Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Yoav Bornstein/University of HaifaThe sword was designed to be held with one hand, despite being made of iron and measuring more than three feet long. |
Shlomi Katzin found this three-foot blade in the seabed just offshore at Israel's Dor Beach — not far from where he'd found another Crusader's sword in 2021.
... archaeology student Shlomi Katzin was not looking to make any discoveries when he went to Dor Beach, and instead sought only to swim. However, he had indeed found a Crusader's sword while scuba diving not far away in 2021. But while Katzin was swimming, he noticed scuba divers with metal detectors, who he suspected were antiquities thieves.
While chasing the thieves away, Katzin happened to notice the hilt of an historic sword peeking out of the seabed. He immediately notified university officials, who alerted the Israel Antiquities Authority, which quickly approved the sword’s removal from the sea.
The sword, just over three feet long and estimated to be from the 12th century, was safely recovered and brought to the University of Haifa for further study. Researchers examined it with a CT scan, which helped them to determine that the sword was meant to be held in one hand, that it was forged in Europe, and that only a small sliver of its original iron had survived.
Here is the link for the entire story.
12th-Century Crusader's Sword Discovered By Swimmer In Israel
So he returned to a place where he had made a remarkable discovery with nothing on his mind than a leisurely swim when he discovered detectorists who suspected were thieves whose presence make him a hero and justifies the swift removal of the sword!??! Good thing he is either a mind reader or at least suspicious of unknown folks!
How many times have I said where you find one thing, the probability of finding another similar item dramatically increases?
Just yesterday I took a little walk hoping to find some old bottles or something. I caught the tide low, which I hadn't done for a while, and the water was clear - both good things.
I saw more glass than I had for quite a while, which got my hopes up even though most of it was broken like these few fragments of older glass.
The one piece is part of an embossed McCormick and Co. bottle. The other two are just nice necks. The one at the top is older, making me wish I found the entire bottle. But the oddest thing was a green die I found. Then about a hundred yards, or maybe a bit less, but a good distance, I found another. On the first, I saw the four, which I noted for some reason, and then on the next green die, I saw the five. Pretty soon I turned around and went back and in between found nine more.
Here they are.
I've found several die before. In fact. I remember a day or two ago noticing one or two of them in my junk. Sometimes it seems like there is something between past events that you'd take to be random and future finds. I sometimes think of it as a kind of "seeding" like they used to talk about with dowsing for gold, even though I always took those metal gold dowsers to be nonsense. There is a very useful tendency of the working mind to put things together, but sometimes the connections are coincidental. Coincidental connections can become superstition.
I wonder why someone had so many die and why they were lost discarded.
The best bottle I found on the hunt wasn't anything great - just a tiny graduated pharmacy bottle. Here it is.
I haven't done well with the bottle hunting over the past year.
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The story of an item can add to the economic value of the item. A documented shipwreck provenance will do it, for example. So will a connection to a famous collector. Compare a cob coin with a documented connection to a famous shipwreck to your common beach found cob. A documented story can add a lot.
Even for an anonymous beach found cob, the story still adds to the find even if not in an economic way. Maybe the find can be connected to a time period or a nearby shipwreck or some other event. We all wonder how items ended up where they were found and say, "If only it could talk." Of course, in some ways it does. We may understand a little of what it is saying, but there is also the remaining mystery that also excites the imagination.
There is the story of the hunt and making find and perhaps some other events or observations. The story points in many directions and asks us to wonder, imagine, test and prove.
The best finds make us want to tell the story. We refine, solidify, and complete the story as we recall and tell it. Others are drawn into the story and make their own connections.
What makes people different? Isn't it their stories? Our accumulated stories shape the world we live in and how we look at ourselves and the world around us.
Families have stories. They have stories about ancestors, times and events that shaped and reflect the identity of the family and individuals.
People seem very eager to give away their story-making these days - and in doing so, their authentic identities.
It has become too easy. They adopt "their" story from other sources, such as fact checkers, the media or automated language systems. Lacking authenticity and experiential rootedness, their processed, manufactured, easy, quick-serve stories have only a fragile connection to their experience and, as a result, is fragile and seems under constant attack and therefore must be strenuously defended, even to the point of violence in order to avoid being exposed and falling apart.
Authentic stories that connect to the deepest levels, on the other hand, lead to connection, centeredness, peace and joy. You don't see enough of that anymore.
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
Nothing very exciting there.
Anybody know what they are doing with the beach south of the Sebastian inlet?
Good hunting,
Treausreguide@comcast.net