Treasure Hunting

A 2,000 year old silver jug handle was discovered on a beach in the United Kingdom.

63 year old amateur archaeologist and metal detecting enthusiast Graham Ryan discovered the handle while he was combing the beach with his metal detector. The British museum says that it could date from anywhere between the first and fourth centuries, since its made mainly from silver and is in the form of a stylized snake’s head.

Ryan told reports that he “was not surprised to find Viking artifacts on the beach. There’s a Roman Fort at Beckfoot. It has a cemetery and with the soil erosion I have found cremation urns too. We’ve had some lovely finds.”

He belongs to the Senhouse Museum Archeology Society, who he thanks for encouraging his hobby of metal detecting. “I think from being a boy I always thought I’d find treasure.”

His find may be entered into the Senhouse Roman Museum, but for now it will have to be appraised so that Ryan can be rewarded for finding it.

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In my usual online stroll for treasure stories I came across a museum show in Detroit called “Shipwreck!” I am completely fascinated by the things that are on display and the article is really informative about past shipwrecks. However, I was impressed that these items weren’t found on the beaches, washed ashore and found by people in bathing suits. These treasures were discovered right where the fell - 1,200 ft beneath the surface, on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Since a human can’t go to depths that far under water, a “Remote Operated Vehicle” was used named Zeus. The shipwreck they excavated from the bottom of the ocean was the remnants of the USS Republic. “The 210-foot-long steamship was built in 1853. It survived the Civil War, when it fought for both the Confederacy and the Union. And it survived three hurricanes, though it could not survive a fourth.

When it sank, on Oct. 25, 1865, most of the roughly 80 passengers escaped unharmed. The Republic was eight days into its journey from New York to New Orleans, bearing tens of thousands of gold and silver coins, medicine bottles, everyday items like toothbrushes made out of cow bones, and anything else to help rebuild the South after the Civil War.”

Check out the entire article at Freep.com.

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Greek workers were in the process of excavating tunnels for a new subway system in the Mediterranean’s second largest city - Thessaloniki - and they stumbled upon almost 1,000 graves. The state archaeological authority said Monday that some were filled with gold treasures, and the graves themselves dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

Ancient treasures include jewelry, coins and various pieces of art from the city that was founded around 315 B.C. and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine eras.

Most of the graves (886) were just east of the city center in what was the eastern cemetery during Roman and Byzantine times. Those graves ranged from traces of wooden coffins left in simple holes in the ground, to marble enclosures in five-room family mausoleums.

A separate group of 94 graves were found near the city’s train station, in what was once part of the city’s western cemetery. More findings were expected as digging for the Thessaloniki metro continues. Digging started in 2006 and the first 13 stations are expected to be done by the end of 2012.

This makes you wonder when a cemetery crosses the line from ’sacred burial ground’ to ‘treasures that represent ancient civilizations.’

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Thanks to the folks that submit their stories to Kellyco. Just saw this one pop up and I wanted to share. Gotta love those Civil War relics! These were found with a Nautilus Metal Detector, which are for those serious relic hunters.

- Shaun

“About 20 years ago a friend told me about “Relic Hunting.” He took me out one day and after the first 3 ringer I was hooked!

Now-a-days my favorite place to hunt is private property, with permission of course, for Civil War relics. I’ve also gotten into beach hunting in Virginia and the Outer Banks, N.C.

My best find so far includes a lot of things which were all firsts for me. I was using a Nautilus DMC IIB that I was very familiar with – it was my machine of choice for over 5 years. I also had my Gator trowel with me to help dig.

After about three hours out, my Nautilus read a deep iron signal in a place that’s called “Stoneman’s Switch,” a very well known Civil War winter camp site, or “hut.” I started digging with my friend Cory who was with me, and about 2.5 feet down I hit the “barrel bands” that were used as a chimney on old winter huts from the Civil War camps.

What lay beneath my finger tips was a 140 year old time capsule that contained a variety of relics including buttons, bullets, bottles, coins, a religious medal and a comb. The value of this cache is literally priceless, and I can’t describe the excitement I felt upon finding it.

The attached photos show the ground conditions I found this in, a picture of a Confederate button with bullets in the background, and two 1861 coins - front and back. Enjoy!” - Jeff B. Newport News, Virgina.

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Once again our metal detecting friends across the pond have found an ancient relic.

A 2,000 year old Roman coin was found by retired butcher Roy Page, and is believed to be the oldest coin ever found in the country. Page uses a Minelab X-Terra metal detector and says he puts in about 10 hours a week with it. On the way to his car for a drink he heard the high-pitched beep that signals a coin. Then, he “flipped the soil back and it was there, only six inches down.”

Page said he “was thirsty and so he popped it in his pocket with his other finds.” Later he showed it to a Roman coin expert in the Portable Antiquities Scheme who helped him identify it as from the second century BC. “When he told me I nearly fainted, I was over the moon. It is living history. The last person who held the coin was probably a Roman.”

The coin was probably brought over some time after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, or during earlier visits in the first century BC. Page is shocked and awed at his find, not caring how much it’s worth as he doesn’t intend to sell it. “When you look at a map of where old coins have been found in Wales there have not been many found around St. Asaph. I haven’t even bothered to find out its worth.”

Just like a true metal detectorist,… he doesn’t care what it’s worth, just wants to enjoy having it. What’s your favorite find? What’s your oldest find? Heck, who wants to organize a metal detecting trip across the pond?

- Shaun

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I was flabbergasted by an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning about a treasure find of huge proportions - An entire, 160 year old wall with stained glass windows intact.

A contractor working on a 1840’s-era church was removing some dated, 1970’s drywall and wainscotting when he discovered the original interior walls which were thought to be long gone. They even retained their original color paint - pale yellow. Local historians believed that nothing inside the building had been preserved from its original grandure and they were planning on restoring the Methodist church in an effort to recapture the original sense of community that the church provided in its hay-day.

As years passed the church saw updates and was on the verge of being demolished four years ago for a new strip mall. But Janis Hill, the oldest living member of the church, fought to save it. After two years of battling with developers it was agreed that the church would be re-located and full restoration could begin.

The wall that was found features tongue-and-groove boards and are so evenly cut and placed that the separation between them is as fine as a pencil line. Square nails were also discovered in the area, and the walls were made from heart of pine.

Check out the full article at The Atlanta Journal-Constituion, which includes a colorful photo gallery.

And try not to think about the grounds this church sat on being paved over for a strip mall.

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A Spanish Civil War relic, believed to have dropped from a plan more than 70 years ago, has been discovered off the coast of Alicante, Spain. Measuring over 3ft long and 16 inches wide, this is not your average relic - It’s a bomb!

Spanish officials believe that it failed to detonate after being deployed from a plane during the Spanish Civil War that pitted an angry army against their government in the 1930’s. Encased in seabed growth, it may still be explosive. It was found by recreational divers and was left where it was found until Civil Guard divers are instructed on how to remove it.

So you’re probably thinking “Oh… this is in Spain… I’m safe from finding bombs in my backyard or on my beaches.”

Not so much.

Just one month ago workers in Orlando, FL discovered over 400 pounds of WWII era bombs next to a middle school. They even found an entire military tank buried underground near the campus. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that about 50 23lb bombs, several rockets, a rocket booster and a cannon were found buried near Odyssey Middle School since the initial discovery on December 27, 2007.

So what did they do with them? Amy workers came in and detonated the found explosives in pits, promising to meticulously scoop out the surrounding area and remove any other WWII relics they came across.

The more our country grows, the more schools we need and neighborhoods we build, the more we can expect to find things that were meant to be forgotten buried below us. If you’re out metal detecting and stumble upon something that looks like a bomb, please be careful. Take a cell phone on your hunts and contact the local police as soon as possible. But whatever you do, (and we know this will be hard), DON’T DIG IT UP!

But I’m curious. How many of you have stumbled upon some questionable ancient artillery? What did you do?

- Shaun

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I promised myself I wouldn’t post about our friends across the pond and their mega-finds for awhile, but the story of bus driver Tom Peirce was just too good to resist sharing.

Amateur treasure hunter and self-confessed “metal detector fanatic” was combing a field he had stumbled upon after taking a group of school kids out for a day at a farm near Swanage, Dorset. After asking the farmer/land-owner for permission to search the two-acre field, Peirce returned with his friend Les Keith and within a few minutes his metal detector started sounding off.

Buried 10 inches under the farm land was a partial axe head. Digging even deeper revealed even more. Over the next two days Peirce and Keith uncovered nearly 500 bronze age artifacts, each one over 3,000 years old and one of the biggest hoards found in Britain!

In total, the loot is worth over 80,000 pounds (over $150,000.00), and the 60 year old bus driver will be splitting the proceeds with the farmer/land-owner, Alfie O’Connell.

What really drew me to share this story was Peirce’s quote “You do it as a hobby - you don’t do it for the money but if you strike it lucky then so be it” - and that is so true. This is a hobby; it’s fun, invigorating, exciting. It give history buff’s an excuse to research another time and era. It gives environmentalists an excuse to clean up the earth. It gives the rest of us something to do! Getting rich is just a bonus.

Happy hunting everyone! Spring is on the way!
- Elizabeth

Check out the full story at www.DailyMail.co.uk.

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If you inherited a unique and significant relic from a dying culture and no one knew you had it, would you give it back?

Marilyn Lewis of Port Townsend, Washington had the opportunity to answer that question last year when she inherited a Shaman’s mask with the faint inscription “Taken from a medicine man’s grave on King Island.” Her answer to the question: “yes.”

The story goes like this: In 1898 Lewis’ great uncle Nate traveled by steamship from Seattle to Alaska to try his luck in the Gold Rush. After spending three years there, working as a bartender and apparently not finding any gold, Nate went back home. He kept notes from his time in Alaska but no mention was ever made of King Island. In 1927 Nate gave the mask to Lewis’ father, Bill. For the next four decades the mask remained in the Lewis family. Until last year when Bill passed the mask on to Marilyn, asking if she would find where it came from.

Online research led Lewis to an abandoned Inupiat Eskimo village, littered with crumbling homes perched high on stilts. The people of King Island have long since re-located 80 miles southeast of the Bering Sea island to Alaska’s western coast, and all that remains of their culture is struggling to survive in the city of Nome. Lewis personally took the wooden mask with red-ochre face, beaked nose and black painted hair, to Alaska and delivered it to Tribal Coordinator of the King Island Native Community, Charlene Saclamana.

Saclamana said: “It gives me and my family something tangible from our past. We’ve lost so much of the culture. We were eager to have the mask back in our possession. We never had anything that well preserved from the island.”

Currently, the mask resides in an Alaskan museum and will be included in an exhibit featuring the style and ingenuity of ancient Bering Sea Eskimos. It serves as a significant piece of history and stands as a symbol of hope for King Island culture.

Would you have put as much effort into returning a relic you inherited? And where would you have started your research? Check out the original article and learn more about the King Island culture at Anchorage Daily News Online.

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As always, the friends behind TreasureHunting.com watch for news of unique treasure finds worldwide. Despite having only lived and treasure hunted in America, we envy the metal detectorists across the big-pond with their rich history that goes back thousands of years, through so many civilizations. And today we stumbled upon an article that makes us want to grab our detectors and hop on a plane to Europe now more than ever!

In north-east England, North Yorkshire to be exact, a metal detectorist found and recovered a frightening little object. Made of copper, and depicting the face of a “wild, violent and drunken female nymph” this find might have creeped us out at first. But thank goodness our fellow treasure hunter hung onto the little female figurine because it was identified and purchased by the Yorkshire Museum as a rare 2,000 year old Roman lamp!

Apparently only a handful of these lamps have ever been discovered in Britain and this one is in “brilliant” condition. The frightening head is thought to be that of a “Maenad” which translates to “raving ones,” who, in Greek and Roman mythology were the drunken, violent worshippers of Dionysus - God of mystery, wine and intoxication. Museum officials say it was common for Roman lamps to show the Maenad figures, as it was an example of what not to let yourself become.

If you had to create an object out of metal to warn future generations about “what not to let yourself become” - what would you make? For us, a violent, drunken nymph is a good place to start…

See the original article as listed in The Press here.

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