 2000 to 2022.

What ancient mystery do you hope is uncovered next?

Let us know in the comments number 20 scrolls in the Cave of Horror when the dead sea scrolls were discovered between 1946 and 1956 it transformed our understanding of jewish religious thought in the first centuries, ce found in the Kumaran caves of the judean desert.

The manuscripts included the oldest surviving versions of books that eventually became part of various biblical canons.

Here during the last century, they found ancient pieces of parchment that turned out to be biblical.

Today, they're still discovering more about them.

In March 2021 archaeologists discovered more scroll fragments in one of the caves nicknamed the Cave of Horror for the skeletons also found within the new fragments belonged to the book of the 12.

In the Hebrew bible and christian old testament and contained intriguing differences from the versions commonly accepted today.

The parchment had been written in greek, the language adopted after the conquest of judea by alexander.

The great the name of God though exclusively appears in Hebrew number 19 medieval cities in cambodia.

New technologies have revolutionized how researchers conduct archaeological surveys in 2015, lasers fired from helicopters.

A technology known as lidar captured valuable data about what lies beneath the thick jungle around temple complex.

Angkor wat In cambodia, lasers mounted on the helicopter can cut through the jungle to detect topographical details kitten beneath.

While the researchers had anticipated evidence for a lost settlement in the area, their actual findings were far grander than they had foreseen, revealing a whole network of medieval temple cities.

Knowledge of these ancient metropolis is gives historians A much better understanding of the everyday life and culture of the Khmer Empire.

Understanding how this system functions will help Damian and Scott reconstruct the rise of the Khmer Empire and perhaps uncover the reasons for its downfall.

We now know that at its height, this would have been the biggest empire of the 12th century number 18 Gladiator arena in Turkey.

We really hope that gladiator and wild animal fights stay in the past, but it is fascinating to learn more about them.

In the summer of 2020 archaeologists used 200 year old records from visitors to locate an 1800 year old roman amphitheater in the ancient ruins of Mastura Turkey, the ruins had been obscured by trees and shrubs when they were cleared away.

It was found that much of the underground, so section of the structure was intact along with some seats and parts of the walls in its heyday, it's seated between 35,000 people number 17, the 3000 year old city On a search to uncover king tuts, mortuary temple archaeologists were surprised to find an ancient Egyptian city Instead, during their dig in Luxor in 2021 everyday living spaces and artifacts were discovered in excellent condition.

Excavation began last year while searching for the mortuary temple of King Tutankhamun, but instead archaeologists found a large well preserved city.

This town has been estimated to have been set up in the 18th dynasty of Egypt under the rule of pharaoh Amenhotep the third.

Because of this discovery, Egyptologists have a clearer sense of what life was like for the people living in this fascinating time period.

Some have called this dig the greatest revelation since the uncovering of King Tut's tomb number 16.

Pyramid builder tombs make no bones about it.

This was a great discovery, tombs belonging to the workers who built the pyramids were first stumbled upon in 1990 but another set was found two decades later.

Near that first sight, people who were buried in our cemetery are the workmen who died during the construction of building the pyramids and we are able now for the first time to understand the life of the workmen who built the pyramids.

The culmination of these findings give archaeologists the ability to bust the myth that the builders of the pyramids were slaves.

Their bones help fill in these gaps in the story.

It's evidence that the builders ate meat that they worked three month shifts in rotations and for that service, they were honored with mud brick tombs near the pyramids.

The discovery of the tombs of the pyramid builders reconstruct history and tell us that the builders of the pyramids were Egyptians and the builder of the pyramids were not slaves.

There was also evidence of their strenuous work.

As the uncovered bones showed proof of arthritis.

Number 15 Roman.

Shipwreck in 2021, a shipwreck was discovered off the coast of Sicily filled with ancient Roman and free.

The vessel itself is thought to have been a cargo ship and the Jars were used to carry wine across the Mediterranean.

According to Archaea.

This undersea finding helps expand the breath of understanding about trade routes and patterns in the region.

But how did they find the sea craft robots?

Of course, the research team responsible for this mission utilized a remote controlled submarine robot to uncover the wreck.

Number 14.

Temple for Zeus in Egypt, this God really got around while Zeus is famously the king of the greek gods.

His influence spread to many other countries in the desert region of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, ruins of a temple were uncovered by Egyptologist.

Hisham Hussein and his team in 2022.

It is dedicated to Zeus cassio's a hybrid deity combining the traditional thunder god with the name of a sacred mountain carved into the rubble of the site were inscriptions that reveal the influence of the roman emperor Hadrian, who ruled from 1 17 to 1 38 A.

D.

And apparently renovated the temple number 13 Japanese settlement in british Columbia.

This japanese logging camp from around 1920 was possibly a secret.

That is until it was excavated in 2004 after archaeologist robert muckle was told about scattered goods in the forests.

12 miles northeast of Vancouver british Columbia, he and his students started excavating the site.

What you have here Is this stone foundation with an open end on it.

There would have been a fire built underneath underneath or in the center a tub with a metal bottom and wooden sides would have sat over this.

They uncovered a settlement that consisted of 14 houses, a shrine and a bathhouse, along with everyday items such as rice bowls and sake bottles.

There are signs that the camp was hastily abandoned and muckle speculates that the inhabitants were rounded up into internment camps during World War II.

Number 12 Scythian remains in the 19 seventies, a burial mound known as Arson was discovered in Siberia filled with remains and artifacts from a nomadic group called the Scythians.

In the late 19 nineties, a second site are Zan two was found and excavated and in 2003, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a slain warrior.

His death hadn't been pretty.

He'd been shot with an arrow below the eye and his companions had apparently tried to dig it out to no avail.

Human remains weren't the only discoveries made in the mass grave.

There was also horses and thousands of gold objects, studying these skeletons and keepsakes was an essential step in learning more about the Scythian culture.

No 11.

Library of Alexandria, arguably one of the most tragic losses of ancient times, was the decline and destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt many volumes of human thought and knowledge were lost forever.

That event may have helped usher in the dark ages by erasing centuries of precious knowledge.

The loss still haunts us today.

While the information that was stored there cannot be recovered.

A team of Egyptian and Polish researchers claimed to have discovered the ruins of the library itself in 2004.

During the excavation, they uncovered enormous lecture halls with a capacity for about 5000 people.

The most of humanity has cherished the celebration of universal knowledge, rationality, tolerance, respect for science and for the contrarian view.

All of these values are values that have lived with us to this day before this incredible discovery, there had been no physical evidence of the famous greek library.

Number 10 Palace of Ramses the second.

If there's anything we know for certain about ancient Egyptian royalty, it's that they loved their palaces.

A team from new york University had been conducting archaeological work in a temple at the ancient Egyptian site of a bidis in 2019 when they saw a stone walkway that led them to a previously unknown palace.

The literal writing on the wall revealed that these buildings belonged to Ramses, the great one of the most celebrated pharaohs of Egypt.

You may know him as a seaman Dia's.

Yes, the one that Percy Shelley poem is about number nine, The lost leaders of Jamestown.

This discovery has much to teach us about early english settlement in the United States.

Jamestown in Virginia, which was originally inhabited by the native Algonquin people, was the very first permanent english settlement.

The first beachhead of what was to be a great english empire in the new world and the 1st 23 years are some of the most challenging the colony ever ever endures.

In 2010, 4 bodies were found at the site of an anglican church.

Five years later, they were identified as prominent figures in the colony.

Captain Gabriel, archer, reverend robert Hunt, Captain William West and Sir Ferdinando Wayman.

The men were leaders in the colony and as seen in this three d animation of the settlement site, they were buried in a long vanished church some 400 years ago.

While much of their skeletons have deteriorated, Scientists were able to analyze the state of their bones to understand how the settlers change in diet and newly encountered diseases impacted their overall health and lifespan number eight homo floresiensis.

We've unearthed a wealth of information about our evolutionary relatives and ancestors, but we've still got a lot more to learn.

In 2003, researchers discovered the remains of a small archaic humans on flores.

Indonesia whose species survived until the arrival of modern humans 50,000 years ago.

Due to their stature.

They were nicknamed Hobbits by researchers and it's been at the center of a male.

The controversy in the field ever since.

It's been 15 years since the discovery was first announced and we're still exploring what this little hobbit can tell us about the shape of the human family tree and what it means for our own evolutionary history.

Another apparently dim unit of species was found this century.

But in the Philippines and classified in 2019 as homo loosen Insys who knows how many more are out there waiting for us to find them.

Virtually most of Southeast Asia is unexplored.

I would expect that if we continue with systematic investigation excavations, it's very likely that we find more human remains.

Number seven.

The million year old mammoth in the right conditions D.

N.

A.

Can endure for a surprisingly long time.

The oldest D.

N.

A.

On record belongs to a mammoth in Eastern Siberia whose remains are up to 1.6 million years old.

This D.

N.

A.

Is incredibly old.

It's 1000 times older than viking remains And it even predates the existence of modern humans and neanderthals.

The DNA comes from the animal's teeth which were collected by Russian paleontologist Andre share in the 1970s research into the DNA revealed in 2021 that the mammoth belonged to a new species with unique adaptations to the climate and landscape.

Now, by traveling back in time for a million years, we can show that many of those genes were already evolved back a million years ago.

So that suggests to us that this process of adaptation to the environment was more of a gradual evolution in the grander scheme of things.

The ability to sequence this million year old D.

N.

A.

Also opens the door for so much more testing and exploration in the future.

Number six.

Female rule in Spain.

When we think of the Bronze Age, we don't immediately think of women in charge, but in a grave called La Alma, lawyer in Spain, excavated in 2014 remains and artifacts were uncovered that reveal more to us about spanish rule in antiquity, a husband and wife were buried together, but the woman was the one draped in fine goods and treasures.

She was found wearing a silver diadem suggesting royal status.

These remains raised questions about the power dynamics of the Bronze Age and this mysterious influential female figure.

Number five.

Richard grave.

King Richard the third ruled England from 14 83 to 14 85 dying in the battle of bosworth field during the War of the Roses.

History hasn't been kind to rich vilified by Shakespeare a monster with a hunchback murderer of his nephews in the tower.

However, there was a massive mystery surrounding him posthumously.

Where was his body?

The Richard?

The third society which aims to change the public's perception of the ruler, was dedicated to solving this mystery and eventually they played a role in doing so and for almost 530 years.

This is where he lay downtown Lester In a car park with people driving over him in 2012.

His body was found and excavated in gray friars Lester and was later reburied in a more honorable manner.

Number four human footprints in Canada on the shores of calvert island.

In british Columbia.

Canada archaeologists have uncovered a trail of human footprints that are thought to be 13,000 years old.

The fossilized human footprints are believed to belong to a man.

A woman and a child are estimated to be more than 13,000 years old.

There were three sets of feet, two adults and a child who collectively left 29 prints in the clay archaeologist Duncan McLaren notes that footprints tend to be difficult to excavate meaning that this was a major discovery.

You just think about the fact that here are the footprints left by possibly one of the earliest people walking people walking through british Columbia, leaving their track ways and leaving some evidence of the way that they live.

Now we have a slightly clearer idea of the travels of prehistoric people during the ice age.

Number three.

Staffordshire hoard.

If you don't own a metal detector, this story may make you want to go out and buy one.

A man named Terry Herbert was using his metal detector around the town of Hammer Witch in Staffordshire, England in 2009 when he stumbled on numerous gold objects.

What I'd found was equivalent to finding Tutankhamun's treasure.

Why me?

Why?

Why have I found it?

Why has other people been on this field detected and never found it?

The gold turned out to belong to a massive hoard of anglo Saxon goods.

It's worth was estimated at over £3 million sterling.

As much as the hoard is worth monetarily.

It's just as valuable in terms of historical significance.

Here we have a display that really shows just the range of material in the hall and the fact that a lot of it is so small, tiny tiny fragments and it's like a big jigsaw in terms of trying to piece them together to understand their meaning.

The collection now resides in the Birmingham Museum and art gallery and has been toured around the world in various displays.

Number two.

The lost city of Tonia.

This ancient city in Greece has been written about throughout history, having been reportedly founded by prisoners of the Trojan war for quite some time.