The mighty Vasa galleon

 In 1626 king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden decided to built "Vasa", a warship that Baltic sea have never seen before. He was very focused on his naval forces, believing that war success depends on the strength of his ships. After more than two years of construction, Henrik Hybertsson reported that the ship is ready.Gustavus was all the time involved in construction, asking for many changes...

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1000 years ago some Viking lost in the lake his chest...

 In 1936 Hugo Kraft was ploughing his field when found a strange encircled by an iron chain chest. It contained the largest collection of tools of this date so far found: iron working and carpenter's tools, raw materials, un-finished products. His field was located on a drained lake. During the Viking Age, the area where Mästermyr mire is located used to be a lake. The mire was drained in...

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Amazing staircase of Chantilly Castle

 Located 40 kilometres north of Paris, in the Picardy region of France, this small town looks like it belongs to a fairytale. The Jewel in the crown of Domaine de Chantilly is the stunning 16th century Chateau, built for Anne de Montmorecy, and is undoubtedly one of the most astonishing French chateau venues near Paris.  It comprises two attached buildings; the Grand Château, destroyed...

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Amazing historical artifacts #1

 Coin (silver) from Syracuse, Greece around 466 BCEA pair of intricately cut shoes that were found on a bog body from over 2,300 years agoHelmet made by Milanese armorer Filippo Negroli; 1543Corsican vendetta knife with floral detail. The blade reads: “Che la mia ferita sia mortale" - or roughly: “may all your wounds be mortal”. 19th centuryAncient sense of humor: Greek lead sling bullet, inscribed...

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Chinese gold sword

 In Ancient China, gold and silver were not the prestigious materials they were in the West. Jade and bronze were more highly prized. Gold was used for decorative purposes, as inlay or coating on bronze or lacquer, and only very rarely for vessels or other independent objects.However, in the Eastern Zhou period(771-221 BC) gold began to be increasingly used on a larger scale, though goldworking...

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Scythian golden comb

Scythian golden comb with a battle scene, discovered in Solokha Tumulus, Dnieper region, Ukraine - Late 5th-early 4th century BCThe art of the Scythians combined Eastern elements with influences from the Hellenic ancient states on the northern Black Sea coast. The combination gave the art an exquisite and unique quality.The center of Scythian art can be considered Panticapaeum, the capital of the...

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Kawari Kabuto(Exotic Helmet) - Japan

 Kawari Kabuto(Exotic Helmet) - Japan, Momoyama period, 16th centuryKabuto is a type of helmet first used by ancient Japanese warriors, and in later periods, they became an important part of the traditional Japanese armour worn by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan.This kawari kabuto is a type of exotic helmet cotaining a zunari (head-shaped) three plate iron of 'yaro-to' (rough...

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Memento mori ring

 Memento Mori Swivel Ring - England, 16th centuryDesigns of death in jewellery and art are constantly evolving. Symbolism is the core of identity in a culture, being the basic interpretations of value. When there are times of turmoil, the fact of death becomes more immediate in designs, which this memento mori ring displays in its values.The concept of death being a factor that can happen at...

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Fox in a monk costume. 1530, Denmark

Satire on the clergy was well known in the Middle Ages. But the small approx. 6 cm. tall ivory figure of a fox in a monk's robe and with a rosary in his paws belongs well in the anti-Catholic propaganda around the Reformation. Found in Copenhagen, Denmark. Might be also connected to Reynard the Fox (a medieval collection of stories in which all people are animals, from Central Europe, about a...

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Tooth worms as Hell’s Demon’, 18th century depiction

 Tooth worms have a long history, first appearing in a Sumerian text around 5,000 BC. References to tooth worms can be found in China, Egypt and India long before the belief finally takes root (pun intended) into Western Europe in the 8th century. Treatment of tooth worms varied depending on the severity of the patient’s pain. Often, practitioners would try to ‘smoke’ the worm out by heating...

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Roman lead pipes in Bath

 In southwestern England there is a natural site that was once ruled by an Iron Age people known as the Dobunni. Here is found the only hot water springs in England, bringing mineral-laden water from the depths of the earth.When the Roman Legion arrived here in A.D. 43 they immediately recognized the significance of the site. After a regional revolt was forcefully put down in A.D. 60, the Romans...

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Hunting Knife Combined with Wheellock Pistol, 1530

 In the sixteenth century, wheellock pistols sometimes were combined with swords, knives, axes, maces, spears, and even crossbows, which could be used in the event the pistol misfired. Usually clumsy and impractical, combined weapons were nevertheless highly prized curiosities. On this example, the heavy, cleaverlike blade is etched with a calendar and the decorator's na...

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Plate with Wife Beating Husband, Made in Dinant or Malines, Netherlands, ca. 1480

 The scene on this copper plate is usually thought to represent Aristotle being ridden by Phyllis, but it may be more accurately identified as a general depiction of a woman’s tyrannical rule.Spinning has throughout the ages been considered the work of women. By the time this plate was made, a relatively sophisticated type of spinning wheel had been developed, as seen in an illustration in Das...

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A Roman ‘Swiss Army’ knife?

 As well as a knife, spoon, and fork, this implement provides a spike, spatula and small pick. The spike might have helped in extracting the meat from snails, and the spatula in poking sauce out of narrow-necked bottles: the pick could have served as a tooth-pick. While many less elaborate folding knives survive in bronze, this one’s complexity and the fact that it is made of silver suggest it...

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Egyptian rock crystal ring with a sphinx

 The design and execution of the sphinx is masterful. It rests with its tail characteristically following the contour of its right, hind leg, around which it rests. Like most Egyptian sphinxes, the head of this example is covered by a nemes-headdress, here plain, to the front of which has been affixed a uraeus, or sacred cobra, its tail undulating over its top.  Attention has been paid to...

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The Da Vinci Globe, dated 1504, the oldest known globe to show the New World.

 Dated to the early 1500s, the globe was likely crafted in Florence, Italy, from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs. It is engraved with then-new and vague details about the Americas garnered from European explorers like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. It is also decorated with monsters, intertwining waves and even a shipwrecked sailor. He determined that the grapefruit-sized...

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A late 19th-century taxidermy found in a French mansion. Sealed for over a century

 BATTLE OF THE FROGSTwo stuffed frogs with "human attitudes" play out a miniature battle in a work by a Parisian taxidermist, Mantin. This childless bachelor who died at 54 was very afraid to be forgotten. By giving his house to the town of Moulins, he wanted to stay in their memories. After 100 years his house was finally opened and scientists found one of the funniest miniatures scenes ev...

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Galo-roman statue with removable top ;)

 Bronze statuette possibly of the Roman fertility god Priapus, made in two parts (shown here in assembled and disassembled forms). This statuette has been dated to the late 1st century C.E. It was found in Rivery, in Picardy, France in 1771 and is the oldest Gallo-Roman object in the collection of the Museum of Picardy. This figurine represents the deity clothed in a "cuculus", a Gallic coat...

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