Archaeologists catch looter !! haha please

oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/archaeologists_stop_alleged_lo.html

Archaeologists stop alleged looter at Chinatown site

by Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian Thursday October 23, 2008, 8:46 PM

[/align] Something just didn't look right to Meris Mullaley and Stacy Schneyder as they walked Thursday morning by an empty lot at Northwest Fourth Avenue and Burnside Street. The women, archaeologists for environmental consulting firm ICF Jones & Stokes, saw a man with a shovel removing items from a pit in the corner lot just east of the Chinese gate, which had been the site of Cindy's Adult Book Store before it was demolished. Two archaeologists stopped a man they said was looting the site Thursday. [/align]
"I saw the shovel and water bottles and a man removing Chinese ceramics and loading them into his car," Schneyder said. To the veteran archaeologist, the pieces "were clearly important artifacts." Mullaley and Schneyder confronted the man, who told them he also was an archaeologist and that he had permission from the property owners to dig there. But his story unraveled quickly. Not only did the man, who hastily packed up and left after being confronted, not have permission from the owners, but also he lacked a required state permit to excavate or dig for artifacts. By the end of the day, the city had ordered all work to stop at the site and had hired its own contractor to put up a protective fence overnight. Ken Ames, chairman of Portland State University's anthropology department and former president of the Society for American Archaeology, called the apparent looting "a clear violation of the law," and said this is what happens with haphazard regulation of the city's historical sites. "We've been trying to move the city to deal with these resources in a better way," Ames said. "Not to blame anyone, but what we need is a process to manage these kind of historical sites." Contacted late Thursday, one of the property's owners said there's no way he would have granted permission to dig on the lot. "Some guy called me two weeks ago and told me he collected old bottles and wanted to dig in there, but I told him no," said Daniel Cossette. "I told him if he fell and hurt himself I'd have to pay." Cossette and his wife own half the property and another couple owns the other half. The lot is on the market for $3 million. Schneyder said the digger at the lot left behind glass bottles and other items that were from the turn of the century, but left with items she estimated to be of Chinese origin from the 1870s to 1890s, including what Mullaley identified as a brown stoneware soy sauce vessel. Schneyder could tell by the brick lining of the pit that it was probably the remnants of old sewer pit, that was later filled with trash. "That's a chamber pot," she said, pointing at a shard of pottery partially buried near the lip of the pit, "and that's the top of a pot." Schneyder said the deeper you go, the older the items are likely to be. "This is the kind of site that can tell us a lot about the period," she said. "I think there is still a lot of stuff left in there." For more than four hours after confronting the man, the two women stood guard over the open pit -- which is about 3 feet deep and 10 feet across -- to make sure no more artifacts, which were literally spilling out of the ground, were removed. They also called police, Portland city officials and the State Historic Preservation Office in Salem. State officials confirmed no permit had been issued to excavate the site. City Commissioner Randy Leonard's office told the contractor and the owner of the property to stop work at the site immediately, said Aaron Johnson, who's handling the case in Leonard's office. Johnson said his office had issued a demolition permit for the site, not knowing anything about archaeological artifacts there. State archeologist Dennis Griffin said in an e-mail to Johnson that he had told the city's planning commission some time ago that artifacts were at risk at the site. But the planning commission is not in charge of revoking demolition permits. Griffin told Johnson in that same e-mail that he had directed the contractor to stop digging, to no avail. "Most of our history is written by the winners, but sites like this tell a more democratic story," Mullaley said. "It's about saving our communal history."

Here is what I think:

1. Experienced privy diggers will find about %90 of the bottles and artifacts on any given site. An archaeologist will find %20, if that. After the archaeologists are done, the rest is destroyed by the equipment.

2. No experienced privy digger digs for profit. If a digger were to sell all his finds, it would hardly cover the money and time invested.

3. Experienced privy diggers do respect historical properties with potentially anomalous features such privies of: Chinese, Native American, historic political figures, or other unique individuals. We respect these special sites and think they do deserve to be excavated by archaeologists and their reports published. Any digger who does not respect these sensitive sites is out of line, and does not represent privy diggers as whole.

4. The time period of most privies (1850-1900) on the west coast of America is a period which has much written history. Archaeologists are not going to 'discover' much or rewrite history. We already know how they lived, what they ate. With the exception of minority groups (Chinese, slaves, ect.) we know it already. The privies we dig belong to ‘average Joes’ who had average jobs, consumed average products, and lived average lives. Enough ‘average Joe’ privies have been excavated over the years to construct their living histories. Instead of targeting these ‘average Joes’ archaeologists efforts would be far more productive targeting pre-historic features.

5. I find it very suspicious that the bottles archaeologist dig up (at least here in CA) seem to disappear. Occasionally one will see little displays with bottles that were excavated before a building was put in, but the majority of the bottle put in the display are DAMAGED and WORTHLESS. Where do the valuable whiskey and bitters bottles go ????????? It is impossible that the archaeologist do not find these valuable bottles. The fact is that they DO find the incredibly valuable bottles, but instead of showing them off to the public, they disappear into the archaeologists’s private collection or even worse the archaeologists sell them through different distribution channels. I would call this dishonest behavior looting, wouldn’t you ??? Furthermore, what is the point of having these bottles cataloged and put in storage for nobody to enjoy, admire, and learn from. How is that productive ???? IT’S NOT. Archaeologists may not be aware of this, but us privy diggers contribute several of our finds to local historical societies and even occasionally give speeches to various historical alliances. We privy diggers spread the knowledge gleaned from our excavations. Archaeologists do not.

Chinese? LOL Give me a break! I hope the digger got all he could before these uptight stiffs showed up. Sounds like had he not been there, the whole lot would have been destroyed. They can have the chamber pot shards for their collection. Jerks, go hug a tree.



PD

Those kind of stories make my blood run cold, because it's just a hint of typical beauracratic thinking and reaction,...also the continuation of govt. interference of a constructive hobby. I fear it's the shape of things to come. Joe

yes andrew, well put in your second post, i couldnt agree more with ya

Isn't is funny how the Gubment wants to control everything they can? Even a 120 year old SH#THOLE! You own the land unless some "historic" piece of trash is discovered and then they have a right to it.
Complete BS.

He shoulda dug a deeper Hole.........Someplace Else....HAhaha[]

The reason "archaeologists" are even "interested" in relatively new historical sites & materials on the West Coast is because there are too many "trained" archaeologists working for private companies, and not enough pre-historic Native American sites for them to dig.

The state lawmakers craft these ridiculous laws because they're pushed to do so by private archaeological firms who need something to do to get paid.

Imagine the line otherwise out-of-work archaeologists push on your state representatives:
"We need to protect the history of California which belongs to all of us, not just destructive relic hunters." "We cannot allow these people to destroy entire archaeological sites for their own greed!"

Can you imagine having your own law on the books that guarantees regular public-funded projects for your own company and others like it?

The state government works for private interests rather than the public they are supposed to represent.

Sounds like a stupid digger to me.
Didnt have permission and digging in an obviously sensitive place.
Are the few $100s to $1000s of bottles you MIGHT find worth the fine you are going to have to pay when you get arrested. Got to use common sense at some point.

If you visit a "Historic Archaeologist's" offices you will see many books written by, and for, bottle collectors. These collector books are their primary source for information concerning these "rare and important pieces of American history". I have walked the storage facility near Sacramento and observed row after row of drawers filled with bottles, and other artifacts, excavated from City and State owned properties. While there are a few exciting pieces, most are mundane objects that I would toss back in the pit. There are numbered and catalogued bags of shards and other junk that, to them, are every bit as valuable as are mint examples of bitters or soda bottles.

No archaeologist will dig on his, or her, own. They must be funded before any work is performed. California trained archys are a particularly nasty lot, and consider us collectors as little better than common theives. UC Berkeley produces aparticularly virulent form of this ilk. They have a narrow field of vision and see things in a perspective that their education and training dictates. In other words, they are blind to anything but what their little heads have been doctrinated with. The "full picture" is unavailable to them, so there is no comprehension of why we do what we do. That is exactly why the Portland archys were so irate. They were only capable of seeing a "burglar" in action, not a bottle collector doing what we do.

Oregon's new protectionist laws will set a precedent that I predict will soon be followed by other states, especially CA. Archaeologist's selfish interests have already begun this process, so it is just a matter of time. Dig while you are able, but only do so with the permission of the property owners. A verbal "OK" is good, but written is preferred. Stay completely clear of anything even closely related to Native American sites. This kind of digging is against current laws and will net you a nice residency in the "Iron Bar Hotel".

I, and a few friends, have written permission to dig privies on properties in a certain central Oregon city and we have every intention of doing so. I spoke to the COP last week and he has "No problem" with this endeavor. Soon, we will see how the situation pans out. Hopefully, we will not be challenged by some "foamer", but if the situation arises, it will be dealt with appropriately.