Posted on 02/26/2024 12:05:22 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A copper dagger more than 4,000 years old was found in a forest near the town of Jarosław on the San River in south-eastern Poland. This discovery is the oldest dagger made of metal found in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.
In the 3rd millennium BC, objects made of copper were extremely rare in the area, Dr Elżbieta Sieradzka-Burghardt, an archaeologist from the Jarosław museum, told PAP.
This valuable object, dating back over 4,000 years, was discovered last November by Piotr Gorlach of the Jarosław Historical and Exploration Association, who – with the permission of the Podkarpacie Regional Historical Monument Conservator in Przemyśl – conducted a search with a metal detector in the forests in the area of the Jarosław Forest Inspectorate, near the village of Korzenica...
Archaeologists from the Museum in Jarosław Orsetti House identified the artifact as an extremely rare 4,000-year-old dagger. The ancient weapon was made of copper and measured just over 4 inches (10,5 cm) in length.
According to archaeologist Dr. Marcin Burghardt from the Jarosław Museum, the dagger discovered in Korzenica can be dated to the second half of the third millennium BC...
In contrast, the now-discovered dagger from Korzenica – as noted by Dr Elżbieta Sieradzka-Burghardt, an archaeologist from the Jarosław museum – was not cast in bronze, but is made of copper...
During this period, metal products were imported from modern-day Ukraine or Hungary and only available to elites who could afford them. Links to the ancient weapon’s origin will be determined in the future through special metallurgical analysis.
(Excerpt) Read more at arkeonews.net ...
What’s that other tool...for spackling...except it’s copper...so pretty flexible.
This article says they did.
https://www.npca.org/articles/2309-exploring-70-centuries-of-mining-history
Prolly some bricklayer from Lech Walesa’s Solidarity Union lost his trowel tool on the job.
Says "they did" what? Here is what I saw in the article you linked to:
Starting around 7,000 years ago, Native Americans shaped the copper into tools, fishhooks, jewelry and other implements.
I have a friend who may have the largest private collection of old copper culture artifacts.
None of them were cast. They were all cold worked to shape.
Many people have wondered at the lack of smelting and casting technique. Smelting and casting requires the melting of the copper, so it can be cast into desired shapes.
No evidence of smelting has been discovered, or if it has, it has not been understood.
If it were used, you would expect lots of cast copper implements.
Instead, we see lots of cold-worked copper implements, and no evidence of casting.
Ahh I misread it!
Thanks for the correction
I find the old copper culture fascinating.
They were so close to a true metal age, but they never quite got to being able to melt metal and cast it.
The Aztecs and Mayas were right on the edge. They were doing some copper and gold casting. Some of their copper casts seem to have been on the edge of bronze.
The Conquistadors had steel armor, guns, horses, plank built boats, sails, history, and superior religion. They offered the tribes who had been subjugated and terrorized by the Aztecs a better deal. The germs coming from the Old world proved deadlier, faster, than the germs moving from the New World to the Old (syphilis is the most obvious example). Christianity became more popular then human sacrifice and cannibalism.
Lack of ready tin resources would have been a problem.
I think lack of draft animals was a huge detriment to advancement.
The Aztecs had some tin from Zacatecas, and early bronze artifacts have been in the Huastec area of Eastern Mesoamerica.
The American civilizations were just starting to learn to use metallurgy.
In the edit I took out the part where the finder recounted his initial impression that he’d found some debris from WWII.
That was before the advent of Copper-14 dating.
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