Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog
  • Work in Progress
    • The Kirk Project >
      • Kirk 3D Models list
      • Kirk 3D Models embedded
      • Kirk 2D images >
        • Indiana
        • Kentucky
        • Michigan
        • Ontario
      • Kirk Project Datasets
    • Computational Modeling >
      • FN3D_V3
    • Radiocarbon Compilation
    • Fake Hercules Swords
    • Wild Carolina >
      • Plants >
        • Mosses
        • Ferns
        • Conifers
        • Flowering Plants >
          • Grasses
          • Trees
          • Other Flowering Plants
      • Animals >
        • Birds
        • Mammals
        • Crustaceans
        • Insects
        • Arachnids
        • Millipedes and Centipedes
        • Reptiles and Amphibians
      • Fungi
  • Annotated Publications
    • Journal Articles
    • Technical Reports
    • Doctoral Dissertation
  • Bibliography
  • Data

Metallurgical Analysis of Nova Scotia Sword Confirms Modern Production Age

1/20/2016

17 Comments

 
Well that was fun!

The observations and analysis of the "Roman sword" from Nova Scotia shown on The Curse of Oak Island last night confirmed what most of us here suspected: the sword was made in the recent past (not during the Roman empire).  
PictureImage of the metal composition results of the Nova Scotia sword shown on "The Curse of Oak Island" last night.
Dr. Myles McCallum pointed out that the evidence of heavy mold lines (and their inexact reduction through quick grinding/filing) were much more consistent with an item produced for the modern tourist trade than as an ancient Imperial gift.

And Dr. Christa Brosseau gave us an analysis of the composition of the metal used to make the sword: brass produced sometime after 1880. The key is the high percentage of zinc. While the Romans made some brass, the methods they used to do so resulted in levels of zinc less than 28%. The 35% zinc in the Nova Scotia sword is consistent with manufacture in the late 1800's, not ancient Rome. 

McCallum's and Brosseau's observations are in-line with everything else we now know about these swords (these many, many, many more swords than were known to exist when they got to look at the Nova Scotia sword).  As I wrote yesterday prior to the show, that kind of concordance among independent analyses should give you confidence that this myth of the "Roman sword from Nova Scotia" is busted. It's been busted two different ways now, by two different groups, using two different lines of inquiry. It's history.

But, as I also wrote last night, the main proponent of the sword isn't going to give up. Immediately after the conclusion of the program last night, J. Hutton Pulitzer  posted a short video clip expressing dismay that Brosseau's results did not match his. He more-or-less implied that there was something sinister going on -- "Why would they even do that?  Why would they try to date it to an 1880 item?" He doubled down on his dismissal of Brosseau's results in another video later that night and on Facebook, declaring

"their stats are nowhere near the actual set test. At all and she was bright red delivering the test results. Somethings a miss."

I'll tell you what's really "a miss:" any hope that Pulitzer can regain his credibility after this debacle.

Given that he's clearly shown that he's willing to lie about evidence related to the sword and has yet to provide us with an accounting of his own results or the methods he used to obtain them, there's no reason to believe any of Pulitzer's assertions about the Nova Scotia sword or the data he claims to have obtained from it. He has given us no reason to believe he understands the methods, theory, and practice of metals testing technology. Had he released and explained his information when he made his original claim about the "100 percent confirmed" Roman sword instead of just making grandiose assertions and doing a lot of arm waving and threatening, he wouldn't be in this position now.

Although there's no reason to take seriously his plea that all the "authentic" swords should be bought together and evaluated simultaneously, I'm glad he made it. He has called his own bluff on the existence of the elusive "sword in the Naples Museum." Where is it? Have you already seen it or not? I thought you said you already examined it?

The funny thing is that even if it were possible to line up and test all these "authentic" swords (some of which may not even exist), there's no reason to think ANY of them is authentic to begin with.  What happens if you get matching metallic composition data from four swords?  On what basis are you calling any of them "authentic" at this point? Where's your control?  What about all these other "ancient Roman artifacts" you claim to have compared your results to?  The lack of systematic thinking is ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong: I would love to have data from all of these swords because it will help solve the interesting historical mystery of when and where they were made. I plan on getting my own data from the California sword and the Italian eBay sword. And I look forward to seeing Pulitzer's data on the Nova Scotia sword, which he promised to release today. Hopefully he will provide enough detail so that we'll know exactly what he did and why there might be a discrepancy between his results and Brosseau's (hint: simply saying "trust me - I know what I'm doing and she doesn't" isn't going to cut it).

Oh, and if he tries to attribute the discrepancy in the results to the fact that Brosseau's sample came from the blade while he "tested" the hilt, you can flush that one down the Commodus before you even get started. The comparison of blade anomalies shows that many of these swords have the same set of casting defects in the blades - those blades are all original and the swords were made in one piece.

I've invited McCallum to use my blog if he wants to tell us anything additional about the sword and/or his experience on the show. I extend the same invitation to Brosseau. I hope it's possible to get a more complete breakdown of the methods and results of her analysis than was presented in summary form on the program last night.

Rather than #Swordgate winding down, it looks like we may just be starting the third act.


Update (1/20/2016): Myles McCallum has given me permission to publish a list of his observations about the sword.

Update (1/25/2016): Here is Christa Brosseau's summary of the analyses she performed on the Nova Scotia sword.
17 Comments
Mike Jones
1/20/2016 05:46:47 am

Remember when the internet community came together and applied a new definition to the word "Santorum"? Anyone see the movie "Kingpin"? I'd like to suggest two new slang terms. "Philyaw" now means a person who makes fantastic historical claims with no supporting evidence, as in "that guy Wolter is a total Phllyaw". The next term I'd like to suggest is "Lagina". This is a person who pays way too much money for an obviously fake artifact. You can also use this form, to get "Laginaed", like "Oh man, I bought this ancient tablet from Burrows Cave but I got totally Laginaed".[note: not sure of the spelling of this verb form...Laginaed, Laginad, Laginafied, Laginated,?}

Reply
James Lawrence
1/20/2016 06:13:14 am

Personally I like "Laginated"...but they all work for me! LOL

"Dude, you were totally Laginated on that purchase!". :)

How about "Why did you let someone Philyaw head full of nonsense"?

Reply
Andy White
1/20/2016 06:14:07 am

You know it's all over when the puns come out.

Commodus
1/21/2016 09:31:03 am

Andy, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Hutton and his team dropped a massive bombshell today, and we are told its the first of many more to come: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17lkdqoLt44

Reply
Jonathan Feinstein
1/22/2016 04:40:10 am

I'm waiting for Pulitzer to claim the "Money Pit" is actually the caldarium from an authentic Roman bath. Well, maybe not. The water is cold, so maybe it's the frigidarium...

Mike Jones
1/20/2016 06:25:18 am

"Somethings a miss". For instance, my theory.

Reply
Mike Morgan
1/20/2016 06:27:27 am

In the after show, they had Dr. Christa Brosseau in a longer segment than in the show allowing her to expand on her findings. And she also found the patina wanting, commenting that it was much to "uniform" or some similar comment, that something truly old would not have such uniformity.

I have COPD and I for one will not be holding my breath waiting for Pulitzer to actually provide "real" test results. He did just say he would release the results - that could mean he could just verbalize them again, or provide a non-verifiable chart or paper, or .... And I am still wondering why HE has this information and not the owners of the MOAFHS.

Reply
Killbuck
1/20/2016 07:13:52 am

The patina caught my eye, as I had earlier posted about. It is oddly uniform both in its distribution across the piece, consistent color and the lack of pitting and variation you might expect from an object that spent some 1500 years in salt water.

It would indeed be very interesting if Dr. Myles McCallum and Dr. Christa Brosseau should decide to participate in the discussion and provide further insights from their inspections.

Reply
Andy White
1/20/2016 07:19:52 am

McCallum's comments: http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/comments-of-myles-mccallum-about-the-nova-scotia-sword

Andy White
1/20/2016 07:39:55 am

We still don't have the MOAFHS. The Nova Scotia sword is from the "J blade" generation of FHS.

Reply
Mike Morgan
1/20/2016 07:47:08 am

Andy, you said above, "He has called his own bluff on the existence of the elusive "sword in the Naples Museum." Where is it? Have you already seen it or not? I thought you said you already examined it?"

We know liars often get confused by all their twisting and turning about what they say/said or wrote and Pulitzer is no exception. I was just over at his blog "How can a sword cut history?" of 12/22/2015 @ https://medium.com/@InvestigatingHistory.org/how-can-a-sword-cut-history-2b7cca649a49#.fv4bz78kh researching something for another comment, and see that there he states "One is known to be in a private collection in Florida and it is a perfect litmus test for the Oak Island Roman sword. Others are said to be in a private museum in the Netherlands and a museum in Naples."

Others are SAID. Obviously, he has no clue as to what "museum in Naples.", if any, the sword is in and most certainly never saw or touched it. All hearsay.

He says that he records all his conversations in order to protect himself from misrepresentations or other nefarious actions against him by others.

A word of advice, Mr. Pulitzer, listen to your recordings and reread what you have written BEFORE you open your mouth or take fingers to the keyboard, you may avoid getting tangled in your own web of lies.

Or better yet, but I doubt that you can, Mr. Pulitzer, just speak or write the truth, the truth is always consistent.

Reply
Jay Kahlil
1/20/2016 07:02:09 pm

It's totally ridiculous... I was watching one of his "Periscope" videos from a few days ago where a viewer was asking him the same questions about the supposed Naples museum sword live during the broadcast, and he just wouldn't answer. At first he went on a tangent about the IQ of people asking questions like that, and when pressed about the EXACT museum, the best answer he would give is that the info could be found in the [Facebook] "group."

It's like when he's confronted with his own half-truths (or blatant lies), he reverts to this defensive, childish stance in which he claims he's being attacked or discredited by idiots. He even spoke about how his family are rednecks and could have been extras in the movie "Deliverance" (either that or he was saying they REALLY were extras in the movie), so he's used to dealing with dumb people and knows how to talk to them.

It's just so disgraceful. I don't know what else to say or how to describe the situation, because on one hand you want to give him the opportunity to admit he was wrong, for the interest of furthering real science and good methodology... But on the other hand, he can be such a condescending little prick -- especially when confronted -- that it makes your blood boil.

Someone needs to ask him about the production defects that are visible in the Nova Scotia sword as well as the known reproductions, but something tells me he's the kind of person who won't entertain common sense if it threatens his worldview...

Reply
Killbuck
1/20/2016 10:24:10 pm

Oh the places you will go.

I've learned so many new things as a result of this, it's quite delightful.

Earlier today i did some learning up about how XRF works, and it's fascinating. I learned there are different types of XRF devices, lower power hand held types often looking a bit like the Name Your Price Tool from the Progressive Insurance commercials, to huge powerful lab models.

It appears from my casual musings, that hand held XRF tools are best as survey devices, to do quick analysis, where upon more powerful devices can then be used on samples for more detailed examination.

Is my understanding here right?

Reply
Mike Morgan
1/20/2016 11:40:42 pm

Finally, some information concerning the publishing of that elusive "white paper" being put out by Pulitzer and his band of "PhD's and Academics". To the question posted on his Facebook group, he answers in his endearing style.

"Well, prove it by bringing out that white paper and letting people see it.

Hutton Pulitzer: do you for some reason think we are with holding the white paper? If so you are misinformed and most likley in the wrong group

Hutton Pulitzer: seeing as you are brand new to this group, you may not be well informed. So since you are barely two weeks old here. everyone knows the white paper gets published late spring and is a magazine cover story March. Are you sure you want to be in this SUPPORTING group here? Demanding the white paper on FB does not change the set professional time line. Please advise"

My bookie, ... uh, er .. I mean a friend of a friend who is a mathematical probabilities prognosticator, is forecasting odds of 110 to 1, that the "white paper" is not going to be published in the "American Journal of Archaeology" or any other respected publication. Even money on it being published in that prestigious standard for bring us the "prehistory of the American Continent", Wayne May's "Ancient American" magazine.

Reply
Trevor Kenchington
1/21/2016 05:25:34 pm

A "white paper" is a form of discussion paper put out by a government, though the term has been picked up of late by the business community. The AJA and other academic journals publish "research papers" (commonly called just "papers"), not "white papers". If Pultizer had the slightest chance of getting his words into such a journal, he would know that. He would know it if he had the competence to put out a private magazine that masqueraded as a research journal.

As it is, it seems that he does not understand the difference between the two kinds of papers (white and research), though it may be that he just doesn't care. He's playing to an audience as ignorant as he portrays himself to be.

Reply
Mike Jones
1/21/2016 06:32:38 am

Mike Morgan, I think you called it first on the Wayne May's "Ancient American" magazine prediction and will be proven correct, that is, if a "white paper" ever comes out, at all.

Reply
Geoffrey Sea
8/27/2016 02:11:19 pm

Oh come on. If not this sword, the race of white giants in North America had to be using something! Connect the dots! LOL

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Follow me on Twitter: @Andrew_A_White

    Email me: andy.white.zpm@gmail.com

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly