Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: See link below. |
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Archaeologists have unearthed a rare trove of more than 80 metal objects in Mississippi thought to be from Hernando de Soto's 16th-century expedition through the Southeast. Many of the objects were repurposed by the resident Chickasaws as household tools and ornaments, an unusual practice at a time when European goods in North America were few and often reserved for leaders.
The researchers believe Spaniards left the objects behind while fleeing a Chickasaw attack that followed frayed relations between the two groups in 1541. The victors took advantage of the windfall of spoils - axe heads, blades, nails and other items made of iron, lead and copper alloy - modifying many of them to suit local uses and tastes. Chickasaw craftspeople turned pieces of Spanish horseshoes into scrapers, barrel bands into cutting tools and bits of copper into jingling pendants...
The team focused on studying the environmental factors in the movements of Native Americans across the landscape, where radiocarbon dates showed people had lived since the 14th or 15th century. Curious about early residents' potential interactions with outsiders, the researchers brought metal detectors, a speedy way of finding objects of European origin. The first day they deployed the detectors, the machines began pinging. Soon, the team was uncovering dozens of items, including a small cannon ball, a mouth harp and what could be a Spanish bridle bit, emblazoned with a golden cross.
"We couldn't believe it," Cobb said. "There was a lot of serendipity for sure."
The style and type of objects, as well as their location, aligned with Spanish accounts of the de Soto expedition and the 1541 battle at Chikasha, the main Chickasaw town. But the researchers found no evidence of a burned village or the remains of horses and pigs. Cobb said the site was likely a village near Chikasha, whose inhabitants visited the site of the conflict and brought items back to their households. They may also have acquired some of the objects during the previous winter through under-the-table trading with Spanish soldiers....
Here is the link for the rest of that article.
Interesting article.
That is the kind of site where you wouldn't want to miss a thing. It is more about the historic or information value of the items than anything else.
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There is still a lot of junk on the Indian River Ridge site. It seems endless, and I wouldn't bother, but for curiosity and unfinished business.
Here is a recent find. It appears to be part of a latch or something. There is a chain balled up on one side.
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| Recent Find. |
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The weather is interesting today. While the beaches won't be improved a lot overall, the south winds and southeast swells could help open up a couple spots that I've been watching lately.
The west coast of Florida is getting some nice wave action.
I recently received a question from a new detectorist who asked how high the surf had to be for good detecting conditions. It is more complicated than that. There are a lot of factors. The direction of the wind and swells has a lot to do with it. Also the tides and the longer term accumulation or loss of sand. But to give a general answer, which I hate to do because I'm ignoring a lot of factors, I like to see something on the order of at least a six to eight foot surf, and that depends, like I said, on a lot of other things. A lot of the time, that isn't enough. But there may be spots that require a lot less.
It takes less to open up areas that have a general trend of recent sand loss. I pointed to one of those in a post not too long ago. A south wind can open up areas that have obstructions to the flow of sand, such rocks, groins, or just changes in the shoreline.
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| Elsa Cone. Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
I hoping to get a chance to detect one area that has been looking decent lately. I hope yestedays southeast winds helped it some, and I hope I get a chance to go out around low tide.