Metal Detecting in Connecticut
Recovery Of Native American Artifact
The coil was attached to the lower shaft of Explorer XS. That shaft did not fit into the medium shaft of Explorer II! I could not believe that! I guessed I discovered another flaw in Explorer's poor design hard way. I had no choice but to hunt with a standard 10.5 inches search coil.
The spot was extremely trashy and I dug up a lot of large junk for an hour. I wondered how many "keepers" I missed. Finally I received a solid high tone signal.
I started digging down and realized that the target was under the tree root-a good sign for recovering potentially something old and valuable! It took me 20 minutes to expose the root so I could easily break it.
I was sweating my butt off (or the rain hit harder) fighting with the root. Ordeal ended when I saw the target-an Indian Neck Pendant made of lead. I found many of those at the French and Indian War fort sites in Western New York.
The Collector's Illustarted Encyclopedia Of The American Revolution by George C. Neumann and Frank J. Kravic says the following about the relic: "Trading with the American Indians in the 1700s was an enormous industry to the British, Dutch, French, and Americans. Involved were a great variety of goods, sold, traded, or given away, including ornaments - a wide range of bright objects which could be worn with clothing or in their hair - much of it in silver ("trade silver") and lead." There is also a picture of a typical Indian neck pendant (number 2) in that book. Here is a picture of previously found neck pendants which were photographed together with that picture.
While I was diiging up my find, Tim and Primo had moved over the spot where I was metal detecting. They had covered most of the space around so I decided to scout around for other potential sites. I found a trail nearby, a sign on a big tree informed me that I was on a Public Land, and followed it until I noticed old stonewalls in the forest.
I walked around in circles and hopes of finding a cellar hole but to no avail. I metal detected randomly here and there a little and found a few brass casings, a modern clad quarter, and this first colorful autumn leaf.
