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Title: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: Neil on April 10, 2018, 09:26:47 AM Crystal skull? Pah. That pales in comparison to what a group of archaeologists have found at a 5,000 year old tomb in southern Spain.
Sometimes you meet an artefact that is so striking, so unusual, that you can barely believe it’s real. This 5,000 year old crystal dagger is definitely one of them, but it is real… and it’s not even the only one! Archaeologists in Spain spent three years excavating the Dolmen del Montelrio – a megalithic tomb near Seville. The monument, built with slate, extends nearly 44m in total and contains at least 25 individuals buried inside its many chambers – each with an extraordinary collection of grave goods. In one chamber, archaeologists found a young man with clothes made of tens of thousands of beads, a set of 23 flint blades, an elephant tusk laid above his head, and numerous ivory objects. The whole lot (including his body) had been sprayed with a red pigment made from cinnabar. But the most striking artefact is by far and away the cache of exquisite crystal weapons, including a dagger, some arrowheads, several blades and a few cores. Cache of rock crystal arrowheads from Montelrio. The arrowheads have the characteristic barbs of flint arrowheads from the area – but investigators remarked that even greater skill must have been required to produce these unique features when using rock crystal. Together, they form part of “the most technically sophisticated and aesthetically impressive collection of rock crystal material culture ever found in Prehistoric Iberia“. You can read more about their discoveries in The allure of rock crystal in Copper Age southern Iberia, published in Quaternary International. Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: probono on April 10, 2018, 05:26:17 PM That's quite an impressive set of artefacts - never mind the skill in working with that material (although flint and quartz are made from the same stuff)
Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: celticspikey on April 10, 2018, 07:26:16 PM Unbelievable thanks for posting Neil... ;)
Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: Jeff The Wizard on April 10, 2018, 09:32:10 PM So it's true :o
Dragon Glass does exist ;D All jokes aside. What fantastic finds :) Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: Neil on April 11, 2018, 07:45:46 AM I know chaps - its astonishing the detail and the quality with no mechanisation. We wouldn't be able to do this today. Certainly not the arrow heads!
cheers Neil Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: Val Beechey on April 11, 2018, 08:41:41 AM They really are almost unbelievable and unique. Would have liked to see a pic of the bead dress but I reckon just removing it from the grave it would have been piece by piece.
Amazing, thanks for posting Neil. Title: Re: 5,000 year old crystal blade! Post by: Johnboy25 on April 19, 2018, 07:27:26 PM Amazing discovery, nice post 👍
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