On the provenance of a historic sledge shoe fragment, said to have been collected by Edward Wilson at the South Pole in 1912

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20965496
AutoresSophie Rowe (0000-0001-6693-2394, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen53
Número4
Páginas413-426
Fecha de publicación2017-07-01
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPolar Record (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0032-2474 • E-ISSN: 1475-3057
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0032247417000365
OpenAlexW2742648973
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas10

This paper discusses the authentication of a metal sledge shoe fragment, believed by the owner to have been collected by Edward Wilson close to the South Pole on 18 January 1912. Microscopic and elemental analysis show that the object is made from ‘German silver’, a copper alloy used only on Norwegian Nansen-style sledges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and that it was used to clad a tapering sledge runner end about 10 mm thick. By comparing related objects, including sledges used by Amundsen and Scott in their South Pole journeys and a sledge from the Discovery Expedition, we show that the object cannot have come from an English sledge, but would have fitted one of Amundsen's modified sledges. Written sources have been extensively searched, but no direct written provenance for the object exists. However, contemporary Norwegian and British accounts explain specific features of the object and exclude other possible provenances. We conclude that it is most likely that the proposed provenance and history attached to this artefact are correct

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Fragment (logic) · German · Linguistics · Norwegian · Object (grammar) · Provenance · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Cryospheric studies and observations · Geology · History · Paleontology · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Polar Research and Ecology