Bronze pendant dug at 18"...need help IDing

[Danimal]

found in NE Ohio...VERY deep in hard, rocky compacted soil. Appears to be worked metal, NOT cast. No cast seam around edge. Very heavy, 1-3/4" high x 1-1/2" at base.

Any help would be appreciated. I think this is very old.

BTW, It was cleaned in a peroxide bath and lightly scrubbed with a fine brass brush. Before that, the encrustation was so think you couldn't see any detail at all.

 

[Wisconsin Pete]

neet find though

 

[Steve(Can)]

Do searches on the following words:
Minoan
labrys

The figure of the man, particularly the way the shoulders and arms are portrayed look like figures in Minoan art. This "straight on look" is very common in earlier art (Egyptian, early Greek, etc), and it wasn't until much later in Greece that more realistic representations of the human figure began. As well, check out the hairstyle with the side braid and flowing hair over the shoulder.

On the other side, the motif looks like a double headed axe (labrys) which was a sacred sympbol of these people and is a common motif in artwork from the period. There are a number of references of amulets with a double headed axe of this time that were worn possibly as a charm to attract women (let us know if it works! )

replica of a minoan axe

axe motif on vase

The Minoans were a civilization in the Mediterannean somewhere between 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. This civilization existed long before the Greeks and Romans, and many of Homer's famous stories about Hercules and the labarynth, possibly even Atlantis were based on these people. They were known traders traveling far and wide and their civilization was considered the center of the world at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization


"The Aegean bronze age civilizations established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide, and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain.

Knowledge of navigation was well developed at this time, and reached a peak of skill not exceeded until a method was discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) several thousand years later."

There has been on again off again speculation that the early Mediteranneans and later the Norse Vikings had trade routes that stretched as far as North America.

You might want to consider contacting someone who studies ancient civilizations at a nearby university. Although the language of the Minoans has not been decyphered, there are many examples of it on pottery and art work. There are symbols on your piece that someone might recognise immediately.

Wow. That is a very interesting find, Danimal. There are people who should be able to give you a much better idea, and possibly test it for age and origion. If you are able to find out more, please let us know!

 

[coinnut]

Hi, Whatever you do, DON'T let anyone keep that artifact while they are researching it. I know of people who have had artifacts lost and were offered a small sum of money for them! Recently my friend found an ax head like none I've seen before. It is probably going to be first contact (white to Indian trade), but were told by many different experts around Conn and Mass area that it could be as old as 5,000 years or as new as 1860's. So much for the experts. And yes they wanted to keep it overnight. Lucky my friend said (with a grin) NO WAY. But I agree, it seems to be very old and possibly very valuable. Maybe brought over in the days when it was common to import stolen artifacts. Many museum pieces are finding there way back to Egypt and other nations, plundered from tombs. So be careful who gets it.

 

[Steve(Can)]

...this restored mural is from the Minoan palace at Knossos. It is called the 'Prince with the Lilies' or 'Priest King' Fresco (Knossos, c. 1500 BC).

The similarities in pose and detail are startling... so startling there is no doubt that your amulet was based on this image. I'd sure like to see what a date analysis of the metal reveals. Astonishing. There will be a lot of people very, very interested seeing this, danimal. Whatever made you dig down 18" in rocky, compacted soil?

For comparison:

More info on this mural:
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Minoans.html

 

[diggingfix]

Pics of location just for curiosity, certainly not an old park? Pasture? shore? Tell us more.

 

[Danimal]

It's in a safe place

Also, until REAL experts show an interest in this, I am not getting TOO excited. I have emailed several experts in Minoan history, one who has written six books on it.
The other email went to a group who look into "out of place" artifacts discovered in America

worst case, it's a fairly recent reproduction,....but someone else on another forum pointed out that the whole "prince of lilies" side of Minoan civilization wasn't really unearthed until 1900 or so, so it couldn't be older than that if it IS a modern pc.
Judging by the depth and condition of the soil clod it was encrusted in, I cannot see it being from the 1900's, but you never know.

For those who want to know more about the area, let's just say it was found in a school's athletic area, but a much smaller area of the total fields where the soil is raised slightly above the rest, is rockier and far more compacted, making me and others think that the soil was brought in from a riverbed area when the school was built. Other clues that point to this fact are that this same small area has produced MUCH older coins than the surrounding field where the soil is far different. It has also produced a number of fishing sinkers (hint-river area)

keep your fingers crossed. I have also posted this under the "help ID" section at Treasurenet.

 

[Danimal]

I'll be honest about the "what made me keep digging" part
I have only been metal detecting since Feb. of this year, and have really become hooked. I am using a Garrett ACE250, and while a cheap machine, has proven it's abilities many times over. I have found 40 silver coins already, and close to 40 rings, including quite a number of gold bands, old as heck silver/diamond rings, early 1800's bullets, and tons and tons of other "Stuff"
Just two weeks ago I bought the larger 9x12 coil for my ACE, and am kinda getting used to it's pinpoint location and it's capabilities. Just last Sunday, my machine "heard" a small copper belt tip that two people with top of the line machines (a Minelab EXII and a Whites DFX) couldn't even get a reading on, both with their sensitivity cranked up. Basically both said "there's nothing there"
My machine wasn't able to lock on or ID it, but in pinpoint mode I could JUST hear a tone increase, so I dug and out popped the belt tip from about 8"
On this target, my machine said it was at 8+ inches, the highest the ACE will indicate in depth. The target ID when not in pinpoint bounced around a bit in the coin area, with a few "splashes" in the nickle/foil range
I started with a plug as deep as my Lesche will go, about 6-7"
The signal was stronger...still saying 8+ inches, and STILL indicating a fairly small target. Most times on the DEEP digs, it ends up being a rusty pipe or some other larger target.
I kept going, and after each 2 or so inches was chunked and the chunks removed, I would scan the pile and the run my Whites pinpointer down and along the walls of the hole.
I always start at the bottom to make SURE the target hasn't fallen from a wall onto the hole's floor.
Two times I had to widen the hole to allow me to get any leverage to even twist the blade to continue "chunking" the hole's floor.
When my elbow was about at the hole's edge, I removed the soil in the bottom, which by now was very clay-filled and very rocky and when I ran the pinpointer down to the bottom, it vibrated. I fully expected to hit a pipe or something big with the next Lesche insertion.
I chunked, removed, and scanned the pile. It was IN the pile!
It was easy to find what chunk it was in. The chunk was greenish tinted and packed hard. I broke it open and this wedge popped out. As it was near dark, I shined the LED from my pinpointer on it, touched the tip again to it to make SURE it wasn't stone (which it felt like)
and tossed it into my pouch.
I really thought at first it might be a Native American tool of some sort, like a small axe head??
It wasn't until I got home and cleaned it that I even knew there was a design on it.
I am sure it's because the soil around the item had a "halo" of material leeched out that it was detectable at that depth. Even now airtesting it I can hear it at 12"

 

[Steve(Can)]

>>>According to a recent study, this rich yet simply clad figure with bare torso and crown or diadem with standing lilies surmounted by three large backward trailing peacock plumes constitutes, unfortunately, an erroneous reconstitution of fresco fragments belonging to three different figures, two boxers and a priestess, who wore the lily crown.

The restoration of the frescoes was delegated by (Evans) to Swiss father and son artists named Gilli

 

[Danimal]

I'll tell ya what...on the item itself, the face appears WAY more to be feminine, not masculine...making it fit what you're saying.
What if the pendant is the TRUE respresentation of the actual preistess, and the fresco is hodged together?

hmmm

 

[Steve(Can)]

n/t

 

[John D.]

I was going to ask what machine you were using to go to 18", however I read the rest of the posts and got my answer.
I own an ACE 250 and a GTP1350.