SOHIO
Bronze Member
- Dec 6, 2010
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I'm a collector/hunter. Been hunting for over 20 years. But by no means does this make me an expert on artifacts. There are too many regions and too many flint types, and all I've ever hunted were ohio artifacts 90 percent adena and hopewell. Over the years on some of these artifact forums I have seen folks getting pretty interested in the artifacts they are finding and search for a broader understanding of prehistory. During this search I have seen people come to believe that they have anthropology degrees or have attended extensive lithic technology seminars. When in reality they are just well read rednecks unable to understand or put forth usable data available for the archaeological record. I made a comment few weeks ago on here about how I'm surprised that the government hasn't already taken away our rights to claim artifacts on private lands for ourselves (got 2 likes). But I'm not so sure I can say that I fully believe this. Maybe the government should step in and stop the hunting and sells of prehistorical relics. Doesn't prehistory belong to all of us. But the arrowhead hunter wants to dispute this on the claim that well these artifacts are just going to sit out there surfacing and reburying themselves, getting broke due to progress. Also we claim that this is my property or someone giving permissions property and what is on that property then belongs to them and the government has no right to take what is on ones property. Then there are the one's who make profits from buying and selling relics, the real enemies of the archaeological record. These folks disburse relics from their regions and mix up the record beyond comprehension. But at the same time so have government involvements and political relations. A large percent of ohio mound recoveries are in a museum in london or paris or some city abroad (forget where). So whats the big deal you might ask about something being put out of its region it still has study value and its history. Its not really about the disbursal but the separation of data. For example if one group of archs specializing in one culture had that one cultures complete record in front of them and available at any given time they could group together more specific data leading to a more comprehensive conclusions to prehistory, esp. when technology is getting more advanced and different techniques and ideas are being learned, we in turn as humankind may advance as we learn new things about ourselves as humans and thats what the whole study of lithics is based on, archaeology and anthropology, which isnt just studying about how rocks were knapped or how an axe was pecked, its more a look back to help organize our future. I used to think, how much can we learn from ancient cultures, there may be more to record but its going to lead eventually back to the beginning of man and heck we all know man began right. But the television show ancient aliens has opened my eyes to a whole new thinking 
(ya gotta love that right) yeah that show is pretty silly but some aspects of it is pretty interesting like the cities with stones cut with unexplainable precision etc. This leads me to look at things in a bit different. There is still lots to learn and I sometimes feel that when seeing shelters being dug and other sites I've seen people digging in on here that we might be helping to ruin a history we need to know. Take for example the silurian point found in va. that was 17,000 years old. That lone point rewrote the history of migration to north america dismantling the alaskan land bridge theory and showed us that native americans were a mix of asian and caucasian peoples. Just think if some collector from virginia found that and had it in his collection never to be studied.
(ya gotta love that right) yeah that show is pretty silly but some aspects of it is pretty interesting like the cities with stones cut with unexplainable precision etc. This leads me to look at things in a bit different. There is still lots to learn and I sometimes feel that when seeing shelters being dug and other sites I've seen people digging in on here that we might be helping to ruin a history we need to know. Take for example the silurian point found in va. that was 17,000 years old. That lone point rewrote the history of migration to north america dismantling the alaskan land bridge theory and showed us that native americans were a mix of asian and caucasian peoples. Just think if some collector from virginia found that and had it in his collection never to be studied.
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