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Denmark's Archaeology Experiment Is Paying Off in Gold and Knowledge
- wslh 1y agohttps://archive.is/ra5se https://archive.is/ra5se
- countrymile 1y agoFor anyone who hasn't seen the detectorists, it gives a very British perspective on this sort of work, and is one of the best British comedies of the last ten years: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists
- atombender 1y agoAgreed, it's fantastic. It's not just a brilliant and warm comedy, it's also apparently a really accurate and well-researched depiction of the metal detecting world.
- 4ndrewl 1y agoThe British perspective on this is really the Portable Antquities Scheme at https://finds.org.uk/ https://finds.org.uk/ which has been running for over 20 years. You'll find details of research papers and the Staffordshire Hoard, probably one of the largest collections of Anglo-Saxon metalwork ever found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffordshire_Hoard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffordshire_Hoard
- louky 1y agoSo does Time Team, and they're back making new episodes. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtpbubYLW2fdf9ySyCS0fcRRp5nJrfmCk https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtpbubYLW2fdf9ySyCS0f...
- Nursie 1y agoReally? Amazing. I loved time team back in the day and I’ve just started rewatching some of them (one of the streaming services has series 13-17 here in Aus). Might not be the same without Tony, but I see he did pop in for a cameo…
- wswope 1y agoI think you’ll be pleasantly surprised: There was an awkward transition post-Tony, but the new hosts have finally hit their stride. Natalie/Gus/Hilde are far more serene presences than Tony, but they let the rest of the cast shine through. Helen and Derek in particular are the standout presenters right now, and while they don’t have the same manic/ADHD vibe, they’re both passionate and curious in a way that reflects Tony’s style and keeps the narrative intriguing.
- Nursie 1y agoWell, I'll definitely be giving it a go, thanks to yourself and the poster above for the heads up :)
- jvm___ 1y agoDetectorist was the perfect "the world is a normal place" show during the early days of the pandemic.
- jl6 1y agoThis show is a great example of how good TV comes from good writing, not high budget.
- walthamstow 1y agoSuccession had both and it was damn near perfect
- ggm-at-algebras 1y agoAbsolutely the best fictional story of the genre. Lovingly made, with nuance and some sadness: Diana Rigg, real life mother of Rachael Stirling, (who was cast as her daughter in this series) died during its later series, reflected in plots. The theme music by Johnny Flynn and Dan Michaelson is perfect.
- ascorbic 1y agoMackenzie Crook also made (and stars in) Worzel Gummidge, which despite being a kids' show about a talking scarecrow, feels like very much a partner of the Detectorists and is just as lovely. Toby Jones appearing as every member of the bonfire committee is a particular treat.
- BurningFrog 1y agoImpressed that people turned in "1.5 kilograms of Viking Age gold artifacts". That gold is worth about $160k! If I ran the program I would pay at least the metal value to anyone turning artifacts in. To remove the temptation that doubtless keeps some finds away from the science.
- colechristensen 1y agoOnce properly documented, I have some skepticism that it's really necessary to hold every historical artifact found, inside some museum archive basically never to be seen again.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoIt isn't, but it's impossible to know what will be useful for research again in the future, so historical researchers make an effort to preserve what they can and avoid excavating if possible.
- BurningFrog 1y agoYou can probably do a detailed 3d scan and retain 95% of the scientific value.
- heikkilevanto 1y agoNo, at some point they want to analyze the impurities in the gold, or the isotopes, or something else we don't know yet...
- BurningFrog 1y agoSure, that can be done together with the scanning.
- rectang 1y agoThank goodness you weren't in charge of the Herculanum scrolls.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago> Ginnerup dug up 14 glittering gold disks—some as big as saucers—that archaeologists say were buried about 1,500 years ago > the real showstopper is an amulet called a bracteate with two stylized designs: a man in profile, his long hair pulled back in a braid, and a horse in full gallop. An expert in ancient runes says she was awestruck when she finally made out the inscription on top: “He is Odin’s man.” > These embossed runes are the oldest known written mention of Odin, the Norse god of war and ruler of Valhalla. Ginnerup’s bracteate, which archaeologists describe as the most significant Danish find in centuries, extended the worship of Odin back 150 years I don't think this is right. The first mention of Odin by a Germanic source could date to 500 AD. But the Romans wrote about the Germanic gods several centuries prior to that. They used the equivalence we still use today, calling Odin "Mercury". But what they say about the Germanic gods is compatible with what we know from Germanic sources; there's no reason to believe there was a change in the gods. I note that the image on the bracteate features a pretty prominent swastika. Maybe Hitler was accidentally on to something after all.
- tokai 1y agoIt's the oldest mention of Odin in Denmark. The sciam journalist lost that detail somewhere. That is why the find pushed worship of Odin in Denmark back 150 years.
- eesmith 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin#Roman_era_to_Migration_Period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin#Roman_era_to_Migration_Pe... says "The earliest clear reference to Odin by name is found on a C-bracteate discovered in Denmark in 2020." So, "written mention of Odin" seems to mean written as "Odin', and not as "Mercury". It also mentions some debate over if the Goths actually worshiped Odin/Mercury, but I am too ill-informed to make sense if that's relevant. I did manage to find a scholarly reference to the topic at https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/c11e69e4-ff28-499e-b654-ae292c3de469/content#page=336 https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/c11e69e... ("Pre-print papers of THE 18TH INTERNATIONAL SAGA CONFERENCE SAGAS AND THE CIRCUM-BALTIC ARENA. Helsinki and Tallinn, 7th–14th August 2022") > The problem of Mercury > Despite lack of Germanic evidence for the existence of a cult of Wodan/Óðinn before the fifth (or perhaps even the sixth) century, as presented above, many scholars maintain ancient roots. For example, disregarding critical scholarship on various individual sources, Schjødt reiterated that “taken together, they strongly indicate that Óðinn, although not exactly the same as the god that we know from the Nordic sources, has roots reaching far back in time, probably as early as the Indo-European era (at least 3000 BC)” (Schjødt 2019: 67). ... > The reading of interpretation romana maintains that Tacitus’ famous description of Germanic deities, Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt, should be understood to signify Wodan/Óðinn. Of course, it has already been shown by Karl Helm that this was a historical trope copied from Herodotus, and/or Caesar’s Commentarii de bello gallico (Helm 1946: 7-12). The fact that Caesar was talking about Celts, and his description of religion among the Germani mentions worship of the sun, moon, and fire, does nothing to secure the reliability of such ‘historical’ sources. Either way, the argument that the foremost deity interpreted by Tacitus as a ‘Mercury-type’ must be Wodan/Óðinn is a projection of the latter’s supremacy in Old Norse material onto a Germanic society several centuries older. This becomes a circular argument and cannot be leading.
- wewewedxfgdf 1y ago"The swastika design next to the man's head predates the adoption of this symbol by the Nazis." 1,500 years ago!
- WaitWaitWha 1y agoThis saddens me that this had to be written.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Reasoning 1y agoDid it have to be written? Who's the hypothetical person who is confused that a 1,500 year old gold disk is older than the Nazi era.
- necovek 1y agoNobody is confused about that, but people are confused about whether the swastika represents something similar to Nazi ideology before the Nazis appropriated it.
- roger_ 1y agoDo the detectorists get a certificate or something for their honesty?
- tokai 1y agoThey get a payment and they get to be a part of the archaeological process. I have a colleague that had a significant find recently. Her and her "crew" did the dig, cleaning, initial description and cataloguing, and surveyed the area around the site. With supervision from professional archaeologists. Without this system they would get to handover any finds to the landowner.
- biophysboy 1y agoDenmark has a fantastic maritime museum right by the Kronborg castle with hundreds of model ships, wreckage artifacts and high-quality underwater photos. Would recommend visiting on a Copenhagen trip
- trhway 1y agohow about hanging metal detector from a drone or just plain autonomous RC car. I think once such massive de-mining starts in Ukraine, the tech would trickle down into archaeology and the like fields.
- flemhans 1y agoMount the equipment on the plows that anyway traverse the fields
- comrade1234 1y agoI live in Switzerland and I know an ancient forest where I go every year and pull out about 20kg of chanterelle and 10kg of toten trumpeten. These mushrooms come back every year, potentially for thousands of years. One year I found a big piece of a clay cooking pan in the area where the chanterelles grow. There are also tons of ravines, potential caves but I won't know until I climb down the ravines, but about 20 km away there are tourist caves where you can pay to enter them, part of the same ridge system. I wanted to see if I could use a metal detector to find treasure, like in the article but it's illegal here. I suppose I could go in at night with the equipment but it's probably not worth it since while the Roman's were very active in Switzerland they weren't in this very specific region. But still, where did the clay cooking pan come from?
- mhb 1y agoWhy is a metal detector illegal?
- timonoko 1y agoOr rather "what constitutes a metal detector"? I could have such double-resonating circuitry in my shoe connected to earplug via bluetooth. "Officer, this equipment is for detecting needles in the Geneva playground".
- throw101010 1y agoEver heard of the principle of "good faith" in the context of the Swiss law (Article 2 of the Civil Code)? Sometimes I think it was a prescient concept of our law makers and judiciary, many decades ago they knew they would have to deal with this kind of reddit-tier smartassery... if you have a device to detect metal, and you use it to detect metal, it is a metal detector, no judge will give you a pass because you thought you were very clever.
- timonoko 1y agoYou can surgically insert tiny piece of magnet in your big toe. It is crazy good metal detector.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- erk__ 1y agoThere is also a version of Danefæ for non-human made things called Danekræ https://samlinger.snm.ku.dk/en/danekrae/ https://samlinger.snm.ku.dk/en/danekrae/ There is a lot less specimens in that collection as it only includes specimens that are deemed important in some ways, right now there are 1054. They can be viewed online here: https://collections.snm.ku.dk/en/search?dataset=5b5305ae-35d1-4992-9d1a-f447db84b471 https://collections.snm.ku.dk/en/search?dataset=5b5305ae-35d... (edit: That online collection only seem to contain biological specimen, meteors and geological specimens are not included as far as I can tell)