10/18/18 Report - Using Nature and Finds in Treasure Displays. History, Constructs, Genetics and Humor.

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

Display and Photo by John C.

John C. sent in the above photo along with the following message.

Well, not exactly a display case, but it's the closest thing I have for now, always wanted to put together a nice display case, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, but everything in the picture is real, except of course the coins and the small piece of China, pictured are musket balls, copper spikes ,some lead sheathing and some pottery shards.  I got this big guy diving off Corrigan's some years ago, so I tried to make it look, as close as I can, to its natural environment.

Thanks John.  I like the natural look.

I think this series of posts on displays will motivate some of you to do something with your own finds so they are not just sitting in a closet in a box.  That would be too much like a lot of the stuff in our museums.

The displays that I've posted are all awesome.  John shows how a variety of things you can pick up at the beach can be used.

Here is something that might give you an idea.

Clump of Barnacles Used to Display Coin.

You could mount a clump of barnacles, concretion, or shells on a piece of drift wood and get as creative as you want.

Someday I might get around to giving some other tips on how to use found or scrap items to inexpensively create displays.

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Unlike a book or cinema, there is always more to the story.  History is never the whole story.  It doesn't end when the credits roll.  Only the simple-minded can unapologetically offer simple answers to complex problems.

Elizabeth Warren's attempt to prove her Native American ancestry didn't end up how she hoped.  Race or ethnicity is a construct.  It can not be proven.  Not even with genetic markers.  The whole discussion illustrates that.

Fact is, we are all a mixed up mess - not entirely one thing or another.  Elizabeth Warren, according to her 23 and Me test results, was determined to have anywhere from 1/64 to 1/1,024th Native American ancestry.  I won't even comment on the questionable methods used by the test to determine Native American ancestry, but why wouldn't a person claim to be of a group that they more closely match - say 90, 70 or even 50%.  It's obvious - personal gain.

A Cherokee tribal leader said that only the tribe could determine membership.  He said that you could not use genetic markers to determine that.

If you do attempt to use genetic markers to determine ancestry, as Elizabeth Warren learned, only more questions are raised.  What is the criteria for group membership?  Do you have to be 90, 70 or 50%, or can you be as little as one millionth.  If you can't define the criteria, you have a problem.

If a genetic marker crietion is used, a lot of tribal leaders will find that they no longer qualify as members.  To them such things as culture, respect and participation are more important than genetics.  For some that is indeed fortunate because otherwise they might be disqualified.

Most people in American say they are Christians.  Born again Christians might say that a majority of those who say they are Christians are not because they are not born again Christians.  Some people claim they are Christians because they observe some traditions such as Christmas, or go to church on Easter.  What is the criterion?  That is the important question.

Many Native Americans claim that their ancestors were always in America.  Many archaeologists, on the other hand, claim that Native Americans only came to North America around 30 thousand years ago.   (See http://theconversation.com/first-americans-lived-on-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years-genetics-study-suggests-23747 for a more adequate discussion.)

History is not the whole story.  It is someone's perspective.  History takes on a different flavor or color with each telling.  It becomes something other than what it was, no matter how much we try to capture the whole truth.  Ancestry is the same.  It is the history of a family.  It is usually more fiction than fact.  That doesn't make it less important.  It has a lot to do with how people see themselves.  The only thing I object to is using it for advantage over other people.

If you are an evolutionist, we have another ancestry.  Our ancestors were relatives of the Chimpanzees or Bonobos.  Humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA, so does that mean that Elizabeth Warren is more chimpanzee than Native American?  

Roll the credits.

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Did you ever see such a long setup for a punch line?

The tides are flat, but some higher surf is expected.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Looks like the four to six foot surf has been delayed a little.  Look for it Monday.


Keep the treasure display photos coming.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/16/18 Report - A Closer Look At Some Old Treasure Coast Cobs. Tobacco Use Started Much Earlier Than Previously Thought in North America.

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

Philip V Half Reale Showing Mint Mark and Partial Date.

Since I have my close-up photo system working well I decided to go back and photograph finds that I was never able to photograph so well.

While using the system I get a better look at old finds and document them in the process.

Above is a half reale that I found on a very cold day in December of 1989.  I told that story before. It was freezing.  I actually hit ice on a bridge on 95 north.  I was going to my parents for Christmas and was traveling from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Coast and stopped for a short hunt at John Brooks.  The short hunt turned up several cobs including the one shown above.  You can clearly see the OMJ, and the 17 and part of the next 1 in the date.

You don't often get that much of the mint mark and date on a half reale, especially if it is a beach find.

Below is the reverse of the same cob.

Reverse of 171? half reale shown above.

Below is one more half reale found on the same hunt.

Half Reale Found at John Brooks in 1989.

You can see bits of the monogram in the photo above.  It is another Philip V cob.

There are traces of rust on both of these.  More on the second one.  I didn't really see it as well before.  Also you can see bits of shell attached.

Neither of these have been cleaned and remain pretty much as found.

Now that I have good pictures of the original found condition, I might clean them a little.

Reverse of Same Philip V Half Reale.

I'm sure the cross will show better if I play with the lighting.  Nonetheless, you can tell it is the type of cross found on cobs minted in Mexico.

There is more sand sticking to this side.  I'd say some of it got cleaned off as the cob was washed around in the surf before being deposited on the beach.

As I've said before, cobs found on the beach are often way under their original weight.

I'm glad I had these labeled with the date and place of the find.  Always a good idea.

I'll have more cob photos in the near future.

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A study into the use of tobacco has yielded some interesting findings including dating the practice to around 4,000 years ago – about 1,500 years older than previously thought.  The study, “Evidence of Tobacco from a Late Archaic Smoking Tube Recovered from the Flint River site in southeastern North America”, has been undertaken by various researchers and was led by Dr. Stephen B. Carmody , Troy University (Ala.) assistant professor of anthropology.

“For the past eight or nine years, I have been exploring pipe use, pipe-smoked plants, and the use of tobacco here in the eastern woodlands of North America,” said Dr. Carmody.  “We have made several interesting finds.  Until recently, the earliest evidence for the use of tobacco was discovered in a pipe that was approximately 2,500 years old, dating to what we refer to as the Early Woodland Period.”

Here is the link for more of that article.

https://theonefeather.com/2018/06/study-finds-older-use-of-tobacco-than-previously-thought/

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/12/18 Report - Cocoa Beach. Jewish Conquistadors. First Americans. First Depression of New Hurricane Season. 80-Foot Wave.

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

Cocoa Beach Thursday
Photo by James F.

James F. sent me the following email along with the photos of Cocoa Beach.

Well, Cocoa Beach is an absolute mess after "re-nourishment" for metal detecting. Along with the tons and tons of sand come thousands and thousands of fragments of iron fragments from the dredging pipes. These are anywhere from a 1/8th-inch to 1/4 inch deeply rusted and highly conductive bits of Fe strewn, as my grandfather used to say, from Hell to breakfast, up the beach for literally miles.

What was once a very nice semi-productive beach is now a disaster for the next few years. The beach is nice from a tourists standpoint, but all but sterile from mine.

I've attached a couple of pictures I took yesterday, including a few iron fragments that now plague the beach here.

Rusty Iron Chip Like Those That Litter The Newly Renourished Beach.
Photo by James F.

Thanks James!

A few days ago I commented on the shiny pieces of metal that look like aluminum or titanium that I often get questions about.  One thing that I get just as many questiions about are small cob-sized iron flakes or chips like the one shown above.  You'll find iron flakes like this on many beaches, and the thing is that sometimes they turn black and can look very much like cobs.

Many metal detectors will pass them over and many will easily identify them as being iron, but if you have any question, as many people do, a quick way to tell is with a magnet.   If a chip like this sticks to a magnet, it is not a reale.

As James suggested, they are common after beach renourishment projects.  They come off of the large rusty pipes and other equipment.  Other beaches have similar iron flakes that come from older sources such as old erosion control structures, and some even come from various other rusting items.  On one treasure beach it was thought that a lot of these came from an old barge that was once used as a salvage vessel.

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Conference presentations were dotted with colorful stories. Consider that of the covert Jewish Conquistador Alonso de Avila. He first enlists in the army of Hernando Cortes -- as a bookkeeper. In appreciation for accounting services rendered, he is then made the first mayor of the newly created city of Veracruz. But the glory is fleeting. He is arrested as a relapsed Jew by the Mexican Inquisition, accused of keeping a crucifix under his writing table and stepping on it -- a common but spurious charge, said Dr. Eva Alexandra Uchmany of the Universidad Nacional in Mexico, who told the story...

Below is a link for an article about the little known history of Jewish explorers in the New World.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/29/science/jewish-voyagers-to-the-new-world-emerging-from-history-s-mists.html

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The Americas are a big place, but the Native American group that first settled it was small — just about 250 people, according to a new genetic study.

These people, known as a founding group because they "founded" the first population, migrated from Siberia to the Americas by about 15,000 years ago, said study co-lead researcher Nelson Fagundes, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil...
By some theories the native or indigenous Americans may have been immigrants too.  Here is a link to the rest of the article about some of the first peoples of the New World.

https://www.livescience.com/62531-native-american-founder-population.html

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An 80-foot wave recently set a record as the most massive wave of the southern hemisphere.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/05/11/massive-wave-sets-southern-hemisphere-record-scientists-say.html

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The first tropical depression of the 2018 season could be developing right now as Invest 90E.

https://www.aol.com/article/weather/2018/05/11/tropical-depression-could-be-first-of-2018-hurricane-season/23431627/


But locally we can't expect any more than a two or three foot surf for several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/22/14 Report - Mystery Of The Quartz Crystal Cross Of Mission San Luis. Tropical Depression Nine Has Formed.

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

Quartz Crystal Cross Pendant

One of the most unique and interesting artifacts of the early Spanish Contact period is a quartz crystal cross.  The cross was found at the site of the Mission San Luis.

No longer existing except as an archaeological site, Mission San Luis once had the appearance of a European city and was second in size and importance to only St. Augustine.  The inhabitants were Native Americans and Spanish explorers and missionaries.

Thriving since the mid 1600s, Mission San Luis was burned to the ground in 1704.  The majority of Native American inhabitants then moved west while the Spanish moved to St. Augustine after the destruction of the mission.

The mission was formed in the Appalachee Province of Florida after native leaders visited St. Augustine and asked for the mission to be established.  Over 5000 natives were baptized by the Franciscans there.

When you see the cross, you might not think it is hundreds of years old.  In fact you could easily pass it off as something modern.  And if you are told it is old, you might think it is a hoax, or maybe something like the crystal skulls that have been widely discussed, studied and faked.

The cross was first thought to be made of European molded glass, but additional study showed that is made of quartz crystal and was formed using Native American techniques such as flaking and biconic drilling but finished using an iron file.

Quartz crystal had special significance and was used for charms and amulets by both Native Americans and Spanish prior to the establishment of Mission San Luis.

The Spanish often carved rock crystal for rosary beads and other items.  The Christian cross was a design motif widely adopted and used by Christianized Native Americans.

The rock crystal cross represents a unique blend of Native American and European influence and belief.

It is thought that the cross was made by an Apalachee artisan employing both indigenous and European tools. 

Questions remain.     Who owned the cross?  How was it used?  How did traditional Native American traditions and beliefs, especially those concerning quartz crystal, blend with Christian beliefs in the form of the cross?


Primary resources.

http://www.academia.edu/1248161/A_quartz_crystal_cross_from_Mission_San_Luis_Florida

http://www.missionsanluis.org/_docs/Journal_of_ArchScience_97-.pdf

http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2011-05-11/407_crystalcross.pdf

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On the Treasure Coast we have a fairly calm surf today that will increase only a little tomorrow.

The big news is that we now have Tropical Depression Nine, which is in the Southern Gulf of Mexico.  It looks like it will cross the Yucatan Peninsula and head towards Jamaica.  It could possibly head our way if it does not fall apart.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net