Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Gold Religious Medallion Find |
This medallion is larger than most and is intricate. You can see the remains of a black encrustation that has been partly removed.
When I first posted yesterday's post there were a lot of problems with it. Fortunately I went back later and fixed some of the problems.
One big thing was that I originally left out of the post was a link to a great article on the earliest European Gulf Coast settlement. I put it in later, but in case you missed it, here it is.
http://archeologyink.com/LaRuaBluff.pdf
Below is an excerpt from that article.
Fig. 16: During the 1940s several young boys were roaming along the shoreline
of a peninsula jutting into Pensacola Bay . They had learned how to find
artifacts. The railroad crews would come down the line on occasion and dig
out the banks to protect the tracks. When it rained the kids would scour the
exposed banks for artifacts. On one day, they found a coin which dated to the
time of the Tristan de Luna colony. One the kids, Harry Bonifay, found it.
The coin and the area are figured in the next few pages. Sixty something
years later marine archeologists found two shipwrecks of the period just
offshore from the same bayshore.
It says the kids checked newly disturbed soil. I've recommended checking any disturbed soil many times in this blog.
The kids also knew to check after rain. That is another strategy that I've mentioned before. Those are two good reminders.
Curren, as contrasted with the quotes I gave a couple of days ago from the shipwreck articles reveals a much more constructive style and approach. He gives even children recognition for their finds and treats the public as a part of the process. That is exactly the approach that will promote and advance the field of study.
Below is another good tip found in the same article
Fig. 18: ... The coin was found in a dredge spoil pile near the mouth of Bayou
Texar.
Most often you'll find junk, such as mangled aluminum cans in dredged material, however there are times when more interesting things are found in dredged material. There have been times when interesting old materials have been found in dredged material in Southeast Florida and the Treasure Coast.
Thanks to Caleb Curren, author of archaeologink.com and that particular article.
I would encourage you once again to do some genealogical research. I've learned a lot of history through research into my own ancestors. One line goes back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in the 1640s. Of course that was after the Mayflower. One thing I found particularly interesting is that John Greenleaf Whittier actually wrote a ballad about one of my ancestors. She was said to be the first white woman sold into slavery in America. Her crime was not exactly, but basically being too friendly to the Quakers. The sea captains refused to take to Virginia or Barbados to be sold though. It might have had something to do with the fact that her father was a boat carpenter. She did spend time in leg stocks. Anyhow, the ballad is Cassandra, which is actually her mother's name.
Along another ancestral line was a Ranger in the Revolutionary War that fought Indians in the Ohio Valley. He was captured, escaped, swam the river, etc. etc. It was a violet time on both sides, and both sides actually collected scalps. With all the political correctness these days, I was surprised to learn how violent and brutal it actually was.
It can be really interesting when you put enough time into the research to locate ancestors which were written about in detail like that.
Those are only two of the things that I found most interesting. I was lucky to be able to locate so much material. I'm sure you can find some interesting things about your ancestry too. The most interesting thing would be to go to some of those areas and do a detector search where your ancestors lived. It really makes the history come alive.
On the Treasure Coast the wind picked up around noon and white caps formed on the river.
We are still having high high tides, but the surf is still small.
A 3 - 5 foot surf is predicted for Wednesday. That is a little increase.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
