Wednesday, September 26, 2012

12/26/12 Report - Olive Jar Study, Weighty Subject & Now Ain't That a Blimp


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exlusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


One Treasure Coast Beach Yesterday Near Low Tide
This is what the beaches look like along the Treasure Coast right now.

I think this one is pretty typical. A lot of sand on the front beach.







I’ve been trying to learn more about Spanish olive jars. I found an excellent study.

Here is the link.

http://www.sha.org/CF_webservice/servePDFHTML.cfm?fileName=22-1-09.pdf

It is a PDF file, so expect to wait while it downloads.

In addition to an analysis of shipwreck olive jars, it also shows how they were stored on board and discusses what they were used for. A large sample from a variety of different Spanish wrecks were analyzed.

Good study.

I once received a question from someone who found what he thought were ceramic olive jar stoppers. I’ve never found any evidence of that. From everything I’ve found, corks were usually used. Many olive jars that survived intact on the ocean floor, have the corks inside. As the jar sank, the water pressure pushed them in. That isn’t to say, there weren’t any ceramic stoppers. I just haven’t found evidence of that. So cork stoppers appear to be most common.


Here is one recent Treasure Coast mainland metal detector find. Note the penny for size.



Also notice the Roman numeral six. That is evidently the weight of the object, since it weighs out at six pounds. It has no other markings.

I think it is probably a weight for an old double hung window. Not an uncommon find.



I saw the Goodyear blimp fly over the beach Monday.  Here is a video of that.





I didn't receive many opinions on the items I posted yesterday yet.


Nothing much going on in the Atlantic. Nadine is still out there, but far away from us.

The seas are running 2 to 3 feet, which according to the surf web sites will continue for several days.

The wind is mostly from the east.

Low tide is around noon today.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net