Today’s off-topic articlette is inspired by a recent comment from an Italy-based Cornerite. If you visit THC regularly, chances are you have an avid interest in history, and, like Nutfield and myself, have at least one found, inherited, or purchased historical artefact in your home. Below the jump I describe a few of my ‘treasures’ in the hope that some of you follow suit.
My weightiest military relic is a 1.5 kg track link discovered on Hampshire downland circa 2010. As the link was found protruding from leaf litter at the top of a steep, lightly wooded slope, I initially assumed I’d stumbled upon something with forestry or agricultural origins.
It was only when I started comparing my find’s distinctive design and relatively dinky proportions to online images, that I realised I’d probably discovered a piece of Universal Carrier.
Close to a main road and a railway station, the ridge where the link was found is a far from unlikely Carrier training ground or pre-D-Day assembly area. In fact it bears an uncanny resemblance to the place where the above training film was shot!
Said ridge was liberally littered with Roman and Iron Age artefacts too. While the vast majority of these were potsherds, occasionally while inspecting rabbit burrow spoil heaps, I’d come across something more exciting like a coin.
The heavily abraded antoninianus or barbarous radiate (?) pictured above was unearthed by industrious rabbits close to an Iron Age earthwork. I assume the likeness on the obverse belongs to a Gallic or Roman emperor, but, despite hours of image searching, I’ve never managed to put a name to the face.
Annoyingly, all I now possess of a jagged fragment of ‘Spitfire’ I pulled from a peaty, chalk stream reed bed in the early 1980s, is a crumpled metal disc emblazoned with the characters ‘G2’. Located on a rural estate where my parents worked, and known to no-one but a long-serving river keeper, the soggy crash site was, I believe, later properly excavated. As several types of RAF and USAF aircraft came to grief in the vicinity, it’s quite possible my relic is not actually from a Spit.
If you’ve ever come home with a piece of history in your pocket or rucksack, I and, I suspect, many other Cornerites, would love to hear about it. I’m rather hoping the following comments section ends-up one of THC’s most fascinating.
It’s not something you could haul home, but I found a mosaic on Cyprus in the 80s. It got reported to the local museum who apparently said they already knew about it.
Not quite something I found at home, but there was a point in late 2022/early 2023 when enterprising Ukrainians were selling a lot of scraps of shot-down Russian aircraft and shattered Russian tanks. I got a whole bunch of them- now I have a little exhibit case of pieces of every type of major frontline Russian vehicle that’s been destroyed in Ukraine.
Growing up where I did you would’ve thought I would’ve come home with a few items over the years, but I never did. There are viking remains everywhere, and a few centuries ago I could’ve watched – from my childhood bedroom window – the Swedes make a daring nighttime river-crossing raid on the Danes triggering the devastating battle of Lund.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lund
The item that kicked off my metal detecting was finding a coin sitting on top of our gravel road… from 1686… It is like this one here: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces95447.html
Thinking I’d quickly find a medieval coin hoard easily, the metal detector arrived 1 week later.
We took it out for it’s first run, and within 5 minutes found a Crotal bell, a bit like this one, from the 17-18th Century, it still peals when shaken:
https://i.etsystatic.com/10281921/r/il/f29250/4838760422/il_680x540.4838760422_1414.jpg
I’ve now had the metal detector for about 8 months and that is still the best find.
As mentioned in the other thread, I’ve found a 1938 Italian bullet, also around 100 nails and screws (from 17th-21th century), pieces of wire, aluminium foil from multiple packed lunches, brake discs from a Fiat or Lancia, parts of a blade (quite thick, but looks like an old scythe) and loads of bits of wire.
Sadly, the area around our houses is just full of rubble and finding anything interesting is near on impossible.
Whilst sorting out a pile of rock dug up to build a new road i did find a shard of pottery which after visiting a pottery facebook group someone shared an image of a complete piece with the same pattern from the 17th century.
So, maybe at some point i’ll find something as cool as the coin that started it all off, i do have 4 hectares to search!
COIN – Antoninian Salonina ?
https://www.cgb.fr/salonine-antoninien-sup-ttb-,brm_219353,a.html
Oh wait, the foxer is in two days.
I haven’t ever found anything myself, but inherited a few bits and bobs, the most interesting of which probably is a (very bent and corroded) piece of artillery shell from Verdun that, according to the note accompanying it, nearly decapitated my great-granddad.
I was never able to verify that story, or even find out where and when exactly he was deployed there, and as even my grandparents have been dead for over 20 years by now, I guess I never will, but it’s a fascinating piece of family history all the same.