00:00Big news! Santa is real, and he looks like this.
00:04I know, it's not exactly how we pictured the jolly old guy, but a recently discovered
00:09tomb might just be the proof we've been waiting for to show that St. Nicholas was
00:13real and Turkish.
00:17Turns out, he wasn't a North Pole native but a kind-hearted bishop from the 4th century,
00:21famous for giving gifts to everyone.
00:23The legend says he was a wealthy man born in the ancient city of Batara, modern-day
00:28Turkey, who traveled to the countryside to help the poor and the sick.
00:32For centuries, though, people couldn't be sure he actually existed.
00:36Some historical sources say he was buried in Myra, which is now called Demre, Turkey.
00:42Since the 80s, archaeologists have been digging around this area, trying to prove it.
00:46And now, their Christmas miracle has finally come true!
00:50After digging 6 feet deep in an annex of St. Nicholas' church, they uncovered a mysterious
00:56limestone tomb, about 2 meters long.
00:59While they're pretty sure this is St. Nick's final resting place, they're still searching
01:04for an inscription to confirm its exact age.
01:07Now, if we're talking about the fictional Santa Claus, legend says his home is in Lapland,
01:13Finland.
01:14Back in 2018, archaeologists made an interesting discovery that could finally prove that Santa
01:20was real.
01:21They were digging at a site called Tiny Aro, when they stumbled upon about 200 burial pits.
01:27But when they looked inside, there was definitely no sign of Santa.
01:31Actually, there were no human skeletons at all, just a bunch of things like pottery and
01:35animal bones.
01:36So, no one really knows what this place was.
01:39That was the complete opposite of what happened with a group of archaeologists working in
01:44the ancient city of Petra, Jordan.
01:46Since 2003, there have been rumors about hidden chambers beneath the famous monument called
01:51Al-Qazneh, also known as The Treasury.
01:55Twenty-one years later, a team finally decided to dig and uncovered an intact tomb.
02:02Inside they found at least 12 human skeletons and artifacts estimated to be over 2,000 years
02:08old.
02:10Hundreds of thousands of tourists travel to Al-Qazneh every year, and most of them probably
02:14go there to see the site of the Holy Grail in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
02:19So, do you want to know the funny part?
02:22One of the skeletons in the tomb was clutching a ceramic chalice that looked a lot like the
02:27Holy Grail.
02:30You probably remember the devastating fire that caused massive damage to Notre Dame in
02:34Paris back in 2019.
02:37Because of that, the building, originally built between the 12th and 13th centuries,
02:41had to be restructured.
02:44Archaeologists saw it as a golden opportunity to dig into the site and uncover its hidden
02:49secrets.
02:50The team was only allowed to dig about 16 inches beneath the floor, but that was enough.
02:56As soon as they removed the floor tiles and cleared away a thin layer of dirt, they spotted
03:00the top of a lead coffin.
03:03Then, they found some limestone sculptures, including life-sized heads and torsos.
03:09Altogether, they uncovered over 1,000 fragments of different works of art.
03:15Ancient statues have been found in the most random places, including a sewer.
03:20In July 2024, Bulgarian archaeologists were checking a Roman sewer in the ancient city
03:25of Heraclea Sintica, when they found a nearly 7-foot-tall marble statue of Hermes, the Greek
03:32messenger deity.
03:34This town was completely devastated and abandoned after two earthquakes, one in the year 388
03:41and the other in the year 425.
03:44But somehow, it didn't destroy this statue.
03:47In fact, its head was found in surprisingly good condition.
03:51Finding ancient artwork is definitely fascinating, but imagine stumbling upon an entire hidden
03:57city in the Amazon rainforest!
04:00Using high-tech lasers, researchers uncovered a lost civilization with thousands of structures
04:05and a whole network of roads, canals, and houses, all buried beneath the dense jungle.
04:12This city was built around 2,500 years ago, in an area located in the shadow of a volcano,
04:19which by the way, could have erupted and destroyed this civilization at some point.
04:25It's hard to say exactly how many people lived there, but experts estimate they stayed up
04:30there for about 1,000 years.
04:32This discovery proves ancient people also had huge, organized cities in the middle of
04:38the Amazon.
04:40A similar thing happened in Campeche in southern Mexico.
04:44An archaeologist was doing some research on the internet when he accidentally discovered
04:48a hidden Maya city.
04:50This area, now called Valeriana, was huge, about the size of Edinburgh, the capital of
04:56Scotland.
04:57It had pyramids, sports fields, amphitheaters, and paths connecting different districts.
05:03Thanks to satellite images, archaeologists uncovered an entire unknown civilization from
05:08the Bronze Age.
05:10They were checking out aerial images when they discovered 100 prehistoric settlements
05:15in the Pannonian Plain, a region that includes parts of what's now Serbia and Hungary.
05:21The people who lived there are now known as the Titsa site group, and it looks like they
05:25were a pretty well-organized society, skilled at growing food, hunting, and fishing.
05:32Google Earth helped a team to uncover a mysterious set of 400 ancient gates in Saudi Arabia.
05:39These gates, scattered across the desert, are thought to be from thousands of years
05:43ago.
05:44They're made of stone and arranged in weird formations that have left archaeologists scratching
05:49their heads.
05:50I mean, they don't look like they were meant for funerals, and they don't seem like structures
05:55where people lived, so we still have no idea what they are.
06:01Technology is really changing archaeology.
06:04Thanks to artificial intelligence and, well, a $1 million prize, we've finally been able
06:09to decipher part of an unreadable and super-damaged ancient scroll.
06:14The Herculaneum Scrolls were discovered by workers digging up the ancient town of Herculaneum
06:20near Pompeii in 1752.
06:23But their condition was so bad that, for years, they were considered indecipherable.
06:27Thankfully, AI has helped unveil their secrets.
06:32Based on the studies so far, experts believe that one of these scrolls was written by a
06:36philosopher who valued pleasures like music and food above all else.
06:41No doubt Stonehenge in England is one of the most mysterious places on Earth.
06:46Some theories even suggest it was built by extraterrestrials.
06:50After more than a century of research, archaeologists are still figuring out how it came together.
06:56See that big altar in the middle?
06:59Turns out it came all the way from Scotland.
07:02And that's pretty wild, considering this massive sandstone block weighs over 6 tons, and the
07:07people who built Stonehenge more than 4,000 years ago didn't have the luxury of wheels
07:13or modern tools.
07:15We can find some pretty amazing stuff in the oceans, too.
07:19In 2013, a mysterious shipwreck was found about 20 feet underwater off the coast of
07:25Kenya.
07:26At the time, no one knew where it came from.
07:29But now, researchers are pretty sure this could be a ship from Vasco da Gama's fleet.
07:35You know, the famous Portuguese navigator, best known for being the first to sail from
07:39Europe to India by rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
07:44If it's confirmed, this shipwreck could be one of the earliest European shipwrecks in
07:48the Indian Ocean.
07:52Ancient treasures can take many forms, including a bottle.
07:55Recently, archaeologists in Norway uncovered a 150-year-old message in a bottle during
08:01an excavation of a Viking burial mound.
08:04The bottle contained a letter written by Anders Lorange, an archaeologist who worked on the
08:09site back in the 1800s, along with his business card and a few coins wrapped in paper.
08:15The letter gave some details about the excavation, though it seems Lorange got a few things wrong,
08:21like the exact number of Viking shields discovered.
08:24At the end of the letter, he wrote a personal note in runic script – Emma Gade, my girlfriend.
08:31So it gave us not only insights into history, but also a peek into his love life.
08:36That's it for today!
08:37So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:42friends!
08:43And if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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