#32-Cowrie Shell Necklace - Avondale Market

Cowrie shells were used for hundreds of years as money all over the world.

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Welcome!

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Welcome from the Professor of Garbology! This is my blog associated with the Browns Bay Library's "Unbelieveable" theme for the October school holidays. Below are some of the weird and wonderful objects from my collection of items found on beaches, in the trash and at junk stores, as well as on my youthful travels around the globe. On display in this picture are some Moa "relics" - two large bones and an enormous egg.
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#29-Crown Jewels Book - Hospice Shop

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Featuring excellent photographs and descriptions of the Crown Jewels. Crown Jewels Stolen! Colonel Thomas Blood, a known conspirator, made an infamous but unsuccessful attempt to steal the British Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671. Disguised as a clergyman, Blood and his gang swiped the royal regalia from under the nose of their keeper, but they were captured as they made their escape through the capital. Blood was mysteriously pardoned by the king, and the regalia, although a little bashed, was given a much more secure home. Read more: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1953/colonel-blood--the-theft-of-the-crown-jewels/  More on the jewels in the Tower of London: https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/the-crown-jewels/#gs.dkd9ao More on the Tower of London, including The Bloody Tower: https://www.planetware.com/london/tower-of-london-eng-l-tl.htm   
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#2-Ventifact - Taranaki - gifted by a geologist

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A ventifact is a rock that has been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals. Wikipedia  Stones that have been sculpted and polished by long-term exposure to abrasive wind-driven sands are called ventifacts—from the Latin “make by wind”. Ventifacts are commonly mistaken for the artefacts of stone-age people, and indeed this piece resembles a knapped spear-point. Extraterrestrial origins have also been suggested: ie that such items are a form of meteorite. Although this piece was found in Taranaki, this type of stone is from the South Island and may have been transported to the North Island during past glacial periods, over 20,000 years ago. During these times of lower sea level, the North and South Islands were joined between Nelson and Taranaki by a land bridge - and gravel from the South Island is thought to have drifted northward up that now-severed coastline. Oddly, Sea Lions provide another way in which such “exotics” can be transported...
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