Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
 |
| Source: LiveScience link shown below. |
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a dwelling that was built up to 800 years ago during the Aztec Empire in the Centro neighborhood of Mexico City, Mexico, during works to modernize the area.
The centuries-old abode was discovered by archaeologists and construction workers ahead of an initiative to update electrical power substations.
The dwelling is believed to date from the late Postclassic period (A.D. 1200 to 1521) and would have been located on the border of two neighborhoods in the city of Tenochtitlan...
Here is the link.
Remains of Aztec dwelling and floating gardens unearthed in Mexico City | Live Science
---
There are a variety of terms that people use to describe our hobby. Coinshooter is one such term, but I don't think it is used nearly as much as it once was. In fact, I seldom hear that term anymore. It might have something to do with where I live. Here people are interested in coins, but mostly treasure coins or cobs. And many of the people who hunt those are just as interested in finding Spanish artifacts and 18th century jewelry, so it isn't all about coins, even if you consider cobs to be coins. There is a distinction that some people make.
People who metal detect are often called, and sometimes refer to themselves as treasure hunters. To me, that is a very general term that can include people who metal detect, hunt bottles, salvage shipwrecks, pan gold, etc. etc. Other people might have a more narrow view of what treasure is.
I remember being interviewed by a CNN Travel reporter in 2011 and used the term detectorist. They asked me about the term, which I undoubtedly used before, but don't know when I first used it. If you can find its use in an earlier publication, I'd be glad to credit it.
Detectorist became a much more common term, perhaps after 2014, which is when the TV show by that name aired. The TV show could have definitely accelerated the use of the term. I guess there is a possibility that it was originally a British term. I don't remember if I heard it somewhere before using it or not, but I know it wasn't a term used in the US much before that time.
For me, the term detectorist only describes a small part of my treasure hunting activities. Some people like to metal detect and always use a metal detector. Metal detecting describes well what they do because they don't use other techniques very much, and they don't set out to find non-metallic targets.
Decades ago I authored articles on what I called "eyeballing." Although back then I almost always used a metal detector, I paid a lot of attention to visual cues in the environment, and that resulted in a lot of sight finds in addition to metal detector finds. It could be a coin or ring on the surface or something non-metallic, like cash caught in seaweed.
Eyeballing can be done while metal detecting, but it can also be done where metal detecting is not allowed. It is a skill or technique that can be used alone, or with a metal detector. These days I do a lot of eyeballing, but recently you hear a lot of another term - mudlarking.
Mudlarking, is a term that I think most properly applies to searching the tidal mud zone of the Thames River in London, but like most terms that are adopted by a larger segment of the public, the term now seems to be used sometimes in a more general sense.
Inevitably, as a greater segment of the population adopts a term, the meaning becomes less specific. That sometimes drives me crazy. For example, the scientific term cognitive dissonance, had a very specific meaning in psychology, but it is now used by a lot of people who have no idea of its original meaning, and the way it is used now, it is almost meaningless. It has become more of a buzz word that sounds good but has very little real meaning.
---
 |
| Source: Magicseaweed.com |