8/28/25 Report - Old Map Points to Early Settlement. Artifacts and Isaac's Needle: Connections. The Stories of Childhood.

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

Experts believe they may have finally solved the centuries-old mystery of America's lost Roanoke colony through hidden details discovered in a 400-year-old map.

A blank spot on the historic "La Virginea Pars" map, drawn by colonist John White, has revealed a concealed fort symbol when analysed by British Museum experts.

The location corresponds to a site in present-day Bertie County, North Carolina, where English ceramic artefacts were later unearthed.

The discovery could explain what happened to more than 100 English settlers who vanished without trace from Roanoke Island in the late 16th century...

Here is the link for the rest of that story.

Experts may have solved '400-year-old American mystery' after discovering hidden secrets on ancient map

Old maps can provide good metal detecting clues.  Things change.  Where I now live was once a pineapple plantation, and I've found farm implements as well as the railroad related items that I once posted.  I've also found an indigenous pot shard by the rode and a few fossils very nearby.  And that was all from a plain looking residential area that provides no obvious clues to most people that speed by.

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This find might not seem interesting right off the bat but please stick with me for a minute or two.

National Trust archaeologists have undertaken a ten-day excavation at the site of Isaac Newton’s mother’s house in Lincolnshire, uncovering everyday objects that will form part of a new display at Woolsthorpe Manor next year.

The dig, conducted in collaboration with York Archaeology, located the foundations of Hannah Newton’s house in a field adjacent to Woolsthorpe Manor, where Isaac Newton was born. The house was built for Newton’s mother after her second husband died in 1653 and was demolished following a fire in the early 1800s.

Archaeological finds included decorative Staffordshire slip tableware, a fragment of a 17th-century bellarmine jug featuring a bearded face cast into the pottery, a gaming token known as a jetton, three thimbles of varying sizes, needle fragments, buttons, and animal bones showing evidence of food preparation....

Here is the source link for that one.

Dig uncovers Isaac Newton family objects now set for display - Museums + Heritagecop

There is an something interesting about that that isn't mentioned in the article.  It might well be that it wasn't known by the archaeologists.  If it was, it wasn't part of the report. 

First of all, Isaac Newton is one of the most important scientists ever.  They found common household objects that might seem dull, but there is a connection that made it much more interesting for me. 

One of the objects is a needle.  Here it comes.  Did you know that one of Isaac's experiments on optics involved the inserting a needle into the eye (as it is often reported).  Actually, it wasn't right into the eyeball.  A bodkin needle, which he inserted between his eye and the bone near the socket.

A bodkin needle is a special purpose blunt needle, a little different from the typical sewing needle, but referred to as a needle, nonetheless.

A needle used for an experiment by Isaac Newton would, to me, be one very exciting find.  It is connections to famous people, events or shipwrecks that often adds significance and value to finds.  

When the experiment failed to yield definitive results – beyond black and white spots appearing wherever pressure was applied by the needle or bodkin – Newton turned to less invasive methods to further his investigation. Developing over a few years a series of increasingly elaborate and refined experiments using prisms, he eventually enjoyed the breakthrough he was seeking when sunshine entering a darkened room and, passing through a prism, diffracted. He described beautifully the rainbow effect he witnessed as the coloured Image of the Sun...

Here is a link for more about that.

The Story Behind Opticks by Sir Isaac Newton - Bauman Rare Books

Here is what was described as a 17th century bodkin needle on Etsy.

Bodkin needles were also found at the Jamestown archaeological site.

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Thinking of all the children and workers shot in Minneapolis...

Not too long ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a line in my mind.  At the time, I thought the line was from the introduction to the 1960s Perry Mason TV show.  The line was as it came to me was, "In every city, there are a million stories." 

After getting up the next morning and doing a little research, I found that I was wrong about both the TV show and the line.   I discovered that the TV show was actually The Naked City instead of Perry Mason, and the line that I remembered inaccurately was actually repeated at the end of each episode of the Naked City in the following words; "There are eight million stories in the naked city.  This has been one of them."

So, I got a lot of it wrong, but the time period of the TV show and the general idea expressed by the line was correct.  There is no shortage of stories.  Treasure hunters have many of them.

Other than my immediate family, I spent more of my life with the kids shown above.  I spent twelve school-years with most of those kids.  We went from first-graders to high school graduates in the same classes and schools.

Some of us knew each other even before we went to school.  One of the girls in the photo was born two days before me in the same hospital.  I remember visiting that little girls house and watching the Mickey Mouse club on TV.  She and I not only went through the same twelve years of schooling, but we were also in the same German class in college.  She passed away a few years ago, as did her husband, who is also in that school picture.  

To me it seems amazing that I can recognize so many of these six-year-old kids after seventy or more years have elapsed. I probably wouldn't recognize them today if I met them.

Each kid lived their own life's story.  I remember digging tunnels and crawling through them with Bed Bug.  He was drafted right after high school, went to Viet Nam and was what they call a tunnel rat.  I'm sure he could tell some stories.  He married an Asian girl and passed away a few years ago in Alabama.  

We had stable peaceful childhoods, but of those I knew, there was schizophrenia, alcoholism, and even an accidental killing of a friend at a party by one of the girls in the school picture who thought the gun she was holding was a toy. Can you imagine the sorrow and tragedy of that story. She later worked in Washington DC.  She passed away just a few years ago.  

There were accomplishments too -  I'm sure many more than I know.  

It was only in my later years that I learned to appreciate the kindnesses of one of those kids and his brothers. There were five children in the family, including three boys near my age.  One of those boys really sticks out in my memory although two of his brothers are also fondly remembered for what they did for me.   

The boy one year older than I, walked me down the country road to my first day of school.  We both wore jeans and plaid long sleeve shirts.  

I remember that fellow fondly for his kindness and encouraging words to me through the years.  I remember him congratulating me on good plays in football and baseball and telling his sister to keep quiet when I could have gotten in trouble for a childish prank.  His younger and older brother had kind words for me at different times too.  As I look back, I really appreciate their outstanding encouragement and kindness.  I know that one of them has passed, but Id like to say Thank You to the others if I could ever find them.  I doubt they'd even remember those instances that I eventually learned to really appreciate and remember so many years.  It was just the kind of people they were.  

Little kindnesses can mean a lot.  A simple kind word or act, even if not acknowledged or fully appreciated at the time, can leave a big impression and be remembered many decades later.  The effects of childhood can remain all your life.

Pray for the victims in Minneapolis.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Nothing on the hurricane scene for the nex few days, but something could develop.

On the Treasure Coast it looks like at least another week of small seas.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net