Well that’s cool. Especially considering the gold was buried on purpose as part of the construction of a long vanished building - imagine being an architect or a priest, tossing a gold figure into the post hole and wonder what the world would look like once it was finally unearthed again. A millennium and a half later. Wild.
> Now, with these three that we found under the actual structure of the wall, it's clear that they were intentionally placed there before the wall's construction,
> One of the reasons archaeologists believe this was a temple, besides the gold foil figures, is the absence of other finds that would be natural if people lived there, like cooking pots and whetstones.
> In Norway, findings of gold foil figures are rare. The 35 from the temple in Vingrom represent the largest collection we have found in this country.
> On the Danish island of Bornholm, over 2,500 gold foil figures were found in a field. Were there not so many gold foil figures in Norway at that time, or have we just not found them? “There must be more of them here,” Stene believes. But most archaeological excavations today are commissioned. “We dig when new roads and buildings are going to be built, this limits what we can investigate. It’s about being lucky and getting the opportunity. A lot of coincidences are involved here. They are so small, but they shine when you find them. There are probably more out there,” she says.
Oh. Coincidences. I bet coincidentally, Kathrine Stene will find them.
Something that has always bothered me is what is line between archaeology and grave robbing? Whose burial rituals do we respect and whose do we get to regard as a source of information about ancient history?
I'm always amused when I see things like "this pyramid was cleaned out by tomb robbers long ago". How do we know they're not cleared out by archeologists? The Pyramid of Giza was already thousands of years old before the New Kingdom (which is still technically Ancient Egypt).
The Robbers' Tunnel in the Great Pyramid sounded well like a state funded archeological dig. Just that back in the day, humans didn't take care to not damage historical artifacts.
Plenty of actual thieves just keep the artifacts for themselves, without damaging anything. British museums get a lot of hate for taking home artifacts from other countries.
An old caliphate might be the equivalent of the UK today, a seemingly invincible power, but after a few hundred years, it collapses and its treasures are looted by some other victor.
Maybe another example might be something like the True Cross or other religious relics. They may not be damaged, but it ain't archeology.
Just as a professional follow-on to the joke, a lot of the places I've worked defined it between 50-100 years. Archeologists also have obligations to publish their findings, follow ethics guidelines, work with landowner/government/descendent approval, and attempt to avoid unnecessary excavations entirely.
Only 250 years? I can trace back my ancestors to the 1500s, and I know where they are buried. I have books of stories of many of them. They are real people to me. I’d hate to think of them being dug up to date someone’s curiosity. They are my family.
