11/1/25 Report - Gold Pendant Find. WV Silver Reale Find. History of the Acadians and the Dykelands. The Missing Mystery of TV.

 

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

Nice Small 18K Gold Pendant Find
Reading DIO TI PROTEGGA.

This anchor cross pendant reads Dio Ti Protegga, which in Italian means, "May God Protect you."

Here is the other side of the pendant.

Other Side of the Anchor Cross Pendant.

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Take a look at the following map.  It has to do with the Not So Mystery of Oak Island.  

For me, the only mystery of Oak Island is how so little can be found after so much effort in such an area.

That is a map of the Grand Pre dykelands, which is where the Acadians created rich agricultural fields by constructing dykes and sluices in the 17th century.  

Below is a picture of one of the Acadian's structures constructed to keep out the saltwater tides and use aboiteau (hinged wooden sluices) to drain the agricultural fields.

(Figure 2-27) View of a 19th century aboiteau, illustrating the elaborate structure required to withstand the pressure of the tides 

Quite a construction!

When the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century to the area that is now Nova Scotia, they found willing trading partners in the Mi’kmaq, who had developed sophisticated trading networks over the millennia. During the succeeding centuries, European settlements gradually encroached on Mi’kmaq territory, especially the rich coastline, and intense competition for the region’s resources ensued. Early on, though, the French authorities and the Mi’kmaq forged positive relationships that led to alliances. One such alliance resulted from the historic baptism of Grand Chief Henri Membertou in 1610, the first Aboriginal person to be baptized in what would later become Canada. There are no known treaties between the French and the Mi’kmaq...

I've talked about the Mi 'kmaq in this blog in relation to Oak Island before.

While the French claimed Acadie as their own, the British were competing with them for territorial claims over similar areas. Located strategically between New England to the south and New France to the west, Acadie from the early 1600s onward was often a battleground for control of key settlements and military positions. There were numerous violent incidents and, occasionally, outright wars...

In both 1696 and 1704, expeditions from New England, led by Benjamin Church, came to different parts of Acadie. In the latter expedition, the attackers devastated the community at Grand Pré. They burned houses, carried off prisoners, and broke the dykes to let in sea water, because they knew that the enclosed dykeland was crucial to the Acadians’ agricultural output. A contemporary account says that the soldiers dug “down the dams [dykes], and let the tide in, to destroy all their corn, and everything that was good.” Once the force left, the Acadians returned to the area, rebuilt their houses and repaired their dykes to begin anew.

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If you want to learn more about the historical activities of the Acadians extending back to the 17th century on Nova Scotia.  

Look at the bottom right corner of the map at the beginning of this section.

It should be no surprise to find coins or a variety of types of 17th century European and earlier activity on and around Nova Scotia.  Nor should it be any surprise to find wooden constructions, dykes, sluices or drains or submerged wooden structures.  What surprises me us to find so little so close to an area where so much activity took place over the centuries.

Here is a link for more about the history related to fascinating story of the Acadians and Dykeland.

1680–1755 Acadian Arrival and Dykeland Creation - Landscape of Grand Pré En

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Here is a 1791 reale found by a metal detecting friend of a friend in the hills of WV.  

As far as is known, the first cabin in the area was built by a settler around 1734.  Before that it was a campground for Mingo and Shawnee tribes.  It was not uncommon for Spanish coinage to be used at that time, but the find is pretty surprising to me, although it could have been lost in the area much later than the date the coin was minted.  Although we can see the mint date, it isn't known when the coin was lost.

Bethany College was started in the area around 1840.  

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The nudists that were arrested around Little Mud Creek made the national news.  I couldn't believe they made the national news.  I don't think they deserve that.  They'll probably be on Gutfeld.  We'll see.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Not much interesting in the weather now that Melissa has passed us.

Happy Howling Weenie.

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