Joanne- I beg to differ- although at first glance it would appear that
ravening hordes of relic hunters are despoiling the countryside and making
off with myriads of relics that would otherwise be carefully studied in situ
by motivated teams of achaeologists- I fear that such is not the case- most
archaeologists in Virginia couldn't be bothered, unless you were willing to
pay them- most of them aren't that interested in the Civil War anyway
because it isn't that old - in reality, most relics are dug weeks or days
before the developers' bulldozers hit the site- the relic hunters' BB in
Northern Va is full of sightings of orange tape and ground clearing
machinery. The reason: It's often the only legal way to get onto a site
before the first two feet of soil are stripped, thus destroying any ground
that was in place 145 years ago- so don't be so quick to judge- as a local
historian, I can honestly say that relic hunters have been a great source of
info as far as what was on or in the ground 20-30 years ago in areas now
completely developed, including state and unit specific relics in certain
camp areas, etc, and it certainly makes more sense to find and preserve
these relics than for developers to cart them off in the fill dirt-removing
generic war time production buttons or bullets from the ground that were
made in huge quantities hardly compares to destroying rare one of a kind
petroglyphs, you know? -Barrett
----- Original Message -----
From: "qvarizona" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Archaeology and Relic Hunting in Virginia
> Thanks Martha, for sending that link. Some excellent points made by the
> archaeologists and serious historians who are upset at the relic-hunt by
> "history buffs." I particularly liked the analogy comparing those who dig
> and take relics to someone who, ". . . reads books, tears out the pages,
> and burns them." (Sorry, not an entirely accurate quote by me.) It's a
> problem all over the country, not just Virginia. Here in Arizona, it's
> become common to see petroglyphs completely removed from state and
> national forests by "history buffs."
>
> Joanne
>
> Martha Katz-Hyman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In Sunday's Washington Post--"Unearthed War Relics See Battle Again:
> Archaeologists Decry History Buffs' Digs"
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041501187.html?nav=hcmodule
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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