Cyrene

Founded in the 7th century B.C., Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic world. UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage List in 1992. “A thousand years of history is written into its ruins,” it said. Cyrene lies between the Egyptian border and Benghazi.

The ruins of the ancient Greek city of Cyrene survived Libya’s 2011 revolution and a decade of lawlessness but now face looters and bulldozers.

Sanxingdui Ruins

Sanxingdui (Chinese: 三星堆;'Three Star Mound') is a major Bronze Age site in modern Guanghan, Sichuan, China. It was populated in the 12th–11th centuries BCE. Archaeologists found six new sacrificial pits and unearthed more than 500 items dating back 3,000 years at the Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan Province last year.

Items from four of the pits included pieces of gold masks, gold foil, bronze masks, bronze tree relics and several ivory pieces.

Gold mask found in China

Archaeologists have uncovered a 3,000-year-old gold mask in southwest China. Weighing about 280 grams of 84% gold, the ceremonial mask is one of over 500 items unearthed from six newly discovered "sacrificial pits."

The finds were made at Sanxingdui, a 4.6-square-mile area outside the provincial capital of Chengdu. Experts say the items may shine light on the Shu state, a kingdom that ruled in the western Sichuan basin until 316 BC.

Bronze bull from ancient Olympia found

Greek archaeologists have unearthed by chance a 2,500-year-old bronze bull at the archaeological site of Olympia. With one of its horns sticking out of the ground after a heavy rainfall, the statuette was found intact, close to the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Archaeologists believe the bull was part of the gifts offered to Zeus from 1,050 to 700 B.C.

High status female skeleton found at La Almoloya

A silver diadem still adorned the skull of a woman when her 3,700-year-old grave was discovered at the site of La Almoloya, Spain. The trove of ornate jewelry suggests she was elite status.

La Almoloya is an archaeological site about 35 miles northwest of Cartagena in southeastern Spain. Radiocarbon dating suggests the burial occured about 1700 B.C.

Huge ancient shipwreck examined

An ancient ship was found off the coast of Kefalonia - one of the Ionian islands near the west coast of Greece. The wreck of the 35 metres (110ft) ship, along with its cargo of 6,000 amphorae, was discovered at a depth of around 60 metres.(197ft) Goods such as cereal, wine, oil and olives were transported throughout the Mediterranean, with Rome often their final destination.

Study of the wreck could shed light on sea-routes, trading, amphorae hull stowage and shipbuilding in the period between first century BC and first century AD.

Antikythera Mechanism revealed

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, the first analogue computer and the oldest known example of such a device.

It was used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses.

The artifact was retrieved from a shipwreck in 1901. It is dated to about 100 BC and represents lost technology. A complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears was designed to convey our place in the universe and forecast celestial events like lunar and solar eclipses.

Roman floor found in Southern France

Developers in Nîmes, France, had to halt construction when archaeologists discovered an opulent tiled floor that once blanketed a Roman villa, or domu. This domu was lavish and featured a private bath, a concrete floor speckled with decorative gemstones, and a large central fountain made from Carrara white marble. One room even had remains of hypocaust heating, an inventive system that sent hot air underneath the flooring to warm the home.

4.6 b yo meteorite found in Algeria

A 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite may be the oldest rock ever analyzed. The rock, named Erg Chech 002, was discovered in May 2020 in the Erg Chech area of southwestern Algeria. Unlike most discovered meteorites, which are made of basalt, created after lava has cooled, the meteorite is composed of a much rarer volcanic rock called andesite. Achrondites are igneous rocks that come from a body that has undergone internal melting that distinguishes the core from its crust. Silica-infused andesite crusts were likely common during our solar system’s protoplanet-forming stage.

Stones found in May 2020 totalling 22.8 kg were found showing distinctive large greenish orthopyroxene megacrysts.

Commodus aureus

An extremely rare aureus of Commodus was sold in 2019. Dating to 178 AD and struck in Rome. 25,000 euros.

Other rarities include a Manlia Scantilla aureus. 193 AD. Rome. Manlia Scantilla was the wife of Didius Julianus. Didius Julianus was Roman emperor for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. He bought the title from the Praetorian Guard. Julianus was killed and succeeded by Septimius Severus. 35k Euro. Elagabalus aureus. 218-219 AD. Rome. 16k Euro.

Statue of a Victorious Youth ordered returned to Italy

Among the J. Paul Getty Museum’s most treasured items is a bronze Greek statue of a young man, his weight shifted onto his right leg, his head crowned with an olive wreath — the prize bestowed on victorious athletes in ancient Greece. “Statue of a Victorious Youth” was discovered in the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen in 1964, and purchased by the Getty in 1977. It was made between 300 and 100 BCE. The Getty Museum Board of Trustees bought the bronze in the United Kingdom for $3.95 million. In 1989, the Italian government asked the Getty to return “Statue of a Victorious Youth,” and the fight over the bronze has been ongoing ever since. A 1939 Italian law stipulates that Italy can lay claim to any antiquity discovered on its territory, but the Getty has argued that the law does not apply in this case because the statue was discovered in international waters. In the wake of the most recent 2018 ruling, the Getty filed an appeal with the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest judicial authority.

Romans probably carried the Greek statue off from its original location during the first century B.C., when Roman collecting of Greek art was at its height.

Priam's Treasure

Priam's Treasure is a spectacular collection of gold and other artifacts discovered by Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik in modern Turkey. Schliemann smuggled Priam's Treasure out of Anatolia. The majority of the artifacts are in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Schliemann claimed the site to be that of ancient Troy, and assigned the artifacts to the Homeric king Priam. The treasure is a thousand years older than Homer's King Priam of Troy, who died about 1200 B.C. The collection of 259 items, has been held in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts since 1945.

Russia claims the looted art as compensation for the destruction of Russian cities and looting of Russian museums by Nazi Germany in World War II.

Sophia Schliemann wearing the "Jewels of Helen" excavated by her husband in Hisarlik

The “Mask of Agamemnon” is one of the most famous gold artifacts from the Bronze Age. The Mask was discovered in 1876 by Schliemann during excavations at Mycenae. The gold leaf funeral mask was found over the face of a body in a burial shaft in the Mycenaean Citadel.

Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great "the Great King" was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, he was originally referred to as Sargon I until records of an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed. Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He is often regarded as the first in recorded history to create a centrally ruled empire.

After coming to power, Sargon killed the king of Kish, and attacked Uruk. He captured Uruk and dismantled its famous walls. The defenders fled the city. Sumerian forces fought two pitched battles against the Akkadians and were routed. Sargon pursued his enemies to Ur before moving eastwards to Lagash, to the Persian Gulf, and then to Umma.

Uruk was renowned for its walls which were first built 4,700 years ago by the Sumerian King Gilgamesh, hero of the epic named after him.

Akkadian influence was seen through trade throughout much of the known world from Eastern Europe to Northern Africa to India. Akkadian customs – language, religion, art, architecture – were the standard for almost two millennia until the Greeks and Persians established their empires.