Downright Archiness

[surfaceone]

She said all the stuff is in storage and no one can have access to it... This really puzzeld me then she went on to tell me that they threw out over 500,000 artifacts because they didn't have the space to keep them. So then I asked why didn't they donate the artifacts to another museum or educational institution or auction them off to fund more archaeology.... Her answer was that the way the laws work the artifacts are public property and belong to no one and that no one can own them so redundant artifacts have to be destroyed....

Hey Chris,

This She Said, She Said Tale ending is really distressing. I was sadly aware of the millions of artifacts in storage across the fruited plain that will never again see the light of day. This destruction of redundancies is an alarming, I trust new development. I wonder if they recycled...[8D]

I've heard that some long term storage facilities were full. What job description would a Federal redundancy eliminator have? I think I would really like to learn more about such a job.

From.

 

[rockbot]

ORIGINAL: baltbottles

she went on to tell me that they threw out over 500,000 artifacts because they didn't have the space to keep them. . Her answer was that the way the laws work the artifacts are public property and belong to no one and that no one can own them so redundant artifacts have to be destroyed....

And they call us pot hunters.....

At least we are not out destroying artifacts because of a poorly written archeology law.

Chris

Sounds typical of such bureau. What a waste!

A few years ago someone found glass photographic plates in a dumpster. It was later revealed that they contained many photographs of early Hawaii. Someone was "cleaning out" items they could no longer identify and decided to through it out.
Makes we wonder how much of our history ends up this way.[]

 

[sem_yeto]

If you want to keep digging, make sure you vote Republican. The liberals (Democrats) will eventually take away all of our rights ! Permit for this, permit for that, cant take a crap without a permit. Get it?? Only archs digging... even on private property. Socialist liberal Democrat party agenda will destroy bottle digging and America !!

 

[glass man]

When I saw this topic I thought it was gonna be about two gay guys getting married in the new ARCHIE comic book...now I understand why JUG HEAD never had a girl friend![]JAMIE

 

[surfaceone]

The latest on St Augustine:

Anti - Digging Resolution...

 

[Wheelah23]

Ugh, those people... Once again, glad I don't deal with archaeologists... The elitism is horrible! This has been an interesting saga, for sure.

 

[surfaceone]

Once again, glad I don't deal with archaeologists...

Hey Connor,

While digging my very first site, one of the local archeologists stopped by to find out what I was doing. It was a very cordial meeting, He is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable guys one could hope to meet. He was curious about me because he had done a prolonged dig in the immediate area a couple years before.

We made a date for the following day at the saloon that was just across the street from the site. They serve a world class Patty Melt. He brought one of his assitants and some previous area finds. I brought some shardage and assorted goodies I had dug up. We had some adult beverages and talked it all over for the better part of 2 hours. It was a great learning experience for me

His graduate assistant was a oh-so-very cute young lady who harbored a certain bottle lust herself, that was an appreciation of and, desire to have more of these old vessels we're so fond of. She told me of a drive-by raid she did on a construction site, upon which she spied a bisected cistern. She said she just pulled over, dashed across the street and grabbed an armful of bottles. She told me this while her boss was in the loo.

I've got very mixed feelings about the archies. I haven't the patience for the painstakingly slow methods they employ. I've got little tolerance for their position that all old stuff buried in the ground should be the exclusive domain of Archidom. But, I do love a good dig story, and the history that comes outta the ground. I thank them for what they have taught me. Especially this one guy.

 

[luckiest]

I wish there was some sort of communication, they don't have the time/space to dig up all the bottles, I respect their respect for history and they should respect mine.

 

[Wheelah23]

There is a certain merit to their work. I think diggers and archies have opposite aims, however. We are interested in finding the objects of history, while they are interested in using the objects to find the history of whatever they're excavating. Archies don't really emphasize the objects themselves, at least from what I've seen. They are more concerned about us diggers disrupting the context of the objects we're after. We both agree, however, that the disruption and destruction of potential dig sites by industrial buildup is wrong.

I've never been on an archaeological dig; I don't know if I could deal with the slowness, either. But Tom told me a funny story about an archaeological dig. He was driving around an old area in Paterson, which was being leveled for construction. The archies had the place roped off, and were allowed to conduct "archaeological investigations" of the privies for a certain amount of time. The ground was all cleared, and they were trying to find the privies. They did this by using trowels to go down, inch by inch, across the whole place, until they found the privy. This would've obviously taken months. At that rate, they'd have been lucky to fully dig one or two of the privies. So Tom walks over, and tells them, "You're looking for privies? Here, let me find 'em." So he goes into his car, gets his probe, and proceeds to find five privies in a few minutes. "There, go ahead and dig," says Tom. Right afterwards, the archies ask to buy the probe. So Tom sells them one for $50. He saved them months of work by giving them a simple tool which we diggers have used forever. The archies were grateful, and got Tom's contact info down. Fast forward ten years, and Tom gets a phone call out of the blue. The head archie from that dig had remembered Tom, and called him up to let him know they didn't finish digging all the privies. He told him to go ahead and dig the place out, as the place would've been inaccessible otherwise. Tom dug a couple privies there, and ended up getting some nice pontils. Just goes to show, not all archies are bad, and when us diggers help 'em out, good things can happen.

 

[cyberdigger]

I wonder if the difference between diggers and archaeologists lies in the difference in the ways they become what they are.. in other words, they went to school for it, we learned in the field.. I bet there's tons that could be learned on both ends if Dig'rs-n-Archies could cooperate on bottle-era digs.. I could grill hot dogs & burgers for everyone..