Artifacts Found Diving

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bradymsu

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
263
Reaction score
111
Location
Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
# of dives
1000 - 2499
One of my greatest pleasures while diving is looking for artifacts (outside of protected areas or wrecks of course). Today, while diving in a inland lake, I found a chamber pot that appears to be from the late 1800's. It needs a good cleaning and some preservation work but it's in superb condition.

For others with an interest in marine archeology, what are your best treasures found while diving?
 
Don't you just love finding stuff...especially old stuff!

I have been diving in a spot where there used to be an old jetty. It was built around 1800 and destroyed in 1936. In the past year I have found countless old bottles, all in perfect condition, one dating back to 1788 and worth around $2000....not that I'll sell it but it makes it a better find.

Hocky


 
I don't know where you'r diving. But here it would be ilegal to take up artifacts more than 100 years old and even younger than that if there is a wreek.

The point is alsa that many divers don't know how to treat those artifacts. If your camper pot is china you'll need to soak in it fresh water several month to get the salt out. Otherwise the outer layer will detach as it dries out - or later.

Furthermore, quite a few guyes loose the interest over time and with the next spring cleaning - out goes all the treasures.

So in other words: be really sure, that you know what you'r doing.

DSAO
 
Thanks for the advice with the pot. As I mentioned earlier, I found it in a inland lake so salt is not a problem. The pot is made of a metal. Right now it is soaking in a 10% nitric acid solution for 12 hours. Afterwards, I'll air dry it and then bake it in the oven at low heat for two hours. Right out of the oven, I'll spray it with a rust inhibitor and then with a polyurethane spray. It's very help to have some training in this type of stuff and there are several instructors out there who can offer extensive marine archeology training on the amateur level.

They problem with laws such as the one mentioned in the last post is that they cause significant historical loss. I agree that it should be illegal to take artifacts off shipwrecks or from sites of archeological significance. But water can be very cruel. If I didn't bring up that chamber pot which was almost covered with silt out of the lake it would be lost for all time in about 10-20 years in a lake the gets almost no divers. Common sense needs to be factored in when we decide to remove an artifact from underwater or to let it lay.
 
Brady,that was a very nice plug for ethical artifact hunting. My state Fla has regulated this for a long time. The bottom line is that isolated finds are yours to keep. Finds associated with a larger site have 90 days or so for the state to claim(they rarely do)then it's yours. We find all kinds of fossils and artifacts. My favorites are my 6" Megalodon tooth, old cast bullets and some china.
 
Tony,

I suspect that's why a lot of the archeological classes are taught in Florida. I took my class there in fact. It was in the Suwanne River area. There's a lot of history there and the tannic water is a lot of fun itself.
 
I have found some old bottles that I would like to clean. They have hardened "scum" on them any ideads on cleaning.

Butch :peace:
 
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).
 
Good you'r taking care of your finds. My personal best find (that I could keep) to date is most of a limestone pipe from around 1570. I found it on top of a stoneage site! Fortunately it didn't need a lot of preparation.

DSAO
 
Brady,Suwannee is only about 2 hrs from my house.There are numerous books about the archeological importance of Fla finds.Did you know that one of the oldest records of mankind in N. America are found here and believed to be about 11,000 yrs old.
 
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