Construction projects are always exciting, especially for the one who has ordered the construction to be carried out. Picturing the end result is exciting enough but discovering something unexpected like historical artifacts makes the ordeal even more exciting. Here are some historical artifacts that were discovered during construction or demolition projects.
Ancient Roman Artifacts:
Some unusual artifacts were found buried in the backyard of a barn where a man from England was having some lighting installed. It was later found that the home had been built on top of a Roman villa and the artifacts discovered were from 220 AD.
Shipwreck:
An entire shipwreck dated back to the 19th Century was found at a large construction site in Boston’s Seaport District.
Letter To Santa:
A letter to Santa written by a little boy named David during the WWII was found hidden inside a chimney 72 years later as the house was being demolished. The boy was found through social media and the letter was returned to him.
Mummified Woman:
A 700-year old mummified woman was found in 2011 in the city of Taizhou, China by construction workers beneath a road. She was dressed in silk clothing and expensive jewelry was apparently a member of the Ming Dynasty.
Mansion Foundations:
Foundations of a mansion dating back to the 12th Century were found during 2013 in Wellington, England during the construction of a housing development.
Woolly Mammoth Tusk:
The construction of a residential building in Seattle, Washington resulted in the discovery of the fossilized eight-foot tusk of a woolly mammoth. It is thought to be sixty thousand years old and is now in the Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Time Capsule:
A time capsule dating all the way back to 1894 was once discovered underneath a bridge in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.
Historic Hospital:
Back in 2013, a construction crew in Madrid, Spain came across the foundation of a hospital while building a new Apple store. This was not any hospital; it was the one that helped people in the 15th Century who contracted the bubonic plague.
Byzantine Church:
Construction workers performing routine maintenance uncovered the remnants of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church just outside Jerusalem.
A Bomb:
It is possible that 15% of the bombs dropped in WWII did not detonate. A 4,000-pound bomb was discovered underneath a construction site in Augsburg, Bavaria on Christmas, 2016.
Money:
Clinton McCallum and Sarina Jennings bought their first home in Arizona and started making renovations. The contractor found suitcases full of cash totaling $500,000 in the walls. A judge ordered the money to be returned to the original owner’s heirs.
Maps:
Watkins family in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia began home renovations and discovered that the insulation beneath the carpet contained old newspapers and maps dating back to the 19th century.
Gold and Silver Walls:
A couple bought an apartment in Palermo, Italy and wanted to make renovations by knocking down a wall to make more space. They noticed one section of the wall was wet and after scrubbing down the room, it was discovered that the walls were covered in ornate gold and silver paint. The apartment was later attributed to a North African merchant in the 1700s.
Mayan Drawings:
A family in Guatemala found ancient Mayan drawings depicting Spanish and Mayan people when they decided to make renovations to the kitchen and began stripping away the paint on the walls.
Victorian Kitchen:
An entire untouched Victorian kitchen was discovered by a couple from Wales in their basement that was sealed after WWII. It even had cookbooks from that era.
Wouldn’t it be exciting to find these historical artefacts when you are remodeling your house as well?