Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Florida Lore by Vernon Lamme. |
I mentioned before that Vernon Lamme was Florida's first state archaeologist and served in that capacity from 1935 - 1942. He was also a journalist and published a couple books composed of some of his newpaper articles. His books contain some interesting Florida history, including archaeological finds.
One story he tells in Florida Lore is about finding a bunch of Kang Hsi porcelain shards on a beach north of Vero after a three-day noreaster. .
He wrote, " A friend of mine called begging me to meet in Vero Beach; that he had found something he thought might be of some importance. We drove a short way north fo that city. The stormy waters had washed away part of a sand dune back of the beach and three feet below the surface of the earth and we were soon examining a stratum of what appeared to be shreds of porcelain three inches deep and approximately 20 feet in length. And no other artifacts were near them."
He sent the sherds to Matt Stirling of the Smithsonian Institute, who identified the sherds as being from the Ming dynasty around 1700.
Unfortunately, Lamme does not give the year when the articles were originally published.
I'll give a few more stories from the book. For example, a Mrs. Johnson, called grandma, found two gold cups on Mound Key, which is later in Estero Bay State Preserve. On a map of the area you will see Mound House, which is a restored house sitting on top of a Calusa mound. It seems like Mr. Lamme thought the cups could have been of Maya origin.
Mr. Lamme worked mounds around the state and found human bones in oolithic limestone at Surfside Florida. Estimated to be at least 3,600 years old, bones, disappeared in transit to Washington DC. according to an article, Excavation of Southeast Florida, by the Yale University Press (Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 42).
Surfside, if you don't know, is a small beachside residential community in North Florida, which in modern time, when I was down that way, was highly patrolled and permitted little access to non-residents. The Marco Polo hotel was just south of there. There was an old shipwreck just offshore of Surfside, but to get there you had to walk along the low tide zone from outside the city limits.
Lamme worked several mounds around the state, especially one near Marineland up by Daytona. One of his theories included the belief that either Mayans was the very controversial belief that old Mayan structures were found in Florida and Mayan culture originated in Florida. I'll get into more of thta some other time.
The Florida Lore book shows a jade necklace found near St. Augustine, that is said to be without doubt of Mayan origin. A very old pendant made from a pot sherd is also shown.
A couple of other notable finds made by Lammme included bowls made from skulls.
Florida Lore is not all about archaeology. There are a couple pages on the 1715 Fleet, but you'll find more about the economics, politics and general history of Florida in the early 20th century.
In the future, I'll probably get back to the idea that Mayan culture could have originated in Florida.
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It has been at least a couple months since I've been able to do any bottle hunting.
The tide in the Indian River Lagoon has been high. There has been a lot of bait fish. I call it fish soup.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
We are having some northeast wind this morning. There might be a little beach activity, but I'm not expecting anything very significant.
No exceptional beach conditions right now. Still, it is better than before a lot of the renourishment sand was removed from those areas where there was recent renourishment.
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Here is a solution for the energy crises. Swalwell should volunteer as a wind farm.
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Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net