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Sap is STILL one step ahead of us, and he's probably never been there!
Nope. Had some friends who've been there, but I've never been anywhere in the Middle East... or Asia, Africa or Europe, for that matter. Though that will change later this year when I'm off to Turkey.
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I was walking along a beach in Marseille, France when I found this just in about a foot of water. Does anyone have idea how old it might be, or what kind of metal it might be made from? It's too hard for lead.
It is, as I said, "modern". Petra was rediscovered by the West in 1812, it certainly cannot be older than that. "Later half of the 20th century" is probably as accurate a date as can be supplied and even that may not be accurate if they're still making them for sale to tourists today.
As for what it's made of, you're probably in a better position to judge than us. It looks grey-brown in colour from the photos you've given. If it's bronze or some similar base-metal, then it certainly wasn't sitting there under seawater for very long at all. If it's "hard", then it might not even be metal at all, but rather some sort of ceramic.
As for why a Jordanian souvenir is on the beach in the south of France, well... both places are tourist traps; presumably a tourist who had first been to Petra had lost it. How, we can only speculate on. Perhaps it was part of a necklace which fell apart in the water while its owner went swimming. Perhaps a small child found it amongst the other tourist souvenirs in the beach bag and used it as a skipping stone before the parents could stop them.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 07/13/2014 6:15 pm
