Archaeologist and Detectorist

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This was on tonight's American Digger's Relic Roundup radio show ... http://www.spreaker.com/user/admrr/archaeologist-and-metal-detectorist-work?tab=messages

An interview with Dr. Kevin McBride senior archaeologist at the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Museum and UCONN professor about working with metal detectorists , also is Butch Holcombe from American digger magazine and there are a few more gentlemen on there that I don't know :embarrassed: sorry .

 

[calabash digger]

a group of students came to dig at brunswick town a histori site and my buddy and his father were there to mark targets for them . So my buddys dad pulled out some of his relics (buttons) to show them and a student freaked out on him and starting calling him a thief and made a real scene about it ,I hope that mentality changes in the future.

 

[del]

a group of students came to dig at brunswick town a histori site and my buddy and his father were there to mark targets for them . So my buddys dad pulled out some of his relics (buttons) to show them and a student freaked out on him and starting calling him a thief and made a real scene about it ,I hope that mentality changes in the future.

Yes unfortunately some of these "student archaeologists" and professionals don't like us and harbor wrong thoughts about what we do but that's goes for some "old timers" in our ranks as well but views and opinions are slowly changing for the better CD ! Thanks for commenting .

Dan

 

[Digger_O'Dell]

This topic has come up from time to time. In my state it's very anti detecting. It's the view of our state archeologists that anything they consider "old" is theirs which is why detecting on state owned or managed lands are prohibited. That even includes state roads and even private lands made available for public use.
There have been accounts of folks getting into trouble for mundane things like picking up old bottles along a roadway, or even children collecting "pretty stones" in a state park, or even the construction worker fired for picking up an arrowhead dug up on a road construction site instead of letting it be paved over. It's too bad that many archaeologists and government officials still think that detecting is just theft of "their" property or looting of local history and would rather leave everything they don't find themselves to rot in the ground.
I really hope that the negativity towards detecting does change for the better. But it's going to be an uphill battle with some of the crazy detecting shows on TV and the occasional story in the news of the few who hunt illegally like a story not long ago about a protected civil war site being nighthawked. All we can do is try to educate the ignorant, act responsibly and respectfully, and do our best to shed the best light possible on the hobby.

 

[Full Metal Digger]

Our county owns a lot acreage that is leased out to be farmed. The plows and combines eventually bust up all the stone artifacts into little pieces BUT is illegal to pick them up. I never could understand that reasoning. How is it okay to destroy the artifacts through farming but saving them is a crime?

 

[Digger_O'Dell]

If only we had deep enough pockets to buy some common sense for our lawmakers....smh