The Archaeology Thread

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Because it's easier and legal to sell them like gold. I mean, I am talking about a scenario if a regular Joe finds it in his garden.

Actually, it’s easier and just as legal to hand them over to your department of antiquities (or local equivalent) and claim the reward. Probably more profitable as well.

Say you find a pound of first century Roman gold coins in excellent condition. The bullion value of the coins would be in the neighborhood of $US30 000. It’s not inconceivable that the collector’s value would be about a million. Even with a paltry 10% finder’s fee, you’d triple your money not have to go through all that tedious melting. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and jailed.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

Aha, I see. Oh well, I guess I wasn't familiar with the antique coin business enough.

[Anomalocaris]

Because it's easier and legal to sell them like gold. I mean, I am talking about a scenario if a regular Joe finds it in his garden.

Actually, it’s easier and just as legal to hand them over to your department of antiquities (or local equivalent) and claim the reward. Probably more profitable as well.

Say you find a pound of first century Roman gold coins in excellent condition. The bullion value of the coins would be in the neighborhood of $US30 000. It’s not inconceivable that the collector’s value would be about a million. Even with a paltry 10% finder’s fee, you’d triple your money not have to go through all that tedious melting. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and jailed.

Boru

It depends on the country.    In many countries you are required to turn it over pro bono and may be jailed if you don’t.   So the incentive exists to liquidate it into unrecognizable bullion.

[Anomalocaris]

Because it's easier and legal to sell them like gold. I mean, I am talking about a scenario if a regular Joe finds it in his garden.

Actually, it’s easier and just as legal to hand them over to your department of antiquities (or local equivalent) and claim the reward. Probably more profitable as well.

Say you find a pound of first century Roman gold coins in excellent condition. The bullion value of the coins would be in the neighborhood of $US30 000. It’s not inconceivable that the collector’s value would be about a million. Even with a paltry 10% finder’s fee, you’d triple your money not have to go through all that tedious melting. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and jailed.

Boru

It depends on the country.    In many countries you are required to turn over archeological finds pro bono and can be legally punished if you don’t.  In others corruption in different levels of government means the typical finder has little chance of seeing much of the nominal reward.  So the incentive exists to liquidate precious metal archeological finds into unrecognizable bullion if possible.    I would not be surprised if most of the world’s precious metal archeological finds each year that was not uncovered by professional archeologists ended up as bullions.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Actually, it’s easier and just as legal to hand them over to your department of antiquities (or local equivalent) and claim the reward. Probably more profitable as well.

Say you find a pound of first century Roman gold coins in excellent condition. The bullion value of the coins would be in the neighborhood of $US30 000. It’s not inconceivable that the collector’s value would be about a million. Even with a paltry 10% finder’s fee, you’d triple your money not have to go through all that tedious melting. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and jailed.

Boru

It depends on the country.    In many countries you are required to turn it over pro bono and may be jailed if you don’t.   So the incentive exists to liquidate it into unrecognizable bullion.

Of course it depends on the country. But under Italian law (where the trove in question was found), turning it in entitles you to a finder’s fee of 25% of the value of the find.

But turning into bullion has risks. In ‘Roughing It’, Twain relates the instance of people salting a mine. They were melting silver half dollars and mixing the molten metal into crushed rubble. Just before the sale of the worthless mine was about to take place, the assayer found the letters ‘TED STATES’ on one of the samples.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

A 3,400-year-old city in Iraq emerges from underwater after an extreme drought

The archaeological site, Kemune, is believed to be the Bronze Age city Zakhiku, a major hub of the Mittani Empire that reigned from 1550 to 1350 BC. The kingdom's territory stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to northern Iraq, according to Ivana Puljiz, junior professor in the department of near eastern archaeology and assyriology at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, and one of the directors of the project.

Zakhiku was submerged underwater after the Iraqi government built the Mosul Dam in the 1980s and has rarely seen the light of day since then.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/world/ira...index.html

[Anomalocaris]

On the topic of stuff emerging from the bottom of drying reservoirs as a result of extreme drought, apparently victims of the Los Vegas mob sealed into steel drums and dumped in lake mead behind Hoover Dam decades ago are now popping up as the lake level continues to drop.

[Secular Elf]

A thread on archaeology! Alright! I always had an interest in archaeology, I wanted to be one, even went to college for it, but only managed to get an Assoc. Arts degree in anthropology. Ever since I was a kid I loved reading about Ancient Egypt. Egypt has been my particular interest, and the ancient Middle East in general. The Sumerians hold my interest as well. I will be stopping in this thread quite often in the future.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Grave Of Harald Bluetooth

The burial site for the Viking king whose name inspired that of modern Bluetooth wireless technology has likely been uncovered in the Polish village of Wiejkowo, potentially putting to bed a centuries-old mystery. Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson ruled over Denmark and Norway during the 10th century.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

Ah, but they don't anticipate how much it will suck