Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: See New York Post link below. |
New York hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt has handed over $70 million worth of antiquities after a criminal probe found the items he had acquired were stolen.
Steinhardt, who is one of the world's largest ancient art collectors, agreed to surrender the 180 items to avoid facing any criminal charges, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said on Monday...
Here is the link for more about that.
Billionaire Michael Steinhardt returns $70 mil in stolen art (nypost.com)
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I:ve posted about several Bronze Age hoards that were found. Wikipedia lists 60 Bronze Age hoards found in Greate Britain. Here is the link.
List of Bronze Age hoards in Great Britain - Wikipedia
The list includes the date of the find, a description of the items found and in some cases photos.
Some of that information surprised me. For one thing, 40% of the Bronze Age hoards included items of gold.
I also found it interesting when they were found. I divided them into froupts of fifty years. Here is how many were found in each fifty-year periods. (The last group is only 21 years.)
1700 - 1749 1
1750 - 1799 1
1800 - 1849 7
1850 - 1899 16
1900 - 1949 5
1950 - 1999 11
1999 - 2021 20
I thought it was interesting that there were more Bronze Age hoards reported found in Britain in the 1800s than the 1900s. Then much more were found in the 2000s, even though that period is only 21 years and probably some of the most recent are not yet included in the list.
There were a lot more found in the late 20th century than the early 20th century. Could be due to metal detector technology improving or maybe some else, such as PAS or a increase in interest in archaeologly. I don't know. I don't know why there were more hoards found in the 19th century than in the 20th century, I have to believe that metal detecting had a lot to do with that, but it is hard to account for the relatively large number found in the 1800s.
Let me know what you think.
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New Thoughts on Europe's Bronze Age Hoards.
In Bronze Age Europe many bronze objects such as axes, swords and jewels were deliberately left at specific spots in the landscape. PhD research by Leiden archaeologist Marieke Visser shows that these practices were expressions of people’s relationship with the world around them. ‘It was a completely normal practice, which we shouldn’t label as irrational.’ PhD ceremony on Thursday 9 December.Researchers have been trying since the 19th century to explain the motives behind selective metal depositions. But these are still shrouded in mystery. ‘Archaeologists have become stuck in very strict interpretation models,’ says Visser. ‘Certain criteria were drawn up and boxes ticked per find. The assumption was that there were religious and non-religious depositions. I find this approach problematic because the data often don’t fit in these boxes. You can’t simply project the modern idea of religion onto the Bronze Age.’
Clear patterns
From a modern perspective it is illogical to throw away valuable objects, but thousands of years ago this was ‘the most ordinary thing in the world,’ says Visser. ‘It seems to have been something you just did.’ Visser compares it with throwing coins in a fountain. ‘There you also deliberately throw away something of value at a certain place. You throw a coin in a fountain, not in the bin...
Here is the link for more on that.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
There is a good chance the bump predicted for Tuesday will not materialize.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net