Uhlan
Member
Posts: 3,121
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Post by Uhlan on Dec 29, 2012 20:44:50 GMT
Hi to you all. The website linked to here exibits some nice Roman military finds and other bits and bobs. Most of the items in the collection are good, though extra care must be taken with the ringstones seen here. This is tricky stuff even when you are holding the piece and I have seen many very well done forgeries, but in general this collection is worth a look I thought, so I post it here in the hope you will like what you see also. Note that a link top left leads the buying branche of this site. Be very,very careful. Buying this sort of merchandise via the monitor is not recommended. Buy only when you know the site is 100% bonafide! Furthermore I have nothing to do with this enterprice in whatever capacity. LINK: romanofficer.com/permcol.htmlEnjoy!
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Post by Svadilfari on Jan 1, 2013 4:54:59 GMT
Hmm..interesting stuff, if genuine. I wonder just what the provenance of much of the stuff is ? Personally, with regards the weapons..I'd much prefer that they were in the hands of a museum somewhere, available for serious study, rather than vanishing into the hands of private collectors, where they are unlikely to be available for study
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jhart06
Member
Slowly coming back from the depths...
Posts: 3,292
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Post by jhart06 on Jan 1, 2013 6:08:47 GMT
Museums make them no more easy or likely to be studied, or even taken care of right. I'd say it's as likely or less actually. Fact of the matter is most museum except a few don't have the resources to care for such things, or the space. Private colelctors do not immeadiately mean it's off limits.. Days of Knights, a living history event in Kentucky, has a private collector who displays a TON of antiquities, from a 4th century spatha, 12th century armign sword, a stunning rapier, seax, axes, spears, bits, spuirs, etc... And he has no problem letting us at the event, or even the visitors, examine them. I'm set to measure and take notes on pretty much whatever I want come next year.
Sorry if that comes off harsh, but I have a small cache of roman pieces myself (mostly rings, from my ex) and it has always annoyed me people think every historical something needs to be in a museum. Often times they're harder thenever to study once they;re there!
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Uhlan
Member
Posts: 3,121
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Post by Uhlan on Jan 2, 2013 20:52:12 GMT
jhart06, you are absolutly right. And do not try to even GIVE the above Gladii to a Museum. They do not want it. It means work. It means hassle. It is not interesting for them. They have Gladii nobody has ever seen before, of superb quality, thousands of them. they do not care. Most publications are done by private collectors, or they pay for them. Most Musea do not have a sufficient budget to do so. Musea have tons of stuff, so much even, sometimes they do not know what is in storage. Stuff gets stolen, lost or is destroyed due to lack of care. In percentage the STAFF steals the most. This is kept under wraps at all times. The point is: Everything in a museum is ownerless and this can create on the side of curators attitudes that contradict anything one is thought to expect of such institutions. This carelesness can even extend to willful misuse of funds derived from legates. Once property belongs to a Museum no one is accountable or held accountable anymore. You have to do with bureaucrats. They will allways cover their own. Furthermore, where it not for the private collectors,who pay for archeological finds, unnumerable finds would have been destroyed because there is no incentive to care for them anymore on the side of the finder. Gold artifacts then get smolten into false teeth for instance. Women get their teeth knocked out and replaced with it. Way better than the bank! Allways at hand! This happens in Italy, the Middle East, India and so on. Once someone, especialy a poorly educated person, knows that the funny things he plows up all the time represent a certain value, he will take care of them prior to selling them to representatives of dealers in the city. Do not let yourself be fooled by UNESCO bullsemprini, goverment nonsence and all that jabbering by the anti private ownership crowd. They have politics on their mind, the continuation of their jobs, paid for by you, the taxpayer, not the preservation of any cultural heritage whatsoever. They hate private ownership as such. They do not care about What you own. It is just a means of control. Those are the hypocrits. To give you an example: Some time ago, in Turkey, 300 sarcophagi were dug up, all in one spot. This had been a burial ground. These sarcophagi were Late Roman and Earley Christian and mostly of high quality too. Now, one would presume the Turkish goverment to keep the best examples and sell off the rest on the market, so Museums would have the chance to aquire some very interesting objects for their collection. The funds, so collected, would then be used for the funding of other archeological research, or to help local Musea in need. Well, that is what any sane person would have done. Not so Goverments. You see once in the hands of the bureaucrats this treasure has no real owner anymore and in this instance represents a lot of paperwork and even some use of the brain. Like any bureaucrat, be it in Turkey or anywhere else, these people do not like this kind of thing. It is risky. Someone will have to take responsability and that last word has the smell of death in their world. So, what did they do? They ground the whole lot to gravel and paved the local tennis court with it! I rest my case. Cheers, Ulahn.
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