New archeological weapon discoveries

[GeneChing]

Cool story...

China Exclusive: Teenager stumbles on 3,000-year-old bronze sword in river
English.news.cn 2014-09-06 19:25:51

NANJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A child in east China's Jiangsu Province had a stroke of luck after lunging into a river and stumbling upon a 3,000-year-old bronze sword.

Yang Junxi, an 11-year-old boy, discovered upon the rusty sword on July 2 when he was playing near the Laozhoulin River in Linze Township of Gaoyou County, according to the Gaoyou Cultural Relics Bureau.

While washing hands in the river, Yang touched the tip of something hard and fished out the metal sword. He took it home and gave it to his father Yang Jinhai.

Upon hearing the news, people began flocking to Yang's home, the father said.

"Some people even offered high prices to buy the the sword, but I felt it would be illegal to sell the cultural relic," Yang said.

After considering his options, the father sent the sword to the Gaoyou Cultural Relics Bureau on Sept. 3.

The bureau arranged initial identifications on the sword with a joint team of local cultural relics experts on the sword's material, length, shape and other major factors.

Initial identifications found the 26 cm-long yellow-brown sword could be dated back to more than 3,000 years ago, around the time of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, said Lyu Zhiwei, head of the cultural relics office of the bureau.

"There was no characteristic or decorative pattern on the exquisite bronze sword. Made in a time of relatively low productivity, its owner would have been an able man with the qualification to have such artifact," he said.

"The short sword seems a status symbol of a civil official. It has both decorative and practical functions, but is not in the shape of sword for military officers."

It is the second bronze artifact found in the region after a bronze instrument was excavated in the nearby Sanduo Township.

The sword was found in the Laozhoulin River, which crosses the ancient Ziying River which was excavated in the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC).

It also interlinks the ancient Han Ditch as the "predecessor" of China's Grand Canal, the world's longest artificial waterway with a history of more than 2,400 years.

The 1,794-km canal runs from Beijing to Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang Province. It was entered into the World Heritage list in June 2014.

The city has conducted several rounds of dredging in the Laozhoulin River, which might surface the sword from the river bottom, said Lyu, adding that the township government has prepared a further archeological dig into the river and in the nearby areas.

The relics bureau and municipal museum of Gaoyou City have sent the collection certificates and bonus for the boy and his father in honor of their deeds of protecting and donating cultural relic.
Editor: Yang Yi

[GeneChing]

I split this off from another thread into its own thread. Not that I expect this thread to grow that dramatically, but I love ancient Chinese weapons.

Shaanxi man finds ancient sword while working

A 26-year-old man in Danfeng county of Shaanxi province was awarded a certificate and 500 RMB by the local cultural relic department this past Tuesday after he found a bronze sword inside some clay while he was sifting, according to NetEase News.



Li Lei told reporters that some people had offered to buy the ancient sword for 100,000 RMB, but he turned them down and handed it over to the cultural relic department.




According to Lu Qinghe, an archaeological expert, the sword dates back over 3,000 years to Warring States' Chu Dynasty. It is 46.5cm long, 4cm wide and weighs 0.61 kg. Lu added that among all swords that had been unearthed locally, this one is the most intact and has great archaeological value attached to it.




In September, a 3,000-year-old sword was found by a little boy when he was washing hands in a river in Jiangsu province.

By Lucy Liu

There's a vid too but it's on tencent so our forum won't allow for embedding it.

[GeneChing]

I've held ancient bronze swords like this one. They are surprisingly detailed in their craftsmanship.

2,000-year-old sword found in Henan
By Wang Zhenghua (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2015-03-15 10:37


A well-preserved bronze sword was unearthed in Zhoukou, Henan province. [Photo/IC]

A well-preserved bronze sword was unearthed in Zhoukou, Henan province, from a 2,000-year-old tomb along with other funeral objects.

The Beijing Times reported on Sunday that the sword, found in the tomb complex built between the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and Eastern Han Dynasty (25 AD-220 AD), remains intact and still glitters.

The local archaeological department found the tomb complex composed of a total of 21 graves when exploring the underground culture relics before an infrastructure project in the city's Xiangcheng area.

Most of these graves have been robbed and just five of them remain intact, where pottery products including jug, can, spoon, plate, bowl and eaves tiles were unearthed.

Other relics include the sword, two bronze spears and a bronze dagger-axe. Archaeologists said the sword belonged to the tomb owner and was buried with him when he died.


Another piece of relics was unearthed in Zhoukou, Henan province. [Photo/IC]


Archaeologists work at the 2,000-year-old tomb. [Photo/IC]

I'm adding the words 'archeology' 'archeologist' and 'ancient sword' here so it'll come up on the forum search. It took me a bit to find this thread again.

[curenado]

"Some people even offered high prices to buy the the sword, but I felt it would be illegal to sell the cultural relic," Yang said.

This is what a century of ruthless grinding and disenfranchisement does to people. To have dropped all mao's commie carrots programs and be in a current state where they are ipso facto meat cattle in waiting.
If it was anything but a scam for elite $$ & power grabbing, they wouldn't be trying to force it or, like us, the Islamic version of it, all over the world.
"Now give us our sword you found and say! You got some sexy lookin kidneys there comrade - "

Americans, "eating bitter" is a lie and "feeding steel" is the cure of it. We were supposed to fight bitter in the world, not tolerate or aid it

[Kellen Bassette]

I love how it's grave robbing, accept when your an archaeologist.....

[David Jamieson]

Archaeology is not tantamount to grave robbing. It is an attempt to rectify our otherwise ridiculous short collective memories.

Even in your lifetime you are going to have moments where you recognize a repetition of something that you took for granted for years already.
The reason for it's repetition is that the generation behind you, does not have that knowledge to take for granted yet.

Archaeology helps us understand who we are historically and how we developed. Without knowing that, within a generation we could be rendered utterly stupid about our past.

[GeneChing]

1,600-year-old demon-slaying mega sword unearthed in Japan
Archaeologists in Japan have discovered a 'Dako' sword from the 4th century that dwarfs any other sword ever discovered in Japan.
LEO DE⬝ APR 9, 2023⟳APR 17, 2023
The discovery of ancient artifacts is always an exciting event for archaeologists and history enthusiasts. In November 2022, a remarkable discovery was made in the city of Nara, Japan. A massive seven-foot-long iron sword was found in a burial mound along with other archaeological treasures that date back hundreds of years. The city of Nara’s education board and Nara prefecture’s archaeological institute announced the discoveries on January 25.


Tomio Maruyama Kofun is Japan’s largest circular burial mound (109m in diameter) built in the latter half of the 4th century. Tomio Maruyama Burial Mound 6th Survey Excavation Area. © Wikimedia Commons
The sword, known as a dakō sword and is estimated to be over 1,600 years old, and is considered to be a significant historical artifact from Japan’s history. Because of its wavy, snake-like appearance and the fact that it is so enormous, it is highly unlikely that it was ever used for self-defense but rather as a way of providing protection from evil after death.

The sword was buried along with a two-foot-wide, one-foot-tall shield-shaped mirror weighing 124 pounds, thought to be a daryu mirror, which was also used to ward off evil spirits. The combination of these items may indicate that the individual they were alongside was important in military and ritualistic matters, Nara University archaeology professor Naohiro Toyoshima told Japanese Kyodo News.

“These swords are prestigious objects of high society,” archaeologist and ancient Japanese sword expert Stefan Maeder told LiveScience.

These relics were found during excavations in the Tomio Maruyama burial mound, thought to have been built in the 4th century during the Kofun period, which lasted from 300 to 710 AD. The site is Japan’s largest circular burial mound, measuring 357 feet in diameter.


An X-ray of the large dāko sword discovered at Tomio Maruyama. © Archaeological Institute of Kashihara in Nara Prefecture
The blade is about 2.3 inches wide, but the partially remaining scabbard is about 3.5 inches wide due to the meandering shape, said the researchers in a statement from the Nara Board of Education and the city’s archaeological institute. “It is also the largest iron sword in Japan and the oldest example of a meandering sword.”

The mirror is the first of its kind to have been unearthed, but the massive sword is one of around 80 similar relics that have been discovered across Japan. The sword is, however, the largest specimen of its type, and is twice as large as the second-largest sword found in the country.


Tomio Maruyama Kofun is Japan’s largest circular burial mound (109m in diameter) built in the latter half of the 4th century. Tomio Maruyama Burial Mound 6th Survey Excavation Area. © Wikimedia Commons
ArtNews reported that larger swords with the distinctive wavy shape of dakō swords are thought to have greater powers to protect against evil spirits, with the sword being so large that it was likely not meant for combat against people.

“These discoveries indicate that the technology of the Kofun period (300–710 AD) is beyond what had been imagined, and they are masterpieces in metalwork from that period,” Kosaku Okabayashi, the deputy director for Nara Prefecture’s Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, told Kyodo News.

These burial mounds are scattered all across Nara and the rest of Japan. They are called “kofun” after the Kofun era, which was the time period in which they were constructed. According to LiveScience, there might be as many as 160,000 of the mounds.

The discovery of the 1,600-year-old demon-slaying mega sword is an amazing archaeological find that sheds light on the ancient history of Japan.

Alongside other archaeological treasures, this discovery provides a unique glimpse into the lives and traditions of the people who lived hundreds of years ago. We look forward to learning more as further research is conducted on this remarkable find.

Samurai-Swords
New-archeological-weapon-discoveries

[GeneChing]

4 Roman swords, exceptionally preserved after 1,900 years, discovered in a Dead Sea cave
AP logo Updated: 6:16 PM PDT Sep 7, 2023
By ILAN BEN ZION, Associated Press

JERUSALEM —
Four Roman-era swords, their wooden and leather hilts and scabbards and steel blades exquisitely preserved after 1,900 years in a desert cave, surfaced in a recent excavation by Israeli archaeologists near the Dead Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.

The cache of exceptionally intact artifacts was found about two months ago and tells a story of empire and rebellion, of long-distance conquest and local insurrection.

Researchers, who published the preliminary findings in a newly released book, propose that the arms — four swords and the head of a javelin, known as a pilum — were stashed in the remote cavern by Jewish rebels during an uprising against the Roman Empire in the 130s.

The swords were dated based on their typology, and have not yet undergone radiocarbon dating.

The find was part of the antiquities authority's Judean Desert Survey, which aims to document and excavate caves near the Dead Sea and secure scrolls and other precious artifacts before looters have a chance to plunder them.

The cool, arid and stable climate of the desert caves has allowed exceptional preservation of organic remains, including hundreds of ancient parchment fragments known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Those Jewish texts, discovered last century and dated to the first centuries BCE and CE, contain the earliest known versions of the Hebrew Bible, as well an assortment of esoteric writings.


Ohad Zwigenberg
Israeli archaeologists show four Roman-era swords and a javelin head found during a recent excavation in a cave near the Dead Sea, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sep. 6, 2023. Archaeologists said the exceptionally preserved artifacts are dated to the 2nd century, when Jewish rebels launched an uprising against the Roman Empire. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Archaeologists returned to this particular cave near the desert oasis of Ein Gedi to document an inscription found decades earlier.

"At the back of the cave, in one of the deepest part of it, inside a niche, I was able to retrieve that artifact — the Roman pilum head, which came out almost in mint condition," said Asaf Gayer, an archaeologist with Ariel University.

But though the swords were found on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, they were likely crafted in a distant European province and brought to the province of Judaea by soldiers in the military, said Guy Stiebel, a Tel Aviv University archaeologist specializing in Roman military history.

He said the quality of their preservation was exceptionally rare for Roman weapons, with only a small handful of examples from elsewhere in the empire and beyond its borders.

"Each one of them can tell you an entire story," he said. Future research will focus on studying its manufacture and the origin of the materials in order to tease out the history of the objects and the people it belonged to — Roman soldiers and Jewish rebels.

"They also reflect a much grander narrative of the entire Roman Empire and the fact that from a small cave in a very remote place on the edge of the empire, we can actually shed light about those mechanisms is the greatest joy that the scientist can have," he said.

There's a video if you want more details - follow the link.

[GeneChing]

Archaeologists in Norway found an arrow that was likely trapped in ice for 4,000 years
September 6, 20237:13 PM ET
By Dustin Jones


An archaeologist holds an arrow originally believed to be from the Iron Age on Mount Lauvhøe in Norway. Upon closer inspection, the team determined the artifact is from the Stone Age and is likely around 4,000 years old.
Secrets of the Ice

Archaeologists in Norway discovered an arrow shaft that appears to be from the Stone Age, meaning it is approximately 4,000 years old.

The discovery was made on the side of Mount Lauvhøe, which stands at just over 6,500 feet in Norway's Lom Municipality. Archaeologists had found arrows from the Iron and Middle ages when they last surveyed the area in 2017. However, this arrow shaft was found after ice at the site melted away in recent years, according to Lars Holger Pilø, co-director Secrets of the Ice, part of Norway's Department of Cultural Heritage.

He said the discovery predates earlier finds by more than 2,000 years, which adds a lot more "time depth" to the site. Researchers can determine the age of the artifact by its shape, but will submit a sample of the wood for carbon dating once the field season is over.

The find is likely evidence of ancient hunters stalking reindeer, which made their way onto the snow and ice in summer months thousands of years ago to avoid clouds of botflies.

"Sometimes, when an arrow missed its target, it burrowed itself deep into the snow and was lost," Pilø posted. "Sad for the hunter but a bull's eye for archaeology!"

The area where the arrow shaft was found is one of 66 ice sites in Norway, which have preserved more than 4,000 archaeological finds over the years, Pilø said.

Since the arrow shaft was broken at both ends, it was difficult to date, according to a Secrets of the Ice post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Archaeologists initially thought the artifact was from the Iron Age, but after removing glacial silt, experts determined it was far older than they initially thought.

"The arrowhead is likely to have been a pressure-flaked stone projectile, meaning that the arrow is probably around 4,000 years old," the post reads.

In another post, archaeologists described how the preserving power of ice over time: "The ice is a time machine: It brings precious objects from the past to our time in an unaltered state, like sleeping beauties."

I'm amazed that this could be distinguished from a plain old stick.

[GeneChing]

A mysterious ancient grave with a sword and mirror belonged to a woman
The find may add to growing evidence that suggests women long ago could be warriors

Evidence indicates that bone fragments in a roughly 2,000-year-old grave in England, which also contained a sword and bronze mirror (shown), belonged to a woman who might have fought in or planned violent raids.
By Bruce Bower
DECEMBER 1, 2023 AT 12:00 PM

A roughly 2,000-year-old woman with a potentially violent streak has emerged from skeletal rubble found on an island off southwestern England’s coast.

A jumble of tooth and bone fragments in a Late Iron Age grave belonged to a young woman who was interred with items that include a sword, shield and bronze mirror, researchers report in the December Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The team used a sex-linked protein extracted from tooth enamel to classify the remains as female.

The island grave dates to roughly 100 B.C. to 50 B.C., based on radiocarbon dating of a partial bone and the types of metal objects found in the burial. Given tooth wear, the woman died between the ages of 20 and 25.

Since the burial’s accidental discovery in 1999 by a farmer plowing a field on England’s Bryher Island, researchers have wondered whether the stone-lined grave contained a man or woman. No other Western European Iron Age grave includes a sword, typically found in male burials from that region, and a mirror, often associated with female burials.


An Iron Age grave (shown with its capstones still mostly in place) on the British island of Bryher held the poorly preserved remains of a woman who may have been a warrior, researchers say.

Human skeletal biologist Simon Mays of Historic England, a public organization that protects and studies historical places, in Portsmouth and colleagues speculate that the woman may have fought in raids and helped to fend off enemy attacks. Violence between communities may often have occurred in Iron Age Europe (SN: 10/6/20). And growing evidence suggests that ancient women, not just men, could be warriors too (SN: 9/13/17).

One possible use of the mirror was to flash beams of reflected sunlight as a way of communicating with people on nearby islands and with seacraft, the researchers speculate. If so, and given the sword’s presence, it’s possible the Bryher woman helped to plan raids and defensive actions.

Still, the remains bear no signs of violent conflict. So it’s also possible that mourners placed the sword and mirror in the grave as tokens of allegiance to the woman’s kin group or as heirlooms, the researchers say.


CITATIONS
S. Mays et al. Sex identification of a Late Iron Age sword and mirror cist burial from Hillside Farm, Bryher, Isles of Scilly, England. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Vol. 52, December 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104099.

About Bruce Bower
Bruce Bower has written about the behavioral sciences for Science News since 1984. He writes about psychology, anthropology, archaeology and mental health issues.

"No other Western European Iron Age grave includes a sword, typically found in male burials from that region, and a mirror, often associated with female burials." fascinating.

[YinOrYan]

"No other Western European Iron Age grave includes a sword, typically found in male burials from that region, and a mirror, often associated with female burials." fascinating.

Could be a trans-warrior for the trans-media...