how has the internet changed our hobby???

[creek astronaut]

http://arrowheadology.com/artifact-f...formation-age/

[Charmin]

"I don't know anything about artifacts but I found this....." Do you suppose they are talking about the gal that found the Clovis and got all the comments on arrowheadology, greg-rocks? They were sure giving her a lot of crap over that point!

regards~~sandcreek

[uniface]

What comes to mind reading that is, "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

Example : At the Templer Site (this is from an overburdened memory) alone, something over a quarter of a million artifacts were found and catalogued, with good stratigraphy, extending all the way through the Archaic era to around its beginnings. Not a few of these were (adopting Gollum's tone saying "My Precious !") uniface tools. This was something like thirty years ago -- maybe longer. Since then, this assemblage, which could have provided the skelaton necessary for recognising the scrapers &c. of the various Archaic cultures out of context, have (hopefully) been sitting in a warehouse somewhere. All they cared about was the point type sequence. And they could have gotten that from eroding river bluffs without the bother of excavating.

There are some rare and precious exceptions in the archaeological community, but if the majority of professional, piled-higher-and-deeper archaeologists are not content to orbit within their own little journal-and-conference worlds, looking down their noses on us as the archaeological peasantry (if not "the criminal element" in it), very little about my interactions with them leads me to suspect this is not the case.

So -- back to the Do-It-Ourselves opportunity the internet provides. The vast majority of "scholarly research" (a lot of which is recycled crap and buzzwords, but that's another rant for another time) is sealed away behind a wall of JSTOR (et al.) prohibitive expense.

Thus (in part) my carryings on about uniface tools. The more we educate each other and link up with others doing the same, the more our collective data bank begins to fill in the vast blank areas.

More power to us !

And that's what I think.

[BuckleBoy]

What comes to mind reading that is, "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

Example : At the Templer Site (this is from an overburdened memory) alone, something over a quarter of a million artifacts were found and catalogued, with good stratigraphy, extending all the way through the Archaic era to around its beginnings. Not a few of these were (adopting Gollum's tone saying "My Precious !") uniface tools. This was something like thirty years ago -- maybe longer. Since then, this assemblage, which could have provided the skelaton necessary for recognising the scrapers &c. of the various Archaic cultures out of context, have (hopefully) been sitting in a warehouse somewhere. All they cared about was the point type sequence. And they could have gotten that from eroding river bluffs without the bother of excavating.

There are some rare and precious exceptions in the archaeological community, but if the majority of professional, piled-higher-and-deeper archaeologists are not content to orbit within their own little journal-and-conference worlds, looking down their noses on us as the archaeological peasantry (if not "the criminal element" in it), very little about my interactions with them leads me to suspect this is not the case.

So -- back to the Do-It-Ourselves opportunity the internet provides. The vast majority of "scholarly research" (a lot of which is recycled crap and buzzwords, but that's another rant for another time) is sealed away behind a wall of JSTOR (et al.) prohibitive expense.

Thus (in part) my carryings on about uniface tools. The more we educate each other and link up with others doing the same, the more our collective data bank begins to fill in the vast blank areas.

More power to us !

And that's what I think.

Well said.

[creek astronaut]

"I don't know anything about artifacts but I found this....." Do you suppose they are talking about the gal that found the Clovis and got all the comments on arrowheadology, greg-rocks? They were sure giving her a lot of crap over that point!

regards~~sandcreek

i dont know of the gal you are talking about??was it in the forums that she was getn grief?

[Charmin]

"I don't know anything about artifacts but I found this....." Do you suppose they are talking about the gal that found the Clovis and got all the comments on arrowheadology, greg-rocks? They were sure giving her a lot of crap over that point!

regards~~sandcreek

i dont know of the gal you are talking about??was it in the forums that she was getn grief?

Here's the link: http://arrowheadology.com/forums/rec...act-point.html
There was a lot of negative responses to her Clovis point. She handled it pretty good though.
I really like the arrowheadology site(not as much as this one though ), greg-rocks. Thanks for posting links! Its great to have many different sites that offer information and pics of finds across the country.

regards~~sandcreek

[creek astronaut]

"I don't know anything about artifacts but I found this....." Do you suppose they are talking about the gal that found the Clovis and got all the comments on arrowheadology, greg-rocks? They were sure giving her a lot of crap over that point!

regards~~sandcreek

i dont know of the gal you are talking about??was it in the forums that she was getn grief?

Here's the link: http://arrowheadology.com/forums/rec...act-point.html
There was a lot of negative responses to her Clovis point. She handled it pretty good though.
I really like the arrowheadology site(not as much as this one though ), greg-rocks. Thanks for posting links! Its great to have many different sites that offer information and pics of finds across the country.

regards~~sandcreek

thanks for throwing up that link sandcreek.like i said i rarely look in on that forum,i just like reading the articles they put up on that site.I like this forum and spend to much time on here according to my girlfriend.lol.but i did read the entire post,over a hundred replies and was amazed at how much grief this woman was catching. I do believe that is why this article was put up,because of her find.a 4 3/4 inch clovis in perfect condition for your first unbroken point??I hope it is real so she can maybe get some well deserved apologies from some of the guys who were way out of line.although i doubt some will have the balls to be a man and say that they were wrong.personally i think her find is the real deal, but you just never know??

[Th3rty7]

That was a nice read Greg, thanks for posting the link. Imo it's a catch 22, lot's of pros and cons come with the internet in association with this great hobby. It really is great to have so much information at your fingertips for research and study. The negative side is that it's given unscrupulous folks a quick and easy way to take advantage of people.

[Tnmountains]

"I don't know anything about artifacts but I found this....." Do you suppose they are talking about the gal that found the Clovis and got all the comments on arrowheadology, greg-rocks? They were sure giving her a lot of crap over that point!

regards~~sandcreek

i dont know of the gal you are talking about??was it in the forums that she was getn grief?

Here's the link: http://arrowheadology.com/forums/rec...act-point.html
There was a lot of negative responses to her Clovis point. She handled it pretty good though.
I really like the arrowheadology site(not as much as this one though ), greg-rocks. Thanks for posting links! Its great to have many different sites that offer information and pics of finds across the country.

regards~~sandcreek

thanks for throwing up that link sandcreek.like i said i rarely look in on that forum,i just like reading the articles they put up on that site.I like this forum and spend to much time on here according to my girlfriend.lol.but i did read the entire post,over a hundred replies and was amazed at how much grief this woman was catching. I do believe that is why this article was put up,because of her find.a 4 3/4 inch clovis in perfect condition for your first unbroken point??I hope it is real so she can maybe get some well deserved apologies from some of the guys who were way out of line.although i doubt some will have the balls to be a man and say that they were wrong.personally i think her find is the real deal, but you just never know??

I read that whole forum post about the clovis that Sandcreek posted. A pretty cold boring and whiny(sp) bunch. Saw some nice post though by some friends from here. Nice links Greg and Sandcreek. Like their articles also Greg.Thanks for sharing.
Thanks
TnMountains

[BuckleBoy]

That was a nice read Greg, thanks for posting the link. Imo it's a catch 22, lot's of pros and cons come with the internet in association with this great hobby. It really is great to have so much information at your fingertips for research and study. The negative side is that it's given unscrupulous folks a quick and easy way to take advantage of people.

The internet has also given the rest of the world a window into our lives. From archaeologists, to legislators, to everyday Joes. We are judged by what is posted here; we are legislated against for what is posted here--and we sell detectors for the major distributors and manufacturers in many cases by what is posted here. This is why the folks that control the content here--from the owner and site moderators, all the way down to us, the individual members have a great responsibility. I don't know that that responsibility is always realized by folks who log on and toss off a few posts in their spare time, but it is nonetheless there.

I too am happy about the amount of information we have access to now via the internet. (The pre-internet days of this hobby already seem like the "Dark Ages.") It's wonderful that we can get together and talk about the ID of various items or artifacts we've found. I hope that one day I won't look back and say it wasn't worth it to have that information about that little piece of brass I recovered, or that flint I found in a plowed field.

The internet is a Beautiful Beast--and in terms of both the positive and the negative, none of the changes it's brought to our society have been small ones.


Best Wishes,



Buckles

[uniface]

IMHO, a very thoughtful and insightful post, Buckles.

I would suggest considering it from this angle also : technology is gonna happen to us anyhow. And because we never got a handle on making the financial engine that drives it accountable to people in general for the effects it has on them, it's not been an unmitigated blessing (to say the least).

Predictions are shaky. When the gattling gun was invented, the mass-killing potential it ushered in was so horrible to contemplate that even millitary men figured wars would be a thing of the past.

Not.

How low can you go ?

Stay tuned and find out.

On the other hand, it creates some incredible opportunities as well -- one of which we're enjoying here. My perspective : Make hay while the sun shines.

If only websites didn't have the lifespans of butterflies !

[The Grim Reaper]

The internet has definitely changed me in this hobby/obsession of ours and mostly in a positive way. It has helped me meet and make new friends (even if they are only on line friends) from all around the country. I have had the pleasure of even meeting a few of the folks I talk with on the various sites I visit and every experience has been positive and they have been great, down to Earth people. It has also helped me acquire artifacts from all over the US either by buying, trading, or even having some people send me things for free and not expecting anything in return. I had one man from the PROSB board send me around 75 points that were from Ohio simple because he was from Missouri and didn't collect Ohio pieces and he had gotten them form his father in law and when he got divorced he decided he didn't want them anymore. When I offered to pay for them or at least pay for shipping he said that I had been so good in helping him out when he first joined the site that I owed him nothing and it was his pleasure to send them to me. I too have also sent out pieces to people all over the US as well, whether it be points, Pipestone, Beads, or whatever just so some people can have some examples of Ohio artifacts.

Not only that, but I have able to see and learn about artifacts I otherwise probably never would have seen. I have seen tons of Texas, Florida, Great Basin, East Coast, Canadien, etc artifacts I never would have seen without the internet. I have seen some of most awesome in situ photos that inspired me to start taking my camera with me and take pictures of my finds. And I have been able to see sites like Larsons that are very similar to my Ft Ancient sites that I didn't realize existed in other areas and that was just awesome.

So yes, the internet has definitely changed the hobby for me.

[naturegirl]

the internet and this hobby go hand-in-hand for me. For all the things I'm interested in, birds, art, arrowheads, the direct connection to others with similar thoughts is wonderful and enriching! I read the links by greg-rocks and sandcreek, and came away with a bad taste, but didn't the articles just display the same human nature we see everyday? People are gonna be people, it's just so amplified by the internet. The age old advice of do unto others... just needs to be amplified along with all the bad stuff. I'm happy to say I've had many more positive interactions on the net than negative ones. My glass is half full. The attitutde on this artifacts forum seems to relfect the same, and I appreciate it. Kudos guys!

naturegirl