For Those Interested in Archaeology

Oh, that's seriously cool.

Cheers Pop,
Not heard much about Oak Island for a while now.

 

"A Middle Bronze Age ceremonial dagger used for years as a doorstop has been saved from a private sale.
The 27in-long (68cm) bronze WEAPON was ploughed up in a field in East Rudham, Norfolk 12 years ago.
Known as a dirk, it has been described as "incredibly rare". It is only the second of its type found in the UK.
The dirk was purchased using a grant of £39,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and is now on display at Norwich Castle Museum.
The artefact, known as the Rudham Dirk, is THOUGHT to be about 3,500 years old.
It is about three TIMES the size of a normal Bronze Age dirk, making it impractical for use as a weapon."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-30175083

 

Seaxs ranged from a few inches to over 30. I'm not sure why they think the fact that this one is 27 inches makes it impratical as a weapon. Would like to see it from some additional angles. Magnificent find in any case glad it's in a museum.

 

Seaxes were also iron...and thus harder...and as a single-edged weapon with a roughly triangular-section blade, much like a modern chef's knife...stronger still The back of the blade is thus self-reinforced like a Bowie.

By impractical as a weapon I think they mean the "dirk" is impractical as a combat weapon; it's too long to be a knife...but still too short to match the reach of a Bronze Age leaf-bladed sword, or a "rapier"...and thus someone trying to use this as a weapon would have to manage to get inside the reach of the better-armed man!

It would still do the business though if you stepped up behind someone and stuck it between a couple of ribs...

 

I seam to recall that bronze age "swords" were of two distinct types due to the strength issue. Some (the "rapiers" you mention) were thrusting weapons only sometimes square in cross section the others were slashing weapons and 27" isn't that far off for them at least from what I recall. It certainly is in the same range as a Kopis or Lang seaxs, admittedly the latter could thrust and cut but not the former.

 

Yes, the leaf bladed" class of swords were the slashers.

Actually - it serves me right for posting late at night! I've been looking at the article again - and the reason why this "weapon" would have been hopeless for combat is a lot clearer than I thought...

Look at the pic again -



...there's omething MISSING from it

No "tang" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_(weaponry) the bit below the hand-end of the blade that a wooden handle would be rivetted around.

In the case of the "dirk" class of Bronze Age daggers, they didn't need a tang; that butt-end of the blade would be pierced by a number of holes, then set into a carved wooden handle....or two wooden pieces clamped around it - by rivets through the holes.

Now, a small dagger or knife blade for light work can just about get away with no tang down from the blade into the hand grip...but compensated for it by that end of the blade being very broad, a decent percentage of the length of the blade itself, to provide a large jointing face for rivetting.

But poke or slash a tang-less 27-inch blade at someone....and it's going to break off at the hilt with the lightest of blows!

 

Don't know whether to praise your knowledge or hope to God I never visit have to visit your ancestral home, Old Boy.
Damned interesting stuff though.

 

Cheap sword:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPDL4eiKhVc

 

You should see what I have hanging in the curtainless porch as a burglar deterrent...

A 38" Norman singlehanded broadsword, non-rebated, in philippino spring steel, rated for steel-to-steel live combat....and it DOES have a full tang!

It just hangs there, humming away to itself like Stormbringer...."touch those bikes and I will f**k you up severely for it...."...usually to the tune of "The Sun Has Got Its Hat On..."



The "Oxborough Dirk" in the British Museum is remarkably similar, as is a group of other known items...remarkably so, leading to the theory they were all possibly produced by the same craftsman, or at a single manufacturing. It too is grossly oversized and has an unpunched hilt, so it was never intended for real use of any sort...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxborough_dirk#mediaviewer/File:Oxborough_DirkDSCF6558.jpg

"Real"...as in for real use...Bronze Age dirks were as I noted above punched for rivetting a hilt on...




.......so that a hilt could be attached pretty much like this...a modern live action roleplay replica!



Obvoiusly - a pair of rivets and a bit of hardwood ain't going to support the weight of a heavy 27-inch weapon!

Interestingly, however...it meant that blades made like this could ALSO be dual-purpose...to create a very nasty polearm-type weapon called (anachronistically) by archeologists a "halberd"...






....which I would NOT like to meet anywhere coming at me!!!!

 

This pic of the item under discussion shows just how bloody big in real terms it is...!!!

 

Hell yeah. Read all those Michael Moorcock series. Count Brass, Moonbow, Elric. Great stuff.
Once out of its sheath, Stormbringer had to be satisfied.

 

Be watching this development like a hawk!
"A zig-zag, drawn on a shell, could re-write our entire understanding of human origins and art. The pattern, drawn by a homo erectus as long as 540,000 years ago and found recently by an Australian researcher, could change all understandings of our early ancestors.
The engraving is at least 300,000 years older than other markings thought to be the oldest made by humans or Neanderthals. The pattern looks like previous finds, but the oldest known of those dates from 100,000 years ago.


“It rewrites human history,” said Dr Stephen Munro, from Australian National University, who identified the shell and published the research in Nature this week. “This is the first time we have found evidence for Homo erectus behaving this way,” he said.
The age of the rock, and the place it was found, discount earlier theories that the engravings had done by our later ancestors, Neanderthals, or by human beings."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/homo-erectus-engraving-could-rewrite-human-history-and-might-show-art-began-400000-years-earlier-than-we-knew-9903557.html

 

Interesting...the Chinese are STILL trying to prove they are a seperate human species...they'd like this...a zig zag however can be created by an animal's teeth...or tiny burrowers...or just simple luck from one or more scrapes with something sharp, like peices of shell...im not convinced...

 

Worried may have to drive amongst chinese driver(s)
Snow defeats
usual responses
you know physics

 

Chinese have slanted eyes to prevent snow blindness (bet you didnt know that) - They will be fine...YOU on the other hand...suited to the cold, but not the snow

 

Not sure what happened in #1094. Makes no sense. Thinking another malicious North Korea attack. ..I'm on your side NK. Also dislike Rogan/ Franco/ hollywood. Go get 'em Kim Jong.

 

On the other hand - as a white anglo-saxon motorcyclist I am perfectly evolved to buy sunglasses

 

#1094...Remember now. It was an attempt at poetry. fail. fyi.

 

Free prose....let's say...or one of them hi coos an that...

 

So as well as allegedly "creating war", farming's also supposed to have made us all weaklings? Sometimes I worry about these "experts".
"Farming may have brought with it a host of benefits on diet and the economy, but it also caused us to become weak and puny.
Research, covering a period of more than 7,000 years of human evolution, has revealed modern-day skeletons are lighter and more fragile than those belonging to our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
In fact, the bones of our early ancestors were comparable in strength to modern orangutans, but once farming spread, these bones became 20 per cent weaker.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge used X-rays and CT scans to study ancient samples of human femur bones, along with femora from other primate species.
In particular, they focused on the inside of the femoral head - the ball at the top of the femur which fits into the pelvis to form the hip joint.
This joint is one of the most load-bearing bone connections in the body.
There are two types of tissue that form bone. The cortical or 'hard' bone shell on the outside, and the trabecular or 'spongy' bone on the inside."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2883788/Farming-turned-WEAKLINGS-compared-ancient-ancestors.html#ixzz3MgbYGnk0


Been around for a while this story, but good to see it get a mention.

"The Nebra Sky Disc is thought to have been made during the Middle Bronze Age in around 1600 BC, and experts believe it could be the first 'sky map' ever created.
The bronze disc, about 32cm in diameter, has a gold inlay clearly representing the moon and/or sun and some stars.
The Sky Disc was discovered in Germany in 1999 as part of a hoard also containing two bronze swords, two small axes, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets.
Experts believe the Sky Disc was a calculator to help Bronze Age people predict the best times for sowing and harvesting in spring and autumn.
It recorded the fact that when the Pleiades, a very obvious group of stars in the night sky which are a familiar sight in the northern hemisphere in winter, were seen next to a new moon, that signaled the beginning of spring, when seeds should be sown, at the latitude of central Germany.
When the star cluster stood next to a full moon, it was a sign that fall had begun and it was harvest time.
The Sky Disc was discovered in Germany in 1999 as part of a hoard also containing two bronze swords, two small axes, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets.
A small piece in wood found in one of the swords allowed scientists to date the hoard to around 1600 BC.
The disc was also used to determine if and when a thirteenth month -- the so-called intercalary month -- should be added to a lunar year to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the seasons."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2884475/The-map-sky-Mysterious-3600-year-old-Sky-Calender-let-ancient-farmers-track-seasons.html#ixzz3MgcRmwme



"An undisturbed 6,000-year-old encampment, which was likely home to the forefathers of Stonehenge, has been discovered.
Carbon dating last week established the ‘first proof’ of a settlement at Blick Mead in Wiltshire, which predates the famous monument nearby.
A spokesman for the project, told MailOnline: ‘It’s the first proof of people living there earlier, and indicates that Stonehenge could have been planned for years.
They believe that further excavation of the site, which has so far revealed evidence of a permanent structure and burned animal bones, could help experts unravel why the mysterious stone circle was built.
Archaeologists at the University of Buckingham, led by David Jacques, found the ancient site last October, which is around one-and-a-half miles (2.4km) from Stonehenge."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2883463/Is-home-Stonehenge-s-forefathers-6-000-year-old-encampment-Blick-Mead-rewrite-British-history.html#ixzz3Mgede0T1