The Lizard has moved....

[woody50]

Yesterday I went to Amsterdam and got my new car, later I rode my bike to the center of the city to buy some things for it. After buying the stuff I rode back to home taking another path. As luck would have it, in back of a dike (walled dike) in the center, the city department was busy doing something, don't know what. They were finished and there was a square of dirt in the grass, so they had dug a hole I guess, and lucky for me, a small or medium pile of dirt was still laying along side the 'hole'. There were all sorts of pieces of old dishes and plates from the 17th century and earlier, so I though that must be good. Quickly back to home, got the detector and went back. Worked for about 30 minutes when a truck came for the dirt, one of those dump trucks with a crane on it. So had to stop. Could not find out where the dirt was going, he didn't want to say.Didn't really get anything really that I could put in one of the display cases I have, but all in all I though I would show what I found there. I just lucked out this time.

Two silver coins, one 17th century, one 19th.

Three copper coins, a dog tag from 1817 from the city, they are neat, only this one was bent.

A lizard, bronze, looks like a letter opener. A friend say it was also from the 17th century.

A interesting pair of round bullets connected with a small chain. They were used a long time ago in a musket, and when they fired they spun in the air making a big cut when they landed.

A real nice tin button, another tin object, my second, but don't know the function of it. And two lead seals..

 

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[Bavaria Mike]

Woody, I once toured a Roman fort here in Germany, they were digging and removing dirt by the truck load in the middle of the fort and I had the detector with. I asked the truck driver where he was taking the dirt, I followed him to the dump site, almost got stuck in the company car, LOL. A work colleague and I walked the rest of the way through mud only to find several trucks from everywhere were dumping at this site, then a dozer pushed it all into a deep ravine. I didn't even turn on the detector, LOL! HH, Mike

 

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[woody50]

Woody, I once toured a Roman fort here in Germany, they were digging and removing dirt by the truck load in the middle of the fort and I had the detector with. I asked the truck driver where he was taking the dirt, I followed him to the dump site, almost got stuck in the company car, LOL. A work colleague and I walked the rest of the way through mud only to find several trucks from everywhere were dumping at this site, then a dozer pushed it all into a deep ravine. I didn't even turn on the detector, LOL! HH, Mike

Its just crazy isn't it, some people just dont want people finding stuff in the dirt. It's the same here, many people are scared that if we find something on a field, that the archo's will come, destroy their crop (and pay them peanuts), and keep the ground for months. It does happen. Also exactly the same way with building sites, they are afraid also that if I find something and someone hears it, the archo's will come and delay their contract.

Much has changed since the EU Malta Treaty was signed, requiring an archo report before they can build. The archo's don't have the cash to look everyplace, so choose their digs carefully, but if someone reports something, say a roman find here in Holland, at a building site, you lose the ground for quite some time. I do really think that our hobby is in trouble because:

-There are way too many detectorists nowadays.
-Things lost or buried long ago and are found, are not lost again.
-The acid rain and fertilizer which erodes metals, in the future some metals
will have disappeared altogether , you will hear only a mineralization halo where it once was.
-The laws which are passed down restricting or forbidding someone to detect.
-The powers of the Archo's are increasing all the time, also the money that they
get to dig. Don't get me wrong, I am all for Archo's and what they do, but
we would like just for instance look for items such as coins, which in the
first few feet and are not of an archaeological interest.
-The nighthawkers are making it very hard to get people to trust us anymore.

Don't want to get off topic so will stop now. There are other places for this
sort of discussions.

 

[CRUSADER]

Very cool button

 

[woody50]

Very cool button

Yea, I like it quite a bit. It looks much better in your hand for sure, you know some objects just are not photogenic...!
Do you have any idea what the other tin object could be?

 

[CRUSADER]

Very cool button

Yea, I like it quite a bit. It looks much better in your hand for sure, you know some objects just are not photogenic...!
Do you have any idea what the other tin object could be?

no idea

 

[kane23]

Woody good stuff and nice lizard! How would it be? Kane 23

 

[woody50]

Woody good stuff and nice lizard! How would it be? Kane 23

Hi Kane, I guess you wanted to ask how old he was (I am guessing its a he)? I could not determine how old it was by the depth, because it was in the spoils (dirt mound). Most of the time we can tell from an object we find for instance on the side of a hole how old something is by marking the position (height) and then looking at other finds from that level. A friend of mine, who knows his stuff, said 17th century, without seeing the other finds. I have myself nothing to compare, have never seen such a object.

I thought that was quite good because there were 5 finds which can be dated or attributed to the 17th century, and three from the 19th. Of course such a hole transverses many centuries. Pity that it was not deeper, it could even get to the 12th century seeing where its located ( I worked on a Archo project back around 2000 in the same area and we got to a depth of 4 meters, which is a pretty deep hole to stand in and detect - and scary because of all the water and mud and soft sides- ), and at that depth we found items that the archo's dated as from the 12th century, the begin of the city).

 

[Carson Coin Master]

nice looking finds

 

[allen]

that is a nice assortment of good finds !

 

[silvercop]

 

[curbdiggercarl57]

Detecting in Amsterdam, that is my hazy, fuzzy, dream! I dug a more modern, similar lizard, says "England" on the bottom.
Carl

 

[woody50]

Detecting in Amsterdam, that is my hazy, fuzzy, dream! I dug a more modern, similar lizard, says "England" on the bottom.
Carl

Well Carl this was just luck, the stuff is in the ground but you just cannot dig to get it here...