Searching for Treasure The dream of many people is to discover treasure. Some people spend their entire lives looking for one. Some deplete their savings and eventually die in failure, when they would have been better off getting a job. There are some treasures which have been found however, but sometimes even finding a treasure doesn’t mean a government will allow you to keep it. I have to admit it, one show which I have been watching for years is The Treasure of Oak Island. In case you are one of the few who never heard about it, treasure hunters have been digging there for years and the show came on the History Channel in 2014. Is there really a treasure there and will the Lagina brothers who are looking for the treasure ever find it? One would think a show which has gone on for eight years of hunting for a treasure would get old and boring, but this show has managed to keep me interested all these years and I am certainly rooting for the brothers. Treasure hunts don’t always fail. There have actually been some treasures found. How much value must be found to be considered a treasure? I am not sure how many valuable objects must be found to be considered a treasure or what an item must be worth, but I know an object must be at least 50 percent gold, or silver, or a valuable gem to be considered treasure, but there are also other exceptions. In 2013 archaeologists were digging in Jerusalem. I would imagine that area being so ancient could have unknown riches hidden in it. The archaeologists hit pay dirt. The treasure was composed of 36 gold coins, gold medallions along with a gold coil and some pendants. It was estimated the were from about 614 A.D. and originated in Persia. There are plenty of treasures people have been looking for since antiquity. One is the Arc of the Covenant. It is said to be a golden box by some with two angels on top. Others say it is wooden with thin sheets of gold over it. No matter if it is solid gold or not, this is one of the exceptions in calculating value. It would be invaluable. There are many stories connected with it telling us miracles were performed by it and it held the ten commandments along with other precious religious artifacts. If this is not found it will be searched for until the end of the world. A large treasure hoard was found some 180 years ago and has happens it was found by mistake. Men were working on a bridge in the Cuerdale area. The year was 1840. As they were digging, they came across a buried treasure. Can you imagine how they felt? It was said to be a Viking treasure and contained about 8,500 plus objects. Some of the objects were gold ingots, all sorts of jewelry and silver coins. The men decided to turn the treasure over to Queen Victoria. Here is where it gets interesting. It is said only some of the treasure made it to the British Museum. Where did the rest of it go? The men had each kept only one coin for themselves. British treasure law at the time was very strict. If you found treasure you had to somehow prove the objects were buried and they were deliberately hidden to be dug up at a later date before you could keep anything you found. Today the British Treasure Act of 1996 states if you find treasure you must report it to your local coroner withing 14 days. He will lead an inquest and determine whether what you found was treasure or not and if so, it must be offered for sale to a museum at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts known as the Treasure Valuation Committee. If the museum doesn’t want the treasure, you can keep it. Yeah, fat chance. What seems to be a royal treasure was found in Sroda Slaska in Poland. I say it seemed to be a royal treasure because one of the objects found was a golden bejeweled crown. The treasure was found about 35 years ago. A building was being prepared to be demolished when the treasure was found. It consisted of the gold crown, 3,000 silver coins, and a ring with a dragon on it. It was found the crown had belonged to the Czech queens. A round clasp was also found and is considered to be the second most valuable object in the treasure. It is surrounded by emeralds, pearls and a sapphire. The objects in the treasure date for the 12th and 13th century and the crown from the 14th century. So far, the search for the treasure from El Dorado has been futile. The Spanish described the city as having buildings of gold. When people search for it, they have to be aware it didn’t start out being the legend of a city, but the legend of a king who was said to cover himself with gold dust and then jumped into Lake Guatavita. This knowledge should be enough to stop those looking for the treasure, but it has not. Archaeologists in Russia have found an incredible treasure in a forest near Old Ryazan. The city had been destroyed and the inhabitants killed by the Mongols in 1237 A.D. Several treasures were said to have been discovered near or in the destroyed city since 1822. This year, 2021 saw archaeologists discover another treasure. The objects in the hoard were said to date back to the 11th and 12th centuries A.D. The treasure was composed of silver objects. There were many different styles of silver bracelets and it is believe they comprised the valuables of one person who hid them from the Mongols. In 1992 a farmer lost one of his tools in a field. He called a friend who had a metal detector and they went into the field to search for it. Instead of finding the lost tool, they found a huge treasure. Someone in the 5th century A.D. had buried their treasure in that field. Some of the things which were found were gold jewelry along with gold coins. Silver items such as silver spoons were also found. The objects in the treasure even went back to Roman times and included Roman ladles and serving bowls. Eventually the tool, which was a hammer was also found and the treasure and the hammer are both in the British Museum. The treasure has been valued at 3.8 million pounds.
|
