Posted on 01/25/2023 10:50:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In the 1930s, a tarnished bronze sword was pulled from the banks of the Danube River that runs through Budapest.
It was styled like a Hungarian weapon from the Bronze Age, and yet at the time, it was assumed to be a replica, possibly made in the Medieval Era or later.
For nearly a century, the sword has sat on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, labeled as a mere copy. But last year, while the museum was preparing for an upcoming exhibit on ancient European kings, a visiting Hungarian archaeologist (whose name has not been publicized) took one look at the sword and declared it authentic.
"We brought it out, he looked at it, and it was 20 seconds and he said, 'It's not a replica'," William Parkinson, the curator of anthropology at the Field Museum, told a local news station.
But Parkinson wasn't yet convinced. He wanted to use X-rays to see if the sword really had been forged from the right combinations of copper and tin, as is seen in other bronze-age weapons from the region.
And "Bam!" Parkinson recalled, the sword's chemical makeup matched that of other artifacts.
"Usually this story goes the other way round," Parkinson marveled in a recent press release from the museum. "What we think is an original turns out to be a fake."
...The Field Museum's upcoming exhibition, The First Kings of Europe, is set to open in March 2023. [emphasis added]
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
Is a poorly made iron sword more likely to break than a poorly made bronze sword?
That is cool. It’s been so many years since I’ve been been to the Field Museum I may have seen it, I just don’t remember. If I ever go back, I’ll be sure to look for it.
Sword Mistaken For Replica Is Actually An Ancient 3,000-Year-Old Weapon
>>>
For nearly a century, the sword has sat on display at the Field Museum...
Wow, great analog and intel to start the day, thanks!
It's like the traditions about King David from 3000 years ago -- David the "illegitimate" ginger kid out in the field, tending sheep, relegated to obscurity or worse. Then as it turned out, scrappy lil David slayed a most heinous giant... without even needing a sword. Work smart, not hard.
"Usually this story goes the other way round," Parkinson marveled in a recent press release from the museum. "What we think is an original turns out to be a fake."
This way is a lot more exciting.
>>>
The Field Museum's upcoming exhibition, The First Kings of Europe, is set to open in March 2023.
The King is in the Field. It's an old Jewish teaching from the Alter Rebbe, yet so many are going to be way surprised. Why limit the "month of mercy" to just one month? I think I see the problem there. Next thing you know, it gets reduced down to One Day, if anyone should happen to feel particulary charitable.
In the "windy" city:
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world.[4] The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs,[5][6] and its extensive scientific-specimen and artifact collections.[7]
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The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field*, the department-store magnate.
*מרשל פילד
Speaking of which, has anyone seen the Hebrew translation for the inscription on the Liberty Bell ( the 11th star number, Esther, פעמון הדרור = 661 = אסתר, Liberty Bell, located in the place of brotherly love)? Now because "Philadelphia" had been reduced to PHILADA, the translation reflects this as:
פילדה
Which left out "according to" in Philadelphia [פילדלפיה], and suspended the hay [ה] above the field. The page includes "Liberty Bell" transliterated from English: ליברטי בל -- bet-lamed, "bell" being the first and last letters of the Torah (and the whole Tanakh), which in reverse is a [Jewish] heart, as explained in the definitive article from above, from Chabad.
"The bell acquired its distinctive large crack sometime in the early 19th century -- a widespread story claims it cracked while ringing after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835."
Weight 2,080 pounds
Material 70% Copper (nehoshet)
70% of 2080 = 1456 (104 stone)
1456... Sounds like a plan... to rebuild Western Civilization, and beyond..
***
Budapest -- the name being a merge of the cities that had been divided by the long river, Buda and Pest.
In the 1930s, a tarnished bronze sword was pulled from the banks of the Danube River that runs through Budapest.
>>>For nearly a century, the sword has sat on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, labeled as a mere copy. But last year, while the museum was preparing for an upcoming exhibit on ancient European kings, a visiting Hungarian archaeologist (whose name has not been publicized) took one look at the sword and declared it authentic.
"We brought it out, he looked at it, and it was 20 seconds and he said, 'It's not a replica'," William Parkinson, the curator of anthropology at the Field Museum, told a local news station.
>>>The newly authenticated sword will be the first artifact for the exhibit that visitors will see as they enter the main hall -- an overlooked imitation no longer.
I see from a map that the museum campus has a fountain, "Man With Fish".
Thx for that. I’m not too familiar with it and would love to learn more.
I am thinking it was made by Adam Savage....
Adam Savage’s Assassin’s Sword: Capstone Build
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fWzPgC2wvo
I think it is on loan, so now would be a good time. I’ve been there just twice, and got more out of it the second time.
Whoops. No rush.
> For nearly a century, the sword has sat on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, labeled as a mere copy.
You have probably been to a restaurant that has a decorative guitar on the wall, it’s not playable, it’s just for show? Replica anythings are like that. :^)
I think I went to school with Al...
Yeah, most of the ancient world’s fighters were bivocational, that is, they picked up whatever they had and marched out to battle, or defended the town (walls or no). Most of those weapons were probably of convenience, rather than being something made for combat as this surely was.
Tools of all kinds, even a length of rope, whatever was available, would be used, and generally they were passed down the generations until they broke or were otherwise superseded. Or, y’know, the guy died and his side lost.
I was there to see the King Tut exhibits in the ‘70s and one years later that wasn’t quite as good. Saw the Pompeii exhibit, too. Can’t remember what year that was…
It’s been a while, and I’m a little leery about going now, the way things are in Chicago.
It’s the same all over — the find site references are all modern placenames, so we know where it is. When long-lost ancient sites are found, they are often given the name of the nearest modern site, or whatever the local site name is — so, e.g., ancient Ugarit was id’d from the archive found there, but the modern name of Ras Shamra at least used to be used at least half of the time.
This artifact originated four or five cultural layers down.
Yeah, heh, there have been analogous reactions to other sites, like the find of Roman coins in Jersey (the island in the English Channel, not the US state).
They used what they had, and didn’t necessarily buy, they made them. Bronze remained in use for a long time. How long? It’s still in use. :^)
It would be interesting to learn where the component metals were sourced, this is made possible by the ratios with trace metals and whatnot.
No way to know this, but it’s at least possible that the ones which endured the best that can be reliably dated and in the same ballpark of age were all made by the same armorer or at least the same shop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_sources_and_trade_in_ancient_times#Europe
map
Yeah, apart of lee’s and my problem of trying to lift that bad boy, it would do the trick!
Good pages!
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3956011/posts
https://search.brave.com/search?q=Bronze+Age+village+Lake+Lucerne
https://freerepublic.com/tag/nebraskydisc/index
I saw the later Tut exhibit, lots of interesting stuff (ballustrade from Amarna, Yuya and Tuya tomb stuff, everyday items from Tut’s tomb like furniture and game board), and enjoyed it immensely. What a cattle herding that was though.
Pompeii, that would have fun!
I share your leeriness about visiting now.
Yes, bronze is still in use today.
I have not seen a bronze blade anywhere outside of a museum.
Yes, I know what replicas are for, I have some of my own.
However as far as I know replica weapons were not made in Medieval period.
It seems to me that in a time when skilled craftsmen and metals were at a premium wasting time and materials on a purely decorative archaic weapon would be a rarity.
And to find such an artifact in a river would be even more improbable because such a weapon would not be carried.
Certainly art piece weapons were produced.
But such weapons were produced of the finest materials of the day.
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