While this can often take the form of texts or pieces of art telling us how our ancestors kept themselves busy and the tools they used to do it, we really strike gold when we find the tools themselves.
With such discoveries, we can get a feel for the technology ancient people enjoyed, especially when it turns out that products we thought we were so brilliant for creating have been around for centuries.
In fact, everything on this list is at least 1,000 years old and some of them date back to times we have a hard time even imagining. So let's have a look at these 13 items with age-old stories to tell.
Don't forget to COMMENTand let us know what you hope lasts through the ages.
1. The oldest wooden wheel has been around for over 5,000 years.
It dates back to 3,200 B.C. and was discovered in Slovenia back in 2002. Based on the square hole in the center, archaeologists have concluded that it rotated on that big axle you see pictured with it.
2. We're not sure on the exact age of this dress, but it's definitely the world's oldest.
The dress was buried with one of ancient Egypt's wealthier citizens between 5,100 and 5,600 years ago. This was a spellbinding find for archaeologists since most pieces of clothing, especially any this fancy, don't survive for longer than 2,000 years.
3. Someone chewed this gum 5,000 years ago.
It's made of birch bark tar and someone living in ancient Finland likely used it to treat a gum infection. This kind of gum was also used as a glue to repair pots, but archaeologists have found clear teeth marks in this particular piece.
4. These masks may look creepy, but they were dear to someone's heart 9,000 years ago.
Experts believe that early farmers in what is now Israel wore these stone masks to remember important ancestors and assert their claims to the lands they were toiling over. The people who lived back then didn't have a writing system to speak of, so the masks were a key part of passing on their oral history.
5. This 4,500-year-old purse was decorated with about 100 dog teeth.
The leather or fabric of the purse was worn away by time, but the pattern of the dog teeth shows that they formed a flap for the bag. The people of ancient Europe often used dog teeth in necklaces, but this purse would have been considered exceptionally fancy back then.
6. This ancient shoe spent 5,500 years lying in an Armenian cave.
It apparently has a close resemblance to traditional shoes still worn in parts of southeastern Europe today. As I said before, a leather shoe normally wouldn't last so long, but archaeologists said the dryness of the cave and the layer of sheep poop they found it in helped preserve it.
7. But that's not the oldest footwear people have found.
These sandals found near Fort Rock, Oregon rested in a cave for 10,000 years before respected archaeologist Luther S. Cressman discovered them. For much of that time, they sat under a layer of volcanic ash from an ancient eruption.
8. Another find has a lot more to do with what goes inside the shoe.
This prosthetic toe was worn in Egypt about 3,000 years ago, making it the oldest known artificial appendage in the world. Researchers from the University of Manchester said the toe would have been sorely needed to effectively walk in traditional Egyptian sandals.
9. This rock holds what might the world's oldest map.
It's about 14,000 years old and was found in a cave in Navarra, Spain. There are other candidates for the world's oldest map that date back as many as 25,000 years ago, but the etchings are so crude that it's hard to tell if they're even supposed to be maps.
10. The world's oldest complaint letter was carved on this stone tablet.
About 3,700 years ago, a man named Nanni was apparently not satisfied with the copper ore coming from a merchant named Ea-nasir. Worse yet, when Nanni sent his assistants for a refund, Ea-nasir sent them back empty-handed through enemy territory.
11. This copper awl changed what experts thought they knew about the ancient Middle East.
It's long turned green with age, but this piece from Tel Tsaf, Israel revealed that people in the area were trading metals 6,000 years ago. This was centuries earlier than researchers thought.
12. These socks weren't so strange-looking in the Egypt of the year 420.
Back then, they were meant to be worn with sandals so the strange split-toed style only made things more comfortable. Much to the horror of today's fashion police, socks with sandals were all the rage 1,600 years ago.
13. We may never find an older musical instrument than this German flute.
Made from vulture bone, this 40,000-year-old flute was discovered alongside fragments of similar instruments made from mammoth ivory. Researchers from the University of Tübingen suggestedthat developing music gave early humans the advantage over Neanderthals because it made communication easier and tightened social bonds.
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