Incredible Archaeological Discoveries from 2023

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[ARabidPie]

Just want to point out that the Hittites and other ancient residents of the Anatolian peninsula were most certainly not Turkish or proto-turkish. The Turkish people originating in central Asia didn't migrate into the area until around the 11th century.

[bigdog]

One silly note, Aphrodite shouldn't be seen as a godess of love primarily.

Sexual desire itself it more her domain.

Good episode, always enjoy this topic!

[tarapayne]

What about the red haired mummies in China? Seems like EVERYONE knew how to do it back in the Old World. 🎉

[BetterWorse-geci]

Egypt was also built by Greeks. So Alexander took over Greek territory.

[rafewheadon]

These are NOT ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS PEOPLE. THEIR LANGUAGES ARE BASICALLY EMOJIS,

[Souchirouu]

So if I wanted to be found by future people when I'm dead I should bury myself in those little moisture absorbing packets you get with products.

[lorensims]

Sea levels were considerably lower during the ice ages. I'm convinced there may be a myriad of prehistoric archeological sites near the edges of the continental shelves if any have survived.

[the-chillian]

- Hattusa was the Bronze Age capital of the Hittite Empire, not Turkish. There would be no polity that could fairly be called a Turkish empire until much, much later.

- Cuneiform is not a "proto-language" but an early writing system ultimately used to write many different languages, some entirely unrelated to the others, from Sumerian to Akkadian to Hittite to Hattic to Hurrian to Persian to this newly discovered language, and inspired the alphabetic system of Urartian.

- Hittite is the oldest *attested* Indo-European language. There were certainly older IE languages including the reconstructed proto-Indo-European, but they weren't written down.

- The newly found Kalasma language doesn't contain an ancient "idiom that stuck." We can't call it a "saying" either, because it hasn't been deciphered even though it appears to be another IE language related to Luwian. Most sources are calling it a "recitation", based largely on its context in a ritual text. It probably has to do with the Hittite habit of transporting gods of people they conquered to their capital, where they made an effort to honor them as in their native country in the original language. That's also how we know languages like Palaic and Hattic. Whether it's a prayer or a kind of ritual manual, or something else is not yet known.

- Although a great deal of the Bronze Age Anatolian genome persists in modern Turkey, Bronze Age Anatolians can in no way be termed "ancestral Turks". Ancestral, yes. Turks, no.

[Berdawg]

What boggles my mind is 400k years ago we know we started building structures yet 12k years ago having structures with non hunter gatherers is just ludicrous in ms archaeologists minds

[georgekassapis]

00:43 There were no Turks in Anatolia during the Bronze Age. They arrived there on the mediaval period, many thousands of years after the Bronze age collapse. I think you are refering to the Hittite Empire.

[aguynamednathan]

This comment is so early it'll be discovered in an archeological dig

[darrenstewart]

4 minutes in and YouTube has forced 2 ads in your video as you where in the middle of your promotional offers

[Dank-gbjn]

The discoveries of the Cerberus fresco and the sunken Nabatean temple to Dushara were also supremely amazing finds; especially the fresco as it was in impeccable shape!

Further, the Hittites existed in what is modern day Türkiye way before the actual Turks did; the area originally being called the Anatolian Peninsula.

Also: Cuneiform was an ancient logo-syllabic *script* not a “language”. It was used to *write* languages, but it didn’t function as one itself. Sumerian, Akkadian, and the recently discovered Kalašma (or Kalasmaic) are prime examples of *languages* that all used the same general script concept.

[Georgia-Vic]

"Gold coated mummies, hidden swords and sunken temples" will be the title of my book! Lol what a great description! 🤣Thank you Simon!

[jonathanwalls]

So I gotta be a tiny bit pedantic here since I'm a graduate student studying Hittite and other Anatolian languages, but cuneiform is emphatically NOT a proto-language, it's just a writing system used to write lots of different languages like Hittite, Akkadian, etc. That said, I should be attending the event this February where they release the first real information about Kalasmaic and I am STOKED!!!! Thanks for putting it in the video Simon, it's super exciting!!!

[scottnunnemaker]

Only one criticism, man, why is a video about archaeology opened with a clip of someone doing paleontology?

[johnsmithe]

Not Turks. Maybe ancestral Anatolians would be clearer.

[tonyhawk]

Imagine if the proposed dam at the Straight of Gibraltar was actually made and the Mediterranean drained. Archaeologists would have a field day with the previously sunken cities mentioned in this video.

[mouxritsa]

Bronze age Turkish empire?? Oh boy! 🙄🤦‍♂

[pauldaystar]

Actually Over 100, 000 Clay Tablets Cuniform, Less Than 10% Are Translated