Get some WD40 on that & it'll be as good as new.
Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#42Sometimes thought it is a bummer living in the states, less of an opportunity to go find some 1000+ year old relics knowing full well the likelihood of that happening is slim even if I lived in another country with bronze/iron age.
I would reckon the chances are higher to still find something in the states.
The "old world" had quite a head-start in digging up stuff and is also much more densely populated, so more people have been digging up old stuff for longer.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#43Just once (4th paragraph), the article refers to the object as a "short sword". That strikes me (passably-well-read in some related areas) as very different from "dagger". Any more-expert folks here, to have a sense for how big a deal that is (in the context)?
Short swords do 40% more damage than daggers on average (1d6 vs 1d4) and this matters less over time as strength is maxed and magic bonuses are applied. If this Roman was at high level, the two words were effectively interchangeable for him.
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Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s the other way around - stone lasts, while advanced metallurgy (iron) has a tendency to rust away.
My understanding that advanced stone, shaped with metal, lasts. However, simple stone tools (think axes, hammers, flint arrowheads etc) tend to get easily lost. This is made furthermore difficult by the difficulty (impossibility?) of distinguishing them on tools like metal detectors
No, they're quite easy to find if you know what you're looking for and you look in the right places. Lithics in the ancient world were a bit like plastics today: ubiquitous and highly disposable.
For particular lithics industries/tools and certain situations you might get some amount of reworking, but ultimately people were producing new tools very frequently. That means that any area in which you might find them on the surface will usually have some and a long term production site will have overwhelming artifact density. They can occasionally look like normal rocks, but once you train your eye the worked faces become visually distinct.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#45It's impressive to see the difference between the dagger as it was discovered and as it's been restored, but I'm really curious to see what it would look like in "like-new" condition.
Here is another one restored to a better shape [1], close-up [2]. I must admit it doesn't look as perfect as replicas (e.g. in movies), obviously we have much better and precise technology/craftsmanship these days. Probably "as new" may not differ that much from what we restore to. 1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeology-intern... 2. https://www.archaeology.org/news/8493-200302-germany-roman-d...
Still looks pretty impressive, especially considering what they had to work with!
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#46Sometimes thought it is a bummer living in the states, less of an opportunity to go find some 1000+ year old relics knowing full well the likelihood of that happening is slim even if I lived in another country with bronze/iron age.
Has the genocide of Native Americans become so complete that we forget about their existence mere days after Thanksgiving?
Population density of Native Americans was low and their wares were not particularly durable. Good luck finding something.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#47The impressive thing to see is the thin lines of silver/bronze decorative designs which must have been made by hand but has a machine like finesse.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has the genocide of Native Americans become so complete that we forget about their existence mere days after Thanksgiving?
Population density of Native Americans was low and their wares were not particularly durable. Good luck finding something.
Stone and ceramic are very durable (the latter tends to break into potsherds, but doesn't rust away as iron does). And population density doesn't need to be particularly high to be able to locate settlements and dig up artifacts.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#49It's impressive to see the difference between the dagger as it was discovered and as it's been restored, but I'm really curious to see what it would look like in "like-new" condition.
Here is another one restored to a better shape [1], close-up [2]. I must admit it doesn't look as perfect as replicas (e.g. in movies), obviously we have much better and precise technology/craftsmanship these days. Probably "as new" may not differ that much from what we restore to. 1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeology-intern... 2. https://www.archaeology.org/news/8493-200302-germany-roman-d...
The quality of metalwork back then was incredible.
Every so often I stumble on images of various hoards, and the gold work in particular is just awesome. Gold ages well, so there is that, but the workmanship is just incredible. The Great Torc from Snettisham is a good example.
Re: Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has the genocide of Native Americans become so complete that we forget about their existence mere days after Thanksgiving?
Population density of Native Americans was low and their wares were not particularly durable. Good luck finding something.
This is simply not true. There are many places where you can go where the impacti of the Native Americans is still very obvious. There are places where you can find hundreds of religious carvings, arrowheads, obsidian artifacts, ect.