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Collins08480 t1_iu8z5w5 wrote

Bless the farmers who call a museum instead of trying to melt it down.

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Bazoun t1_iu98ecp wrote

Yeah I hope he gets some $$$ for it. Honesty should be rewarded.

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Striper_Cape t1_iu9jmrw wrote

I love our reverence for history these days. Humans tended to just destroy, build over, or reuse building materials. Like the great pyramid of Giza. Used to be covered in limestone but that was stripped to help build Cairo.

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BrandonOR t1_iuajci6 wrote

I can't hate in reusing materials when it's not just for profit but rebuilding a new infrastructure, it's recycling!

I do see how's it's easy to combine those uses with grave robbery because both can be looked at as stealing history from the future.

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smoakee t1_iuaniov wrote

Hehe, Czech here. The guy was the sweetest guy ever in the tv report and he confessed he cleaned it with soap a lot haha. He knew he shouldn’t, but the natural curiosity taken over.

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Zauqui t1_iub9db8 wrote

Aww he does sound super sweet! I hope he gets compensated

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Enigmachina t1_iu9jnau wrote

To be fair, they're more likely going to get more from a museum than from selling the actual gold

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No-Elk9791 t1_iu9v051 wrote

More likely for the museum to claim it as a historical artifact and give him nothing. They don’t pay for artifacts. They’re thieves who justify their larceny with that “it belongs to the world” bs.

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FireITGuy t1_iuab3ki wrote

This depends a lot on the local laws about artifacts. In most of the world it would belong to the landowner. Museums may try to strongarm their way into preserving it, but most of the time they have no legal authority.

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Collins08480 t1_iuaiqef wrote

I know in the UK they are required by law to report all finds. But i don't know if they get anything for it. It really depends on the country.

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No-Elk9791 t1_iuacq47 wrote

That has quite literally never stopped them before.

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Krydtoff t1_iuam368 wrote

In Czechia, you will actually got something like 10% of the actual price or even less, and if you find it with a metal detector, you won’t get anything. Believe me, I had found many things that are now in museum and didn’t ever get anything

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brickhamilton t1_iubi5mx wrote

Wait, how do they know if you’ve used a metal detector? Can’t you just tell them you didn’t?

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degotoga t1_iubntwp wrote

It’s probably pretty obvious in most cases. Hard to explain why you’re digging holes in random locations

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brickhamilton t1_iubotlw wrote

It just seems you could say it was poking out of the ground or you found it in a stream or you were planting a garden or anything else, really. They might have evidence that’s not true, but I think that’s unlikely. Why even have a metal detector rule like that?

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degotoga t1_iubzh5a wrote

It’s to stop treasure hunting for profit. So while that might work once you probably wouldn’t get away with it a second time

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Potatobender44 t1_iueeahf wrote

Why would you want to stop people from potentially unearthing cool historical artifacts? I would think you would want to incentivize it

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degotoga t1_iuesw25 wrote

The idea is to incentivize trained scientists through grants while discouraging amateurs and treasure hunters. In most cases the latter can do more damage than good. See Egypt as a case study

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Krydtoff t1_iuf4uk3 wrote

This will sound like a joke, but if you find something and want some money from it, they will make a commission that can call cops to investigate your home and if they find anything resembling metal detector or other historical finds, you might end up paying them and go to a court

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Krydtoff t1_iuf54v4 wrote

Or and example like me, you find something that isn’t worth that much, you give it to the museum and they have you in their database, so if I ever were to find something by chance without metal detector, I still wouldn’t get anything

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die-jarjar-die t1_iub23ih wrote

It belongs in a museum! Along with all the other world's treasures we've decided also belong in the museum! Admission for non members is 29.95!

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Fatshortstack t1_iuaokmg wrote

I doubt it. Hope I'm wrong though. Definitely the right thing to do.

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half_in_boxes t1_iu8x1nn wrote

Wow, my old forensic anthropology professor gets posted here a lot. Huh.

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TyfromEarth t1_iu90y9b wrote

What the hell happened here

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half_in_boxes t1_iu95loj wrote

The author, Dr. Killgrove, is my old forensic anthropology professor.

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BlowCokeUpMyAss t1_iu97z77 wrote

Can you be a little more specific?

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LaHawks t1_iu9cuv7 wrote

Pretty sure they're just saying that they find it interesting that their old professor writes a lot of articles that end up being shared on this subreddit. Not much to explain there.

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Lerch56 t1_iu9pf5z wrote

Can YOU be a little more specific?

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rkgrunge t1_iua2qx1 wrote

I think what has been said here by the orginal commenter is that in the past he had taken an anthropology class, probably at a university, which was taught by a professor. Now, this professor we're talking about would write articles in addition to teaching. And by coincidence the commenter has noticed several of these articles posted on reddit, which he just commented about.

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MetikMas t1_iuaawx2 wrote

If you could just be a little bit more specific that would be great

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[deleted] t1_iu8fp41 wrote

[removed]

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[deleted] t1_iu8gjmj wrote

[removed]

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Sea-Phone-537 t1_iu8orx1 wrote

You could say a part of being an archaeologist is too be a literal Gold digger

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theartificialkid t1_iu8vcsp wrote

This is a common misconception. Ancient artefacts were almost never buried in solid gold.

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Sea-Phone-537 t1_iu8vgp6 wrote

I'm aware but the joke was there and nobody had said it yet. I was obligated too crack it

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bigclams t1_iu8tki2 wrote

Neat. Did the Bell Beaker culture make this?

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oceansofcake t1_iua4av0 wrote

30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items +2 to Light Radius

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RichieIsABastardMan t1_iu9hv5m wrote

That dude should quit the farming and buy a metal detector.

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Sonyguyus t1_iu9mq6a wrote

This was the Ultimate Warriors first championship belt back at Wrestlemania MMD B.C

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tnova2323 t1_iu9nv98 wrote

All I'm picturing is Dwight digging this up on his farm. Bahahhah!!

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juyfdsa t1_iu8nm8o wrote

What is the historical significance of this

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Collins08480 t1_iu8zloi wrote

Material culture can also help track societal shifts- who is trading with who and when. Do they have a cultural link to one group or another. Were they doing great economically or in a crisis. What was their technology like. What did they value. Etc...

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OneTIME_story t1_iu8tqzv wrote

So here's what it means to me as someone not in the field, never took a hobby-like interest, or tbh i don't even know that much of history:

Depending on what exactly is depicted on the belt, would tell you that people in bronze age, potentially, gave significance to same commit items that we do nowadays.

Imagine there was someone 14k years ago who saw the same star constilation and thought it was of significance? That would be pretty cool

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metaldesign32 t1_iu8u2rc wrote

Looking very closely at it, what impresses me the most is the precision of the concentric circles. It looks like they must have used a tool that was spun on a lathe it’s so precise.

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sticklebat t1_iu8z7co wrote

Making circles isn’t hard. In fact, circles are the easiest shape to make! Compasses (the drawing tool, not the navigation one) were common at least as far back as Ancient Rome, for example. Also, those circular patterns look stamped or pressed to me, and there are two distinct sizes of them. So they probably made the circular patterns on a wooden piece and then stamped it onto the gold, which is very malleable.

Using a lathe for this would be wildly overkill.

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metaldesign32 t1_iu99kaa wrote

I agree it looks stamped but look very closely at the uniformity of the rings. It wasn’t just hand chased into the metal. I also agree a tool was used to stamp it. But I’d say the tool end was spun and scored to make them concentric and evenly spaced. That’s why I suggested a lathe or some sort of spinning process. If you haven’t already, download the full images. They are quite sharp and you’ll see what I mean about the precision.

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sticklebat t1_iu9fxld wrote

I’ve seen the full image. I think you’re underestimating the precision that can be accomplished by a talented artisan, even by hand, without fancy tools.

It would be well within the means of a skilled craftsman to make a sufficiently precisely patterned stamp or press to accomplish what we see in that image, especially given how thin that gold is (the article even says such artifacts are rare to find, since they “tear like paper”). All you need to make a perfect circle is a stick and string, or even just two sticks tied together. Scoring and then smoothing/polishing precise concentric circles into a pattern made of wood or stone wouldn’t be hard for a craftsman with metal tools, and if the stamp is precise, it will stamp a precise pattern into something so easily malleable.

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BryKKan t1_iua33in wrote

Or you could just spin the stamp (relative to the workpiece)...

Or any kind of rotating work surface would allow you to do that easily without moving the stamp itself.

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itbwtw t1_iuasuea wrote

Does it have the name of the wrestler that won it, or the Federation that awarded it?

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voxkelly t1_iuam68f wrote

the fact that it remained in nearly perfect condition all this time AND was found by someone who possesses historical integrity blows my mind. Interesting about the circles 🌞

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