From the storied shores of Scandinavia to the ancient cities of the Mediterranean, Europe is rich with remnants of its past. Roamed by early hunter-gatherers, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and many more throughout its history, this fascinating continent is a living time capsule where buried treasures are still being unearthed every year. We've picked out what we think are the 30 most compelling archaeological discoveries ever found in Europe.

Click through this gallery to discover Europe’s most remarkable archaeological finds, ranked...

First found in Transylvania 300 years ago, this coin languished in a museum cupboard for decades after being deemed a fake. Adorned with the profile of mysterious Roman ruler Sponsian, long dismissed by history as fictitious, the coin was reexamined in 2022 – and proven to be authentic after all. Scratch marks on the coin’s surface suggest it was in circulation 2,000 years ago, meaning Sponsian was, in fact, a real emperor. It’s thought he assumed command in the midst of a civil war, and he certainly never ruled centrally from Rome.

Bulgaria’s current capital is built on top of the ruins of Roman Serdica. Talk of an undiscovered 4th-century arena here first gained momentum in 1919, when a stone plaque depicting gladiator fights was found – believed to be an ancient advertisement. But it wasn’t until 2004 that the fabled site was finally unearthed during the construction of the Arena di Serdica Boutique Hotel. An earlier theatre dating back to the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD was also found buried even deeper. The amphitheatre is the only public building of its kind in the region, and has since been incorporated into the hotel’s design.

Discovered in the Navarre region of Spain in 2021, the Hand of Irulegi is a 2,100-year-old bronze artefact that once belonged to the Vascones, a late-Iron Age tribe. Found in the remains of a mud-brick house, where it was probably hung from the door as a good luck charm, the relic is inscribed with the earliest known written evidence of the Basque language. The revelation quite literally changed history, as scientists and historians previously believed that the Vascones were illiterate.

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When record-breaking droughts gripped parts of Europe in 2018 and 2022, they exposed a host of treasures in dried-up rivers and reservoirs, from lost villages to shipwrecks. But none were more chilling than this so-called 'hunger stone', which reappeared both years as the Elbe River receded. Found in the Czech town of Decin, its inscription reads 'Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine' ('If you see me, then weep') – serving up a stark warning from past generations. First used to record water scarcity in the 15th century, the hunger stone is one of the oldest hydrological monuments in central Europe.

Global warming is also partly responsible for the emergence of a pair of 1,300-year-old skis on a mountain in southern Norway. Melting glacial ice exposed the first Iron Age ski back in 2014, with archaeologists recovering the second (pictured) in 2021. Together, they're thought to be the oldest surviving pair of skis in the world. Archaeologists have become unlikely beneficiaries of climate change – experts from the Secrets of the Ice programme who found these skis have also retrieved 4th-century shoes and prehistoric arrows from thawing glaciers and ice patches.

In 2023, the fossilised footprints of a family of prehistoric Heidelberg people were uncovered in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. Made 300,000 years ago along the shores of a now-extinct lake, they are the oldest known human footprints ever found in the country. The tracks, which were discovered near those of a primeval forest elephant (the region’s earliest evidence of these animals), are thought to belong to Homo heidelbergensis – an archaic human species said to be the first home-builders and big-game hunters to walk the Earth.

Also in 2023 was the discovery of the world’s oldest datable runestone. Recovered from a burial ground a little way west of Oslo, the tablet was inscribed with runic writing from up to 2,000 years ago. Researchers were able to trace the stone back to between AD 1 and 250 by analysing burnt bones and charcoal from the cremation pit where it was found. Runes are the oldest known form of writing in Scandinavia and runestones from the Viking era are the most commonly found. This stone is the only one of its kind to predate AD 300.

In 2020, the remains of a theatre contemporary with William Shakespeare were found at a housing redevelopment in east London. The Red Lion was Britain’s first purpose-built playhouse, thought to have been constructed around 1567 before larger venues like the Globe and the Theatre in Shoreditch were established. Its location was long debated by historians, so Stephen White from Archaeology South-East couldn’t believe his luck when his team unearthed it. He told The Guardian: "This is one of the most extraordinary sites I’ve worked on."

Some of the oldest man-made structures in the world, the Ggantija Temples were first excavated in the 1820s, though they weren't properly studied until a century later. Named for their impressive size (Ggantija means 'place of giants' in Maltese), legend dictates that it was giants who built these UNESCO-listed megalithic temples. Archaeologists agree that they were in fact the work of humans, who erected them between 3600 and 2500 BC. We don’t know for sure how ancient Gozitans used these structures – one theory suggests they were linked to an Earth Mother goddess fertility cult.

The Hittites were an ancient Indo-European civilisation that first appeared in Anatolia at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Fascinating traces of their existence have been found at Usakli Hoyuk, the remains of a Bronze Age city in central Turkey, including what is believed to be the world’s oldest mosaic. Unearthed during excavations at the site in 2018, it was later announced that the paved floor, made up of over 3,000 individual stones, dated back more than 3,500 years. This predates the oldest known ancient Greek mosaics by around seven centuries.

Older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza, Newgrange is the finest example of a Neolithic passage grave in Europe. Built around 3200 BC and rediscovered in 1699, the mound covers about an acre and is encircled by 97 kerbstones, some of which are decorated with swirls of megalithic art. Around the time of the winter solstice, dawn light pours into the chamber for around 17 minutes, proving that the Stone Age farmers behind its construction understood how the Sun could be used to mark time.

This little lady (literally – she’s just over four inches/11cm tall) was found in 1908 and is one of the oldest works of art in the world. Estimated to have been sculpted between 28,000 and 25,000 BC, the limestone figurine is perhaps the most famous of its kind, depicting a faceless and voluptuous female form. It’s small enough to be carried by hand and made from materials not native to Willendorf, so it was probably made elsewhere and then brought to the area. She could have been a fertility symbol, a good luck totem or even an aphrodisiac.

"It was 26 April 1952... I stood on the shovel and it wobbled like a rubber ball. I hit him right on the shoulder." These are the haunting words of peat-cutter Tage Busk Sorensen, who had just discovered a body in a bog in Jutland, Denmark. Known as the Grauballe Man, the 2,300-year-old body was remarkably well preserved, from the hair on its head (dyed red by the murky bog) to the stubble on its chin. Entombed in the bog, probably as part of a ritual sacrifice, the Grauballe Man is now displayed at the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus.

Around the time that the Grauballe Man met his end, a Celtic shield fashioned from tree bark was being crafted across the sea. More than 2,000 years later, in 2015, the "astonishing and unparalleled" find was unearthed in Leicestershire, where it was declared the only one of its kind ever discovered in Europe. Dating back to the Iron Age, when shields were typically made from metal or solid timber, this specimen would have been much lighter, allowing warriors to fight more freely.

Discovered in a mound on a farm in southeastern Norway in 1903, the Oseberg ship burial is a ceremonial Viking vessel which held the skeletons of two women, along with various grave goods and the remains of animal sacrifices. Perhaps the world’s richest Viking burial and one of the most significant finds of its era, the ship – long crushed by the weight of the earth – was painstakingly restored and rebuilt over more than 20 years with more than 90% of its original wood. As for the women, who they were remains unknown.

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The Menga dolmen, modern Europe’s largest known megalithic structure, is one of the main attractions of the Antequera archaeological site in Andalucia. Dating back to the early Copper Age (around 2500 BC), the ancient tomb was called "one of the greatest engineering feats of the Neolithic" in a 2023 study. Built from colossal hunks of stone to form funerary chambers within an earthen mound, the dolmen’s sophisticated design was intended to align with the surrounding mountains. Prehistoric humans would have required strong ropes, specialised knots and wooden scaffolds to safely transport the huge stone blocks uphill.

On 10 August 1628, crowds gathered around Stockholm’s quayside to see Vasa – the most powerful warship in the Baltic Sea – depart on its maiden voyage. But excitement soon turned to despair when the mighty (yet highly unstable) craft began to list in the wind, taking on water through its open gun ports. The ship foundered, with around 30 of the 150 people on board lost to the disaster. After 333 years underwater, the mostly intact wreck was salvaged in 1961. It's now housed in a purpose-built museum, the Vasamuseet, in the Swedish capital.

After lying forgotten in an ancient cave in the French countryside for at least 57,000 years, it was revealed in 2023 that these markings were in fact the oldest known Neanderthal engravings ever found. Archaeologists discovered the eight panels of abstract artwork in the cave of La Roche-Cotard in the Loire Valley, and found more than 400 intentional 'finger flutings' (indents made by fingers smudged into the sediment). It’s thought that the engravings could date back as far as 75,000 years – way before the arrival of Homo sapiens in this corner of Europe.

When an Andalusian farmer tried to tell local authorities in 1976 that he’d stumbled across “stones that resemble bones” on his land, they didn’t give his report much thought. It was only when a team from the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology later examined his findings that the scale of his discovery became apparent. The hilltop hamlet known as Orce is now believed to be where Europe’s earliest inhabitants settled. A fossilised tooth unearthed from the muddy ground dates back 1.4 million years, making it the oldest Homo genus remains on the continent.

Found in 1991 by unsuspecting hikers, Otzi the Iceman is a glacier mummy who was preserved in the frozen Tyrolean Alps for over 5,000 years. Dating back to the Copper Age, he is Europe’s oldest known mummy and one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Scientists have since deduced that Otzi was murdered, having been shot in the back with an arrow and left for dead. Recent DNA analysis also showed that he had dark skin and a receding hairline. You can meet Otzi today at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.

Built in six stages between 3000 and 1520 BC atop Salisbury Plain in southern England, Stonehenge was first surveyed by archaeologists in the 17th century, when it was incorrectly credited to more recent Celtic druids. The exact purpose of the stone circle, definitely the world’s most famous, has never been proven, though most experts agree that it was a religious and ceremonial gathering place. Intentionally built to align with the sun on the solstices, Stonehenge forms the bulk of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Avebury stone circle and other Neolithic relics nearby.

The cradle of Minoan civilisation, Knossos was the seat of the semi-legendary Cretan king Minos, known in Greek mythology for having a minotaur (a bull-human hybrid) imprisoned in his palace’s impossible labyrinth. It's perhaps more likely that the palace itself gave rise to the labyrinth myth, thanks to its maze-like interior. Constructed in two phases between 1900 and 1450 BC, the royal residence was first excavated in the late 19th century. Frescoes on its walls tell of the ancient sport of bull-jumping, which might help explain the minotaur myth, as the fearless competitors were seen as half men, half bulls.

The Staffordshire Hoard, a 4,000-piece cache of elaborate metalwork, is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver treasure ever found. Unearthed by a metal detectorist in 2009 near the city of Lichfield, it’s thought to have been buried during the 7th century AD, when the area belonged to the Kingdom of Mercia. Historically, most gold artefacts from Anglo-Saxon times have been jewellery, but the Staffordshire Hoard is uniquely composed almost entirely of war gear. Nowadays, it's split between museums in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

Upon its rediscovery in the 1960s, Gobekli Tepe was initially written off as a medieval cemetery, perhaps due to its sea of headstone-like megaliths. A few decades later, its true age was deciphered by archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, who placed its origins in the pre-pottery Neolithic age. Wild animal bones found at the site suggest it was built by hunter-gatherers around about 9,000 BC. Likely used for funeral ceremonies, Schmidt believes Gobekli Tepe to be "the first ever human-built holy place".

Historians have always known that King Richard III fatally fell at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, but the whereabouts of his body remained a mystery for centuries. Then, in 2012, archaeologists unearthed a war-wounded skeleton displaying signs of scoliosis (Richard had spinal curvature) under a car park in Leicester. The following year, it was confirmed that the lost king – identified by genetic testing – had indeed been found, making headlines across the world. He was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.

While the depiction of Troy made famous by Homer’s Iliad certainly took artistic liberties, it’s very possible that the besieged city did actually exist. Self-taught archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann set out to find the real Troy in the late 19th century, and claimed that he'd uncovered it near Turkey’s Aegean coast. Not everyone was convinced by the discovery thanks to Schliemann’s ham-fisted excavations, but it is now widely thought that he did in fact locate the lost city. Today, the 4,000-year-old site is protected by UNESCO and open to the public.

Overlooking the Bay of Skaill in Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands, Skara Brae is probably the best-preserved Stone Age settlement in Western Europe, once home to prehistoric farmers and fisherfolk. The village, built around 5,000 years ago, was buried beneath a sand dune for several centuries until it was exposed by a storm in 1850. Early excavations of its surviving buildings began in the 1860s, though it wasn’t intensively studied until the 1900s. All but one of the nine Neolithic houses still standing here today can be viewed from a winding path.

We have a curious canine to thank for this discovery, after four boys in 1940 followed their dog down a foxhole and into an underground chamber adorned with prehistoric art. Dating back to around 15,000 BC, the 600 paintings – mostly of animals such as horses, ibex, deer and bison – and 1,400 engravings were recently found to represent a kind of lunar calendar, informed by the reproductive cycles of Ice Age fauna. While the actual Lascaux Cave is closed to visitors for conservation reasons, a detailed replica can be seen nearby.

In 1939, landowner Edith Pretty and amateur archaeologist Basil Brown made history when they investigated a network of mysterious mounds on Pretty’s Suffolk estate. Heralded as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time by the National Trust, Brown uncovered an Anglo-Saxon burial ship laden with treasure. Now thought to belong to King Raedwald, a 7th-century ruler of East Anglia, the funerary goods included jewellery, Byzantine silverware and an incredibly rare warrior’s helmet (pictured). The British Museum, where the collection is on display today, calls Sutton Hoo the richest intact early medieval grave in Europe.

This burgeoning resort city in Roman Italy was transformed forever in AD 79 when the notorious eruption of Mount Vesuvius blanketed it in a thick layer of ash and pumice. Preserved beneath the dust for almost two millennia, Pompeii was eventually rediscovered in the late 16th century, but it took many more years for excavations to begin in earnest. There’s still much to learn about this lost city and new discoveries are being made all the time: in April 2024, huge frescoes bearing scenes and figures from Greek mythology were found.

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