✅ SOLVED edisto island sc...plantation find

[Wrecker58]

hello t-netters, my hunting partner recently unearthed this relic out of a tilled field we have been working on edisto island sc.
Theres history of the union forces camping here and then using cannon force to blow the original house down to ruins..we've been tilling the fields recently and everything from arrow heads, cannon balls, bullets, civil war buttons, and even revolution era buttons have surfaced!
this item came out the ground this past weekend in what we've finally narrowed down to be the site of where the slave houses may have once stood. Cast net weights, pottery, union officers buttons, etc. keep popping out of the earth here amongst the oyster shell and brick rubble ....this item is the size of a belt buckle and is of brass build. looks as if its of a colored man with a tool in his hand? not sure thats why i come to y'all!...looks to be cracked at the bottom..very heavy and very decorative..tell me what ya see! thanx for looking. we've unearthed quite a few unknowns so don't be alarmed if ya see this same story amidst different relics

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[artemis moon]

Awesome find! It does seem to be a man with a scyth, although I'm not sure of his race . Maybe a scene from classical mythology? Could you please post a photo of the back of the piece?

 

[deepsecrets]

Part of a sash buckle or cloak clasp I'd think. Then again, reading your post about them being heavy - they might be handles from a serving tray that broke off?

 

[DCMatt]

Awesome find! It does seem to be a man with a scyth, although I'm not sure of his race . Maybe a scene from classical mythology? Could you please post a photo of the back of the piece?

I believe the pics are front and back.

Looks more like brass than pewter.

DCMatt

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

hand guard piece...sword.

(many swords have a folding handguard...to make it less problematic to wear on hip...)

 

[kuger]

hand guard piece...sword.

(many swords have a folding handguard...to make it less problematic to wear on hip...)

..this was my first impression as well

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

the decoration is odd...Spanish?
BibliOdyssey: Sword Hilt Designs

i'd say European...not an American sword...but the Europeans made many of the early swords used in the armericas.

 

[artemis moon]

Thanks, Matt- Now I see that the images are indeed front and back! I would say that the folding handguard looks like a possibility! Very lovely piece!

 

[DCMatt]

I'm thinking snuff box lid...

A naked man with a scythe hardly seems like a gallant image to have on your sword.

DCMatt

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

never heard of the picts matt?
blue naked men had Hadrian build a wall across England...

http://pentacle.swankivy.com/engraved.html "•A man with a scythe engraved on any material brings strength and courage"

 

[kuger]

Greek God Cronus

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Hey those Islands in South Carolina can be a gold mine!! A friend of mine from Stafford,Virginia and very well known Civil War digger Dennis Cox has hunted Islands in South Carolina mainly in the 1990s. On one Island in SC he found a Island where the union restocked clothing supplies and he dug over 500 Connecticut buttons and over 200 US buckles and breast plates. On another Island he dug over 100 Confederate buttons and several Confederate plates and buckles.. Be careful of the quick-sand though!

 

[creskol]

I have seen the like of those before..

 

[DCMatt]

secretcanyon & kuger,

I will concede your points. However, I'm pretty sure the guy on the relic is neither Pict nor Greek God.

Seems to me he is harvesting something... like the cash crop of choice in SC over the last few centuries...

Size and shape made me think snuff/tobacco box.

DCMatt

 

[Wrecker58]

thank you all for your time and thought;;;
DCMATT you are exactly where we are on the thought of it being a snuff box cover and YES it IS BRASS! thats a mistake on my part! The sword idea is great however i am also concerned with the idea that this would be the chosen pictorial on a sword...its definitely seems to be a scythe being tossed by a field worker. From the little research ive been able to do it does seem to have that southern geechie influence; which ive personally noticed as being somewhat flamboyant.. looks like ive got a lil bit more research ahead.

 

[surf]

Hello Wrecker,

Congratulations on a beautiful find! I think it's 18th Century & emblematic of much past history.

Please treat us to more photos.

Dutch Oval Snuff Box With Hinged Lid/Top Engraved-Ca: 1790's

 

[DCMatt]

From The Dutch website on pipe smoking and collecting

Note the heavy brass lids.

DCMatt

 

[CC Hunter]

Hey those Islands in South Carolina can be a gold mine!! A friend of mine from Stafford,Virginia and very well known Civil War digger Dennis Cox has hunted Islands in South Carolina mainly in the 1990s. On one Island in SC he found a Island where the union restocked clothing supplies and he dug over 500 Connecticut buttons and over 200 US buckles and breast plates. On another Island he dug over 100 Confederate buttons and several Confederate plates and buckles.. Be careful of the quick-sand though!

HutSiteDigger,

Your information and facts there are fabricated and stretched considerably!!!

The Connecticut buttons (and a number of $1 gold coins) were indeed quite plentiful years ago in that one particular camp on the island (same island featured in the Jon Voight movie from 1974), off the coast along the border between SC/GA. However, the belt buckles and plates there and anywhere else in South Carolina were far and few between! Additionally the large numbers of any finds when indeed factual, were generally the results of a group of relic hunters, rather than solely Dennis Cox.

100 Confederate buttons and several Confederate plates and buckles is way off base there, not even including solely all from one island!

CC Hunter

 

[CC Hunter]

secretcanyon & kuger,

I will concede your points. However, I'm pretty sure the guy on the relic is neither Pict nor Greek God.

Seems to me he is harvesting something... like the cash crop of choice in SC over the last few centuries...

Size and shape made me think snuff/tobacco box.

DCMatt

DCMatt,

The "Cash Crop" of choice in the Lowcountry (all one word correctly spelled), of South Carolina for centuries was rice, and to a lesser degree indigo. At one time South Carolina was the leading supplier of rice to Europe, creating a powerful agricultural market in the Colonial American South. Virginia was the leading "Tobacco Colony".

CC Hunter

 

[CC Hunter]

The decorative oval cast brass item, with a figural design, displayed and shown as recovered by the hunting partner of Wrecker58 at the beginning of this thread, is quite certainly the quillon guard from a small rapier-like sword of the 18th or earlier 19th Century.

CC Hunter