Saturday, January 23, 2021

Is this a dagger I see before me?

 

Though I found out about this find from a Daily Mail article, I found a more detailed article about the find that I am linking below.  

I try to be clever.

Archaeology dig in Spain yields prehistoric 'crystal weapons'

So here are some details:

"Structure 10.042-10.049 is another large two-chambered megalithic construction made from slate slabs. In the second chamber archaeologists found the body of a young male aged between 17 and 25 lying in the foetal position along with a large set of grave goods. These included an undecorated elephant tusk laid above the young man's head, a set of 23 flint blades, and numerous ivory objects. Additionally, red pigment made from cinnabar had been sprayed over the body and the objects surrounding it. The "remarkable crystal dagger blade", however, was not found with these grave goods, but instead in the upper level of this chamber.

The rock crystal dagger blade appeared in the upper level of Structure 10.049 of the PP4-Montelirio sector, in association with an ivory hilt and sheath, which renders it an exceptional object in Late Prehistoric Europe... The blade is 214 mm in length, a maximum of 59 mm in width and 13 mm thick. Its morphology is not unheard of in the Iberian Peninsula, although all the samples recorded thus far were made from flint and not rock crystal..."

It's easy to find a few pictures of this in a lot of different sources;  the article linked above actually has a microphotograph that indicates how the dagger was fashioned.


 



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