15ZZ, dated relic into Medieval...

[Bavaria Mike]

Met up with my Archaeologist friend, also a curator at our museum and confirmed I got a display case in the museum. My theme will be the castle finds, should make a very nice display. I will probably end up donating all the finds to the museum as it is our local culture. I have a lot of relics from the castle and will get pictures up when the display is finished around the end of May. I detected the castle after work for 1.5 hours and did a few farm fields as well this week. The better finds. Obverse of a religious pendant.

Reverse of the religious pendant.

A lead spindle whorl found at the castle.

A very small seal matrix, not sure of the proper orientation. An S with two small leaves or possibly initials.

Seal matrix stem.

Seal matrix stamp.

A small knife butt with the date 15ZZ (1522), it is the size of an American dime. Got to love dated relics!

Reverse of the 15ZZ.

Found another crossbow bolt tip at the castle, this one is very nice, dates 1400-1600 or possibly earlier. I

 

[Finder82]

Very nice finds, i too love finding the real old stuff.

 

[SeniorSeeker]

Incredible finds! You're one lucky dude.

 

[TURNMASTER]

It must be very exciting to find that kind of history. Very kind of you to donate your finds to a museum, or even to lend them for display.

Jeff

 

[digmeahole]

How in the world did you get permission to hunt a castle????? Where are you from?

 

[Bavaria Mike]

I live in Germany, originally from Ohio. I requested a detecting permit however, was denied the castle area. Also joined the local Historical Society several years ago. At one of our society meetings a few people complained they had seen detectors at the local castle site and they asked if it was me, I responded no as I could lose my permit if caught. Then I approached a town official as he was present at the meeting and said see, you won't let me detect the castle but others come and go as they please, find something and probably sell it on Ebay. That got me approval to detect the castle and I promised I would display anything historically interesting in our museum, a very nice museum by the way! There was a town at the castle base, 650 years of activity, they moved the town down hill in 1750 after a lightning strike burned down the town again and took all the building materials to rebuild. There are cellar holes everywhere and hardly any finds left, I have struggled countless hours and detected the toughest parts to find what I have. Much more to the story but that's it in short. I have the best relationship with the town officials a person could ask for, the Mayor occasionally stops by when I'm detecting to see if I found anything. It has taken years to get where I am detecting. HH, Mike

 

[digmeahole]

Wow. You are one very lucky man!! I will be sure to check out all your posts!! Congrats!

 

[Digger]

Excellent finds, as usual Mike. Thanks for sharing things from the past that many of us will never have access to view, let alone hunt for. When you say you are going to preserve the crossbow bolt tip in wax, could you explain that process? Thanks again. HH Randy

 

[Bavaria Mike]

There are so many ways and methods to preserve iron, I took the easiest method, LOL. If the relic is in poor condition you will need to wire wheel it and get the flakes of iron off it and the relic must be well dried out, I usually put the relic near my wood oven but now it's summer, I guess the kitchen oven would do. I have a pot with Gulf Wax I heat over the stove, hot but not extremely hot. Then I place the relic in the wax and allow it to come up to wax temperature, best to pre heat the relic before placing in wax especially something thick like a canon ball. I just took some pictures of a canon ball, 4 bolt tips and a caltrop I am conserving, I'll try to do a post on how I did it with pictures. I am no professional at all and you may want to research other methods. Hope that helps and HH, Mike