3/2/20 Report - Researching Bead Finds For Age and Origin. Other Shipwrecks Along the Treasure Coast.

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

Beads Found Along With Small Metallic Objects A Little Over A Week Ago.

I previously posted a variety of miscellaneous small metallic finds, including a few pieces of melted silver.  These beads were found the same day as some of those finds and in the same general vicinity.  I've been researching beads to see if I can find any evidence of their age.

I've found a lot of information about beads of the Spanish Colonial period as well as earlier and later periods.

Manifests show many beads, sometimes hundreds of thousands per shipment, being imported to the New World by the Spanish for a variety of purposes.  Deagan's book, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500 - 1600: Vol. 2, Portable Personal Possessions, shows that most of those beads were glass, but others were jet, aquamarine, pearls, wood, crystal, coral or amber, and some of silver.  Clay or terracotta was not mentioned in those listings.

It appears to me that these beads are clay or terracotta.

End of Bead Showing Clay Composition.

If I knew this bead was centuries old, the condition would make me think that it came from the dunes.
The other small items that I discussed yesterday seem like they could also be from recent dune erosion.

I once found a small gold bead on the same wreck beach.  I've told about that before. It wasn't easy to find after it was detected by the metal detector.  I had it along with some shell sand on my detector coil and could hear when it was moved, but still had a hard time seeing it.

In the process of trying to find evidence of the likely age of this bead, I found some good information and resources even if I didn't find any positive answers.

Below is a link to The History of Trade Beads on the Peach State Archaeological Society web site.

https://peachstatearchaeologicalsociety.org/index.php/13-beads/248-history-of-trade-beads

Here is the introductory paragraph.

October 12, 1492, Columbus recorded in his logbook the natives of San Salvador Island were given red caps and glass beads. This is the earliest written record of glass beads in the Americas. The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortéz landed on the coast of Mexico in the spring of 1519. His ships carried glass beads along with other European trade goods. The Spanish explorers Narváez in 1527 and De Soto in 1539 carried glass beads for trade with the native inhabitants of Florida.

Glass beads were by far the most common.  You will find a few from the Atocha listed in the MelFisher artifact database.

Here is detailed academic study of 16th century beads in South America.

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/33813391/FEINZIG-DOCUMENT-2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Among the beads of the native populations, stone and shell were common materials.

I thought that clay or terracotta beads would be among the most common, but that does not seem to be the case.  Many of the materials used to create beads have a symbolic significance, which is one reason that materials that are more difficult to work and form might be used more often than easily workable clay.

At this point I can't say if the beads are old or not.  I'm still looking for evidence that might point one way or the other.

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On the Treasure Coast the 1715 Fleet wrecks get the most attention, however there are many other wrecks, both known and unknown, along the Treasure Coast.

A quick survey of Shipwrecks In The Americas by Robert E. Marx, shows the following 16th century wrecks listed as wrecking near Fort Pierce.

1551. Nao San Nicolas, 200 tons, Captain Juan Christoval, was wrecked near Fort Pierce and the Indians recovered a great deal of what it carried....

1554. The ship of Farfan (probably its owner) sand near Fort Pierce, richly laden with gold and silver...

1564.  A Spanish historian briefly mentions the los of three ships of Don Juan Menendez on the Florida coast near Fort Pierce.

Sometime before 1570.  The ship Vizcayo, on which Don Anton Grandado was a passenger, wrecked richly laden near Fort Pierce inlet...

Sometime before 1570.  A Spanish privateer, El Mulato, wrecked, richly laden, near Fort Pierce….

That is only a small sample of the 16th century wrecks of Florida.  There are many other 16th century wrecks listed simply as wrecking along the coast of Florida, or near Cape Canaveral or in the Bahama channel.  In addition, there are many more wrecks from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

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The price of gold seems to be making a comeback this morning after falling last week.

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The surf predictions are beginning to look more encouraging for next weekend.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/24/20 Report - Treasure Coast Beaches Building Again. Another Look At Cob Finds. Found Beads.

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

In Front of Vero Boardwalk Monday Afternoon.

I wanted to see what was going on with the Indian River County beaches today.  The first photo is in front of the Vero boardwalk, where you see the renourishment sand that was dumped not too long ago.  As you probably know, reales have been found in that area.  I remember one storm when the area right in front of the Holiday Inn washed out and exposed some reales.  That was a number of years ago.

Turtle Trail Near Low Tide Monday.

The detecting crowds deserted Turtle Trail.  It looked pretty lonely.

There is now nearly two feet of sand on top of the layers that were exposed Friday night and Saturday.  The blue bags are now covered, as are some of the posts that were exposed.

Turtle Trail Near Low Tide Monday.

The Seagrape Trail access was closed.  As I previously mentioned, the stairs were damaged.

Wabasso Near Low Tide Monday.

I think I saw only two detectorists today.  I mostly saw snowbirds and sunbathers.

Ambersands Near Low Tide Monday.

Same thing at Ambersands.

Ambersands Near Low Tide Monday.

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Mexico Minted Half Reale Found at Seagrape Saturday by Josh D.
Photo by Josh D.

Josh D. sent me photos of these new finds yesterday but got better photos so I decided to post the new photos.

Another Cob Found by Josh D.

Photo by Josh D.

This cob shows a part of the legend.  You can most clearly see the cross and the H from Hispanarium Rex.  That is just left of center on the cob.

Thanks for the photos Josh.  Great first finds!

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Not all shipwreck finds are metal.  In fact one of my most favorite and the one that amazes me to this day is an impressed wax seal.  Hard to imagine it lasting on the beach for over three hundred years.

I do not limit my hunting to metal detecting.  I do a lot of eye-balling and enjoy non-metallic finds as much as those that are detected.   Here are some made Saturday at the same beach where cobs and musket balls and other metallic finds were being made.

Two Beads Found Saturday.

The trouble with these, like many other finds, is that it isn't easy to determine the source or age.  These ones are painted clay.  You can see the clay around the inside of the hole.

Now the research begins.

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Friday night and Saturday there was a window of opportunity.  It was one of the better ones that we've had for a while.  It didn't last long though - I'd say maybe two tide cycles at most.

We've been getting those fronts coming through.  The window opens and then the wind shifts, and the window closes again.

Sometimes you get some shifting, and sometimes there are a few straggling finds.  In fact, some of the best all-time ever shipwreck beach finds were made when the detectorist thought it was all over - and much of it was.

I'm still waiting to receive the photos of some of the reales that were found.  There was quite a group, including some large denomination cobs.

I always say, "Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd." There were tons of people gathered at one beach and not too many at other beaches, so you might be surprised to learn that reales were found at more than one Indian River County beach yesterday.  In fact I know of shipwreck finds made at three different beaches.

We're supposed to have another cold front come through soon, but so far they are not predicting a high surf to go with it.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/14/20 Report - Surprises! Treasure in Jar of Clay. Earthquake Footprints. Encrusted Bits. Increasing Surf.

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

Treasure From a Clay Jar.

Source: English.tau.ac.il web site (See link below)

We’re always told that the journey is just as important as the destination. This is true in many aspects of life, but perhaps nowhere as much as in scientific research. Flexibility, curiosity, and attention to detail can lead to a treasure you weren’t even expecting to find. TAU’s scientists talk about research that began one way and ended another, thanks to a few surprises along the way...

That is the beginning of an article in the Tel Avive University News entitled Recalculating: when research starts one way and ends another.   It is about surprise discoveries that change the direction of the research.

Continuing with the first story in the article...

A treasure in a pot

A team of archeologists on an excavation mission found that sometimes the appearance of a clay pot is no indication of its contents. "On one of the excavations in Megiddo, we removed the partitions separating the different sections of the dig and found a whole clay pot full of dirt," says Naama Walzer, a doctoral student in the Department of Archaeology and Early Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University.

"We packed it up and planned to send it to a molecular residue lab to find out what used to be stored inside of this pot, which we dated to around 1100 BCE." The pot was stored in an office, but after a while it became clear that preservation in that area of the excavation wasn’t up to standard, so the team decided to empty the pot, in a controlled way, and poured out its contents on the table. "We weren’t expecting to find what ended up being inside: a treasure trove of jewelry, considered one of the greatest troves found in Israel from the Biblical period!"   (See photo at top of this post.)

Among other things the trove contained nine large earrings and a seal ring, over a thousand small gold beads, and silver necklaces and jewelry.  "This is how we found the big treasure of area H, which is now part of the permanent exhibition, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem," concludes Walzer.

That is the first story of several interesting stories found in that article.  Below is the link for the rest of the article.

https://english.tau.ac.il/news/recalculating\


If you look at the earrings found in the over three-thousand year-old jar, could you tell that they are not modern or how old they are?   They aren't really that much different from modern earrings.  That is how difficult it can be to identify the age of an item by just looking at the form of the object.  Those types of hooks worked then and would still work today.

Someone once said that he learned everything he knew from six fellows: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.  So here is one question - Why nine earrings.  Seems an odd number - in more ways than one.  Loss?  Extra Earring?  Only wore one at a time?  Just a grouping?  What?  Who knows?

Written around 59AD by Paul (who, by the way, was a shipwreck survivor), 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, reads, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.   He was evidently familiar with treasures in jars of clay and saw it as a suitable metaphor.

You might find the second story in the article interesting too.  In the picture below, notice the swirly sedimentary layers.  It is at the bottom of the Dead Sea (lowest place on earth that is dry land) and the swirls, it seems, were created by earthquakes hundreds of thousands of years ago.

You might enjoy reading that story too.

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I was picking up some small bits of metal when I was finding cobs a few weeks ago, and said I was going to take a closer look at some of those to try to figure out what they are.  Here are a couple of small encrusted bits that I'll be cleaning.

The one above seems to be as heavy as lead.  I wouldn't be surprised if that is what it is.

This one is flatter and hard to compare but doesn't feel as dense.

Both have a brown/orange encrustation.

They are being cleaned now.

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Sourcea; MagicSeaWeed.com

As you can see, the surf will be building today up to around six feet.


Happy Valentine's Day,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/6/19 Report - Hoard Being Analyzed. Prehistoric Site Found by Drone. More on Carlos Half Reales Including Video. Higher Surf.

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

Part of Staffordshire Hoard

Source: TheGuardian.com  (See link below)

The Staffordshire Hoard is being analyzed by archaeologists.

… The archaeologists have even tentatively identified the Mercian king they believe may have once owned the booty, and can draw a tantalising link to the dynasty of the rival Anglo-Saxon ruler who was buried at Sutton Hoo, Britain’s most famous site of the period.

Dating from the period AD600-AD650, when the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England were battling for prominence, the Staffordshire find is in essence a “war hoard”, says Fern, consisting of spectacular items the experts believe were captured in battle by armies from the kingdom of Mercia, at the expense of neighbouring Northumbria and East Anglia...

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

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/01/staffordshire-hoard-archaeologists-academic-research-gold-ornaments

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Drone-mounted lasers have revealed details of the architecture of an ancient island settlement off Florida’s Gulf coast, researchers said in a new paper published on Monday...

Laser scanning reveals 'lost' ancient Mexican city 'had as many buildings as Manhattan'

Read more

Although archaeological objects were first spotted on the island in about 1990, and subsequent exploration of the area in 2010 revealed the presence of a settlement dating from 900 to 1200 CE, Lidar scanning revealed previously unknown architectural details...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/nov/04/drone-lasers-ancient-settlement-florida-lidar-archaeology

I found out it is Raleigh Island.

See https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/a-drone-helped-archaeologists-discover-a-lost-florida-island-settlement/

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I received an email from Glen S. pointing out a mistake I made in yesterday's post when I posted an image of the stylized Carlos monogram as it would appear on a Lima half reale.  As a result I went back and made corrections to yesterday's post.

Thanks Glen!

Yesterday I did not intend to get into the differences you will see on Carlos half reales produced by the mints of Lima, Mexico and Potosi. There are features that distinguish cobs, and specifically Carlos half reales, produced by the different mints. Although I was talking mostly about the monograms yesterday, both the obverse and reverse sides show features that distinguish between half reales produced by the three  mints.

While looking for stylized images of the Carlos monograms for each mint that I could use as illustraitons, I found an excellent YouTube video that shows how you can tell which of the mints produced a particular Carlos half reale.

One of the easiest ways to identify a Mexico minted half reale is from the Florenza cross.  On almost all half reales you can see at least one end of the cross, which is enough to tell you if it came from the Mexico mint or not.  It is the Mexico minted Carlos half reales that show what I described yesterday as a fishhook on the end of the C.

The shape of the castles and lions is one way to distinguish between the Lima and Postosi half reales, and the shape of the elipses is another.

Rather than trying to describe all of the distinguishing features in this post, here is a link to the YouTube video posted by CaptainMyCaptain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drywuHMIpmI

Very nice video.  I usually prefer text to videos, but this video is concise.  No time wasted getting to the point.

You have easy access to a lot of really good information these days.  I wish I had that back a few decades ago.

By the way, two of the Carlos half reales I showed yesterday were found on John Brooks beach, where I found mostly cobs from the Mexico mint and many more Philip than Carlos half reales.  Without an exact count, I'd guess that I probably found four or five times as many Philip  than Carlos half reales at John Brooks.

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DJ sent me a copy of a letter from the town clerk of Indian River Shores which included the following items of interest.

• The Tracking Station Park and adjacent beach entrances have been closed and will remain closed for approximately two weeks as the Sector 5 segment of the beach renourishment project commences.


• Jungle Trail has been reopened following the shoreline stabilization project.

Thanks DJ.

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MagicSeaWeed is predicting a high surf for Saturday.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The tides are still pretty flat.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/23/17 Report - Calusa Artifacts for Reference - Silver, Gold and Copper

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

Photo of Calusa Artifacts Displayed in the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Photo by Darrel S.

In order to help you identify finds, yesterday I showed a variety of Seminole artifacts - mostly silver. Today I'm showing Calusa artifacts.  A lot are silver, but there are also copper, gold and even a couple lead items.  All of the Calusa artifact photos were taken by Darrel Strickland at the Gainesville museum.

Just to let you know, Darrel has made some great finds.  He knows more about these things than what he saw at the museum.

What he considers his greatest beach find was "a complete Native American necklace with wrapped shipwreck coins, beads, shells, etc."  The twine was made of horse hair and plant strands.  It has been viewed by experts.  He has also made other great finds.  One, a bison bone, is in the Fountain of Youth collection.

Below is a closer look at some of the artifacts Darrel photographed in the Gainesville museum, including both gold and silver items.

Photo by Darrel S.

Next are some made of copper.

Photo by Darrel S.

And below are some cone shape silver items.

Photo by Darrel S.

Beads on the Left, Tablets Center, and Other Items on the Right.
Photo by Darrel S.

Here is a closer view of some of the above, especially tablets.

Photo by Darrel S.

Below are close-up views of some beads and tinklers.

Photo by Darrel S.

Below are a few more unique Calusa items. 

Photo by Darrel S.

This post should provide a good reference for identifying old Calusa artifacts.

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On the Treasure Coast we are had some big low tides today.  Combined with the small surf that should give you good access to some beach areas that might be hard to get to at other times.

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net