salting mounds???

[creek astronaut]

I have heard of people salting fields, but how about mounds?interesting story.
http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/decalog.html

 

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[Th3rty7]

Busted, you look more than just guilty when you try to rewrite history for an agenda. You have to give it up to the people who uphold the truth and fight the good fight.

very interesting read, thanks.

 

[Neanderthal]

It happens far more often than we would like to think. Tussinger mounds is another great example of this. Hell, to this day there are still people who swear all of those eccentrics are legitimate, even after Tussinger himself admitted he made them. There is also the instance of the horse skull that was excavated from a mound (Hopewell I believe) and later the students admitted that they planted it themselves as a prank. There are many such stories!

I really do get a kick out of people who swear something is legitimate because it was "excavated by professionals". If someone thinks something has to be 100% legitimate because it was excavated from a known site, or even they found it themselves, they need to think again. I have seen cases of salting that would blow your mind.

For years there were obsidian points turning up at dams and waterways all over the place around the Ozarks. Later, I found out who was making them and tossing them down. He told me that he was doing it so kids could get a charge out of finding them. After a lengthy talk he promised not to do it anymore. In another instance, I personally witnessed a gold painted Snyders that was dug from over 4' deep under an old railway embankment. I assume it was thrown there by a railway employee back when the railway embankment was made back in the 50's. I have seen a danish dagger (modern) found on the Arkansas River in Tulsa. I've seen numerous bogus artifacts that were absolutely "found" by their owners made of glass, ceramics and other materials. Just two days ago I received an email where a friend found some modern points on the river. They even had some of the original wood and glue on the back where they were mounted to a board at one time. This has happened all over the place and if anyone thinks they are completely immune to it, then they are a fool.

Salting could happen for several reasons. I know some have done it to throw others off track, trying to keep them away from a certain area by drawing them to another. It seems most of the time it's done just to screw with someone as a prank, or even with more ill intents. It also can be done for more innocent reasons, like planting a point to give someone a thrill of the find. Sometimes it's accident. I know a lot of people who find points right where modern knappers have tossed debitage & artifacts after knap-ins - you can find some real "killers" at certain places on Spavinaw Creek, lol.

 

[Th3rty7]

^That's scary, but really interesing.