Archaeologists don’t expect to find gold in the middle of a downtown city, but that’s exactly what they did find.
Main Plaza is the historical center of downtown San Antonio. Texan construction crews have been working in the area for months in revitalization efforts for the Main Plaza Redevelopment Project. The area is the oldest part of San Antonio and designated a historical site.
Chinese archaeologists have raised an 800 year-old merchant ship built during the Song dynasty (960-1279). It’s dubbed the "Titanic of China" and before sinking, it was hauling a treasure trove of porcelain, gold, jewels and other artifacts, including 6,000 coins.
The treasure ship, officially labeled Nanhai No. 1, or “South China Sea No. 1,” was discovered 82 ft (25m) below water in a bed of mud. That mud helped to preserve the ancient ship and its contents for all these years.
Thousands of artifacts have been recovered and the remarkable next phase has already occurred - the Nanhai 1 was lifted from the sea floor and loaded onto a cargo ship.
It’s hard to surpass the excited imaginations of ancient medieval fortresses filled with bounties of hidden treasures. For a lucky few, imaginations turn to reality.
That’s likely what happened to archaeologists who recently discovered a small hoard of ancient golden coins in an old medieval fortress named Markely.
Imagine hiding over 4500 coins in the wall of your home, never to see them again. That’s apparently what happened to a blacksmith way back in the 4th century.
Earlier this month, Archaeologists were excavating a dig site in northeastern Portugal when they uncovered the ancient Roman coins within the wall of a blacksmith’s home.
The blacksmith had the coins within a sack. The coins escaped the strains of time, but the sack didn’t. It disintegrated.
Interestingly, the site archaeologists are excavating not only includes the blacksmith’s home, but also a spa and another house with heated rooms.
