Roman Officer Mask found in Sweden

[Klingan]

I'm not quite sure that I believe the heirloom story. Sure, it might be true, but Gotland is known for it's rich finds in antiquities and it attracts a great deal of looters. I reckon that they've even forbidden metal detectors there. The guy could have been looking for something and just stumbled on the mask, which he figured that he couldn't sell in the domestic marked (in contrast to the coins normally found).

 

Or he could just be an honest guy giving a way a 2000 year old equestrian mask that has been in the family for generations.

[Atia]

Does anyone know if pictures of this mask have been released?

[Klingan]

 

From the original Swedish article.

[caldrail]

I would of thought it hugely unlikely that this piece was passed down generations of a family for two thousand years. More likely it was there, buried and forgotten, and dug up by a farmer, builder, or even someone digging a protective trench in the last century.

[Klingan]

I would of thought it hugely unlikely that this piece was passed down generations of a family for two thousand years. More likely it was there, buried and forgotten, and dug up by a farmer, builder, or even someone digging a protective trench in the last century.

 

Yes, that is certainly what he, if nothing else, wants it too look like, it's quite common here. I actually own a (perfectly legal) collection of stone axes that my grandfather gave to me.

[Klingan]

It looks like I will be able to get some first hand information about this find in the coming days, as I pitched the article to a friend who's going to try to get an interview with L

[Viggen]

It looks like I will be able to get some first hand information about this find in the coming days, as I pitched the article to a friend who's going to try to get an interview with L

[Centurion-Macro]

Very interesting!

 

it is interesting how far the Romans actually traded with other peoples...it would be nice if they found some important secret fort there though

[Viggen]

update;

As noted before here on Aard, last winter a man handed in a 2nd century Roman cavalry parade mask to the authorities on Gotland, an island province of Sweden in the Baltic Sea. He says it was found illicitly in the 1980s by a recently deceased metal detectorist. The old man in question was a known nighthawk, and seems to have stuck a spade right through the mask when digging it out. Yet the mask has an excellent find context. The owner pointed to a Late Roman / Migration Period house foundation, my Visby colleagues excavated part of it this past summer, and they found a mixed metalwork hoard including missing bits of the mask

 

The mask is funny because someone with non-Roman ideas has blocked its eye holes with home-made metal eyes and irises. I imagine the mask re-purposed in the 4th or 5th century as the face of a wooden pagan idol, that is, the opposite of what has been suggested by Thomas Fischer for the Thorsbjerg mask.

 

http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2011/10/roman_mask_find_causes_legal_c.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogs%2FlgtN+%28Aardvarchaeology%29

[Klingan]

"But here's an interesting legal conundrum. The guy who handed in the mask says that he was present when it was found. He is thus an admitted accessory to heritage crime. It was a long time ago, maybe he was a child at the time, maybe the period for prosecution has expired."

 

It most certainly have; it's not a long time ago that we changed the law that made murder cases impossible after more than 25 (or was it 20?) years.

[Melvadius]

I note the update at the end of the previous link that the 'reportee' of the find if not the 'finder' has apparently now started legal action against the editor of an archaeological magazine claiming he has been libeled.

 

Update same day: Dear Reader Johan points out that the guy has now made a complaint to the police, accusing Birgitta Gustafson, Head Editor of Popul

[GhostOfClayton]

A good opportunity to introduce you to this mask, which is on display in the Roman Gallery in Tullie House (Carlisle).

 

Edited November 4, 2011 by GhostOfClayton

[Klingan]

I cannot read it or even attempt an automatic translation from here but I think this is the 'offending' article.

"

Romersk paradmask mitt i redaktionens Hellvi!

 

Det har varit en of

[Jarlabanke]

Any ideas about the fact that somebody plugged the eyes? A symbolic or aesthetic deed perhaps?

[Klingan]

Any ideas about the fact that somebody plugged the eyes? A symbolic or aesthetic deed perhaps?

 

It certainly sounds symbolic? And I don't even like that kind of explanations. But I think we would need someone who's got a great deal of knowledge about Nordic archaeology to tell us something useful.