Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
 |
| XRF Analysis of Five Escudos - One Suspected of Being Fake. Source: See nd.edu link below. |
It can be next to impossible to determine if some items are fake or counterfeit. I discovered what appears to be a series of slides from a lecture on the subject.
Shown above is the XRF analysis of five escudos. There are differences between all five. The suspect coin has a slightly higher gold content and slight lower silver content. We are talking small differences though, and I'm not sure the analysis answers the question. Nonetheless, the comparison does illustrate the usefulness of XRF for determining the content of metals.
You might be interested in looking at the slide show which shows a few Atocha images as well as some other historic gold treasures.
Here is the link.
https://www3.nd.edu/~nsl/Lectures/phys10262_2014/art-chap2-7.pdfu
If you find the original sources or more complete information on any of the slides, let me know. Thanks.
---
 |
| Horse Restrained For Voyage Early 16th Century. |
Speaking of the Atocha, I also found a study of the animals that were carried on the ship for various reasons. Many were for food, some were simply unwanted pests, and others, the author thought, could have been taken to Europe for zoos or as exotic pets. And of course there were work animals, such as horses, but there was no evidence of dogs, which seems strange.
Wild boars, sheep or goats, cattle, turtles and fish were among those use for food. Since the Atocha sank on only the second day out, few of the animals were eaten during the cruise. It appears many were eaten on board while the ship was at harbor preparing for the voyage. Live animals were brought on board last.
That study is A FAUNAL ANALYSIS OF THE 17TH CENTURY GALLEON NUESTRA SENORA DE ATOCHA by Regina L. Chapin. It is a Master's Thesis submitted in 1990.
Here is the abstract.
The vertebrate faunal analyses of the 17th century sunken Spanish galleons, Nuestra Senora de Atocha and to a lesser extent, the Santa Margarita have yielded relevant information on the transportation of animal types across the Alantic. The collection from the Atocha includes 986 identifiable bones, which mainly consist of various fish, reptiles and mammals, although a few bird bones are noted. Remains were collected from 16 areas either within what was left of the ship, or in sections measured away from the wreck. Evidence has shown that a few animals, namely Sus scrofa and Ovis/Capra, had been consumed during the voyage, due to cut marks and/or burned areas. Fresh fish were also a major food source on board ship. Other species were transported alive for use as breeding stock, curiosities for European zoos, or as commodities. Hence, this assemblage provided important information about human-animal interactions aboard such sailing vessels.
And here is the link.---
Not long ago I found a couple alligator scutes in the river. They appeared to be relatively recent. Just a couple days ago I found an alligator vertebra.
 |
| Alligator Vertebra. |
If you saw an image of one of these in an ancient painting, you might easily mistake it for a picture of a flying machine.
---
There are no storms to watch now.
The surf will remain around two feet for at least a few days.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net