Archaeologists Searched a Farmer's Field—and Found a 600-Year-Old Depiction of a Martyred Saint
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
A 600-year-old brass seal found in a farmer's field features an image of St. Catherine of Alexandria.
The depiction is chock full of symbolism, and includes items that show she was martyred.
Archaeologists believe that the 14th-century item was a seal for a church parish.
St. Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of a church in the Braniewo region of Poland, served a key function as a symbolic figure for both the church and a centuries-old cavalry unit. A recent find in a Polish farmer's field—a 600-year-old brass seal depicting St. Catherine—helps highlight that storied importance. The brass piece, which has been identified as a seal for the church in a translated statement from private archaeological firm Pogotowie Archeologiczne, is dated to the 14th century.
The surprisingly well-preserved seal is flat on one side, with an image of St. Catherine dominating the center. She's shown holding a sword and circle, which symbolize her death as a martyr. The engraved image is encircled with Gothic writing, and the back side of the seal has a raised edge with a hole, which would have allowed the seal to be tied onto another object.
Tomasz Kaluski of the University of Silesia, who has studied the find, said in a statement that is is interesting to locate an artifact of this kind, as parish seals from the Middle Ages are rarely preserved. He noted that the seal would have been used by an entire parish rather than a specific village rector, and considers the find to be one of significant importance.
The image of a crowned St. Catherine is the same image depicted in a well-known painting by Jan Matejko titled 'The Battle of Grunwald.' That painting features Polish and Lithuanian soldiers fighting side-by-side against a Middle Eastern religious order known as the Knights of the Teutonic Order, in what has been described by historians as a decisive battle in the order's expansion.
Historians believe that the image of St. Catherine found on the seal would also have been used by fighters from the Braniewo region on banners during that battle.
'Imagine life in the Middle Ages, in the 14th century Braniewo, the capital of Warmia at that time,' Adrian Klos, co-founder of Pogotowie Archeologiczne (the firm that recovered the seal), said in a statement. 'The mentioned seal was used by the Bishopric of Braniewo, which in 1410 exhibited its own cavalry at the battle of Grunwald, which is immortalized on the famous painting by Matejka.'
How a brass seal from a 14th-century parish ended up in a random field is a complete mystery, however. 'We know that the seal was found in a plough in Iózefów near Braniewo,' archaeologist Robert Wyrostkiewicz said in a statement. 'The seal could have been abandoned, hidden, or lost. Without the archaeological context it is impossible to determine.'
The Braniewo Land Museum is already displaying the artifact in its main hall, and is now 'one of the most important artifacts in our museum.'
You Might Also Like
The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape
The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere
Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Every Morning Rooster Does One Thing Guaranteed To Send Dog Into 'A Frenzy'
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. A rooster in Florida has found the perfect way to troll his owner's dog each and every morning without fail. Footage of Bob the rooster's surefire technique for ensuring Kristin's dog, Scrappy Doo, more than lives up to his name was captured on a Ring camera device, with the video later shared with Newsweek. Kristin, who only gave her first name, lives with Scrappy Doo, Bob and the rest of his chicken flock in Callahan, told Ring: "Every morning, our rooster Bob struts up to the Ring camera to trigger an Alexa alert that sends our dog Scrappy Doo into a frenzy, only to find Bob and his chicken crew menacingly staring through the glass, laughing." Dogs rank among the most naturally friendly animal species, but that wasn't always the case. A rooster has found a unique way to troll his owner's dog. A rooster has found a unique way to troll his owner's dog. Ring In 2017, a study in the journal Science Advances concluded this friendliness may have been a result of genetic changes over an extended period of time. Researchers reached that conclusion following a study comparing the behavior of domestic dogs and grey wolves, which canines evolved from tens of thousands of years ago. The tests centered on problem-solving and sociability, throwing up some interesting results. While the wolves were better at problem solving and an experiment involving the retrieval of sausage pieces from a lunchbox, canines were much friendlier to humans, compared to wolves who were seen as more aloof. DNA tests conducted as part of the study also identified a potential link between genetic changes and improvements in social behavior. But while dogs might be friendly enough, Bob, who is a 2-and-a-half-year-old who is a mix of Polish and Aseel chickens, appears to relish his role as chief antagonizer around the house. "This taunting and harassment has been occurring for over 2 years now," Kristin said. "Bob also encourages our chickens, Karen, Flo, Eunice, and Matilda to participate." Kristin does her best to try and put a stop to the harassment. "I still tell Bob to stop being naughty through the Two-Way Talk feature," she said. Kristin also makes a point of speaking to Bob directly through the camera saying: "Good morning, and to leave Scrappy alone and stop being naughty" Unfortunately for both Scrappy Doo, and Kristin, Bob's behavior shows no signs of abating, which is a shame, given the number of sweet relationships between dogs and feathered friends that have previously been caught on camera. There was the golden retriever filmed enjoying a little playtime with his owner's chickens in what has become a regular occurrence. Then there was the dog who went viral after somehow convincing a rooster and a flock of chickens to come home with him from an outdoor adventure. On a similar note, in July last year a farm dog struck up the most unusual of friendships with a fawn, sparking delight in the process. Given these examples and many more besides. Kristin may not have given up hope of Bob and Scrappy Doo bonding quite yet.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scientists Just Discovered a New Type of Magnetism
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Researchers have found a way to merge the properties of ferromagnetic materials (whose atoms spin in the same direction) and antiferromagnetic materials (whose atoms spin in opposite directions and cancel out magnetism). By applying just a small voltage, they were able to switch the direction in which the atoms of nickel iodide, an antiferromagnetic material, were spinning. The ability to manipulate the spins of atoms could allow for the development of computer chips whose storage is based on spin rather than charge, allowing for much more space and longevity. Magnetism can be a strange and powerful force. In an almost supernatural way, magnets stick to surfaces with no adhesives, which is why games like Etch-a-Sketch and Operation have fascinated generations of kids. Most of what we see every day is ferromagnetism (think refrigerator magnets), the phenomenon describing how metals like iron and nickel are magnetized in a magnetic field and thus adhere to certain surfaces. There are also paramagnetic materials, like aluminum, which have a weak and almost unnoticeable attraction to magnets. There's even antiferromagnetism—a type of magnetism in which magnetic atoms or ions in a material cancel their magnetism out if they end up next to each other. And then there is a magnetism that is none of the above. By merging properties of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials, MIT physicists created a new kind magnetism that may someday revolutionize the memory chips that store data in laptops and smartphones. It's called 'p-wave magnetism,' and it makes use of the spin of atoms in a material rather than their charge to create magnetic properties. '[This discovery] opens new opportunities for developing ultrafast, energy-efficient and high-endurance antiferromagnetic spintronic devices,' the researchers said in a study recently published in Nature. The find is particularly huge for the field of spintronics. It might sound like a DJ spinning tracks on an alien planet—and, to be fair, it's almost as far out—but it's actually a scientific discipline centered around manipulating the spins of atoms in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials. Atoms in ferromagnets are known to spin in the same direction, and as these atoms spin, so do their electrons. Those electrons, spinning furiously around their nuclei, generate magnetic fields that cause ferromagnets stick to some metals. On the other hand, neighboring atoms in antiferromagnets have opposite spins, which means the electrons generating their magnetic fields are spinning in opposite directions. Antiferromagnets do not show visible magnetization, because the spins of their electrons and atoms cancel each other out—but the MIT team found a way around that. They synthesized nickel iodide (NiI2) in a lab and observed the behavior of the electrons in its atoms. Like a ferromagnet, the electrons did have one spin orientation they preferred, and like an antiferromagnet, there were enough electrons spinning in the opposite direction to cancel out magnetism. But there was something more. It turned out that nickel atoms form spiral patterns that mirror each other, which made it possible to manipulate the spins of those atoms with a voltage. This caused some atoms to switch their spiral path from spinning left to right, and vice versa, turning the material into a p-wave magnet. And the electrons had their spins switched right along with the atoms as a whole in the same direction of that voltage. This is how spintronics could seriously level up computer chips. With data taking the form of an electron's spin rather than its charge, it leaves much more space for storage. Spintronics could mean chips able to store amounts of information orders of magnitude greater than anything currently available. 'The reported results represent the first observation of an electrically-switchable unconventional [opposite direction] magnet,' the researchers said. 'These findings open a new frontier to realize symmetry-protected voltage-based switching of non-relativistic spin polarization in a compensated magnet.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mathematicians Are Getting Closer to Translating an ‘Alien Language'
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: First proposed in 2012, the Inter-universal Teichmüller Theory (IUT) is a devilishly difficult math theory that experts describe as an 'alien language.' Although only a few mathematicians around the world understand any small portion of IUT, a 28-year-old tech worker recently made significant gains toward decoding the theory. This could help make progress in understanding math enigmas like the ABC Conjecture and Fermat's Last Theorem. It's likely that you won't understand any of the mathematics in this article, but you'd be in good company—most mathematicians don't understand it, either. That's because we're talking about the famously difficult Inter-universal Teichmüller Theory (IUT), first proposed across 2,000 pages in 2012 by Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki and vigorously debated in the 13 years since: is it a revolutionary way of understanding mathematics or a complete waste of time? The best way to think about IUT is that it's a completely novel understanding of mathematics that makes a drastic departure from the theorems taught in universities around the world. According to mathematics expert Kato Fumimot, speaking to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the theory is almost an otherworldly creation. 'Imagine an alien coming to Earth who can only speak an extraterrestrial language,' Fumimot told the SCMP. 'If he were to give a speech in front of a large group of Earthlings, surely no one would understand what he is saying, and no matter how many times he repeats it, there would be no progress.' Whole branches of mathematics have been set up to try to interpret the secrets of IUT. According to some estimates, only two dozen or so mathematicians in the world can even begin to understand this mysterious language. However, it seems that a promising new mathematician may have recently been added to their number. Zhou Zhongpeng isn't a learned professor or noted mathematician, but a former doctoral student turned tech worker—one that happens to be obsessed with learning IUT. After decoding key elements of IUT and proposing novel refinements and explanations of the ABC conjecture, he sent his work—uploaded to the preprint server arXiv—to the theory's creator, Mochizuki, and Ivan Fesenko, one of the few mathematicians who has made some headway in understanding IUT. According to SCMP and Interesting Engineering, Fesenko immediately reached out to Zhou and told him to fly to his campus in Westlake University in China. Zhou promptly quit his tech job and began working with Fesenko. If mathematicians at large are ever able to truly learn IUT, they could be able to find more efficient solutions to some of the field's most devilish problems. Take, for example, Fermat's Last Theorem. Formulated in 1637 and named after French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, the theorem states that no three positive integers (a, b, and c) can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn where 'n' is greater than two. Although this seems simple, it took more than 350 years to prove it, and the solution ran 130 pages long. Zhou's work could solve such a theorem in fewer steps and also prove useful for other mathematical enigmas. For now, IUT remains a mostly an 'alien language.' And because so many of the theory's adherents live in Japan, New Scientist says that, effectively, the proof is only true in that country. Only time will tell whether that claim spreads to eventually envelop the world. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
