this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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artifacts

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Welcome to Lemmy's Artifacts page! Feel free to post pictures, stories, news articles, or anything of interest regarding ancient artifacts and their history.

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In 1731, the dey of Algiers, Baba Abdi, presented King Frederick I of Sweden with a lion, one of the first lions in Scandinavia. When alive, the lion was kept in a cage near Junibacken. When the lion died, it was stuffed and mounted. There are two main theories that give insight into an explanation of the exaggerated features of the restoration. A popular theory is that the taxidermist and the museum-keepers may have never actually seen a lion before, and did not know how they were supposed to look. This explains the liberties taken with the lion.

The badly stuffed lion has been widely mocked for decades.

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