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Sunday, July 12, 2020

7/10/20 Report - Miscellaneous Finds: Fossil and Animal. 16th Century New World Imports of Glass, Jet and Mirrors



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


A Horse Tooth and Three Fossil Horse Teeth.

Above are three fossil horse teeth found on the Treasure Coast.  The more colorful one is a horse tooth that is not fossilized.  

Which of the four do you think would show up first?  

The tooth that is not fossilized is less dense and would be most likely to show up on a beach when beach conditions are not good.

My wife was cleaning out a cabinet and found these items.  Not many women are lucky enough to be able to find interesting things like that in their cabinets.

Barb of Ray or Something.

The two points on the right end are individually hinged and move vertically.  Really cool.  I cana't imagine why it is like that and would like to find out more about it.

Anybody know what kind of ray or animal it comes from?


Jaw Bone From Some Kind of Toothy Fish?


Can you tell me about this one?

These two items are also not fossilized and were surface finds.

When beach conditions change, the type of finds will likely change too.

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Here is an interesting article - New wealth from the Old World: glass, jet and mirrors in the late 15th to early 16th century indigenous Caribbean  by Joanna Ostapkowicz. 

It discusses trade among the Spanish and indigenous peoples.  The indigenous were happy to get items of jet, glass and mirrors and gladly traded gold.


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When you are young you aren't aware of the possible long term impact of some of your actions.  A young person probably won't think about the damage that can be caused by prolonged sun exposure.  Many years later you see the results.  If you are fair skinned, you are especially at risk for developing skin cancer, which can be a big deal.  Even the stress you put on your skeleton can eventually cause problems.  Repetitive actions can wear on joints.  Younger people don't often think of the consequences their actions can cause in the distant future.  Older people are actually dealing with those things.

There were a lot of things I did back when I was doing a lot of metal detecting that I wouldn't do today.  I wouldn't detect in the ocean at night by myself  any more, for example. 

When you are older you see the long term impacts that you didn't think about when you were younger.  And you might even think how lucky you were to avoid some of the things that could have happened.  I was (and am) a very lucky person.  It often seemed as if I was being protected.  A lot of things could have gone another way.

Young or old, you face risks all the time. You can't avoid it if you do much of anything at all.  Every time you get on the highway in a car, you take a risk,  Someone could plow into you at any time, and many people are killed in automobiles every year, but people are willing to take that risk, if they ever think about it.

There is also the risk of lost opportunity.  Doing nothing can be a risk. They talk about that in regard to finances, but a life without risk would not be very exciting, and you would certainly lose out by not participating.

Everyone has their own level of risk tolerance.  Some people are more adventurous than others.  And different people are more sensitive to different kinds of risk.

People who seem to repeat poor decisions like to blame everyone else.  They don't take responsibility for their own actions.  That makes them bitter people, and they fail to learn from their mistakes.  It turns into a downward spiraling cycle. 

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Tropical Storm Fay.
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

I mentioned Fay yesterday.  She is now headed towards New York, New Jersey and New England.

On the TreasureCoast we are supposed to have one and two foot surf for another week or two, but keep watching.  A storm could pop up any time now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net