All posts by Archaeology World Team

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Couple find £5,000,000 in one of biggest ever treasure hoards

Couple find £5,000,000 in one of biggest ever treasure hoards

In an area in Somerset, in the West of England, a pair of metal detectorists found their existence when they uncovered a hoard of ancient coins worth about 6 million dollars.

The historical discovery, which has been deemed to be one of the greatest hidden treasures in the UK, is to be revealed in the British Museum.

The 2,571 Anglo-Saxon and Norman coins were unearthed by Adam Staples ‘ and Lisa Grace Treasure hunters when they searched farmland with their trusty metal detectors. The couples have described the hoard as “stunning” and “absolutely mind-blowing” in an interview with Treasure Hunting Magazine.

Adam Staples and partner Lisa Grace unearthed the ‘once in a lifetime’ find of almost 2,600 ancient coins that date back 1,000 years. Their discovery came on a farm in the northeast of Somerset.

They reported their find to the authorities as required by UK law, and the coins were soon sent to the British Museum for evaluation.

The British Museum has been assessing the find for the past seven months and is due to reveal more information about the coins to the public next week.

A spokesperson for the institution confirmed to the Daily Mail that the “large hoard” was handed over as possible treasure and that it appears to be “an important discovery.”

Under the UK’s 1996 Treasure Act, if a find is officially declared treasure, it must first be offered for sale to a museum at a price set by the British Museum’s Treasure Valuation Committee. If no museum can raise the money to acquire the coins, they can then be offered for sale at auction.

The owner of the land where the coins were found is entitled to half of the proceeds. The metal detectorists are keeping the exact location of their discovery under wraps, although the trove is called the Chew Valley Hoard after an area in North Somerset.

William the Conqueror (left) and Harold II coins. Photo by Pippa Pearce. Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum.

A coin expert at the London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb has valued the coins at around £5 million ($6 million).

They include mint-condition silver King Harold II pennies, coins from the reign of William the Conqueror, which could be worth as much as £5,000 ($6,000) each, as well as pieces minted by previously-unknown moneyers.

The King Harold II coins are particularly rare due to his short reign. The last Anglo-Saxon king was on the throne for just nine months before he died during the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The expert said that the hoard may prove too pricey for museums, which might have to launch an appeal for sponsors to raise funds to acquire them.

The coins would have belonged to a wealthy person who probably buried them for safekeeping at some point after the Norman Invasion of 1066 and probably before 1072.

The biggest collection of buried treasure ever discovered in the UK was the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork, but this latest find could worth $1 million more, and have as great or even more historic value.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

When someone asked what the coolest thing you accomplished as a newly minted teenager, most people would probably have to confess something like “successfully pulled off a kickflip” or “puberty.” But not Luca Malaschnitschenko, who at age 13, recently found a cache of buried coins and treasure that once belonged a 10th Century Danish king. 

Luca Malaschnitschenko, who at age 13

During a trip to the German island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea back in January, Malaschnitschenko — a budding archaeology student — was scouring a field with a metal detector searching for treasure, as any kid with a metal detector is wont to do.

He was accompanied by his teacher and amateur archaeologist, René Schön, and when they heard the device blip they dug down and uncovered what they at first thought was just a worthless piece of aluminium.

But, they later realize it was actually a piece of silver, and appeared to be an old coin. That’s when they called up the state archaeology office, which cordoned off a nearly 5,000 square feet in order to conduct a proper dig.

Both Schön and Malaschnitschenko were invited to participate in the final excavation and uncover the hoard in its entirety, which turned out to be quite a doozy. A trove of crazy old coins, jewellery, and other fancy items that once belonged to a Danish king who ruled over a millennium ago.

Much of what was found is likely linked to King Harald Bluetooth, who reigned from the year 958AD to 986AD, and is credited with having brought Christianity to Denmark.

Specifically, it includes things like braided necklaces, pearls, brooches, Thor’s hammer, rings, and roughly 600 coins, according to a report by The Guardians. 

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

“This trove is the greatest single discovery of Bluetooth coins in the southern Baltic Sea region and is therefore of great significance,” lead archaeologist, Michael Schirren, told a local news service, per the daily newspaper.

If you are wondering why “Bluetooth” shares the same name as the tech you use to pair your headphones and computer mice, it’s because it’s actually named after him. 

The story goes that it was named in his honour since he was known for uniting Scandinavia, in the same sense that the Swedish inventors of Bluetooth technology intended to unite PC and wireless devices.

Further, the official Bluetooth logo is actually a melding of the King’s initials in an ancient Scandinavian alphabet. 

As of now, it’s unclear where the uncovered treasure will go on display or end up, but it’s certainly safe to assume this 13-year-old should have no trouble padding his college applications with some uniquely impressive accomplishments.

A coin from King Harald Bluetooth, about 975 to 980″. Photographed just as it came out of the earth.
Robert Hemming Poulsen at the site of his discovery.
EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden

The uncovered ancient dog is still over 8400 years old at the grave ground of the Stone Age city in Sweden. The canine was buried with remains of individuals, who were part of a traditional custom called ‘grave goods,’ the living would leave valuables or sentimental objects with the dead.

The bones were studied by an animal osteologist but there was no modern dog like that, who said it was ‘like a powerful greyhound. Originally established close to the ocean, the settlement was covered by rising sea levels that layered sand and mud over the remains that kept the artifacts preserved for thousands of years.

The location where the dog was discovered is part of an extensive site where municipal authorities and archaeologists perform one of the biggest archaeological digs ever in the city.

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden
Archaeologists uncovered ancient dog remains more than 8,400 years old at a Stone Age area burial site in Sweden. The canine was buried alongside human remains, which was part of an ancient tradition called ‘grave goods

The settlement is located in what is now Ljungaviken in Sölvesborg and has been a prime site for archaeologists since 2015. During the excavation, the team has found evidence of at least 56 structures that once stood at the site, along with postholes and pits.

The dog bones are a new discovery and have not been removed from the ground yet but archaeologists plan to eventually take them to the Blekinge Museum for study.

Osteologist Ola Magnell of the Blekinge Museum said of the discovery near the town of Solvesborg, said: ‘The dog is well preserved, and the fact that it is buried in the middle of the Stone Age settlement is unique,’

Museum project manager Carl Persson said ‘a sudden and violent increase of the sea level’ flooded the area with mud that had helped preserve the burial site. An ongoing archaeological excavation has involved removing layers of sand and mud.

The Swedish archaeologists said the dog was buried with a person, noting that survivors often leave valuable or sentimental objects with the dead. Such findings ‘makes you feel even closer to the people who lived here,’ Persson said in a statement.

The settlement, originally built near the coast, was covered by rising sea levels that layered sand and mud over the remains that kept the artifacts preserved for thousands of years
The area where the dog was found is part of a vast site where local authorities and archaeologists are currently carrying out one of the largest archaeological digs ever undertaken in the region. 

A buried dog somehow shows how similar we are over the millennia when it comes to feelings like grief and loss.’ The area is believed to have been inhabited by hunters during the Stone Age. A residential community is expected to be built on the burial site once the archaeologists are done.

Dogs seem to have been man’s best friend for thousands of years, as archaeologists are uncovering remains all over the world that suggest they were domesticated pets.

Earlier this month, a team discovered what they believe could be the oldest ever remains of a pet dog. Experts suspected the remains are between 14,000 and 20,000 years old, spanning back to the very dawn of the special relationship between humans and canines.

Researchers from the University of Siena in Italy hope their discovery can shed light on how dogs made the change from wild carnivores to loving companions.

One theory is that wolves became scavengers out of necessity due to a lack of food, and this took them close to human settlements. Some experts believe the animals and humans slowly developed a bond and the symbiotic relationship flourished from there.

Others think wolves and humans worked together when hunting and this is how the relationship spawned. The research team from Siena University hopes that the surviving fragments of one of the first dogs to live alongside humans as a pet could help find a definitive answer.

Dr. Francesco Boschin led a piece of research, published in August in Scientific Reports, on early canine remains found at two paleolithic caves in Southern Italy, the Paglicci Cave, and the Romanelli Cave.

Writing in this study, the scientists say: ‘Our combined molecular and morphological analyses of fossil canid remain from the sites of Grotta Paglicci and Grotta Romanelli, in southern Italy, attest of the presence of dogs at least 14,000 calibrated years before present.

‘This unambiguously documents one of the earliest occurrences of domesticates in the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe and in the Mediterranean.’

Writing in this study, the scientists say: ‘Our combined molecular and morphological analyses of fossil canid remain from the sites of Grotta Paglicci and Grotta Romanelli, in southern Italy, attest of the presence of dogs at least 14,000 calibrated years before present’

However, a further analysis which is still ongoing shows this figure could indeed be much later, towards 20,000 years, Dr. Boschin told RealPress.

From an archaeological point of view, the oldest remains of domesticated dogs were found in Central Europe and date back 16,000 years,’ Boschin said.

‘In the Mediterranean area we have now established that domesticated dogs lived here 14,000 years ago for sure, but possibly even 20,000 years ago

AFRICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Uncover 1,700-year-old Roman Villa With Stunning Mosaics in Libya

Archaeologists Uncover 1,700-year-old Roman Villa With Stunning Mosaics in Libya

In the 1700-year-old villa in Ptolemais, a major trading port of the ancient Romans on the Libyan coast, archaeologists have uncovered statues, elaborate mosaics, and other treasures.

Mosaics depicting Dionysus and a sleeping Ariadne discovered in Ptolemais

Artifacts and a hoard of 553 silver and bronze coins from Republican times were discovered in a vast building 600 square metre dating back to the 3rd century C.E.

Archaeologist Jerzy Zelazowski of the University of Warsaw said: Most of the coins have been found in a room in the house where produced terracotta lamps. The coins may have been the earnings of local craftsmen.

The ancient city was established almost 2,300 years ago, at the turn of the 4th century B.C.E., by ancient Greeks. Its original name is not known, but it gained the name “Ptolemais” during the reign of the Ptolemaic empire over Egypt.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom had been founded in 305 B.C.E. by Ptolemy I Soter, whose Hellenistic dynasty ruled a vast area stretching from Syria to Nubia, with its capital in Alexandria.

Statuetka Asklepiosa- Stone sculpture of Asklepion.
Oil lamp depicting gladiatorial combat.

The Ptolemaic rulers declared themselves successors to the Egyptian Pharaohs: the famed Cleopatra was the daughter of the late Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos.

Ptolemais

As the power of the Romans rose, however, that of the Ptolemys waned, and they began losing territory to Macedonia and the Seleucids. Hoping to preserve what they had, the Ptolemies became vassals of the Romans.

Cleopatra’s father would pay the Romans through the nose in order to secure his dynasty, but after his death, Cleopatra ultimately failed to hold onto power.

In 96 B.C.E. the entire province of Cyrenaica, including Ptolemais, was handed over to the Romans peacefully (400 years before the house in question was built).

Rome however showed little interest in their new province, which deteriorated into a pirate’s nest. Not until the Wars of Mithradates (between the Roman Empire and the tiny Kingdon of Pontus south of the Black Sea, ruled by King Mithradates IV)  in the 1st century C.E., did the Romans make an effort to restore order to Cyrenaica, to Romanize the locals and while about it, to resolve conflicts brewing between the Greeks and Jews living in the province.

Images of the gods

The villa with the recovered mosaics was built hundreds of years later around a courtyard in classic Roman peristyle arrangement. Among the loveliest of its mosaics is one depicting a sleeping Dionysus and Ariadne – a daughter of King Minos, who according to legend, would become the god’s wife.

Another mosaic depicts the Achillean cycle (the collection of epic poems about Achilles’ adventures) representing Achilles on the island of Skyros – where his mother, fearful that he would meet his death at Troy, dressed him as a girl to avoid military recruiters.

Two other mosaics in the villa, one in the courtyard and one in the dining room, bear the name “Leukaktios”. The name was superimposed on the stonework at a later date, possibly due to ownership change during its centuries of occupation.

Bronze sestercii
Head of Dionysus.

The villa walls bore colorful frescos, imitating marble revetments with geometric designs. Several walls are covered with figural paintings, mainly depicting various species of birds.

The end of this elegant house, after centuries of occupation, was probably due to the endless earthquakes plaguing the region. Two in particular, striking in the mid 3rd-century C.E. and in 365 C.E, may have doomed the house: the treasure of silver and bronze coins were found within the destruction layers inside the house.

Stone sculpture of male figure depicted in armour reminiscent of the Hellenistic linothorax type, worn, i.a., by Alexander the Great

The city of Ptolemais, however, survived. At least for a while. It would remain the capital of Cyrenaica until the year 428 when it was destroyed by the Vandals, who invaded North Africa too from their Germanic home base.

Ptolemais would be rebuilt under Justinian I, the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. But after the Arab forces razed it again in the 7th century, that would be its end.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

Emergency food from 1965 Japan expedition found in Antarctica

Emergency food from 1965 Japan expedition found in Antarctica

The Asahi Shimbun reports that Japanese researchers have found fragments of a cardboard box and a cache of emergency food dated to 1965 about five miles from Japan’s Syowa Station in Antarctica. The ration included a can of Coca-Cola, chewing gum, and a can of stewed beef and vegetables. 

A can of the first generation of Coca-Cola, which went on sale in Japan for the first time in 1965

On 3 September, the unopened objects were found at the Mukai Rocks location about eight kilometers from the Syowa station in Japan. The location had been used to land in Antarctica after a voyage through the sea ice through the 10th Japanese Antarctic expedition.

Four members of the current 61st Japanese research expedition team visited Mukai Rocks for observation. There were pieces of cardboard around the food, suggesting they arrived in a box.

The National Institute of Polar Research, which dispatches Japanese expeditions, said no records have been left about the food. Apart from the Coca-Cola and the chewing gum, a can of stewed beef and vegetables, made in February 1965, was found with a label that denoted it as an emergency ration of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

It was the year when Japan’s Antarctic research resumed with the dispatch of the 7th team. Syowa Station was closed temporarily after Japan’s first ice breaker, the Soya was decommissioned. The Fuji, which succeeded Soya in 1965, was operated by the MSDF.

Susumu Kokubun, 85, a former member of the 7th expedition, recalled that Masayoshi Murayama, who headed his team, went to a location near Mukai Rocks in January 1966 on a helicopter that was loaded on the Fuji.

“He may have left the food on that occasion,” Kokubun said.

The can of Coca-Cola came with a label written in katakana and no stay-on tab opening mechanism. 

According to Coca-Cola (Japan) Co., it is the design of the company’s first canned Coca-Cola introduced into the Japanese market in 1965. A drinker opens it by making a hole with an opener on top of the can. 

The product was available in the market for only one to two years, a company official said, adding that no stock of that particular product is left at the beverage maker.

“It is greatly encouraging to imagine that expedition members had Coca-Cola in the harsh environment,” the official said.

The chewing gum, Cool Mint from Lotte Co., comes in a package featuring a penguin, an iconic creature symbolizing Antarctica. Lotte said it is the design of Cool Mint when it was first released in 1960. But it is not just ordinary, everyday chewing gum.

Records by the company and former members of the Japanese expedition teams show that Eizaburo Nishibori, head of the first wintering party, requested in 1956 the confectionery maker develop a special gum for the country’s first expedition team prior to its departure for Antarctica.

Lotte presented them with a gum mixed with vitamins and minerals that can be preserved for a year and five months without deteriorating despite traveling through the equator or areas where the temperature drops 50 degrees below zero.

Nishibori’s request led Lotte to give birth to Cool Mint in 1960, with its catch phrase “Fresh like in Antarctica.” It was a hit and a long seller. The company said only one Cool Mint sample from those days is left at Lotte.

“It was a pleasant surprise to know that the chewing gum remained after the passage of many decades,” said a public relations official with the company.

Noriaki Obara, one of the four members of the current expedition who discovered the food, said he was stunned to stumble into the long-forgotten cache.

“I initially suspected that they were things just scattered about,” said Obara, 55. “I feel a special connection with the discovery because I was born in 1965.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Archaeologists explore a rural field in Kansas, and a lost city emerges

Archaeologists explore a rural field in Kansas, and a lost city emerges

In the Great Plains of Kansas, archaeologists have made an innovative and unlikely discovery: a vast town lost centuries ago. Donald Blakeslee discovered a few years ago the lost city of Etzanoa in Arkansas City, Kan, a Wichita State University anthropologist, and an archaeology professor. 

Anthropologist and archaeology professor Donald Blakeslee in one of the pits being excavated in Arkansas City, Kan.

In that small city in south-central Kansas, local residents found the arrowhead and the gold mine underneath their town, pottery, and other ancient artifacts, for decades, in the fields and rivers of the region.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Blakeslee used newly translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors who came across the land over 400 years ago to determine that these artifacts were once part of the Native American lost city of Etzanoa.

Kacie Larsen of Wichita State University shakes dirt through a screened box to see what artefacts may emerge.

“‘I thought, ‘Wow, their eyewitness descriptions are so clear it’s like you were there,’” Blakeslee told the Times about reading the conquistador’s accounts. “I wanted to see if the archaeology fit their descriptions. Every single detail matched this place.”

The city of Etzanoa is believed to have been around from 1450 to 1700 and was home to approximately 20,000 people. Blakeslee said that the city was the second-largest settlement in the present-day United States at the time and spanned across at least five miles of the space between the Walnut and Arkansas rivers.

The 20,000 inhabitants of Etzanoa were said to have lived in “thatched, beehive-shaped houses.”

In 1541, conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado came to the town hoping to discover its fabled gold but instead found Native Americans in a collection of settlements that he called Quivira.

Sixty years later in 1601, Juan de Oñate led a team of 70 conquistadors from New Mexico to Quivira, also hoping to find its gold but they ran into a tribe called the Escanxaques, who told them of the nearby city of Etzanoa.

Oñate and his team arrived at the city and were greeted peacefully by the inhabitants of Etzanoa. However, things quickly went south when the conquistadors started taking hostages, which then caused the city’s residents to flee in fear.

The group of conquistadors explored the vast area of more than 2,000 houses but feared an attack from the peoples they dislodged and decided to return home.

On their return trip, they were attacked by some 1,000 members of the Escanxaque tribe and a huge battle took place. The conquistadors lost and returned home to New Mexico, never to come back to the area again.

French explorers came nearly a century later to that part of south-central Kansas but did not find any evidence of Etzanoa or its people. It is believed that disease caused the untimely demise of the population.

However, traces of the people and their city would not stay hidden forever. Blakeslee and a team of excavators found the site of the ancient battle in a neighborhood in Arkansas City and found remanents from the battle.

Locals in the area had been uncovering artifacts from the lost city for decades but didn’t understand why until evidence of the city itself was discovered by Blakeslee.

“Lots of artifacts have been taken from here,” Warren “Hap” McLeod, a resident of Arkansas City who lives on the spot where the battle took place, told the Times. “Now we know why. There were 20,000 people living here for over 200 years.” One local resident said that the sheer amount of artifacts that people in the area have is mindblowing.

Russell Bishop, a former Arkansas City resident, shows off the arrowheads he found in the area as a kid.
Professor Donald Blakeslee of Wichita State University shows a black pot unearthed by student Jeremiah Perkins, behind him.

“My boss had an entire basement full of pottery and all kinds of artifacts,” Russell Bishop told the Times. “We’d be out there working and he would recognize a black spot on the ground as an ancient campfire site … I don’t think anyone knew how big this all was. I’m glad they’re finally getting to the bottom of it.”

The Great Plains were long-regarded as huge, empty spaces in ancient times that were populated mainly by nomadic tribes. But Blakeslee’s discovery of Etzanoa could prove that some of the tribes in the area weren’t nomadic and were actually more urban than previously believed.

Blakeslee has also discovered evidence that similar, large-scale lost cities could be located in nearby counties which might have been around during the time of Etzanoa.

These latest groundbreaking archaeological finds are helping researchers fill in huge blanks in early American history.

CZECH REPUBLIC, EUROPE, WORLD

This Astronomical Clock is 6 centuries old and still ticks in Prague

This Astronomical Clock is 6 centuries old and still ticks in Prague

One of the most compelling of landmarks in the Czech Republic is the Astronomical Clock in Prague. Legend dates the clock back to the 15th century when Hanus, a clock master with plenty of experience, was chosen to make a device that not only told the time but which also offered other functions.

The most widespread legend of all dates back probably to the 15th century, around the time the clock appeared. It says that an experienced clock master, known as Hanuš, was selected by the city councillors of Prague to produce an original device that would not only measure the time but also have a few other functionalities.

However, the councillors were worried about whether Hanuš might produce another, similar-looking clock for another city. Which is how they started thinking of ways to eliminate any such possibility, and eventually they came up with a sick plan.

One night, they sent people to break into the home of the clock master to injure his eyes with a chunk of iron, leaving him blind.

It was not that Hanuš couldn’t figure who committed this wrongdoing, so in revenge, with a little help of his apprentice, he went to his creation and made the clock halt. As the story goes, over 100 years passed before the clock was brought to life again.

Like many other versions of the legend, this one attributes the clock’s craftsmanship to the wrong person.

According to a paper that contains an insightful description of how the clock’s astronomical dial works, discovered in 1961, the creator was the Imperial clock-producer Mikuláš of Kadaň. He devised the piece in 1410, helped by astronomer and university teacher Jan Sindel.

The Prague Astronomical Clock is a medieval astronomical clock located in Prague.

On a few occasions during its history, the machinery of the Astronomical Clock has failed. Therefore, the device needed to undergo maintenance.

No one knew how to fix it though, so when the clock stopped sometime during the late 18th century, local officials even considered replacing it with another piece.

Luckily they didn’t, but for an extended period, the device was simply not working. The long-needed repair came many decades later, around 1865, when one of the clock’s newest features was added, the Calendar Dial.

Astronomical dial.

It is one of the most famous clocks around the world, but it also makes for the third-oldest astronomical clock and the oldest one still in use. Its age and authenticity are some of the reasons why people gather each hour in front of the Old Town Hall Tower where the Astronomical clock wisely sits, to watch how it chimes the hour, an experience that lasts just 45 seconds.

Detail view of the Prague Astronomical Clock.

When it does chime the hour, the window of the clock in the upper part shows the 12 apostles moving. Simultaneously, the surrounding sculptures that adorn the device are set in motion.

One of the moving figures carrying an hourglass in his hand personifies Death. Another moving figurine has a mirror, representing Vanity. Other figurines, such as those of the Astronomer, the Philosopher, or the Chronicler, appear to be motionless. However, several of these figures are replicas because their originals were severely damaged by the Germans at the end of World War Two.

The Astronomical Dial is probably the oldest of all clock components and is one of the main reasons why the Prague clock is so unique. This element splendidly illustrates how people of the medieval era observed the universe. Of course, it is the Earth represented in the centre of it. The dial’s bits of the blue stand for the skies beyond the horizon, while a brownish counterpart stands for the skies below it.

Inscribed Latin letters further indicate which side is east and which one is west; north and south are in this case replaced by denotations for “above” and “below” the horizon, both marked with Latin words for “dawn” and “twilight” respectively.

A zodiac circle stands for the stars up above and it runs in harmony with them, and the two clock hands display the symbols of our closest stellar bodies, the sun and the Moon.

Functions noted

The three sets of this dial can count three different times. The first is the Italian time or what would be Old Czech time. Central European Time is measured by the sun pointer and this is the hour, from 1 to 24, which the clock chimes. It was once set to measure Old German Time, but before that, it counted the hour according to Bohemian Time.

Statues on Prague Astronomical Clock

The third is likely the most interesting of all sets, measuring Babylonian Time where the hour’s length is determined by which season of the year it is. During summer the hour is longer; in winter it’s shorter. This device is the only clock one on the entire planet known to be capable of tracking Babylonian Time.

The moon sphere is seen showing approximately a half moon.

In comparison with the Astronomical dial, the Calendar one has fewer functionalities, but it is brilliant anyway. In its centre, it shows the symbol of the Old Town of Prague and its outer ring reads the description of each day for all year round. The current day is shown at the very top. Each month is also represented by a zodiac sign situated in a medallion.

Little did we know there were so many ways to measure and represent time.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

17th-Century English Book Found in College Library in Spain

17th-Century English Book Found in College Library in Spain

BBC News reports that John Stone of the University of Barcelona has found a 1634 printing of The Two Noble Kinsmen, a play written by William Shakespeare with John Fletcher, a house playwright for the theater group the King’s Men.

The volume dating to 1634 was found by an academic researching Scots economist Adam Smith

The play appears in a book of English plays held at the Royal Scots College, which is now located in Salamanca, Spain. In the 17th Century, the seminary in Madrid was an important source of English literature for Spanish intellectuals.

The Two Noble Kinsmen was included in a volume made up of several English plays printed from 1630 to 1635. Dr. John Stone, of the University of Barcelona, said he found it among old books in the library of the Real Colegio de Escoceses – Royal Scots College (RSC) -which is now in Salamanca.

The book is still in its original 17th Century leather binding and was found cataloged under a philosophy

What is The Two Noble Kinsmen about?

“Friendship turns to rivalry in this study of the intoxication and strangeness of love,” is how the Royal Shakespeare Company described the play, which is based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale.

It was probably written around 1613-14 by Shakespeare and John Fletcher, one of the house playwrights in Bard’s theatre company the King’s Men. It was likely to have been Shakespeare’s last play before he retired to Stratford-on-Avon. He died there in 1616 at the age of 52.

Described as a “tragicomedy” the play features best friends, who are knights captured in a battle. From the window of their prison, they see a beautiful woman with whom they each fall in love.

Within a moment they have turned from intimate friends too jealous rivals in a strange love story that features absurd adventures and confusion.

Dr. Stone, who has worked in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, said: “It is likely these plays arrived as part of some student’s personal library or at the request of the rector of the Royal Scots College, Hugh Semple, who was friends with the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega and had more plays in his personal library.

“It is likely these plays were acquired around 1635 by an English or Scottish traveller who might have wanted to take these plays – all London editions – with him to Madrid.

“By the 1630s English plays were increasingly associated with elite culture. This small community of Scots was briefly the most significant intellectual bridge between the Spanish and English-speaking worlds.”

Canadian John Stone formerly worked as a researcher at the National Library of Scotland and Aberdeen University

In the 17th and 18th Centuries collections of books in English were rare in Spain because of ecclesiastical censorship, but the Scots college had special authorization to import whatever they wanted.

Plays in English were exceptionally rare in the period – and it had previously been thought the oldest work by Shakespeare in Spain was a volume found in the Royal English College of Saint Alban in Valladolid.

It is thought to have arrived in Spain in the decade after the volume found in the Scots College. The rector of the Scots College, Father Tom Kilbride, said the college was proud such an important work had been discovered in its library.

Scots college was exempt from strict ecclesiastical censorship banning many books from circulation

He said: “It says a lot about the kind of education the trainee priests were getting from the foundation of the college in Madrid in 1627, a rounded education in which the culture of the period played an important part.

“To think that plays would have been read, and possibly performed at that time is quite exciting.

“There was clearly a great interest in Spain at that time in English literature.”

The RSC no longer trains men for the priesthood in Scotland, but offers preparatory six-month courses for those expressing a vocation, and holds regular retreats and conferences for the Scottish Catholic community.

In Act 5 scene 1 Arcite, one of the knights talks about “dusty and old titles”, which sums up the find in Salamanca.