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MARCVS

Jr. Member
Sep 27, 2008
56
120
Europe
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
White`s Eagle Spectrum II,White`s DFX,Minelab X-Terra 705,Minelab GPX 4500,White`s MX Sport,Minelab E-Trac,Nokta Simplex
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting

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Upvote 51

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,659
6,355
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Hello guys
Here i am after a long time :thumbsup:
Maybe some of you still remember me :)
Yesterdays find with Minelab gpx 4500 coil about 80 cm deep
Celtic knife

HH

Nicely done!

Beautiful find of fascinating craftsmanship.

All the best,

Lanny
 

JrMack

Full Member
Feb 16, 2014
227
179
steuben co. ny
Detector(s) used
bounty hunter, x-terra 305/505/705,discovery TF 900
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I think they must have use an iron ore that contained carbide to make then so strong. Not a rock expert but I learned that on the show giant swoards.
 

Plumbata

Bronze Member
May 13, 2012
1,342
2,189
Wyoming
Detector(s) used
White's
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
First i thought that knife is iron made,but then when i wash it i spot bronze color,and some strange shades....simply amazing

After studying your 1st picture (of the washed blade) it appears that the knife was "burned", perhaps in a ritual offering, which as far as I understand was a common practice among the Celts. The blade itself looks like a ritual piece too, which would make sense. The rather even black oxide layer, along with reddish spots seem to suggest that its splendid degree of preservation is due to being in a prolonged fire.

I have a couple pieces in my collection which exhibit similar "patina" that i'd like to share for comparative purposes. First is an ancient Thracian/Dacian "Sica" dagger, from the Celtic Hallstatt culture (with very interesting runes/symbols that may have been relevant to it being burned). You can see the unusually smooth "black" iron oxide surface, along with faint areas of "red" oxide (below the strange symbols). Clearly, some of the protective surface was breached and bubbled over the centuries.

DSCN0866.JPG DSCN0869.JPG

I also have a pretty standard Celtic spearhead dug in Germany that is in a worse state of preservation, but still retains small areas of the smooth "burned" oxide layers.

DSCN0870.JPG DSCN0872.JPG

I'm no expert but your find seems to be of a rare and special style (and large size), and its practically unmatched degree of preservation makes it a truly extraordinary find. Let me know if you see the "burned" surface that I think I see in your pictures, and thanks for sharing your killer find!
 

kray

Full Member
Mar 21, 2010
228
135
SW Ct. Formerly N Va.
Detector(s) used
Equinox 600
E Trac
AT Pro
Nautilus 11Ba
MXT
M6
6000 DiPro
Omega
Bounty hunter TR550
Heathkit homemade
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Beautiful find. Congrats on the lightening-fast banner recognition!! Is that a record?
 

pepperj

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2009
37,512
139,076
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Congrats on making it up on the banner it's an amazing find.
 

Msbeepbeep

Gold Member
Jun 24, 2012
15,787
24,131
MA
Detector(s) used
M-6, pro pointer, pistol probe
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congrats on an amazing and well preserved find and making Banner!
 

CoinandRelicMan

Silver Member
Apr 3, 2011
3,979
2,244
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, Safari, Cortes, Musketeer, Makro Pin-Pointer
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Simply an "Awesome" finding, must have dug lots of trash to find that blade !
 

OP
OP
MARCVS

MARCVS

Jr. Member
Sep 27, 2008
56
120
Europe
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
White`s Eagle Spectrum II,White`s DFX,Minelab X-Terra 705,Minelab GPX 4500,White`s MX Sport,Minelab E-Trac,Nokta Simplex
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Thank you again all
Not much trash,iron here and there,field is pretty clean.Not much pottery either
 

ANTIQUARIAN

Gold Member
Apr 24, 2010
12,841
27,385
Upper Canada 🇨🇦
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Lesche Piranha 35 Shovel & 'Garrett Carrot'
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Congratulations on your ancient knife find Marc! :occasion14:

I loved hearing the theory... "Some historians think that Celts put a meteorite stones during the forging".

Very cool stuff!
Dave
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,425
Massachusetts
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett: AT Pro, AT Gold & Infinium; Minelab: Explorer SE, II; Simplex; Tesoro: Tejon & Outlaw; White's: V3i
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Fantastic historical find! Congratulations.
 

Calgarychef

Full Member
Jan 23, 2015
133
106
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It is a fantastic knife, but am i the only one who thinks that theres something amiss with it? It doesn't look old, I mean I've dug iron that only 600 years old and there's almost nothing left of it. The condition looks too good for something that's almost 2000 years old. And iron was a scarce comodity in that time so the handle looks like a waste of material. Almost every knife from that age that I've seen has a thin handle section. So a nice knife, no a gorgeous knife but I'm doubtful about the celtic part.
 

OP
OP
MARCVS

MARCVS

Jr. Member
Sep 27, 2008
56
120
Europe
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
White`s Eagle Spectrum II,White`s DFX,Minelab X-Terra 705,Minelab GPX 4500,White`s MX Sport,Minelab E-Trac,Nokta Simplex
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Well this knife was very deep,about 80 cm in very hard ground,no air,no fertilizer to speed up decomposition.
You are right i also have a lot of knifes during my hunting career and most of them was in pretty bad shape.This one is the peace of art.
You might miss my post with part that it is kind of mystery how Celts forge knifes and swords so superior to Roman swords.
In one theory they put meteorite stones during the forge.
My English is not so good,but in your last sentence i think that you doubt that knife is Celtic!?
Well there is no doubt about it as you can see on my picture next to knife there was a spear and scissors (there was also a Umbo-iron round middle part of a wooden shield...but totally decomposed)
Everything is 100 % Celtic and knife is in that shape and condition thanks to Celtic craftsman who did a brilliant job :icon_thumleft:

also few Celtic knives from internet so you can see similarity.
 

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Dug1898

Full Member
Sep 27, 2011
178
65
Fingerlakes Region, NY
Detector(s) used
Fisher 1236-X2 &
Los Banos Gold Bug
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
That's a beautiful, fantastic find. Such a timeless design and so old. I believe the meteorite theory.
That would be a good design for a modern knife today. Ive seen some people that make knives out of old railroad spikes. This would be a good design for that I feel. Congratulations!
 

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