This past year has offered up many surprising and amazing discoveries in the archaeological arena. Pictured is a 4,000 year-old clay figurine unearthed in Israel that bears a resemblance to Rodin's famous statue "The Thinker."
In neighboring Egypt, 30 papyri were unveiled that contain the oldest known examples of Egyptian writing. In a literally out-of-this-world discovery, a dagger that was buried with King Tut was found to have been made from a meteorite.
Other intriguing finds included a Bronze Age settlement in the UK dubbed "Britain's Pompeii," 340-year-old Roquefort cheese found in a Swedish shipwreck, a 5,000-year-old beer recipe, the oldest known dress, "vampire" burials in Poland, and a huge ancient ship graveyard off the Aegean islands.
For more, check out this round-up from Seeker.com.