In The News -Roman Artifacts Unearthed, Viking Ship Recovered & More

Oct 24, 2011 05:03



Roman Artifacts Unearthed, Viking Ship Recovered & More




Note Please do not copy, link or share anything from fun_forums to your Face Book, Twitter or Blog without the permission of the posts author. Please practice Net-etiquette. Thank You for your cooperation.

Bredon Hill Roman coins unveiled at Worcester museum

image Click to view


Interview with Jethro Carpenter, one of the finders of this amazing hoard of Roman coins

A hoard of Roman artifacts unearthed in the Worcestershire countryside is to go on show at a museum in the county. Local metal detector enthusiasts Jethro Carpenter, 43, and Mark Gilmore, 47, discovered more than 3,800 coins in a clay pot at Bredon Hill, near Evesham.
The Roman haul - the county's largest ever - is mainly bronze coins dating back to the 3rd Century.

Featuring 16 different emperors, many will be shown at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum from Saturday. The coins are currently being valued by the British Museum. Mr Carpenter said: "As a child you watch pirate films and dream of finding buried treasure.
"On the day of the discovery my detector was down for no more than five minutes when it started to make a high-pitched noise. Even more excitingly, the screen flashed up 'overload'. "Mark and I started digging and uncovered coin after coin. It was so exciting, my heart was racing."

Read The Rest Of This Story At BBC News UK There are numerous articles on this find and a video on the BBC.UK’s website

image Click to view



Finding Sacajawea in Ecuador
Finding Sacajawea in Ecuador
By Patricia Harris & David Lyon, Boston Globe Correspondents

There's something disorienting about shopping in a country where the American dollar is the legal tender. One of the pleasures of travel has always been justifying impulse purchases by fibbing to ourselves about the exchange rate. That still works in Europe, the United Kingdom, and even in Canada. But it doesn't work in Ecuador, where the country switched to the greenback as its official currency in 2000. Mind you, the country issues some centavo coins, but the folding money is all American fives, tens, and twenties. (They may use bigger bills, but we haven't seen any.) But for the basic dollar, the Ecuadorans use American coins. Susan B. Anthony doesn't seem any more popular here than at home, but the Sacajawea dollar coins are ubiquitous. We only see them at home when we get change from those bill changers on the New Hampshire interstates, or when we go to Las Vegas. And the golden Sacajawea coins are always shiny and crisp. But in Ecuador, the coins work for a living and they become worn and smooth. In fact, in just over a day, we've seen more Sacajawea dollars than we see in a year at home. It makes us rethink the American refusal to switch from Washingtons to coins.

Archaeologists Discover A Viking Ship

image Click to view


Archaeologists have discovered a Viking ship in a remote area of the Western Scottish Highlands. And inside the boat are the remains of a man, indicating the probability of the a Viking burial site.

Archaeologists have unearthed a remarkable discovery of a Viking boat burial site in a remote western part of the Scottish Highlands.

The find is particularly significant because of all the artefacts found at the site on the Ardnamurcham peninsula.

Dr Oliver Harris from the University of Leicester described the find as something one only dreams about.

[Dr Oliver Harris, University of Leicester]:
"A Viking boat burial - the kind of thing you used to read about as a young boy at school, you know these incredible things. A boat filled with all sorts of weapons, the Viking himself, a beautiful bronze pin holding his cloak together. An axe, a sword, a spear, a shield, a cauldron with a meter-long handle. Just incredible things, all brought together inside this boat, buried in the ground in Ardnamurchan a thousand years ago."

The scientists believe the man must have achieved high status in life because of the things that were buried with him.

[Dr Oliver Harris, University of Leicester]:
"These are grave goods that he's put with him and they're things that have gone into the ground with him. They probably belonged to him many of them, but certainly what they really tell us is about what did the people who buried him think of him, what did they want him to be remembered as and what did they think he would need for the afterlife, and they thought this guy would need weapons. He needed his axe, his sword, his spear, his shield; he needed things that he could defend himself with and attack others. So he was obviously someone of really high status to have all these different kinds of weapons. Not just a sword, not just an axe but all of these things together. Someone really, really important in his local community."

Dr. Harris explains that the acidity in the soil decomposed most of the body.

However, two teeth and a few bones are still undamaged.

Dr. Harris believes it should be possible for radio carbon dating to be carried out as well as other tests,

[Dr Oliver Harris, University of Leicester]:
"The soil is very acidic generally in the west coast of Scotland and Ardnamurchan largely is no different from that. So a lot of the bodies rotted away, but luckily the teeth have survived and because of that and a couple of - two of the teeth and two bones - and because of that we can test - not only do radio-carbon dating which will help, adds to our knowledge of the date. We already know it's almost certainly 10th century AD, but we can maybe narrow that down with radio-carbon dating. But we can also do different kinds of tests. We've got isotope testing and archaeology. That'll help tell us what he was eating, where he came from, where he grew up and things like that."

Thoughts? Share Them In Comments

A Note From Your Moderators
Sharing Is Caring. You don't have to be a member of F.U.N. to comment. Comments are welcome from everyone FUN Members, Collectors, Dealers, and Convention Guests (i.e. General Public). Simply take a moment to register for a LiveJournal Account LiveJournal also offers you the ability to post and comment using your credentials from other external sites, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter. In addition, to sites that use OpenID

Members are encouraged to create discussion posts to share Numismatic News. Please utilize this posting format when sharing your news. Won’t you please share your thoughts and opinions with us.

Other helpful hints for posting in this community can be found in the following threads:
Community Rules
F.U.N. Forums Directory
F.U. N. Forums Frequently Asked Questions
Beginners Guide For Posting On Live Journal

Topics of interest should range from upcoming conventions, numismatic laws relating to the industry and/or your latest numismatic discovery. If the topic falls into the realm of “Numismatic News” it can be shared. So please consider giving back to your community by creating a post.

The fun_forums community is for fellowship, fun and informational purposes only. It was NOT created for you to direct traffic to your own blog or web site. Therefore, please refrain from posting advertisements for your business. All solicitation postings will be deleted from the community.

Disclaimer: All content found within FUN Forums or FUN Convention TV is presented for informational purposes only. Florida United Numismatists, Inc. makes no guarantee as to the suitability, accuracy, correctness, completeness or validity of any information found on these sites and will not be held liable for any errors, omissions, delays in the information, damages, nor any losses or injuries arising from its display or use. Articles, commentary or opinions are contributed by the participants or author(s) without compensation and they are solely responsible for the content. All information is provided on an as-is basis.

You may also
to track updates for fun_forums

Thanking You In Advance,
fun_forums Mods ♥



treasure, gold coins, ancient artifacts, historic, foreign coins, metal detecting, european coins

Previous post Next post
Up