‘Devil's Money' Found in Ancient Netherlands Cult Burial
Experts believe the money left at the location was 'devil's money,' an offering to pagan gods.
The worship site likely had ties to summer and autumn equinoxes thanks to the discovery of seasonally aligned post holes.
A metal detectorist recently came across a cache of more than 100 gold and silver coins buried underground in the Netherlands, prompting archaeologists to come further investigate the site. But knowing now what the coins were there for, perhaps the archaeologists should've left them alone.
According to a new study published in Medieval Archaeology, the coins, which sat buried for 1,300 years in the Netherlands, were likely used in cult rituals, and further around the site, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a seventh-century open-air cult site. It's more than plausible that the cache of coins was what was known as 'devil's money,' coin offerings common at pagan cult sites.
The metal detectorists made the find near Hezingen, a hamlet near the Netherland's border with Germany. The coins are from around 700 A.D.—including some rare finds from the mints of the Frankish Empire—and were found along with metal jewelry in 2020 and 2021.
There were a number of clues that helped the archaeologists deduce that the site where the coins were found was once the stomping grounds for a cult. There were rows of posts, evidence of a large residence in a clearing near an ancient road junction on a prominent elevated landscape, remnants of animal sacrifices, and more. They also determined that the gold coins and jewelry were placed there in intervals over 100 years and interspersed with the animal sacrifices, making it clear that the site once served as a ritual sacrifice location for pagan gods.
The archaeologists, led by Jan-Willem de Kort of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, located the signs of an old structure, likely from the sixth century, as well as 17 postholes for wooden posts that aligned with spring and autumn equinoxes, which tied the site to seasonal harvest rituals.
'The cult site was probably linked to a nearby high-status settlement with an enclosed cult house or ceremonial building,' the study authors wrote. 'The offerings may have been linked to fertility rites as the posts were aligned with the rising and setting of the sun during the spring and autumn equinoxes.'
In all, the gold and silver coins were discovered in three areas. One site had a single gold coin, while another had 24 fragmented or complete gold coins, along with silver and gold jewelry. The third site featured gold coins and jewelry. 'I think that this cult site was mainly used by local elites to emphasize their own status, and of course, you do that preeminently with valuables,' de Kort said, according to Phys.org. 'The finds at the other cult sites are probably more the result of personal offerings and thus less precious.'
The use of the site by elites and the timing of it all raises questions about the rise of Christianity in the area. The site's use curtailed in the 700s A.D., the study claims, earlier than the rise of Christianity in the region, leading the study authors to theorize that the area's leaders could have turned to Christianity earlier than others.
As prominent missionary texts spelled out, to have pre-Christian groups convert to Christianity, they would need to stop worshiping pagan gods and cease the sacrifice of the so-called 'devil's money.' Since Hezingen was abandoned by the early eighth century when Christianity began to spread, the study authors suggest the leaders of the town—wealthy, as shown by the value of the gold and silver—were some of the first in the area to convert to Christianity.
You Might Also Like
Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss?
Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Plans for $48M Palm Beach County animal shelter will help reach goal of zero euthanizations
Palm Beach County's animal shelter still euthanizes animals, but at a much lower rate than in previous years. Jan Steele, the director of Animal Care & Control, recently appeared before county commissioners to discuss the agency's operation. Among the topics discussed was the euthanization rate. The shelter would rather not kill any animal, but sometimes it has no choice, Steele said. The county shelter, unlike private ones, must accept any animal that is dropped off, she noted. Some have behavioral problems; others are sick. Efforts to find those animals adoptive homes pose a challenge. There is also a space problem. The facility, along Belvedere Road west of Florida's Turnpike in suburban West Palm Beach, is over capacity. As of July 20, the facility had 193 dogs with only enough space for 144. It had 172 cats with space for 100 Pets had to be either doubled or tripled up or housed in temporary crates while calls are placed to other shelters to take some of the animals. 'We need to have four or five kennels available to accommodate law enforcement,' Steele said. Once all options are exhausted, animals are put on the proposed euthanasia list, which Steele and a veterinarian review. Nonetheless, Steele noted, the agency has significantly improved its release rate, the percentage of animals released from the shelter without having to be euthanized. In 2023, the release rate was 86%. Five years earlier, it was just 69%. In 2013, more than 9,300 animals had to be killed; the figure was 1,221 in 2024. A taste of Royal Palm Beach: Decadent Cuban sandwiches, savory bowls of pho, even oxtail How has Animal Control cut back on its euthanization rates? Steele said the community is more aware of what is being done at the shelter, which provides for nearly 10,000 animals each year. More people are volunteering. And the county has expanded its offering of free sterilizations for both cats and dogs. The agency has also increased the number of community partners that take in pets at the shelter. The county had hoped to meet its goal of zero euthanizations in 2024. In 2014, county commissioners adopted a resolution that set a goal of ending euthanasia of all adoptable dogs and cats by that year. Recognizing that was not going to happen, the county extended the deadline for 'The Countdown to Zero' animal kills by an additional 10 years. MORE: Animal Care and Control is getting a new $48M facility with needed air-conditioned kennels The county has approved plans to build a new facility for Animal Care & Control. Construction is expected to begin sometime this winter. The facility's $48 million facelift will more than double its size and include air-conditioned kennels. It will allow for more animals to be accommodated. Steele noted that sick animals will be housed in a quarantine-isolation facility, allowing for veterinary care to be provided at a higher level. 'We will not have to euthanize pets simply because there's no place to house them,' she said. Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government. You can reach him at mdiamond@ Help support local journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County animal shelter euthanization rate down Solve the daily Crossword
National Geographic
14-07-2025
- National Geographic
We may finally solve the mystery of the shipwreck that lies beneath Ground Zero
The Museum of the City of New York is launching a new investigation into the remains of a vessel found beneath lower Manhattan during subway construction in 1916. Museum of the City of New York curator William M. Williamson and historian James A. Kelly examine timbers, possibly from the Tyger, on view in a 1954 exhibition Shipyards of New York. Photograph Courtesy Museum of the City of New York A shipwreck mystery buried under Ground Zero could soon be solved, with scientists set to investigate whether a doomed 17th-century vessel—captained by a Dutch explorer who settled Manhattan—lies deep beneath the former Twin Towers. Visitors flock to the World Trade Center site to see its 9/11 memorial and museum, and honor victims of the 2001 terrorist attack. But few would know Ground Zero was once nothing but ocean, before land reclamation expanded Manhattan, and that it hides clues to one of New York's oldest enigmas, which is linked to this year's 400th anniversary of the city's founding. Generations of U.S. and European researchers have attempted to locate a long-lost Dutch ship called the Tyger. It helped the Netherlands map America's northeast coast, and paved the way for New York's colonization by the Dutch, before it sank in 1613 roughly where the Twin Towers later stood. In the century after the Tyger disappeared, first the Dutch and then the British needed greater space to expand their Manhattan settlements. So they dumped dirt and garbage into the surrounding rivers, which created new land, and expanded lower Manhattan until buildings covered the location where the Tyger sank. Now the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is launching its first-ever major investigation to try to find out whether a shipwreck beneath Ground Zero, unearthed in 1916 during construction of a subway line, is indeed the Tyger. Its tests will focus on eight feet of ship keel and ribs unearthed in that dig, says Margaret Connors McQuade, MCNY Director of Collections. The earliest known map of New Amsterdam, circa 1639, showing Manhattan, Staten Island, Fort Amsterdam, Brooklyn, the Bronx, plantations, windmills, and Native American villages. Photograph by Everett Collection/Bridgeman Images To determine the age and origin of these timber artifacts, the museum's researchers may use tree species identification, analysis of chemical signatures in the wood, and examination of tree ring patterns. 'The quest to confirm the Tyger's identity is not just a scientific endeavor, it is a journey into the city's earliest days,' explains MCNY President Stephanie Hill Wilchfort. MCNY curatorial and collections staff will collaborate with outside experts in the fields of marine archeology and dendrochronology, including Martijn Manders, Founding Head of the Maritime Programme, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, and Marta Domínguez Delmás, Senior Researcher at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. How the Dutch came to control Manhattan New York as we know it may never have existed if not for the Tyger and its captain Adriaen Block, historians say. He mapped the area for the Dutch, and then in 1614 became the first European to settle what is now Manhattan, which at the time was inhabited by the Lenape tribe (whose language gave the island its present-day name). Yet Block is a curiously anonymous figure in New York. The city has no statue of him, only a bronze plaque at 45 Broadway, which details how Block built Manhattan's first European settlement on behalf of the Dutch. In the 1600s, at the time of Block's arrival, the Netherlands was a maritime superpower, competing with Spain, Portugal and Britain to 'discover' and colonize lands the world over. Spearheading its global expansion were captains like Block. Between 1611 and 1614, he led four voyages to the Hudson River region, which now encompasses New York City, says McQuade. Several of these expeditions were on board the Tyger. In the process, Block charted many waterways from New Jersey north to Cape Cod, including near Rhode Island's Block Island, which is named after him and has become a popular summer getaway. 'His cartographic work corrected key geographic misconceptions and laid the groundwork for future Dutch colonization in the region,' McQuade says. (Was Manhattan really sold to the Dutch for just $24?) Block also cataloged geography and natural resources, and this information convinced the Dutch that Manhattan was ripe for settlements. So, in 1614, Block came ashore at southern Manhattan and built four houses. This outpost grew over the course of several decades into New Amsterdam, part of a Dutch colony called New Netherland, which soon covered parts of what are now New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Delaware. It wasn't until 1664, when the English seized Manhattan, that New York became its name. Timbers thought to be from the Tyger, on display at the Marine Gallery. Photograph Courtesy Museum of the City of New York After losing the Tyger to fire, Captain Adriaen Block constructed the "Onrust" with the help of the Lenape, depicted up in an illustration for Old Times in the Colonies by Charles Carleton Coffin. Photograph by Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images By then the Dutch had already built Fort Amsterdam, next to what is now The Battery, under the leadership of colonial governor Peter Minuit. New York may not have been founded by the Dutch in the 1620s if not for Block, says Jaap Jacobs, Dutch historian and expert on Dutch exploration of North America. Thanks to Block's detailed charting of the waters surrounding New York, the Dutch were able to create maps which let them gain a monopoly on shipping in this area. 'Without this development, the subsequent colonization by the Dutch West India Company from 1623 onwards would have been much more difficult,' Jacobs says. 'It may not have yielded the same result: the founding of New Amsterdam, and New York, in the 1620s.' (Colonial New York was rowdy, filthy, smelly) Tyger, Tyger, burning bright But when Block settled Manhattan in 1614, he was not sailing the Tyger, because that ship had sunk a few months earlier, McQuade says. The Tyger vanished after it caught fire accidentally while anchored in seas roughly where Ground Zero now stands. Three centuries then passed without any sign of the vessel. Then, in 1916, charred shipwreck timber was unearthed during subway construction at the corner of Greenwich and Dey streets, which now adjoins Ground Zero. 'Along with the timbers, they uncovered a Dutch broad-headed axe, trade beads, clay pipes, a length of chain, a small canon, and shards of blue and white pottery,' McQuade says. (When Henry Hudson first looked on Manhattan, what did he see?) At the time, amateur historian James A. Kelly swiftly reported these findings to several museums. It is possible that more remnants from that shipwreck are still buried beneath Ground Zero. Because the damaged vessel was never properly excavated, only a section of its keel and ribs were saved, McQuade says. Those timber artifacts spent decades gathering dust, first at the New York Aquarium and then at MCNY. But in 1955, fresh research supported the theory those materials came from the Tyger, McQuade says. Radiocarbon dating by Columbia University traced the timber to between 1595 and 1635, while an iron bolt from the same shipwreck was found to have been made about 1600 using a European smelting process. All of which hinted that the remains unearthed at Ground Zero may be from the Tyger. Yet it did not amount to proof. This 1651 engraving by Kryn Fredericks, shows 'The Hartgers View', the earliest known depiction of New Amsterdam, as it appeared in the 1620s. Photograph by Lebrecht History/Bridgeman Images So during the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. university researchers made new attempts to identify this shipwreck. Rather than clarifying the matter, those investigations only deepened the Tyger's enigma. One analysis concluded the Tyger might not have burned fully, and its materials may have been salvaged to build Block's replacement ship. Other studies suggested those remains could have been stolen by looters during the 1900s. Or that they are sitting in a museum storage facility somewhere in the U.S. just waiting to be rediscovered. Now, however, the MCNY hopes it can solve this puzzle by testing the shipwreck remains uncovered in 1916, says McQuade. Although the museum has held these artifacts for eight decades, this will be its most comprehensive investigation into their origins. Previous studies of the timber did not utilize tree ring pattern analysis. Also called dendrochronology, this is one of several scientific tools which may be used during the MCNY study, says McQuade. Dendrochronology lets researchers determine when and where a piece of timber was cut. Species identification, meanwhile, can reveal the type of tree a piece of timber came from. And isotopic analysis, which is also being considered by MCNY, studies chemical signatures in the wood to pinpoint its geographic origin. This shipwreck investigation is the museum's landmark project to mark New York's 400th anniversary, explains Wilchfort. 'Depending on the findings, they could be used in multiple future installations, including our permanent exhibition, New York at Its Core, the city's largest interactive timeline,' she says. For now, however, the mystery persists of which ship—the Tyger? Or another unknown vessel?—lurked for centuries beneath what would become one of the busiest places on earth, just waiting to be discovered and deciphered.
Newsweek
25-06-2025
- Newsweek
US States Issued Drinking Water Warning
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Western U.S. is confronting a growing groundwater crisis exacerbated by factors such as rising temperatures and water demand. A legal expert is proposing multiple reforms to aid in the preservation of this essential resource. Why It Matters The U.S. Geological Survey notes that groundwater is the source of drinking water for about half of the total U.S. population and nearly all of the rural population. What To Know University of New Mexico law professor Warigia Bowman, who teaches water law, administrative law, natural resources and property, is suggesting that policymakers adopt stricter groundwater regulations. "We either make changes, or we run out of water. I would say the situation is dire, but it's fixable," Bowman said, in an interview published by "If we don't make changes by the end of the century, places will run out of groundwater. While not every aquifer will run out, many will." Bowman's recommendations, published in the Ohio State University Law Journal, center on four reforms intended to help preserve groundwater. A groundwater well stands in the Phoenix suburbs on June 9, 2023, in Queen Creek, Arizona. A groundwater well stands in the Phoenix suburbs on June 9, 2023, in Queen Creek, she urges refinement of the doctrine of "safe yield," which refers to the maximum volume of water that can be extracted from an aquifer without harmful impacts, per Bowman recommended redefining safe yield to include specific timeframes, making groundwater management more effective. She argued that vague terms like "over a period of time" lack clarity and should be replaced with defined intervals. "Timescales should be developed to connect measurement, planning, and reevaluation," Bowman wrote. "An annual time frame would be an excellent start, and longer time frames such as five years, a decade, or twenty-five years would allow water managers and scientists time to evaluate successful outcomes in aquifer management and adjust for changes in precipitation or miscalculations in withdrawal estimates." Second, she calls for the regulation of domestic and livestock wells, which in most western states are not always required to be metered. "The idea was that back in the day, people weren't going to use that much water, but in the absence of accurate measurement, water use from domestic and livestock wells could be overdrawn," she said, according to "It's possible someone could have one of these wells and use far more water than the Office of the State Engineer allows, and with an absence of meters, there's no way to enforce it." Third, she advocates for comprehensive metering of water withdrawals. "Monitoring, goal-setting, and auditing are critical components of any successful aquifer management program," she wrote in her research. "Both the federal and state government should give farmers incentives to meter. State water management bodies should use the data generated by metering to implement active monitoring of groundwater withdrawals throughout entire states." Lastly, Bowman highlighted that some states manage groundwater with a patchwork of rules—strict in certain areas but lax elsewhere—resulting in a multi-tiered system. Instead, Bowman argued, states should adopt more uniform and stringent regulations that apply consistently across all regions. What People Are Saying "Maybe farmers don't like metering, but they will like metering more than they like having no water," Bowman said, as reported by She also emphasized the need for behavioral change among producers: "A lot of land in the western United States maybe shouldn't be farmed." What Happens Next A separate, recent study found that increasing wastewater recycling to 40 percent in the Colorado River Basin could save around 900,000 acre-feet of water each year, which would be enough to supply nearly two million homes. The states that depend upon the Colorado River have also been in talks to establish new water-sharing agreements by 2026.
