5/25/19 Report - Breastplate with Carved Desert Glass Scarab. Old Swan Bottle. Hurricane Season Predictions.

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

King Tut's Breatplate.
Source: TheJewelerBlog link below.

Among the items decorated with gold, silver and precious gemstones was a breastplate depicting the god Ra as a winged scarab carrying the sun and moon into the sky. The scarab was carved from a pale greenish-yellow stone that Carter originally identified as chalcedony, a translucent variety of quartz.

A decade later, British geographer Patrick Clayton found samples of a similar glass-like material while exploring the Libyan Desert along the border of modern Egypt and Libya and classified it as Libyan Desert Glass (LDG).

In a recent article published at Forbes.com, geologist David Bressan explains that LDG forms when quartz-rich desert sand is exposed to a heat burst of 3,600°F and then rapidly cools. Modern researchers noted that LDG has a different crystal structure than common quartz and contains traces of rare minerals and unusual elements, suggesting they could have been part of a vaporized meteorite...

Here is the link.

https://thejewelerblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/tutankhamuns-breastplate-features-a-scarab-carved-from-rare-libyan-desert-glass/

Also see

https://www.livescience.com/65503-glass-egypt-desert-meteorite-impact.html.

That story goes along with my 5/18/19 and 5/19/19 posts that mentioned Hiroshima sea glass and Trez's Trinitite collection.

Those were caused by atomic blasts while the glass that was carved into Tut's yellow scarab, it seems, were produced by a meteor strike.

If you want to see tektites, Libyan Desert Glass and the like, here is web site where you can do that.

https://www.meteorites-for-sale.com/tektites-for-sale.html

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Found Ink Bottle With Cap On and Dried Ink Inside.

I seldom find a bottle with a cap, but it does happen, but not only does this bottle have its cap, it also has some of the original contents.

I'm not absolutely sure I know the company, but I think I do.  The cap shows a swan, and the bottom reads 78 - GERMANY.

Top and Bottom of the Same Bottle.

I did not find information on Swan Ink, but I did find an ad for Swan fountain pens.  Since it was common for the companies that made or sold fountain pens to also sell ink, I think that the company that made Swan pens also made Swan ink.

Here is the ad.

My conclusion is that the Mabie, Todd, and Bard company sold the Swan ink.  The one problem I have with this conclusion is that the bottle is labeled GERMANY, and so far I have seen no reference to the company being in Germany.

For more on Swan and other fountain pens see http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/?page_id=1343.

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Fountain pens were popular in the 1920s and 1930s.  Did you know that fountain pens were preferred for legal documents because experts could tell what kind of nib was used.  That information could be helpful if there was some question about a possible counterfeit signature.

Can you also believe that when I went to school the desks had a hole for a 2 oz. ink bottle, and the children used a sharp metal pointed fountain pen for classes in penmanship?

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NOAA is predicting 9 - 15 named storms and 4 - 8 hurricanes this hurricane season, which is about average.

Here is the link.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-season-2019-hurricane-center-reveals-atlantic-forecast-outlook-today-2019-05-23/

Those hurricanes may or may not make landfall.

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The tides are small now, and the surf is running around two or three feet.  There will be no big change in the surf for at least a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/21/19 Report - A Look At Some Beaches. One Find. Incan Tomb. Some Blood Sucking History On The Indian River Lagoon.

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

Jensen Beach Wednesday Afternoon Near Low Tide.

I was driving down a stretch of South Hutchinson Island yesterday and got to take a look at a few of the beaches.  This was near low tide and before the peak tides that occurred later in the day.

As you can see Jensen Beach didn't look bad for hunting modern items.  There were plenty of people there and a wide low front beach.

Another View of Jensen Beach About the Same Time.

Walton Rocks Yesterday Near Low Tide.

Walton Rocks didn't look so good.  Most of it was covered with seaweed and it was very sandy.

John Brooks Beach A Little Before Low Tide Wednesday.

You can still see a good bit of the old cut at John Brooks.  It didn't look much good.

I did get my detector out for a few minutes and found the following.

Gold Dental Cap.

I think I got some gold even if not much.

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This is one of those days when I've been thinking of a topic that is just too big for a blog post.  For me it is a very important topic, but it would take a lot of time to get it in a form that would do it justice.

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Peruvian archaeologists discovered an Incan tomb in the north of the country where an elite member of the pre-Columbian empire was buried, one of the investigators announced Friday...

Archaeologists believe the tomb belonged to a noble Inca based on the presence of "spondylus," a type of sea shell always present in the graves of important figures from the Incan period, which lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

The tomb had been broken into multiple times, possibly in search of treasure. But despite evidence of looting, archaeologists recovered items including vases...

Here is the link if you want to read more about that.

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-archaeologists-incan-tomb-peru.html

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There was a big mosquito bloom on South Hutchinson Island recently.  I had a nice talk with one of the St. Lucie County mosquito control people and learned some interesting things.  While the mosquitoes that populate the island are aggressive and can travel up to 25 miles, they do not carry diseases.  At least that was my understanding of what was said.

I thought this photo was interesting.  These fellows had the job of digging the mosquito control ditches.

The jacquithurlowlippisch.com showed this photo along with the following explanation provided by the author.

The photograph above is one of those rare images that tells you everything even without a caption. This photo, shared by my mother historian, Sandra Henderson Thurlow, (http://www.sandrathurlow.com) was given to her by Mrs. Elizabeth Early, a pioneer of Stuart, “Stuart on the St Lucie.” The photo is entitled “Mosquito Ditch Digging,” and the subjects are unidentified. My mother believes the photo was taken in our region around 1920.

Here is the link for more about mosquito control and the Indian River Lagoon.

https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2018/09/14/historic-photos-of-mosquito-control-along-the-indian-river-lagoon/

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I was informed by one reader that one of the detectorists on Dig Wars admitted that some of their "finds" were planted, so in that light it was my mistake to suggest their finds might in any way be illustrative or typical.

As I said just a few days ago, if I post something wrong it isn't long before somebody brings it to my attention, so I can make corrections.

I guess that is also another reminder to be skeptical of "reality" TV.

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The surf is decreasing now.  It looks like we'll get another bump in the surf in a few days.

The tides are big now.  The low tides are really low.  That might present some opportunities.


I'd really like to get more ideas on the mystery item I posted yesterday.

Thanks.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide @comcast.net

8/14/13 - Sandy Conditions, Seeds of Two Storms & CAP Program

Low Tide This Morning on One Treasure Coast Beach

The beach conditions were terrible this morning, except for the nice calm and inviting surf.  The sand was bad.

In the above photo you can see a number of negatives.  First, is the convex built-up loose sandy beach front.  Second, is the sand bar right in front of the beach.  The line of white water shows where the water was breaking on the east side of the sand bar which was right up next to the front of the beach. And third is the sea weed.  All three are signs of poor detecting conditions.  The gradual slope of the old cut above the beach front is another bad sign.

I had some things planned today for the blog but forgot to take the materials that I was going to use for an illustration to the beach.  Maybe that was just as well because I was hitting the wrong button on my video camera and getting still shots rather than videos.  I would have been really disgusted if my well planned experiment was beautifully executed and then got home to find that I failed to capture it on video.

Anyhow, it turns out that not only did I fail to conduct my planned experiment designed to illustrate the effect of the shape of an object on how it sinks, but I also failed to get any videos.

At least the photos show some nice features that shows the beach conditions.

Another Photo Showing Gentle Surf Breaking on Sand in Front of Beach.

I'll just have to conduct my experiment some other day in the near future.

I did see one area where there was about a three foot cut that ran for some distance.  It wasn't the same one that I showed a few days ago at Jensen Beach, but it was another beach that was rapidly losing renourishment sand.

As you would suspect, those cuts don't produce much of anything old unless old objects were in the sand that was dumped on the beach, as it appears happened on AmberSands Beach.  There were some older US coins in some of that renourishment sand.

If you think about it, really a lot of our beaches are covered with renourishments sand.   It seems like most of South Hutchinson Island has been covered in recent times.


Back earlier this year there was a bit of a movement to initiate a Civilian Archaeology Permit program, that was in some ways similar to the old Isolated Finds program.   The Florida Public Archaeology Network came out against it.

Here is a discussion of the failed Isolated Finds Policy and objections to the proposed Citizens Archaeology Permit program as expressed by FPAN.  Notice that it doesn't address beach finds where there is no archaeological context.

You should read their comments.  Here is the link.

http://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/blog/blog/2013/03/27/fpan-statement-on-the-proposed-citizen-archaeology-permit-cap/

Did you notice how "archaeological site" is defined?   Here it is.

• Florida defines an archaeological site as three or more artifacts within a 30 meter diameter area that are not obviously redeposited (Division of Historical Resources, Cultural Resource Standards & Operational Manual, Module 3, Guidelines for Use by Historic Preservation Professionals, Section 2.4.2.5 Site Bounding, p.18-19).

As we know, most everything on a beach from the swash to the dunes has been redeposited.  A beach is composed of redeposited sand.  That is what a beach is.  And then when you consider all of the trucked in or dredged sand dumped on our beaches, you realize that besides the naturally redeposited materials, there is a massive amount of redeposited material on top of that as the result of all the beach renourishment programs.

Since finds on the beach are redeposited, they have no real archaeological value.  That is exactly what the archaeologists tell us about artifacts out of context.  Therefore there is no reason that the beaches should not be open to recreational activities for the public, including the collecting of artifacts.

I've stated before my favorable impression of the ery successful British model that provides a clear mechanism for reporting and handling other finds.

I have never gone out hunting Indian artifacts.  I have found a few.  Anyone who spends a lot of time on the beach will find a little of everything eventually - old things being no exception.  It is unavoidable if you are on the beach and keep your eyes open.  You'll see whatever the sea presents to you at any particular time.  The ocean constantly turns over material, sometimes dumping everything from aluminum junk to space shuttle debris to old stone artifacts on the beach.  Those things are constantly being worn away by the constant churning.  They might be brought to the surface and appear for a short time and then disappear with the next tide never to be seen again for years or decades, and if they do appear again, they'll likely be much worse for the wear.   That is just the way the beach is.

Anyhow, I hope you'll read the above linked article.


There are now two low pressure areas that have a very good chance of developing into tropical cyclones.  One is just coming off of Africa and the other is down below Cuba.  We'll have to wait and see how they develop.  Until then we can expect more of the same hot weather and poor detecting conditions on the Treasure Coast.

I had such a hard time getting my act together today I'm surprised that I even finished this post.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net