Tiny, 1800-year-old portrait of Alexander the Great found in Denmark

Cosmos magazine ^ | April 23, 2024 | Evrim Yazgin

[SunkenCiv]

It was unearthed by metal detectors Finn Ibsen and Lars Danielsen who were conducting survey work in a field outside Ringsted, a city on the island of Zealand, 50km southwest of Denmark's capital Copenhagen.

The bronze fitting, known as a bracket, was given to Museum West Zealand... It's about 2.7 centimetres in diameter and made of a bronze alloy.

The mini portrait dates to about 200 CE. This places it at roughly the same time as the Roman emperor Caracalla...

Caracalla often "dressed with the same style and believed he was Alexander the Great reincarnated," Oldenburger adds. "Caracalla is also the only emperor of his time to be depicted with a shield containing a portrait of Alexander the Great."

While the Roman empire at the time did not extend as far north as Denmark, trade and commerce between Romans and the north and east was common.

During Caracalla's reign a large battle took place between Germanic armies on the Danish Jutland at Illerup Adal. Excavations have revealed many of the shields used in the clash were adorned with portraits of warriors, according to a Museum West Zealand statement.

Despite being nearly 2,000km from his birthplace in Macedonia, one such portrait is of Alexander the Great. The newly discovered bracket is almost identical.

"But this one is a little more coarse and is made of cast bronze and not gilded silver," Oldenburger says. "The bronze alloy also contains a high lead content and was made using an alloy often found in [Roman] bronze statuettes. It's possible that a statuette was melted down to make this portrait."

[outofsalt]

LOL

[PIF]

The nose has been removed to destroy any power the image may have had.

[nikos1121]

I’ll have remember that

[mewzilla]

Looks like Shirley from Shawn the Sheep to me...

[zeugma]

One of my favorite things to do is to call CE dating the “CHRISTIAN ERA”. they normally call this common era, but if you call it Christian era their faces will turn red, they will get mad, and their blood pressure will go haywire. It’s great.

Me too. some of these twits are so easy to annoy.

[zeugma]

The nose has been removed to destroy any power the image may have had.

Maybe he had covid.