paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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- Location
- Upstate, NY
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Had to share this because it's so cool!
This site was nearly a bust, clearly hunted to death long before I got there, but I did squeak out about a dozen relics and one in particular that made the search worth it! There was a slope leading away from the foundation that was very overgrown and it was clear that the previous detectorists had more or less left it alone. There were several spoon bits including a large pewter bowl. I found three buttons: two tombacs and a gilt 1820's flat. Almost right next to one of the tobacs was a weird circular piece of brass. It had an odd texture under the dirt so I thought it was a crumpled lid or something and put it in with the rest of the finds. It wasn't until I got home and looked at it under better light that I saw there was a design. After some very careful cleaning I saw that it was highly detailed, but not writing:
They're hieroglyphics! All different ones arranged around, but I think purely in a decorative fashion. What's particularly intriguing is how old this site is. It doesn't appear on the 1850's map so I believe it was abandoned prior to that map being drawn. While Egyptian themed items were popular in Victorian times, this site predates that so I think it's more likely from the period of Egyptian interest surrounding the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. Napoleon brought 167 scholars with his forces and they documented the monuments in great detail. The result of their research was the publishing of a multivolume work titled: Description de l’Égypte in Paris between the years of 1809 and 1828. It featured large copperplate engravings of their work and Egyptian designs. The timing seems to fit so this relic could very well be designed based on those!
The design isn't hand-engraved and the dot-field background is very similar to stamped buttons of the 1810's-1830's so probably made by the same methods and manufacturers. There's a simple loop at the top so it was probably a pendant or medallion.
I would think a number were produced at the time, but I can't find any other examples online. I'm curious if anyone else has run across one of these, either in the ground or in collections. I would really love to confirm my assumptions on it's age and know where and who manufactured them so please chime in if you've seen one before!
In any case it's a wonderful relic and I'm so glad the other guys left it for me!
This site was nearly a bust, clearly hunted to death long before I got there, but I did squeak out about a dozen relics and one in particular that made the search worth it! There was a slope leading away from the foundation that was very overgrown and it was clear that the previous detectorists had more or less left it alone. There were several spoon bits including a large pewter bowl. I found three buttons: two tombacs and a gilt 1820's flat. Almost right next to one of the tobacs was a weird circular piece of brass. It had an odd texture under the dirt so I thought it was a crumpled lid or something and put it in with the rest of the finds. It wasn't until I got home and looked at it under better light that I saw there was a design. After some very careful cleaning I saw that it was highly detailed, but not writing:
They're hieroglyphics! All different ones arranged around, but I think purely in a decorative fashion. What's particularly intriguing is how old this site is. It doesn't appear on the 1850's map so I believe it was abandoned prior to that map being drawn. While Egyptian themed items were popular in Victorian times, this site predates that so I think it's more likely from the period of Egyptian interest surrounding the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt at the end of the 18th century. Napoleon brought 167 scholars with his forces and they documented the monuments in great detail. The result of their research was the publishing of a multivolume work titled: Description de l’Égypte in Paris between the years of 1809 and 1828. It featured large copperplate engravings of their work and Egyptian designs. The timing seems to fit so this relic could very well be designed based on those!
The design isn't hand-engraved and the dot-field background is very similar to stamped buttons of the 1810's-1830's so probably made by the same methods and manufacturers. There's a simple loop at the top so it was probably a pendant or medallion.
I would think a number were produced at the time, but I can't find any other examples online. I'm curious if anyone else has run across one of these, either in the ground or in collections. I would really love to confirm my assumptions on it's age and know where and who manufactured them so please chime in if you've seen one before!
In any case it's a wonderful relic and I'm so glad the other guys left it for me!
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