An archaeological truth

[itmaiden]

Read this excerpt:

"The problem is that the head of the archaeological project is trying to keep the discovery under wraps, Rose said. "It ties into a funding organization that is well aware of the marketing value of this kind of thing, as well as the entertainment value," he said. (For what it's worth, the team is funded by National Geographic and the French Foreign Ministry.)"

Anyway, if you go to the link , there is a link within of a Portuguese shipwreck that had been in the news previously.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/12/1713325.aspx

itmaiden

 

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[jasonbo]

Archeologists are well funded treausre hunters

 

[pcolaboy]

Archeologists are well funded treausre hunters

And well protected by the federal, state, and local governments that have had the wool pulled over their eyes.

 

[Bobadilla]

Hi there,

Not always it is like you said, Pcola Boy, though I have got great respect for what you have written in this Forum..... I consider myself both treasure hunter, marine archaeologist and historian an I am absolutely sure that all three professions can be held and provided by the same person IF HE DOES HIS WORK CORRECTLY. I have had some argumentations and verbal disputes with, for excample, Charles Beeker, director of Indiana University about this topic. They have done lot of excellent work here in the country and I highly respect their work but they think that ALL treasure hunters are just artifact looters and destroyers of the history evidence in their search for gold (noy only them, lot of people think like that) but I am sorry, I do not think so. One year experience in field with NCR team on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic convinced me about my theory. Each artifact, even small piece of broken pottery was carefully measured, tagged, put immediately under the initial conservation process and sent to the laboratory of Underwater Patrimony Office in Santo Domingo. Twelve thousand artifacts found by NCR in the past years in the stock of this State Agency talk by itself.... Unfortunately "pure marine archaeologists" are sometimes blind and they do not want to see the reality. Not all treasure hunters act like that, of course, but I know at least one more, my friend Bobby, professional diver and treasure hunter, doing his business in the southern coast of the island. Her is so strict in this matter that it could be an example for any other treasure hunter.
Well, just my humble opinion......

Have a nice Eastern guys and do not drink too much!
Lobo (Bobadilla)

 

[DanBama]

Archeologists are well funded treausre hunters

And well protected by the federal, state, and local governments that have had the wool pulled over their eyes.

DITTO ! PERIOD !

 

[signumops]

Here's the quote which, through its pointed summary, says it all...

"Pristine Portuguese shipwreck: Geologists working on an underwater diamond-mining project off the coast of Namibia turned up something more scientifically valuable: a 16th-century cargo ship that was buried on the seafloor, safe from underwater treasure hunters. The find netted almost 50 pounds of gold coins, plus navigational instruments, elephant tusks and other treasures."

So, "scientists" looking for treasure find a shipwreck which is described as "something more scientifically valuable" (whereas, diamonds, per se, are merely treasure and of no scientific value).
Now, recast that to say: "treasure hunters, pretending to be something they are not, find 50 pounds of gold coins, navigational instruments, elephant tusks and other treasures which they claim have scientific value." While archaeology may use scientific methods to acquire information, archaeology itself is NOT a science: its an art form. NOTHING of value to the survival of mankind is derived through archaeology. NOTHING. Therefore, claiming to have discovered something of "scientific" value in an old shipwreck is simply a sham. While it may amuse historians to discover that ships of olde sank because of certain design flaws, or peculiarities of human behavior, those discoveries will not feed the hungry masses, nor prevent the next great pandemic. On the other hand, even Archaeology Magazine knows what "treasure" is. There is a difference between a "shipwreck" and "treasure". Failure to keep the two separated has caused the debacle we now find ourselves in where archaeologists and treasure hunters are at one another's throats.