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I jumped to no conclusions as your right to do with your land is in my opinion sacred. There are laws pertaining to burials, middens, Native American rights etc. but I'm sure that's not a concern here. I respect people who try and salvage items before construction erases them forever. Here in Florida that has always been a major problem. I have spent countless hours in the evenings going behind road & bridge construction work in newly disturbed ground. I have found amazing artifacts that would have been lost forever. I have found 2 caches this way, 1 in Ohio & 1 here in Fl. I am on a site right now in down town Sarasota that is producing a lot of fossils and some big sharks teeth. I'm trying to find where the fill came from but so far haven't. Fossil rich dirt in Florida usually means a point is not far behind. Your post at first didn't have much in the way of explanation so people are just curious and asked legitimate questions. Don't get all butthurt, I thought you Texan's were thick skinned? Keep posting.Well at least you were diplomatic and I see what you are saying. That said you make some of the same mistake old digger made with jumping to conclusions. Every site I dig is different. In past sites I have worked closely with the scientific community. I dare say I have contributed more to science than any individual digger I know. I am very capable of digging a stratified site in layers.
Now for the site the artifacts in this thread came from? The surface rights have long been under contract to a sand and gravel company. We recently learned that it will be mined starting this summer. My digging partner just managed to buy it so we can screen as many of the artifacts out as possible before they end up mixed in concrete and poured on a freeway somewhere.
There have been several folks like the post saying in some how cheating? Still no one had answered who it I'd they think I'm cheating?
I jumped to no conclusions as your right to do with your land is in my opinion sacred. There are laws pertaining to burials, middens, Native American rights etc. but I'm sure that's not a concern here. I respect people who try and salvage items before construction erases them forever. Here in Florida that has always been a major problem. I have spent countless hours in the evenings going behind road & bridge construction work in newly disturbed ground. I have found amazing artifacts that would have been lost forever. I have found 2 caches this way, 1 in Ohio & 1 here in Fl. I am on a site right now in down town Sarasota that is producing a lot of fossils and some big sharks teeth. I'm trying to find where the fill came from but so far haven't. Fossil rich dirt in Florida usually means a point is not far behind. Your post at first didn't have much in the way of explanation so people are just curious and asked legitimate questions. Don't get all butthurt, I thought you Texan's were thick skinned? Keep posting.
It was meant as a joke as the smiley indicated. Belive me I meant no malice. (So don't get butthurt!)Well here we go again. Great post except the end. I don't see the need to qualify what I do. I am Glad to answer questions but there was and maybe still are people making wild jumps in their mind that have nothing to do with the reality of what I do. I'm not butt hurt but being called a cheat and likely a criminal is a personal attack and you can't expect a Texan to tolerate such idiocy.
The only conclusion you jumped to is that my digging disregards preserving history. The truth is in salvaging history on this site that would otherwise be lost. I didn't see your post as a personal attack but the butt hurt line may indicate I miss judged your intent as well.
Oh by the way as an afterthought you do need to "qualify" what you do if your going to criticize the response you receive as a result of your posts. If you do criticize then yes you need to qualify in order for us to appreciate what it is you are doing. Keep the pics coming, those are great finds.
Free country--Garscale can do what he wants no matter what the rest of us think.
Garscale takes the risk of breaking artifacts, but that is a risk he is willing to accept; and here it has paid off handsomely.
Thanks. By the way... My method of excavating breaks far less than any other digging method.
Free country--Garscale can do what he wants no matter what the rest of us think.
Garscale takes the risk of breaking artifacts, but that is a risk he is willing to accept; and here it has paid off handsomely.
Thanks. By the way... My method of excavating breaks far less than any other digging method.
Personally I don't care if you dynamite the entire site. I know for certain you cannot use a bucket or backhoe and damage less than using a hand shovel. I've been in construction all my life and when an excavation gets close to anything known to be underground it stops & the hand shoveling starts. You can backhoe/bucket load all you want but it is not a finesse machine. Some operators are really awesome but all the good ones I've seen always have a shovel behind their seat.
A shovel gives blade exposure to every artifa t you dig with it. Shovel dings are very common on fine artifacts hand dug.Personally I don't care if you dynamite the entire site. I know for certain you cannot use a bucket or backhoe and damage less than using a hand shovel. I've been in construction all my life and when an excavation gets close to anything known to be underground it stops & the hand shoveling starts. You can backhoe/bucket load all you want but it is not a finesse machine. Some operators are really awesome but all the good ones I've seen always have a shovel behind their seat.
With my skid steer I go under the strata containing artifacts and let the entire yard of dirt slide into the bucket. Then I ease it into the sifter. I spent 35 years perfecting this machine and getting it to the point of zero damage. Even pristine birdies like those posted in this thread. Virtually none of re artifacts have exposure to the blade. We find flawless artifacts all day long. With almost no exception any damage is ancient.
like you said, the whole place was going to be a gravel excavation. I know for a fact that all those rich black dirt farms in Illinois that have been sub-divided into cul-d-sac hell suburbs, had their artifact rich soil layer scraped off to the clay. The irony is that after the houses were built, the homeowners had to pay to have decent soil brought back in.
Keep excavating the areas that are going to be destroyed and don't let a point escape. Out of curiosity how big an area did you have to dig and how deep to find your 50 points?
Here is one of many birdie frames from the site. Mabe this will make my point about low breakage. Wonder how many of these would have been broken with a shovel.
That's one of the most impressive frames I've ever seen. And I've seen a few. Gary