1
Historical Artifacts
733 readers
92 users here now
Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!
Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.
Generally speaking, ruins should go to [email protected]
Illustrations of the past should go to [email protected]
Photos of the past should go to [email protected]
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
6
138
7
This flint axe was found in 1912 in West Tofts, a now-abandoned village in the UK between Cambridge and Norwich, It was made by a Homo heidelbergensis or possibly a Neanderthal, somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago.
This kind of tool is fairly common throughout western Europe and Africa, but this specimen is unique for having a Cretaceous-era fossil of a spiny oyster in the centre that suggests the axe's maker wanted the shell on it as an adornment.
It's kept in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and you can see more details on their web site.
8
178
10
106
14
24
You Can Buy a 2,500-Year-Old Corinthian Helmet Worn by a Warrior in Ancient Greece
(www.smithsonianmag.com)
15
Made of barracuda jawbone(*) and wrapped in red-dyed barkcloth, this scarifier was used by mourners to draw blood from themselves in honour of a dead chief. You can see the original here along with a second picture and some curator's notes.
(*) The source contradicts itself by saying both barracuda and porpoise -- googling for images suggests it's a barracuda, but I could be wrong.
This image is used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license and requires this attribution: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Originally posted to Reddit by me in 2023.
16
17
48
“Bybon son of Phola, has lifted me over head with one hand.”
18
23
24
79
A painted ceramic vessel in the Codex Style. It depicts a wayob', the companion spirit of a Mayan ruler. This one is a toad which is wearing a jade bead necklace (there are two different animals, not visible, located around the back of the cup). There is also writing in Mayan glyphs, some of which declare the vessels purpose: drinking cacao.
The painter is also known by style from other pieces of work, and in the absence of an actual name is referred to as "The Metropolitan Master". You can see the original image and some other details here.
(Originally posted to Reddit by me in 2023)
view more: next ›