appliedlips
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2005
- Messages
- 3,534
- Reaction score
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I agree that the landowner is getting screwed because it is his site getting shut down. However, I believe the digger is not the one responsible for all the bad press from this story. If the landowner had caught him, he would have been told to leave or the police would have showed up and said fill the hole and leave.. It was the jealous, nosey ladies who blew the situation out of proportion. It was a torn up construction site for crying out loud! Any artifacts would have been lost if not for him.
I know, I know all diggers should always have permission even on construction sites. However, on these sites it is normally a waste of time, asking. I think it is fair to say a majority of dug bottles circulating on eBay ,bottle shows, auction sites were dug without permission from construction sites and wooded dumps. I know diggers that have dug more bottles than alot of the regular posters on this site that gave it up because of the “uptight†attitudes on construction sites. A lot of old time collectors got their start on these digs and no one thought nothing of it back then. This world needs more trial attorney’s I tell ya!
I dig most of my bottles in backyards with owner’s permission but if I pass a jobsite in my travels and the ground is torn up and time is of the essence, I will dig it. The history in some well groomed backyard of a nice house in a small town will be preserved indefinitely. The front end loaders will haul the “historical artifacts†to the dump in minutes, from the jobsite. This said I still respect the property and fill my holes and stay out of footers, clean gravel, etc..
Jim, you are right, most of us care more about the history of these artifacts than most of those bureaucrats. We also are more willing to publicly share our finds
Two locals sites to me have had their privies “carefully excavated†with backhoes by privately contracted archeologists. Of course they were paid with public monies to conduct these surveys. One site contained some of the oldest privies to be found in the city. They dug to 5 ft. with the backhoe and quit and wrote a little bit about how nothing was to be found. The privies bottomed out at around 20 ft. and had a lot of cool stuff including some unique local items. I would have done it for the tens of thousands they were paid but being the philanthropist I am I did it for free. On yet another site they hassled me and other diggers before work began for digging with owner’s permission. The landowners were loosing their homes to imminent domain so they were some of the easiest permissions ever. Of course many of these homes were the earliest homes left in the city. I even had some fool hassling me through eBay. After we were done digging almost every last one of these privies and the land was bought up. The city (which is one of the poorest in the state†paid $40,000 for archeologists to come in and dig a few of the 6 ft. deep privies with backhoes. I am hoping to see my Diet coke bottles in some museum somewhere. You see, A LOT of these types could give a damn about the artifacts of the common man but are just protecting their “government cheeseâ€. There are good ones out there and I truly respect what they do but have no patience for the overeducated morons.
] I will try to read this and post a comment tomorrow. Can't deal with this kind of stress before bed, so I closed the page. 
