Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
An ancient Roman burial ground filled with treasure has been discovered in central Italy. Along with nearly 70 skeletons interred in carefully constructed graves, researchers found precious jewelry, leather goods, pottery and coins.
As lead archaeologist Emanuele Gianinnini tells CNN's Silvia Marchetti, his team had a “faint idea” that the site would yield valuables, “but the magnitude of the discovery is unmatched.”Unearthed during a pre-construction dig for a solar energy plant, the burial ground lies on a 52-acre plot of land north of Rome. It’s not far from the ancient city of Tarquinia, known for Etruscan stone cemeteries dating to the seventh century B.C.E...
Here is that link.
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Last January, the Spanish autonomous region of Catalunya declared a state of emergency following months of severe drought that pushed authorities to ration water consumption in the area. As reservoirs across the countryside started to dry up, eerie remains of long-lost villages started to emerge.
The most iconic archeological discovery prompted by the drought is probably the 11th-century church of the village of Sant Romà de Sau, which had been completely submerged after the construction of a nearby dam in the 1960s.
Locals living in nearby communities were accustomed to seeing the top of the church emerging from the reservoir surface during dry spells, but had never seen the entire structure out of the water...
Here is the link for more about that.
How climate change is affecting Catholic heritage (aleteia.org)
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Signal detection theory is undoubted used by metal detector engineers but it is also explains detectorist behavior and suggests ways that detectorists can improve their success rate. Anyone who understands signal detection theory and research will have a better and more complete understanding of metal detecting behavior. It goes much farther than I have discussed it to this point, and I highly recommend studying it. I've just touched on the basics in this blog even though I've mentioned it several times.
I found a great chapter on signal detection theory, if you want to look into it. I'll post a an except to expand on what I said yesterday.
In Experiment 1, I will give you 1 US Dollar for every time you correctly identify a signal with no penalty for being wrong, and you could earn up to $20 if you get them all. In Experiment 2, I will give you $20 at the start and take away $1 every time you incorrectly identify a signal with no bonus for being right. Far be it from me to assume how you would behave in each of those experiments, but if I had to guess, I would imagine that you might be more likely to identify signals in Experiment 1 than you would be in Experiment 2. It would only be natural to risk being wrong more easily in Experiment 1 and to be more cautious about being wrong in Experiment 2. From a strictly monetary-reward-maximizing perspective, the best strategy would be to say that you are seeing signals all the time in Experiment 1 and to say that you are never seeing signals in Experiment 2. Of course, those are two extreme examples, but we could – and as we’ll explore later in this chapter, do – tweak the schedule of rewards and penalties so that the decisions to make are more difficult.
To translate this to metal detecting, the first experiment would be like you are rewarded for digging every good signals but there is no penalty for digging junk. Of course, in real life many detectorists regard digging junk as a penalty itself. There is the time lost, effort, and emotional disappointment. But if there is reward for correctly identifying good signals but no penalty for being wrong, The best strategy (the one that maximized the gain), the best strategy would be to dig everything. But, as we know, there is the down side to digging everything.
As is stated, those two experiments keep it simple to illustrate some of the basic principles. In real life, the rewards are variable in both frequency and value and the reward schedule are more complex and less well defined. I don't know if I'll ever get into some of the more fascinating but complex aspects. I've addressed some of it in other ways and other posts without using the academic terminology.Here is the link for the chapter.
Chapter 8 Signal Detection Theory | Advanced Statistics I & II (bookdown.org)
And here is a previous post on it.
For some reason people don't seem to want to get into the psychophysiological aspects of metal detecting, and that is how you can really understand detecting behavior and improve.
For improving performance, it provides some of the best conceptual tools.
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The tides on the Treasure Coast are pretty big these days.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net