Foreign.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Lost Treasures podcast.

I'm John Shiel.

I'm Adam Means.

And we are back after a brief, brief but meaningful sabbatical.

We are back.

We are back to talk about all of the latest and greatest in the archaeology world.

We, we've got some updates from Adam about his quest to find some lost treasures here in the continental United States.

And we've got some of the latest and greatest news from across the globe right here to talk about today on Lost Treasures.

It's fascinating how much work is being done in the archeology community, and we welcome each and every one of you, our listeners, to join in the conversation.

Because after all, this is just not us preaching it to you.

This is a conversation and we get emails at Lost Treasures.

Amail.

That's right.

So if you would like to tell us about something you may have found.

We are big into metal detecting, we are big into archeology, we are big into travel and ancient cultures and lost treasures.

Yep, all of that, John, all of it.

We want to bring you into the conversation, though, so make sure that you send us an email and send us something to talk about if you want to discuss it and maybe even be a guest on our podcast.

Definitely.

That'd be awesome.

Yeah.

Now, just yesterday, the news, just to bring it back right up to the current moment.

Just yesterday, this is the very end of May here, if you're listening, you know, in a couple of weeks.

But the very end of May, the news came out with a story that in 1958, there was a narrow trench of an eroded limestone cave near a village in Shaogun City, China.

I may be pronouncing that incorrectly.

Sounds right.

John's really close.

Shao Guan City.

Local farmers were digging up back guano for fertilizer when they came across a fossilized fragment of bone that looked somewhat human.

And later it was determined to be part of a skull and some facial bones.

But initially it was thought that it was a Neanderthal.

And as subsequent research has now come out that this actually dates back to 300,000 years old.

No big deal, John.

I mean, this is how.

This is how this stuff evolves.

So at first glance, it seemed like any other skull fragment, but crazy looking too.

Then the researchers dated this thing and it goes back so far and at this point they think that there's a different type of hominid.

If I'm saying that right, yep.

That makes it possibly not Neanderthal, but actually from a different form of Homo erectus.

Right.

We're not even sure exactly which one, but it's a.

It's a.

It's obviously a relative of ours.

We are Homo sapiens and we are after the Homo erectus.

So this is closest to Homo erectus, but at the age it is and the style of skull it is, they're not sure exactly.

It looks like the brain size was a little bit bigger or something there too, in that paragraph.

John.

Pretty.

Pretty crazy.

So erectus had a smaller brain, but this has a bigger brain, but it's not a Neanderthal and it's not a Homo sapien interest.

And it's 300,000 years old in China.

Awesome.

Absolutely crazy.

I know the wild stuff is where you see.

They saw that signs of a lesion on the frontal lobe.

There were signs of some wounds, and whether or not there was a healed lesion, they're not sure if the injury was what caused the death or if it was while he was still alive.

But it does show some healing.

Crazy.

No signs of infection, and they think maybe could be left behind by an impact such as a fall.

Could be possible anemia or tumor.

Wow.

But there are stories to be told in all of this, and that's what I find most fascinating, is that.

Super.

All of this stuff tells a tale.

Right.

It's a story.

Right.

I mean, when.

When we're talking about this stuff and we're seeing it and we're seeing the news, there are scientists who are going into such detail that they're trying to figure out, like, healing of the lesion, whether or not that indicated, you know, how.

How long he lived or he or she lived with this wound.

Yeah.

And whether it was from something internal or external.

Yeah.

They're not even really sure, but they're.

They're trying to figure it out and.

Yeah, I have no doubt that they will.

Oh, yeah.

It just takes a little bit of time.

That's super impressive.

What?

300,000 years old.

It's.

It.

It leads us into, you know, all of the various things that.

That are going on, you know, across the globe where metal detectorists are looking up coins and where.

Oh, yeah, the.

For example, and I don't know if you want to talk about this right now, but the, the treasure that was found in Britain, where the two coins were found together, that suggested it was an alliance of.

Yeah.

The King Alfred, of we and mercy.

So again, we're.

We're now jumping across continents here, but very recent news.

Two British men found a Viking treasure worth about $3.8 million.

And I'll let you tell the dark side.

Yeah.

And we're always gonna have one of these now, John.

So these guys are going to jail.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, now you still got to follow the laws.

Let's.

Let's just point out that the treasure has massive historical.

Right.

Value because.

Very cool coins too.

Yeah.

There are two coins, one each that were found that are valued at over $128,000 each.

Now, the reason why they're so rare is they're called two Emperor coins, depicting two rulers, King Alfred of Wessex and Kella Wolf of Mercia.

Now, these coins are so rare that the history seems to suggest that there was an alliance.

Obviously they wouldn't have printed a coin with both of their names on it if it hadn't been an alliance, but very true.

The HID history suggests that Alfred, the more prominent of the two figures, reneged on the deal, and that's why they only printed such a limited amount of.

These and why they're so valuable.

The location of the treasure suggests that the Viking army, which was defeated at Wiltshire in 878, may have left this horde.

And that's what these guys found.

Nice.

Now you're going to tell us about what they were supposed to do and what they weren't supposed to do.

Well, right away.

And I learned this from Katie.

Yep.

She obviously, when we talked to her in their first season, you got to turn these things over right away.

And what's the name of her podcast again?

Metal Detecting History podcast.

Yeah.

She's awesome.

Absolutely.

And so that's one of the first things like we talked about is like the rules are what you have to follow, whether you're, you know, in your own private land or you're on somebody else's and they have to.

You're supposed to turn this stuff in right away.

And it wasn't a small amount of stuff.

That's the thing.

So typically, obviously, the more valuable, the more the punishment is a little bit worse.

Well, and the worst part is that these men would be rich by now if they had done things by the book.

Yep.

And apparently greedy.

One of them was jailed for ten years and the other jailed for eight and a half years.

Dude, no thanks.

Yeah, and I'm not doing all that.

A coin seller who sold the coins jailed for five years and one more is still getting sentenced in December.

That sucks.

So these guys are just facing some multi year sentences, but the truth is, if they had.

Now, I am going to tell you right now, I'm not sure the laws in Britain but same.

There is.

There's a very specific rule.

They have 14 days to turn in receipts.

And then the.

And let's see.

I know that this story will tell us a little bit more about it.

There's a stringent procedure under British law, so local corn has to be reported to within 14 days of the discovery.

And then there is a.

An officer of the British government, a fines liaison officer, writes up a report, and then they do an inquest where the landowner and a treasure valuation committee, they get to ask questions, they get to inquire about where it was found, they get to discuss it.

There's an inquest and the detectorist has, along with the landowner, have to answer these questions regarding what they found and where it was found and all that sort of stuff.

And then after all that report is done, then it can take up to a year, I guess, to come up with a receipt, which then is given to the people who found the items.

And then I guess if the British government makes a valuation, they can actually buy it from the person and they can make money, but they have to follow the procedure to the letter of the law.

And that is the thing if you are going to be doing this.

And Adam, you learned this when you were going into a city park to try to do an excavation.

You learned.

Learned that if you don't, you're gonna face some stiff fines, possibly jail time.

Felony, buddy.

Felony.

Yeah, not a good one.

I mean, it might be a low one, but it's still not good.

Yeah, well, so you want to stay out of trouble, and I as encourage you all to follow the law, but these guys decided they were a little too impatient for that.

They saw the value of these coins.

What do you think they did, John?

They just saw it was going to be like a year, and they're just like, oh, you know what?

I'm just gonna go shop these around.

I think they found a coin dealer who was a little less than scrupulous.

Exactly.

Right.

Yeah.

They thought, hey, let's make some cash.

I know cash.

And then eight years in prison later.

Don't do it, man.

I mean, the thing is, they're just now getting sentenced.

I know.

Just starting this next phase of their.

Life, which was away for a decade.

Dude, no, thanks.

No, that was stupid.

The other thing is, this is.

And we like this word, it's a big word, but cultural patrimony.

So if you're seeing these super rare coins where you get a monetary historical evidence of the rulers, King Alfred and Kelwolf of Mercia.

Yeah.

Like working together and obviously minting coins together and it's such a brief period of time and I don't know if you've seen the shows the Last Kingdom or Vikings.

I have actually, but they.

Vikings didn't watch a lot.

But the Last Kingdom.

Last Kingdom.

Yeah.

King Alfred is in that.

And you.

That's why those coins are so unique.

Yeah, that's super cool, actually.

It is super cool.

Two rulers on one coin.

I know.

And in a time when, you know, the Danes and the Vikings.

Right.

And the English, they weren't even English yet, they were right.

Mercians and Wessex and.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think King Alfred was the one who was trying to make it England.

Right, wasn't he?

I think so.

The Anglo Saxon ruler, King Alfred was trying to unify all the various kingdoms and make one country.

This is one of those stories too that me and you've like, we've been seeing the people that do stuff wrong in the metal detecting, treasure hunting realm.

This is one of the worst ones.

Right.

It's bad.

10 years.

Like I haven't seen anybody else getting that long.

That kid in Australia, that was like not that long.

Yeah, but this is 10 years.

Well, I think the difference between the kid in Australia and these guys is these guys clearly were flouting the law.

That's where that guy was kind of like he just kind of bumbled into it.

Yeah, that's true, that's true.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

Yeah, clearly.

Like you obviously had time to go to your liaison and you didn't do that.

Yeah.

14 days, man.

The clock's ticking as soon as that starts.

Yeah.

Wow.

But how easy would it have been?

I mean, you got two weeks.

Come on, you can file a report in two weeks.

You can call the local coroner.

You can do it in a day.

Yeah, you can do it in a.

Day, you can do it within half.

An hour if you're not smart enough.

If you're going to go look for stuff to not know the rules, that's on your own.

That's your own fault, dude.

Yeah, like it didn't take that long.

I did all the cincinnat rules.

It took me like two days.

Yeah, it's not that hard.

You know, on the flip side, there is an older gentleman, 76 years old, metal detector is also in Britain who found a super rare coin, a super rare coin that possibly was deposited in a field in England, possibly through France, all the way from Rome.

Yeah.

A Roman coin with the gold level so pure that it's unheard of.

Dates back to 69 AD.

Nice.

And this guy, he was almost going to stay home that day, Ron.

Instead he goes out.

Mr. Ron Walters struck gold.

Six years he was searching the same farmer's field near Dudley in West Midlands every spring and autumn when the crops weren't sown.

The retired welder said he stumbled across the rare Roman coin and he was almost 69 AD.

Yeah.

How cool is that?

Isn't that amazing?

Yeah, he's pumped.

Look at him and the photos of him online.

I mean the cool thing is he still got his.

Look this.

I just found it taking a photograph.

Still got his metal detecting headphones on.

He's.

He's out there in the field.

You know this guy called the coroner right away.

He told everyone, hundred percent, dude, he.

Knows he's getting a piece of it too.

You know, it's not like they're not going to get something.

Yeah.

They're not taking it from you.

You just gotta wait, man.

Exactly.

You got to just do it though.

Gotta have the patience, man.

Like all this is patience.

Yeah.

Now this is the.

Let's, let's just see who the emperor on here.

It's Emperor Aulus Vitellis and it's the first gold arias which is the type of coin of Emperor Aulis Vitellis ever to be recorded as found in the British Isles.

Wow.

And dude, that thing is tiny.

It's.

I mean it looks like the size of a penny.

It does look like.

That's what I was just thinking.

It's pretty cool.

1955 year old coin auctioned off this week and fetched six.

$6,000 and very cool.

The man who found it will split it with the fields landowner and a, a senior coin specialist at Fieldings named Mark Hannam says the coin was genuinely an amazing find and a unique piece of history to find a coin from 69 AD incredibly rare as most of these coins we find in this country are from third and fourth centuries.

And we're talking about a time when gold was at purest level.

Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah.

That's a cool.

See that's the, that's the flip side of those guys, right?

This guy just did it, right?

Yeah.

Got his name in the paper.

He's gonna be super popular in town, you know, gets a piece of it.

It wasn't like finding 3.8 million worth but same time like 69 AD is a lot older than those other ones.

You know the thing that I keep thinking about when I see this kind of stuff is I Feel like it's the same feeling that you get when you watch those tiktoks where the guy, like, hits the golf ball and it kind of close and gets closer, and then suddenly, boom, hole in one.

And you're like, oh, my God, the dude just got a hole in one.

And everybody goes nuts, right?

And then everybody's like, yes, this is awesome.

And then there's the guys who are like the cheater in golf.

Right?

Those are the guys who are breaking the law.

Kick the ball a little bit.

Yeah, exactly.

Tap.

Yeah.

A certain guy in Washington, D.C. cheats, known to cheated golf.

Yeah.

It's like the same feeling you get.

You're like, that's gross, man.

That's disgusting.

You know, I mean, I hear you.

Certain amount of this comes down to the honor system.

But think about it.

But he could have done the same thing those guys did, right?

He could have pocketed that thing.

Look at how tiny it is.

Yeah.

Instead, this adds to the history.

That's why you.

That's why you tell, like, both sides, you know, like, you figure out, okay, you're gonna do it the wrong way, you're gonna do it the right way, this guy's gonna get way more notoriety.

And those guys gonna be in prison for 10 years, dude.

I know.

Horrible.

Think of the loss they deserve.

Family, their friends.

They deserve all that, though.

I mean, you had the choice.

If you.

If you're going out there, know what the rules are, and then just follow the rules.

Yeah.

If it's not meant for you, then it's not meant for you.

But, dude, you gotta follow the rules.

I. I would.

I mean, obviously encourage everybody to do that, too.

I.

Well, you better, John.

You're a lawyer.

Yeah.

I will say, though, it's.

It's.

It's pretty easy to kind of do the right thing.

You know, you make the right choice.

You don't pocket the coin you found.

You.

You call in.

You call it in.

And hey, same like filing for a permit, right?

Right.

You follow the rules, dude.

Yeah.

Because then it ends up in a museum.

This wasn't even this guy's land either.

Same thing as those other guys, right?

Different person's land.

Like.

Yeah, I like it.

I like the.

You know, obviously, I like the positive side, too.

Well.

But we got to talk about the negative one.

So the thing is, this guy story gets put, you know, next to the coin in the.

In the museum.

Exactly.

Whereas those other guys signing autos all the time.

Yeah.

Those other guys get a little footnote.

Like the guys who found this went to prison.

So you know what I mean?

Some guys in a podcast are talking about.

Oh, goodness.

Well, let's talk about one more that did it the right way.

I know you may not know this, but way, way back there was a period of time where.

Yeah, this is super cool.

Indo European people in the area of modern day Romania and Moldova.

It was.

The region was called Dacia back in.

Back in that time period.

This is, you know, pre Roman time.

And we are looking at a situation where an archeologist.

It was actually a metal detectorist.

A pair of metal detectorists.

Yeah.

Doing a survey near the town of Brazia discovered a major treasure hoard of the Dacian people.

Now, according to a press release, the hoard consists of silver bracelets, breeches, a neck chain, and a belt made from oval plates with decorative solar motifs.

Those are cool.

The photographs are, are.

Yeah, those are cool.

Incredible.

Now let's see if we can get a time frame on the Dacian society.

Yeah, good idea.

A little quick.

Might as well just check it out, seeing so that we're right.

So the Dacian kingdom was established in 168 BC.

Wow.

And the Romans fought a war with them and from 84 to 88 A.D. and then fought again 100 to 1016 A.D. but the.

Basically the first half of the first century B.C.

that, that seems to be about where this, this stuff comes from.

So an interesting find because the.

The horde has significant archaeological value.

First physical evidence of a Dacian presence in this particular brazier.

That's cool.

Yeah, that's cool and pretty wild, man.

Beautiful stuff, though, the, the art, artistic value alone.

I mean, this will be in a museum for sure.

Yeah, I'd hope so.

Exceptional silver content, too.

Content of 550 grams of silver.

Wow.

Yeah.

Now there, of course, the questions that come up.

Could this be a ritual offering?

Was it some sort of dedication to a deity?

Was it a hurriedly concealed treasure?

Was it a wartime thing where they were burying stuff to, you know, make sure it wasn't found by the soldiers coming through?

Nobody else got it.

Really interesting.

Super interesting.

I like that.

It was like one of the, you know, first, like remnants of those people in that area.

I think that's sweet.

Yeah.

Very, very cool.

Romania and Moldova.

I'll have to check out, check that out.

And if you want to find more online, you can.

You can actually go to the municipality, the communa brazia.ro.

and there's a whole bunch more information about that find, but fantastic.

And adding to the overall history of the.

The area.

Now there's another Romanian treasure.

Awesome.

This is very recent stuff, folks.

Super cool.

Yeah.

Like late April 2025.

Okay.

This gentleman was out.

Metal detectorist again.

Out with his machine, searching.

Just.

Just having a bit of relaxation in nature and listening for fun.

Hanging out in Romania.

Yeah.

So here he is.

Posted this on Facebook in late April.

Dude, look at how many coins are there.

He was out there.

And what did he find?

A broken pottery with 1469 silver denarii from Rome.

Yeah.

Buried in a field.

Nice job.

Unbelievable.

He took photographs of it, called the authorities, and the coins feature the faces of 11 different Roman emperors and empresses.

Awesome.

Including Nero and Marcus Aurelius.

The coins date from 31 BC to 476 AD.

That's awesome.

I mean, like, that's hundreds of years of coins.

Yep.

11 different emperors.

You know, it can't just be one.

Yeah.

One set of years.

Now the.

The.

The horde is at least 1500 years old.

But the coins, though, I mean, amazing.

Imagine no Roman imperial period.

I think that's awesome too.

Yeah.

So this is in a town that is 25 miles southwest from Bucharest.

Wow.

And just absolutely incredible.

I mean, if you.

If you all could take a look at this online, you'll see what looks like poster boards.

Yep.

And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 different poster boards that are just like absolutely full of coins.

And I mean, I would love to.

Hear how this, like his, you know, how he came upon this, what he was doing that day.

Can you even imagine now?

It's awesome.

Now, we don't have that style of stuff here in.

In this country, but in parts of the east coast with metal detecting, you're going to find stuff from colonial period.

You're going to find stuff from pre colonial period.

Oh, yeah.

But, you know, I will say this.

I was out in Portsmouth, Ohio recently.

I saw in actually a judge's chambers.

Oh, yeah, you told me.

Very fantastic collection of arrowheads and flintstones that were found all in the Scioto county area.

The Scioto, Brush Creek and Ohio River Valley.

Nice.

But just beautiful stuff that.

Most of which is Paleolithic.

Yeah.

And we're talking about Adina Hopewell and pre.

Adina Hopewell culture.

Nice.

But all kinds of stuff.

And the.

The judge out there is a.

Is a fantastic collector of this stuff.

And found actually mortar and pestle that were, you know, used for grinding corn, etc.

And one of them had a carving on it that said 1776 on it.

Wow.

Which he believes was the date that someone found it.

Yeah.

Not the date.

Yeah, I bet that's true.

Which is pretty cool.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

It's crazy how old, like Cincinnati areas.

Well, and all of the southern part, and specifically, you know, as you go eastbound, like the southeastern part of the United of Marietta, you know, when you get out there, you know, the.

The remnants of Appalachia, that was.

That was like the edge of the world for the colonial folks.

You know, in fact, some of the.

The historians say that really, the whole Boston Tea Party and the idea that we were rebelling against the king was not so much over taxes, but over the fact that there had been a war fought between the English, the French, and the Indians that kind of outlined the boundaries of how far the colonies were going to spread.

And there were a lot of rich landowners here who were like, no, if that.

We want it.

We want to go out there.

And so people like George Washington who were surveying this area, what became Ohio, in what was called the Northwest, North, Northwest Territories, that actually a lot of these colonial bigwigs who were the revolutionary founding fathers, they really wanted to extra.

Extremely expand the.

Of course they did.

And their land holdings.

Of course they did.

Yeah.

So the whole idea that this was a revolution against taxes or taxation without representation, they convinced all of the.

Maybe, let's just say poor people to fight this, you know, one of the biggest armies in the world.

And not because the poor people were suddenly going to get rich over this.

No.

But the landowners were saying, oh, you're being oppressed.

Funny how that works, by the way.

Go.

Go fight our battle for us, and then we're gonna go get this land over there.

Funny how that works.

Yeah.

Gee, we've seen that before.

Sounds familiar.

Seems.

Seems like even in the recent past, we've seen some of that.

Anyway, we're going off track here, folks, but we do want to say there's a lot of magic in the history, and it does tell the story.

And.

And we're 100.

All of this stuff come to light.

And do it the right way.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do it the right way.

That brings us right back here to modern day.

Adam, you have been on a quest to dig out three years, John.

Three.

Three years of fun.

Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about what's going on.

Gathering all the evidence that we've put together.

So I'm putting that into an actual report.

Okay.

And there have been two, to my knowledge, two different archeology companies that have been involved, one of which did a ground penetrating radar which produced a multi billion multi page, like 26 page report.

Right.

And then there were some additional metal detectorists who came and used some very high powered stuff to find signals of stuff that definitely said it warrants excavation.

Yeah.

I've had so many, I can't even tell you how many metal detector positive hits.

I didn't even include a lot of that data in the report because it's overwhelming.

Now for those just tuning in, Adam has been doing this search in a public park.

Okay.

So there, there is.

Not at my house.

No.

Or John's house.

And not at like a farmer who you could just get.

Not a friend.

No, this is more like all legal.

Have to do it the right way.

Yeah.

There's no layers of red tape.

Right.

So you're going through multiple permits, long period of time, a lot of people involved as far as internal, not like a ton of external.

So.

Yeah.

Now the other thing is you had, you had quotes from various archaeologists who were going to come dig and then you did have a group come dig.

Right.

And they unfortunately did not use the report correctly and ended up digging in the wrong place.

And not to get into a ton of that just because I agreed with them not to say a lot.

Yeah.

There were outside things that occurred that caused that contract to be null and void.

That's all I can say.

Okay.

So not necessarily malfeasance, but there were some technical data that one group had, one group didn't have.

Right.

Maybe that.

And I had made sure to communicate all necessary information as thorough as possible.

Understood.

So the best way I can say that without getting too much into it.

Right.

But however the dig that was done and that we have some film of and if you're watching our socials, you'll see some archaeologists digging.

I put some pictures but not a lot of that day.

Mostly like me and you and some of my friends.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I have some, some video that I'll send you of where they actually dug.

And it is a fascinating process.

And folks, you have to understand, you imagine Indiana Jones, but what you get is what looks like a couple of farmers with some, some pitchforks and shovels and trowels, some buckets from Home Depot and, and, but it's, that's, that's good though, right?

It's very, it shouldn't be an over technological thing where it should be like.

Yeah.

Hand trials and like.

I get it, you know.

Yeah.

So you know we're not going out there with post hole diggers and stuff like that.

Right.

So I, but I, I'M same with you, John.

I was like, oh, okay.

This is what they're using.

Okay.

I could have gotten.

Yeah, got this stuff too.

Yeah.

Well, it's fascinating to talk to the archaeologists on site and they're like, hey, most of our stuff comes from Home Depot.

Know have Home Depot, will travel.

I have like half these tools in my garage.

Exactly.

But what is fascinating is that they do very meticulously mark off where they are.

Yeah, they're, they're, they're sure to take photographs of what they find.

And then what happens is they kind of mark off an area, they put kind of a box down around, around it, they start digging in the area and then they take the dirt into a bucket.

They take the bucket over to what looks like a giant sieve.

Like if you've ever played in a sandbox as a kid.

They're basically, they've buil little screens and a sieve for the dirt and they kind of rub the dirt through the sieve to kind of filter out what's dirt and what is maybe other material.

Right, right.

And the screen, that's like really close, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And the screens are kind of like different sizes and they kind of sort out okay, you know, big clumps of dirt can fall through.

But they get to the point where they're, they're finding, you know, anything from like chips.

It's very, that's a very fine, very fine grate they use.

Yeah.

So learning from that process, I will never outsource anything ever again.

So I went to this, I went to the opposite.

I met an archaeologist, hired him, he works with me.

But the nice thing is from that in September of last year, we found two different little anomalies.

So I located the second cavity by myself again.

So two I found by myself.

And then he found a geomagnetic anomaly.

So with the compass.

So the compass was skewing as we got towards the ground.

So from that point I was like, there's no way I'm going to contract with another company.

Because in my experience.

And half good, half bad, right?

Yeah, the one was great.

Yeah, the one was fantastic.

The one with the gpr.

And you came out for that.

Like we were there like those guys.

Top notch.

Top notch, like credible, reliable.

Yeah.

Opposite the other one.

And that was two days of standing on a hill that's like a 45 degree slope, being out in the sun, like.

And some of the initial data from the first survey just wasn't used.

And so that's really all it came down to.

So I learned my lesson.

And so never again.

John.

Well, you know, I do want to give a shout out to the company that did such a great job with the ground penetration radar.

And.

And if you are in the Cincinnati area, they are known for doing work for the city.

And there's quite a lot of historic gold digs that have gone on here in Cincinnati.

Grandpape is their name.

And they.

They've done a great job.

And one of the archaeologists has agreed she would be on the podcast at some point when she can clear her schedule.

But they are all over the place.

I mean, the guy that drove here for the ground penetrating.

Right.

13 hours or something like that.

Rhode Island.

Yeah, Rhode Island.

Seth.

Yeah.

Super good, dude.

And we talked.

I mean, we talked about a lot of.

This would be new to a lot of people.

But I've been working on this consistently, literally, since.

I mean, I took a little break.

I had a little accident with my thumb.

So I took about three or four months off there just because I couldn't use my thumb.

But beyond that, like, been consistent with everything.

Well, and it's just a learning phase, too.

The thing that people who are listening to this might find interesting is that these projects, it's very rare that they're.

That they happen quickly.

Yes, exactly.

The reason why they might happen quickly is if a major corporation is building a building in, like, a area like Boston where they're gonna find layers of colonial history.

Right.

And there's this whole division of archaeology called historical archaeology, where it's, like, more modern archeology.

So stuff that's happening here in the new world, if it is in, you know, a historically valuable period of time, and there's municipal funds and corporate funds, and it takes a lot of money to make things happen quickly.

Yes.

Right.

So if you're just a small explorer, archaeologist, treasure hunter, like we are, you're doing this on a shoestring.

You're putting things together.

You're climbing the mountain one small step, step at a time.

And you're learning each time you do something.

Yes.

And there's no.

I mean, permits were eight months.

I mean, there's no, like, fast process.

The only thing, like, just comparing to some of these guys we talked about today, the only difference would be if I was out there on my own land, and then it's.

And then it's, you know, in my hands.

Right.

But even if I found something out there, which I did, I still couldn't take it out of the ground.

Yeah.

I still would have to go talk to the fire department.

Right.

And work my way up the change.

So I encourage people.

Like, I'm so glad I have a lawyer.

I'm so glad I learned the laws.

And I did a little bit of that by myself.

But you still have to have these outside sources that help you navigate it.

So John has helped some of my friends in Iowa, Shane Krugler, shout out to him, has helped.

So all these people have been involved in this.

So think you can do it by yourself?

You're super naive.

I did a lot of the endoscope by myself.

I did some of the metal detecting by myself.

I did the GPS work by myself, but I did not do the GPR work.

I did not even have a hand in the excavation.

Right.

So, like, even those pieces I don't have control over.

So you gotta, like, learn to.

Okay, I gotta hire this person for this.

I gotta talk to this person about this.

And as you do that, your path will kind of open up to you, too.

Now, for those amateurs out there who are thinking, gosh, that's a lot of tape.

Red tape, dude.

It's so much red tape.

But.

But here's the thing.

If you do know the length of land and you know the landowner and you have permission, then you can go out and metal detect and you can certainly make this a pastime.

That is fun.

Super fun.

It's good exercise.

Like, you're outside, dude.

Think of all the people on the beach that go out there and metal detect and they find people's wedding rings.

I know.

It's super cool, dude.

Yeah.

Like there.

It doesn't just have to be like you're finding a treasure horde.

Like, people lose stuff literally all the time, right?

Like, go to any watering hole or any place that people swim.

Like, you're gonna find so much.

There's so many video.

Did I mention this?

I think I mentioned this a couple episodes ago, where there's a pair of Ray Bans in a.

In a.

In a lake.

Going back to this glasses.

That was like the first season, John.

I'm still thinking about.

Someday I'm gonna buy you these, like, super nice gold Ray Bans and be like, don't you ever lose these, John?

No.

Here's the thing.

I actually.

This is my third pair of the same.

Same kind.

So awesome.

Yeah, I've got the hookup.

But anyway, ladies and gentlemen, if you are out there doing it, remember to have fun.

Remember, we're bringing magic back to the world.

We're bringing a little bit of enjoyment, a little bit of history, a little bit of knowledge.

We just want to make sure you understand that certain aspects have to be done the right way.

Yeah.

If you don't do it the right way, you're gonna land yourself in trouble.

And we don't want that to happen.

We certainly don't want to be encouraging you to do the wrong.

You don't want us talking about you.

That's what it's.

We're gonna talk about all the bad sides of metal detecting each episode from here on out.

So.

No, it's good, but it's super enjoyable, I think.

Anybody, if you, you know, you want to go out and get some exercise, go buy a hundred dollar metal detector and go look for some stuff.

It's fun.

Do it in your.

Start in your house, start in your backyard.

Don't go to public park number one first.

Let's get your bearings down.

But then, you know, as you graduate to different levels.

Yeah, go try, try to find stuff somewhere else.

Like, why not?

You know.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just follow the laws.

Get a little fresh air while you're at it.

Yeah.

So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much, each and every one of you for tuning in and for communicating with us on any of the social media apps.

We're happy to have you.

We're happy to have you a part of the conversation.

And if you want us to investigate something or if you want to join us on the podcast, just let us know.

It's Lost Treasures.

Amail.com and I'm John Scheel.

I'm Adam Means.

And this has been another episode of the Lost Treasures podcast.