Historical Artifacts

A historical artifact can be anything from arrowheads to a recently published medical journal. An artifact is something made by people that is usually of cultural or historical interest. For an artifact to be historical, it doesn’t necessarily have to be old, historical just means concerning history. 

Artifacts are registered and kept in museums like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Acropolis Museum in Athens, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, Neues Museum in Berlin, National Museum of China in Beijing, National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, and the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen to name a few.

Some of the oldest historical artifacts are more than 40,000 years old like a flute made out of bone. Bone jewelry, stone, and bone tools like arrowheads and knives date back to the first existence of humans when evolution was still in the process around 3 million years ago (and are debated whether or not they are allowed to even be considered part of human history.)  New artifacts are discovered every day and continue to amaze us in what our ancestors knew.

Lomekwi is an archeological site in Kenya that dates back 3.3 million years. It is one of the oldest archeological sites and the oldest tools in the world were found there. Some of the tools are said to predate humans by 500,000 years and were invented by the species that would later evolve into the first species of humans. Some of the 149 or more reported tools were small, sharp pieces of rock chipped off of other rock used for cutting. Other artifacts were anvil-type rocks that were used to make the sharp tools. 

Blombos Cave is a historical site near Cape Town, South Africa. The site is about 100,000 years old or older and was first excavated in 1991. Clay processing materials, engraved clay, engraved bone, beads made from seashells, and bone and stone tools have been found in the cave along with bones from land and marine animals. Clay wall paintings are recognized as the first drawn art by humans in the world. Many tools and weapons such as arrows and spearheads as well as stones used as hammers have also been found there. The only human remains found were several teeth.

The Mona Lisa is of course one of the most well-known historical artifacts, and the history of the artifact speaks for itself. Once stolen, copied many times, many paintings have taken inspiration from it, and it’s one of the highest valued paintings in the world, if not the most valuable. First painted by Leonardo Da Vinci around 1500 in Paris, the painting is widely known as the best painting of a human in existence. Reasons for the painting’s creation are still debated as well as who the person actually is, regardless, the painting is still one of the most important artifacts in history. 

Artifacts of history can be almost anything, but most are important to the human race and substantial in some sort of way. Some of the best mysteries sit in museums and have already been discovered, but the real value lies in why they are there and what they mean to us. 

Photos: 

https://pixabay.com/photos/caesar-romans-artifact-historically-1863693/

https://pixabay.com/photos/stone-age-tools-middle-stone-age-3663091/

https://pixabay.com/photos/museum-berlin-natural-history-1737987/

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