Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Diver Using Airlift. Source: Fisher YouTube Video. See link below. |
You might not think this story has anything to do with you, but read on a little and you'll find that it does.
A series of prehistoric cave paintings has been uncovered in the Basque Country, northern Spain, in a discovery experts have called a "once in a generation" find.
The paintings, which include those of bison, horses and goats, were discovered by archeologist Diego Garate at a depth of 300m in the Atxurra caves, around 50km from Bilbao.
The paintings are between 12,000 and 14,000 years old and depict traditional hunting scenes, including a bison pierced "with over 20 spears" - which marks the cave painting of a bison with the most spear marks in all of Europe...
Here is the link for the rest of that article.
http://www.thelocal.es/20160526/ancient-art-gallery-discovered-in-basque-country-atxurra-cave-paintings
The reason I mention this article is that the paintings were there for 12,000 to 14,000 years and were just discovered. They were there thousands of years before being discovered.
There are some people that think that there is not very much left to find. They believe that it has all been found. This article shows that you just don't know what might be under your feet or around the next bend. There is always more, you just don't know what is still there.
The amazing gold coin finds north of Vero last year is a good example. All of those gold coins were in shallow water just yards off of the beach and buried under just a few feet of sand. Detectorists walked within yards of those gold coins hundreds of times never knowing the gold coins were there or how close they were.
That is the thing about detecting. You never know what is there until you detect it. When the detector beeps and you dig up what was causing the signal and see it for the first time, it can be a surprising discovery. Of course, that also means it can be a bit of a disappointment too. It is a little like unwrapping a gift on Christmas morning. When you actually see whatever it was, it is a discovery, and sometimes it is a surprising and wonderful discovery.
In Alan Craig's book on the silver coins in the Florida Collection, James Miller, the State Archaeologist at the time, wrote, "The law of diminishing returns has had its way with the increasingly expensive search for the finite remains of the treasure fleets. Each year more people try a little harder to recover that which is more difficult to find."
He goes on to say, "Between 1975 and 1982, ten separate salvage contracts resulted in a little more than five hundred coins being added to the collection." That is just over 70 coins per year. There were ten separate salvage contracts at the time, and Dr. Miller tells us that only four of those "added more than five coins to the collection."
Craig's book was copyrighted in 2000. If the finite supply of treasure was diminishing to a trickle before the turn of the millennium, surely after another decade and a half, the flow of treasure on the Treasure Coast would now be down to almost nothing. But that is not what we saw. Despite Dr. Millers outlook, the 2015 salvage season produced amazing discoveries, both in terms of quantity and quality.
It is easy enough to accept the law of diminishing returns. It is easy enough to accept the idea that it is getting harder and harder, and maybe it isn't even worth going out there any more. If you've accepted all of that, you probably won't be the one to make the next big find. What is in you is as important as what is out there.
It might not seem easy. It might not come quickly. I don't know that it should. If it did, there wouldn't be so much joy in the success.
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Here is a recent video of a diver from the Dare using an airlift to uncover deeply buried barrel hoops from the site of the Atocha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-W-rylDTpU&mc_cid=ab461745d0&mc_eid=e9c86e5425
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Early Saturday the Treasure Coast will have northeast winds and up to a four or five foot surf as topical depression Two heads towards South Carolina. Tropical depression two is expected to become Tropical Storm Bonnie on Saturday night. Bonnie will bring bad beach weather to the coastal Carolinas and Georgia for the Memorial Day weekend, including rip currents, potentially heavy rain, and battering waves.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
http://www.thelocal.es/20160526/ancient-art-gallery-discovered-in-basque-country-atxurra-cave-paintings
The reason I mention this article is that the paintings were there for 12,000 to 14,000 years and were just discovered. They were there thousands of years before being discovered.
There are some people that think that there is not very much left to find. They believe that it has all been found. This article shows that you just don't know what might be under your feet or around the next bend. There is always more, you just don't know what is still there.
The amazing gold coin finds north of Vero last year is a good example. All of those gold coins were in shallow water just yards off of the beach and buried under just a few feet of sand. Detectorists walked within yards of those gold coins hundreds of times never knowing the gold coins were there or how close they were.
That is the thing about detecting. You never know what is there until you detect it. When the detector beeps and you dig up what was causing the signal and see it for the first time, it can be a surprising discovery. Of course, that also means it can be a bit of a disappointment too. It is a little like unwrapping a gift on Christmas morning. When you actually see whatever it was, it is a discovery, and sometimes it is a surprising and wonderful discovery.
In Alan Craig's book on the silver coins in the Florida Collection, James Miller, the State Archaeologist at the time, wrote, "The law of diminishing returns has had its way with the increasingly expensive search for the finite remains of the treasure fleets. Each year more people try a little harder to recover that which is more difficult to find."
He goes on to say, "Between 1975 and 1982, ten separate salvage contracts resulted in a little more than five hundred coins being added to the collection." That is just over 70 coins per year. There were ten separate salvage contracts at the time, and Dr. Miller tells us that only four of those "added more than five coins to the collection."
Craig's book was copyrighted in 2000. If the finite supply of treasure was diminishing to a trickle before the turn of the millennium, surely after another decade and a half, the flow of treasure on the Treasure Coast would now be down to almost nothing. But that is not what we saw. Despite Dr. Millers outlook, the 2015 salvage season produced amazing discoveries, both in terms of quantity and quality.
It is easy enough to accept the law of diminishing returns. It is easy enough to accept the idea that it is getting harder and harder, and maybe it isn't even worth going out there any more. If you've accepted all of that, you probably won't be the one to make the next big find. What is in you is as important as what is out there.
It might not seem easy. It might not come quickly. I don't know that it should. If it did, there wouldn't be so much joy in the success.
---
Here is a recent video of a diver from the Dare using an airlift to uncover deeply buried barrel hoops from the site of the Atocha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-W-rylDTpU&mc_cid=ab461745d0&mc_eid=e9c86e5425
---
Early Saturday the Treasure Coast will have northeast winds and up to a four or five foot surf as topical depression Two heads towards South Carolina. Tropical depression two is expected to become Tropical Storm Bonnie on Saturday night. Bonnie will bring bad beach weather to the coastal Carolinas and Georgia for the Memorial Day weekend, including rip currents, potentially heavy rain, and battering waves.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
