10 Most Amazing Treasures Found by Accident

Treasures are found all the time for ancient artifacts to modern masterpieces but most of the time they're only discovered after extensive research and exploration by people specifically trying to track them down occasionally though treasures can be found completely by accident and in some cases these are some of the greatest finds that are ever uncovered.

Here are the stories of the top ten most amazing treasures to ever be found by accident.

10) The World's Largest Pearl

We've all stored objects under our beds at some point but for one fisherman from the Philippines there was more than just pocket change beneath his furniture. In 2006 he was out in his boat when his anchor got caught on a giant clam he had to swim down to release it and in a great twist of fate he found a giant pearl inside thinking it was an omen of good luck he kept it under his bed and didn't think any more of it that was until he needed to move houses ten years later and gave the pearl to his aunt she asked if she could offer it to the mayor of the town to put it on display and that's when the extreme value of the spine came to light. The pearl is 1 foot wide 2.2 feet long and weighs a staggering 75 pounds, further tests are needed but if the pearl was indeed formed inside a giant clam. I t's thought to be worth almost a hundred million dollars.

The World's Largest Pearl

9) Uncle Sam Diamond

The creator of diamond State Park in Arkansas attracts visitors from all around the world for one reason if you're lucky you might just find yourself a diamond. The unique geography of the area combined with sporadic rainfall means that they quite often rise to the surface for anyone to find, the area is one of the only diamond sites in the world that is open to the public and if you find one it's yours to do with as you wish in total more than 75 thousand diamonds are thought to have been found in the park since 1906 and the most impressive one of all became known as the Uncle Sam diamond. It was found by wo Basham in 1924 and at a weight of forty point to three carats remains the largest to ever be found in the United States. In 1971 the cut diamond sold for the equivalent of eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars so with many more out there to be found it's probably time to visit Arkansas.

Uncle Sam diamond

8) Atari Games Landfill 

Nowadays Atari is not at the top of the list when you think of important video game developers but back in the 80's they were at the cutting edge of the industry. Games like asteroids and centipede sold in their masses but there was an urban legend that Atari ended up dumping a large number of cartridges most notably copies of the Et Video-game which after only 34 days of development is often referred to as being the worst video game in history and a contributing factor to Ataris downfall, collectors will now pay a lot of money for these cartridges. In 2014, Jolie went Wow ski the owner of the refuse company that disposed of the cartridges in a New Mexico landfill site came across some old records of where the games were buried to prove the legend to be true he invested more than $50,000 into the retrieval and subsequently was able to sell them around the world for almost a hundred and eight thousand dollars.

Atari Games Landfill 

7)  The Dead Sea Scrolls

There are so many unexplored places in the world that you can never be sure quite when the next amazing find will be made. One of the most important discoveries ever took place in 1946 near the Dead Sea, fragments of writing had previously been found all around the area but in November of that year a group of veteran Shepherds stumbled across a cave that contained seven Scrolls inside jars further investigation led to a network of caves each of which contains similar artifacts that have since become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's still not clear who made or stored the writings with the leading theory suggesting they were from a sect of Jews called the isense who lived at a nearby qualm run they're all religious texts and had been dated to more than 2,000 years old and are written in four different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Nabatean. Most significantly they're by far the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible that have ever been found and there's a suspicion that there are many more still waiting to be unearthed.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

6) Valuable Artworks

Next time you look through a storage locker it's worth keeping an eye out for anything unusual because you may just be holding on to something that's worth far more than you could possibly imagine forgotten artworks are often found in this way and have the potential to change your life. In 2016 a French family was carrying out renovation works to their leaky roof while moving objects out of their attic they found a Caravaggio painting thought to be worth a hundred and fifty million dollars. This was called "Judith beheading Holofernes". It was one of the artists most important work and the discovery was described as a momentous occasion in European art history elsewhere in 1999 the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston paid 1.25 million dollars for magnolias on gold velvet cloth by Martin Johnson he'd a 19th century artist. This particular painting had been used to cover a hole in a contractor's home and he only realized it might be valuable when playing the board game masterpiece that featured an image of it. After making inquiries the sale was soon made and he was able to finally cover up the hole in the wall properly.

5) The Rosetta Stone 

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important artifacts that has ever been found and was vital in learning how to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. Towards the end of the ancient Egyptian Empire, Greek was the language spoken by the elite in society and pitama levy commissioned the stone as a piece of political propaganda that was written in both Greek and Egyptian. After the fall of the Egyptians the stone was buried and it was only in 1799 that it was found again as a captive during the Napoleonic Wars oversaw the restoration of an old fort near the small town of Rosetta where it was discovered. At first it was unclear quite how significant the find was but scholars began to study the etchings in 1814 and soon began to unlock the mysteries of ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone

4) Chinese Bowl 

Garage sales are another place that valuable items could be found and one New York family hit the jackpot in 2007, they were looking for a bolt of place on a mantelpiece as a decoration and paid three dollars for one with a Chinese design that was just a little over five inches in diameter they were curious though and consulted with experts about its origin soon discovering that it was a one thousand year old ding Bowl from the northern Song Dynasty. The only other known of which had been on display in the British Museum for more than 60 years. He had a fine near white body with an ivory colored glaze and is a beautiful example of the pottery from that time. The family took it to an auction house South bees with an estimate of up to three hundred thousand dollars but it finally sold for a massive 2.2 million after a Chinese antiques collector fended off a number of other interested bidders.

Chinese Bowl

3) Secret Stash Of Comics

In 2011 Michael Rohrer of Virginia began the task of clearing out his recently deceased great aunt's home it was a tough time for him but as he sifted through her he made a spectacular find a collection of more than 345 comic books. It was an amazing stash that had been put together by his great uncle and included rarities such as Action Comics number one which featured the first appearance of Superman and Batman number one for 1940 within the collection were 44 of the over street comic book price guides list of the top 100 books from the Golden Age of comics between the late 30's and 40's as an avid fan he read through the once that piqued his interest and then put them all up for sale. Most of them sold almost immediately some for as much as five hundred and twenty three thousand dollars and in total the entire collection raised about 3.5 million dollars.

Secret Stash Of Comics

2) The Terracotta Army 

Farmers from the small xingyang village in China we're out one day in 1974 when they accidentally discovered one of the most important fights in archaeological history. They were attempting to dig a water well and on the fifth day of their work their excavator pulled out a life-size terracotta warrior. They thought it was a pottery God so they kept digging for water and found further artifacts like bronze arrows and pieces of more warriors. It was at this time that the discovery was reported to local authorities and full-scale excavations begun since then a total of three pits had been found as part of a large necropolis and more than 8,000 soldiers 130 chariots and 670 horses are thought to be there although most remain buried because of the risk of damaging them they're believed to have been made about 2,300 years ago and depict the armies of kin Shi Huang who was the first emperor of China the area is now a world heritage site and it's still not entirely clear how large the collection is or what the true purpose behind the life-size statues are, they represent a huge amount of worth by more than 700 thousand people each warrior is unique and seemingly based on the actual soldiers of the time and even the horses are individual to each other. Some accounts suggests that this was the final resting place of the Emperor where he was buried surrounded by vast cities and more than 100 rivers of flowing mercury with traces of mercury hadn't been found in the surrounding soil there could be a much larger discovery just waiting to be found.

The Terracotta Army 

1) Hana Mundaka Palace Treasure 

In 2011 workers began renovations on Hana mundaka, a former 16th century royal in Kathmandu the capital of Nepal. The dilapidated building urgently needed restoration works but no one could have expected what would be uncovered. The palace covers a space of more than five acres and while they were inspecting the foundations they found three boxes of treasure hidden within a storeroom in total the treasure waited more than 661 pounds and contained coins and ornaments in tribute to the gods. The first box was open and was found to contain gold and silver worth about $ 233,334 and the other two were stored for further investigation the site is steeped in history and it's thought that there are far more secrets to be unearthed across the site. There are for example a series of treasure houses on the site that have so far not been opened because of their fragile state, their clouded in mystery and could contain invaluable treasures once they're finally explored. The political troubles in that region have made this process difficult but they are hoping to be able to fully understand what lies there as soon as their efforts continue.


Which discovery did you think was most amazing and what's the best treasure you've ever found let us know in the comments section below: