Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
A "pilgrim badge" from the Middle Ages featuring the design of a basilisk — a fearsome mythological creature akin to a dragon — has been discovered in southeast Poland. Such finds are rare and can help archaeologists chart the routes taken by Christian pilgrims hundreds of years ago.
Independent archaeologist Tomasz Murzyński, who's based in the Polish city of Wrocław, told Live Science in an email that a metal detectorist found the badge in January in the village of Wólka Nieliska, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southeast of Warsaw. The detectorist then gave it to Murzyński.
Such historical finds belong to the state under Polish law, and so Murzyński handed over the artifact to the provincial curator of historical monuments in the nearby city of Lublin...
Winged 'basilisk' on medieval pilgrim's badge discovered in Poland | Live Science
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Sometimes I wonder if the primary function of the human brain isn't to filter out reality rather than gather information. That is the way it seems sometimes.
The Oak Island TV show provides a lot of great examples. Realizing that it is a TV show, you have to take into account that the producer's goal is to capture and keep the attention of the viewers, so it is done that way.
The show gives me a lot of good laughs. I've commented before on how every spike and every other find is talked about in the most dramatic terms and could be an important clue to the most amazing treasure the world has ever seen, but in reality, after all these years the finds have been less than impressive and few, if any, big questions have been answered.
It is the same with nails, or "connectors" as it is now the fashion to call them. In deep discussion about one particularly unimpressive nail, one person who I did not recognize (I must have missed his introduction) was asked if one such connector would have been used for a box or chest. That is the kind of thing that makes me roll my eyes. I've commented on that kind of thing before, but the new fellow answered that it could have been used for any of a variety of purposes, and added, it could have been put in a wall for hanging something. I laughed at the surprising but long overdue insertion of common sense. It was a relief to hear a more realistic assessment of such a common object.
The ladies that are excavating the stone structure area have been making the most interesting finds. They actually recovered a silver artifact. Isn't that the first precious metal artifact discovered on the island in the last ten years or so of searching? It should be identified before long. I've seen some very similar items of rolled silver.
It is no surprise to me that the archaeological techniques are turning up some of the best finds. They use more thorough techniques.
Sifting, in some ways and in some situations, is a more effective technique than metal detecting. I've done posts on that in the past. Sifting is slower but results in finds that you would miss by metal detecting. I did some posts on that in the past such as the one which reported how Russ P. metal detected an urban lot several times and then did some sifting on the same lot and then reported what he found by each. Here is the link to that revealing experiment.
As miraculous as they seem, metal detectors only detect a down a matter of inches. And then there are several other issues such as iron masking, sloppy technique and poor search strategies.
But back to the thing that really got me started this morning. I was wondering why they almost never mentioned the indigenous people of the area around Oak Island even though a piece of Mi'kmaq pottery was found on the island.
The Mi'kmaq were in the area over a thousand years ago, yet it seems they are never considered as a significant part of the story. There are several possible reasons for that. One is a Eurocentric world view, but also, the indigenous tribes don't fit the narrative being advanced by the show. And another part of it could be the sensitive nature of a indigenous archaeological site being on the island. I think they already encountered that once. It threatened shutting down part of the project, but it was taken care of for the time being.
Do you recognize this flag?
The elements aren't all that unfamiliar, which is no surprise. People from most cultures would readily recognize those symbols. If you didn't know better you could easily mistake it for a crusader flag. Many cultural symbols are common to most of mankind. Everyone recognizes the moon and stars. The are common to all men.
In addition to oral storytelling, before European contact, they [the Mi'kmaq] used other forms of communication. Mi’kmaw petroglyphs can still be found carved into stone in the town of Bedford near Halifax and Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site in southern Nova Scotia. (Source: Home to Mi’kma’ki: More than 500 Mi’kmaw Items in the NMAI Collection are Destined for a New Museum in Nova Scotia | NMAI Magazine (americanindianmagazine.org))Scholars have debated whether the earliest known Miꞌkmaw "hieroglyphs", from the 17th century, qualified fully as a writing system or served as a pictographic mnemonic device. In the 17th century, French Jesuit missionary Chretien Le Clercq adapted the Miꞌkmaw characters as a logographic system for pedagogical purposes, in order to teach Catholic prayers, liturgy and doctrine to the Mi'kmaq.
The missionaries, as was often the case, used symbols familiar to the Mi'kmaq to teach the Mi'kmaq about Christianity. The Mi'kmaq symbols provided the starting place for the development of a hieroglyphic system.
You can see examples of Mi'kmaq petroglyphs online as well as their hieroglyphic language. You can find the Lord's prayer in the Mi'kmaq hieroglyphics, for example.
What do you think the star symbol indicates? I'd say you'd have close to a fifty percent chance of getting it on the first guess. A star symbol indicates heaven and a upward pointing equilateral triangle indicates God.
Note: Some people prefer "ideogram" rather than "hioeroglyph" to describe the Mi'kmaq written language. See Mi'kmaw Culture - Mi'kmaw Writing - Ideograms (muiniskw.org) You can also view the Lord's Prayer in the Mi'kmaq language on that site.
I bring this all up to simply say that consideration of the Mi'kmaq presence on the island should be considered when some features or finds are being analyzed. I have not seen that, although I have to admit I miss a lot of the show. |
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