Treasure Hunting

Attention SCUBA-certified Treasure Hunters: A new law has opened Greece’s coastline to SCUBA diving!

Unfortunately it has also opened archaeologist’s concern for treasures that await in shipwrecks yet undiscovered.

In 1902 the study of the ancient world was forever changed when a corroded mechanism was recovered by sponge divers from a sunken Greek wreck.

It was the Antikythera Mechanism - a system of bronze gears from the 2nd century BC used to calculate the date of the Olympic Games based on the summer solstice. Its mechanical complexity was unequaled for 1,000 years - until the cathedral clocks of the Middle Ages.

Archaeologists believe hundreds more wrecks lie beneath the eastern Mediterranean sea and may contain treasures and now those treasures can be explored by almost any SCUBA diver. Marine archaeologists Harry Tzalas says “the future of archaeology in this part of the world is in the sea. This law is very dangerous, it opens the way to the looting of antiquities from the seabed which we don’t even know exist.”

In 1932 Greece’s antiquities law said all artifacts on land and in the sea belong to the state, but it does not regulate SCUBA diving which was developed in the 1940s by Frenchman Jacques Cousteau.

A new law implemented in 2007 and designed to promote tourism opens most of Greece’s 9,400 mile coastline to SCUBA divers, except for about 100 known archaeological sites. Greece’s archaeologists’ union and two ecological societies have appealed for the law to be rescinded. Meanwhile, some tour companies are luring tourists with the promise of ancient artifacts. “SCUBA diving in Greece is permitted everywhere…Ideal for today’s treasure hunter.”

Greece offers handsome rewards to prevent relics falling into private hands. It paid 440,000 euros ($553,300) to a fisherman for a female torso off the island of Kalymnos in 2005.

Archaeologists know of many treasures still lost at sea. About 5,000 pieces from the collection of Luigi Palma di Cesnola — who helped found New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — disappeared in a Mediterranean shipwreck in the 1870s.

For more information, read the rest of this three page article at: Sunken Greek Treasures at Risk from SCUBA Looters hosted by Reuters U.K.

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We stumbled on to a site the other day that we were really excited about. We’re in the process of setting up a reciprocal link program with them, but we wanted to encourage you all to take a look if you haven’t already at THunting.com - Treasure Hunting Forum!

We added them to our blogroll so their link will always be around, but it looks like a fun site. We can most certainly add them to our list of Metal Detecting Forums. Hopefully they’ll link back to us, we’re always excited to expand our treasure hunting family.

- Shaun & Adam

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Uhh…

Apparently we need to spend less time READING and more time LOOKING because this is exactly the kind of thing we need to be using our new technology for.

A musician from Los Angeles, Nathan Smith, has apparently used Google Earth to discover a sunken Spanish ship off the coast of Texas.

The ship is believed to have hit the shore in 1822 and is supposedly loaded with treasures that may be worth BILLIONS. Smith used Google Earth to zoom in on a “shoe-print like impression near the area where the ship is reported to have crashed.”

Then Smith took a metal detector to the site and declared he struck gold buried on the vessel! All of this from cruising Google Earth!?

But apparently Smith did NOT research property laws in Texas while he was surfing Google. Attorney Ron Walker, who represents the owners of the ranch Smith detected, says “It was offensive that somebody could go on Google Earth, look down and see what they think under the ground, and come in and say ‘I want to dig up your property.’ They have no proof anything is there and no experience.”

So while we are more than a little envious that Smith was able to discover treasure, we don’t envy him the legal drama that may take YEARS to unfold. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated on how this story develops and if there really IS any sunken ship off the Texas shore.

- Shaun & Adam

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King Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560BC until his defeat by the Persians in about 547BC. Renowned for his wealth, his name became a synonym for a wealthy man. You may have heard someone called “rich as Croesus” and, well, that’s where the saying came from. Greek and Persian culture adopted his name to identify wealthy men. But don’t worry; Croesus wouldn’t have had a problem with that. He credited himself with the invention of the first formalized currency system and coinage.

That story is part of which makes this article we found so very interesting. The DIRECTOR of the a state museum in turkey and NINE accomplices have been convicted of stealing some of Croesus’ fabled treasure.

The theft included a coin and a gold brooch in the shape of a winged sea horse and the items were taken several years ago. In 2006 the taken items were replaced by fakes, and have never been recovered.

As for the director, he received a 13 year prison sentence for theft and embezzlement. The other nine received lesser prison terms.

Wow.

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Hi!

- Shaun & the Gang

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Adam and I have been blogging here for over a year now and in all the stories we’ve stumbled across and articles we’ve literally had to “dig” up, we haven’t heard of any buried treasure from Bulgaria.

But if you ask me, Bulgaria looks like the new Egypt. And the Gold Rush article featured on TravelGuide.com gives more details than I can possibly recite in this blog. Let’s just say that they’re finding some really amazing stuff there.

There are royal tombs of Thracians hidden in Bulgaria, built between the fifth and third centuries B.C and hidden in great, overgrown beehive mounds that rise several stories high along roads and tilled fields. There are thousands of these mounds scattered throughout the country. And right now, all of them are subject to illegal and immoral “black looting.”

Metal detectors obviously play a very large part of this illegal treasure hunting. But they’re also key in legitimate excavations that have revealed some truly amazing artifacts.

Now I know what you may be thinking: “Archaeologists are the enemy! They hate metal detectorists!” But in this case they are in the right. These beautiful treasures MUST be excavated to salvage them from falling into the wrong hands, being sold on black markets, and being hidden from the rest of the world who NEEDS to learn about this ancient and artistic culture.

Visit the webpage to view all the amazing picture of the inside of such a tomb, pure gold pitchers, metal detectorists excavating the site, and so many more. Photographed by Kenneth Garrett; you’ll need to visit the article on Travel Guide.com to see them. Each one is amazing and the gold mask… just… wow!

Let us know what you think and if you have found any articles about Bulgarian tombs. We’re intrigued and plan on looking for more information as soon as possible.

- Shaun

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Local online newspaper, The Wenatchee World is stating the obvious to those of us at TreasureHunting.com.

Metal Detecting is a “damn good hobby.”

Jim Nuesse has used a metal detector for more than 20 years and once found a 2.5-ounce nugget of gold in Alaska, although he says the most common find is pull tabs and bottle caps.

“It’s all a part of it,” Nuesse said. “Anything I find doesn’t go back in the ground,” he said, adding he either takes it to the garbage can, or it goes into his pouch with his other finds.

On Monday after about two hours of searching, Nuesse had found a handful of money and a needle for pumping up balls. This is much more than average, which he attributed it to the first search of the year.

Nuesse estimates he got on his knees about 100 times during his outing Monday.

“At 68, it’s a damn good hobby. It keeps you in good shape”

Well Jim, we whole-heartedly agree! Keep it up and happy hunting!

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