The Past Is Present

Roman ship was carrying thousands of jars of garum when it went down               Boris Horvat/AFP

You'd think that by now we'd have found every artifact, every bit of history there was to find, but fortunately, we clearly haven't. They keep surfacing, and from a new monument at Stonehenge to a 10,000-year-old monolith on the Mediterranean seafloor to man-made structures thought to be the mythical "White City" in the depths of a Honduran jungle, 2015 was a banner year in that respect (slideshow): http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/Top-archaeological-finds-of-2015/9296/
   And now, Suleiman the Magnificent! The Ottoman Empire's longest-ruling sultan died at the age of 71 during a siege of the Szigetvár town and fortress in what is now southern Hungary. That was in 1566. Although his body was taken back to Istanbul, his heart and internal organs were buried on the spot where he died. Hungarian researchers believe they have pinpointed that spot. Using geophysical and remote sensing, they have found several brick and stone buildings, one of which, they said, "is almost exactly oriented toward Mecca": http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/tomb-of-suleiman-the-magnificent-possibly-found-151210.htm
   On the floor of the Ligurian Sea, Italian archaeologists have found the wreck of a Roman ship dating between the first and second century AD. From the plethora of clay jars piled around, which now, ironically, offer sanctuary to sea life, they speculate that the ship had been carrying garum, a fish-based food seasoning the Romans used in much the same way we use ketchup, from one of the
Spanish factories in which it was mass-produced to Rome. Gotta feel for those Romans who had to do without their fermented fish until the next shipment came in: http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/wreck-full-of-ancient-roman-ketchup-found-151211.htm
   Speaking of Romans, archaeologists in the Netherlands have found artifacts that they claim prove that Julius Caesar was there and that he led his army to victory over two Germanic tribes on a battlefield there in 55 BCE. The two tribes had asked him for asylum, but he instead ordered his eight legions and cavalry to wipe them out: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/julius-caesar-battlefield-unearthed-southern-netherlands-dutch-archaeologists?CMP=twt_a-science_b-gdnscience
   Looking ahead, National Geographic predicts that, with our new technologies, we will continue to make discoveries and to conclusively either confirm or refute current theories about our past. "There’s a reason why National Geographic is calling the 21st century the 'new age of exploration,' " says archaeologist and Society fellow Fredrik Hiebert. "The opportunities for what we can discover in this century—and the questions we’ll finally be able to answer—seem almost limitless": http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150908-archaeology-future-discoveries-technology-ancient-mysteries/