Well tonight I was thinking about going out night hunting. And then I realized that it was already 9:00 and staying in sounded good. I sat down at the computer and started listening to last nights American Digger Relic Roundup. I have been listening to this show for the last few weeks and I have been very happy with everything I have heard. The guys are actively working to keep our hobby in tune with the archaeologists. I was listening to some older shows and they were talking about having a mobile app on your smartphone that would allow you to upload historically significant finds to a national database. It seems like this would work well for the detectorists in the world. However, I think they would quickly learn that most guys don’t dig much that is significant to history. I do think this would be extremely helpful to the archaeologists when they are looking for battle sites and other historic sites.
Now I want to talk about something even more controversial… Diggers the TV show.
I have recently watched a few episodes of this show and I have to say “I think they have come along way”. I know that these guys got into trouble at the shows inception. However, I have been kind of impressed with what I have seen recently (excluding the hooping, hollaring, and special language). There are a few things that caught my attention about this show.
The first is the fact that they are getting permission to hunt sites and hunting them tactfully. They don’t tear things up with bulldozers, excavators, etc.
The second thing is that they show the non “juice” finds from the “nectar fields”. One show I watched they showed many pieces of trash that they had dug.
Third and most importantly they have a historian/archaeologist on site of their hunts. I think this makes a lot of sense considering they are hunting sites that are historically important. I don’t know if the so called historians and archaeologists are legitimate but they seem to be.
I guess in my mind both the radio show and TV show are discussing and doing things that may eventually bring the two groups together. I can honestly say that I haven’t dug anything that I feel to be important to archaeologists. If I do though I think it would be important to let someone know. I’m not talking about finding a small cache of silver coins in someones backyard here. If I was to find a trunk full of paper money, coins, or gold bars that were marked wells fargo from the mid 1800’s I would probably let someone know about it. My reasoning being that it could simply help put the pieces of history together. I know it is rumored that Jesse James left a healthy sum of goods somewhere in Central KS. It would be quite cool to help piece together that time in history.
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I am dumbfounded archaeologist have such an issue with our hobby. What say do they have if permission is obtained from the landowner anyway? I believe there is a certain element of jealousy involved. They are “officials” who want to restrict the rights of everyone but themselves.
You and I both know this stuff will simply decay into the ground if it is not recovered. And if it is recovered by a private party who decides not to share it with the rest of the world…again, who’s business is that? It wasn’t being seen by the world in the first place. More than likely, when that individual passes the item down through the family, it will end up in the right hands…whether it is a private collector or a museum. That is my 2 cent on the subject.