Tangent, but I can't help but recall one of my favorite headlines and subheds in the Guardian, from a couple years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/19/experie...
5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
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Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#82-One of my wife’s ancestors found a sword dating back some 1,300 years on the farm we currently live on, and it has caused lots of annoyances over the years.
The problem is that the national Norwegian archive of ancient artifact findings only register the property something is found on, not the exact location.
Hence, a hundred years after a sword was found in a mountainside a mile away from where we live, I have to obtain permission from an archaeologist every time I put a shovel in the ground, more or less...
The sword looks cool, though. (On display in a museum; no such thing as finder’s keepers for such old things - very rightly so!)
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#83> Two years worth of research confirmed the sword is among the most ancient ones ever found, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. Two years? But, I have seen Hollywood movies that they just need a magnifying glass and 5 minutes to get a conclusion. There goes another myth. Science and history are complicated and require more effort and time that movies are willing to concede.
Fiction aside, funding makes a difference here. Give non military science funds comparable to hollywood movies and we'll likely go from 2 years to a few months.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#84> Two years worth of research confirmed the sword is among the most ancient ones ever found, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. Two years? But, I have seen Hollywood movies that they just need a magnifying glass and 5 minutes to get a conclusion. There goes another myth. Science and history are complicated and require more effort and time that movies are willing to concede.
That might make the movies a little too long.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Iliad (much more recent than this sword, but nonetheless informative in some ways), swords are symbolic of nothing. The text is very clear on what the symbol of royal authority is -- it's a club. ("Scepter") I'd be pretty comfortable with the idea that clubs are no more recent than weapons in general.
Sure, but didn't clubs become symbols because they were weapons?
Yes.
One of the oldest Egyptian royal motifs is the king smiting a bound captive or a group of bound captives with a mace.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#86A better headline is "Sword in Venetian monastery collection discovered to be 5,000 years old"
Accurate, but not as "grabby". Of course, I don't think the author was necessarily aiming for accuracy.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#87-One of my wife’s ancestors found a sword dating back some 1,300 years on the farm we currently live on, and it has caused lots of annoyances over the years. The problem is that the national Norwegian archive of ancient artifact findings only register the property something is found on, not the exact location. Hence, a hundred years after a sword was found in a mountainside a mile away from where we live, I have to o…
Do you have a link to the piece in the collection? I'd love to see it.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#88Appears to be more of a dagger, but you can't fault the ergonomics. Beautifully designed, and I would guess not just for ceremonial use.
sdaggering
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#89> Two years worth of research confirmed the sword is among the most ancient ones ever found, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. Two years? But, I have seen Hollywood movies that they just need a magnifying glass and 5 minutes to get a conclusion. There goes another myth. Science and history are complicated and require more effort and time that movies are willing to concede.
AIUI, they could get a good impression pretty quickly, but if you're publishing, you want to be _sure_.
Actually getting permission to do the required testing also probably took a while.
Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery
#90This seems to stretch the meaning of "discovered." Hey look, I just discovered a dinosaur at the natural history museum! It's older than they thought it was!
> Hey look, I just discovered a dinosaur at the natural history museum! It's older than they thought it was!
I mean, that actually happens, doesn't it? It's not that unusual for new species to be identified, misclassified in museums.