8/17/19 Report - Hurricane Season. Finds for Identification. Book on Artifact Identification: The Jesus Tomb.

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

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to the end of November. But the next six weeks -- “the season within a season” -- is regularly the most dangerous and active time for storms to develop in the Atlantic, said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Only two named storms have developed in the Atlantic so far this year. Dry, dusty air from Africa’s Sahara robbed potential storms of moisture, and wind shear spurred by the El Nino climate systems ripped apart budding storms. Now, those brakes on hurricane development are gone...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/back-loaded-hurricane-season-bearing-204201726.html

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

As of today the National Hurricane Center map is only showing one poorly organized system up by South Carolina.  It probably won't affect us.

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Facebook has just become the latest big tech firm to confirm that external contractors are listening to audio of users’ private conversations. According to a  Bloomberg report, Facebook has hired the contractors to listen in to users taking advantage of the audio to text functionality in its Messenger service...

For more about that: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/08/14/did-facebook-just-give-13-billion-users-a-reason-to-delete-their-account/#10b4b89f1662

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Jerry P. is satisfied that we identified his find, mentioning specifically the eBay items.  He said thanks to everyone.   He had been working on the boat all week but sent the following additional photos.  I'm going to post a couple of them, even though it is a little late, because they are excellent examples for others.

Notice the (1) different views or angles, (2) a ruler for dimensions and (3) a coin for comparison.

Excellent.

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I wanted something to read last last night and found a 384-page book by Rene A. Lopez on my shelf having the title The Jesus Family Tomb Examined..  It is about a tomb in Jerusalem containing several ossuaries, one of which was supposedly labeled "Jesus son of Joseph." which, despite the fact that Jesus and Joseph were very common names, was presented as the tomb of the Savior and his family.  The book thoroughly examines the claims made by books and TV documentaries and addresses each argument and the evidence.  The book will be interesting to anyone interested in Christianity or the process of examining and interpreting artifacts.  It also exposes how books and TV programs sensationalize things and promote falsehoods.

A couple sections that I found particularly interesting is the topic of patina and how an objects patina can record the environment.  Mention was made of the Statue of Liberty and how you can see a record of the pollutants of New York on its surface.  Of course, it has been cleaned, so some of that was wiped away.

Another section I found particularly interesting was on the difficult to read inscriptions on the ossuaries, which were not only obscured and confused to some extent by scratches but also how the writing could have been overwritten when the ossuary was reused.

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Kerri K. found the following object on Playalinda Beach and wondered what it is.

Photos of unidentified object submitted by Kerri K.

Looks like a fossil turtle scute to me.

Where there is one there is probably more.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/7/15 Report - A Treasure Coast Fossil. Blog Demographics. Item Tracking App. Darlington Digital Research Library. Lost Mine.

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

Fossil Turtle Scute Necklace.

The Treasure Coast offers a variety of types of treasures.  I occasionally mention the fossils that can be found on Treasure Coast beaches.

Here is a nice fossil turtle scute found on the Treasure Coast that was drilled and turned into a necklace by somebody.

I think she has it for sale on Etsy now.

Nice use of a found object!

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I took a look at the Google demongraphics for this blog.  I was a bit surprised.  I always assumed that at least 90 percent of the readers are male.   According to Google that is way off.  They say it is only 54 percent male.  The vast majority, not all, of the emails I receive about the blog are from males, and most of the detectorists I see on the beach are male,  I find the Google numbers hard to believe, but maybe that is how it is.

The second surprise I received was the age groups.  I once did a poll in this blog and from the responents to the blog poll indicated that on average they were an older group.  I can't find the poll results right now so I can't give the specific numbers, but here is what Google is showing.

That is certainly younger than I would have expected.  Again, it doesn't match my personal observations of the people I see detecting on the beach, however I do tend to go at times when a lot of younger people could not or would not go, and maybe also when females might not go alone.

Maybe I'll do another poll.  Maybe the detecting population has changed over the past few years. Numbers, as they say, can be deceiving.

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Finally! A smartphone app that impresses me as being useful.  It is called TrackR.  You can put small TrackR devices on items that you want to be able to find and use it with a smartphone application that will tell you the location of the item.  Here is how it is advertised.

You can put your TrackR device on luggage, wallet, cell phone, pets, child's backpack or whatever.

If the people that got robbed yesterday at John Brooks had one of the tags in the duffle bag that was stolen, they would have been able to find the thieves real quick - if they still had their smart phone.

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I just ran across a great collection of digitized old history books, maps, manuscripts and images.  It is the Darlington Digital Research Library of the University of Pittsburgh.

Here is the main link.  http://digital.library.pitt.edu/d/darlington/

This collection is truly a treasure for anyone interested in U. S. History.  One of the books in his digital collection, which just happened to be the first that I looked at, is entitled Settlers of Northwest Virginia by McWhorter et al.  That book provides great reading for any history buff, but is also a great resource for good detecting leads.  It also talked about early settlers who discovered long abandoned camps and artifacts and investigated them with the same interest that you or I might exhibit today  Of course there were descriptions of battles and other adventures of the day, primarily the late 1700s, but one gem that I found in that book was a discussion of a lost mine and buried treasure.  Copies of messages on stone markers were shown along with a copy of a crude map showing the lost mine.  I'd love to investigate that if I was up there more.

The mine is referred to in the book as the Trans-Allegheny lost mine.  I am skeptical as always, but it seems the authors are respected historians.   Maybe the lost treasure exists or doesn't, and maybe it has been found.   But it only took me a short time to find a fascinating lead like that.

The same book has the following intriguing paragraph.

I haven't began to scratch the surface of this library, but I mention it to remind you that there are plenty of good research resources to be found online these days.  If you get tired of hunting the beaches, there is a great diversion or a while.  I'm sure you can find good research materials for Florida treasures too if you are so inclined.

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It looks like we have another week very much like last week.  A one to two foot surf is predicted for the Treasure Coast for several days again.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/4/14 Report - Upcoming Competition Shoot Out and Relic Hunt by CFMDC and Treasure Coast Beach Fossil

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

Fossil Turtle Scute Seen With Shells 
on Treasure Coast Beach This Morning

I went out to see what happened to the beaches this morning.  As you might remember, yesterday when the wind was blowing strong out of the North, I found some new cuts.  Today they were mostly gone.  It looked like a foot of new sand accumulated where I showed the cuts yesterday.

I did find one place today where there were some cuts running for hundreds of yards.  The cuts varied from under a foot to up to seven feet.  Unfortunately all of the new erosion was in replenishment sand that was dumped there I think it was last summer.  That sand hasn't been there long anyway, so I didn't expect much to come out of it, and I didn't find much.  I did want to check it out.  It is good to know what is going on, even if it isn't good.

I did find some fossils and sea glass.   It looks like there are places where there are only a couple of feet of replenishment sand remaining.  It will be eroded back to the previous cliff before long.  So much for the tax dollars.  Someone will make some more money moving sand again.  We'll pay for it one way or another.

Above is a scute I saw today in a shell line that was exposed near the water line.  It is a nice turtle scute about 3/4 and inch wide.  It isn't anything big.  But pieces like this do frequently sell for a small amount on the internet.

Closeup of Turte Scute

Here is a closer look.  You can see what the fossilized bone looks like.

I see primarily two colors of fossils on the Treasure Coast beaches - black and brown.

James F. sent me the following.

Just letting you know our club, the Central Florida Metal Detecting Club will be having it's 2014 metal detecting competition hunts, "The Central Florida Sunshine Shoot Out and Relic Hunt," on April 5, 2014. Despite intensive care, high winds and tall grass, I managed to finish the promotional video. (James F. is the club's Director of Video Production and Distribution).
 
Here is the link to the video with all the details.  Take a look.

www.youtube.com/embed/vvKhjifB10Y?

Good job James.


Here is a robot snowblower video.  I bet he could make a detecting robot.  Fun video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNH9jpNTfNk


I'm not expecting any improvement of the Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions any time real soon.

Happy hunting.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net