4/11/20 Report - Heel Bone Pierced by Spike: Artifactual Proof of Crucifixion? A Personal Easter Story.

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

The heel bone and nail from the ossuary of Yehohanan, discovered in Jerusalem in 1968.

 (photo credit: Courtesy of the Israel Museum. Photographer: Ilan Shtulman)

From TimesOfIsrael.com (See link below).

In Jerusalem around 2,000 years ago a Jew named Yehohanan, who was in his mid-twenties, committed a crime against Roman authority. The nature of his transgression has been lost to time, but his punishment is known — he was crucified.

Convicts were executed by crucifixion in the Roman Empire as a matter of course, and histories of the time regularly describe the practice, which was designed to make death prolonged, painful and public. After the famous slave uprising led by Spartacus was crushed in 71 BCE, for example, an estimated 6,000 rebels were crucified along a highway leading to the capital as an illustration of Roman power. 

It is therefore an odd fact that archaeological evidence of this punishment — crosses, for example, or perforated skeletons — has never been found anywhere in the world, with one exception: the stone box containing Yehohanan’s remains.

After Yehohanan’s body was removed from the cross, it would have been laid out in a burial cave. After the flesh had decomposed a year or so later, leaving only the skeleton, his bones were gathered in a simple stone box, an ossuary, in keeping with the Jewish practice of that time. Today, the box is displayed in a gallery at the Israel Museum alongside other artifacts from the period of Roman rule in Judea...


Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-a-stone-box-a-rare-trace-of-crucifixion/

Now there is an artifact.  It provides a good example of how artifacts provide evidence but do not tell the entire story.  As we've seen many times, artifacts can be difficult to identify, but the research can teach you a lot.

This artifact, like so often is the case, presents difficulties.  Below is an image of a heel bone.

One of the difficulties is that the spike goes through the side of the heel, which is not how crucifixions are pictured.  Like the crucifixes I showed yesterday, they usually show a single spike going through the top of both feet, with the two feet being on top of each other.

Scholars take this spike as evidence of a crucifixion.  It might be, but could it be something else?  Could it be some other type of torture other than crucifixion.  I don't think it would likely be accident.  To me, crucifixion seems like one of the better explanations, but there might be some other explanation.

Some have suggested that the feet of the person being crucified could have been placed on each side of the main vertical post of the cross and the feet nailed to the cross, one on each side of the upright post.

We can make the mistake of thinking that things were always done the same way.  That is probably not the case.  There can be different circumstances and different people that do things differently.

Some crucifixes show the feet on a bit of a stand attached to the cross.  If there was a vertical support for that stand, the heels could have been nailed to that rather than the sides of the main vertical post.  Or the fellow could have been terribly pigeon toed or had the turnout of a ballerina.  There are a lot of possibilities.  We just don't know the entire story of this artifact yet.

We can also wonder why the nail isn't all the way in the one or why on the other side it is bent over.   Many questions remain.

Part of the value of the artifact is what it tells us, and part of it's value is what it asks us.

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You might enjoy reading other articles in the Israel Times,  Many of the articles are on Coronavirus, such as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect being hit ten times harder than the general population.  It seems the virus hit them even harder than it hit our black communities.  Also interesting is the article on a Holocaust survivor's reflections on the virus.

That reminds me of the 104 year-old WWII vet that had the Spanish flu and survived it and also had COVID-19 and survived.  That fellow is a survivor.

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Among the most legendary of treasures are the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.  Probably no other treasures have been the subject of so many books, stories and movies.  Although they did exist, much of what has been written or portrayed about them is pure fiction.

There are other Biblical lost treasures, such as the priestly breastplate that was made of gold and covered with gems.  It has been claimed that one of those gems has been found.  I'll get into that more some other time.

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My Easter Story.

They say you can never go home again, but last night I did.  It was before 4 AM when I awoke and vividly remembered an experience that put me at a particular time and place of my youth.

It was sixty-five years ago, late afternoon or early evening, the Saturday before Easter.  I and a few of the other kids had just finished our imaginary rendition of a major league baseball game on a field on top of a hill that would a little later in the year be covered by hay tall enough to hide in.

I could see my young mother in her apron  standing on the porch off the kitchen half way down the hill as she called me in.  The water for the Easter egg dye just reached a boil.

The kids scattered in four or five different directions, each towards their home, but I stood there for a moment and looked out over the green valley that was my world.  I had no way of understanding it at the time, but it felt like time froze for a moment as everything I saw and felt was being stamped indelibly into my mind.

At the bottom of the valley was a creek, and above that a red dog road, and on each side of the road at various distances were the few scattered homes, each one having a name, such as Bristers, Simpsons, Hamiltons, Harts and Mounts.

As I looked over that green valley with my young eyes, it was a scene that would never change for me.  I noticed a wisp of smoke rising from Brister's trash pile.  The smoke drew my attention.  It seemed slightly strange or out of place on such a bright clear beautiful scene.  

Mom was so young.  And dad was still here.  The kids are now scattered away from that valley.  Some of them are gone too, maybe like that wisp of smoke.

But I'm still that young boy.  Mom is still that young woman.  Dad is still here.  The valley never changed.  I know that because I visited that place again last night.

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The surf is still small, but the tides are still big.

As they isolate and distance, Christians await Easter morning and Jews observe Passover.  Easter and Passover are inseparable.   You'll see that in the Bible.
Passover for the year 2020 starts on the evening of Wednesday, April 8th and ends at sunset on Wednesday, April 15th for Reform and progressive Jews living inside Israel who follow the Biblical text. For Orthodox, Hasidic, and generally Jews outside Israel the festival lasts 8 days ending at sunset on Thursday, April 16th.

Blessings,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/10/20 Report - Variety of Crucifixes: 16th to 21st Century. Indicators of Age To Look For.

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

Old Silver Crucifix Sold In a Previous Sedwick Auction.

A few days ago I posted a photo of one of my favorite 1715 Fleet finds - a gold corpus.  At that time I thought it would have been a good topic for Good Friday, but I posted it anyhow with the intention of coming back to the topic on Good Friday.

Anyone who has done much detecting has found a variety of crucifixes.  They can be very old or new and are made using a variety of materials, including non-metallic.  You might not know if a crucifix is old or new if there are no obvious signs or markings that tell you.

The above crucifix was sold in a Sedwick auction a few years ago, unfortunately I don't remember which auction it was, but it must have been 2015 since that is when I mentioned it first.

This is an item I personally handled.  If I correctly recall it was said to be from late 1700s.  When I looked at it I thought that maybe the coins were later replacements, but I don't know that.  Unfortunately I don't even remember if the coins were matching coins.  One of the most notable things to me is the primitive looking corpus showing a possible indigenous influence.

Below is another silver crucifix from a concluded Sedwick auction.  It is dated as 1560 - 1620, but is French rather than Spanish.

This heavy silver crucifix was thought to be earlier than the one above.  It also shows a skull and crossbones.  The corpus is caricaturish rather than realistic.  Notice the common features, such as the skull and cross bones below the feet of Christ.

The bales of older items tend to be heavy and facing front to back.

Here is another from a previous Sedwick auction.

This one is Spannish and dated 1600s - 1800s, a wide date range.

Notice the worn high spots such as the top of the head.  The older crucifixes I've seen often show heavy wear to the face of Christ from religious use.

Here is later crucifix, dated to the early 1800s.

This one is a later crucifix.  It is made of bronze and ebony.  Like the one above, which could also be as late as the 1800s, this one does not show the skull and cross bones at the bottom.  It also has a small bale.

Leaving the Sedwick catalogs and going to the Mel Fisher artifact database, I found this gold crucifix from the Atocha site.

This one has the bale facing the other direction and has dangling pearls, which were common from the Atocha.  So might that be a clue that it was made in the New World?

One of the common features I've noticed on older crucifixes is that the corpus is attached to the cross at the hands and feet by pins.  The pins, or nails, are often very prominent and important features. That means of attachment often can lead to the corpus being separated from the cross, so you will sometimes find the corpus without the cross, or vice versa.

Of course I can't do much beside introduce a topic like this in a single post, but I thought it was especially appropriate for Good Friday.

You can find crucifixes made of all materials it seems.  I found one that had a little plastic compartment which looks like it held water at one time.  I think it might have been from Israel.

Here are a couple of the more abstract and obviously modern examples that I've found.

 

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I received emails showing interest in a few brief comments I made yesterday concerning the Bible, so I have a recommendation for those of you who might be interested.   If you want to study the Bible and especially the Jewish roots of Christianity, the ultimate authority, in my opinion, is the Hebraist J. B. Lightfoot, who authored four volumes of Commentary on the New Testament From the Talmud and Hebraica as well as several other volumes of Bible Commentary.  Even though his works were originally published in Latin in the 17th century, they were reprinted in English.  Lightfoot was fluent in Greek and Latin, but also classical Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew and the Aramaic of the Talmud.  He was therefore uniquely qualified to shed light on the Bible as influenced by ancient Hebrew thought and culture.  Don't be discouraged by the frequent Koine Greek or Hebrew quotations.

Published by Oxford University Press in 1859, the volumes I own were published by the Hendrickson Press in the 20th century.  Excellent, challenging but very worthwhile.

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I meant to do this before, but forgot.  Did you know that you can easily make your own facemasks out of things you will undoubtedly have around the house.  It is easy and effective.

Here is one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY-29VBkGmw

You don't have to jump in a casket and close the lid to be safe.    I won't comment more on that today even though I'm not finding easy to restrain myself.

I can't hold it any longer.  Fauci and Birx need to retire.  They started out somewhat reasonable, but this mantra of  "the numbers are so much better than we predicted because the people did what we told them to do" is not only self-serving but also indefensible.  They call for endless randomized double-blind studies to determine if drugs might be effective and safe, but they have no proof whatsoever that the isolation of huge segments of the population is the only factor that caused their predictions to be off  in another galaxy.  They have no data to prove their conclusion, and no apparent interest in obtaining any.  High school students know that correlation does not mean causation.  If you do a rain dance and it stops raining that doesn't mean the dance caused the rain to stop.  That is where they are with this "mitigation was effective because the numbers are lower" line.  They won't even consider or mention any other possible factors - most notably the model that they pushed being way off the mark to begin with.    If they want to look like scientists they can't jump to conclusions without data and without considering other possible explanations.  The best data they have now was not collected scientifically, and can not be expected to be valid or reliable, coming as it does, from people working in what we are told are extremely chaotic overwhelming circumstances with much more important tasks before them other than reporting.  This stubborn anti-scientific insistence on one explanation without data and without consideration of any other possible factors or explanations completely discredits them.  They are looking like they are either incompetent or dishonest.

To be clear, I am not saying that there is no danger or that you shouldn't distance and take adequate safety measures, but there are ways to be both active and safe.

More data, less BS please.

On a more positive note, DeSantis just said that 40  - 45 percent of the hospital beds in Florida are open, including ICU.  That is a lot.  There will be a long backlog of elective surgeries such as knee and hip replacements and other elective procedures when this is over.

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We are having an offshore wind and small surf.  The tides are still high though.

Have a blessed Good Friday,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/17/20 Report - Conductivity Numbers for Reales and Other Test Targets. Winding Unpaved Roads.

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

Variety of Test Targets Including Among Other Types of Finds a Four-Reale and Half-Reale 

For whatever it is worth, I decided to look at the conductivity numbers for the recently found four-reale and half-reale.  I forgot what numbers they produced in the field and wanted to know that so I took them out to test along with some other targets for context.

Left to right in the photo above are the targets: (1) a 13 gram four-reale, (2) a 1 gram half-reale, (3) a small very thin bit of what looks like copper found at the same site, (4) a silver cross, (5) a silver ring, (6) another silver ring, (7) a copper alloy looking piece.

I used the factory presets, except I used the Beach 1 mode, which is what I used on the beach.

Below are the conductivity numbers that I got for each item using the Equinox 600 metal detector - the same detector that found the first three and the seventh item.

Item                                  Conductivity Reading

1.  13 gram four-reale -  29 - 31

2.   1 gram half- reale -   17

3.  very small copper  -    2
4.  silver cross             -   20-21
5.  silver ring               -   30-31
6.  oval silver ring       -   35
7.  copper alloy piece  -  20-21

I was most interested in knowing the numbers for the reales.  The reals consistently produced numbers that were distinct from most of the other targets, except the four-reale produced numbers in the same range as one of the silver rings.   The small half reale produced a very stable 17, while the numbers produced by the much larger four reale were less consistent.

I get the feeling that shape affects the conductivity number.  The more thin and irregularly shaped silver cross produced numbers that were between those of the two reales.  I should do a thorough experiment on that someday.

The conductivity numbers can be useful in some situations, but there is a lot of variability and overlap.   It seems that the position of the object and its depth can change the numbers somewhat.  And many different types of objects produce the same or overlapping numbers.

It does appear that reales will generally show conductivity numbers from around 17 and up.  I do find the numbers useful to some extent even though they may not always be precise or consistent.  Too much reliance on the numbers could be a big mistake. 

As detectorists we are always dealing with probabilities.  I would define skill as the ability to improve the probability of success through intentional action.

If there is one thing I regret not remembering from my college and professional years it is the math of probability theory and statistics.  Detectorists use a variety of types of clues or signals that if properly interpreted and used can dramatically increase the probability of success.   Although I don't actually need to do the math for field applications, it would be helpful for explanations

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Some say heaven has streets paved with gold.  I don't really know what use I'd have for that.

I see it as unpaved roads winding up and down hills sparsely decorated at various distances by two or three tightly grouped small but happy homes built by struggling young families recently returned from the war and animated by children of various ages tumbling in the summer grass and exploring every nook and cranny of the nearby woods and streams, catching frogs and snakes or sledding in the snow.

That is what I see sometimes when I awake in the private threatre of night.  The gang is still there, just as it was.

In our plaid shirts and blue jeans, seven year-old David, a year older than I and a veteran at seven years of age, walks me down the road past the barns, farm fields and cows to my first day of school, neither one of us having any way of imagining what lies in the years ahead.   A special good fellow, I'd like to thank David for his company in those carefree days.

He's not the only one.  There was Eddie, Gary, Bobby, Loretta and Becky and others.  We shared the same hills, neighbors, schools and friends for our entire childhood.  We had a baseball team in summer, and a football team in the fall, even if we were a several positions short.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that awakens in the night and returns every once in a while to those green hills to meet old friends so many years and miles away. 

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I've been eagerly watching the surf predictions and hoping that the predicted big surf doesn't disappear.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As of this morning, it still looks good.  Rather than decreasing, the predicted surf for next weekend has actually increased another foot.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/14/20 Report - Some Early 2020 Treasure Coast Finds.

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

One Uncleaned Half Reale With Two Others.

Finds and photo by Terry S.

Yesterday I posted photos of some finds made by Terry S.  After sending those pictures, Terry sent me the photo above.

Referring to the items I posted yesterday, Terry then continued with the following. 

… Just before I found them I found this half reale. I didn’t clean it to be able to show others what they look like when found. If you look closely you can make out the cross on it. The cleaned 1/2s on either side I found a couple years ago and the dime is to show size...  There are a lot of people out there that have never found a 1/2 and don’t know what they look like when found before cleaning. I enjoy your blog and check it daily as many of my friends. You put out a great blog and I commend you. Terry

As you can see, the uncleaned new find (in the middle) is encrusted as found, and it is difficult to tell what it is except for the faintest bit of the cross showing.  I'll talk more about that another day.

Thanks Terry.

Below are a couple interesting finds from Alberto S., including a quarter for size comparison.

Shard and Button Find

Finds and photo by Alberto S.

Alberto asked me for comments on these and one other find he made.  I thought these two were the most interesting.  He said the button rang up as a 12.8 on a CTX 3030.

That is a very interesting button.

Concerning the shard, what I would want to see is the edge of the shard.  I once did a post on the subject of identifying porcelain and Kang Hsi.   Actually, more than one post.  Anyhow, the edge of Kang Hsi porcelain will show a very fine dense and very white paste.  The blue paint will have depth and appear to sink into the glaze rather than sit on top of it.

Here is one link that will direct you to additional information.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2019/05/52919-report-book-on-1715-wrecks-kang.html

Thanks Alberto.  Very interesting.  Of course, any information or comments about those finds would be appreciated.


DJ sent me a photo from the Facebook page of a Tom J. whose page says he was in Melborne with the family for a couple of days and one afternoon did some detecting north of Wabasso where he found the item shown in the following photo.  He said it rang up as a 20 on the Equinox and thought it was going to be a penny.

Item Reportedly Found North of Wabasso by Tom J.

Photo submitted by DJ

I magnified the photo and it appears to have a Potosi like cross on it, but it also appears to have a strange raised edge around it.  I can't really see it very well.  I also was not able to read the entire Facebook page, but the text I could read ended by saying "So don't get too impres…"  Sounds like there might be a surprise ending.  I wasn't able to read the reveal, but have a suspicion.irme

See tomorrow's post for the conclusion of this story.

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The beginning of the year wasn't the worst for metal detecting on the Treasure Coast.  It is the time of year when beach detecting conditions often improve.  Too bad there is so much renourishment sand on so many beaches.  Still, as you can see, some interesting things have been found.

The predictions call for a 3 - 4 foot surf on the Treasure Coast for at least three of four days.  The low tide will be decent.

Nobody has run down the mark's on Duane's silver ring yet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/31/19 Report - A Variety of Nice Finds From Brevard and Indian River County. More on Spikes. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

Items Found At Radar Site at Melborne Beach by TM

Photo by TM.

I received an email from TM and photos of some of his finds that came from Brevard and Indian River Counties.


I’ve been detecting the south Brevard and north Indian River county beaches for about a year and a half now.

Found many items and try to clean my share of trash up.

Just thought I’d share a few things. 

Also I really enjoy the treasure beaches report.

TM's finds included those in the photo above and the four following photos.  Each is labeled with the location of the find.  Really a nice and varied group, including some really great finds.

Ring Found North of Bonsteel Beach.

Bracelet Recently Found Near Seagrape Beach Access

Clovis Point Found North of Sebastian Inlet.

Congratulations TM. Great finds! Thanks much for sharing. The Clovis point would be somewhere around ten thousand years old. Now that is an old find. From Wikipedia: The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s. It appears around 11,500–11,000 uncalibrated radiocarbon years before present at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas. You might enjoy reading more about the Clovis culture. Here is a good link. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-clovis-point-and-the-discovery-of-americas-first-culture-3825828/ ---


The past few days I talked a little about Troy's chisel or spike find. At this point, I think the overwhelming consensus is that it is a broken spike. That is my opinion and the opinion of others that I've heard from. If you think about it, I suspect there are hundreds of shipwreck spikes out there for every old chisel. I've discussed some of the reasons for concluding that it is a spike, and posted some of the reader's thoughts that I've received on the subject. I just received an email from Jerry P., who also believes the find is a spike. Jerry also included some photos of those that he has found.

Spikes Found by Jerry P.

Photo by Jerry P.

Notice in particular the broken spike that looks very much like Troy's. I still haven't found the particular examples I was looking for. I wanted to take a close look at the break. I did look at the break on some others. I don't know how good the photos are yet. I haven't uploaded them yet. Also, notice the bent one. I plan on talking more about how they get bent and broken in the future. What do you think about that. I have some ideas, but I'd think it would take a lot of force to break a spike like that. I hope to talk about that more in the future. How do you think spikes get bent or broken? Troy sent me a closer photo of the top of his find.

Find and photo by Troy C.

That gives a better view. Thanks Troy. I was going to upload some photos that I took but found out I have to recharge the camera battery. First the upload utility was giving me trouble, and now the battery runs down. Sheesh. I get back into that topic, maybe tomorrow. One thing I've noticed, especially with broken bronze spikes, is how smooth the break can be. --- I'm just going to tell you about the surf instead of wasting any more time trying to upload the image. Expect a 4 - 6 foot surf on Friday and Saturday. You'll have to look it up yourself. I also asked TM if he could provide any more info on his finds. Happy hunting, Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/16/19 Report - The Hesse Crown Jewels. A Silver Cross Find Examined. Pax.

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

Princess Margaret Wearing Some of the Hesse Crown Jewels.

Source: See GemSelect,com link below.

The story of the Hesse Crown Jewels illustrates how a cache can be secreted, discovered, distributed and found.  Some of the Hesse Crown Jewels could still be buried somewhere.

The story of the Hesse Crown Jewels heist began during the time of WWII. To help secure the future of the Hesse family, in October of 1944, Prince Richard and Prince Wolfgang of the House of Hesse secretly placed a large collection of their crown jewels into a wooden box lined with lead and zinc, which was buried in the basement of the Kronberg Castle. The box was lowered into a hole they had dug into the floor and then covered and sealed over with concrete. The contents included several diamonds, gemstones, bracelets, rings, necklaces, tiaras, rare coins, pieces of silver, gold and family heirlooms. After burying the jewels, they abandoned the castle and planned to return and retrieve the jewels after the end of the war...

The cache was discovered by U. S. soldiers, who helped themselves and dispersed the jewels.

Almost immediately after arriving in the United States on March 12, Durant set about hiding or trying to sell all the jewels he had managed to send from Europe.

On at least two occasions he and his brother James—the recipient of most of the packages Durant had mailed—buried large glass jars filled with jewels and cash along Route 7 near James’s home in Falls Church, Virginia. Durant sold gems to several private individuals, pawned other items, and, using a false name, sold several stones to a large Washington jewelry store. He even managed to use one particularly nice diamond as partial payment for a new Hudson convertible...

If you want to learn more about the Hesse Jewels, here are the source links for both of the above excerpts.

https://www.gemselect.com/other-info/the-hesse-crown-jewelry-heist.php

https://www.historynet.com/soldiers-of-fortune.htm

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Crude Silver Cross

Same as posted yesterday

I posted this picture yesterday.  It was just one example of a few items that I thought were probably made by an individual for their own use rather than commercially made to be sold.  It is almost exactly one inch high and wide - a fact that I neglected to mention yesterday.

As I looked at the photo, it captured my attention and made me wonder about it more than I had before.  I don't know that I ever noticed the lettering until I took this closeup photo yesterday.

The cross appears to be inexactly made.  The lines are not perfectly straight or perpendicular. The bottom part of the stapes, which is the vertical member of the cross, looks wider and offset to the right when compared to the upper section.  And the lines of the horizontal member, the patibulum, are not parallel or straight.  Rightly or wrongly, I would expect the cross to be more precise if was made commercially.  Some of the original lines could have been changed slightly by wear and corrosion, but not that much.

Despite being imprecisely made, the use of a precious metal suggests but does not prove that it was an item of some reverence for the person who carried it.  The form, of course, also suggests that.

It is possible I didn't notice the word before, since the item is very dark and rough and smaller than it appears in the picture, but now that I notice the word "PAX," I also see that the word is not centered.  I would guess that is just another example of being made with less planning and care than you would expect of a commercially produced item.

I do not see any sign that there was ever a loop or appendages for attachment, but those could have been worn or corroded away.

It shows some age, but I have no idea how much.  I wish I remember where and when I found it, and I wish I had conducted the experiments I thought about to learn how long it takes for silver to corrode after being immersed in salt water.  It could be very old, but I don't know if it is.  I've seen silver coins just a decade old as well as items centuries old, that have a similar look.

The word PAX, of course, is Latin for "peace."  Peace, the peace symbol, and homey crafts were the vogue in the seventies, but that is not the only time period that it could be from.  I can see it being made either by a Jesus Freak of the seventies or someone in the 1700s needing a point of contact with a source of peace.

I think the Jesus Freak explanation is the more likely of the two even though there are other reasonable possibilities.  Maybe I shouldn't even say "think."  It is more like a feel.

PAX has a few other meanings.  In Christian liturgy, "the Pax" refers to "pax vobis" or "pax vobiscum," which are salutations used in Catholic mass or Lutherin Diving Services.  There were also Pax tablets, which I'd expect to be much more elaborate than this simple cross, and also Pax pendants, which I'd expect to be more formal, except possibly in the most desperate circumstances when a person might have to make do with whatever poor materials they had available.

Like many metal detecting finds, this humble cross started me on a thought-journey.  I didn't solve the puzzle, but journey was fun and I learned something.  I hope you did too.

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Here is another find that looks to me to be a craft project from the seventies.

Earring Craft Project.

I think it is pewter but not sure.
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The National Hurricane Center map looks pretty quiet now - especially in our area.

The surf is down to around two feet and won't be any higher, at least for a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/9/19 Report - Shipwreck Finds: Cross, Coins, Buttons, Spikes, Connectors and More.

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

Finds and photo by Joe S.

Hello again,

As I indicated earlier, here are pictures of more of my shipwreck relics and coin found along the South Jersey coast. Obviously, they are not as major and valuable as the treasure found along the Treasure Coast. We don't have the shipwrecked Spanish treasure galleons, but we have an estimated 2000-7000 wrecks (some from centuries ago) that rest off the Jersey coast and inlet shoals, and around a thousand shipwrecks that lie off the South Jersey coast according to local wreck diving guides. 

In the past there were shipwreck silver coins, reales, and gold coins reportedly found along the coasts. In these modern times, and with all the beach replenishments (with screening) constantly going on, I feel fortunate to have found what I did. I wish I would have started detecting at a younger age like you. I'm 75 years of age and love just being on a beach hoping to find the elusive reale or gold coin. I hope to keep hunting at least another good 10 years to find one.

The main picture shows two large bronze ship spikes (one still holding part of the ship wood) and a smaller spike that is possibly part of a ship deck spike. 

Other findings include numerous buttons and clothing/footwear ornaments (note the picture of the large circular button with the broken eye, it has the words "DOUBLE GILD" inscribed). Maybe it was worn by an officer on a ship? Other interesting buttons are the back part of a button with the drilled eye; and the front part of a button with the words "Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire", which are counties in England.

A few copper coins are shown (note the picture of the oldest, Dutch 1791 coin). 

A small brass(?) crucifix (shown in a picture) that appears to have had an eye at one time to be worn around the neck (appears to be very old and hand forged?).

Clusters of nails with different shapes and some made of copper, others bronze/brass, indicating they might be from different era.

A piece of copper sheathing with an actual nail hole; percussion caps; and other miscellaneous ship artifacts.

Hope you find this shipwreck collection interesting and useful for more discussion. If I have other significant finds in the future I will be in touch.

Happy hunting to you,

Joe S.

Here are some close-up views of some of the items shown above.

1791 Duit.

Those are some really nice finds Joe!  Really cool buttons.

It looks like this might have been an early 19th century wreck.

You can find wrecks from around that era on the Treasure Coast too.  One Treasure Coast beach in particular produces a lot of similar nails, pieces of copper and a lot of percussion caps.  Percussion caps came into use  around 1820.

Joe also sent some good links.

This link is to the NJ Maritime Museum web site - https://njmaritimemuseum.org.

And the following link is to a N. J. shipwreck database.

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/what-lies-beneath-n-j-s-coast-lined-with-shipwrecks/article_ea61996c-a42d-11e4-a059-0fcbcacec8f9.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

I always liked to travel and take my detector with me and try out new areas. I never did New Jersey though.

Thanks for sharing Joe.

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I suspect everybody is up in Sebastian for the TCAS hunt.  Couldn't have been a more beautiful day for it.

Let me know how you all did.  I'm sure there are some good stories about all the good times.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net