Archaeologists have been very busy excavating lost civilizations, but they haven't found everything. There are still prominent ancient cities, including capitals of large kingdoms and empires, that have never been unearthed by scholars.We know these cities exist because ancient texts describe them, but their location may be lost to time.
In a few cases, looters have found these cities, and have looted large numbers of artifacts from them. But these robbers have not come forward to reveal their location. In this countdown Live Science takes a look at six ancient cities whose whereabouts are unknown.
Lest you are tempted to think that "'lost' cities archaeologists have never found" is an oxymoron, I remind you that not so long ago Egyptian archaeologists discovered the "Lost Golden City" near Luxor.
The lost city of Akkad (Agade), Sargon of Agade's capital city, is mentioned in the Bible and has come up in PaleoJudaica here, here, and here.
The lost city of Al-Yahudu is the source of of the unprovenanced, but apparently genuine, Al-Yahudu Babylonian cuneiform archive. See here and links.
The unprovenanced Sumerian archive of the lost city of Irisagrig has come up here and here, in both cases linking to articles by Owen Jarus.
PaleoJudaica has not previously referred to the lost Mitanni capital of Waššukanni or the lost Egyptian cities of Itjtawy or Thinis.
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