用金屬探測器發(fā)現(xiàn)的寶藏

用金屬探測器發(fā)現(xiàn)的寶藏

You may think the lone treasure seeker scanning the sand with a metal detector at the beach seems a bit dorky — no offense to "detectorists," of course — but that only makes this revenge of the nerds all the sweeter.

你可能會(huì)認(rèn)為，在海灘上用金屬探測器掃描沙子的孤獨(dú)尋寶者似乎有點(diǎn)傻——當(dāng)然，我無意冒犯“偵探”——但這只會(huì)讓書呆子們的報(bào)復(fù)更甜蜜。

These are pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard, an Anglo-Saxon treasure trove discovered by metal detector in 2009. (Photo: David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery [CC BY 2.0]/Wikimedia Commons)

The fine art of metal detecting gets a whole lot sexier when you read about what they found, like the retired businessman who unearthed the mother lode of Viking gold and silver artifacts dating back more than 1,000 years. Derek McLennan's find in October 2014 in Scotland, hailed as the country's most significant, was comprised of 100 items including a ninth century solid silver cross, a silver pot, gold objects, a rare silver cup engraved with animals that dates from the Holy Roman Empire, and a gold bird pin. It wasn't McLennan's first big find, either. The year prior, he found about 300 medieval coins in the same area.

當(dāng)你讀到他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)時(shí)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)金屬探測的藝術(shù)變得更加性感，比如一位退休的商人挖掘出了1000多年前維京人的金銀制品的母礦脈。2014年10月，德里克·麥克倫南在蘇格蘭發(fā)現(xiàn)了被譽(yù)為該國最重要的文物，其中包括100件物品，包括一個(gè)九世紀(jì)的純銀十字架、一個(gè)銀罐、一些金制物品、一個(gè)罕見的刻有神圣羅馬帝國時(shí)期動(dòng)物的銀杯，以及一枚金鳥胸針。這也不是麥克倫南的第一個(gè)重大發(fā)現(xiàn)。一年前，他在同一地區(qū)發(fā)現(xiàn)了大約300枚中世紀(jì)硬幣。

His efforts were handsomely rewarded. Three years later, he was awarded the equivalent of $2.5 million. He'd passed along his find to the Queen’s and Lord Treasurer's Remembrance, which makes rulings on items deemed not to have an owner, according to The Independent, and they set the price of his payment.

他的努力得到了豐厚的回報(bào)。三年后，他獲得了相當(dāng)于250萬美元的獎(jiǎng)金。據(jù)《獨(dú)立報(bào)》報(bào)道，他將發(fā)現(xiàn)的物品轉(zhuǎn)交給了女王和司庫的紀(jì)念，后者會(huì)對被認(rèn)為沒有主人的物品做出裁決，并為他的付款設(shè)定價(jià)格。

You just never know what these modern-day prospectors might discover. With that in mind, we rounded up the more significant finds that have us thinking that maybe it's time to get a metal detector after all — name-calling be damned.

你永遠(yuǎn)不知道這些現(xiàn)代的淘金者會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)什么?？紤]到這一點(diǎn)，我們收集了更有意義的發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)讓我們覺得也許是時(shí)候買個(gè)金屬探測器了——不要再罵人了。

In July 2009, metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert decided to try his luck in farmland close to his home in Staffordshire in the English countryside. He came across an artifact, and bingo. Over the next five days, he found enough gold objects in the soil to fill 244 bags. An archeological expedition was hatched, and all told, the "Staffordshire Hoard" was found to contain some 3,500 pieces representing hundreds of complete objects. The cache of gold, silver and garnet objects from early Anglo-Saxon times represents one of the most important kingdoms of the era — and was valued at around $5.3 million.

2009年7月，金屬探測器愛好者特里·赫伯特決定在英國鄉(xiāng)村斯塔福德郡他家附近的農(nóng)田里碰碰運(yùn)氣。他發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)人工制品，答對了。在接下來的五天里，他在土里發(fā)現(xiàn)了足夠裝滿244袋金子的東西。一場考古探險(xiǎn)已經(jīng)開始醞釀，最終發(fā)現(xiàn)了“斯塔福德郡窖藏”，里面有3500件左右的物品，代表了數(shù)百件完整的物品。早期盎格魯-撒克遜時(shí)代的黃金、白銀和石榴石是當(dāng)時(shí)最重要的王國之一，價(jià)值約530萬美元。

A decade later, archeologists have put what they've learned about the extensive find into a book, "The Staffordshire Hoard: An Anglo-Saxon Treasure," which also has an impressive online component with details and images about all 700 objects.

十年后，考古學(xué)家們把他們所了解到的大量發(fā)現(xiàn)寫成了一本書，《斯塔福德郡窖藏:盎格魯-撒克遜寶藏》(the stfordshire窖藏:An Anglo-Saxon Treasure)，這本書還有一個(gè)令人印象深刻的在線組件，包含了所有700件物品的細(xì)節(jié)和圖片。