Artifact Poachers make all THers look bad.

[FLauthor]

Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

Found this in the St. Petersburg Times today online. Officers will probably confiscate their collections and have the book thrown at them which they deserve for making legitimate TH'ers look bad.

Ancient Tools, Modern Crime
Five men charged with trespassing on a site near Thonotosassa, Florida are suspected of "poaching."

By S.I. Rosenbaum, AP reporter
Published January 5, 2007
Source: St. Petersburg Times, Florida

Someone stood here, long ago, chipping slivers from a piece of flint to make a knife, a drill or an arrowhead.
Thousands of years later, the ground is pocked and scarred from looters illegally digging and sifting, hoping to unearth those ancient tools.
On Thursday, law enforcement officers arrested five men suspected of "poaching" prehistoric artifacts from this federally protected site just north of Interstate 75 in Thonotosassa, a rural community east of Tampa.
Hillsborough County sheriff's Cpl. Don Balaban was the first to notice something wrong.
Balaban had been driving by a piece of land at the site that he used to own.
He said he looked over and saw three heads pop up from behind the hill.
Instantly, he was suspicious.
When he owned the property years ago, he said, he had to constantly chase away artifact poachers.
"It was the biggest nightmare of my life," he said. "Every poacher, even from other countries, was coming out here. ... I knew they were destroying this place."
Balaban pulled over and called for backup from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which handles artifact poaching.
By the time officers Steve Delacure and Alton Still arrived, Balaban had detained Joe Clifton, 54, Ellis Wayne Jenkins, 42, and Mark Andrew Rose, 51, all of Lakeland.
Delacure and Still searched the area and found two more men digging in the ground, Phillip Swain, 19, and Randall Betts, 49, both of Thonotosassa. The men from the two groups said they did not know each other.
All five were charged with trespassing, and Swain was arrested on outstanding warrants. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said the warrants involved two driving offenses, a domestic battery charge and check fraud.
Still said he expects state and federal poaching charges against the five to follow.
Betts, sitting on the ground in handcuffs, said he had heard about the site from residents of the nearby Wigwam RV Park.
Betts said he wasn't selling the arrowheads and flint flakes.
"I just collect," he said. "I like 'em. They're pretty. They're something from ancient times, kind of thing. They got a little aura about them ... All I do is sit around and look at 'em in the evening."
His friend, Swain, laughed. "Some of them are worth thousands of dollars," he said.
For some poachers, Balaban said, finding artifacts has an irresistible allure.
"Once you get into artifacts, it becomes an addiction," he said. "They stay with it their whole lives. I don't know of any of them who quit doing it - even after they get arrested."
The Thonotosassa artifacts predate the Seminoles, he said, going back to prehistoric times. As such, they're highly sought after by collectors. Still said the arrowheads and tools found at sites like this turn up at flea markets, on eBay, and at tourist gift shops. Some people will work on unfinished tools they find to turn them into half-faked arrowheads, he said.
"It's big business," Still said.
As night fell, Delacure shook his head as he looked over the moonscape of sandy pits and mounds - like giant anthills - left from years of poaching.
"It's a rape of the land," he said.

 

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[ThTx]

Re: Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

I definitely agree. They should spend many years in prison just for giving legitimate hunters a bad name. Then spend several more for defacing the land (always fill your holes). And then serve their time for the crimes they're actually charged with!

 

[pickaway]

Re: Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

I would make them go back and fill in every hole!Ive heard of illegal diggings but around here they like to dig up mounds & burials.I know where 3 conical shaped mounds are located withn walking distance of my pad, the thought has crossed my mind about walking over there and looking but not digging.

 

[FLauthor]

Re: Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

I belong to a Amateur Archaeology Club that digs for Indian Artifacts in central Florida. Its on private property and we've been doing it for over 10 years. The thing is, WE GOTTEN WRITTEN PERMISSION. I researched an old Fort site at
Bayport, Florida. Spent a day in the Hernando county courthouse tracking down the owner. He happened to a lawyer in Inverness and I went in for permission. I was cursed at, read the riot act and permission denied. Of the hundred of trespassers who turned his property into a war zone, I was the only one to track him down for permission. I caught all the Hell and Fury from all the dirty SOB Relic poachers who trespassed on this man's land. You get caught trespassing on private property then you are going to pay the penalty.
I believe all artifacts and relics should be recovered for display in museums too and I have displayed many of my finds in Historical Society Museums. I'd like to be able to use a suction dredge in our freshwater lakes but there is too much Red Tape to attempt it. These men got off lucky. If they were caught poaching RedFish in the Gulf, they'd be arrested, fined and their car or truck confiscated and impounded.
I know a site in Lake County loaded with points, scrappers and flint knives. Workers clearing the site for a Treated Water Spray Field were picking up bucket full right off the ground during their lunch hour. I have approached the city and permission is always denied. Someday someone will get in. But unless I have permission then it remains in its natural state. Good Luck in your search.

 

[deepsix47]

Re: Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

How about that, a new term is coined ....artifact poacher.... It rates right up there with trafficker in artifacts or pot hunter. I really have to bite my tongue on this article but that's OK too as I really don't want my post deleted and everyone does have a right to their own opinion.

I also suppose it's a lot safer for the minions of law enforcement to go after diggers then it is to go after wildlife poachers, pot growers, smugglers and the thousands of others categories of bad guys that are armed out there and preying on society.

Before I get myself hammered to badly here please allow me to say this. If you are going to dig on someone else's property I do believe you should ALWAYS get written permission. If it is denied just move on to the next property owner. Eventually you will receive permission because you had the courtesy to ask.

I do however take issue with many of the comments made in this article by the law enforcement types as well as by the person who started this thread. We all have the right to our opinions so you keep right on thinking that digging is an addiction that is never cured....lol (hmmmmmmmm, maybe it should have a medical term, like ....Delayed Stress Digging Disorder.... public funds, our tax dollars, could be used to study it and we could cure it, thereby getting those ....dirty SOB relic poachers.... straightened out and onto the right path in life. Give me a break....lol). Keep right on thinking that museums display all of their finds to the public and don't have storage areas full of finds that have long been forgotten. Keep right on thinking that your amateur archaeological society has any more right to dig than anyone else (how many of these types also have a nice little personal collection). Keep right on thinking that your grant sponsored archaeologist is doing a public service and does not have a private collection of goodies stashed away somewhere. Oh yes, and lest we forget. Keep right on thinking that those upstanding archaeologists that work for major corporations always do an honest assessment/survey of an area before the condos are built or the oil exploration takes place. Above all, with all of the really serious problems facing us, keep right on thinking that the relic digger is a threat to society.

Anyway, have a great day!!!!
Deepsix

 

[TreasureTales]

Re: Artifact Poachers make all TH'ers look bad.

The biggest part of this that was illegal, IMHO, is the trespassing part. I support private property rights. The relics will eventually get broken or washed out to sea or wind up as road pavement if they don't get dug by somebody. Sure, these stories make the newspapers, but not the stories about the professional archaeologists or law enforcement people who have private collections of their own. Let's not forget the people who become archaeologists were first and foremost interested in the artifacts themselves, and then got the education to further their interests. HYPOCRITES, is what they are.

I learned long ago that digging on public or private property without the "proper credentials" will get the average guy in a lot of trouble. Not from personal experience mind you, but from seeing too many other people get written up for "poaching" aritifacts. This is not like poaching wild game, where there is an opportunity for the average person to get some of his own, through proper channels, and therefore no legitimate reason to poach game. Nope, this "poaching" results when the citizens are denied access to areas that are on public lands because the "authorities" want to maintain their own little elitist hideaways. I've taken enough archaeology classes and known enough professional archaeologists to know that many of them (certainly not all) have had or continue to have their own stashes of artifacts. Sometimes they ultimately donate them to a university or a museum, but many times they don't.

If this area was so pristine and significant, why wasn't the owner bought out by some organization that would eventually do a scientific recovery of the artifacts? I think a lot of this stuff is hyped up to be more significant than it really is. Another way for the "officials" to get money out of people without risking encounters with truly dangerous people. I respect law enforcement, generally, but I think this kind of effort [read article in first post] is a waste of taxpayer money and law enforcement resources.

We can't have people digging in parks nor digging on private property without permission. But we have parks for all kinds of other activities, why can't we have parks where the average guy can go dig for artifacts and keep whatever he finds? It could be photographed if something truly unique is found, but it would then be immediately returned to the finder. That way the other sites would be left alone, for the most part, and we wouldn't have these "problems." We have public fishing piers, public hunting grounds, public gemstone sites, etc. And we need some public artifact sites as well.

 

[Neanderthal]

Here's a followup on the story:

Artifact Looters Have Legal Loophole
No federal or state law protects an archaeological site on private property.
----------------------------------------------------------------

The men caught digging for ancient stone tools Thursday will face charges of trespassing and damaging private property.

But they weren't breaking any law simply by digging up antiquities.

Contrary to what law enforcement officials said initially, no federal or state law protects an archaeological site on private property unless it contains human remains, state Fish and Wildlife Officer Alton Still said Friday.

Archaeologist Robert Austin, who first excavated the eastern Hillsborough County site in 2000, said that legal gap allows looters to plunder Florida's rich archaeological heritage.

"I don't think there's a major site in Florida that doesn't have some evidence of looting," he said.

A spokeswoman for the landowner, KB Home, said the company would press charges against the five men: Joe Clifton, 54, Ellis Wayne Jenkins, 42, and Mark Andrew Rose, 51, all of Lakeland, and Randall Betts, 49, and Phillip Swain, 19, both of Thonotosassa.

The Thonotosassa group and the Lakeland men told officers they didn't know each other.

"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Rose said Friday. "We got caught in this whirlwind."

The site of the arrests is one of the most scientifically significant in the county, Austin said.

That's saying a lot: The region is dotted with the archaeological remains of human habitation - some as much as 12,000 years old.

Back then, Austin said, people were drawn to Tampa Bay for the same reason they are now: waterfront property and good job opportunities.

Thonotosassa in particular once stood at the edge of marshland rich with game.

Flint deposits drew toolmakers, who chipped the stones into exquisitely shaped knives and arrowheads.

Austin and his group, Southeastern Archaeological Research, first excavated part of the site just north of Interstate 4 at the request of a firm seeking to lay a gas pipe.

The law requires an archaeological survey whenever a company seeks a federal or state development permit, Austin explained.

As he dug, he got excited: A geological quirk of the site had preserved animal bones, charcoal and the traces of 4,000-year-old wooden structures.

In most parts of Hillsborough County, the acidic soil long ago dissolved artifacts, Austin said. But the Thonotosassa site is sloped and rich with iron, allowing bones to fossilize over the millenia.

"The exciting thing was seeing that we had so much potential to really reconstruct the past," he said.

Even in 2000, there were signs of looters.

But it was worse when Austin returned to the 56-acre tract in 2004 to excavate another 15 acres at KB Home's request.

This time, Austin said, looters were so brazen that they were sometimes digging alongside his scientists.

"The first week or so we just left them alone," he said. "I'm not going to get into being a policeman."

But more damage came after the second week, he said.

"We'd dug nice, square excavation units. We'd leave at 5 o'clock and come back the next day and all our units had been dug into, the walls gouged out, the floors gouged out, I mean totally destroyed. … That pretty much infuriated me."

Security at the site will be stepped up, KB Home spokeswoman Cara Kane said.

So-called "pot hunters" or "artifact poachers" are common throughout the state, Austin said. Some keep their trophies but others sell them to collectors, flea markets and antiquities dealers.

Not everyone who deals in artifacts is a looter, Austin stressed.

"I know a lot of good collectors, (and) I don't have a problem with people walking along the beach and picking up an artifact," he said.

On Friday, Rose said that was what he and his friends were after.

They're in the building business, had found arrowheads at construction sites and were interested in finding more, he noted.

To him, he said, artifact hunting seemed like just another outdoor hobby. And after seeing the prior damage done by others, it's a former hobby.

"As far as what I saw over there, I don't want any part of that. That place was a mess," Rose said.