Treasure Hunting

An Israeli lifeguard, David Shalom, was taking his regular morning swim off of the Mediterranean coast when he stumbled upon a 2,500 year old relic.

It’s a marble talisman, used to ward off the evil eye, and was found while the young man was snorkeling just off the coast. He immediately turned over the relic to the Israeli archeology society.

Measuring 8 inches in diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, the white marble disc has a perforated center and the remains of two circles can be seen around the center of it. The circles represent the pupil of an eye.

The coast of the beach the lifeguard was swimming off of was where the ancient port city Yavne-Yam once stood and dates back to the 5th or 4th century B.C. This relic confirms mythological tales about superstitious sailors.

Yaakov Sharvit, director of the Marine Unit of Israel Antiquities Authority, states: “We know from drawings on pottery vessels that this model was very common on the bows of ships and was used to protect them from the evil eye and envy, and was meant as a navigation aid and to act as a pair of eyes which looked ahead and warned of danger. But we thought the eyes were only on fighting ships, not merchant ships. Only four eyes like these have been discovered in the world.”

Sharvit later went on to praise the lifeguard for handing the rare relic over to authorities, rather than pocketing it as many others have been suspected of doing.

I wish we had a picture of this particular piece, there are so many different types of talisman’s for avoiding the “evil eye” that I’m not sure which one is an accurate representation, but I think it’s pretty amazing the art that developed out of the need for protection.

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My post on Friday recognized the fact that one man’s trash may be another man’s treasure. But today I thought we should recognize all the trash that isn’t treasure, but still needs to be found, picked up, and properly disposed of.

Volunteers collected 6.6 tons of trash from Indian River County in Florida on July 19, 2008. The cleanup extended to inlet dives at Sebastian and Fort Pierce, conductd by Operation Blue Streak; and an offshore reef dive, conducted by Florida Oceanographic Society and the Port Salerno Commercial Fishing Dock Authority.

President of the marine association, Marty Laven, states “The effort was spectacular, everyone came away from the event feeling we really made a difference. We made a BIG difference.”

“Overall, 52 fishing nets were retrieved, along with miles of fishing line. Some of the more unusual items include 25 anchors retrieved from the Martin County reef dive, a foreign hand gun, a bag of marijuana, a tiki hut, a boat bow, a piñata, several home made toilets, a solar panel, a mattress and box spring, a Christmas tree, several bicycles, street signs and a kitchen sink. Also noted by several cleanup teams was quite a bit of hurricane debris, including insulation, mobile home pieces and window glass. They also reported finding chairs and buckets high up in the mangroves.”

This event is important for treasure hunters. Many of you may have heard of Sebastian Inlet - it’s home to Mel Fisher’s museum of Spanish Treasure finds. Imagine trying to wade through 6.6 tons of trash in hopes of finding one gold coin! A big thank you should go out to the folks who participating in this event.

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Keep your eye out for Russian treasure stories - Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, is being explored by Russian scientists studying its ecosystem. But…. while they’re down there… they said they’ll be looking for “archaeological artifacts.”

Rumor has it that Imperial Russian gold and silver treasure may be at the bottom of the lake. Sacks of gold were reportedly taken from the Imperial Russian reserves and carried across the frozen lake by Admiral Alexander Kolchak’s White Forces, who were fleeing the Bolsheviks in the winter of 1919 and 1920. Some of the officers apparently froze on the ice and the treasure they were holding sank when the lake thawed.

Unfortunately that story may just be an old wives tale. But others are documented.

In 1886, seven horse-drawn carriages were carrying 1,000 silver rubles and attempted to cross the frozen lake. The ice cracked, and the leading troika sunk into the lake a few hundred meters from the shore. The rest of the caravan rushed back to land, but about 16kg of silver is reported to lie at the bottom of the lake.

As recently as 1993 an entire freight train hurtled into the water and remains there to this day!

And a few years ago divers recovered a 1.5 meter cannon from the shallower end of the lake’s bed.

Lake Baikal is estimated to be about 25 million years old and holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of Earth’s fresh water. Hundreds of unique species of fauna and flora reside in the lake, and this expedition will cover the span of two years and 160 dives.

For more information on Lake Baikal, view the Lake Baikal Wikipedia Page or the article at EN.RIAN.RU.

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Looks to me like some dedicated, hard-working, waste management personnel earned the title “Treasure Hunters” just recently…

I found this article about a jeweler in New York’s Staten Island who lost her 3 carat diamond earrings - And GOT THEM BACK!

The earrings were an anniversary gift from the ladies husband and stashed in a small jar of cleaning solution overnight. Apparently a worker at the couple’s jewelry store accidentally threw that small jar away on Tuesday morning.

After store employees alerted the Sanitation Department, the earrings were recovered Thursday after a grimy search at the site of the former Fresh Kills landfill. The giant dump closed in 2001, and the earrings were in a load of trash destined to be compacted and shipped out of state.

Engagement rings and other precious possessions have been plucked from piles of city garbage in the past, Sanitation Department spokesman Keith Mellis said.

Which makes the old adage true - One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

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