i dig up something in my garden (probably a roman weight) (1 Viewer)

[Aleš]

Last year i was digging up the garden to plant a potatoes after that and i find something in the dirt. The moment i pick up, i feel quite a weight to it, so i know that it is not an ordinary iron or coin or what ever. It weight more than 80 grams i think....i check it with the magnet and it is not magnetic so it is not iron, maybe a lead. Anyway i send a few pictures to the museum, no one really know what this is,...when i was researching i see some similar things like mine and they say for their itmes that it is an roman weight (you know the weight for the market scale for example). So, what do you think? Is it possible that this is an ancient roman weight?

 

[OzDigger]

I did a websearch and an ancient Roman weight of 1/4 Libra = 82.2 grams, so I would say they were correct about the weight theory.

 

[Currahee Chris]

Wow- how cool is that??? That would be something if it is a Roman weight!!!

 

[Aleš]

I did a websearch and an ancient Roman weight of 1/4 Libra = 82.2 grams, so I would say they were correct about the weight theory.

thanks! Today i was use a metal detector in the near forrest and i dig up some amonition, probably WW2, now i put them in to water to clean the dirt, i will show the photos in a few days, some of the amunition still have a bullit on and some was already used (no bullit) plus i find some old iron (who knows what that is....) i will also show some photos after the cleaning

 

[Aleš]

Wow- how cool is that??? That would be something if it is a Roman weight!!!

yes, i think that also. And it was in my garden! Imagine that 1500+ or more years maybe there was an roman market or a workshop,....because above is a hill where live a lot of different tribes (ilirians, celts, langobards, romans,...during the diferent time of period, even prahistoric settlemants was there,...),...a lot of things did happened during the times from ancient till now...in that hill also find a lot of burrial ground and there was jewelry or weapons inside,....

 

[Aleš]

well archeologist find the jewelry and weapons (it is display in the museum) not me. But maybe there is more to find....

 

[Go for Broke]

You should dig around. There could be more artifacts. I can not imagine someone dropping that weight in travel. There might be a settlement in your yard.

 

[Aleš]

You should dig around. There could be more artifacts. I can not imagine someone dropping that weight in travel. There might be a settlement in your yard.

well if that was true this will cause at least two problems:

-the archeologist will dig around my house, ruin my gras, my peace,...
-if they find anything, they will keep it for the research, because in my country we have a stupid law that everything that it is underground belong to the country/state so i will not get anything from the find, even that i am the owner of the land and property

I can be quiet and use metal detector and try to find anything on my own, but the metal detector only detecs like 30 cm or 50 cm if there is a bigger item underground so i find mostly stupid things like nails, shaft, some broken tools,..... my mother told me that when my father buy this property there was an old house before and cellar and stable and basement,...so there are a lot of nails and stuff around underground. So if there are something from the romans it must be much deeper and my metal detector will not detected,....but i will try, because i did not check everything yet. If there was really an market or a shop, it will be nice to find some coins....but coins will be hard to detect with this metal detector i think...

 

[Aleš]

is this from an WW2 machine gun bullets or what kind of amunition is this?

 

[DMNamiot]

Need something like a coin for scale in those ammunition photos. Then we can say what it is.

Dave

 

[Aleš]

Need something like a coin for scale in those ammunition photos. Then we can say what it is.

Dave

well i did not measure it but it is quite big, i think around 8-10 cm height (with the bullet) and around 1 cm wide, is this helps?

I am also interested what is this:



It is bigger than the amunition, at least 10+ cm



It looks very old...it is iron (it stick to the magnet) maybe some iron from the iron age or prehistoric age? Maybe some leftovers from the melting iron or what? Maybe some broken part from the primitive weapon? Is this possible to clean? It looks like it was a long time in the dirt....i was only put in the water for a few hours so the dirt go away and now theer is no dirt, only this orange brown color of an interesting shape.

There is also another similar item, but smaller, maybe 4 cm height:

 

[Horus]

Though I expect some Gun collecting US forum members will have a better idea of what they may of come from the markings on the bottom of the cartridges would impart info if legible that could possibly be looked up on the internet.
With accurate measurements you should be able to find at the very least whether they were full size rounds or smaller intermediate ones as might be found in a STG 44 etc.

If not quite innocent pieces of rusty old iron such as nails etc, one possibility for the iron bits may well be shrapnel from Grenades etc assuming some sort of combat occurred there.

 

[OzDigger]

Ideally you need ammunition to be in good condition and see any manufacturing markings to make an accurate assessment. However based on the size stated the ammunition looks around the size of standard military rifle ammo used in both world wars. Please note that coin sizes vary around the world and most Americans would have no idea about metric sizes.

Need something like a coin for scale in those ammunition photos. Then we can say what it is.

Dave

well i did not measure it but it is quite big, i think around 8-10 cm height (with the bullet) and around 1 cm wide, is this helps?

I am also interested what is this:



It is bigger than the amunition, at least 10+ cm



It looks very old...it is iron (it stick to the magnet) maybe some iron from the iron age or prehistoric age? Maybe some leftovers from the melting iron or what? Maybe some broken part from the primitive weapon? Is this possible to clean? It looks like it was a long time in the dirt....i was only put in the water for a few hours so the dirt go away and now theer is no dirt, only this orange brown color of an interesting shape.

There is also another similar item, but smaller, maybe 4 cm height:

 

[DMNamiot]

Ideally you need ammunition to be in good condition and see any manufacturing markings to make an accurate assessment. However based on the size stated the ammunition looks around the size of standard military rifle ammo used in both world wars. Please note that coin sizes vary around the world and most Americans would have no idea about metric sizes.

Oz you are correct about the marking and metric sizes and coin sizes but I lived over there for nearly 11 years so I have a good idea on the size of the various euros or older coins thus my request for something to give a scale reference. My guess is the rounds are German but that’s just a guess at this point.


Dave

 

[OzDigger]

Oz you are correct about the marking and metric sizes and coin sizes but I lived over there for nearly 11 years so I have a good idea on the size of the various euros or older coins thus my request for something to give a scale reference. My guess is the rounds are German but that’s just a guess at this point.


Dave

Hi Dave,

I know that you have traveled a lot with your military service etc. However I'm sure I'm not the only forum member that is not familiar with the sizes of European currency. Metric units are usually preferable for these matters, except most forum members come from the USA ^&grin

We have used the metric system in Australia for decades, its very useful as the vast majority of countries now use metric. I'm old enough to have used Inches and Pounds when I was young. However we always switched to Feet and Stones in higher numbers. When Americans say someone is so many inches tall and weighs whatever pounds, I have no idea ^&confuse ^&grin

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Dave,

I know that you have traveled a lot with your military service etc. However I'm sure I'm not the only forum member that is not familiar with the sizes of European currency. Metric units are usually preferable for these matters, except most forum members come from the USA ^&grin

We have used the metric system in Australia for decades, it’s titally get it very useful as the vast majority of countries now use metric. I'm old enough to have used Inches and Pounds when I was young. However we always switched to Feet and Stones in higher numbers. When Americans say someone is so many inches tall and weighs whatever pounds, I have no idea ^&confuse ^&grin

I totally get what you are saying I have a Scottish friend who always says stone for weight which makes me scratch my head.

I back to the issue of what he has dug up. I’d be able to tell definitively if he had a good shot of the underside of the cartridge case and they were cleaned up but until he posts some more photos with a ruler or something else for scale I can’t give a good read on it.

Dave