Most of the time securing the body of a dead monarch was of the utmost importance to confer legitimacy on the succeeding monarch, but there were scenarios when a monarch disappeared during a battle or was taken into captivity and never seen again.

For one example, the Roman Emperor, Valerian, was taken captive after the Battle of Edessa and disappeared into Persian captivity, never to be seen alive again. The same thing happened a little less than a thousand years later when Baudouin IX, count of Flanders and Hainaut and Latin emperor of Constantinople, was captured by the Bulgarians after the Battle of Adrianople in 1205 and disappeared into Bulgarian captivity, never to be seen alive again.

In both cases, the result was panic and confusion. Valerian's capture reignited the Crisis of the Third Century and caused the temporary breakup of the Roman Empire. Baudouin, on the other hand, was quickly replaced as emperor by his brother, Henri, while his young daughter, Jehanne, became countess of Flanders and Hainaut, though her rights were often challenged as there was more doubt that her father was actually dead. In 1225, a Burgundian serf named Bertrand took advantage of the confusion to claim that he was actually Baudouin and became involved in revolts of nobility and peasants alike against Jehanne. He was, however, eventually unmasked as an imposter by Jehanne's cousin, Louis VIII of France, and executed.

Earlier in history, even though there was a body, there were rumors that Roman emperor Nero wasn't actually dead and would return one day. There were no less than three Nero imposters, even as late as the 5th century.

More famously, the lack of a body allowed Perkin Warbeck to masquerade as Richard of Shrewsbury and earlier, during the Third Crusade, John of England tried to take advantage of his brother Richard's long disappearance to seize the throne, but he achieved little support and Richard later turned up as a prisoner in Germany.

In those days (and even as recent as a few generations ago in the US) a coin was roughly equal to the value of the metal that it was made from, so it didn't really matter which country's name was stamped on it.

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> they are reuploading the episodes with much improved subtitles.

Wait so that's why I keep seeing the episodes get constantly reuploaded? I thought they just did that for "visibility" or "exposure" or whatever reason. 😅

I guess that means I'll be rewatching!

They are updating the translations, they are reuploading the episodes with much improved subtitles.

Interesting to think about other cultures that may have done the same, not just the Vikings. Come to think of it, I also have euros laying around at home too!

Did the subjects just have to 1) take their word for it, 2) have no choice in the matter, or 3) not care because they couldn't do anything about it when some claimant to a throne declared the previous kind dead with no proof of said death when that king was away at war or somewhere?

What was the intent of the lawmakers there? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

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Ah yeah, I guess I just meant on your own property. Not going after historical areas

In defense of America's Stonehenge, I don't know of anyone calling it that before the 2020's, they were called the Georgia guide stones for most of their existence and no one claimed them to be ancient, we know when they were built, and we kind of know who built it.

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A lot of archaeologists dislike American amateurs as well, they don't often document the provenance of a find so they lose much of the historical context.

It is one thing to go scavenge lost watches at the beach, but when it comes to people digging up colonial and pre-colonial artefacts it can be damaging.

Wow really? That's like a hobby here in the us, my neighbor also uses a metal detector to clean up metal on an old neglected property he bought too. It's fun!

Oh I didn't know this! Thanks for letting me know.

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I don't think you understand how coins worked back then.

They weren't using currency like we do nowdays, because to the extent that currency was used it was as a convenient way of exchanging precious metals. A mint would put their reputation into guaranteeing that coin had a certain metal purity. Silver would then have been exchanged by the weight of the coins, not by number (some places like attican greece had, for convenience, standardized coin weight).

While a coin with an unknown stamp (and as such an unknown silver purity) would have been slightly harder to spend major markets (and many merchants) would have been qualified to assay coins. Either using a touchstone or through fire assay.

Like the Cheetos that guys ancestor buried?

America's Stonehenge.

If you find treasure containing valuable metal, you get the value of the metal.

But the idea is also to let things remain in the ground for the future, when new methods may be available.

Interesting. In Keene, NH there are legends of a Spanish gold mine. . There are even locations on maps.

Unfortunately Sweden has pretty much nuked amateur metal detecting which will heavily reduce the number of finds. You're not even able to detect on your own property. Unlike the UK, who actively promote it and generously reward any significant finds. People are more likely to now melt a find down since they would receive little reward for turning it in, and there's the possibility of being fined depending on the circumstanes of the discovery. The worst part is that these laws only impact folks who love history and want to report their finds and have no impact on nighthawks since they will be detecting and stealing regardless.

They have not. There is too much to properly excavate. We do not excavate unless there is a specific research question we want to answer, or if the site is going to be destroyed by buildings, roads etc. Remember that technology and excavation techniques are improving over time while excavation is a destructive process so we want to leave sites untouched for future scientists as well. This is one reason why metal detector use is regulated as well. /Swedish anthropologist