Artifacts Found Diving

[bradymsu]

Butch,

You can clean your find with either a 10% solution of nitric acid (available at some hardware stores) or a 10% solution of lye (available at most grocery stores). Just be sure to dilute it to 10% (1 part chemical to 9 parts water) first and only leave it in the solution for 12 hours or so. You don't want to cause damage to the artifact though glass is much safer than metal.

The two key rules for preservation are to keep the object wet until preservation and to be very careful handling objects that have been underwater for some time. As mentioned earlier, artifacts found in salt water should be soaked in freshwater for a long period of time, changing the water regularly. Some organic materials, such as wood, require a soak of several months in fact to remove the salt. You don't want salt crystals to form upon drying which will cause some serious damage.

I wish I could find 500+ year old artifacts up here in Michigan but it's very unlikely. Plus, I'd have to surrender them to the state. I envy DameDykker in Europe and Liquid in Israel for the opportunities available to them. Tony is right, Florida is an excellent place for finding natural or AmerIndian artifacts. Plus you can get in some great cave diving down there at the same time.

 

[Liquid]

bradymsu- read my thread "archeology diving", and sea what you can find just 10 minuets wolking from my house.

I have found variouse items- Coins aged 2100 to 300 years old, greek-fire (a kind of ancient "grenade" that was used by the fenicians, greeks and romans) a lot of clay pots, ancient anchores, but the best, I belive, is an almost perfect medival sward, I guess about 800-900 years old, from the time of the crusades.

All of the items I found, which of course, I found them not in declare archeological sites I brought to the marine archeology office that is located also not to far from my place. They let me keep most of the things, and just add them to their studies, after doing some research on the more interesting ones. It is great, becouse I get to know more about the stuff I find.

 

[syruss32]

Originally posted by TexasMike
Our best find so far was when my buddy (Corsair) found a 1/2-inch diameter sky blue marble with a smiley face imprinted on it at 80 feet in Lake Travis (Near Austin).

Thanks Mike and Corsair I lost that marble a couple of years ago. I was wingwalking on a bi-plane over when the pilot did a loop and my favorite marble fell out of my pocket over lake travis. It was sky blue with a smiley face on it. There is a reward for it's safe return to! The reward is knowing you returned it to it's rightfull owner!

BTW: I lost several thousand tons of gold debloons in the ocean in several previous lives could you all please return those if you find them also?

Thanks!