In a year marked by political polarization , violent conflicts in the Middle East and Europe , and other crises, not all news stories presented a bleak portrait of the current moment. These accounts of surprise discoveries delighted our readers, leaving all of us to ask what awaits us next year. Spanning disciplines, historical eras, geographic locations and cultures, some of the artifacts highlighted below were first unearthed years ago but only documented now, while others were identified more recently.
From Ramses II’s long-lost sarcophagus to the world’s oldest deep-sea shipwreck , these were 77 of the most fascinating finds of 2024, as covered by Smithsonian magazine. For as long as humans have been making art, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have threatened their creations’ survival. Though countless masterpieces have vanished over the millennia, many others remain hidden away, tucked in attics, basements and even thrift stores.
Luck and a keen eye helped members of the public recover some of these missing artworks, leading them to take a second look at items dismissed by others as worthless. When Mat Winter was 11 years old, he rescued a print by Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer from a pile of rubbish a woman was depositing at the local dump. “I thought it looked interesting and asked if I could have it,” Winter recalled .
“She was more than happy to give it to me because she wanted it to go to someone rather than just throwi.