It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

June 17, 2023 7:02 PM

At the bottom of an ancient crater, in a city with buildings made of diamond, German archæologists have discovered a 3000 year old sword so perfectly preserved it 'almost shines.'
posted by logicpunk (16 comments total)

It looks good, really good, and a large part of my mind does not believe that a Bronze Age artifact left in wet ground for two plus thousand years could look that good. I know that if conditions are anaerobic it could happen, like the 5,500 year old leather shoe found in Armenia a few years ago, but…damn!
posted by Ignorantsavage at 8:05 PM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Short thread from archaeologist Bill Farley: So, why does this look brand new when most metal artifacts preserve very poorly? Well, it's all about the cuprous salts.
posted by Rumple at 9:02 PM on June 17, 2023 [6 favorites]

a large part of my mind does not believe that a Bronze Age artifact left in wet ground for two plus thousand years could look that good.

Seems counterintuitive but there was a cool trove of 2000 year old bronze statues discovered in muddy ground in Italy last year
posted by brachiopod at 9:14 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

Do. Not. Remove. The. Golden. Eye. From. The. Unnaturally. Large. Holy. Woman's. SKELETON.
posted by now i'm piste at 10:19 PM on June 17, 2023 [10 favorites]

Saw the thumbnail a day or two ago, didn't even give it a second thought because the picture looks pure clickbait.

Incredible.
posted by shenkerism at 11:40 PM on June 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh that is where I left it, good as new
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 12:13 AM on June 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

That town is lucky in all kinds of ways, wow! Been there, it was recommended by my uni history professor as (?) the only town with a still fully preserved medieval wall. IIRC there was some kind of economic collapse there, such that the town did not grow and end up with the wall getting torn down like everywhere else.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:45 AM on June 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

The archeologist who pulled the sword from the mud is actually the rightful ruler of an ancient kingdom. Unfortunately they will spend the rest of their life ignoring the numerous ravens sent to explain this all to them. They will just assume the birds are just begging for food and have become lazy.
posted by interogative mood at 12:51 AM on June 18, 2023 [21 favorites]

That is a fancy sword! I'm intrigued by just how fancy it is, and by the (few) details of the casting process they describe. I had thought that bronze age swords were all cast in one piece using the lost wax method, but maybe that was the less expensive ones.

The preservation is spectacular, and I would love to see some more details when they finally publish. Anaerobic soil? It looks pretty wet, and there seems to be a lot of other interesting looking stuff there, underneath the sword.
posted by Fuchsoid at 3:33 AM on June 18, 2023

MetaFilter: So, why does this look 2000s brand new when most web artifacts preserve very poorly? Well, it's all about the cuprous salts.
posted by hippybear at 6:48 AM on June 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Look at that Dungeons and Dragons ass shit!!
posted by latkes at 9:42 AM on June 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

What an unbelievable find, and what an excellent post!
posted by TheCoug at 10:06 AM on June 18, 2023

hippybear, so close:
What Happens When You Put Copper Wire in Silver Nitrate?
Special silver Christmas tree [Copper wire + silver nitrate solution] - YouTube

Just not quite the right shade of blue.

Long story short time, I had a jar full of this stuff from 10th grade chemistry class. I also had a cat's brain in a jar of formaldehyde from 11th grade biology class. I gave the blue stuff to a sweetheart and kept the brain until my mid 20's, it eventually had a small monkey skull sitting on top of it. Quite the conversational piece.

And oh, BTW, cat brain computers are canonical in the Star Trek universe, Spock used one on an away mission in the 70's era graphic novel.

Yeah, really nice sword, Adam Savage is probably building one right now...
Rita's Rotor Blade Sword From Edge of Tomorrow! - YouTube (there's a Troy bronze sword in the beginning of the video).
posted by zengargoyle at 12:19 PM on June 18, 2023

What on earth is that The Archeologist website? Clickbait thumbnails but... archeology?

I'm curious about the ruler in the photos of the sword. Why does the numbering go only halfway along the top edge?
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:06 AM on June 19, 2023

That's a pretty typical documentation scale. The ruler is just there to show how large the blocks are and because the large white and black bars are the same length you only need half. Besides getting decent white text in the black areas is hard.
posted by Mitheral at 1:00 PM on June 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yes it's a pretty normal archaeological scale, suitable for closeups where you can read the mm level and medium shots where you can only resolve the centimetres. Longer scales, e.g., 1 - 5 metres use similar systems so they can be used/legible at a distance but also up close, for example, 2.
posted by Rumple at 8:32 PM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]