Ancient artifacts - Fascinating finds that inform...

[Maxmars]

I've seen numerous videos, television series, podcast episodes and others that begin with "Ancient [fill in the blank]" and most are usually quite interesting and informative.

But I may have missed one entry in that field... "Ancient Artifacts" which may or may not have existed... but should have...

From Ancient Origins.net: Ten Amazing Artifacts Reveal the Secrets of the Ancient World
 

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... Here we feature ten such artifacts. We have intentionally chosen not to feature well-known artifacts such as the Antikythera Mechanism, Baghdad Battery, Viking Sunstone, and many other famous relics. Rather, we wished to highlight some lesser known but equally incredible artifacts from the ancient world.

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The list is fascinating, and in some ways surprising.  They share these artifacts for your consideration:
 

 Thor’s Hammer (900 AD, Denmark)

It's not actually a hammer... but a Mjölnir amulet, which some scholars presume was worn in defiance of the new Roman religion which came to the Germanic region, Christianity.
 

The Quipu of Caral (3,000 BC, Peru)

These woven/knotted cords were organized into form which allowed the specially trained wearers to encode information about a wide range of information, regarding trade, agriculture, census, and an unknown number of additional data.  The users of these objects were like a database of valuable information necessary to more adequately manage local affairs.  Some have added historical data and ritual to the list of subjects these Qipus were used for.  But the art of deciphering them is lost, perhaps due to the personal nature of the devices themselves...
 

Terracotta Baby Bottle, Toy, and Rattle, All in One (400 BC, Italy)

A 2,400 year old guttus, in this case a child's drinking bottle, whimsically shaped like a piggy - with a rattler built-in to its tummy. A product of the Messapian people who migrated to Italy from the Balkans before being subsequently conquered and assimilated by the Romans.
 

The Nebra Sky Disk (1,600 BC, Germany)

This 3,600 year-old bronze disc was initially thought to be an archeological forgery, but it's not.  It was found in Germany, and depicts the stars (the Pleiades among them), the moon (crescent and full,) and more in what is considered one of the first examples of a portable astronomical observation device since it correctly marks the solstices.
 

Gold-Encrusted Dagger of Stonehenge’s Bush Barrow (2,000 BC, England)

 

Found just a half mile from the famous Stonehenge, in the 4,000 year-old Bush Barrow, this amazingly intricate object of was crafted with mind-boggling care, featuring over a hundred thousand delicate gold studs, taking thousands of man-hours to produce.

The Trundholm Sun Chariot (c. 1700-500 BC, Denmark)

This find has not yet been definitively dated, and scholars are suggesting it may have had a calendar functionality, with the front of the bronze disk representing a sun calendar and the rear a lunar calendar.
 

The James Ossuary (1st century AD, Israel)

This ossuary (bone box) had an Aramaic inscription reading "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" which in and of itself would make the artifact of immense importance to a huge portion of the world.  Interestingly, the local antiquities authorities tried unsuccessfully to have the artifact declared a forgery, and afterwards also tried and failed to 'be designated its "owner."  Sadly, the contention over this artifact continues.
 

The Divje Babe Flute (58,000 – 43,000 BC, Slovenia)

Perhaps the oldest musical instrument ever found, it is a cave bear femur with spaced holes drilled into it.  The idea of Neanderthals playing musical instruments so troubled some archeologists that they insisted for a time that the holes were the evidence of animals chewing the bones.  Fortunately the trope of the infantile brutish and unsophisticated Neanderthal is diminishing perhaps due to evidence like this.

 

The Ubaid Lizard (5,000 BC, Iraq)

This artifact comes from the Ubaidian people, a prehistoric culture whose origins, like the Sumerians, is still unknown.  The artifact above figures a reptilian-headed humanoid, nursing a child of similar appearance.  Apparently a sizeable number of this style of artifact have been recovered, in various poses.

 

The Venus Figurines (30,000 – 10,000 BC, Europe)

 

Many different objects recovered fit this category of depiction.  These paleolithic statuettes have been discovered from Europe to Siberia.  The debate continues in the field of study regarding their actual purpose, from aesthetics to pornography to ritual and superstition.

I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.  A lot of fuel for speculation and discussion... especially here at DI, where people actually think.