3/2/18 Report - Big Surf Coming. Rain Uncovers History. Ancient Burials in Gulf. Button Links.

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

Predicted Wind Direction Early This Afternoon.
Source: Ventusky.com

Here is the big news.  A front will start coming though this afternoon.  You'll see a wind shift.

MagicSeaWeed was down this morning but the last time I looked the predictions still looked very interesting - 9 - 13 feet by Sunday.  I'll update this later today.

Surfline.com is predicting a 5 - 7 foot surf for Central Florida Sunday AM, and 8 - 12 feet Sunday PM.

---

Anytime earth is moved, especially in places there was a lot of activity, something good and old might be found.  Here is a story about how a rain after a drought uncovered historic ruins.

The heavy rains that hit Iraq over the past two weeks have not only put an end to the dry season, which has almost dried up the historic Tigris River, but it also helped uncover hundreds of historical ruins that were washed away in Babylon, one of the country’s most important archaeological sites.

Hussein Fleih, Babylon's director of antiquities, said in a press statement: "Among the findings were pottery utensils, coins and metal pieces."

"The discoveries will be examined to determine the exact historical period they date back to," he added, suggesting that they belong to the Parthian and Islamic eras.

"Last year, 1,000 pieces were discovered this way, which proves that the ruins may be close to the surface and not always buried deep in the ground," Fleih said.

Such discoveries after heavy rainfall are not rare in Iraq.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1189666/rain-iraq-ends-drought-uncovers-historic-ruins

---

A fossil hunter while on a dive in 2016 reported possible human skeletal material off the coast of Manasota Key in Charlotte County, Florida. State officials explored the site in the years since and announced Wednesday, Feb. 28, the site is, in fact, a 0.75-acre Native American burial site in a peat-bottomed pond, according to a news release. 

The only known examples of submerged offshore prehistoric burial sites are known to be in Israel and Denmark.

Researchers say the water level in the Gulf of Mexico 7,000 years ago was about 30 feet below compared to today. It's likely the pond at the time was on dry land about 9 feet above sea level...

http://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/florida/unprecedented-native-american-burial-site-discovered-off-floridas-gulf-coast/67-524076059

A fossil hunter discovered and reported this site.  He isn't described as an archaeologists. He wasn't a looter.  That was one of the things I was saying the other day about the public discovering and protecting archaeological sites in my post on the problem with archaeology.  The public must be trusted and become a bigger part of the solution instead of being alienated and treated as the problem.

---

A few days ago I showed a button that I was wondering about.  As I said, I thought it was probably modern decorative.  Mitch King confirmed that and pointed out that the shank was modern.  I wasn't absolutely sure of the shank because it was crusted over and I wanted to clean it.  Well, the cleaning didn't go well.  When the crust was removed, there wasn't much left of the back, as you can see below.  That can happen.  I would have been more careful if I thought it was likely to be something good.

When trying to ID a button, the back can tell you as much or more than the front.  The shank is important, and you might also find other important marks on the back.  Remember that when sending photos for ID.

Here are some good links that will help you ID buttons.

http://nationalbuttonsociety.org/Home.html

http://www.buttoncountry.com/WorkSheets/Glossarys-FF.pdf

http://www.buttoncountry.com/BackTypes2.html

What Remains of Button Back.

As Mitch pointed out, the button back can provide good information on the age of a button.  That is something to remember.

Another thing that stuck out to me after I thought about it a while, is the small differences on the front of this button and the picture of the one that Alberto sent.  The differences seemed to be nonsensical.

Mitch found several sites where similar vintage blazer buttons were sell on the internet.  Some were said to be from the 80s, which makes sense because the pile of coins I was cleaning probably came from back around then.

Here is one of the links Mitch sent.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/566969846/mens-vintage-jos-a-bank-blazer-buttons?ref=pla_similar_listing_top-1

Thanks Mitch.

Here are a couple other things that I cleaned that were in the pile of encrusted coins.

Heavily Encrusted Objects After Acid Cleaning.

The silver ring is corrodes and very thin now.  Both are probably from the eighties or not much older.  I think the other was an earring.

There was also a flattened thimble in that group of finds.  You don't see many thimbles around anymore even though they were used for centuries.

---

We could get some good hunting soon if the surf and wind predictions have been right this week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net