Tuesday, February 11, 2020

2/11/20 Report - Detectorist Finds Rare Gold Coins. Havering Hoard Surprise. "Spanish" Galleons.


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

Source: BBC.com (See link below)

A hoard of 19 gold coins from the Iron Age unearthed in Suffolk was a "really unusual" find for the area, an expert has said...

Archaeologist Dr Anna Booth said it showed "cross cultural interaction" between nearby counties at the time... 


A metal detectorist found the hoard within a 10-15m (32-49ft) square...


Here is the link for the rest of that article.


As the old FIXX song says, "One thing leads to another."  There are usually "cross cultural interactions," and we need to remember that in regard to our local treasure wrecks.

Below is another article to consider.

French bracelet among surprises in mysterious Havering hoard 


One of the largest and most mysterious bronze age hoards ever found in the UK contains objects that have astonished archaeologists, including items more commonly found in France and the Alps.
The Museum of London Monday revealed new finds among the Havering hoard, a remarkable collection of 453 swords, axes, knives, chisels, sickles, razors, ingots and bracelets excavated from a quarry in east London over a period of three months and revealed last year...

There is also a bracelet believed to be from what is now north-west France, and copper ingots possibly originating from the Alps...

“These objects give clues about how this wasn’t an isolated community but rather one that fitted into a much larger cultural group with connections along the Thames Valley and across the continent.”...
Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/feb/10/french-bracelet-among-surprises-in-mysterious-havering-hoard


That is a good lesson, and one that should be remembered.  Events are seldom as simple as people tend to make them.  As inconvenient as it is, things tend become more complex the more you understand about them.  I have been thinking about that as it relates to the treasure wrecks along our coast and was glad I ran across these articles to help me illustrate the point.  The fleets were international events in more ways than one.

They are often called "Spanish" galleons with good reason, however did you know that they were constructed and provisioned with many materials from many countries.  By the sixteenth century Spain's shipbuilding resources were already becoming strained.  Tall timber for masts and spars, for example, were already used up so long timbers were imported from the Baltic.  Sail canvas was imported from Holland and France.  Powder and arms came from Belgium and wheat from the Netherlands.  Those are just a few of the most basic items.  The point being that a treasure fleet does not represent an isolated community in any way, and that should be remembered when finds are studied.  A fleet or a galleon is not isolated chronologically or geographically.  There are many important intermingled pre and post wreck events and many diverse countries, regions and communities involved.

I'll end there once again feeling like I'm trying to stuff the bobcat into the soup can.  As the old song by FIXX says, "One thing leads to another."

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Back a couple years ago it seemed that the MagicSeaWeed surf predictions had a systematic error in tbeir model.  Often a big surf was predicted for the future, but then it shrank as the time got nearer.  It seemed like they got that fixed.  They were pretty accurate with their predictions for the past year or so, but it happened again.  The big surf that a few days ago was predicted for up around ten feet has now shrunk down to 3 - 5 feet.  I'm disappointed.

Below are the current surf predictions for the Fort Pierce area.


Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

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You might want to read Six Galleons for the King of Spain by Carla Phillips, John Hopkins University Press, 1992.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net