Saturday, October 7, 2017

10/7/17 Report - Difficulties of Dating An Artifact: Florida Dugout Canoe Find. New Poll. Hurricane Nate. Sand Monster.


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

Hurricane Nate
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Hurricane Nate is not going to affect the Treasure Coast but might affect the Florida Panhandle.

Bathtub Beach is eroded and they are talking about bringing in more sand next week.  It seems like that is a continual thing there.  I talk about obstacles to sand flow like rocks and sea walls that cause localized erosion.  The houses to the north of Bathtub Beach cut off the sand flow.

Remember what I posted yesterday about renrourishment sand.   Depending upon various factors, it could have something good in it.

The winds have turned southerly and the surf is now down to 2 - 4 feet.  There will, however, be a good high tide.

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The dugout canoe found in Cocoa by Randy Lathrop back in October was thought by some to be very old.  After closer examination, its age is in question.

A Florida Division of Historical Resources archaeologist inspected the 15-foot log vessel, and radiocarbon dating results were released Thursday. The tests determined there is:
• A 50 percent probability the wood used to make the canoe dates between 1640 to 1680.
• A 37.2 percent probability the wood dates between 1760 to 1818.
• An 8.6 percent probability that it dates to 1930 or later...

"The canoe has some interesting features, like the presence of paint and wire nails, that indicate it may have been made in the 19th or 20th century, so this adds to the mystery," she said...
Or, perhaps the canoe was made in the 1600s or 1700s, saw use for many years, and was modified over time..
"Florida has the highest concentration of dugout canoes in the world. We have more than 400 documented dugout canoes in our state. Each canoe is important in that it adds to our database and helps fill out the picture of how people used these canoes over thousands of years," Revell said...
Here is the link for the complete article.

http://www.whas11.com/news/cocoa-canoe-washed-up-by-hurricane-irma-may-date-to-1600s/481283670

Of course we want to learn the age and identity of finds, but it can be difficult or impossible to do with precision.  Even with readiocarbon dating you are left with probabilities, not a precise date.

One tricky thing we often neglect is that an item can be from widely disparate age ranges.  Part of an item can be older than another part, and then it can be used for years or centuries and modified, repurposed or remanufactured.

It is especially difficult to put a date on some barely identifiable clump or something without any context shown in a photo.

Even coins that give you a mint date don't tell you when they were lost.

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I posted a new blog poll.  This one should be interesting.  I'm trying to determine where treasure coins or cobs have most often been found during the past five years.  Answer to the best of you recollection.  Thanks much!

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You might find this interesting.  It is about a real sand mover.