The top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2010

The top ten archaeological discoveries for this year have been revealed, and they include royal tombs among others.

This year archaeologists were led to the discovery of royal tombs in both Turkey and Guatemala by looters, and they also made an unexpected find that brought them closer to Pocahontas, Archaeology magazine reported.

Besides that, an underwater archaeological survey in the high Canadian Arctic located the ill-fated HMS Investigator, abandoned in 1853.

But archaeologists made discoveries away from the field too, with a number of breakthroughs happening right in the lab.

A new radiocarbon dating technique was perfected this year, which will allow scientists to date artifacts without harming them, and laboratory analysis of the bones of a close relative of Lucy revealed how early homininis walked.

And anthropologists in Germany announced startling news about the Neanderthal genome that might send you scrambling to submit your own DNA for sequencing.

The top ten discoveries for the year 2010 are:

1. The Tomb of Hecatomnus - Milas, Turkey
2. Paleolithic Tools - Plakias, Crete
3. Royal Tomb - El Zotz, Guatemala
4. Early Pyramids - Jaen, Peru
5. HMS Investigator - Banks Island, Canada
6. Decoding the Neanderthal Genome - Leipzig, Germany
7. Child Burials - Carthage, Tunisia
8. "Kadanuumuu" - Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia
9. 1608 Church - Jamestown, Virginia
10. Nondestructive Radiocarbon Dating - College Station, Texas