3/11/17 Report - Page-Ladson Site Yields Pre-Clovis Finds. Treasure Coast Finds From Last Week. More On How Objects Sink.

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

Source: See link below.

Radiocarbon dating of a prehistoric archeological site in Florida suggests that 14,550 years ago, hunter-gatherers, possibly accompanied by dogs, butchered or scavenged a mastodon next to a small pond. The findings, based on a four-year study of the Page-Ladson archaeological site in the Aucilla River, about 45 minutes from Tallahassee, Florida, provide a rare glimpse of the earliest human occupation in the southeastern United States, and offer clues to the timing of the disappearance of large animals like the mastodon and camel that roamed the American Southeast during the Late Pleistocene. Additionally, the artifacts at Page-Ladson highlight that much of the earliest record of human habitation of the American Southeast lies submerged and buried in unique depositional settings like those found along the Aucilla River, which passes through Florida on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. This record can only be accessed through underwater investigation, which, if undertaken with precision and care, should reveal a rich and abundant pre-Clovis record for the American Southeast, the authors say...

Here is the link.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/winter-2017/article/prehistoric-site-in-florida-confirms-pre-clovis-peopling-of-the-americas

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Back on the 3rd of the month when our windy period started there were a few old finds. Here is what Trez told me.

I was able to hit the beach couple weeks ago, on the 3rd. I went right after work, had the beach all by myself for the first hour...1 guy was working farther south from where I decided to work. There wasn't much of a cut maybe a foot, the bags were not showing except for a few threads from the previous cuts months ago. But I found a 20 yard section (NO BLACK SAND exposed) just above the shell/rock line but mid up...had my Sov Elite Threshold humming and within minutes had 2 copper targets, moved farther south and shortly followed by 2 Musket balls and a small piece of the lead strap that the musket balls were attached to (DEEP TARGETS) fine orange sand...then nothing else. Only an area 100' square...

Thanks for the report Trez.

One other fellow found a small lead pistol shot. And another guy told me he found a musket ball and a couple odd pieces. I haven't heard of any cobs though.

I'm glad I changed my "2" rating on my beach conditions scale. That suits that kind of thing I'd expect during that rating.

You might also remember my discussion of John Brooks which had a three foot or greater cut about three times in the last month or two. It has been cutting, then the cut fills for a number of days and then it cuts again and fills again. Each time it cut lately, it cut when a front came through with a stiff north wind, then when the wind changes direction, the cut disappears.

A cut can disappear even when there is still a big surf. One way that happens is that the surf washes straight up and over the cut. That will remove the cut in a hurry.

We're supposed to get another front this weekend and a north wind for a short while Friday night, then again Thursday. Check out windytv.com.

The surf is supposed to remain small for the entire week though.

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I sometimes use the Indian River for observations.  It acts something like the ocean in some ways, but is on a smaller scale.  The wind kicks up waves from time to time, the sand moves around, erosion occurs and objects are exposed.

The west side of the river typically takes more of a beating than the east side, but, of course, depending upon the wind, that will change.

I made a couple of observations recently.  Recently I noticed nails used to construct docks laying exposed under many of the docks.  They were not that visible a month or more ago, but now you an see a lot of them.

One of the docks where the nails are now exposed was made a good ten years ago, yet you can now see nails lost during construction laying exposed under the dock.

So what!  Well, one thing it shows is how slowly things sink (if you can call it that) even on the higher energy west side.  Those nails, have been there within a few inches of the surface for like ten years.  Sometimes they disappear but then reappear again.  Not much sand was removed to reveal them.  A lot of sand has been moving west from slightly deeper water, but there is a little dip in some locations close to the bank.

In my opinion, contrary to what people often say, items don't sink, no matter how dense they are, if the sand beneath them is not moved, or at least agitated.  Upper layers of sand will move more than lower layers of sand.  That sounds obvious enough.  For an item to sink, uncovering it won't cause it to sink.  Deeper layers will have to be moved, or at least agitated.

An item can be uncovered and covered several times before the sand below it is moved enough for it to sink down.  Another way an item can sink is when a wave crashes over the item.  That can push water into the sand, agitating the sand and pushing the grains farther apart while putting downward pressure on the item.

My main point here, however, is simply that items do not quickly sink in the river sand, as my nails seem to show.  The process in the ocean is similar but quicker because of the higher energy environment.  Still, it is not a passive process governed primarily by gravity as some seem to imply.

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We'll have about a two foot surf for the next few days.  We are, however, having some nice negative tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net