6/14/20 Report - More Fossils: Mammoth and Bison. Ancient Off Shore Channels.

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

Newspaper Clipping Telling About Mammoth Find by Randall S.

Submitted by Randall S.

I got some emails in response to my post on fossil finds.  Randal S. sent me this newspaper clipping showing his Mammoth tooth find.  And below is a tusk to go with it.

Randall S. With Mammoth Tusk.

Submitted by Randall s.

Great finds Randall.

I understand that Randall, since moving to Florida no longer sports the "mountain man" look.  Looks good to me, but probably not for the hot weather.

There have been mammoth tusks found by treasure salvage crews and I have seen them sold in a Sedwick auction.

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Bison Joint with Hole.

Find and photo by Kurt R.

Kurt R. sent this photo of a bison joint with a hole in it.  It was found at Rio Mar about thirty years ago.  The indigenous peoples often split bones to get the marrow.  If you look closely, sometimes you can see how a hole was drilled.

Thanks Kurt.

I've seen a number of fossils from the Rio Mar area.

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DJ, who went to the Peace River suggested that a beach scoop might work better than a shovel for digging fossil material.  That sounds good to me.

One of the advantageous of doing different kinds of hunting, is the creativity that comes from transferring knowledge and methods from one kind of hunting to another.  That is one reason I recommend investigating different types of hunting.

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While on this subject of fossils, Dino Hunters is a new TV series that will premier on the Discovery channel, June 19 at 9PM.   It could be good.  I hope they keep it real.

You can find old fossils on the Treasure Coast, but no dinosaurs.

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Here is a link that will take you to a collection of papers.  Marine Aggregates and Prehistory is only one of them.  Several of the others discuss wrecks.

https://www.academia.edu/2068779/Marine_Aggregates_and_Prehistory?email_work_card=view-paper

In the Marine Aggregates and Prehistory article I found this illustration showing a paleo-channel.

The seismic analysis shows a filled channel.  In fact there is a smaller and even older channel very nearby.

As you probably know, our coastline has changed a lot since the ice age.  Florida was once much larger and coastal ancient coastal settlements are now submerged.  There are submerged archaeological sites like the one off Venice Florida, and there are channels made by streams that are now covered by the ocean.

If you watch Bearing Sea Gold, you probably noticed how some of the teams were working old channels miles off shore.

Don't forget that our coastline was much farther out than than it is now, and the entire landscape extended out quite a ways.  Some channels created in the distant past are now filled with sand or other materials but they can be identified.

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There is not tropical activity of any significance.

The surf will remain around two feet, and the tides are small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/12/20 Report - Miscellaneous Sampling of Treasure Coast Fossils: Some Being Millions of Years Old. Evolution of Horses of North America. Labeling Finds.

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

Rhino or Teleoceras Skull Cap Fossil

I decided to show a different kind of Treasure Coast find today.   I often tell you to keep your eyes open when you metal detect.  You can find different types of things - some of them being really old.  One example would be fossils.

I think the fossil shown above is my favorite Treasure Coast fossil fins.  A real fossil expert told me it was a rhino or teleoceras skull cap from the Miocene period (25 - 5 million years ago).  I had no clue what type of animal it  came from but got an expert and friend of this blog to identify it for me.

I guess I like that one best simply because I find it difficult to think of anything like a rhinoceros being in Florida.

I think most detectorist like to find old things, but we are usually thinking in terms of maybe hundreds of years rather than millions of years.

Fossil Great White Shark Tooth.

A lot of people like shark teeth, and fossilized shark teeth are fairly common on some Treasure Coast beaches.  This one was found on the banks of the Indian River.  I wasn't fossil hunting when I found it.  In fact when I first saw it I thought it was a piece of glass.  And it is in very nice condition.

Below are a few more examples.

Camel Phalange Fossil.

If you are like me, you don't readily think of camels being on the Treasure Coast either, but above is what I'm told is a fossilized camel phalange.

Below are a few more examples.

Whale Inner Ear Bone.

Alligator Scute.

Fossilized Ivory From Mammoth or Mastadon.

I once saw a nice section of a tusk sticking out of the Treasure Coast sand.

Fossil Bone With Shark Teeth Marks.

Some fossils will show something a little extra.  Maybe it shows that it was worked by man or perhaps another animal left its mark like the bone shown above, which shows what appears to be teeth marks.

Keep your eyes open while metal detecting.  You might see something older or more interesting than what you were looking for.

I'll add one tip here.  It goes along with the mistakes I've been talking about in some of my previous posts.  Label your finds with as much as you know about the identity of the item and also the place and details of the find.  You might think that you'll remember all about it, but time takes its toll.  As you can see from the above photos, I had some of these labeled, and I am glad of that.  Some were not labeled.  That is a mistake I made a lot.  Don't put it off.  You might remember the details for some finds, but you might regret forgetting the details of others.

Fossil Hoof.

Concerning the item shown immediately above, I suspect it is a horse hoof, but I never got it checked out.  I'm sure an expert could give me the details, but at this point I simply don't have enough information to label it with any precision or certainty.

You might be interested in the history of horses in North America.  If so here is a link.

https://www.statelinetack.com/content/general-information/the-prehistoric-horses-of-north-america/

Horses changed a lot over the millions of years.

Horse teeth fossils are very common finds on the Treasure Coast, as are turtle scutes.

Bison, deer, peccary, sloth, snake, fish, wolf, bivalve and mollusk, coral, crab and wood fossils are some of the others fossils that have been found on the Treasure Coast.

If you are interested in finding fossils and haven't done it before, I'd recommend paying a professional guide to take you for a day trip to the Peace River.  It is worth the money, and you'll learn a lot.  I did it once several years ago.

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The surf is going to be around two feet today, and the tides are now small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/21/20 Report - Vero Man and Treasure Coast Fossils. Kang Hsi Notes. Big Surf Coming.

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

Source: SiberianTimes.com web site.  See link below.

The Kotelny island woolly mammoth was killed by humans some 21,000 years ago, say scientists.

Dr Albert Protopopov shared new pictures of the remains found at a location which was then part of the vast Beringia Land Bridge connecting what is now Siberia and North America.

'The traces on the bones show that the mammoth was killed and butchered by ancient people,' he said...

Here is the link for more of that article.

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/arctic-island-woolly-mammoth-shows-strongest-evidence-yet-of-human-slaughter-and-butchering/

You might be aware that some of the oldest things you can find on the Treasure Coast beaches are fossils. It might surprise you to learn that you can find mammoth fossils on our beaches. I've found both mammoth teeth and a section of a tusk.

Mammoth Tusk Section.

Source: SiberianTimes.com (Same link as above).

The tusk section I found was of about the same diameter as the one shown in the above photo.  The end was sticking out of some eroded sand on the Treasure Coast.

Every Floridian, full or part-time, should know about the world-famous "Vero Man" site and James Kennedy's history making find of a 13,000 year-old mammoth bone bearing a human carving.

Wikipedia describes Vero Man this way: Vero man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero (now Vero Beach), Florida, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of Pleistocene animals. The question of whether humans were present in Florida (or anywhere in the Americas) during the Pleistocene was controversial at the time, and most archaeologists did not accept that the Vero fossils were that old. Recent studies show that the Vero human bones are from the Pleistocene and are the largest collection of human remains from the Pleistocene found in North America.

See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/6/110622-mammoth-bone-oldest-art-americas-science/

And also https://www.livescience.com/20088-early-floridians-mingled-mammoths-mastodons.html

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Shards Found South of Seagrape Where Kang His Has Been Found.

Photo by Robert C.

I recently received multiple questions about Kang Hsi porcelain.  As you might know, Kang Hsi porcelain is sometimes found on 1715 Fleet shipwreck sites and on the neighboring beaches.

Robert C., who sent in the above photo showing shards that he found, was wondering if others might know of Kang Hsi porcelain found on the Treasure Coast having colors other than the more common blue and white.

I'm sure he'd like to know if anyone had opinions to offer on the shards shown above.

I've talked about Kang Hsi porcelain in the past, but made some new photos that I think might be helpful for those attempting to identify Kang Hsi.

Below is a comparison of a piece of what I believe to be Kang Hsi porcelain and a piece of common European blue on white pottery side-by-side

Broken Edge of Common Blue on White Pottery (left) and Kang Hsi porcelain (right)

First off, in my experience, the paste of Kang Hsi porcelain is very white and very fine as compared to the common blue on white shards that you'll often find, and Kang Hsi porcelain is generally thin.

Another thing you will notice from the above photo is that the color will sit on the surface of most shards, while the color on Kang Hsi will penetrate the glaze.  The yellow on the shard on the right is encrustation, not a part of the shard.

I am far from an expert on this, and will gladly accept correction if I am wrong about any of it.  From my experience, though, these observations seem to hold.

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It has been a relatively busy year so far.  While there have not been a lot of shipwreck finds, there have been some finds, and there has been periodic erosion at a few spots around the Treasure Coast.  Too bad there is so much renourishment sand to deal with.

The surf predictions look real encouraging.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The surf will start to build today and peak tomorrow (Wed.).

The wind and primary swell is northerly, but the wind is a bit off-shore until tomorrow

Not only will we have high surf (if the predictions are correct), but we'll also see some swells coming from the north and a few wind direction changes.  Altogether, it looks promising at this point.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/8/14 Report - America Unearthed Talks To James Kennedy and Shows Carved Fossil Bone Finds From Vero

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

I was watching America Unearthed Thursday evening and saw James Kennedy, who found the famous fossil bone with a mammoth carved on it, and he showed another impressive fossil bone carving that could be even more important.  This goes right along with the Time Upside Down book that I mentioned a few days ago.  These finds could drastically change the timeline for the first humans in Florida.

I don't have time to write much today, so here is the link you can read it for yourself.

http://www.veronews.com/news/vero_beach/spotlight/fossil-hunter-says-nd-etched-ice-age-bone-unearthed/article_f380416e-b7bc-11e3-920e-0017a43b2370.html

These are local finds, as you might know.

Here is the link to the America Unearthed site telling about the same episode.

http://scottwolteranswers.blogspot.com/2014/02/scott-wolter-lightens-up-america.html

I think you'll enjoy reading both of these.

I might follow up with the significance of some of this in the near future when I find time.

And below is one more link you might like.

Archaeological Dig. 
Source: bbc.com site link below.
Note the fellow with the detector.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-29833867

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

12/19/13 Report - Big New Excavation of Vero Man Site to Begin in January, Lead Ingots From Roman Shipwrecks, and Tlingit Helmet

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


Did you know that the Treasure Coast has one of the most important Ice Age sites in North America?  We do.   It is known as the Old Vero Man site in Vero Beach.

Famous Mammoth Bone Carving
Found by James Kennedy
Photo from Palm Beach Post link below.

 A new excavation by the Mercyhurst Archaeologica Institute will begin at the Vero Man site in January of 2014.  The site was discovered nearly 100 years ago.

I've mentioned this site before in this blog and once attended a conference in Vero about the world-famous mammoth carving that showed that men lived along with mammoths in Florida during the Ice Age.

Artifacts from the dig will be analysed and then returned to Vero Beach for display.

Here is the source of that story.

http://www.mercyhurst.edu/mu-news/news/research/2013/december/vero

Not surprisingly the article fails to mention the local amateur who found the most famous artifact from that site, James Kennedy.

Here is a link to how James discovered the famous carving on the bone after he had the bone stored under his sink for three years.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/prehistoric-vero-beach-carving-may-be-americas-old/nL5GT/


Lead ingots from old Roman shipwrecks are used to line modern equipment used in dark matter research creating a controversy between archaeologists and physicists.  The old lead ingots are well suited to the purpose, being less radioactive.

Archaeologists don't think the ingots from the past should be used up for modern scientific research.  The article questions which is the most important, an item form the past or research for the future.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ancient-roman-lead-physics-archaeology-controversy

Tlingit War Helmet Discovered in Science Museum.

Where is the best place to search for lost ancient artifacts?   In museum storage vaults.   Of course, in addition to being hidden and forgotten, they also could be misidentified or unidentified.

The helmet shown here was recently discovered after many years of not seeing light of day.

How could something so nice be forgotten for so long?


Below is the link to the story.

http://www.springfieldmuseums.org/news/view/762-a_hidden_treasure_revealed_rare_tlingit_war_helmet_discovered_at_springfield_science_museum


The surf on the Treasure Coast is around three feet today.  It will be increasing to about five feet by Christmas.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/22 Report - Vero Bone Carving Find Studied by Smithsonian & Wreck Ceramic Reference

A Local Find with National Scientific Significance.

Look near the center of the bone in the photo to see the carving of a mammoth.

There are all kinds of treasures. Some people are focused on shipwrecks and gold coins. Other people are focused on diamonds and gems. And other people focus on things that change scientific thought.

The above carved bone was found near Vero and was recently inspected by researchers at the Smithsonian who did not find anything to suggest that the carving was not authentic. There is nothing particularly earth shattering about a carved bone, but this one dates back to around the end of the Ice Age, which was about 12,000 years ago, and suggests that there were humans living at that time right here on the Treasure Coast along with extinct animals such as the mammoth.

Before being studies by the Smithsonian, researchers from the University of Florida studied the carving and with similar results.

Here is something mentioned in Mr. Jones' TCPalm article that provides a useful hint.
"In early 2009, local fossil collector James Kennedy cleaned off an old bone he found two years earlier and noticed some lines on it — lines that turned out to be a clear etching of a walking mammoth with tusks."

I always recommend keeping finds until you have studied them thoroughly and are sure you know what they are. Mr. Kennedy had this important bone for two years before he finally cleaned it off and discovered the carving.

I've kept cobs for at least that long before cleaning them off. I wanted to make sure I knew how to approach the task before attempting it.

But if you keep objects, like Mr. Kennedy did, you will often later discover something about them that you failed to notice earlier. Sometimes you will also learn something that will make you see the object in a new light.

My advice is to keep anything that might have any mystery to it at all, occasionally take it out and inspect it using whatever new tools, techniques and knowledge that you might have access to. Sometimes it is almost like finding a new item when you discover something new about an old item.

Here is the link to the article about the Vero Man bone carving.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/oct/20/smithsonian-does-not-dispute-authenticity-of-in/

Remember there are many types of treasure that are not metallic, so keep your eyes open when you are metal detecting.

Talking about nonmetallic treasure, I recently mentioned olive jars in some recent posts, and in the past I've mentioned the K'anh Hsi pottery that is sometimes found on the sites of 1715 Fleet wrecks.

If you are interested in the ceramics of the Spanish galleons, here is a link to a digital book that will be of interest to you.

http://books.google.com/books?id=-4q8LQ4WA90C&pg=PA44&dq=spanish+shipwreck&hl=en&ei=XG3ATMEYgoLyBo65uf0G&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=spanish%20shipwreck&f=false

You can go to the table of contents and then select any section you wish to look at.

You might also want to look at the illustrations.

Pot shards are often found on the beach. It will help you to be able to identify the shards of the shipwrecks. Such shards can provide valuable clues to the informed detectorist.

A broad knowledge base will help you many ways in the hobby of metal detecting.

The SedwickCoins auction begins the second day at 10:30 this morning (Eastern).

The moon was beautiful this morning. It would have made perfectt Halloween photo.


Forecast and Conditions.
As you know the seas have been calm lately. The high tides have been unusually high. That might make for some interesting low tide browsing next week.

The seas will be increasing Saturday, reaching a height of about 4.5 feet Sunday. That is normally not enought to do much good, but this time it might be helped by north winds, which could create a few small cuts on the beach fronts if we are lucky.

Tropical storm Richard seems to be headed towards Yucutan. Two more disturbances are coming off of Africa.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net