8/8/19 Report - Treasure Coast Beaches and Salvage Boats. Maya Wars and Mexico Appartions. Dug Lapel Pin.

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

These beach photos were taken around noon on Aug. 7 by DJ.  Thanks DJ.

If you look closely, a salvage boat is shown in each photo.  They aren't working real close to shore.

As you know it has been hot and we've been getting rain nearly everyday.  I'm sure some of the swimming beaches are getting some decent action.

There are currently no weather systems shown on the National Hurricane Center maps for our region.

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Stay hydrated and do not get overheated.  Also watch out for lightning.  You might be able to hear it first as static in your earphones.

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In 697, flames engulfed the Maya city of Witzna. Attackers from a nearby kingdom in what’s now Guatemala set fires that scorched stone buildings and destroyed wooden structures. Many residents fled the scene and never returned.

This surprisingly early instance of highly destructive Maya warfare has come to light thanks to a combination of sediment core data, site excavations and hieroglyphic writing translations, say research geologist David Wahl of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and his colleagues. Organized attacks aimed at destroying cities began during ancient Maya civilization’s heyday, when Witzna and other cities thrived in lowland regions of Central America, the scientists report August 5 in Nature Human Behavior...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-maya-warfare-flared-surprisingly-early

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When I give a beach conditions rating, which I haven't done for a while because of the unchanging conditions, it is a rating of the conditions for finding old shipwreck items.  Modern items are lost everyday, and if you visit beaches where there is a lot of activity, you can almost always find something.

Yesterday I showed a diamond ring.  Here is a less valuable find.

Find.

I dug this up and didn't know what it was.  Looks like a lapel pin.

The back shows it is sterling silver and the stone tests as a sapphire.

After some research it looks like it is the insignia for Humana Hospital, which was operating on the Treasure Coast in the 1990s.  Probably some sort of employee recognition pin.

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On April 25, 1631, St. Michael the Archangel appeared in Tlaxcala, Mexico to a 17-year-old named Diego Lázaro de San Francisco who was married to Francisca Castillian Xuchitl.

The apparition occurred as everyone was processing in celebration of a previous apparition of St. Michael to St. Gregory the Great (April 25, 590 A.D) during a great plague which St. Michael ended. The peoples of the new world were themselves battling a plague (a type of smallpox) and St. Michael appeared to Diego Lázaro to tell him about healing waters for the people...

Here is the link for some interesting 17th century New World history.

http://atxcatholic.com/index.php/2019/08/angels-dragons-xxii-st-michael-the-archangel-in-mexico/?fbclid=IwAR37HPVsdOCdHEbPAMlS35bQTcPmvFM0pOpIU8Tk9bAHUvN9pbu3GmP9rdk#.XUwXNehKjIW

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No new storms.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/24/19 Report - System Developing in Gulf. Eagle Pin Identified. Starting Discussion on Factors Involved With Dating Dug Items.

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

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

We have a new system in the Gulf that has a 20% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.  It is just below Louisiana now.  The map is getting more active.

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I thought the eagle pin I showed yesterday wouldn't take long to ID.  Mitch King was once again the first to respond saying that it is a navy petty officer third class collar insignia.  Mitch provided the following link.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petty_officer_third_class

DJ confirmed that adding, ...construction port office third class rank in the US NAVY.  DJ provided this link.

Scott B. also got it.

Thanks much guys!  

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I plan to develop a list of factors that can help identify the age of a found object when the age is unknown or uncertain.

There will be a lot of times when a single factor will not be definitive or conclusive.  There will be times when one factor might provide a degree of confidence and additional factors will add to the level of confidence.  At other times it might seem that some factors are suggesting one answer and other factors are suggesting another answer.

I think the exercise of developing the taxonomy will help us become more clear and precise in our understanding of the various factors to be considered and how they contribute to an estimated date range.

For many who hunt the Treasure Coast, there is one type of target that is on their mind - 1715 Fleet treasure.  When they look at a newly dug find, what they wonder if the item might be from a Spanish shipwreck.  I've received many questions over the years that seem very binary - is it an old shipwreck treasure, or not.  That is the primary interest.

There are times when you look at something and it seems the age is obvious enough.  In more complex cases, a single factor might not be definitive or conclusive.  Some factors provide more help than others and are more reliable than others.

You might end up with some pieces of evidence saying one thing and other factors saying something else.  Some factors might deserve more weight than others.  I'll attempt to quantify that to whatever extent I can.

Right now I'll just throw out a few random general factors.  

 Factors for determining age

Shape
Material composition

Amount of wear from usage
Corrosion

Stamps or markings

Context or stratigraphy

Known history of the area
Scientific age testing ie. radiocarbon

I'm just throwing that out now as a place to start.  The list might become longer and it will definitely become more detailed.

I am aware of detailed checklists for certain types of objects.  For example, SHA has a very good one for bottles.

In going through the exercise, I'm sure I will learn a lot and hope that others benefit too.  

I'll kick off this discussion with one simple and super-easy example today.

Small Silver Pendant of Charm.
Approximately 3/4 inch wide.

Here is a dug pendant or charm.  It is approximately 3/4 inch wide.

The shape of the object is very recognizable.  It appears to represent a known historic structure.  It looks like the Acropolis to me.  If that is true, we already have a starting date, but the pendant appears to show the Acropolis in a state of decay.  That could be helpful in some cases, but in this case the object at first glance doesn't seem very old anyhow.

Acropolis In State of Decay.

The recognizable shape provides some quick information, but if we turn the pendant over we are very fortunate again.

Back of Same Pendant.

Look at the bonanza of markings.  There is a country name, maker's mark, and mark of purity.  And it is all very readable without having been cleaned, although magnification does help.

The markings provide a lot of date information too, but I don't have time for all of that today.

Just one more quick comment on the context -  it was found on a volleyball court in front of the Fountainbleau Hotel.  That adds information too.

That was an easy one.  I could post a lot more if I got more into the stamped markings, but I'll have to do that some other time.

We'll eventually look at more difficult examples.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net