Great Discoveries: Pictures of Archaeological Finds
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The gilded sarcophagus of King Tutenkhamen.
Image Credit: Getty Images
The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, unlocked the key to ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
Image Credit: Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock
There are more than 100 pyramids in Egypt, constructed as tombs for the Pharaohs.
Image Credit: Thinkstock
There has been much controversy over how King Tut died, as well as what should be done with all the artifacts from his tomb.
Image Credit: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images
A small piece of jawbone, found in a cave in Spain in 2007, is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe. At 1.3 million years old, it suggests people lived on the continent much earlier than thought.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Israel L. Murillo
Archaeologists believe they have uncovered the remains of the Siloam Pool, believed to have been used by Jesus to heal a blind man's sight. The stone remains and still-flowing water were uncovered in East Jerusalem in 2004.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Kevin Frayer
A Cyprus Antiquities Department archaeologist cleans a clay coffin estimated to be some 2,000 years old. It was among four such clay coffins accidentally unearthed by work crews from what is believed to be an ancient cemetery.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Petros Karadjias
These mammoth tusks, which are about 20,000 years old, were found along with mammoth bones at a highway construction site in Bratislavia, Sovakia in October 2004.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Stefan Puskas
Bedouin shepherds searching for a lost goat in 1947 entered a long-untouched cave and found the first of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The surrounding cave complex eventually yielded thousands of scroll fragments.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Stephen J. Carrera
In July 2010, the 32-foot hull of an 18th century ship was found at the construction site of the future World Trade Center. It was found some 20 feet beneath street level while workers were excavating for a parking garage.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
The site of London's first Globe Theater, where William Shakespeare himself saw his plays performed, was unearthed in the summer of 2008.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
A restorer works on the skeleton of a horse in a Roman villa at Pompeii. The excavated city was buried in AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta
Vesuvius looms over Pompeii, the city that has enthralled archaeologists since the 16th century.
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An archaeologist dusts the plastered bodies of a woman and her companion, discovered with several other unearthed skeletons in Pompeii, Italy, Sept. 6, 1991.
Image Credit: AP Photo
Macedonian police recovered these Bronze Age sculptures from artifact smugglers. Authorities believe Macedonia has lost more than a million archaeological artifacts to Europe's black markets since 1991.
Image Credit: Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images
Sections of this ancient Greek theater were discovered in 2007 during construction work in an Athens suburb.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis
An archaeologist measures the height of a wooden boat likely dating from prehistoric times. It was found at the bottom of the Black Sea by fishermen.
Image Credit: AP Photo/Petar Petrov
The Sphinx is carved almost entirely from one huge piece of limestone and is about 50 meters long and 22 high. Most estimates peg the iconic Egyptian structure at some 4,500 years old.
Image Credit: Getty Images
This fossil of a new hominid species that lived 1.95 million years ago was found in a cave in South Africa. Fossils from a female and child were found, and the new hominid species was named Australopithecus sediba.
Image Credit: Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Colossal stone heads watch over an archeological site Nemrut Dag, Turkey.
Image Credit: Martin Gray/Getty Images
Ancient Ruins like those of the Temple of Hadrian on the Aegean Coast of Turkey attracted the attention of the Renaissance elite.
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Fossilized eggs on display at the Inner Mongolia Museum in the regional capital of Hohhot
Image Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
The discovery of this Oviraptor nest full of eggs in the Gobi Desert was significant because it showed that some dinosaurs cared for their young.
Now that you've seen some of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the last 100 years, test your knowledge by taking our 10 Important Archaeological Finds of the 21st Century quiz!
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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