6/28/17 Report - Personal Metal Detecting Firsts. Effigy or Pendant? Big Canoe. Surprising Carving Tools.

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

Found at Douglas Beach About 15 Years Ago.
Find and photo by Darrel S.

Here is what Darrel said about the above find. At first I thought a pendant with the top part worn from time. A friend, who wrote a book on Taino, thought possibly an effigy, etc.  It is about 2.5 inches. The material is steathite, which was used making celts, etc. Definitely, material not from Florida. I still think it is a pendant and the grooved ring was worn over time. 

I really like that piece, especially how you can see the different layers.

Thanks for sharing Darrel.

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BELCHER, LA -- Excavation efforts have unearthed a large, prehistoric Indian canoe along the Red River in north Caddo Parish.

One archaeologist said the almost 34-foot-long dugout canoe, described it in very good condition even though one side is missing. The canoe, weighing an estimated 1,000 pounds, could be the largest ever found intact in North America...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.ktbs.com/news/prehistoric-indian-canoe-unearthed-along-red-river/article_c50de896-56a5-11e7-9d3e-7f99bd422e0a.html

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11,000 Year-Old Statue
Source: See link below.

New scientific findings suggest that images and hieroglyphics on the wooden statue were carved with the jaw of a beaver, its teeth intact.

Originally dug out of a peat bog by gold miners in the Ural Mountains in 1890, the remarkable seven-faced Idol is now on display in a glass sarcophagus in a museum in Yekaterinburg.

Two years ago German scientists dated the Idol as being 11,000 years old...

Here is the link.

http://siberiantimes.com/science/others/news/beavers-teeth-used-to-carve-the-oldest-wooden-statue-in-the-world/

To me, that is absolutely one beautiful statue.  And the idea of using beaver teeth to carve makes so much sense -  I love it!

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I was thinking of my personal metal detecting firsts.  Some came readily to mind even though they happened a long time ago.  Some I could remember like it was yesterday, and some are things that I would barely pay attention to if I found them today. Still they made an impression at the time.   I'll try to put them in chronological order as well as I can.

My first ring.  It was a silver skull ring.  Nothing that I consider special in any way today.
My first Rolex watch.
My first multi-carat solitaire diamond ring.
My first national championship sports ring.
My first escudo.
My first piece of shipwreck silver.
My first gold shipwreck artifact.
My first raw gold nugget from a treasure wreck beach.

Looking at the list, there are a couple of things that might seem a little surprising.  For one thing, I found an escudo before I found a reale.

Another thing that seems a little odd to me is that I have no idea which was my first gold ring find.  It doesn't stick out in my memory for some reason.

The diamond solitaire ring find sticks out in my mind because it was such a vivid sensory experience. It was blue sky day with a very calm clear surf.  What I remember is seeing the diamond reflecting the sunlight as soon as it emerged from the sand even though it was under about three feet of water when that happened.

Unlike that one, which made a real impression as soon as I saw it shining under the water, there were other items that I didn't appreciate until after I did the research and found out what they really were. Sometimes that was a long time later.  Those I not sure of when they were found because I didn't appreciate them right away.

It is not surprising that most of the modern finds came first.  I lived in South Florida and was focusing on modern jewelry before moving to the Treasure Coast.

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There is no tropical weather to watch right now.

The surf is still calm and we still are having some nice tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/26/16 Report - 11,000 Year Old Pendant Found. Button For ID. When to Grid.

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

"Silver" Button For ID.
Find and photo by Tom G. from Delaware.

Front of Same Button.

This button was found by Tom G. in Dover Delaware.  If you can provide any ideas about possible age or identity, please let me know.

I also received pictures of a very old cannon to identify.  I hope to be able to post that soon.

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Here is something really interesting.

"An 11,000 year old engraved shale pendant discovered by archaeologists during excavations at the Early Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire is unique in the UK, according to new research."

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2016/research/mesolithic-shale-pendant/

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Gridding can be useful in some situations, however it can be a big waste of time in other situations.

Gridding, to be done well, is done in a very tight pattern.  When gridding is appropriate, the boundaries of the area should be defined and marked, and you should be able to see or keep track of the areas you have already covered well.

There is simply too much area on a beach to cover an entire beach.  A team of detectorists might choose to grid a section of a beach.

Gridding is more appropriate when the area to be covered is small and well defined, such as at an old home site.

On a beach, there will be different areas.  Some of them will be much more promising than other areas.  If you decide to grid, you will want to spend your time only on those areas that are the most promising.

So how do you find the best areas?  One is by recognizing the signs when you look at a beach. Another way is by knowing the history of the beach.  And another way is by sampling.

Signs you might want to look for can include things like dips or cuts.

Other things to look for include high traffic areas, such as walkways, beach chairs, or vendor booths.

High traffic by itself is not the only factor.  Not all traffic is the same.  Generally speaking, the more active the population, the better.  Activities such as parasailing, jet skiing or volleyball can cause  lot of losses, so look for areas where people are not only present but also active, especially in the water.

I do a lot of sampling.  Even the busiest areas can be cleaned out on a daily basis, or even more often than that.  Before committing the time to run a serious grid pattern anywhere, I want to know that there is some reason to spend a lot of good time at that location.  To test an area, I will run a loose pattern of some sort to see it it looks promising at all.

There are times when you might want to go after a high value target in an area where there really isn't much else to be found.  If there is the possibility of a very high value target, there are times when it could pay to grid the area thoroughly even if there aren't any other targets.

I discussed basic metal detector math in a post back some time ago.  One high value target can be worth thousands of low value targets.  If have good reason to believe there might be a high value target in the area, it doesn't really matter if there is nothing else to be found there.

My main point is that before deciding to grid an area, especially on a beach, I need a good reason to spend my time gridding that area instead of spending my time somewhere else.

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On the Treasure Coast the wind is turning into a north wind, however we'll have a couple of days of very smooth surf.

Happy hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net