Imagine this: you are planning to build a new vegetable patch on your property, so you set aside a patch of land and begin digging it out. Suddenly, you see something poking out, and as you clear the dirt away, you realize it is a giant dinosaur bone. Situations like those sound like they only happen in the movies. Although the great majority of people only find worms and rocks when they dig up their backyard, a select few blessed individuals found much more valuable items. Some discovered invaluable antiques, others found gold coins, and a couple even found million-year-old fossils. This list is full of jaw-dropping objects found buried in people's backyards. So, get to reading, and digging, too.
A Soybean Farmer Found a Mammoth Skull on His Property
In 2015, a soybean farmer in Michigan named James Bristle was working on his land when he made a fantastic discovery. He called over paleontologists from the University of Michigan to investigate, and after digging up the area, they unearthed a mammoth skull with giant tusks. They also found bones from other parts of the massive animal, as well as evidence that suggests that primitive humans had eaten its flesh.
The bone marrow in the tusks had been removed with tools, and there were marks on the skull that suggested that a master butcher had divided up the meat.
His Plans of Putting a Pool in the Backyard Were Ruined
The truth is that there is no telling what endless curiosities lie underneath the ground, but never in a million years would anyone expect to find a graveyard in their backyard. A man named Vincent Marcello wanted to make himself a pool in the garden, but when he began to dig the hole for it, he suddenly hit something solid. As he continued, he found out it was a tombstone.
The man found about twelve caskets from the 17th century. He knew the home had been built on a historical site, but he never expected it to be a graveyard.
A Man Recruited an Amateur Historian to Date a Stone He Found
When Stephen Davis saw an ancient-looking stone in the land behind his property, he had a hunch that it would turn out to be an important historical artifact. It was covered in moss and pretty well hidden by the overgrown ivy, but when it was uncovered, he could tell that it was special. That is why he recruited friend and amateur historian Clare Forbes to figure out how old it was.
Nevertheless, it turned out to be much more ancient than they ever imagined. The experts who dated the stone believe it marks a Bronze Age burial site dating back to approximately 2,500 BC.
This Youngster Found the Remains of a Native American Person From 1,000 Years Ago
Many young children enjoy digging around in their backyards in search of hidden treasures, but most only find sticks and worms. In 2014, a young man from Utah noticed a strange object sticking out of the ground on the bank of a pond behind his house and decided to investigate. When he began digging, he made pretty a gruesome but historically significant discovery. He had unearthed an ancient skeleton.
The State Medical Examiner studied the remains and found that they had belonged to a Native American who had lived in the Utah area thousands of years ago.
Someone Dug up 400-Year-Old Bells in the Czech Republic
While reading this compilation, you will realize that people have found all manner of objects while digging in their backyards. A man from the Czech Republic was making a hole to install new pipes in his garden when his shovel hit a metallic object. Further explorations showed that they were two church bells that had been stolen about ten years earlier and had been hidden in the ground.
The bells were in excellent condition and were determined to be about four hundred years old. They were restored and given back to the church, where they are still ringing today.
He Found a Bunch of Cash Buried in His Garden
Who has not wished that they would find 150,000 dollars buried in their vegetable patch? For this man from Illinois, the dream came true. One day, Wayne Sabai was harvesting broccoli from his garden when he stumbled upon a black nylon bag sticking up from the ground. Inside were several piles of cash, and since it all seemed very suspicious, he called the police. Further investigations revealed that the bag belonged to his neighbor.
The woman had buried it because she was convinced that the money was cursed. The local court determined that the treasure be returned to her but awarded Sabai a portion for his honesty.
A Fossil Was Found in a Man's Property in Suffolk
There are places where it is common to find historical artifacts buried in the ground. England is one of them, and there have been hundreds of stories of people finding ancient Roman ruins or priceless antiques in forests and gardens throughout the country. However, fossils are a much rarer find. Unless you are John Lambert, a retired banker from Suffolk. In 1997, builders working at his house dug up a giant bone.
Sixteen years later he had it analyzed and it turned out to be a limb bone from a pliosaur, a creature that lived between 60 and 250 million years ago.
Two Sisters Found a Unique-Looking Chunk of Glass While Looking for Worms
In 2014 in Kitchener, Canada, two sisters were digging for worms for an upcoming fishing trip that they were planning and found more than just bugs. They uncovered a large, translucent stone and decided to take it to an expert to see what it was. Initially, they hoped it was part of a meteorite that had purportedly fallen in the area a few months ago, but that possibility was quickly ruled out.
It was not clear what the rock was upon first inspection. Nevertheless, further tests showed that it was just a type of glass that is not an uncommon find.
A Massive Earthworm Was Discovered in China
Most of the worms that you may find roaming the earth are thin and small, but in reality, they can grow to be pretty large. A man in China found out about this the hard way while he was hanging up clothes to dry. Li Zhiwei spied something moving in his garden and immediately thought it was a snake, but upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a massive earthworm.
It stretched almost 20 inches long, which is highly uncommon for an earthworm. Experts were baffled at the creature's size since specimens that big are rare. We wonder what it had been eating.
If You Find a Loaded Gun on Your Property, Call the Police
If you ever find a weapon buried somewhere on your property, you should call the police immediately. After all, who knows what sordid it may have? This man found a package wrapped in a pillowcase and stuffed in a plastic bag, wedged between the garage and his fence. When he looked inside, he found a cellphone and a hunting rifle. The gun was loaded, which made it even more suspicious.
The man did what any intelligent person would do. He unloaded the firearm and called the authorities, who took the parcel away to investigate how it had gotten there.
Some Builders Stole Almost a Million Dollar's Worth of Gold From Another Man's Property
It is already rare enough to discover something of value buried in your backyard. That is why finding a treasure on your land and having it stolen must be the worst feeling in the world. In 2014, a group of builders was hired to work on a property in northern France, and while they were leveling the ground, they uncovered a stash of gold hidden in jars.
It had laid buried and forgotten since WWII and included 16 gold bars and 600 gold coins. It was valued at about 900,000 dollars. The builders absconded with the treasure.
An Emerald Fit for a Queen Was Found on a Farm in North Carolina
The truth is that you never know what lies buried in the ground in any given place. However, a place where a treasure was found once before is likely to be hiding more. There is a two-hundred-acre farm in North Carolina that is a popular destination for those seeking buried riches. It all started when the owner, Terry Ledford, found a giant emerald fit to be part of a queen's collection.
It is so big that it was compared to the jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great. Its owners now charge visitors $3 a day to shovel for samples of the green stone.
They Found the Largest Ancient Egyptian Obelisk in a Quarry in Aswan
Egypt is chock-full of ancient artifacts. It seems that wherever they dig, they find a new invaluable piece of history. The most significant proof of this is the unfinished obelisk, the largest one ever built. It was discovered in a quarry in the city of Aswan, which is located along the river Nile. The government attempted to carve it out, but the project was abandoned because it started cracking.
Experts believe that its building was commissioned by Hatshepsut, possibly to complement what would later be known as the Lateran Obelisk. Curiously, its possible counterpart today stands in Rome.
The Two Largest Ruins of the Indus Valley Civilization Are Located in Pakistan
The Indus Valley or Harappan civilization was a Bronze Age society that lasted from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE. They spanned from northeast Afghanistan and most of Pakistan to western and northwestern India. The civilization flourished around the area of the Indus River. The two main centers we have remnants of are Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. This picture is of the ruins of Mohenjo-daro or “the mound of the dead.”
The city of Mohenjo-daro was laid out into something like a dozen blocks, or islands. Ancient Indus cities are known for their urban planning, and elaborate drainage and water supply systems.
L'Anse Aux Meadows in Canada Holds the Remains of an Ancient Viking Settlement
In history class, we are always taught that Europeans first became aware of America's existence in 1492 when Christopher Colombus stumbled upon it while trying to find an alternate route to India. Evidence of the contrary was discovered in the 1960s when the remains of a 1,000-year-old Norse settlement were uncovered in Newfoundland, Canada. It contains the remains of eight buildings constructed with sod over wooden frames.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the site may have served as a base camp for Norse exploration of the continent. It is the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside of Greenland.
In Bolivia, There Is a Monolith Shaped Like a Gate That Weighs About Ten Tons
The Gate of the Sun is a monolith in the shape of an arch or door that was carved from stone by the Tiahuanaco civilization. These people lived between 500-950 CE along the basin of the Titicaca lake up in the Andes mountains. The stone structure is located in what is now Bolivia and measures 9,8ft in height and 13ft in width. It is estimated to with about 10 tons.
It is decorated with carvings that experts believe possessed astronomical or astrological significance. The carving below the central figure represented celestial cycles. One theory is that the gate served a calendrical purpose.
Several Very Round Stones Were Found in Costa Rica
In the Diquís Delta in Costa Rica, there is an archeological site that contains many stone spheres of different sizes. The balls are commonly attributed to the extinct Diquís culture, and they are sometimes referred to as the Diquís Spheres. They are the best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area, which inhabited Central America and spoke the Chibchan language when Spanish explorers first landed on the continent.
They are thought to have been placed to signal the approach to the houses of chiefs, although their exact meaning remains uncertain. One hypothesis is that they represent the various stages of the celestial bodies.
A Pair of Kids Found a Ferrari Buried in a Backyard
Having a Ferrari is the ultimate display of wealth. These luxury cars are some of the fastest and most expensive on the market, which means they are highly coveted by many. During the 1970s, the most popular model was the Dino 246 GTS which had a claimed top speed of 146 mph and went from 0 to 50 in just over five seconds. In 1978 two children found one buried in someone's backyard.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the car had been stolen a few years earlier. It turned out that the owner had buried it himself in an attempt to commit insurance fraud.
A Man With a Metal Detector Found an Eight-Pound Piece of Gold
California is known for being the land of the gold rush. Thousands set off west to try their luck at finding gold between 1848–1855, and not all of them were lucky. Decades later, a man armed only with a metal detector managed to unearth a lump of gold that weighed about 8 pounds from his backyard. He sold the treasure and made 460,000 dollars at auction, which probably set him for life.
Geologists studying the find declared that the chances of discovering more gold on the site were very high. We wonder if the anonymous California resident found any more treasures.
Four-Hundred Pounds of WWII-Era Munitions Were Found Buried Under a School
A school is the last place in which you would wish to find weapons. Unfortunately, it is not exactly uncommon. What is not common is to find 400 pounds of WWII-era bombs and munitions in a place where children go to study. This is what happened in 2008 in a middle school in Central Florida. It turned out that the area had been used by the army as a bombing range during the 1940s.
Why anyone thought it would be a good idea to build a school at the same site that was used as a bombing range is a mystery to us.
Over Two Hundred Pieces of Medieval Jewelry Were Found in a Back Garden in Austria
One of the most significant discoveries of medieval jewelry in Austria's history was made in 2007 by a man who was turning over the soil of his back garden. According to the country's Federal Office for Memorials, the trove consisted of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates, and other pieces or fragments. Many were encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral, and other ornaments.
The objects were estimated to be about 650 years old. The man who discovered them had kept them stashed in his basement for almost 2 years before he had them appraised.
A 9-Year-Old Discovered a Cheetah Sitting in His House's Garden
Those who live in the United Kingdom do not usually have the chance to see a live cheetah unless they go to a zoo. This child from Cambridgeshire, England, was lucky, or unlucky, enough to find one sitting in his garden. When 9-year-old Toby saw the wild animal, he slowly went back inside and warned his mother about the unexpected visitor, and she phoned the police immediately.
The feline had recently escaped from a local zoo after the electric fence keeping it inside had malfunctioned. It was quickly recaptured by keepers and returned to its enclosure.
Some Kids Found the Neck Bone of a Mastodon Near Their House
One summer afternoon in Michigan, two 11-year-olds went out to fish at a stream near their house. They later decided to build a dam and began to gather sticks and rocks, but they found one very unusual object sticking out from the bank. They had discovered a 13,000- to 14,000-year-old fossil. John Zawiskie, a geologist at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, identified it as an axis or neck bone of a mastodon.
Mastodons were giant, elephant-like animals that became extinct 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. Discoveries of prehistoric animals are not uncommon in the area because the vegetation surrounding the lakes was attractive to them.
A House in Bosnia Was Pelted by Meteorites
Radivoje Lajic's property is one of a kind. For some mysterious reason, this Bosnian man keeps finding small meteorites in his garden. He already has 5, which is much more than anyone has ever discovered in their backyard. Experts at Belgrade University have confirmed that the falling rocks did come from outer space and are still trying to identify what makes his house the perfect landing pad for them.
Lajic's theory is that he is being targeted by aliens, but a curious fact is that they only fall when it is raining heavily, not when it is clear.
This Man Found a Rare Baleen Whale Fossil in 1978
Some treasures are immediately identified, but others take more expertise to recognize. An American named Gary Johnson found a rock in his backyard in 1978. He had brought it to an expert shortly after discovering it but had been told it was nothing special. However, when he saw a story about a whale fossil that had been unearthed in the same area, he began to suspect.
Over 3 decades later, he took it to a paleontologist who estimated that the fossil was likely from an extremely rare baleen whale and approximately 14,000,000 years old.
A Family Discovered a Cold War-Era Fallout Shelter at the Back of Their House
During the Cold War, the constant threat of nuclear war made bomb shelters very attractive additions to many US houses. In 2001, a Wisconsin family bought a property that had a metal hatch in the garden. They initially assumed that it led to nothing of interest, but their curiosity grew stronger and stronger, and 9 years later, they decided to open it. Inside they found a fully-stocked, Cold War-era fallout shelter.
It was as if they had traveled back to the past. Its contents were almost perfectly preserved and included candles, candy, a phone directory, and even a garden hose.
It Is Rare to Find 10 Million's Worth of Gold Coins Buried in the Garden
Children like to make believe that they are pirates sailing the seas in search of gold and treasures. However, when they grow up, they realize that the chances of finding a chest full of gold coins are pretty slim. In 2013, a couple from the Sierra Nevada refueled everyone's childhood fantasies when they unearthed several canisters full of coins from their backyard. All in all, they ended up finding 1,427 coins.
Since they did not believe that their find was worth much, the couple decided to have the gold restored. Experts later deemed their findings worth about 10,000,000 dollars.
An Expedition Stumbled Upon a Perfectly Preserved Moa Claw
The Moa were species of birds that belonged to the ratite group of flightless birds. They lacked the vestigial wings that other ratites have and were the largest terrestrial animals in New Zealand. They dominated the island's forest, shrubland, and subalpine ecosystems until the Māori arrived and hunted them to extinction. The largest specimens reached about 12 feet in height with their neck outstretched and weighed about 510 pounds.
In the 20th century, during an expedition, scientists stumbled across an enormous Moa claw that had been perfectly preserved. Even the skin was intact, which made it an invaluable find.
There Are No Records of Who Built Longyou Caves in China or Why
The history of China and its surrounding areas is one of the most well-documented ones since the Chinese have kept written records for millennia. However, there is one historical landmark, the Longyou Caves or Xiaonanhai Stone Chambers, of which there is no trace. The 24 caverns that make up the complex were carved out of sandstone and were discovered by farmers in 1992 after they drained some ponds in their village.
They have been determined to be over 2,000 years old. Little is known about who or why they were constructed because they are not recorded in any historical documents.
A Cannonball From the Battle of New Orleans Was Found Buried Behind Someone's House
The Battle of New Orleans of 1815 was one of the most famous in the US War of Independence against the British army. Despite being outnumbered, Major General Andrew Jackson led his men to a surprise victory in just 30 minutes, with only 71 casualties. Both sides had artillery divisions that employed cannonballs, and many damaged guns were abandoned on the battlefield because they were very tough to move.
Curiously, 200 years later, a New Orleans native found one of those cannons while digging a hole for a fish pond in his backyard. How the earth managed to swallow it is still a mystery.
It Is Still Debated Whether This Rock Formation Is Natural or Man-Made
Off the coast of the island of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan, lies a unique rock formation that some claim was made by an ancient civilization. It was found in 1986 by a group of divers searching for hammerhead sharks, who frequently roam the area. The origins of this "Yonaguni Monument" are debated, although most archeologists believe it was a natural rock formation.
Its regular stair-like arrangement leads some to theorize that it was constructed by humans. Nevertheless, Yonaguni lies in an earthquake-prone region, which is likely to fracture rocks in that manner.
A Group of Amateur Israeli Divers Found the Largest Collection of Medieval Coins in the Country
Back in 2015, a group of amateur Israeli divers swimming near the coast of Caesarea stumbled across the most significant find of their lives and probably of the country's history. They initially thought that they had found toy coins, but after marine archaeologists inspected them, their 13-pound haul was deemed to consist of real gold coins dating back to the 11th century. Their origins are not known for sure, but there are some theories.
One is that a boat carrying tax money to Egypt sank, taking its riches with it. Another one is that the wreck was from a merchant ship trading between Mediterranean coastal cities.
A Man Renovating His Backyard Unearthed a Vintage Cash Register
If you have read this far, you probably know that people have dug up all sorts of items. That is why you would not be surprised if we told you that someone found a vintage cash register buried in the ground. A man was renovating his backyard when he hit something metallic. He ended up unearthing a perfectly preserved cash register from the 1940s along with several car batteries.
One theory is that the batteries were used to power the register during WWII when there were regular electricity shortages. We wonder if there was any cash left inside.
There Is an Underground City Complex in Capadocia That Was Built for Protection
In Cappadocia, modern-day Turkey, there is an underground city comprised of multiple levels and a network of tunnels called Derinkuyu. It extends approximately 279 feet into the ground and can shelter around 20,000 people, along with livestock and food stores. It even contains amenities such as wine and oil presses, stables, and a ventilation shaft that serves as a water source as well. Other features include Christian chapels and refectories.
They are believed to have been built by the Phrygians in the 8th–7th centuries BC. It was fully developed during the Byzantine era and was heavily used during the Arab–Byzantine wars in 780–1180 AD.
The Inca Fortress of Sacsayhuaman Was Made Without Any Mortar
The Inca people were masters of engineering, and many of their buildings were constructed without using mortar. Inca builders would carve and chisel each rock so they would sit flush enough together that not even a piece of paper could pass between them. The fortress of Sacsayhuaman, located near Cusco in Perú, is no exception. Archeologists believe construction began during the government of Inca Pachacutec in the 15th century.
The precise carving of the blocks, combined with their rounded corners, the variety of shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is believed to have helped the building survive several earthquakes.
Through: Photo: Reddit