Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Hypothetical Detecting Site Date Profile. |
If you detect a site long enough, you'll collect finds from a range of dates. And if you plot the frequency of finds from various dates, you'll develop a date profile for the site. A date profile can provide some helpful insights.
Above is a hypothetical date profile for a beach. It is not based upon real data. It is just a quick illustration.
Anyhow, this profile what could be interpreted as a site showing two big find producing events (red and blue), as well as a gradual increase in finds from more recent times (green). Maybe there was a shipwreck sometime around 1600 and one around 1800 and then a gradual but significant increase in recent use of the site. The two big events produced finds increasing in date up to the time of the events.
If you developed a profile for finds from the beach just south of the Jupiter Inlet, for example, you might find coins dated prior to 1659 (the date of the Jupiter wreck) and an increase in modern coins from sometime in the 1900s up to the present. Unless you are salvaging the wreck site, the modern coins will highly out-number the old coin finds, but if you were able to hunt both, the date profile for that beach would show one big event corresponding to the wreck and an increase in coins in modern times from around 1900 up to the present.
One thing you have to remember when developing a date profile, is that your sample will not be complete. Your sample will be affected by a variety of factors. For example, the beach conditions will affect the age of coins you find. There might be a lot of older coins present, but too deeply buried to recover unless you catch the beach during some good erosion, but as you continue to detect the site, your date profile will become more complete.
There is also likely to be some degree of observer bias. It is natural to interpret the dates of any uncertain items according to what you believe.
Just another quick and dirty example. Viginia Key was very popular back in the 1950s and 1960s. Then the island was not used much for a period of time, but in recent years was improved, and I understand, is popular once again. My date profile for Virginia Key shows some finds from the 1800s and earlier spread around the island, and a good number of coins from the 1950s and 1960s along one area, and a good number of items from the 1980s and 1990s in another area. Until there was some erosion, I did not discover the area that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. I'm sure that if you hunted there in recent years, you'd find more of the more modern coins that were lost since the area became more popular once again.
Date profiling a beach or detecting site can be useful, but remember that there will be sampling errors due to various factors. Over time you will be able to develop a more accurate and complete date profile of a site. Keeping good records will help too.
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| Embossed Red Rock Soda Bottle. |
This bottle is embossed RED ROCK CO., JACKONSVILLE,, FLA.
It is approximately 7.5 inches tall and has a bottom diameter of about 2 inches.
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| Bottom of Red Rock Embossed Bottle. |
According ot my research, the Jacksonville Red Rock bottling company was started in 1938. The brand seemed to disappear by 1950.
Mr. G. T. Dodd, a wholesale grocer, joined the bottling business, forming the company of Hagan and Dodd. They in turn founded the Red Rock Company in 1885 with Dodd as president. It was Dodd who first introduced Red Rock Ginger Ale to the wholesale grocery trade for distribution, making it well-known in the south. The ginger ale had a spicy flavor from capsicum, an ingredient derived from hot peppers. Mothers also used it to calm their family's upset stomachs and to clear stuffy noses...Beginning in 1938 the franchises that were granted quickly established Red Rock as a leader in the 12oz field with over 200 bottlers and by 1947, was bottled in 47 states. But by 1958, there were 107 bottlers throughout the country using Red Rock Cola concentrate. Sixty-six of there were under The Red Rock franchise, while another 41 bottlers were marketing the product under their own private brand...
Here is the link for more about that.
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Looks like there could be some increasing surf on the Treasure Coast in a few days, but not a lot.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net