The Guilden Morden boar is a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in the village of Guilden Morden in Cambridgeshire. Herbert George Fordham, whose father discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum in 1904, where it is now displayed. It is simply designed, with a prominent mane; eyes, eyebrows, nostrils and tusks are only faintly present. A pin and socket design formed by the front and hind legs suggests that the boar was mounted on another object, such as a helmet. Boar-crested helmets are a staple of Anglo-Saxon imagery, evidence of a Germanic tradition in which the boar invoked the protection of the gods. They may have been common, and in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, boar-adorned helmets are mentioned five times. The Guilden Morden boar is one of three known to have survived to the present, together with the ones on helmets from Benty Grange and Wollaston.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilden_Morden_boar
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
South Carolina became the first of eleven slave states to secede from the United States, leading to the eventual creation of the Confederate States of America and later the American Civil War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America
1951:
Experimental Breeder Reactor I near Arco, Idaho, United States, became the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I
1987:
The deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history occurred when the MV Doña Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker on the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, resulting in an estimated 4,000 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Do%C3%B1a_Paz
1995:
As per the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led IFOR began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation_Force
2007:
Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art and recovered about three weeks later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Suzanne_Bloch
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
Shangri-La: A place of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Shangri-La
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר חֲנֻכָּה. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by His commandments, and has commanded us to kindle the lights of Hanukkah. --Hanukkah https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hanukkah