Wednesday 12 July 2023

Aluminium 'Nuggets' Presented as 'Mystery' by Metal Detectorist

Aluminium pieces found by Barrow's coast by metal detectorists. Metal detectorists in Furness want to start an "investigation" into large parts of the fused remains of a crashed alien spaceship that have been washed up on the beaches in Aldingham and areas of the coastal road in Barrow (Filipa Gaspar, 'Aluminium pieces found by Barrow's coast by metal detectorists' The Mail 12.07.2023). These 'large pieces' of aluminium have been washed up around the Furness coast for the past 15 years. Graeme Rushton and Chris Linton, two metal detectorists from Barrow,  now want answers. They say the problem of this mysterious contaminant has 'gradually gotten worst' as more and more of it is washed ashore. Rushton says,

"As detectorists, we searched the beaches for lost keys and jewellery, and then we started discovering large amounts of aluminium [...] This is not just on the wet sand. It is also on the shingles and the stones as well" [...] "Every single time we go we always find washed-up pieces of aluminium. "They are all different sizes. They can be very small to other ones that are the size of your first. Some of them resemble a nugget shape" [...]"I think the majority of aluminium local detectorist find is not from the same source." 

Rushton has raised concerns about the dangers related to aluminium. He said: "I don't think aluminium is a particularly nice metal to have around on the beaches. Indeed, the use of aluminium saucepans has been linked to the development of Alzheimers. Westmorland and Furness Council  really should do something. 

The newspaper reporter responsible for this sensation-seeking report does not mention whether or not the finders have tried talking to the local PAS FLO about their theories. It seems to me that there is a perfectly simple explanation for this, beach parties. This is surely nothing more nor less than ‘campfire aluminium’, produced after the introduction in 1957 of aluminium drink cans by lobbing them into dying fires as people "clean up"... Another source might be household cinders used as a surfacing for a path or hardstanding somewhere on the coast that later got eroded into the sea. Such lumps appeared in the grate full of ash of a coal fire used to burn domestic waste in our childhoods. In that sense these are artefacts like any other. but certainly not related to any mysterious secret processes. 

The aluminium can is directly related to the ringpulls that some artefact hunters (like Lance in the TV comedy series "Detectorists")  can collect. There is also of course a pull-tab archaeology too. 

Hat tip The Vindicator.

2 comments:

De. William Shephard said...

Incidentally, do you ever do any work which could be of archaeological importance? I am a retired Microbiologist and I would, due to other commitments, struggle to find the time to post all the bullshit that you do. I may decide to report you to the CIfa as a blogger posing as a pseudo-Archaologist. Let me think about it...

Paul Barford said...

Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself trying to decide what it is you mean to say, oh and also how to spell your own name... Shepherd or Shephard, or is it Rushton? Pathetic.

[I am not going to post the irrelevant comment on Nazi death camps, you are totally mistaken. What you write is simply offensive and has no place here. I sincerely doubt that you've read nearly as much as you claim, except a few random Holocaust denial websites.]

 
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