Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: See LiveScience link below. |
Archaeologists in Colombia have found eight ceramic jars, with metallic figurines and emeralds inside, within a temple and its adjacent graves.
The ancient Muisca (also called the Chibcha) crafted the jars called "ofrendatarios" about 600 years ago. The Muisca, a people whose civilization flourished in the region at the time, were famous for their metal-crafting skills, and their work may have inspired the legend of El Dorado — a legendary city made of gold...
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Some people don't agree with me, but it seems to me that metal detectors haven't changed a lot over the last forty or more years. Of course they have changed, and now you have some nice features, but I find most changes underwhelming. Computers, by comparison, have changed a lot. So have phones, which in the past did nothing other than allow you to talk to another person. I remember the party line my grandmother was on. It used something like Morris code to let the people on the party line know which person the call was meant for. One short and two long rings was for one household, for example, and two short and one long ring was for somebody else. You knew when one of the people on your party line got a call, and if you were like many of the ladies, you'd quietly pick up your phone and listen in on somebody else's conversation.
Perhaps one reason I'm not impressed by the improvements in detector technology is that I had a custom made metal detector that was better than those made by the major detector manufacturers quite a few years ago. Another reason might be that I don't put a lot of importance on some of the advances such as the conductivity numbers, even though they can be useful or interesting. I don't consider them hugely helpful, both because of the kind of hunting I do and the strategies I prefer.
In any case, metal detectors still look very much like they did back during the 1940s. The are not as big and heavy, but they still have a coil on the bottom of a poll with a handle, and many still have the rectangular, or nearly rectangular, control box, and headphones. You might say that is all cosmetic, but I don't think so. I've considered alternatives and have on occasion made small modifications to that familiar and basic configuration.
The shortened handle used for diving is one slight modification to the long handled configuration, but once people get into a habit they tend to follow it right down the drain. I remember watching, not many years ago, one diver attempt to use the short handle configuration in about two feet of water for a while before deciding that he would be better off lengthening the handle and standing up. It is easy to follow the predominant pattern or the established habit even when it not longer provides the best solution.
The same thing applies to digging tools. Most beach detectorists use a long handled scoop these days. There area few who use a short handled scoop or even a trowel.
In the water, a long handled scoop is also useful a lot of the time, but if you are diving, you might do more hand fanning.
Sand scoops are pretty much the same, although there are differences, and some differences are pretty significant. Usually you have a long handle and a round or more square bucket with something like quarter-inch holes for sifting. They are pretty good for sifting dry sand, but when it comes to wet sand or coarse shell-sand, maybe not so good. On the Treasure Coast, you'll often see people dig with the scoop, dump the wet sand and spread it out before trying to find the object. The holes might let out the water and sand fleas, but in situations like that, the holes aren't used to sift the sand.
Some people use a shovel, and one fellow has a power drill that works something like a post hole digger to bring up the target. That is the most unique solution I've seen. You usually don't see detectorists do anything that different from what everybody else is doing.
There are times when you might select something other than the solution you use most often. You might find the long handle scoop the best solution for most situations, but there might be times when you are better off using a shovel or something else.
Recently I ran into a situation when my scoop just wouldn't work. Your typical scoop won't work well in rocks. Coins and things like coins can be covered by rocks or be caught in crevices. Items can even be inside the rock. I've seen what I would call sandstone form in less than ten years, and from what I've seen, mudrock can also form quickly.
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| Mudrock Broken in Pieces. |
When the items are embedded in a rock that can't be removed or tighly fitted into crevices, you might start by hand fanning sand, but you might need something that can break the rock - maybe a crowbar or chisel.
You never know what conditions you might encounter or where your search might lead in any particular case. It never hurts to be prepared with tools that you think you might not use but could end up wishing you had.
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I added the Survey of Colonial Coins link to my links reference list.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
Hurricane Sam seems to be headed north into the Atlantic, but there are two more behind him that look like they will form.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net