Established 1994
The website of
The Ashfield Metal Detecting Club
BE CAREFUL!!
"WEIL’S DISEASE - On a recent Sunday an American woman took with her, on a short boat trip, some cans of Cola. She placed these in the boat’s refrigerator. On the Monday she was rushed ashore and into an Intensive Care Unit. Sadly on Wednesday she died, the post mortem revealed that she had died of Leptospirosis also called, Weil’s Disease, Pea Picker’s Disease and Infectious Jaundice.
The subsequent investigation concluded that the disease had been contracted by her drinking out of a Cola can without washing the can before drinking the contents. The Cola cans had traces of dried rat urine on them containing Weil’s Disease and other toxic substances harmful to humans. It was thought that the contamination occurred while the Coala cans were being stored prior to distribution to retailers. In the American enquiry into the death of the unfortunate woman it was found that the tops of drink cans and crown corked bottles had more germs and bacteria than found in public toilets.
Leptospires can be excreted by rodents and certain domesticated animals in their urine. The infection can live for several weeks in a moist state and an indeterminate time in dried urine. Infection is by contact with urine of infected animals or food and water that has been contaminated. Leptospires can enter the human body by the nose or eye. Although it is thought that they cannot penetrate through intact skin any small cut or abrasion gains them ready access. The death rate is about 30 percent of severely ill and jaundiced patients.
It is essential that the tops of drink cans and crown corked bottles be washed and, if possible, a glass be used to drink from.
Apart from the risk from cans and bottles the metal detectorist is exposed to the disease just by being on a field and handling the soil and vegetation when digging. This risk can be minimised by wearing gloves whilst detecting and by using disposable anti-bacterial wipes before eating or drinking".
(Based on a Readers’ Letter, May, 2006 issue of Treasure Hunting Magazine)
Free Courses
There are a couple of free courses coming up in the next month or two which might be of interest to some. Both are on a free learning website called https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/upcoming.
"Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbour of Ancient Rome" is run by the University of Southampton, and starts on 19th May.
"England in the Time of King Richard III" is run by the University of Leicester and starts 30th June.
Having just done an eight week course on archaeology I can recommend them. They're usually very interesting and quite light hearted. They are completely free and all assignments, recommended readings etc. are done on-line - and you can pack in at any time if you decide they're not for you. They usually require a committment of 2 -3 hours per week.
Being a Wars of the Roses nut, I've already signed up for the Richard III one!
Pete Brooks
You can also find old articles and articles and photos from the old AMDC website on the Archives page.
Grid References 1
You may remember Charlotte, our Finds Liason Officer, talking about the recording of finds last Monday night and referring to 6 and 8 digit grid references. You might also have thought, what the hell are they!
Well, the Ordnance Survey have created a system whereby all of the UK is divided up into 100km by 100km squares. These are given a 2 letter identification, which, in the area where we usually detect is SK.
This square is then divided into 100 smaller squares, and 100 smaller squares, and so on …
Before getting down to this level here’s an example of how the grid references are formed.
The 2 letters denoting the big area can be found at the top right hand corner of each OS map – in our case SK.
The map is divided into squares by thin blue lines which extend to the margins of the map, where they carry a number. The numbers across the top (or bottom) are called Eastings and those running up each side of the map are called Northings.
In any map reference Eastings come first, then Northings. One of the many ways to remember this sequence is to remember that ALL ESKIMOS are UP NORTH – across Eastings, up Northings.
Looking at the attached extract from an OS map, the line to the left of the settlement at Fox Wood is 61, and the line below is 48. The grid reference would therefore be SK 61 48.
Which is close … but no cigar! You then imagine that the area between 61 and 62 is divided into tenths. Fox Wood is about 3 tenths along the line, so the first part of the reference is now 613. Using the same logic, the second part of the reference is now 484 – new reference SK613 484. This reference equates to a 100m by 100m square on the ground. (Walking compasses have little “rulers” called Romer lines on the baseplate so the guesswork of estimating tenths is overcome and you can get a more precise reference)
If you could estimate down to a 10 figure reference, you would have a square 1m by 1m. Although it would be impossible to estimate a 10 figure reference, there are ways of fixing one.
For example, if I found a hammered coin beneath the tree where the left hand field boundary (looking away from Fox Wood) veers left (marked with the red circle), I could tell you that the OS grid reference is SK 61493 48307 which places the coin in a 1m by 1m square. (OK, I could just go to the tree!)
Why bother? Well, if ever you do find something valuable you’ll be able to give the FLO an accurate location. If you plot and record your interesting finds you might discern a pattern which might denote an old short-cut or footpath. If you go back to a productive site years later, you’ll be able to go back to those hot-spots. Or you could do it for a bit of geeky fun!
However, this is all a bit “back to front”. You can’t look at an OS map and say “I found that, there” as the scale is still too small for accurate find spots to be plotted. What we need is something that will give a reasonably accurate map reference as we dig the find it out of the ground without shelling out at least £70 to £80 for a GPS unit – or £2,000 on a CTX3030!
Easy!
To be continued ….
Just over 10 years ago, on 18th March 2004, founder member Norman Daynes (now sadly deceased) made an extremely significant find when detecting on a club search near the village of Shelton, Near Newark.
The following comes from a club newsletter published in Summer 2006
On the morning of Thursday, the 18th. of March, 2004, fourteen hardy members of the Ashfield Metal Detecting Club started their weekly search, at Shelton. It was cold and a persistent drizzle kept everyone in waterproofs. The search site consisted of two fairly large fields and a smaller patch of land, with stubble and weeds in abundance, that had been left untouched from the previous year. After three hours or so of this miserable and uncomfortable weather Norman decided to pack it in for the day. As far as he knew no one had found very much and a Georgian halfpenny was leading the finds stakes.
So, wet and a little disheartened he made his way back to his car, to do this he had to pass over the small weed infested area. Never the one to carry his detector, when he could swing it, he detected on the patches where the covering of weeds was thin enough to do so. A few minutes into this he received a positive signal, he dug about three inches deep and then like magic his discomfort disappeared for in his hand lay a beautiful silver double ended seal. After showing his find to the other members at the search he took the seal home, washed it carefully and packed it in cotton wool.
As soon as he could arrange a meeting Norman visited the landowner, showed him the seal and explained his obligations as the finder under the Treasure Act that, as he believed the seal to be over three hundred years old and it obviously contained over ten percent silver, he had to report the finding of it within fourteen days. The landowner agreed to this and subsequently Norman handed over the seal to Rachael Atherton, Finds Liaison Officer for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Rachael took possession of it and the next thing Norman knew was when he received a letter from The British Museum.:-
“Date late 16th. or early 17th. Century. Finder, Mr., Norman Daynes. Date of discovery, 18/03/2004.
Circumstances of discovery: While searching with a metal detector.
Description: Small silver seal-die, the two faces each with short faceted stems joined by an oval hoop. The larger face is engraved with a coat of arms, the smaller with a crest consisting of a male head surmounted by three feathers and the motto IE VOILE DROIT AVOIR (I will have justice). The precious metal content of the seal-die fulfils the requirements of the Treasure Act in that it is greater than 10%.
Note: The arms have been kindly identified by Clive Cheesman, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant at the College of Arms as those of the Warburtons of Arley, Cheshire; the seal may have been done for Peter Warburton of Arley (died 1626) or a close relative of his.
Judy Rudoe.
Curator of Renaissance and Later Collections.
Department of Prehistory and Europe.
The British Museum.
Grid References 2
Most of us carry a mobile phone – a potential map reference plotter. The phone apps usually refer to “waypoints” which is just hiking speak for a particular spot on a walk, or, in our case, in a field. The idea being to record and save a waypoint when you dig up the find, and record it when you’re back home.
Some of these phone “apps” are free, but the number of waypoints you can record are limited, sometimes to as little as 3. Fortunately, to upgrade to what many phone suppliers call the “Pro” versions costs as little as £2.00.
IPhone users can download an app called “Free GPS” which records and stores waypoints (perhaps we should start a new trend and call them findpoints).
http://www.codeburners.com/codeburners/freepgs/index.html
Android users can use “Waypoint Pro” which costs £1.99
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thedroiddev.waypointpro
And Blackberry users have “Waypoint Manager” – the free version stores 5 waypoints, which is probably enough on a “usual” day. The full version costs about £2.50.
All the waypoints can be deleted when you have recorded those you want to keep.
I usually carry some of those little zip-loc bags and put pre numbered bits of paper in them. When (if!) I find something, I save the map reference on the phone and in the “name” field on the phone I just put the number of the bag I’ve put the find in. Saves time messing about with descriptions when you perhaps don’t know what the object actually is.
The map references that these devices save are not in the OS format of SK 61493 48307. They use a degree and decimal format such as “Latitude 53.028525, longitude -1.0845655” – more of a nautical reference. However, all is not lost!
Go to the UK Grid Reference Finder website that Charlotte mentioned .. http://www.gridreferencefinder.com/#
The last set of boxes are labelled Lat and Long
In the Lat box enter 53.028525
And in the Long box, -1.0845655. Don’t forget the minus sign, it denotes west of Greenwich but you don’t really need to know that.
And hit Go!
…. And that’s the tree where I found my imaginary hammered!
If you scoll down the screen to the text below you will also see our “SK” reference. Hover over the reference and you’ll find other information.
You can also use this site to give you a very accurate reference. If you hadn’t got your phone, but knew that you’d found a valuable object at the top corner of the field in crop, in the narrow bit between crop and wood, right click on the spot … and there is a pin with a map reference every which way you could want it!
More than enough for the most demanding FLO!
(PS. Please DON’T detect in Fox Wood – it’s a Scheduled Monument!)
From the auction rooms (contributed by John Gough).
It is thought that this gold finger ring belonged to an armourer serving the XX11 Primigenia Legion at Mainz, Germany, in the 3rd., century A D. the name Primigenia is one of the titles of the goddess Fortuna.
The ring was recently sold at auction for 12,000 Euros, £9,012 in proper money.
The coin is a denarius of Septimus Severus 193 to 211AD, on the reverse is XX11 and the Legionary eagle between two standards.
Although the XX11 was stationed at Mainz from 39AD until the beginning of the 4th., century detachments were sent to other provinces for tasks which included the building of Hadrian’s Wall (119 AD) and the Antonine Wall (139 to 142 AD).
A tombstone from Piercebridge in County Durham, has the inscription DM…GRACILI ORDINATO GERMAN SVPERIOR LEGXX11 AVRELIA…CONVGI FACIENDUM CVRAVIT “ To the shades of the departed (…)Gracilis, a regular soldier of the Twenty-second Legion from Upper Germany. Aurelia (…)illa his wife oversaw the making (of this memorial).”
As John says, "The thing that interested me was that a gold ring had been owned by a soldier, I thought that Roman rings made of gold were the privilege of the upper classes and not mere squaddies! Although what position in the hierarchy an armourer held is open to conjecture."
This is the book "The Coins of the Danish Kings of Ireland mentioned in the June Newsletter.