Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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Illustrations Of Items Shown in Armstrong's
Book On The Winter Beach Camp (p. 69)
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Detectorists often look for coins. Some call themselves coin-shooters. But there is a lot more out there to be found than coins, and some types of things are not often found. Sometimes those unfound objects remain unfound simply because we haven't set our mind on them. Sometimes there are other reasons.
As I've said before, I'm a big fan of sifting, but it is not always the way to go. But sometimes it is.
Detectorists tend to follow their detector. Metal detecting is what they do. Others hunt treasure - no matter if it is metal or not. To me, metal detecting is one type or subset of treasure hunting, and coin shooting is a subset of metal detecting.
At the top of this post, you'll see an illustration from Douglas R. Armstrong's book, The Winter Beach Salvage Camp. As you probably know, the Winter Beach salvage camp was a Spanish camp established to salvage one or more of the wrecks of the 1715 Fleet. Along with another later British camp, it was located in the dunes above the wreck.
Notice the variety of objects left behind at the camp site. There are metal items, but there are also other types of artifacts. There are beads, shell inlay and even what is described as a Tonala ware toy turtle (bottom left in illustration). Do we know of a child on the wreck?
According to rare-ceramics.com, Tonalá pottery was imported from Mexico into Spain via the ports of Cadiz and Seville from the 17th century. They were much prized for their attractive aroma when moist and for their alleged medicinal properties. They were greatly valued in the 17th and 18th century but when they fell from fashion they suffered neglect and are very rarely found today outside of historic collections.
Here is a good reference on historical ceramics from the Texas Historical Commission.
Here is a good reference on historical ceramics from the Texas Historical Commission.
http://txhas.org/PDF/THC%20Reference/CERAMICSfinal2.pdf
I enjoyed going through that reference to see how many of the different types of examples I've found.
I enjoyed going through that reference to see how many of the different types of examples I've found.
I very much enjoy finding things like that, but they don't often survive when lost in the rough surf. Here is one I did find, although I don't know how old it might be.
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| Clay Turtle Figure With Missing Leg Find. |
I often recommend keeping your eye's open while you detect, because there are a lot of things hidden in the sand that your metal detector won't tell you about.
Beads are not easy to find, especially in shelly sand. I've only found a few. Of course, it is difficult to say where they came from or how old they are.
I recently bent over to pick up what I'm pretty sure was a half button swashing around in the surf, but it crumbled between my fingers when I finally got it.
I wanted to remind you to look for non-metallic items as well as those that can be found with your metal detector.
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This isn't the first "mammoth house" to be found in Russia, but it is the oldest and largest, measuring 41 feet across...
Beads are not easy to find, especially in shelly sand. I've only found a few. Of course, it is difficult to say where they came from or how old they are.
I recently bent over to pick up what I'm pretty sure was a half button swashing around in the surf, but it crumbled between my fingers when I finally got it.
I wanted to remind you to look for non-metallic items as well as those that can be found with your metal detector.
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Around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers used the bones from 60 mammoths to build a large circular structure in Russia.
And no one knows why.
Researchers have excavated the site in an attempt to understand it, but they don't know why the structure was built, according to a new study.
Here is that link.
Speaking of non-metallic treasures, don't forget that fossilized mammoth bones have been found on the Treasure Coast.
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Not long ago, Mike S. mentioned diving with Roy Volker. I only talked to Roy once, and that was by phone.
I think I mentioned before the Treasure Coast treasure map Roy sold through some of the treasure magazines sometime back in the eighties. It was only about a half dozen pages, but it pointed out most of the main wreck beaches. I found it helpful because at that time I hadn't yet done much hunting on the Treasure Coast and didn't know for sure where the wreck beaches were. Everybody has a lot of easy access to a lot more information these days.
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Strange days these are. At least it feels that way to me.
In my 2/3/20 post I said, "Wouldn't it be better if our heroes were maybe scientists, engineers, or saints or people that do good things, rather than athletes and entertainers? Its a crazy world."
I don't remember what was on my mind at the time or why I said that, but now it seems a little prophetic. Here we are in this pandemic place where the athletes got sidelined and the doctors and scientists are on TV everyday and gaining celebrity status.
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The surf is running around 2 to 3 feet on the Treasure Coast. The tides aren't big, and the wind is generally ESE.
There is some chance we'll get another decent chance before summer conditions really set in for good. It seems to me that we often had a front or something come through around Easter.
Those probably stick out in my memory because of the association with Easter
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net