First off, Io Saturnalia! Like most of you, I eagerly anticipated Saturnalia's arrival. And thanks to the overflowing generosity of my Saturn this year my anticipation was doubled! I initially recieved a small strange box from a name I didn't recognize. Immediately I rushed it to my study/office/man cave and placed it atop a tall cabinet to avoid looking at it (out of sight, out of hands ripping open the box ahead of Saturnalia). Shortly after this I recieved a second box. My wife told me a heavy box arrived for me? I said, I'm not expecting any heavy boxes. She handed it over to me and cold sweats kick in as I'm realizing this was a second box for Saturnalia I'm humbled and a little dopey. But I recover and put this large box next to the smaller box. Fast forward to eaaarly this morning. Like a kid on Christmas, I wake up before the alarm goes off, peel the bottles of bourbon off myselfand hurry to the study I open the box and there is a box inside that. One that looks just like this: . Fast as my keyboard clackers can I open the box to reveal... WHOA But wait! What's that underneath this amazing Celtic double tangential proto coinage? Another piece of Proto money... but this time it's silver in a separate flap with a large, thick n beefy piece of Celtic ring money! But what's that underneath? Oh, only the best portrait, now, in my collection!!! Ever get a gift, stand up and your knees are weak and not ready to hold you? Yeah, now I do as well I hope my pics do them justitia (though, I can see now they need a reshoot): (Soak in that grizzled general turned emperors portrait. And note the Abundtia's face and symbolism that she had come to my homestead) (The silver piece is even more mesmerizing in hand and weighs a perfect 7 gr!) Wonder if one of my Celtic ancestors could have possibly guessed or imagined that some 2 millennia later an ancestor of thiers would hold one of their old coins? But, @Ryro you ask, what about the second, heavy box? What about it? Oh, my friends, it was filled with wonderful things... Those will have to wait until I've helped my kindergartener finish his homework! But first: pardon the wiki c and p job, but to help folks not in the know... A common custom was the election of a "King of the Saturnalia", who would give orders to people, which were to be followed and preside over the merrymaking. The poet Catullus called it "the best of days". Thanks so much to my Saturn, @bcuda for making this Saturnalia the best day of 2020 for his wholly undeserving patron of his. For this I nominate @bcuda this year's KING OF SATURNALIA! More to come...
Part 2: The Saturnalia shock! After sharing with my (half awake) wife, my new wonders, I was genuinely savoring the thrill them so much I'd floated from the study to the bedroom and back. Where I slowly and cautiously opened the second large box: Again with the tingles, I see there are multiple packages inside First package revealed... An ancient Roman BRICK!!! Call me crazy and say these are just marks from the brick layers trowel, but in kinda thinking these look like animal prints: And then... another beautiful Roman brick Don't worry. I didn't chip my tooth on the first brick thinking it was an icecream sandwich... but on this second one, I did Only to then recieve an absolutely striking archway piece! At this point I'm literally starting to freeze up and just took a step back to enjoy the moment in as best I could. Only to then come across the coup de gras. A truly giddy sensation came over me when I grabbed and pulled out of the box of magic, this: A bunch of small packages What did this mean? What could these contain??? In just as perfect condition as anyone could ask for something to last a few thousand years, I find Roman terracotta, an ingot, wonderfully crafted bronze head of a young lady or possibly Dionysus, 2 musket ball (2 more that is) aand a beautiful turtle looking critter... Totally not expecting more coins, as I'd already gotten a portrait to die for, I opened this One of the most tragic of a line of tragic women, the Augustas, Julia Domna. I will post better photos, this beauties toning is so fun and my pictures don't do. Very interesting that JD has that young cute face but with the older hairstyle on this denarius... and Venus on the reverse Oh, and then...
o wow Ryro...you are making out like a bandito for this Saturnalia!..i love the artifacts and those coins!
More coins!!! I tell my oldest they're pieces of eight, PIRATE BOOTY! He always gets a kick out of pirate money and as we'll soon find out, these are from a Spanish ship wrecked by the British, or pirates shhh,shhhhh, just go with it Nothing more symbolic to ancient Rome than the column: How about the dazzling detail on Dionysos aaand that quaf of hair From the back with that wild, free spirited, party boy hairstyle that only a Greek/Roman God could get away with: Kind of awkward recieving a bust of your ex. But hopefully my wife will understand the sentiment of recieving as a gift the bust of your favorite goddess (sorry Venus. She's not attainable. You are.) And then
Part 3: I took a step back and was completely humbled by what @bcuda had done for me: Words truly cannot describe the emotions, feels and thrills that I've had today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now, for the fans of @bcuda's amazing gifts and the best pictures I could muster with a shaky hand: And to close out the story, for context and sentimentality, I'll share a smidge of my Saturn and my messages, that he said was cool to share Ryro: "Everyone of your gifts is stunning, thoughtful and makes my mind race thinking of all of the people that may have touched or used these amazing items. The coins are dazzling! I LOVE old Spanish coins! I have a couple, as I love to tell my 5 year old son that they are pirate treasure. The Roman pieces are breathtaking. The Trajan Decius is the hands down best portrait in my collection now. And Julia Domna is one of my favorite tragic figures in all of history...and both of their reverses are just as spectacular (don't think I didn't notice the Abundantia on the Trajan Decius reverse. She certainly showed up for Saturnalia this year)! I am smitten with statues of Dionysus and Diana. And do love the design of the ancient pillar. The artistry on these is like nothing I have gotten from Amazon! I am a huge fan of the Celts (as those are my ancestors) and Celt Iberians and am thrilled and will be using google translate to learn more (thanks so much for the sheets with identifications and descriptions). As for some of the other amazing artifacts from antiquity. I have guesses to what they are but eagerly await my Saturns story on the history behind this treasure trove of wonderful things. I simply cannot put into words how profoundly grateful I am for this." bcuda: "I really tried to make sure you would be happy and had read some of your posts to try and get an Idea of what you liked. The Trajan Decius denarius I sent you because you had made a post about one and if I remember you were concerned about it being authentic so I made sure you had a good one. The Julia Domna denarius was from a 3 coin lot I had purchased from CNG and in that lot there were two of the same coin so you have the other one now. The statues of Dionysus , Diana, and the marble column were purchased by me in a small gift shop in Cadiz, Spain over 30 years ago. The small pottery pieces are Roman terracotta Ancient Roman pottery - Wikipedia from some of the Roman sites I would metal detect whenever I saw a nice piece I would pick it up and save it. The small brick is also from the Roman sites and I saved some of these to put with my display of Roman coins and artifacts. The silver proto money I found metal detecting at these sites also and had saw that you metioned you did not have one and wanted one. The Spanish coins were all found by me at a beach called Fuenta Bravia Every time a Northern winter storm would come in it would wash up all kinds of these Spanish coins 4 and 8 maravedis mostly from a shipwreck out in the bay of Cadiz from when Spain was at war with England. I would find at least 20 coins almost every time I went after a storm. The Celtic proto money I purchased from a metal detector guy in Spain and had seen that you liked proto money. I included the references on them from my ancient Spanish coin book called La Moneda Hispanica, often referenced by its author in coin references as : Burgos" And that's it. That's how the greatest opening day of Saturnalia of 2020 ended. With me completely exhausted (don't worry, the homework is done), still as geeked as I was 14 hours ago. To a man I'll never stop being indebted to, @bcuda and to you all I hope the rest of Saturnalia is as joyous for you as this first day has been for me. Io Saturnalia!
Wow! I love the thought folks put into this. Kinda sorry to have been on the sidelines this year. At least I got to do a giveaway.
@Ryro the pottery archway piece you mentioned is what I believe to be a handle to an Roman amphora. Something like this one http://kenchreai.org/kaa/kth/kth2283 And the one larger thin Spanish coin I found in a field not at the beach where the Spanish ship wreck was. And the musket balls were from an area where Napoleon's troops had a battle with the Spanish.
Still reeling with excitement from this excellent Saturnalia thanks to @bcuda (though, the party still goes on for a few more days). Thought I'd share some better pics of these wonderous gifts and an interesting surprise. Just some fantastic artistry on both the stunning portrait and Abundance on the reverse: I feel I did a bit better capturing the lovely toning on Julia Domna and the very detailed reverse: Now the surprise and what may be a foolish question, but I'm more curious than proud so will ask anyway. Firstly, I was totally mistaken on amphora handle. As it is so thick, I thought it was an archway. But on the bottom it has a sticky looking substance (vino, olive oil(?). Could whatever was in this amphora some 2,000 years ago have dried up into a sappy substance and survived these millennia???
I have no idea what that might be I dont think it was there when I found it. Pretty sure it is something new not even sure it was there when I sent it to you it may have been something that was in the plastic bad I wrapped it in
Interesting. It was there when I unwrapped it. I'd say it's from me but my drool usually dosen't get that dark I was also able to find other versions of the Cupid/Eros applique (none as beautiful as my gift). I am shield hungry but wonder if it could have been a boss (though, who wants their enemy seeing a sweet Cupid as they rush into battle?).
..that indeed is an outstanding gift, to say the least...i can think of no one more deserving than our Ryro..but you oughta check you mail today because..
