Saturday, November 16, 2013

11/16/13 Report - Beach Detecting Conditions, CSS Georgia, Detectorists Working With Archaeologists at Montpelier


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

The beach didn't look very good today.  We've had some pretty good hunting lately.  The wind changed and is coming from the southeast today, which is not usually good for beach detecting conditions.  There was a lot of sea weed on the beaches that I saw today.

I'm going to drop my beach conditions rating from a 3 to a 2.   The beaches that I saw today were generally building.

Detectorists from around the country have volunteered to help archaeologists at Montpelier.  Detectorists who volunteer will receive instruction on how finds are conserved, cataloged, and curated. Then they go out to the woods to locate historic sites such a slave quarters, mills, or homes on the 2,700 acres of Montpelier.

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.nbc29.com/story/23956735/metal-detectorists-archaeologists-work-together-at-montpelier

This is the kind of thing I've encouraged in this blog in the past.  Amateur archaeologists and detectorists have made a lot of very significant discoveries, and detectorists can help preserve history for us all.  They are out in the field all the time and can be the eyes of the academics and professionals.  

The cobs that I've shown in the past few days are all under very much under weight.  That shows how items like that corrode and deteriorate while they are on the beach, and in time they will completely disappear.  If they aren't found and saved now, they will be lost to history completely. But we can save these items that have no context and would never be a part of an archaeological study.  Without being found and saved by detectorists they will completely disappear.

The last cob that I showed had lost a good thirty percent of its material and one side had lost most of the detail.  Another cob that I showed a few days ago had lost over two thirds of it's original material and was barely identifiable.  That is why they must be recovered and saved now.

Here is a quick video clip showing the surf this morning on one Treasure Coast beach.





U.S. Navy divers recovered a 64-square foot section of the Civil War ironclad warship CSS Georgia from the Savannah River.
Here is the link.
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2013-11-13/divers-recover-piece-css-georgia#.Uoaa_PmTgnF


On the Treasure Coast we will have a somewhat reduced surf through Tuesday.  Wednesday and Thursday the surf will increase to 6 or 7 feet again.  Hopefully we'll get more of a North wind with that too.  If we do get the north wind along with the increased surf, the beach conditions will probably improve again.

Like I said, I'll be doing a poll when this all calms down so we'll find out just how much has been found.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net