Evidence of Viking Sunstone found

Lore suggested Vikings used special crystals to find their way under cloudy skies. The crystal of legend was locked in the verses of Norse myth with no evidence that it was real.

Now scientists believe that the 'Viking Sunstone' or 'Viking Compass' did exist. Though none have ever been found at Viking archaeological sites, a crystal was uncovered in a British shipwreck proving they did exist.The crystal was found in the wreckage of the Alderney, an Elizabethan warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592. The stone was discovered near a pair of navigation dividers.

A chemical analysis confirmed that the stone was Icelandic Spar, or calcite crystal, the Vikings' mineral of choice for their sunstones, first mentioned in the 13th-century Viking saga of Saint Olaf. Today, the crystal would be useless for navigation, because it has been abraded by sand and clouded by magnesium salts. But in better days, such a stone would have bent light in a very helpful way.

Because of the rhombohedral shape of calcite crystals, they refract or polarize light in such a way to create a double image. This means that if you were to look at someone's face through a clear chunk of Icelandic spar, you would see two faces. But if the crystal is held in just the right position, the double image becomes a single image and you know the crystal is pointing east-west. The study’s authors say the crystal could be used to determine the sun's location with an accuracy of one degree, even when it was invisible to the naked eye. It has been suggested that sunstones helped Norse mariners navigate their way to Iceland and onwards as far as North America.

The Hoxne Hoard

When Peter Whatling lost his hammer near Hoxne, Suffolk, he asked a friend with a metal detector to help out. They found something.

The 1992 discovery brought the two men a finder’s fee of £1.75m.

The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the Roman Empire. 14,780 gold and silver coins, along with 200 jewellery items,ornaments and tableware were found.

The hoard was part of the accumulated wealth of the affluent Roman Aurelius Ursicinus.

A set of silver spoons (cochlearia and cigni) in the hoard are neatly engraved with "AVRVRSICINI" (property of Aurelius Ursicinus). The hoard was buried around AD 408–409, a period of major political instability marking the end of Roman rule in Britain.

The hoard amounts to 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) of gold and 23.75 kg (52.4 lb) of silver.

The holes in the bottom of the model of a Roman noble woman indicate that she was used as a pepper pot. Pepper did not grow in Britain or any other part of the Roman Empire. It was grown in India and was very expensive. Pepper was just one luxury traded across the Indian Ocean in ancient times.

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 recorded 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.

The Donington pendants

Two detectorists found the collection of four gold pendants and one piece of a gold brooch on the slope of a hill in the village of Donington on Bain, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of London, in the spring of 2023. Items date to the seventh century. While gold and garnet pendants were common accessories for high-status women in seventh-century England, archaeologists typically find them in graves, not in a group on the side of a hill.

No other artifacts or human bones were found with the Donington pendants, which suggests that they were buried for safekeeping or in a votive act. Lindsey, the region where the hoard was found, shifted between the control of rival kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, while the spread of Christianity was reshaping social and political life.

As rich as Croesus

The phrase "rich as Croesus" is a famous idiom that describes someone who is extremely wealthy. It refers to the legendary King Croesus of Lydia, who was known for his immense wealth and extravagant lifestyle. His wealth came from the River Pactolus in which the King Midas washed his hands to rid himself of the 'Midas Touch'. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardized purity for general circulation.

Lydia was a hugely rich and powerful state when Kroisos became king about 561 BCE. According to Herodotus, Kroisos donated 4.5 tons of gold for construction of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The Latin form of Kroisos’ name is used today. Kroisos inherited a coinage system based upon the use of electrum. The most common examples of early Lydian coins are electrum trites (one-third staters) that weigh about 4.7 grams. The coins were first struck during the reign of Kroisos’ father, Alyattes (c. 618 – 561 BCE). Kroisos continued to strike them during the early years of his own reign.

Kroisos launched his own coinage about 550 BCE by minting nearly pure gold staters and nearly pure silver staters, each weighing around 10.7 grams. The Prototype stater is extremely rare, with about a dozen known. The example shown sold for $150k against a $50k estimate in January 2012.

Kroisos struck gold coins under two different weight standards after the Prototype issue. His first series were “Heavy Standard” weighing about 10.7 g. Kroisos replaced the Heavy Standard gold coins with a series of Light Standard gold coins, based upon a weight of 8.05 g. Silver equivalents are known for each denomination of Kroisos’ gold coinage.

Scholars argue that the gold standard of Croesus was introduced in stages, designed to recall the circulating electrum staters. Once a sufficient number had been recalled, the new light stater appeared. Though the light stater was produced for a longer period than the heavy stater, the light stater is actually the rarer coin.

The market seems to be catching on. This NGC Gem MS light stater sold in April 2018 for $180k.

Special ancients bring top dollar

Two dekadrachms from famous engravers minted from the time of Dionysios I were auction stars in 2020.

One was signed by Kimon and graded NGC Ch VF ★ Strike: 5/5 Surface: 5/5, and the other signed by Euainetos and graded NGC Ch EF★ Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5. The Kimon coin sold for $360k and the Euainetos for $198k, both well exceeding their estimates.

A phenomenal Elagablus aureus graded NGC Ch MS★, Strike: 5/5 Surface: 4/5 brought $312k, and a Septimius Severus Aureus graded NGC Ch AU, Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 made $192k.

The mines of Ancient Greece

In 480 BCE, the Persian army defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae and invaded parts of Greece. When all seemed lost, Themistocles proposed an unusual plan: the Greeks should not face the superior Persian soldiers on the battlefield, but instead invest in a fleet. In the naval battle of Salamis, the newly-built ships destroyed the Persian fleet.

Without a navy to support their army, the Persians were forced to retreat. The battle of Salamis was a critical turning point. The ships that won the battle of Salamis were paid for with silver from the mines of Laurion. 20,000 slaves worked to provide the silver for the fleet. Without it victory would have been impossible.

Discovery of major veins of ore meant that at the beginning of the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, the Athenian state had at its disposal a hundred talents of silver. (about 2.6 tonnes)

After the defeat of Persia, Sparta and Athens waged a long and taxing war. As the silver mines became exhausted, a backwater territory, Macedonia, thrived and became the new power. The gold mines of Macedonia played a critical role. The largest gold mines in antiquity were operating in Macedonia and Thrace and they supported the rise of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great.

Florida treasure hunters find $4.5m in lost gold

In 2017 a team of treasure hunters recovered a $4.5m bounty of gold coins in shallow waters off Florida. The treasure consisted of 350 gold coins, including nine rare "royal" eight escudo pieces. A Royal 8 escudos is a perfectly struck Spanish colonial gold coin, often produced with special dies for presentation, weighing 27 grams of 0.875 fine gold. These are high-quality "cob" coins featuring rounded flans, ornate crosses, and royal shields.

The coins contain 0.76 to 0.81 troy ounces of pure gold.

The "royal" is the pinnacle of Spanish colonial numismatics. The production of a Royal was a careful, thoughtful process. Few cob 8 escudo Royals were minted due to the time and resources it took to make them.

The find was made off the coast of Vero Beach, Florida in 3 feet of water. Bret Brisben, captain of the S/V Capitana and his crew found the treasure 15 feet from shore.

Brisben’s find comes a month after one of his subcontractors, Eric Schmitt, found 52 gold coins worth more than $1 million. Schmitt found the gold while diving about 150 feet off the coast of Fort Pierce in Florida during his yearly treasure-hunting trip with his wife, his sister and his parents.