I have posted images of three objects at

http://www.box.net/shared/static/e5atptk24m.jpg

There is a pot, a dirk and a bronze head.

All pictures are scanned from a book by Greg Jefferys "The Stradbroke Island Galleon", JAG Publications; Cleveland (2007). In this book Jefferys tries to persuade us that there is the wreck of a galleon, that pre-dates Captain Cook,  in a swamp on Stradbrooke Island. Stradbrooke is off the east coast of Australia, alongside Brisbane.

Some of his supporting arguments are based on isolated finds of three artefacts.

No scale is given for the illustrations of these finds.

My opinion has been asked on the finds, and their likely age and origin. These objects are right out of my archaeological field, which is why I am posting the images to HISTARCH.

The three artefacts are:

1. A POT. Said by Jefferys to have been identified by "several international experts as European red-ware which was produced between the 16th and 18th centuries inclusive."

2. A DIRK. Said by Jefferys to have "a deer antler handle and the tang of the blade is bound at its connection to the handle by wire." Jefferys adds that Spanish maritime experts have confirmed "that it is of the type used by Spanish sailors up until the 19th century" and that a Spanish marine archaeologist in Seville has confirmed "that it was typical of the knives used by Spanish sailors during the 'Age of Exploration'."

3. A BRONZE HEAD. Jeffery's informant (on the informant's own admittance "a doctor not a bloody archaeologist") said that "an expert on Spanish art or something" had told his mother that it was a "16th or 17th century Spanish or Portuguese walking stick handle."

I would welcome any identifications or (polite) suggestions.

Richard