This year has been a vintage one for breathtaking finds. Everything from the world's most ancient animal painting to lost royal treasure, and even a potential alien spaceship have been discovered. Get ready to be blown away as we reveal 2018's most exciting finds.

The ruins of Pompeii were discovered in the late 16th century, but archaeologists continue to make spectacular finds at the site. Last month, a team uncovered an 'enchanted garden' in one of the less explored parts of the ill-fated ancient city.

The courtyard garden, which is decorated with colourful frescos of fantastical beasts, was dedicated to the Lares, the guardian deities of the Roman home. Other stunning Pompeii discoveries this year include the painted House of the Dolphins and an alleyway of grand balconies.

Staying with Ancient Rome, builders demolishing the old Teatro Cressoni in Como, Italy chanced upon a curious soapstone jar while working on the site in September. When they had a look inside, they couldn't believe their eyes.

The jar was found to contain hundreds of mint-condition coins dating from the 5th century. Exceedingly valuable, the coins, which have been moved to Mibac restoration laboratory in Milan for further analysis, could be worth millions of euros according to Italian media reports.

You're looking at the world's most ancient animal painting. This image of a cow-like animal, which was discovered in a cave on the island of Borneo, is now thought to be the oldest work of figurative art on the planet.

A study published in the journal Nature earlier this month has suggested the Upper Paleolithic cave painting, which was discovered along with these human hand stencils, is at least 40,000 years old, and could date back even further in the mists of time to around 54,000 BC.

A number of eye-popping gemstones have been discovered this year. They include this 910-carat diamond, which was unearthed in a Lesotho mine by British firm Gem Diamonds back in January. Following the “landmark discovery”, the UK company's share price surged by 15%.

Read about Britain's luckiest treasure hunters of the 21st century

In March, the tennis ball-sized rock dubbed the 'Lesotho Legend', which is the the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, was sold for $40 million (£31m) to an anonymous buyer in the diamond hub of Antwerp.

Last month, leading gemstone supplier Gemfields made its competitors green with envy after unveiling a 5,655-carat emerald crystal, weighing in at a hefty 2.5lbs (1kg). The rock was discovered on 2 October in one of the firm's open mines in Zambia.

The big gemstone boasts the most remarkable clarity and picture-perfect green hue. Nicknamed 'Inkalamu', which means 'lion' in the local Bemba language, the emerald was cut and auctioned in Singapore in late November. Sadly, Gemfields have refused to disclose the purchase price but has donated 10% of the proceeds to conservation projects.

One of Walt Disney's earliest films, a two-minute cartoon of Mickey Mouse's mischievous precursor Oswald the Lucky Rabbit resurfaced earlier this month in Japan. The 1928 short entitled Neck n' Neck was thought to have been lost forever.

Collector Yasushi Watanabe, who snapped up the reel 70 years ago for $4.40 (£3.43), only realised its significance after reading up on lost Disney films. The pioneering cartoon is being stored for posterity at the Kobe Film archive.

Ohio high school students Dominic Anderson and Jared Phillips lucked-out big time in October during a routine archaeological dig at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

Wowing their teachers and then some, the duo unearthed a 6,000-year-old Native American stone axe of all things. The artefact, which was made by a skilled craftsman, is “highly valuable” say experts.

The sort of find most gold prospectors can only dream of, this pair of rocks, which are laden with 2,560 ounces of the yellow stuff, were extracted by Canadian mining firm RNC Minerals at its Beta Hunt mine in Western Australia earlier this year.

The discovery is all the more amazing given the mine was mainly used to extract nickel, and the company was trying to offload it. Needless to say, the RNC Minerals share price skyrocketed following the find, which is worth a staggering $13 million (£10m).

One of the four surviving pairs of the iconic Ruby Slippers Judy Garland sported in the classic movie The Wizard of Oz was stolen from a museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005. For years, the FBI searched for the precious shoes, which are said to be worth up to $5 million (£4m).

The search hotted up last year when a mysterious figure approached the company that insured the shoes with info on their whereabouts. The FBI mounted a sting operation, and the Ruby Slippers were eventually found in Minneapolis in August. The thief however remains at large.

Read more about the ruby slippers, plus the world's other most valuable movie memorabilia

In April, 13-year-old amateur archaeologist Luca Malaschnichenko and grown-up enthusiast Rene Schoen were hunting for treasure with metal detectors on Germany's Rügen island with other hobbyists when they discovered a hoard of coins, necklaces, pearls, rings and other precious items.

Experts believe the stash of hundreds of important artefacts belonged to King Harald 'Bluetooth'. The Viking ruler reigned in the 10th century and united Denmark and Norway, inspiring Intel's Jim Kardach in 1997 to name the connectivity standard that pairs devices after him.

Egypt is famed for its illustrious antiquities, and fascinating finds abound in the country. One of the latest exciting discoveries, a large redbrick building was unearthed at the Sa El-Hagar excavation site in northern Egypt in May.

A treasure trove of objects dating from the Greco-Roman period was recovered from the site, including a large number of 2,200-year-old gold coins from the reign King Ptolemy III, scores of bronze tools and several pieces of ancient pottery.

The heatwave summer and persistent drought Europe experienced this year uncovered prehistoric ruins, ancient garden designs and more as landscapes were scorched dry and waterways dried up. The River Danube dropped to record lows last month, revealing some valuable secrets.

Discover the fantastic treasures hiding in plain sight

Archaeologists searching the river bed near the town of Erd in Hungary chanced upon a wealth of treasures, including antique swords, pikes and canon balls, not to mention thousands of gold coins that went down with a merchant ship sometime during the 18th century.

The fabled treasure that is said to buried in the booby-trapped 'money pit' on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada has eluded countless explorers for three centuries and claimed six lives. The treasure hunt is the subject of History Channel Show The Curse of Oak Island, which enters its sixth season this month.

Read from Nazi gold to Tutankhamun's tomb, 6 deadly treasure hunts

The show's treasure hunters hit the jackpot earlier this year when they unearthed actual treasure on the site: a gemstone-studded brooch. Gold has since been discovered on the island, but whether this booty is the cursed Oak Island Treasure is anyone's guess.

In January, divers from Blue Water Ventures International and the Endurance Exploration Group pinpointed the wreckage of the Pulaski, a luxury steamship that exploded and went down off the coast of North Carolina in 1838 with the loss of 200 lives.

Read about whether these are America's luckiest-ever treasure hunters

Considered the Titanic of its time, the steamship was packed with wealthy passengers, and had a particularly high-end cargo. Artefacts recovered from the wreck include an exquisite gold chain, a pocket watch in solid gold and scores of silver coins. 

 

Read about North America's great lost treasures still waiting to be found

How's this for a sensational find? A potential extraterrestrial spacecraft buried 300 feet down in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. The gigantic USO (unidentified submerged object) was discovered by explorer Darrell Miklos, and features in season two of the Discovery Channel docuseries Cooper's Treasure.

Too big for a shipwreck and too oddly shaped to be made by nature, the USO, which is the size of two football fields, has baffled experts, and Miklos has speculated the bizarrely formed object might very well be an alien spaceship that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean thousands of years ago.

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Discovered in the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea, in modern day Israel, the 900-year-old gold coins found on 3 December are thought to be from The Crusades, and hadn't been found until now.

The 24 gold coins and an earring were found lodged between two stones in the side of a well. They are believed to date back to the Abbasid and Fatimid periods (750-1099 AD).