for a fee, i’m happy to be your backdoor man (13. 817)

As our faithful chronicler reminds, AC/DC released their third studio album on this day in 1976, the title track being an advertisement for a hitman who will help clients solve their problems, ranging from lecherous bosses and teachers to unfaithful partners, at low costs with services including concrete shoes, cyanide poisoning, electrocution and explosives—TNT and High Voltage referencing tracks from their previous albums. The name of the song is an homage to the cartoon Beany and Cecil—Angus Young was a young fan of the 1960s show—with the villain character Dishonest John (mostly referred to by his initials) handing out a business card reading, “Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Special rates for Sundays and holidays.” Other minor baddies but recurring characters from the series include Go Man Van Gogh (voiced by Scatman Crothers) as a stereotypical beatnik, Jacques the Knife, a jazz singing sawfish with a heavy French accent, and Rin Tin Can, a robot dog, whom all deserve to be the backstory of a hardrock anthem in our opinion. The record was certified Platinum six times over but still ranks third among the Australian band’s work with Highway to Hell and Back in Black selling more copies. In 1981, a household in Libertyville Illinois filed lawsuit against the record label for a quarter of a million dollars, claiming distress caused by crank calls for their phone number inclusion in the song lyrics, 36-24-36 followed by a “hey!” which could be interpreted as eight. What the heck, DJ! You dirty guy!

radar-lock (13. 812)

Described as one of the more credible incidents in ufologists due to the level or documentation and the number and professional status of witnesses of the close encounter, on this day in 1976 many civilians and military personnel record visual and radar sightings of an unidentified flying object over Tehran. Dispatched to investigate, a pair of Imperial Persian Airforce F-4 Phantom II interceptors registered a loss of instrumentation and communication upon approaching the illumination, bar-like in shape and with small red, green and blue lights circling the midsection, moving at an relative speed of over Mach 2, which was restored after withdrawing. The crew were interviewed following the incident with the report provided to the US airforce, the Pahlavi government retaining close defence ties with the American government, eager to monitor potential Soviet incursions, until its overthrow in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution. Contemporary analysis by the US Defence Intelligence Agency rather paternally described the report as an exemplary classic and meeting all the criteria for further study, though critics argued that the pilots were likely chasing an astronomical body, probably Jupiter or a meteor shower, and the American supplied Westinghouse jets were notorious for such electronic equipment failures. The scrambling of aircraft was the subject of an Iranian film as well as featured on the 1990s US series Sightings, covering news of the paranormal.

public law 94-412 (13.792)

Signed into law on this day in 1976 by US president Gerald Ford, the National Emergencies Act was a legal mechanism to declare an end to all previous national emergencies and to formalise and contain the crisis powers of the executive. Terminations included the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 (regarding the hoarding of gold) declared by FDR during the Great Depression, a 1950 mobilisation by Truman during the Korean War and more recently from Nixon during a postal workers strike and inflation fears. Whilst empowering the president to activate special powers during certain exigencies for a period of not to exceed two years, congress reserving the right to evaluate and through a joint-resolution end a national emergency declared by the president after six months. Of the four dozen national emergencies declared since 1976, most have been the recent restrictions on trade with foreign entities under IEEPA, the oldest still on the books, renewed biannually is from Jimmy Carter, freezing Iranian government property and assets from November 1979.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an aquaponics installation (with synchronoptica) plus Industrial Light and Magic for civic engagement

two years ago: eighty bangers from the 80s plus a novel wildfire detection device 

three years ago: catastrophic flooding in Lebanon plus US House Speaker McCarthy ousted

four years ago: The Waltons (1972), spreading seeds plus an AI illustrated Bible

five years ago: assorted links to revisit plus rice harvest art

six years ago: one of the first laws enshrining freedom of the press (1770), explaining the year 2020 to someone from the past plus music to move by

seven years ago: seeing the tarnish of the golden era plus RIP Eddie Money

eight years ago: Trump downplays deaths in Hurricane Maria, a new Russian cathedral, Jimmy Carter Says Yes, more on calendar reforms plus Trump’s campaign manager in court

 

twa 355 (13. 780)

Hijacked on this day in 1976, the domestic flight from LaGuardia to O’Hare in Chicago was taken by a group of five Fighters for Free Croatia to further the independence movement of the constituent state from Yugoslavia. Halfway into the flight, the hijackers stormed the cockpit and directed the plane to Montreal’s Mirabel airport, allowed to refuel after telling authorities that a bomb had been planted in a locker at New York’s Grand Central Station and issued instructions on how to locate and disarm it. Further the group group demanded an appeal for the movement be printed in major American newspapers. The plane was flown to Gander, Newfoundland where an air traffic controller negotiated for the release of thirty-five passengers. Refused permission to land by the UK government in London, the aircraft touched down in Keflavík before traveling to Paris where the hijackers surrendered after talks with US ambassador Kenneth Rush. America writer and activist Julienne Bušić, married to the operation’s mastermind Zvonko Bušić, was hugged by the pilot for her help in keeping the passengers calm during the whole ordeal. Although a New York police officer was killed attempting to dismantle rather than detonate the explosive device planted at the train terminal, the devices on board the airplane were discovered to be fakes. The group of five were sentenced to long terms in prison, minimum of thirty years, for conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy and for the death of the police officer (Julienne Bušić served her time in a correctional facility in Dublin, California along with cellmate Squeaky Fromme, whom was reassigned after several incidents of violence perpetrated by Fromme), though eventually all were remanded to parole in an independent Croatia.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica), a posturepedic bed, AI can’t do clocks plus Russian threatens Finland’s sovereignty 

two years ago: more links to enjoy

three years ago: even more assorted links  

four years ago: Hey Jude (1968), links to enjoy, more telling the bees plus more even more links to revisit

five years ago: St Aubert, the ecological importance of oyster-beds, comparable to coral reefs plus even more links worth revisiting

six years ago: the largest basilica in the world, artist Marianne von Werefkin, a devastating earthquake in Constantinople (1509), the original and the reprised Fresh Prince, burning skies plus Hongkonger neologisms

 

 

ebov (13. 739)

Beginning on this day in 1976 in the village of Yambuku in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), the first known outbreak of ebolavirus occurred when Mabalo Lokela, the headmaster of the local mission school sought treatment for what was mistaken at first for malaria, then the Marburg virus (see previously) at a clinic.  Later named for the French corruption of the rather distant Legbala river (Ngbandi for white water), pathologist not wanting to associate the remote village with the legacy and stigma of the haemorrhagic disease it causes, the US Centres for Disease Control Epidemic Intelligence Service and the World Health Organisation helped local medical personnel to quarantine the village. Out of a total three hundred eighteen cases, two hundred eighty resulted in death, an eighty-eight percent fatality rate, and though better monitoring, access to sanitation and containment has resulted in marginal improvements to treatment and survival, the highly infectious disease still has no vaccine or cure and kills on average half of those who encounter it.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica) plus challenging conventional wisdom on Big Data

one year ago: the era of AI photography plus the death of Charles Lindbergh (1974)

three years ago: Gaberboccus press plus midcentury modern embassies and consulates 

four years ago: more links to enjoy plus measuring time 

five years ago: pandemic saints plus promotional material for the film AI

six years ago: the Isle of Wight Festival (1970), millions of photoplay plots, US Space Force command structure, IKEA catalogues in virtual space, Top Value Television plus more unbuilt architecture

iso 4217 (13. 732)

Introduced on this day in 1976 to replace the South Africa rand, which had been used as the legal currency since the republic gained independence from the UK in 1966, the Botswana pula (symbolised by P) is from the Setswana word for rain, a very precious commodity in the Kalahari desert, meaning by extension fortune and blessings. Unpegged from the rand and the US dollar to a floating currency, the pula adopted a fixed exchange rate regime with a basket of funds that reflected its regional trading relationships. The sub-unit, thebe (meaning shield) is represented in various denominations of coinage (also one, two and five pula coins, with the lower value bill demonetised in 2014) and bear the motto ipelegeng, meaning to carry one’s own weight, to be self-sufficient. The ten pula note currently in circulation (according to the central bank) depicts the country’s fifth president, not quite aligned with the up-to-date political situation, Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, who served in high office from 2018 to 2024 and has been succeeded by His Excellency Duma Gideon Boko, leader of the Motswana opposition party Umbrella for Democratic Change—the former demonym is the singular case with Batswana being the plural, collective form for the people of the “Land of the Tswana.” The pula is also used widely in Zimbabwe following the hyperinflation of its dollar.

operation paul bunyan (13. 719)

On this day in 1976, in an assignment taking place on the southern side of the “Bridge of No Return” near Panmunjon (see previously here and here), the joint security area of the DMZ where both sides were allowed access and freedom of movement in the shared Peace Village, to prune a tree that was obscuring the view from South Korea from their northernmost observation post, two soldiers were killed by North Korean forces trying to stop the trimming job, despite being pre-approved by both governments. DEFCOM was raised from three to four for the first time since the Arab-Israeli war three years prior. In response, three days later, the US carried out a show of force, consisting of a detachment of three-hundred American servicemen supported by helicopter gunships and B-52 fighter-bombers, to reemphasise US to protect the territorial integrity of South Korea, finished the job of felling the twelve-metre tall poplar that had caused the international incident, which otherwise would have only lost a few branches.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a more cordial meeting of the leaders of the US and Ukraine (with synchronoptica) plus the Society for the Verification and Enjoyment of Fascinating Names of Actual Persons

two years ago: a philosophical cartoon plus amplified contagion

three years ago: divine connections plus more mushrooming

four years ago: the Feast of St Helen, a historic glider flight plus more unuseless machines

five years ago: your daily demon, more disfluent typefaces, masking mandates, Schoolhouse Rock! plus the promise of a fully phonetic font

six years ago: AI generated Roman emperors, Michelle Obama virtually addresses the Democratic National Convention, women’s suffrage in the United States (1920), Republican Nation Convention guest speakers, more constructed languages, data-visualisations as art plus forty adaptations of Hamlet

legionella pneumophila (13. 661)

Recognised in retrospect by epidemiologists as the first outbreak of the lethal atypical pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infection, the first delegates who had attended the America Legion convention of US veterans of foreign wars concluding a couple of days prior at the luxury Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in central Philadelphia began dying from a mysterious disease on this date in 1976.  A total of one hundred eighty two cases, resulting in twenty nine fatalities, the only common factor among the identified infected was presence at the hotel, whose occupancy rate plummeted subsequently due to negative publicity and would close permanently in November of the same year. Over the next months, public health researchers identified the reservoir and vector of the illness as a particularly pertinacious, hitherto unknown bacterium in a symbiotic relationship with amoebae that thrive in industrial water systems like water tanks, hot tubs or in this case the evaporative condensers of large air conditioning units. Despite lessons gleaned from this deadly event, many cases of legionellosis have occurred throughout the world—including outbreaks in an apartment complex in Murcia, Spain, a nursing home in Toronto, a hospital in Lisbon and prison in northern California, all traced to contaminated rooftop cooling towers for climate control systems. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dashiell Hammett’s anti-heros and Trump loyalists (with synchronoptica) plus RIP humorist Tom Lehrer 

two years ago: American theocracy plus a lunar archbishopric 

three years ago: the Indian diamond exchange plus cities with signature psychological disorders

four years ago: lesser known lochs plus assorted links to revisit 

five years ago: a banger from Stevie Nicks,  Nick at Nite’s line-up, portrait photographer Masayoshi Sukita, Maneki-Neko, English’s inconsistencies, Avant Garde magazine plus AI generated Tarot cards

six years ago: Saint Pantaleon, Bugs Bunny’s catch-phrase (1940), more non-words plus GIF-artist Katy Daft 

uneven bars (13. 632)

On this day in 1976 at the Montreal Games, fourteen-year old gymnastics prodigy Nadia Comăneci received a historic perfect score (10.00) from the panel of Olympic judges. Also rated perfect for her routines in several other lower-level competitions prior to this performance, including the inaugural American Cup held in March of the same year at Madison Square Garden, Comăneci scored her first of six gold medals during the course of the games. Comăneci has lived in North America since 1989, defecting from then-Communist Romanian, just weeks before the revolution.

survey says (13. 614)

Debuting on this day on ABC station affiliates with host British actor and comedian Richard Dawson, Family Feud quickly became one the most popular day time television game shows in America, enduring in syndication until the present.  The format pits two groups of competing, extended families, against each other, asking contestants to guess the most popular results of audience polls. Contractually obligated to make Dawson the MC of the programme, his run lasting until 1985, the show’s producers had originally wanted William Shatner, Star Trek having been discontinued a few years earlier (see previously here and here), to host. Watching the family dynamics of the panelist was always fun and the questions and responses pushed the envelope of what was fit to air with low-brow entendre.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Mimolette (with synchronoptica), a Jaws text-based game, more on the Carnac Stones and other megaliths plus more on optical telegraphy

two years ago: plural forms of compound expressions, assorted links to revisit plus Disco Demolition Night (1979)

three years ago: the Golden Spike of the Anthropocene Era, a crowd-pirated movie plus more links to enjoy

four years ago: St Veronica plus even more links worth the revisit

five years ago: In the Year 2525 

six years ago: Trump ally Roger Stone plus a smart facial covering 

bicentenary (13. 588)

Culminating on this day in 1976, a decade in planning and preceded by numerous events, both sanctioned and unsanctioned by the US government including the Boston Oil Party, when objects symbolising the petroleum industry were tossed in the city’s harbour to promote environmental justice and declare independence from polluting corporations and Richard Nixon was hanged in effigy, elected representatives reenacted the first Continental Congress, a state visit by the Queen, the Freedom Train made a circuit of the nation and a time-capsule opened, America celebrated its the beginning of its third century, focused on themes of renewal and rebirth, recently have endure the Watergate scandal and the Fall of Saigon. The logo was designed by Bruce Blackburn, who also modernised the NASA insignia (see also here and here). The bicentennial parade in Philadelphia was lead by grand marshal Johnny Cash and the US space agency unveiled its first test vehicle in its line of space shuttles—originally to be christened the Constitution in honour of the anniversary but renamed Enterprise due to popular demand.   Fifty years on, the holiday will probably be marked with the end of the fourteenth and seventeenth amendments, reversing birth-right citizenship and direct voting for senatorial representation.

synchronoptica

one year ago: another cosmic interloper (with synchronoptica) plus One Big Beautiful Bill 

two years ago:  the introduction of the Caesar salad (1925) plus the waterfalls of Mount Cuvignone

three years ago: David Bowie’s Station to Station, My Country ’Tis of Thee plus forgotten American mascots

four years ago: an ancient nebula 

five years ago: occupied Austria plus local flora 

six years ago: American Top 40 (1970), Nixon’s Honor America Day plus the superlative of free

welcome to the coolest summer of the rest of your lives (13. 584)

A heat wave in the British Isles, drought conditions and extreme temperatures extended through a period lasting from the end of June until the end of August, reached its climax on this day in 1976 with a then record peak of 35,9°C (97°F) registered in Cheltenham in the Cotswolds. Leading towards water rationing, impacts on wildlife and agriculture, mortality displacement (excess deaths) and a twelve-percent increase in food prices caused by crop failure, that summer was considered a reference point for stiflingly hot weather in the UK and Ireland, with temperatures just shy of the height over most of England for fifteen consecutive days, a plague of ladybirds and unprecedented forest fires, since rivalled by 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and the present season, amplified by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions resulting in self-reenforcing feedback loops.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: Jargeau and St Denis de l’Hôtel (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: the ancient quarter of Maccagno

three years ago: superlative drone photography, Ziggy Stardust retires, assorted links to revisit plus composer György Ligeti

four years ago: Dog Days of Summer, Double Indemnity (1944), more links to enjoy plus early AI image generation

five years ago: the Phaistos Disk (1908), US report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena plus the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite

six years ago: EXP TV, Mount Rushmore plus US support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan 

four colour theorem (13. 538)

The heretofore unverified but practically applied in cartography conjecture that no more than four colours are needed to distinguish bordering regions on a map was announced as proven on this day in 1976 after more than century since it was first proposed by two mathematicians at the the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Not feasible to perform the brute calculation by hand, this topology problem (see previously) was solved with the aid of a supercomputer, the first instance of a technical assist for a math problem, the claim rejected by some peers at the time because they couldn’t check the work.

synchronoptica

one year ago: arriving in Morbihan (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: Putin and Kim hold a summit, the premiere of Evita plus the estate of Jim Henson selling off its Hollywood lot

three years ago: California v Miller plus assorted links worth the revisit

four years ago: pioneering parachutist Tiny Broadwick (1913), Texas v Johnson plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: the Stonehenge Free Festival (1974), the introduction of the LP record (1948) plus Return to Oz (1985) 

six years ago: a CNN competitor (1982), EU proposes a digital services tax, remixing the Bayeux tapestry, setting the record straight, AI-generated perfumes plus Internation Yoga Day

9x9 (13. 499)

of all the us presidents he’s still the mussoliniest: Randy Rainbow reprises his rendition of the Major General’s Song, see previously—via Miss Cellania  

twenty-first century nightmares: Bill Hsu presents a collection of dark animated films 

hello dalí: a marginally remastered copy of the bizarre 1973 ITV profile of the artist surfaces on Youtube  

éolienne: an innovative nineteenth century redesign for the windmill  

responding with improvisation and exhaustion: meeting the subliterate where they are is a disservice to education  

necropolis: marine researchers discover the site of a whale fall in a deep rift valley of the Indian ocean  

guest-starring in alphabetical order: Poseidon’s Underworld on the short-lived 1984 television series Glitter about the cast of a glossy magazine  

the meatseller: an harrowing and brutal animation of a young migrant’s journey from Nigeria to Italy 

 there was nothing in al capone’s vault but it wasn’t geraldo’s fault: premiere episode of America’s history in one hundred objects (see also) begins with an underwhelming time capsule opened in 1976

in search of… (13. 479)

Polymath and multi-hyphanate, Dr Robert Harvey Rines, whom helped develop the Microwave Early Warning System in the Cold War after serving as an officer in the army signals corps, as trained a jurist for intellectual property, prolific inventor, librettist penning musicals about the life of HL Mencken (previously) among others, violin prodigy playing a duet with Albert Einstein at age eleven at a summer camp in Maine, and adjunct professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the last forty five years of his career, is probably best known for leading the American expedition, sponsored by the US Academy of Applied Sciences and the The New York Times, the quest for Nessie, the most thorough and comprehensive search for the Loch Ness Monster up to that time, that commenced on this day in 1976. Becoming obsessed with the mystery of a possible cryptid after a visit to the area four years, Rines launched a scientific safari provisioned with sophisticated sonar and photographic, many instruments of his own design, and whilst garnering a great deal of publicity for his efforts, including several intriguing but blurry photographs, after six months, the project was halted due to lack of hard evidence. This famous “gargoyle head” image was later discovered to be a rotting tree stump on the silty bottom of the loch, since located and put on display in the Nessie gallery at Drumnadrochit on the western shore. Rines for his part never stopped believing that there was more to the legend and kept up the exploration, albeit on a smaller scale, for the next decades.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  automated purging of US government workers (with synchronopticæ) plus a Star Trek: TNG superfan

fourteen years ago: looking forward to our Norway holiday 

fifteen years ago: Ascension Day 

sixteen years ago: the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 

windows on the world (13. 365)

Opening on this day in 1976 and in operation until destroyed during the September 11th terror attacks in 2001, the complex of dining and entertainment venues developed under the guidance of restauranteur Joe Baum (responsible for renovating the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center and creator of America’s first themed destination dining establishments) and architect Warren Planter (student of Eero Saarinen) whose concept for the interior was that of a grand ocean liner with plush accents and brass railings and a terraced layout that afforded views from every table with logo, dinnerware and lighting designed by Milton Glaser.  Housed in the upper storeys of the North Tower (Building One) of the World Trade Center, all staff present on the day of the attack perished, the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 cutting off all means of escape above the ninety-second floor. Though never conclusively confirmed, it is speculated that the identity of The Falling Man is restaurant audio engineer, Jonathan Briley, brother of Alexander, the soldier and later seaman character from the disco recording act, Village People. The iconic photograph is owned by Elton John and was named after the 1950 oil painting by Max Beckmann that seems to foreshadow the trapped jumpers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return visit to the Störmthaler See (with synchronopticæ)

fourteen years ago: comparmentalising the internet 

fifteen years ago: the life and afterlife of William Shakespeare 

sixteen years ago: around town, a visit to the Kyffhäuserdenkmal plus default browsers

i’m gerald ford…and you’re not (13. 358)

 

Invited by Al Franken, former NBC war-correspondent and nightly news anchor White House press secretary Ron Nessen became the first political figure to host SNL (then called “NBC’s Saturday Night”) on this day in 1976, with Gerald Ford declining the offer in the midst of an election campaign.  Nessen had replaced Ford’s first spokesperson after Jerald terHorst resigned less than a month into the administration in protest after Ford’s pardon of his predecessor Richard Nixon. And while Ford did not appear on stage, the president did take part in three pre-recorded segments and and introduced the show with the tagline,“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” and responded to the above running jokes of Chevy Chase’s portrayal of him. The musical guest was Patti Smith.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the first public exhibition of a giant squid (with synchronopticæ) plus international plug and socket standards

 

thirteen years ago: a mysterious Iranian factory in Germany 

dickeled and jimed (13. 343)

Though obviously never gaining traction in the vending machine business nor with the US mint—beverage distributors working out other forms of price-control and serving size, see previously, either through smaller portions or eating the margins to reduce competition, president of Squirt soda (see previously), one Edward Welsh Mehren, made a modest proposal in the late 1940s to introduce fractional coinage, in between the established US denominations of the nickel, dime and quarter (2½¢, etc) to provide some relief for consumers facing both the prospects of inflation and shrinkflation. Even with the benefit of the penny, Mehren argued that prices were raised in five-cent increments—particularly for the coin-op business—when we more conservative margins would have worked for the companies to the benefit of consumers. Despite the lack of takers, Mehren continued his crusade well into the 1970s, advocating a two-and-a-half dollar bill, claiming that it was more efficient and made more economic sense to print a half-five dollar bills as the unpopular and considered unlucky to receive back in change Jefferson two-dollar had recently been discontinued in 1966—only to be reintroduced into circulation with a new design for the US bicentennial on the anniversary of the third American president’s birthday 13 April, 1743 (Old Style, 2 April). More from Weird Universe at the links above.

advanced avionics (13. 337)

Appearing on German broadcaster RTL (Radio Télévision Luxembourg, the cosmopolitan media group founded as Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion as one of the first private programmers in 1931 and representative of the broader spirit of transnational cooperation) on this day in 1976, Belgian prime minister Leo Tindemans (to the right of Helmut Schmidt and Luxembourg PM Gaston Thorn), previously charged with defining what the European Union was to be as a political entity with his eponymous report that helped to guide the formation of the EU and its institutions, defended the country’s decision to purchase US fighter jets rather than French Dassault Mirages, in the context of forming a common defensive strategy for the continent. Despite what was interpreted as a slight by the domestic aerospace industry at the time, later that year Tindemans was awarded the international Charlemagne prize for his contributions towards unity, economic integration and the strengthening of citizen rights.

casco de leiro (13. 327)

With hammered decorations and repeating repouseé work, the register of patterns similar to other headgear of the era, like the hats of Schifferstadt, the so called Helmet of Leiro is a ritual golden cap dating to the Late Bronze Age (circa 1000 BC) was discovered by chance on this day in 1976 on a rocky point above the beach at the comarca (a subdivision, like a county, used in Galicia) of O Ribeiro by fisherman called José Vicente Somoza. The view from the outcropping is a commanding one of the bay and would have made an inspiring location for rites as well as a reference point for navigation, the waterways receding landward from the estuary the optimal route to the nearby site of Santiago de Compostela and according to legend the same path chosen by St James. Retrieving what he appeared to be a crude earthenware bowl (artefact is suspected to have a dual use as a basin), the outer layer broke away upon handling it, revealing a gold object, which the discoverer immediately reported to local archaeological authorities.