Featured Ancient ... but not a coin! Artifacts thread! Post 'em!

Oh, stingray teeth!

 

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World's first zipper?

 

Nailed it. And the edge with all the points are actually the roots of the teeth. I learned this today.

And, @Ryro ... yeah, lol, you can continue to believe that...

 

Will do captain.

 

I wanted to share these 4 items among my coin-friends. The first 2 items are kind of small bottles (10 - 15 cm)that I think they were used to be filled with perfume. The third item is an ancient lamp which has unusually 3 mouths. The fourth item is a fossil possibly housing a crab. Of course I would rejoice to read any comment.

 

The first is a Roman period unguentarium, 1st Cent. BC to 1st Cent. AD. The second is Middle Bronze Age IIA, 2,000 - 1,730 BC. The lamp is a replica, incorporating various aspects of different time periods into a fantasy piece. All would be from Palestine.

 

Ceramics are still rather mysterious to me, thanks @7Calbrey for posting your new finds (I like the Unguentarium!) and thanks @Ken Dorney for the IDs.

The Roman Plumbata, a fascinating piece of ancient military technology, is one of my personal favorites (can ya tell?).

Also referred to as Martiobarbuli, or "The Little Barbs of Mars", the Lead-weighted Iron-tipped Plumbatae were carried by soldiers in Rome's Legions to be deployed as a cross between a javelin and an arrow, thrown underhand like Lawn Darts instead of overhand like their heavier throwing-spears or javelins. Each soldier equipped with Plumbatae carried 5 of the war-darts within the hollow of his shield, which could be retrieved and hurled swiftly and effectively; able to achieve very high trajectories to land behind shields or defenses or on a flat trajectory to strike accurately when more proximal targets appeared. They were made to wound more-so than directly kill, with the weighted barbed head lodged in the victim making engaging in effective combat impossible. They were very useful against mounted troops, where the plumbata's bouncing-around while lodged in the horse's flesh drove the them mad, making them uncontrollable. Their primary era of use was in the later Empire but I'm hazy on the details of their use in earlier Greek and later Byzantine times.

They had a fletched wooden shaft, and were 1.5-2 feet in length. An impressive element of classically "Roman" practical engineering was how the lead weight at the base of the barbed iron head also formed the socket into which the wood shaft was fixed. This was adequately strong for handling by the Romans, but the force of impact and/or subsequent trampling by enemy troops would easily cause the shaft to be broken or lead socket portion to bend, making it much less likely that if a Plumbata missed its mark it could be recovered and used by the enemy. A very clever bit of technology! The weapon was apparently used to some degree by the Byzantines until sometime in the 7th century.

I bought my first Plumbata when I was 15 in '03. At the time I considered it a distant dream to one-day be able to acquire 5 of the rarities; the full compliment carried by a designated Roman legionary. I now own 7, plus partial examples and others lacking lead but likely to have been used in the same manner. The ones with reliable provenance are from Serbia.

The 11.5 inch barbed javelin in center arrived a few days ago, and could be a Germanic "Ango" or Roman adoptive equivalent; used by the Late Roman military when their ranks swelled with Germanic soldiers whose culture and experience altered the toolkit of the Roman army. Even if they didn't draw blood they would have been very effective at penetrating shields and then getting stuck, thus denying the enemy of the use of their shield which would have to be discarded, then making them extremely vulnerable. Fun stuff.

 

Here's a few things I've acquired over the past few months. I never spend much on antiquities, but I manage to snag some neat things from time to time.

A Roman lamp, supposedly dated to the 1st century AD (haven't researched it enough to confirm this). It has a left facing bust on the discus, which looks to me to be wearing a helmet, perhaps Athena/Minerva. But there is some sort of object over the shoulder that I can't identify (could just be hair?). At any rate it has reddish terra sigillata type slip but is charred from fire all over. The bottom has the initial NI or MI incised.



An openwork Romano-British plate brooch which resembles a lyre to me, 2nd to early 3rd century AD. From Lincolnshire.



A Romano-British ring fragment, with an incised image of an eagle with wings spread. There is a star, or possibly a crude chi-rho, above it. Unsure of date beyond Roman period.

 

Some of the Ohio Indian Relics I've picked up over the years. I typically get them from the finder or family so I know they are original.

 

Ancient but not coins in my collection... Bronze arrowheads!







And also a partial Pre-Columbian piece I picked up from a local estate sale...

 

I was walking to Target like any responsible person needing groceries, and then I saw an antique store on my path. The store is known for its $$$$$ clientele, so it mostly had high-end antique and modern furniture. I saw this in one of the display cases and examined it thoroughly. The patina looked exactly like what I should expect from a Zhou vessel (or Zhou-era coin for that matter), and the style looked correct. The presence of a full inscription (which I will try to translate eventually) was a nice bonus.

Thoughts @AnYangMan ?

I didn’t really have a coin budget before, but now I really don’t have one.

 

I love this thread - Here is mine -Sorry for the poor photo - But if anyone can help me get a more definite answer on what this is, I would be grateful.

18" (45 cm) Roman Spear tip (I dont see many this size) purchased in a shop in the Louvre galleries (a collective of antique stores) on a trip to Paris about 20 years ago. Unfortunately the info sheet and COA has been lost in one of several moves, and all I remember is that the shop owner told me this was excavated in France, in what was considered a small Roman settlement. His shop had a ton of antiquities like this and last time I was in Paris when I tried to go back he was no longer there.

Dollar bills for size ref!

 

This is the inscription I see. Now to translate...

 

@TypeCoin971793 Wow, that would be an awesome purchase if genuine! As you know, I have a thing for these bronze vessels. You saw my library last year, and it has only gotten bigger this year . This specific type would be called a 簠 Fu, always rectangular or square and used for the ritual storage of food. I would date it to the later western Zhou, possibly even early Spring and Autumn, based on the decorations and vessel type (the 簠 fu was a popular vessel type in this period, less so in earlier periods). I won’t voice my opinion as to whether it is genuine. But there are several characters rendered in such a manner that I am unsure. The patination looks decent, but I find the finishing of the feet to be a bit crude. But apart from having read a great deal about them, I have only once actually handled a Zhou-period ritual vessel…. So take my opinion on it being genuine with a grain of salt!

Btw, do you wanna do the translation yourself? I recognise most characters, as these inscriptions become extremely formulaic in the western Zhou period. But I don’t want to spoil your fun of having to hunt them down if you don’t want

 

I could have transcribed a few of them incorrectly. Some of the characters were very enrusted-over.

That’s the main reason why I went for it. Plus there is a lot of damage consistent to use, excavation, and centuries in the gound.

I found that out while researching the vessel.

I’ll send you a PM regarding that.

 

Superstar!

​

 

Fantastic movie!

Erin

 

Post O the day, right here folks!

 

@Ken Dorney thoughts on this vessel?

 

I'm starting to venture into pottery, weapons, and seals.
A few recent pick ups:

Attic Black-Figure Lekythos
Attributed to the Little Lion Class, c. 525 - 475 BC; height cm 15.

With some Athenian tetradrachms minted 20-70 years after. Because why not.



Bronze adze blade. Near Eastern, Luristan, circa 1350-1000 BC. Cast bronze adze head, with simple bird’s head design at back. Length: 14.4cm.



Lead sling bullet. Hellenistic, circa 1st century BC. Cast projectile with thunderbolt on one side and trident on the opposite. Length: 26mm. Minor impact marks. Clear devices.
Auctioneer note:
"The thunderbolt and trident would symbolically amplify the projectile’s effectiveness, imbuing it with the force of Zeus or Neptune"



Red river stone seal. Near Eastern, Proto-Literate Period, circa 3500-3000 BC.Square stamp seal with piercing for suspension. On face, two large quadrupeds in drill point. Dimensions: 30x30mm.


Steatite seal plaque. Near Eastern, Old Syrian Period, 2500-2000 BC. Plaque with loop at top for suspension. On one face, a lion with tail raised. On the opposite face, a stylized bird with wings raised. Dimensions: 24x16mm.


- Michael