Word: brooker
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Steve Brooker, 6 ft. 5 in. former professional skateboarder, sub-3-hr.-marathon runner, survivor of multiple strokes and the self-appointed tutelary spirit of the Thames, thinks he has found something. To me it looks like mud, but I'm not in a position to argue. Brooker, 48, is a member of the Mudlarks, a society of amateur archaeologists who are licensed by the Port of London Authority to scavenge the banks of the Thames for historical artifacts. Because of Brooker's oversize frame, his talent for major discoveries and his overall awesomeness, he is known by admirers...
...Brooker rubs a big blackened thumb over the clod of dirt in his hand, and a coin appears - minted, it turns out, sometime from 1625 to 1649. "That's a Charles I rose farthing," he explains, pointing to the vague outline of a royal crest. On the open market, it's not worth much - maybe $60 - but "to a mudlark, your first Charles I should be priceless." He tosses it into the bucket with the rest of our haul for the morning, which includes several Tudor hairpins, Victorian clay pipes and a 17th century ferry token...
...16th century oil pots, pewter badges worn by pilgrims returning from Canterbury Cathedral, decorative mounts from Viking chests and Hindu lamps from circa 1895 - the year the Thames was sanctified as a substitute for the Ganges as a place for the devout to leave offerings during Diwali. In August, Brooker made global headlines by unearthing a 17th century ball and chain - minus the leg it had once encased - belonging to an escaped or drowned prisoner. (See pictures of a treasure hunt in Afghanistan...
...before 1709 and containing more than 10% gold or silver belongs to the Queen, although the finder and the landowner must be compensated. (The Staffordshire gold has been tentatively valued at more than $1.6 million.) But mudlarks are more interested in connections to history than they are in bounty, Brooker emphasizes. Objects with emblems, seals and signatures are the most prized because they identify their former owner. "Everybody should have someone to remember them," he says...
Memories are especially important to Brooker. Three years ago, while buying a history book at a shop in Kent, he looked down and found that he was unable to count the money in his hand. Tests revealed that a congenital heart defect had caused a series of ministrokes. Talking to his wife, he realized that large portions of his memory were gone forever. He has had surgery and feels better about things now. And on the days when the tide is out, you can find him on the foreshore of the Thames, down on his knees, his large hands digging...