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| Source: See BBCNews link below. |
A gold and garnet sword pyramid lost by a Sutton Hoo-era lord "careening around the countryside" on his horse has been discovered by a metal detectorist.
The Anglo-Saxon object was found in the Breckland area of Norfolk in April.
Finds liaison officer Helen Leake said the garnets are Indian or Sri Lankan, revealing the far-flung nature of trade links in the 6th and 7th Centuries...
Sutton Hoo-era Norfolk sword pyramid find 'lost by lord' - BBC News
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| Thimble Beach Find. |
I've found a number of thimbles on beaches over the years. I always thought it was kind of odd for a person to have a thimble on the beach, and I didn't think of them as possibly being very old.
I later learned that thimbles have been used for centuries and go back to before Roman times. I haven't seen one used for a many years, but I'm sure if I visited a quilting club or something I might see plenty of them.
Thimbles from Spanish colonial sites seem to be fairly common. Deagan devotes several pages to thimbles in her book on Spanish Colonial artifacts.
From the This Week In Pennsylvania Archaeology blog, here is a summary of some of the changes that might help you date a thimble.
Just as the process for making thimbles changed, so did the form or shape and design on thimbles. It wasn’t until the fifteenth century that thimbles became taller and similar to their current form, while previously they were a short shallow cup-like shape (Hill 1995, UK Detector Finds Database 2005). The height of the thimble sides as well as the height of the dome varied between manufacturers as well as through time. Designs on thimbles also changed, beginning with hand punched “pits” or indentations in the medieval period and later changing to mechanically indented or knurled indentations (Hill 1995, UK Detector Finds Database 2005). The indentations or designs are most often small round indentations or can also be a waffle pattern. These varying patterns on the body or crown of a thimble can also indicate its age. Finally, the rim of a thimble can be indicative of a specific time period as some rims were left flat, whiles others were rolled.
And here is that link.
This Week In Pennsylvania Archaeology: Thimbles through Time, Space and Life (twipa.blogspot.com)
Below is a closeup of the thimble I recently pulled out of a box of old finds.
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| Closeup of Same Thimble. |
It definitely shows some wear around the corners.
Ivor Hume gives information for dating thimbles in A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. He describes brass thimbles as being among "the most common of smaller domestic objects found on colonial and later sites."
I think I'll try to find some more of my old thimbles to see what I might have. I haven't looked at them in quite a while.
This gold thimble made by Paul Revere sold for over $10,000 years ago.
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From nhc.noaa.gov -
A small area of low pressure, with some associated showers and thunderstorms, is passing just to the east of Praia in the Cabo Verde Islands. Significant development of this system is not expected during the next day or two due to unfavorable upper-level winds and marginally warm waters. The low is forecast to move northward or north-northwestward through Thursday before the system moves over cool waters, ending development chances. Locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds are possible over portions of the Cabo Verde Islands through Wednesday.
The tides are small, as is the surf. Only about a one to two foot surf for the next several days.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net