The archaeology of shipwrecked Lego

November 10, 2022 3:03 PM

This is the story of what happened when a container full of precisely 4,756,940 pieces of Lego washed off the cargo ship Tokio Express during a storm off Land’s End in February 1997. "Even harder to find are examples of the 4,200 black Lego octopuses that had also been on board – they are almost impossible to spot when caught up in seaweed. As Tracey reminisces in the book, she found her first octopus back in 1997, not long after the cargo first went missing, but did not discover another one for a further 18 years."

A surreal story of modern day archaeology and environmentalism in Cornwall.

For more interesting archaeology news, a new study shows how Viking beadmakers melted down the glass pieces of Roman mosaics into beads , and the answer we've all been waiting for: why medieval monks were so susceptible to intestinal worms

posted by MarianHalcombe (10 comments total)

Wait, is there actually a ‘why’ at that last link?

(I assumed it was because they ate ass.)
posted by sixswitch at 3:09 PM on November 10, 2022

There is a 'why', or at least an attempt at one. The offered explanation is that they used human poop for fertiliser and both handling it and infecting your food chain are risk factors.
posted by biffa at 3:19 PM on November 10, 2022

I've been meaning to post this since I saw an article about it probably a year ago. Thank you for actually doing it.
posted by paduasoy at 5:02 PM on November 10, 2022

Well, I have to say this is a hell of a lot better than shoes with decomposing feet in them.
posted by Naberius at 5:18 PM on November 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

Man, does this thread have that holiday theme going on or what?
posted by y2karl at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2022 [6 favorites]

So don’t walk barefoot on the bottom of the ocean?
posted by Ideefixe at 7:59 PM on November 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

Also MetaPrev 2014. BBC did piece earlier this year which features a bloke gluing up a huge Rapa Nui mo'ai from the plastic debris. And Tom Scott has been trash-talking.

When I were a nipper in the 1960s it was impossible to go down to the beach without getting tar-streaks on shoes or legs. That doesn't happen any more because of regulations about the use and discard of bunker fuel at sea. But I'd trade nostalgic tarry toes for these modern drifts of decaying plastic. Except the buoys, and rope, and fish-crates - I can and do use them.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:21 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I read the article's large text "BUT IS THIS ARCHAEOLOGY?", I heard it in Sean Connery's incredulous voice.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:29 AM on November 11, 2022

The offered explanation is that they used human poop for fertiliser and both handling it and infecting your food chain are risk factors.

I swear I remember Terry Jones remarking on this in one of Medieval Lives specials and pointing out that peasants knew the risks and that's why they boiled the life (and flavor) out of everything they grew and why medieval food was so bland and terrible.

And I guess the evidence in the link speaks to that. Unlike peasants, those monks didn't know their shit.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:50 AM on November 11, 2022

Thanks for this as I have now found what to get my Lego loving nephew!
posted by tafetta, darling! at 4:08 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]