Finally!! It’s about time. No coins, but close enough

Hey everybody,

How’s it going? I’m still home recovering, but feeling much better.

My dad and bro stopped by earlier and my bro did a show and tell. He’s finally picked up something ancient. They aren’t coins, they’re artifacts. But, it gives me hope that he is getting over his video game phase. He can change hobbies at the drop of a hat. It drives me insane.

Anyway, here is what he brought over:



An oil lamp. It’s later than the Herodian lamp I got from Steve. Maybe 3rd-4th century? Maybe @Ken Dorney will know.

He also got another terra cotta document seal:



Apologies for the horribly dry hands, wow.

This one is really neat because it has what appears to be an ant on it. Extra bonus for the ancient finger print on the back! Bro has two others that have emperor heads on them. I wonder what the significance of the ant would be. Any guesses?

Post any random thing you like. Oil lamps,document seals, coins, etc. Only rule: it’s gotta be ancient because that’s the way we roll around here.

Erin

 

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Both are excellent!

 

Both are neat additions.

 

Great stuff Erin!

I'm thinking the seal might be the kheper beetle with the sun on top of its head. Anyway, kind of looks like that to me. Or, maybe it is an ant as you suggest.

Cool lamp too. I want to get one for my late night jotting things down with an oil lamp by my side - but I've heard that these artifacts are so old that if you try that they will leak.

 

2 nice terracotta items, Erin. here's a stoneware seal:

 

Here's a cool neolithic African arrowhead. I got this just so I wold have something to post in an artifact thread. At least 3,000 BC. The guy (or girl) that made this did a great job, it has a fantastic serrated edge. I fondle this frequently.

 

Thanks everybody!

Love the artifacts!

My brother got a couple of arrowheads at a flea market last year. No info came with them, so we’re not quite sure of their age or where they came from.

Apparently, we got some world coins donated to the store. So, I’m excited to see what we got, probably no ancients though.

Ancient coin hunter, I thought it was an ant, but I could be wrong. I’ll get my bro to take a closer look at it. That fingerprint, though. I wonder who it belonged to.

Have a great day, all!

Erin

 

Wonderful artifacts! I don't have any but this is maybe close?


Syria, 3rd - 1st centuries BC
PB tessera, possibly a weight or seal.
19mm, 4.6g, maximum thickness 6mm.
Obv.: Helmeted head left.
Rev.: Helmeted head left.

 

Nice artifacts, I have a few of those terracotta seals too, also with finger/palm prints.

I don't really collect New World stuff as I like metal artifacts, but the natives had a few tricks up their sleeves, including this 37 gram, 4.5 inch long copper spearhead. It is from the "Old Copper Complex" of the Great Lakes region, where pure native copper was mined and fashioned into an array of tools. It's probably ~6,000 years old.

Apart from the appealing construction and form, it has very definite deep divots on 1 side of the blade. Some of the divots closer to the business end are less pronounced or perhaps fully missing due to loss of metal and carbonate patina, but what remains suggests that it was quite purposefully decorated with Punctates or punch marks. "The purpose of punctates and dashes is not clearly understood, but may include: decoration, ownership marks, maker marks, family or clan marks, a form of prototype writing, tallying objects or events, celestial maps, designs for the production of certain copper artifacts and or recording stories or events."


Here's a pretty cool bronze of Philip V, 221–179 BC, I like the pair of recumbent goats.

 

I chose his fossil which includes a star fish. Exciting..

 

This is a Roman period lamp, usually classified as a 'Southern Type' as they are specific to those found in southern Israel and date to the 3rd and 4th Century. They are most always highly decorated with palms, leaves, linear patters, floral motifs, etc. Yours has a nice star pattern on the base.

I like spears. These are my favorites. I left my hand in for scale:

 

Here's my add to this thread

Egyptian Gold Plaque with Osiris Presentation Scene Late Period, 664-332 BC.

A gold plaque used for covering incisions on the body during embalming or embedded among wrappings of mummies.

With a scene with Osiris seated on a throne wearing the atef crown, holding a crook, flail and was sceptre; in front a tall column with lotus flowers tied to the top; an offering table in front of the column with two tiers of food, vases at the base; in front of the table a male and female, both wearing long robes and wigs, arms upraised in worship; vertical bands of hieroglyphs to the top of the scene. The scene shows the deceased and his wife entering the halls of paradise where they greet, and worship, the god Osiris, enthroned as the Lord of the Afterlife. Such scenes were common for copies of the Book of the Dead, being the ultimate goal for all Egyptians as they traversed the perilous path to the next world; representations on gold are rare and must have been made for a wealthy member of Egyptian society. Very rare.

 

Wow what an amazing piece of ancient art @Loong Siew ! That's in your collection? What are the dimensions?

 

I couldn't stop myself to promptly scan this ancient lamp which looks original and light.

 

Thanks for this info @Plumbata ! I did not realize that Copper Age was in North America CONCURRENT with that of Europe. Just chased a few Wiki articles from your post. That really fascinates me.

Here is an ancient artifact of mine:



Hittite Steatite Head of a Man Amulet 2nd Millennium BCE 15 x 20 mm Intact side

 

Wow, such awesome artifacts! Thanks for the eye candy!

Thanks for the info, Ken.

I can see that it would be almost as easy to get addicted to artifacts as it is to coins. I have a few myself, courtesy of my bro and @Stevearino. I’m pretty sure bro got the inspiration to get the lamp from the one gifted to me by Steve.

I managed to get through the full day at the store. Thankfully, my bosses are super cool and I just spent the day going through the world coins. There were a lot of euro cents, older Canadian nickels and some other random coins.

The most interesting coin was a replica Athens tet that was sold by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 50s and 60s.

I couldn’t find anything about how much it sold for. Part of my job is to look things up and check their value. Any recommendations on an approximate value? I wouldn’t think it be much.

All of the money from the store I work at goes to charity. I volunteer, but consider it my job. So, I want to be fair and not rip people off. Would $5 be too low?

Thanks!

Erin

 

Thanks @Jwt708 .. it is around 74x45mm..I got this off a British auction house last year. It belonged to a German gallery during the 1970s ...