Sunday, 27 October 2019

Boba Fett J-slot action figure - $500k

Less than 30 of the Boba Fett J-slot action figures are thought to exist in the world. The Boba Fett bounty hunter persona first appeared in the Star Wars film franchise developed by George Lucas in 1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, and was also resurrected for Return of the Jedi.

Friday, 25 October 2019

£15 Early American teapot makes £460k

Last year the bidding for the sixth known surviving piece from the John Bartlam factory in Cain Hoy, South Carolina opened at £10,000. It rose quickly in increments of £5000 up to £200,000. Then bids continued in increments of £10,000. The teapot was estimated at £10,000-20,000. It was found at a flea market.

Sunday, 20 October 2019

20 ancient wooden coffins uncovered in Egypt - Update

Archaeologists have uncovered at least 20 ancient wooden coffins in the southern city of Luxor. The ministry says archaeologists found the coffins in the Asasif Necropolis. The necropolis is located in the ancient town of West Thebes and includes tombs dating back to the Middle, New Kingdom and the Late Periods (1994 B.C. to 332 B.C.).
Researchers have cracked open the spectacular wooden coffins and have found perfectly preserved mummies. The find is being described as the most important in a century. The coffins are estimated to be 3,000 years old.
The coffins were found sealed and intact, featuring vibrant color inscriptions and well-preserved engravings, both inside and out.

Inscriptions suggest the coffins were for children and priests.

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Largest Creatures to ever walk Earth

In 2016 paleontologists in Patagonia, southern Argentina announced they unearthed a 90-million year-old fossil of what they claim is the largest dinosaur found to date.

The dinosaur weighed about 80 tons, the equivalent of 14 grown elephants. The new dinosaur dwarfs even the Argentinosaurus, the previous largest contender.

A complete skeleton was found in a field discovered by a farm worker in 2014, where up to seven such complete skeletons are believed to exist.
The titanosaur lived during the Cretaceous and was a sauropod – a huge plant-eater. Vertebrae and rib bones were among the  finds  from the quarry at La Flecha ranch, Chubut Province in Argentina.

Meteorite smashed into Earth 12,800 years ago

Scientists in South Africa have discovered new evidence that the Earth was struck by a meteorite or asteroid 12,800 years ago, causing global climate change and mass extinction. Soil samples from an archaeological site called Wonderkrater outside a small town north of Pretoria found a spike in platinum levels, which they say supports the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis. The theory assumes that a disintegrating asteroid, which is high in platinum, impacted Earth, causing an ice age.

Many large species were wiped out as a result off the Earth’s rapid cooling. The impact from the asteroid or comet sent dust into the air, which might have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Earth.

Pollen from various plants also reveal a much cooler period, which is called the Younger Dryas. Scientists believe human populations may have also have been negatively affected.

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Alexander the Great's gold distater


Athena was the protector of Hercules, and Alexander adopted her image on his gold coinage, showing her wearing a Corinthian helmet with a coiled snake.
Alexander the Great, born in 356 BC, was one of the most successful military leaders in history. He conquered a large part of Asia and ruled a kingdom that spanned from the Ionian sea to the Himalayas before he was 30 years old. One of his many achievements was a single currency across his empire. Flush with vast hoards of Persian gold he struck the largest Greek gold coin issued up to that time: the gold distater. Alexander the Great was determined to outdo the hero Hercules.

Sarcophagus of King Abdalonymos of Sidon
The reverse is represents Nike, the goddess of victory. Gold distaters were very valuable. This was inconvenient for daily use, so most were melted down. Staters weighed roughly 8.6g of .997 fine purity. Exceptional examples are always in high demand. Coins that were struck during his reign (lifetime issues) are the most desirable by collectors and the rarest.

See ----->Top Macedonian Artifacts

Tuesday, 8 October 2019

Utah Dinosaur 'death trap' reveals tove of predators

A nine-ton block of sandstone that was pulled from a Utah mountain in 2014 holds the biggest fossil trove ever found of the giant predatory dinosaur known as Utahraptor. Utahraptor was covered in feathers, with a huge sickle claw on each second toe.
All the Utahraptor fossils are contained within a large block of sandstone that was once what geologists call a "dewatering feature," or quicksand.

The Utahraptor was the largest of a group of lightly-built carnivores, called the dromaeosaurs ('swift lizards'). It had large eyes, long grasping hands and powerfully clawed feet.
It was carnivorous and relied on a hooked, slashing claw on each foot rather than the jaws and teeth of a typical predator. Its toe joints were specially enlarged so that its massive claw could be raised upward and backward to avoid damage while running.

The dromaeosaur group also included Velociraptor, made famous by Steven Spielberg in 'Jurassic Park'.
By chipping off smaller pieces of the block, researchers uncovered bones from a 16-foot-long adult Utahraptor, four juveniles, and a baby that would have been only about three feet long.
Other bones at the site belong to a beaked, bipedal herbivore called an iguanodont. The dinosaurs may have been what attracted the Utahraptor group to the site.

Monday, 7 October 2019

Nasa admits 'missing' rogue space rock

Known as 2019 TW1, the 52ft wide object is currently powering towards Earth at roughly 26,000 mph. First spotted 2 days ago it's estimated it will careen past this morning. TW1 will pass by at a distance of around 351,000 miles, which is nearly one and a half times the distance from Earth to the Moon. That is alarmingly close in space terms.

Near Earth Objects fly past us regularly. The largest, 2019 RK, is only slightly smaller than the famous Chelyabinsk meteor that detonated over Russia in 2013.

Sunday, 6 October 2019

The Phoenix

The Phoenix is found across cultures. Ancient legend paints a picture of a magical bird which lives for several hundred years before it dies, bursting into flames. It is then reborn from the ashes, to start a new life. It is an image that is still used commonly in popular culture and folklore. The legendary phoenix is associated with the rising sun and fire.

It builds its own funeral pyre and ignites it with a clap of its wings. After death it rises from the ashes.
Egyptians seem to have been the first to incorporate a bird into the concepts of immortality, resurrection and rebirth. They referred to a Bennu in their mythology. Bennu was depicted as a tall bird that resembles a stork. The Book of the Dead describes Bennu as the heart and soul of Ra and the guide of the gods of the underworld.

In Greek and Roman myths, the phoenix has been portrayed either as peacock-like or an eagle-like bird bearing crimson and gold feathers.
It was been chronicled as the most beautiful of birds.
The Huma is a mythical bird of Iranian legends and fables. The Huma bird is said to never come to rest, living its entire life flying invisibly high above the earth, and never alighting on the ground.

In some Huma myths, the bird is said to be phoenix-like, consuming itself in fire every few hundred years years, only to rise anew from the ashes. The Huma bird is a 'bird of fortune' since its shadow (or touch) is said to be auspicious. Even catching a glimpse of it is sure to make one happy for life.
The Chinese version of the phoenix is Fèng Huáng and is a union of male and female traits. The Fèng Huáng has a head of a swallow with a rooster's beak. Its neck resembles that of a snake's, the back is that of a tortoise's and tail of a fish's. The myth says that it appears only at places which are peaceful and devoid of chaos.

The phoenix is Milcham in the Jewish tradition. The legend says that after consuming the 'forbidden fruit' in the garden of Eden, Eve became envious of the other creatures who enjoyed their immortal existence. Therefore, she convinced them to eat the 'forbidden fruit' as well so that they lose their immortality and become lowly mortals. The only creature she could not persuade to do so was the phoenix, who remained immortal.

Ichthyocentaurs

In late Greek mythology ichthyocentaurs were a race of centaurine sea-gods with the upper body of a human, the lower front of a horse, the tail of a fish, and lobster-claw horns on their heads. The sea-centaurs were probably derived from the divine fish of Syrian mythology.

Ichthyocentaurs upper bodies took the form of a human torso down to the hips, and the lower that of a fish, with two horse legs protruding from this intersection. They were sometimes depicted with lobster claw horns. The two named ichthyocentaurs were Aphros 'Sea Foam' and Bythos. 'Sea Depths'
They were half-brothers of Chiron and the sons of the Titan Cronus and Nymph Philyra.

Bythos and Aphros
Some ichthyocentaurs wore crowns while others were depicted with horns.

The best-known members of this race were Aphros and Bythos. These two sea-gods, though little remembered, were set in the sky as the astronomical constellation Pisces.

Saturday, 5 October 2019

Rare Viking gold found in Northern Ireland

In 2013 a very rare piece of Viking gold was discovered by an amateur treasure hunter in Northern Ireland. The 86 per cent gold ingot was found at Brickland in Co Down, a short distance from Loughbrickland.

Records say the Vikings plundered Loughbrickland in 833 AD.

The gold may be a result of contact between locals and Vikings. The ingots were used as currency.

Gold is extremely rare in the Viking period, while there are vast quantities of silver. There are very, very few parallels to the clearly very valuable ingot.

This gold ring was lost by a Viking in Essex