woody50
Bronze Member
- Jun 21, 2007
- 1,881
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- All Treasure Hunting
Yesterday I went to Enkhuizen, a small town about 12 miles away because I had heard that the city was digging in streets of the old part of the town and putting in new sewer pipes. Since even bronze era finds had been found in the town, you know that its old and you can find nice historical stuff there. The spoils (dugged earth) from the digging were brought to an area behind some buildings outside the city limits.
The piles I searched
I drove and found the dirt, and saw 4 friends digging away at the piles. Went to talk with them and heard that they had good luck in the begin when the dirt first was dumped there, although they got kicked out twice. The dirt had been spread out to dry, so hunting was easy. But after a while the digging company pushed the earth up in big piles, so it was harder to search. But by that time the wonders had been found. Many Pilgrims insigne's and coins, and many old artifacts from the begin of the town.
The good pile, they searched until it was flat.
So I did not expect much then, they were searching in ground that was already searched two or three times but they invited me to join which I did. Well after about 4 hours I only had a few finds, and about 5 in the afternoon we all called it quits. And just in time, I drove about 300 meters when it started to rain. Although not much was found yesterday it was great to search in old ground, nice and soft and buckets full of broken ceramic material, mostly from the 17th century, of which I brought a few buckets back home with me.
My best finds were a nice thin bronze ring, pretty darn old, don't know yet how old though. A cute tiny lock, no key though, darn. Two fragments of Pilgrim insigne's, from the 13th to 12th century. And I guess my best find was a bone ice skate a pity part of it was broken off, but it was my first. Although I have seen many found by others, I never did find even a piece of one. So I really like it.
My Finds:
Here is what the skate looked like before it was broken.
A little history about ice skates. Some people think they were invented in Switzerland, but I am pretty sure it was Holland. Holland was back in the early days mostly water and you had to get around in the cold winters, when all the water froze over. Holland was about 80% water back then, not much dry land, so they needed a way to cross it. The bone blades were made of bones from animal legs that had holes drilled into them at each end, and through the hole they passed a thick leather lacing to be able to strap them their boots. These skates were most likely used to aid in crossing frozen lakes while hunting or fishing. Some of the earlist ice skates were found at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland and dated to around 3000 BC, and the bone skates were still used until about 1900, although by that time other improved skates appeared.
14th Century ice skate
Bone skate with straps (Modern)
The Dutch improved the skates by mounting a metal blade to a flat wooden surface. Leather straps tied this assembly to the skater's shoes. Poles similar to ski poles were used to create forward motion. Later the Dutch also improved skates by adding the double edge blade or concave cut that is still utilized to this day to give the skater the ability to create the forward motion with out using poles. This could perhaps be considered the beginning of the more modern day ice skate as we know it today.
A 19th Century ice skate
The piles I searched
I drove and found the dirt, and saw 4 friends digging away at the piles. Went to talk with them and heard that they had good luck in the begin when the dirt first was dumped there, although they got kicked out twice. The dirt had been spread out to dry, so hunting was easy. But after a while the digging company pushed the earth up in big piles, so it was harder to search. But by that time the wonders had been found. Many Pilgrims insigne's and coins, and many old artifacts from the begin of the town.
The good pile, they searched until it was flat.
So I did not expect much then, they were searching in ground that was already searched two or three times but they invited me to join which I did. Well after about 4 hours I only had a few finds, and about 5 in the afternoon we all called it quits. And just in time, I drove about 300 meters when it started to rain. Although not much was found yesterday it was great to search in old ground, nice and soft and buckets full of broken ceramic material, mostly from the 17th century, of which I brought a few buckets back home with me.
My best finds were a nice thin bronze ring, pretty darn old, don't know yet how old though. A cute tiny lock, no key though, darn. Two fragments of Pilgrim insigne's, from the 13th to 12th century. And I guess my best find was a bone ice skate a pity part of it was broken off, but it was my first. Although I have seen many found by others, I never did find even a piece of one. So I really like it.
My Finds:
Here is what the skate looked like before it was broken.
A little history about ice skates. Some people think they were invented in Switzerland, but I am pretty sure it was Holland. Holland was back in the early days mostly water and you had to get around in the cold winters, when all the water froze over. Holland was about 80% water back then, not much dry land, so they needed a way to cross it. The bone blades were made of bones from animal legs that had holes drilled into them at each end, and through the hole they passed a thick leather lacing to be able to strap them their boots. These skates were most likely used to aid in crossing frozen lakes while hunting or fishing. Some of the earlist ice skates were found at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland and dated to around 3000 BC, and the bone skates were still used until about 1900, although by that time other improved skates appeared.
14th Century ice skate
Bone skate with straps (Modern)
The Dutch improved the skates by mounting a metal blade to a flat wooden surface. Leather straps tied this assembly to the skater's shoes. Poles similar to ski poles were used to create forward motion. Later the Dutch also improved skates by adding the double edge blade or concave cut that is still utilized to this day to give the skater the ability to create the forward motion with out using poles. This could perhaps be considered the beginning of the more modern day ice skate as we know it today.
A 19th Century ice skate
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