Metal Detecting and Archaeologists...Can we work together?

[P.ALLEN]

It's a comparison that I liken to a Ivy League prep school's attitude toward a community college. They feel superior for having a more expensive institution, as opposed to folks who can't afford/qualified to go there. Scientific law/theory is desired more than practical experience. I hiked a lot when my knees were good, long distance stuff, and I would report everything. Leave it alone is the mantra. I dunno if any of you saw the Aquachigger video set where he was out west on BLM land. Even tin cans were "Do not touch", with some federal entities the Archaeology positions are at very low #'s, and some of the folks are doing solo work for huge tracts of land. The "leave it alone" statements are usually because they have other pressing historic/pre-historic sights to focus on. NHPA or national historic preservation act sounds good, and to some degree it is, but all it means is if construction takes place on that land a survey has to be done, or if federal funds are used they have to do it. Recently in the last 8 years they were doing interstate improvement in East St. Louis/St Louis and found a "suburb" of Cahokia Mounds, they spent a LOT of time there and it helped increase our pre-historic knowledge of the Cahokia people. I did work on Fort Pickett in Virginia, a Stryker Brigade was coming in and they needed a huge amount of land surveyed. It had Civil War hospitals, German POW camps, native American sites to include Clovis sites. Everything was archived and sent to Fort Lee in Petersburg (Jefferson Davis's Funeral Wagon is there), it sits in boxes. And that's it for those sites. The POW camp is still there as are remnants of the hospitals, they left those alone (that's good). It's funny as in my Geology work we utilized Micro Gravity (a quick comparison is like a deep deep seeking metal detector) to locate voids in the rock for potential sinkhole collapse. If they are using that, why are Archaeologists not using Detectors regularly? Ivy League/Royal Academy type thought, or just ignorance to the importance of having it in your tool belt? This discussion is good dialogue. If we have an actual Fed/State/Academic Archaeologist on TN, your opinion/weight on this matter is encouraged.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

..... If they are using that, why are Archaeologists not using Detectors regularly?....

That's not their normal method. Have you been to an archaeological site lately ? Here's their method: They take a squared off pit (say .... 6' x 6' x 4') and dig out various squares. And then tediously dig it out with tweezers and brushes. Studying and sifting the entire mass of earth. So .... what's there to need a detector for ? You would simply see any metal items in your sifter screen !

About the only time they might used something like a detector, is to tell them where to sink the pit IN THE FIRST PLACE (the "predominance of iron presence" or whatever).

There are exceptions, of course. But even in cases where, like md'rs, they go individual target to target, it's STILL tedious process of flagging the beep, digging with brushes, blah blah . Nor would they pass iron beeps (nails tell you stuff about the past after all).

 

[FreeBirdTim]

At least 95% of my colonial finds have been on public land. Some of it has been deep in the woods, but most of my finds have been on old baseball fields and in schoolyards. All the archies had to do was get off their butts and check out these spots, but they ignored them.

The archies have had 200 years to find these relics, but they didn't bother to look. Sorry, boys, but your time is up. I'm going to "pillage" as many of these colonial sites as possible before I die. I could provide them with a wealth of information, but they're too arrogant to ask me where I found all my shoe buckles, flat buttons and coins from the 1700's. What a waste...

 

[Eu_citzen]

you must not ever travel to USA. Over here they try to make laws to ban us from detecting and try to claim all our finds for their own. Then they publicly talk down about us and would rather see the stuff rot in the ground then let anyone else dig it up.

Heh, I think our archies are on the same page. Heck, even the media here has been talking down on MD'ers several years ago.
Back in about 2015 they even made a law requiring you to have written permission from a landowner, besides the regular permits.

Trying to scare us off our hobby - actually I think Sweden might have worse laws.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... All the archies had to do was get off their butts and check out these spots, but they ignored them.

The archies have had 200 years to find these relics, but they didn't bother to look. Sorry, boys, but your time is up. ....

You must not be aware of the come-back lines they would quickly offer you. So I will save them the trouble:

"How do you know that some archie, 200 or 2000 yrs. from now , might not dig an archie pit RIGHT WHERE YOU DUG THAT barber dime (or LC, or buffalo nickel, etc..) ? Maybe they'll sink a pit right in that baseball field or schoolyard 200 or 2000 yrs. from now. And you will have robbed future generations from learning about their past ! (How could you be so thoughtless and evil ?).

Let me give you an example: Take, for example the Pyramids of Egypt. Society as a whole gain GREAT INFORMATION by the work that archaeologists have done their right ? Entire museums there show-case all the cool finds, etc... And downstream or upstream from those pyramids, several miles away from that "ground zero" of the pyramids, they have discovered worker villages, where the common-man blue collar workers who CONSTRUCTED the pyramids apparently lived at. Archies dug at these seemingly innocuous sites, and discovered ALL SORTS of cool information about the day-to-day lives of the worker-bee people of that era.

So if people had thought "gee, I'm not at ground zero sensitive monument, so what am I harming?" (akin to your "gee, I'm only at a schoolyard, so who cares?"), then you are robbing archies and society, 2000 yrs. from now, from learning about the past. YOU CAN NOT PREDICT where archies will dig and study in the future . Just like the example in Egypt of something seemingly innocuous .

I know you are writhing in guilt right now. Alligator tears are hitting your 'puter keyboard no doubt. But all is not lost: Simply box up all your stuff and send it to me. I will get it to the right authorities. And will absolve your conscience of all guilt. It's the least I can do for a fine friend like you