24 Ancient Cities That Were Just Discovered

Near the ancient city of Abydos, scientists have uncovered a 7,000-year-old city that was likely the home of high-ranking officials and tomb builders. A cemetery containing large burial sites indicates the higher class of those buried in the city. Along with the grave sites, pottery, tools, and dwellings dating back to Egypt’s first dynasty have also been excavated.

Although the Greek ruins at Vlochos, which lie on a 700-foot hilltop surrounded by flat plains, were discovered 200 years ago, the site was finally surveyed in 2016. What scientists had thought to be a small, insignificant village turned out to be an extensive city whose ruins lie mostly underground. Likely an ancient Greek city-state, the settlement thrived in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. before being abandoned.

For years, historians have been trying to pinpoint the location of Rhapta, an ancient port city and trade center on the eastern coast of Africa that is mentioned in numerous historical texts. When an unusually low tide in the Zanzibar archipelago revealed strange stone formations in the water, diver Alan Sutton took note and searched for them until 2016, when he finally found what may be Rhapta. The underwater ruins are currently under excavation and contain the paved roads and plazas of a once-thriving maritime community.

In 2016, archaeologists began excavating an unidentified Bronze Age settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan. It appeared to be an Akkadian city containing a palace, a large road network, a protective wall, and many large homes. When a stash of cuneiform tablets were found at the site in 2017, Akkadian language expert Betina Faist was able to identify the ancient city as Mardaman, an important trade center which was occupied continuously from 3000 to 600 B.C..

After a teenager found a cannonball in a Kansas corn field, scientists were able to pinpoint the probable location of Etzanoa, a massive ancestral Wichita city that may have once been home to 20,000 people, and that became the site of a battle with the Spanish in 1601. Thermal imaging by drone has helped scientists identify a large earthwork at the site as well as multiple homes.