5/18/20 Report - Arthur To Stir Outer Banks. Laws. Turtle Trail Hunt. Mystery Object.

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

Tropical Storm Arthur, which formed off Florida on Saturday, was expected to strengthen and whip the Outer Banks with rain and gusty winds overnight into Monday, the National Weather Service said. Eastern portions of the state should brace for localized flooding and hazardous marine conditions, forecasters said...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/tropical-storm-arthur-sets-its-sights-on-north-carolina-coast/ar-BB14d73e?ocid=spartandhp

The Outer Banks also have some good shipwreck beach metal detecting.

If you are interesting in metal detecting the Outer Banks, here are the laws.

https://www.firstflightrentals.com/blog/metal-detecting-laws-outer-banks/

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DJ sent me these two photos and an email description of his hunt at Turtle Trail yesterday.  Here is what he said.

North of Turtle trail, there is a large rectangular target that I thought was an engine block (still may be). It is confusing because it usually is deeper than dig level and in that the readings run from copper, aluminum to iron. But the general size and shape can be determined in pinpoint mode. Yesterday, part of it was slightly above the sand at low tide where some sand had been washed away. Hard to tell from the picture but it looked like two square compartments connected by a taller iron divider. Away from that divider were the multiple readings. I had never seen this before so some sand must have been moved. 

Large Object North of Turtle Trail.

Photo by DJ

The other two pictures [one below] was of an item that I first thought silver, as one edge was very shiny. Not metallic. My acid test solution was old and not reliable. I dipped it in 50/50 acid and the whole piece oxidized. I seem to remember silver would not do this in acid. It is about 1-1/2” by 1/2” . The back has a ball shape with a hole that may have been an attachment point or holder. My best guess is a lapel pin or hair barrette. A few very corroded iron nails and chunks of iron along with the usual flakes. I placed a magnet in the end of the scoop handle so I can just check a surface sighted flake as iron without a lot of effort.

Small Mystery Find.

Find and photo by DJ.

... Also found a few pieces of sea glass, one was jet black on the ground but when held up it was olive green. I had heard of this black glass on your blog.  

There were about 8 detectorists, lots of walkers and only crowded at the beach access tough everyone kept their distance. Our new normal now I guess.

Thanks for the report DJ.

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It looks like there are a lot of good bargains in the current Sedwick Auction.  Maybe all the corona-balona is keeping prices down.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Interesting looking surf predictions.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/21/16 Report - Luna Camp Found by Amateur Archaeologist. Information Access Inequality. Cleaned Find. Black Glass.

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

Same Find After Cleaning

Treasure Coast Beach Find.

Here is a find that sat around for a while before I did anything with it.  

Before I cleaned it I thought it might be a silver heart.

I had just finished cleaning another object and had a muriatic bath ready to go so I decided to put the object in.  I was just assuming that it was silver,

In a very short time it was clean.  It didn't take long at all.

It turns out it wasn't silver.  It was copper.

I don't think it is a heart now either, but maybe.  It appears that there was a hole or chain or something, which broke through.

There is some gold gilt left on it.

It is a little more interesting to me now.  I was wrong about the metal, for sure.  And now I really don't know what it is.  

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An amateur archaeologist recently discovered a lost Spanish settlement in the Florida Panhandle.

According to experts, Garner’s find at a newly cleared lot along the Pensacola Bay was the landing site of a doomed 1559 expedition led by Tristan de Luna. The discovery bolsters Pensacola’s claim as the first European settlement in the modern-day United States, six years before Pedro Menendez founded St. Augustine on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The Luna expedition was scuttled by a hurricane that sank five ships in September 1559, shortly after the fleet arrived.

Click here for the rest of that story.

Thanks to Dean R. for the link.

Amateur archaeologists make many important finds.  They are out there in the field, are interested and informed.  Empowering and informing the public will lead to even more discoveries.

If you look at Allan Craig's books about the coins in the Florida Collection or the Marken book on pottery from Spanish shipwrecks (both printed by the University of Florida Press), you'll see how much treasure hunters have contributed.  Both of those studies make extensive use of items found by treasure hunters.  In the preface Marken spends a lot of time apologizing for the fact that his study considered objects found by treasure hunters, but without them the record would be much less complete.

Books published by university presses are expensive.  And either of the books mentioned above will cost you over $50 for used copies.  That is too bad.  The oft stated purpose is to save history for the public, yet the information is not inexpensively available.

Those types of books will mostly be purchased by research libraries and accessed by academics and graduate students.  There is not a large market for such books, and that is part of the reason they cost so much.

In my opinion the information in those books should be inexpensively and easily available to the public.  The public pays for most of the research activities anyhow, and in more than one way.  And the state universities are supported by the public.

If you do not want or cannot afford your own copy, you can get free access to them through a library. Don't be afraid to ask your librarian for an interlibrary loan if they do not keep a copy on hand.

Also remember that you can see part of those books online for free.

While a lot of people are calling for income equality these days, I am as interested in information access equality.

The internet has increased access to information for the public, but there are limits.

I've recently reported how archaeologists intentionally keep site information from the public who funds most of the activities either directly or indirectly.

The academic and scientific communities publish much of the time in very expensive scientific journals.  If you don't have a good research library nearby or if your local librarian won't assist. you might not be able to easily access that information.

I've mentioned the Open Access Movement before, so won't go into that now, but to me that is an important movement.

As I said, there isn't a large market for books like the two I mentioned above, so they are expensive. That is simple economics.  There are a variety of possible solutions though.

In these days when income inequality receives so much attention, I would like to bring attention to the issue of information access inequality.

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Piece of Black Glass

Same Piece of Glass Held Up
To a Light.

You've heard of black glass.  It looks black, but is usually actually a dark green.  You can see that it is green if you hold it up to a light.

This piece of black glass was found on the Treasure Coast, but turned out to be brown instead of dark green.  You can see what it looked like when held up to a light (below).

That was a little bit of a surprise to me.  Most of the black glass I've found was a dark olive green.

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On the Treasure Coast we're going to have three or four days of 3 - 5 foot surf.  That is not bad, however the wind will be mostly a south wind.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/8/2011 Report - Looking Through the Glass & Nails

Copper Nails Found Near Jupiter Inlet Beach Last Week.

Terry T. found these nails down near Jupiter Beach recently. He says he never found anything like this before.

First finds are always fun and memorable. Congratulations Terry!

If you have some first finds, especially recently found, sent me a photo and a bit of the story. For that matter, I'd like to see any finds that you might want to share. I won't be able to post them all, but will post as many as I have time for.

In the past I've posted a lot of pictures of spikes and old nails. I also posted an this illustration of some old nails that might be some help.

You can read those old posts and see other finds by using the search box on this blog. You might enter the keywords "nails" or "spikes"."

It's always good to become familiar with a wide variety of miscellaneous objects. Finds like this can tell you something important about the beach and the area where you are hunting.

Old Nails.

Yesterday I posted a photo of a piece of black glass that I found while eye-balling a beach that I didn't bother detecting because of the beach conditions there. You can scout a lot of area visually when looking for clues and non-metallic items.

As you might know, black glass is not really black, although this particular piece would easily fool you, unless you held it up t a bright light to see it's dark olive green color. It really does look black otherwise.

Anyhow, I thought you might want to learn a little about black glass, which can be a good clue when you find it.

Here is a link to a web site that shows a lot of old bottles, including black glass. This site will give you an idea of the different types of black glass bottles that might have been lost with old shipwrecks.

http://www.bottlebooks.com/Most%20Valuable%20Bottles/most__valuable_black_glass_bottles.htm

And here is another web site that tells a lot about glass shipwreck finds. It is a study of the pieces of glass found on the Queen Anne's Revenge (Blackbeard's flagship) wreck site.

http://www.qaronline.org/techSeries/QAR-R-08-02.pdf

I highly commend this group for posting their research reports online.

While on the subject, a bunch of old bottles and other things has been found under a parking lot in downtown San Francisco.

Here is the link.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/development/2011/01/remnants-boozy-village-found


Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is out of the West and the ocean is flat. You know what that means - good time to get into the water. It's much easier to work in flat calm water.

I don't have to tell you again to avoid the leased areas, but I just did.

It looks like tomorrow and the following days, the seas will pick up a little again. Until then don't expect any changes in beach conditions.

It will be nice to get some churning again.

That's all for today.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net