Metal Detecting in Ivanovo Region, Central Russia (Story 16)
I started scanning the ground around this spot in my usual unwinding-the-spiral pattern, and Cortes received another good solid signal, though this time it was larger than the coin one. I was afraid I would dig up a modern junk, something like a car carburetor or the tractor's part.
In situations like this, the Tesoro Cortes metal detector is very effective in terms of determining whether the target is iron or non-iron. Because Cortes has the knob-potentiometer type controls instead of browsing through electronic menus by pads, it easily takes a second to change the Discrimination and Sensitivity settings.
This simplicity in operation allowed me to examine the target's signal by first scanning the target in All Metal mode and then with the highest Discrimination setting, and the signal did not change. The conductivity reading was 90 and did not fluctuate when I moved the search coil in any direction. I got a sweet feeling of a nice relic discovery coming in a moment. Now it was the time to put my electronic shovel to work. Just kidding! My shovel does not dig holes on its own, it just makes me a cup of coffee. :)
What came out of the ground surprised me a lot not only by its kind but also by its fine condition: it was intact!
In fact, I recovered a brass-cast travel icon, or pectoral icon, which used to be worn on the body, on a chain or necklace, underneath the clothes with the exception of the priests who wore the icons visibly.
The Icon in Uncleaned Condition
The icon theme displays the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with a scepter (attribute of monarchic power) in Her hand. There are several figures of suffering people to the both sides from the Holy Virgin. The icon's size is small: 6.9cm x 5cm.
"Mother of God – The Joy of All Mournful People" Pectoral Icon, ca. 18th Century, after being cleaned.
The Icon's Back
