7/8/23 Report - Roman Medussa Medal Found. Armor Truck Dumps Coins. Local Dairy History and Fishing Gear Found.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

The Roman phalera, or military medal, features Medusa with two wings atop her head. 
(Image credit: The Vindolanda Trust)

A nearly 1,800-year-old silver military medal featuring the snake-covered head of Medusa has been unearthed in what was once the northern edge of the Roman Empire.

Excavators discovered the winged gorgon on June 6 at the English archaeological site of Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort that was built in the late first century, a few decades before Hadrian's Wall was constructed in A.D. 122 to defend the empire against the Picts and the Scots.

The "special find" is a "silver phalera (military decoration) depicting the head of Medusa," according to a Facebook post from The Vindolanda Trust, the organization leading the excavations. "The phalera was uncovered from a barrack floor, dating to the Hadrianic period of occupation."...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

Silver medal featuring winged Medusa discovered at Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall | Live Science

---

Here is the link for more about that

Armored truck flips over on Michigan freeway, spilling money everywhere (detroitnews.com)

Thanks to Jeff O. for that link.

----

I took a little walk yesterday in the heat. I haven't done that much since it got so hot. I didn't go as far as I originally thought I might.

I did find an Alfar dairy bottle. I've found those before in various sizes. I've found Alfar dairy bottles, Boutwell dairy bottles, and Alfar Boutwell dairy bottles on the Treasure Coast as well as some others.

Embossed" DRINK ALFAR
CREAMERY CO MILK.

The half pint bottles were sold in schools for 6 cents.

Below is a previous find.  It is a larger bottle.

Reads: EAT ALFAR ICE CREAM
IT'S SO GOOD.

I also just discovered a great article on the history of the Alfar dairy.  Great bit of Florida history.

Alf R. Nielsen, a native Swede, who had been president of the Palm Beach Creamery Company, founded the Alfar Creamery Company in 1930. A dairy plant was built at 456 Flamingo Drive at the cost of $75,000, and opened with great fanfare and a party til midnight on November 20, 1930. A.E. Parker, the former city manager of West Palm Beach was vice-president and was also president of Bertana Farms. He was also Major Boynton’s son-in-law and managed the Boynton Hotel for many years. Bertana Farms was a combination of a part of his first name “Bert” and “Ana”, his wife.

They bought their milk from the big dairy producers of the day, the famous Pennock Plantation in Jupiter with its Jersey cows (specializing in unpasteurized milk), the Bertana and Winchester dairies in Boynton, and the Clark Dairy in Kelsey City (today’s Lake Park). The white trucks of the Alfar Creamery delivered milk daily all over West Palm Beach, packed in ice to keep it fresh in the heat...

In 1963, Alfar merged with the Boutwell Dairy in Lake Worth.  The Boutwell Dairy was founded by William Boutwell, who had invented the process that produced half and half. At its peak the Boutwell dairy had more than a 1,000 Guernseys at his dairy located at Congress and Forest Hill Boulevard (then called Selby Road). After the merger, products were sold as Alfar-Boutwell. Then in 1968, the T.G. Lee Dairy in Orlando bought the Alfar-Boutwell Creamery, and the Alfar name disappeared from the West Palm Beach area. In the continuing mergers, Dean Foods bought the T.G. Lee brand. By the end of the 1970s, all of the dairies in eastern Palm Beach County had closed as the land had become too valuable for dairy farming...

For more information and historic photos, here is the link.

Got Milk? Alfar Creamery made sure West Palm Beach did (palmbeachpast.org)

You might want to read the comments to the article too.  One provided information on HOME Milk.

I found those bottles before and didn't know much about them.  Below is the bottom of one of those.

I had been thinking that I should start posting my dairy bottles in my tgbottlebarn.blogspot.com site.  

On my walk I also picked up some fishing tackle in a box.

Box of Fishing Gear Found on Recent Outing.

I'm always happy to find something that I can use, and I'll use a lot of the stuff in this box.  I never have to buy fishing gear.  I even found a complete working pole and reel one time.  I tried to find the owner, and talked to the people that lived in the area, but nobody seemed to know who it belonged to.

---

No storm activity in the Atlantic yet.  I'm sure we'll get something this year.  Well, pretty sure.  Just a matter of time and waiting for it to happen.

In the meantime, good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net