Historic artifacts at St. Augustine's new pirate museum

By Dan Scanlan - Jacksonville


Ahoy mates, there's some buried booty outside St. Augustine's new Pirate and Treasure Museum.

But no one needed a map to find the hidden treasure, and it isn't gold doubloons.

Workers digging Monday to install a handicapped-accessible ramp found historic artifacts from the nation's oldest city. Once it's cataloged and researched, museum spokeswoman Kari Cobham said a new exhibit will be added, aptly called "Buried Beneath Your Feet" for the new discovery.

"We couldn't have planned it better ourselves," Cobham admitted. "I am looking at a box of them and it is stunning. I see a bottle, a rusty compass, a tooth - it's a pretty big tooth - and some glassware as well."

St. Augustine city archaeologist Carl Halbirt said the artifacts range from commonplace to unusual. That includes the hilt and guard of a British soldier's dress uniform sword dating back to the 1750s, with hanger intact, as well as a 1780s-1820s button and a man's knee buckle used to close the seams of his breeches.

It may have come from a British garrison camp site that once occupied the greens between the walls of the Castillo and the British-occupied city.


 

 

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