A Brief History
On February 15, 1949, even Indiana Jones would have been envious of the work of Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux who began digging at the Qumran Caves where they later found the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish documents that date back as far as the 3rd Century BC.
Digging Deeper
Some other contenders for the title of “Greatest Archaeological Find” include:
The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799 by Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt, finally allowed researchers to interpret Egyptian hieroglyphics.
King Tut’s Tomb, found in 1922, totaled over 5,000 objects from Ancient Egypt, the greatest such trove to date.
The Staffordshire Hoard, found by a guy with a metal detector on an English farm in 2009, included over 4,000 metal items of Anglo-Saxon origin, especially gold and silver coins, an incredible 60% of all old Anglo-Saxon relics.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for you to find the Lost Ark of the Covenant!
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What finds would you add to this list?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Johnston, Susan. Myths & Mysteries in Archaeology. Recorded Books, 2010.
Rendsburg, Gary. The Dead Sea Scrolls. The Great Courses, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Roland de Vaux, Józef Milik, and Gerald Lankester Harding is now in the public domain, because its term of copyright has expired in Israel (details). According to Israel’s copyright statute from 2007 (translation), a work is released to the public domain on 1 January of the 71st year after the author’s death (paragraph 38 of the 2007 statute) with the following exceptions:
- A photograph taken on 24 May 2008 or earlier — the old British Mandate act applies, i.e. on 1 January of the 51st year after the creation of the photograph (paragraph 78(i) of the 2007 statute, and paragraph 21 of the old British Mandate act).
- If the copyrights are owned by the State, not acquired from a private person, and there is no special agreement between the State and the author — on 1 January of the 51st year after the creation of the work (paragraphs 36 and 42 in the 2007 statute).
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