Roman and Celtic coin hoard worth up to £10m found in Jersey

From BBC News: Roman and Celtic coin hoard worth up to £10m found in Jersey

One of Europe's largest hoards of Iron Age coins has been unearthed in Jersey and could be worth up to £10m, according to an expert.

The Roman and Celtic coins, which date from the 1st Century BC, were found by two metal detector enthusiasts.

Dr Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University, said the haul was "extremely exciting and very significant".

He said each individual coin was worth between £100 and £200.

The exact number of coins found has not been established, but archaeologists said the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain about 50,000 coins.

The exact location of the hoard has not been revealed by the authorities but Environment Minister, Deputy Rob Duhamel, said he would do everything he could to protect the site.

"Sites like these do need protection because there is speculation there might even be more," he said.

"It is a very exciting piece of news and perhaps harks back to our cultural heritage in terms of finance. It was found under a hedge so perhaps this is an early example of hedge fund trading."

It was found by Reg Mead and Richard Miles in a field in the east of Jersey.

They had been searching for more than 30 years after hearing rumours a farmer had discovered silver coins while working on his land.

Mr Mead and Mr Miles worked with experts from Jersey Heritage to slowly unearth the treasure.

A large mound of clay containing the coins has now been taken to a safe location to be studied.

It is the first hoard of coins found in the island for more than 60 years.

Several hoards of Celtic coins have been found in Jersey before but the largest was in 1935 at La Marquanderie when more than 11,000 were discovered.

Dr de Jersey said it would take months for archaeologists to find out the full value of the haul.

He said: "It is extremely exciting and very significant. It will add a huge amount of new information, not just about the coins themselves but the people who were using them.

"Most archaeologists with an interest in coins spend their lives in libraries writing about coins and looking at pictures of coins.

"To actually go out and excavate one in a field, most of us never get that opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity." Cleaning coins The coins will now be separated and cleaned at the Jersey Archive

The ownership of the coins is unclear. Mr Mead said he had asked the States of Jersey for clarification.

Deputy Duhamel said the owners of the site had indicated they would like to see the whole hoard on display at the Jersey Museum or the archive.

Air Force plane and crew missing for 60 years discovered on Alaska glacier

From Yahoo News: Air Force plane and crew missing for 60 years discovered on Alaska glacier

A U.S. Air Force plane that disappeared 60 years ago in Alaska has been found on a glacier, 14 miles from where it originally crashed into a mountain.

The C-124 Globemaster and its crew of 52 servicemen were lost when the plane crashed in November 1952. A military spokeswoman said that a recovery team is still working to officially identify debris found on Colony Glacier, about 45 miles east of Anchorage, but that the military believes it to be from the long-missing place.

"Some of the evidence positively correlates to the United States Air Force Globemaster that crashed in 1952," said Captain Jamie Dobson of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), which specializes in recovering remains of lost military personnel, the Associated Press reports.

An Alaska National Guard helicopter crew conducting a routine training mission in the area first spotted the wreckage on June 10. The findings, which reportedly include suspected bone fragments, are currently being analyzed at JPAC's laboratory in Hawaii.

"They weren't seeing human remains. They were seeing wreckage. But it wasn't recoverable. It was frozen in ice," Dobson said.

Members of the recovery team descended into some of the glacier's crevasses to look for additional remains but were not able to recover further debris.

Historian Doug Beckstead said that pilots searched for the C-124 in the days after it crashed into Mount Gannett. Six days after the crash, pilots spotted the plane's tail sticking out from snow on the mountain. However, bad weather eventually brought an end to the search efforts before any of the crew's bodies could be recovered. Eventually, the wreckage became covered in snow and its exact location was lost.

"Over the last 60 years, it's [the plane wreckage] just been flowing down that glacier," Beckstead said.

ARQ Treasure Quest Brings You a Unique Underwater RTS Game

From TimesUnion.com:  ARQ Treasure Quest Brings You a Unique Underwater RTS Game

Arqueonautas and Biodroid team up to bring shipwreck underwater archaeology to videogames.

Lisbon, Portugal (PRWEB) June 22, 2012

Arqueonautas Worldwide - Arqueologia Subaquática SA (AWW), a leading marine archaeology company, and Biodroid Entertainment, a media entertainment company, both based in Portugal, have reached an agreement to jointly develop a videogame of shipwreck underwater expeditions strongly inspired by the actual work of the former in underwater heritage sites all around the globe. Biodroid will become equity holder in this venture.

Titled “ARQ Treasure Quest,” the game concept was developed by the Arqueonautas team and will encompass strategy elements as well as simulation realistic facets from operations into its gameplay. The primary goal for the player is to successfully manage a marine archaeological expedition with an expert team of historians, archaeologists, divers, surveyors, conservators, researchers, investors, government officials and many other specialists in search for sunken treasures. An important part of the gameplay is to follow actual legal procedures and good governances to achieve satisfying results moving through the different levels.
The game is currently searching for crowd funding on IndieGoGo and a first demo will be presented in August, during GDC Europe.

Nikolaus Graf Sandizell, founder of Arqueonautas, commented, “ARQ Treasure Quest is an important step in our strategy of brand diversification initiated with the Arqueonautas Fashion Line. To replicate in a game format the Arqueonautas experience will further promote our values among a totally new market and help us spread our message as an active organization working on behalf of the Protection of World Maritime Heritage, in a way that can also be fun, exciting and adventurous.”

On the occasion Diogo Horta e Costa, founding partner of Biodroid, said that “this venture with Arqueonautas will open our production to a whole new genre of gaming, one with historical and technical factual data and a worthwhile adventures mission. At the same time that we’ll bring awareness for maritime heritage, we’ll bring players to experience first-hand the fun and excitement of shipwreck diving in exotic locations with a true historical back-drop.”

About Arqueonautas Worldwide
Arqueonautas Worldwide – Arqueologia Subaquática, SA (AWW) was founded in August 1995 as a private limited company in Madeira, Portugal. Since then, AWW has developed into a leading, commercially oriented marine archaeological institution, listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (QOW / PTAQW9AE0006), which recovers, under strict scientific criteria cargo and artifacts from endangered and historically significant shipwrecks. An up-listing from the Open Market to the Entry Standard was approved at the annual Assembly General Meeting, on the 13th April 2012 and will take place in the fourth quarter of 2012. From its headquarters in Portugal and under the leadership of its founder, Nikolaus Graf Sandizell, an experienced team of historians, marine archaeologists, research divers and conservation experts, works around the globe on a variety of search and recovery projects. The share capital of the company, which is conducted as a Portuguese corporation (S.A.), is currently divided into 8,200,030 shares (book-entry shares). The activity is financed entirely by private investors and the proceeds of the Arqueonautas Fashion Line (a trademark of the OTTO Group), without government subsidies.

The Company's mission is to save world maritime heritage as well as to promote scientific studies by carrying out marine archaeological projects whilst ensuring a fair return on investment to shareholders. To date, Arqueonautas has found more than 150 historical shipwrecks in Africa, Asia and South America. From the 15 wrecks excavated so far, 100,000 coins and 10,000 culturally significant artifacts have been recovered and documented in scientific publications. Currently AWW is preparing a recovery project in Indonesia of the largest shipwreck porcelain cargo ever found, the ‘Wanli Cargo’. Recovery operations are expected to begin in 2013. In the past twelve years, Arqueonautas has already located 40 historic shipwreck sites and carried out four successful recovery operations in the territorial waters of Mozambique. Survey operations
for nine other historically documented shipwrecks off the coast of Mozambique are underway.

The US Navy’s Deadly MK6 Attack Dolphin Program

From SOFREP:  The US Navy’s Deadly MK6 Attack Dolphin Program

In the Fleet’s Operational Marine Mammal Systems (MMS), the Navy uses dolphins and sea lions to find and mark the location of underwater objects.
Dolphins are essential because their exceptional biological sonar is unmatched by hardware sonars in detecting objects in the water column and on the sea floor. Sea lions are used because they have very sensitive underwater directional hearing and exceptional vision in low light conditions.
Both of these marine mammal species are trainable for tasks and are capable of repetitive deep diving.

A Mark V "Sea Lion" System At Work

Some of the objects the animals find are expensive to replace. Others could present a danger to Navy personnel and vessels. The dolphins and sea lions work under the care and close supervision of their handlers and are generally trained for a particular operational capability called a “system.”
(The term “system” is engineering jargon for a collection of personnel, equipment, operations processes, logistics procedures, and documentation that come together to perform a specific job.)
However, animals may be crossed-trained for more than one system to better serve the needs of the Fleet. The term “mark” (MK for short) is military jargon for a type of thing within a category. There are 5 marine mammal systems called MK 4, MK 5, MK 6, MK 7, and MK 8. MK 4, MK 7, and MK 8 use dolphins, MK 5, which uses sea lions, and MK 6 uses both sea lions and dolphins.
These human/animal teams can be deployed within 72 hours of notice and can be rapidly transported by ship, aircraft, helicopter, and land vehicles to potential regional conflicts or staging areas all over the world. They regularly participate in major Fleet exercises.
These animals are released almost daily untethered into the open ocean, and since the program began, only a few animals have not returned.

The Mark 6 System

• MK 6 MMS was first operationally deployed with dolphins during the Vietnam War from 1971 to 1972, and Bahrain from 1986 to 1987.
• MK 6 has now been expanded to include specially trained sea lions to locate water-borne intruders and suspicious objects near piers and ships that pose a possible threat to military forces in the area. They have been shown to be effective under and around ships, piers, and in open water.
• The sea lions were deployed to Bahrain as part of the effort to support missions under Operation Enduring Freedom.

Read more on the Navy’s site.

My Experience Diving Against Dolphins

If you’ve read my memoir, The Red Circle, you know about my time diving closed-circuit (no bubbles) Drager against the US Navy’s Dolphins. The Marine Mammal Unit would often work them into our training dives, although we admittedly knew very little about their capabilities. We just knew that you didn’t want to get hit by them – it was not a pleasant experience for those SEALs that got nailed in the murky night water.

Navy SEAL With The LAR V Drager

There were always rumors in the UDT/SEAL Teams about the CO2 anti-swimmer cartridges used by the dolphins. The concept is a simple one: dolphin hits an enemy diver with a CO2 dart that injects him with compressed nitrogen, diver has an embolism, and diver is dead. It’s a very efficient and extremely hard to defend against.
I recently phoned two of my former colleagues who are still on active duty and asked them if they could confirm the rumor, and neither could. So I asked myself the question, did the US Navy EVER consider CO2 darts with regards to harbor anti-swimmer defense? I was shocked to find open source evidence that appears to admit that yes, they did.
A while back Wired Magazine’s Danger Room interviewed the Marine Mammal Program’s Public Affairs Officer Tom LaPuzza on this topic.
Wired Magazine’s Interview Dialogue:
Excerpt Question: But given their capabilities, was there never a temptation to turn marine mammals into lethal weapons?
“Absolutely not”, insists LaPuzza, although there have been rumors for decades about a sinister “Swimmer Nullification Program” since Vietnam days.

SOFREP Confirms The CO2 Death Injection

I was digging through historical documents on the US Navy Marine Mammal Systems (MMS) program and came across an old PowerPoint slide pictured below that specifically mentioned the CO2 Dart System.
I also received confirmation that the weaponized dolphin program does in fact exist, at least in the late nineties when our anonymous Navy SEAL source was diving against them in several combat diver tests. He was actually involved in over a dozen dolphin vs. combatant swimmer operations.

Anonymous Navy SEAL:
“One of the MK 6 dolphins was named Jake and he was a real bastard to dive against. All the dolphins were very intelligent but none matched Jake’s aggression. They eventually retired him and I heard that this dolphin actually had enemy diver KIA.
We would do several dives a day and try everything to avoid detection, hiding under boats next to the keel, stirring up silt from the bottom, and hiding among pier pilings. Nothing worked to our advantage, the longest time it took one of the dolphins to find and simulate a kill on 7 pairs of divers was within minutes.
The dolphins would have their simulated CO2 system attached to their nose, they would then ram us in the chest cavity to simulate the injection. The dolphins could kill just with this force alone (we had to dive with special padding) but the idea was to recover the bodies and any intelligence.
I actually saw one of the heavy gauge needles that attaches to their nose along with the harness and CO2 containers that were positioned just behind the head. They’re incredibly smart mammals and not pleasant to dive against.” -Anonymous Navy SEAL
I guess the rumors are confirmed. So be careful Mr. Terrorist, you may want to avoid diving around high profile U.S. harbors, that is, unless you want bulging eyes and an exploding chest cavity.
Side note: You’ll have to read The Red Circle if you want to know how to defeat a MK 6 Dolphin.

 

World’s First Amphibious Car Revealed

From World Auto News:  World’s First Amphibious Car Revealed

The world's first amphibious sports car is all set to hit the roads soon.

The amphibious sports car can hit speeds of up to 180 mph (290 kmh) on land and 41 mph (72 kmh) in the water. The appropriately-named, Sea Lion, comes with a price tag of $295,000 which will be exclusively sold in U.S.

(Photo: Fantasy Junction press release) - Designer Mark Witt designed a amphibious sports car called the Sea Lion in hopes of breaking the world speed limit. 

The Sea Lion and has extraordinary stainless steel exteriors made of brushed aluminium. It was designed by Mark Witt, who came up with the concept from the scratch, with an objective of breaking the amphibious world speed record.

The previous record on land for an amphibious car was 125 mph. Technical specifications reveal that the model comes with 174 horsepower 13B rotary engine and it has been inspired by the 1974 Mazda RX3.
"The Sea Lion has been customized for high speed on land," Witt told reporters. "The speed on water has been restricted to Sea Lion's power and improvements may be done late perhaps. The water speed will upgrade by the use of a Renesis RX8 engine unit."

The latest roadster will be up for sale at a California-based Fantasy Junction where the event will witness an exhibition of automobiles and vintage racing cars.

150 years later, sunken ship still fascinates

From Star News (NC):  150 years later, sunken ship still fascinates

More than 100 scholars and Civil War enthusiasts are expected to gather Tuesday at the University of North Carolina Wilmington for a symposium on one of the Lower Cape Fear's most famous shipwrecks.

Students from the East Carolina University Program for Maritime Studies work on the ongoing conservation of artifacts from the Modern Greece shipwreck at the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Division of Archives and History at Fort Fisher.
Mike Spencer

Facts

GO
What: Open house at the Underwater Archaeology Center
When: 10 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. June 27
Where: 1528 Fort Fisher Blvd., next to the Fort Fisher State Historic Site Visitors' Center
Tikcets: Free
Details: 458-9042

The symposium marks the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the blockade runner Modern Greece off Fort Fisher in 1862 and the 50th anniversary of its first excavation in 1962 by U.S. Navy divers.

The Tuesday event is already a sellout, said Chris Fonvielle, associate professor of history at UNCW and one of the symposium's organizers. UNCW Media Productions is working to arrange a live feed of the sessions online.

Members of the public, meanwhile, are invited to an open house at the state of North Carolina's Underwater Archaeology Branch, 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p,m. Wednesday at the branch's facilities, next to the Fort Fisher State Historic Site off U.S. 421 south of Kure Beach.

Guided tours will offer a look at rifles, hand tools and other pieces of cargo recovered from the Modern Greece. Visitors will also see the artifact conservation lab and new storage tanks made possible by the N.C. Preservation Consortium said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, deputy state archaeologist, who heads the branch.

A panel of experts will be on hand at the nearby Fort Fisher State Historic Site to answer visitors' questions, Wilde-Ramsing said. In addition, a videographer from the state will record first-person stories from divers and others who recall work on the Modern Greece in the 1960s.

At noon Wednesday, state Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle, Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth and other officials will unveil a new sign commemorating the Modern Greece at the northern, ocean-side gazebo at Fort Fisher. 

A 210-foot-long, 520-ton steam freighter, the Modern Greece ran aground in the surf off Fort Fisher before dawn on June 27, 1862, while trying to evade U.S. Navy vessels. The British-built vessel had been bound for Wilmington with a cargo of Whitworth cannon, Enfield rifle-muskets, bayonets, bullets, hand tools, cutlery, medicine and other items meant for Confederate forces in the American Civil War.

Much of the Modern Greece's cargo was salvaged in the days and weeks after the wreck, Fonvielle said. Eventually, the vessel slipped beneath the sands, its location known only to a few local mariners.

In 1962, U.S. Navy divers rediscovered the wreck, which had been uncovered by storms. A major recovery operation yielded more than 11,500 artifacts and helped lead to the founding of North Carolina's underwater archaeology program.

Former UNCW Chancellor James Leutze, a military historian, will chair the symposium in the Azalea Coast Room at the Fisher University Union. 

Speakers will include Stephen R. Wise of the Parris Island Museum, author of "Lifeline of the Confederacy" and an authority on blockade running; Robert M. Browning Jr., chief historian of the U.S. Coast Guard and an authority on the Union blockade; Kevin Foster, former chief of the Marine Heritage Program with the National Park Service; and Gordon P. Watts Jr., former co-director of the underwater archaeology program at East Carolina University.

Among other guests, Fonvielle said, will be Andrew "Punky" Kure of Kure Beach, one of the first divers to explore the Modern Greece site, and Leslie Bright, a longtime artifact conservator with the underwater archaeology lab at Fort Fisher.

Fonvielle said organizers hope to raise enough money from the event to underwrite a documentary film about the Modern Greece and its excavation.

 

WWII plane wreck not Stuka, but larger JU88

From Yahoo News: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/15/wwii-plane-wreck-not-stuka-but-larger-ju88/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fworld+%28Internal+-+World+Latest+-+Text%29&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz1yM6I36Fy">WWII plane wreck not Stuka, but larger JU88

BERLIN – It looked like a Stuka, partly buried in the muck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, but researchers now say the wreck German military divers have been recovering for the past week is a totally different — though nearly as rare — World War II aircraft.
German Military Historical Museum spokesman Capt. Sebastian Bangert said Friday that enough of the plane has now been recovered to make clear it is not a single-engined JU87 Stuka divebomber, but a twin-engine JU88 aircraft.
The two Junkers planes shared several parts — including the engines on many models — and from the way it sat in the seabed Bangert says it appeared to have been a JU87.
But now that a wing section is up, it's clearly the larger JU88, he said, talking from the deck of the German Navy ship being used in the recovery.
Instead of looking at the partially-buried whole wing and the engine on the front of a JU87, it was clear they had been looking at the tip of a JU88 wing and the engine that once hung underneath it, he said.
"It looked just like the Stuka in the underwater pictures — everything that we had brought up had been pieces that were used in the JU87 — so there was no reason to doubt it," he said. "But this find is perhaps historically even more important."
Perhaps more importantly, the divers have also found human remains, including a partial skull, which they hope to be able to identify.
"Right now there is someone who just knows that their grandfather or great grandfather went missing in the war, to give that person closure is our goal," Bangert said. "And for us as a history museum, the aircraft is the only way to convey the information ... the history behind it, the personnel, how did they live, what did they experience, that is what we want to tell."
The Junkers JU87 — known by most as the Stuka, which is short for the German word for dive bomber or "Sturzkampfflugzeug" — is better known than the JU88, though far more of the latter were produced.
The JU87 was a single-engine monoplane that carried sirens that produced a distinctive and terrifying screaming sound as it dove vertically to release its bombs or strafe targets with its machine guns.
The twin-engined JU88 also served as a dive bomber, but took on multiple roles, including as a tactical bomber and a night fighter.
There are only a few intact or virtually intact JU88s still in existence — including one at the RAF Museum in London, which coincidentally has one of two complete JU87 Stukas on display.
There are also several recovered wrecks of both planes.
The recovery operation is wrapping up on Friday, but with more than half the plane still buried at the bottom of the Baltic, Bangert said the hope is that they will be able to return to the site at a later date to complete the job.
It will eventually be displayed at the German Historical Museum's Air Force Museum at the former Gatow airport in Berlin.