Ten newly discovered ruins and treasures to add to your bucket list

The past has a remarkable habit of refusing to stay in the shadows. Every year, surprise findings and archaeological discoveries shed light on fascinating chapters of yesteryear.

Quite often, these dusty revelations also add up to excellent reasons for travel. The following 10 sites, artefacts and echoes of history were all either unearthed or identified during the last 12 months, providing the basis for intriguing getaways which promise something new...

Penico, Peru

You might assume that a country as famously rich in heritage as Peru would have no new stories to tell, but last July’s unveiling of Penico has added a fresh strand to the tapestry. This 3,800-year-old “lost” city is not an Inca site. It is tied to the Caral people who dominated what is now the north-east of the country between the fourth and second millennia BC. It also sheds light on a civilisation that, unusually for ancient times, was peaceful – the ruins of Penico include 18 temples and houses, but no defensive walls. Penico is located just over 200 kilometres north of Lima.

The Tomb of Thutmose II, Egypt

Nearly 104 years have passed since Howard Carter pinpointed Tutankhamun’s resting place, but the discovery of a pharaonic tomb remains the gold-standard of archaeological achievements. So there was excitement in Egypt last February when a hand-dug chamber (Wadi C-4), tucked away west of the Valley of the Kings, was confirmed to be the grave of Thutmose II. The site had long evaded Egyptologists: Thutmose II reigned from 1493 to 1479 BC, and was the last king of the 18th Dynasty whose tomb was unaccounted for.

You can’t see it yet – Wadi C-4 is currently in poor condition. But the pharaoh’s mummy can be glimpsed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo.

The Tomb of Ashot the Great, Turkey

A monarch of a different golden age was the subject of a discovery in north-east Turkey last October. Ashot I was a ninth-century titan of the Bagrationi dynasty which ruled the region in the Middle Ages, and was crucial to the establishment of Georgia as a kingdom. His grave, long lost, has been identified. Its location, Ardanuc Castle, is in what is now Turkey’s Artvin Province – but was once part of Georgia, which lies a mere 100 kilometres to the north.

Roman shipwreck, Turkey

Turkey stumbled across an even older relic in July; a first-century shipwreck found 45 metres down, off the coast of Antalya, near Adrasan. The coloured ceramics – bowls, plates and vases – lifted from the seabed are in remarkable condition, because the Roman merchants who were transporting them had the foresight to pack them in raw clay. This sealing process ensured that even two millennia in saltwater did no damage to their cargo. It’s not on display yet. The ceramics will be part of the collection at a new Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum, due to be constructed at nearby Kemer – while the wreck will be accessible to scuba-tourists. In the meantime, Kemer is a lovely option for a holiday.

HMS Hind, UK

Scotland also has its wrecks. In February 2024, coastal erosion along the Bay of Lopness, on the southern edge of the Orkney island of Sanday, uncovered the timber corpse of a long-sunken ship. Last July, scientific analysis gave the victim a name. This was the former HMS Hind, a royal naval vessel which, launched in 1749, saw action in the American Revolutionary War. It was rechristened Earl Of Chatham in 1784, and put to work as an Arctic whaling boat – before coming to grief in Orkney waters in April 1788. Yes. The timbers are housed in freshwater tanks at Sanday Heritage Centre (see orkney.com).

The 1715 Treasure Fleet, US

Not so much a discovery as a gift that keeps giving. Strictly speaking, the “1715 Treasure Fleet” was never lost – this mini-armada of Spanish galleons, laden with gold, sank so soon after its departure from Havana in July 1715 that a swarm of pirates was almost immediately on the scene. Three centuries on, the 11 ships, which lie just east of Florida, continue to bleed doubloons; coins worth $1.5 million were salvaged by divers last summer. The McLarty Treasure Museum displays items from the wrecks on nearby North Hutchinson Island, where survivors of the disaster built a camp.

Spanish Civil War bunker, Mallorca

Spain prefers to keep the civil war which tore it apart between 1936 and 1939 hidden in the past. Literally so in the case of IES Ses Estacions – a school in the Mallorcan capital Palma which had been sitting on an air-raid shelter, concealed beneath its playground, for the last 90 years. The bunker was uncovered last March during routine construction work. The bunker is in good condition, and once made safe, will be used as a first-hand history lesson for the secondary school’s students.

Ravin Blanc X, Senegal

Archaeologists are increasingly enthusiastic about this promising excavation site in Senegal, which is likely to fill some of the many gaps in academic knowledge of the hunter-gatherer era in West Africa. Findings published by the University of Geneva last September talk of a Stone Age workshop in the Falémé Valley, in the east of the country, where remnants of quartz tools, crafted 9000 years ago, have been plucked from the dust. You can’t visit it as yet.

The Melsonby Hoard, UK

Discovered by amateur metal detectorist Peter Heads in 2021, but only publicised last March, the Melsonby Hoard is one of the most significant troves of Iron Age artefacts ever disinterred in the UK. The find – which amounts to more than 900 items, including jewellery, spear-tips, cauldrons and wine bowls – was probably buried around the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD. Its various treasures demonstrate both the wealth of North Yorkshire’s “aristocrats” in the first century, and their fear of the changing times. The hoard was purchased by the Yorkshire Museum in York last summer.

The boots of Ogmore Beach, UK

Some discoveries cast light on major chapters of the past. Others are more tangential. This is very much the case with the cache of footwear which washed up into the tidal rockpools at Ogmore-by-Sea just before Christmas. Around 200 boots and shoes were spotted by litter-pickers conducting a coastal clean-up. What was already mysterious became fully enigmatic when analysis showed that these well-preserved leather items are probably of Georgian vintage. It is thought the boots were shaken loose from the wreck of a steamship which foundered on the treacherous Tusker Rock, just offshore, in 1831. Yes. The shoes are currently in the care of the local Beach Academy, whose regular volunteer-led clean-up sessions often unearth such curiosities.

The Telegraph, London