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Amateur archaeologist in Switzerland unearths 2k-year-old Roman dagger
- bell-cot 5y agoJust 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)?
- murrayb 5y agoAgreed it looks way more "chopppy" than "stabby" to me.
- AutumnCurtain 5y agoIt is a "pugio", a sort of small dagger sidearm for Roman soldiers. I can't think of any reason to refer to it as a short sword in English as that conjures up the image of a much larger weapon. These are essentially the same as the daggers used to kill Julius Caesar, for example.
- notjulianjaynes 5y agoIt's possible the author thought using "dagger" twice in two sentences sounded clunky.
- 1123581321 5y agoShort 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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- boomboomsubban 5y agoMost of the complex classifications for swords is a modern development, that's often fairly arbitrary. Maybe short sword isn't the best term, but it is a short-sword
- leafmeal 5y agoIt'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.
- nuccy 5y agoHere 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-unearths-spectacular-2000-year-old-roman-dagger-180974310/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeology-intern... 2. https://www.archaeology.org/news/8493-200302-germany-roman-dagger https://www.archaeology.org/news/8493-200302-germany-roman-d...
- musingsole 5y agoI can never get over how real sword (or dagger) handles look so painful to wield. Maybe it's that most of them have lost some leather wrapping or else were just ornamental...but I've seen several that just looked guaranteed to hurt the wielder with each swing.
- SteveGerencser 5y agoThat's because most of them had leather wrapped hilts and after all these years the leather is long gone leaving just the tang and any decorative embellishments that it had.
- _jal 5y agoYou should see the other guy.
- StanislavPetrov 5y agoStill looks pretty impressive, especially considering what they had to work with!
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- atarian 5y agoI wonder what archaeologists 2000 years from now will unearth as news-worthy.
- intrasight 5y agoBitcoins ;)
- adventured 5y agoA still working Apple II that was forgotten in a bunker.
- spacelamb 5y agoProbably objects that make you imagine about what day-to-day living was like in the past. If VR becomes widespread, perhaps the first VR headset. Or perhaps niche, quaint items with great craftsmanship (no longer used at all in the future), like a high-quality metal mechanical pencil, fountain pen, or ballpoint pen. Early commercial spacecraft (SpaceX) would also be a certainty, as the expansion of humanity across space is near-guaranteed (as long as humanity doesn't destroy itself). Perhaps also today's fashion (thinking of fashion museums).
- holoduke 5y agoA few years ago in Amsterdam , The Netherlands a construction company had to dig a tunnel through a former canal. The canal existed for few hundreds of years and was only a decade ago filled and a road was build on top of it. They found about 700.000 artifacts from the middle-ages till modern times. Speer arrows, swords, guns, money, credit cards, music cassettes, smoke pipes etc. I believe there is a exposition dedicated to those findings. Very interesting.
- jnsaff2 5y agoThere's a fun little TV series about this. At first it seems silly but it gets quite good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists
- selleck 5y agoSometimes 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.
- saetaes 5y agoPeople lived in the US 1000+ years ago, and I feel pretty confident that if you know where to look, relics can still be found.
- voz_ 5y agoYes, but they were not nearly advanced enough for metallurgy and the like. Their artifacts, while no less important, fade away far quicker.
- AlotOfReading 5y agoThe oldest copper artifacts we have are from the old copper complex around Lake Superior, and more recent metalworking traditions were present throughout much of the Americas.
- voz_ 5y agoPerhaps you are not deeply familiar with this realm, but trivial (native) copper working is not generally considered metallurgy. For an amateur but no less correct source, wikipedia provides a good quip for us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy_in_pre-Columbian_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy_in_pre-Columbian_Am... Archaeological evidence has not revealed metal smelting or alloying of metals by pre-Columbian native peoples north of the Rio Grande; however, they did use native copper extensively.[32] Which then further cites: George Rapp Jr, Guy Gibbon & Kenneth Ames (1998). Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: an Encyclopedia. New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 26. I do not own this book, so I apologize I cannot verify the citation.
- davidw 5y agoWell that's odd. I clicked on the 'Crap Ses Gorge' link to learn more about the place and... it's a Strava segment?
- formvoltron 5y agoGet some WD40 on that & it'll be as good as new.
- tecoholic 5y agoThe 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.