A 2,000-year-old copper knife handle recovered from England's River Tyne was carved in the form of a gladiator who appears to be left-handed, a trait Romans considered unlucky.
Sources
- Seventy-Seven Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2024, From ... (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/15/style/gladiator-knife-handle-roman-celebrity-intl-scli-gbr/index.html (cnn.com)
- https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/71648 (thehistoryblog.com)
- https://interestingengineering.com/culture/remarkable-2000-year-old-gladiator-knife-handle (interestingengineering.com)
- https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2024/11/21/rare-roman-gladiator-knife-handle-found-at-hadrians-wall/ (archaeology.wiki)
More in History
- The tallest T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe stand roughly 16 to 18 feet high and weigh several tons (estimates range from about seven to ten), and the largest stone enclosure measures about 65 feet across.
- Hayden Trubitt bought the rediscovered 14-page 1857 'Laws of Base Ball' at auction in April 2016 for $3.26 million after taking out a $1 million mortgage on his home.
- A wooden post unearthed in south Wales in 2012 had previously been considered the oldest wood carving found in Britain.
- NASA launched five nearly identical, van-size Lunar Orbiter satellites in 1966 and 1967 to map the Moon and identify safe Apollo landing sites.
- Felsina, on the site of modern Bologna, Italy, was founded by the Etruscans around 510 BCE in an area rich in Villanovan remains.
- Ancient Egyptians cultivated papyrus as an industrial crop.