Unearth This Quiz on Archaeological Discoveries

The massive Hindu-Buddhist temple complex of Angkor Wat dates back to the 12th century CE. One of the first Western visitors to the site was António da Madelena, a Portuguese friar who traveled there in the 1500s. The Khmer society that built the structure was already long gone by that point, and today Angkor Wat is one of Cambodia’s top tourist attractions.

When Knossos, a Middle Bronze Age city dating back to 1900 BCE, was excavated, archaeologists found some mystifying artifacts: thousands of baked clay slabs with inscriptions on them. The inscriptions depicted an as-yet-undiscovered language called Linear B. It took another 50 years from the excavation (which took place between 1900-1905) to crack the language, and it became Europe’s oldest deciphered script.

Discovered in 1939 in Suffolk, England, Sutton Hoo was a massive, largely intact funeral ship. The Anglo-Saxon ship dates back to the seventh century CE, and was filled with treasures such as gold accessories, luxurious fabrics, and ornate silverware. The ship was likely the final resting place of a long-lost king, and became an excellent source of knowledge about this medieval period.

At about the midpoint between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, Petra rises up, carved into a rock face with stunning intricacy. The city dates back to 312 BCE, and was a crossroads for travelers heading to and from Arabia, Egypt, and Syria-Phoenicia. Swiss scholar John Lewis Burckhardt rediscovered the city in 1812, hundreds of years after it had been abandoned.

The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs, or land art made from earthen materials. They’re located in the Nazca Desert in Peru and include some 70 designs of various animals and plants, as well as other shapes and geometric patterns. Researchers believe the lines are up to 2,500 years old, but have no idea what their original purpose was.

The Dead Sea Scrolls encompass over 950 different manuscripts, all found in a series of 11 caves in the West Bank of the Dead Sea. Dating back over 2,000 years, the scrolls are ancient biblical texts, written mostly in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

To everyone except local residents, Machu Picchu was lost to time in the 15th century. With the guidance of locals, American explorer Hiram Bingham came upon the city in 1911, putting a spotlight on the now-famous site. At its height, the city was home to around 1,000 people, and the ruins — which include terraced platforms and cemeteries — offer a unique view into how the ancient Incas lived.

When China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, died in 210 BCE, 8,000 detailed terracotta soldiers were placed in his tomb to protect him in the afterlife. Each soldier is different, carved with unique postures and features. The tomb was discovered in 1974, leading to the excavation of what appears to be an entire recreation of the ancient city Xianyang. Visitors can explore the site at the Museum of the Terracotta Army in Xi’an, China.

The Moai are massive ancient statues found on Easter Island in the South Pacific. The statues are humanoid in form, with enormous faces and prominent noses. They were created between 1250 and 1500 CE by the native Rapa Nui. Scholars have long been stumped at how these statues were created; many stand 13 feet high and the largest weighs as much as 165 tons.

When the Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 BCE, it was an unremarkable object, bearing a simple administrative statement. But the message was written in three different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script, and ancient Greek. When it was unearthed in 1799, it was the first multilingual text containing Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the discovery made it possible to finally decipher the ancient script.