My oldest artifact!

Sadly I purchased these but have found a quite few not as old. I can't find ancient coins in the ground but finding ancient points almost makes up for it. Do you have pics of your Paleo?

 

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Here is a frame of all of the nicer points I've found. For size reference, the knife all the way on the left is about 4" long. Two of the 3 paleo fluted points in the frame (top center 3) came from the same site, and I know of at least 2 others found on the same hill, so I believe it's where an ancient hunt went down about 12,000 years or so ago. A mammoth tooth was also found in the creek less than 200 yards away awhile back by someone else.

 

My stuff Radioactive Fukashima Ant.

 

I’m sorry to break the news but it is the right thing to do.

a number of years ago i was offered in Jerusalem some Hacksilber that was supposedly found in Israel, my instinct didn't agree and a quick online search indeed confirmed my suspicions, i found the exact Hacksilber pieces online on Forum ancient coins web site and as being of Celtiberian origin and also as already having been sold, of course.

Most Hacksilber pieces on today's market are generally out of context with the seller intentionally distorting any trace of its origin for his own legal protection thereby leaving us with very little information if any at all that would allow us to properly attribute them.

Then there’s also the opposite, here is one (well.. one of many) perfect example.

This “2 Gerah Israelite” piece of Hacksilber posted here was part of an un-provenanced group that could very well be Iberian, Greek as well as from Asia minor.

It was originally offered back in June of 2015 by CNG as Greek, then later on sold by David on ebay, there is no proof that this piece is definitely Israelite, the only thing in favor here is that the weight is in line with the 2 Gerah standard current during the late 1st Temple period but as it being out of context, no Jewelry or pottery to help with the dating and place of origin, the weight means absolutely nothing and any proper attribution is therefore totally inconclusive.

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=286591

 

Thank you for the info.

 

Very cool fossils and artifacts everyone!

Would anyone have references for a reputable online store that sold decent fossils?

As a kid, I collected them because my parents were in the jewelry business and they took me to gem shows. Occasionally they'd spend a few bucks for one, so I have one or two trilobites. I even have one I found myself in a park when I was 12. Like all kids, I read a lot of dinosaur books, though I've now learned that pretty much everything I read was false.

Maybe 8-9 years ago I decided to buy a nicer fossil, so I had my parents pick one up for me from the Tucson Gem Show. It was maybe 8"x8" and had several fish and I really liked it. Then my youngest son took it to school where it was smashed and my wife threw it away.

Therefore, I'd love to replace it someday, but I want a seller whom I can trust (and who has fair prices). Is there a fossil version of Aegean Numismatics? I'm not looking to become a fossil collector (as I collect ancients). I just want one nice fossil.

 

My Cave bear jaw, 30 to 40000 years old

 

I could get you a nice fossil, what do you want? Give me your address. How much do you want to spend? I will send you photos to look at from my source at Custom Gems in Omaha.
Rich

 

By far, my oldest artifact is this 11.9" stromatolite slab from western Australia, at 3.02 billion years old. It was hard to get a good picture because it's polished as smooth as glass, so it's very reflective.

Stromatolites typically formed in shallow water by the growth of layer upon layer of cyanobacteria, a single-celled, photosynthesizing microbe. These oxygen-producing cyanobacteria were responsible for possibly the largest changes the earth has undergone. They were the only major source of atmospheric oxygen, critical for the development of more complex life.

Stromatolites are some of the oldest records of life on this planet.

 

The Oxygen Catastrophe. I wonder if there were cyanobacteria saying "no way the little bit of oxygen I put out could destroy the planet".

And it didn't. It just... changed things. It didn't even kill off all the existing life; some anaerobes survive to this day. We know them by their deeds: C. diff., botulism, gangrene. I wonder what our legacy would be?

 

We like fire.

 

This is my oldest artifact. Just finished taking the photos and making the compilation.

 

The CBS Radio Workshop did an interesting take on this. Humanity had long since been knocked out by nuclear war and 6,000 years in the future, archaeologists were trying to make sense of some 1950s advertising found. Mickey Mouse was theorized to have been a god.

926. The CBS Radio Workshop. November 11, 1956. CBS net. "Report On The We'ans". Sustaining. A portrait of our culture, as it might appear to those six thousand years in the future. Edgar Barrier, Fran Van Hartesfeldt (writer), Hans Conried, Jay Novello, Joe DeSantis, Joseph Kearns, June Foray, Robert Nathan, William N. Robson (director, writer), Robert Nathan (author), Byron Kane, Daws Butler. 25:24. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete. (from the radiogoldindex).

 

An old fossil

 

I had a bone spur that big once…

 

Sounds like someone had read Arthur C. Clarke's "History Lesson".

 

Thought I’d add a recent pickup to this thread. This may not be the oldest item in my collection, but it is darn old (late third to second millennium BC) – and kinda neat.

It is from western Iran, possibly from Elam or Luristan. This particular type of bronze dagger is well-documented but very rare. It features a broad, leaf-shaped blade made separately from the hilt. The hilt is cast hollow and features decoration in relief, and the guard is curved.


Western Iran, likely Luristan or Elam
Late 3rd to 2nd millennium BC
24 cm (9.4”)

References:
Cf. Khorasani (Arms and Armor from Iran), type 3.2.3.a, Fig. 9, p. 56, as well as Cat. 2
Mahboubian (Art of Ancient Iran: Copper and Bronze), 376, #3
Cf. Moorey (Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum), Pl. 5, Fig. 45

 

This is a pre coinage 7th century piece of Hacksilber and prior to when negative dies we’re invented to produce positive designs on metal, any markings on pre coinage Hacksilber we’re all done by chisel and hammer such as these 8th-7th centuries Hacksilber pieces that I’m showing you here.


The most famous examples are the “Bar Rakab” pieces.


Inscribed weights were all done in the same way this was common practice, striking metal with an engraved die did not yet exist let alone in the Levant, it is common knowledge that in the event they were slow to adopt the idea of coinage and it was only starting to be adopted by the late 5th century BC, most earlier coins dating to the 6th–5th centuries BC that passed by through trade etc. are usually found chopped up just like any other piece of Hacksilber.

 

Isn’t it spelled “hacksilver?” I’ve seen it spelled several times now with a B vice V.

 

Hacksilber is the German spelling.