2025's most amazing historical and geological discoveries
From ancient royal tombs to dinosaur highways… Let's look back at the discoveries of 2025 that reshaped our understanding of Earth's past.
Natural history is a never-ending voyage of discovery.
Every year, scientists, archaeologists and historians peel back the layers of time and reveal new chapters of the fascinating story of our world. And not just stories from our relatively short human history, but also what happened here in the millions of years before Homo Sapiens appeared.
In 2025, discoveries from across the globe uncovered previously hidden burial chambers of kings, ancient dinosaur footprints, Iron Age culture and deep prehistoric insights. All, in their own way, have shaken up our understanding of our extinct ancestors.
We've curated a list of five of the most awe-inspiring historical and geological discoveries of the past year – findings that illuminate long-buried and forgotten worlds…
1. A royal Mayan tomb at Caracol
On Central America's northeast coast, in the ancient city of Caracol, Belize, archaeologists made one of the most exciting historical discoveries of the year.
It gets more exciting. The discovery was made in what could be the burial chamber of a founding Maya king.
At around 1,700 years old, the tomb dates to roughly AD 330 and contains many mysterious artefacts – including a mosaic jade death mask and skeletal remains.
Researchers believe these remains could belong to Te K'ab Chaak, the first known ruler and founding king of Caracol. His dynasty shaped the rise of the city as a powerful Mayan centre.
Finds such as obsidian blades and ceremonial objects offer new insight into the roles of Maya rulers and the broader political landscapes of ancient Mesoamerica.
This discovery is about much more than just exciting treasures. It's also about power, politics and the early structure of one of the most remarkable civilisations of the ancient world.
2. A dinosaur highway in the heart of England
One of 2025's most spectacular palaeontological discoveries was made right here in the UK. Last summer, researchers uncovered a massive set of dinosaur footprints at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire.
These trackways, dubbed part of a "dinosaur highway", date back 166 million years to the Middle Jurassic era. They include tracks from giant herbivorous dinosaurs, such as the Cetiosaurus, as well as predators like the Megalosaurus.
The preservation of these prints helps scientists learn not just which species walked these lands, but also how they moved and interacted with their environment. The footprints provide a fascinating snapshot of ancient ecosystems at work, and of a moment of prehistoric life frozen in time.
3. A royal tomb of the Tutankhamun dynasty
Let's face facts – archaeology in Egypt is never going to be disappointing, is it? And 2025 was certainly no exception.
Last February, a joint Egyptian-British team announced that the last undiscovered royal tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty – that of Pharaoh Thutmose II – had been found.
Thutmose II was the husband and half-brother of the famous queen Hatshepsut. He was also an ancestor of Tutankhamun, whose own tomb was discovered more than a century ago. The new burial chamber, however, was discovered in a somewhat unexpected location several kilometres away from the Valley of the Kings.
The tomb was found to be empty – not because it had been robbed, but because it had been moved just a few years after it was built. It did, however, contain broken fragments of jars bearing inscriptions of the names of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, confirming its royal status.
This discovery was not only an extraordinary moment for the field of Egyptology, but also enriched our perspective on the shared story of humankind.
4. Neanderthal fire, art and culture
While not a single-site discovery, 2025 was a remarkable year for revelations about our closest extinct relatives, Homo neanderthalensis.
A series of studies shed light on their behaviour, intelligence and use of technology. That includes some compelling evidence that Neanderthals in England may have been the first to deliberately create and control fire more than 400,000 years ago.
Additional finds and analyses include ochre-decorated tools, which suggest symbolic behaviour (using objects to represent something else), as well as a 43,000-year-old fingerprint in Spain. This simple fingerprint holds a secret: it might represent intentional mark-making, challenging our earlier assumptions about Neanderthals' cognitive and cultural capacities.
Discoveries like this blur the lines between human and Neanderthal behaviour, marking 2025 as a landmark year for the reputation of our prehistoric cousins. It turns out that they may be more than a little bit misunderstood!
5. Burnswark Hillfort – an Iron Age settlement reimagined
In southern Scotland, excavations at Burnswark Hillfort by the University of Glasgow archaeology team revealed that the site was much more than a Roman battlefield.
The team found evidence of a densely inhabited and thriving Iron Age settlement, complete with complex ramparts and trackways. Many of these were rebuilt following the Roman military victory in 140 AD.
These findings suggest that Iron Age communities in northern Britain may have developed urban-like structures long before traditionally recognised towns. This challenges common assumptions about social organisation in pre-Roman Europe.
Why 2025 was a big year for Earth and human history
From the discovery of lost royal tombs to dinosaur footprints that rewrite palaeontology textbooks, 2025 proved to be a stellar year for natural history. Through these groundbreaking discoveries, experts have revealed new layers of knowledge that push the frontiers of archaeology and geology.
But findings like these hold lessons beyond the scientific. They also remind us that the Earth still holds many layers of history waiting to be uncovered. That prehistoric creatures walked paths we can now trace, millions of years later. And that ancient humans and their relatives were far more complex than we once believed them to be.
As we go about our daily lives – tiny moments in the long history of our world – the past continues to tell us new stories. We find these stories in places as varied as the jungles of Belize, the deserts of Egypt and the quarries of England. And we should all be listening.
So, whether you're fascinated by human history or the deep time of Earth's geological record, 2025 has delivered some incredible new clues. The question now is, what new chapters of the story will emerge in 2026?
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