Artifact hunters arrested in sting

[comfortably numb]

13 men arrested for digging up, selling Native American artifacts

 

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[Terry Soloman]

BOOM Baby!

 

[Martingeetars]

>--)----->I feel like the streets are safer now.This is a great way to waste tax payers money.
IJS<----(--<

 

[gordonquixote]

FWC came to a friends workplace this week and hauled someone off in bracelets for digging artifacts in state lands. Undercovers went to and artifact show and got invited on an illegal dig.

Just one more fine example of how it pays to keep your yapper shut.

 

[tomclark]

We should merge these similar threads. Very important info and news.

 

[pointshunter]

These guys were wrong no matter how you look at it! They weren't in it for any kind of good intentions or any collections they were strictly in it to make money. To destroy graves is one of the worst things you can do in my opinion! And to destroy a site that was clearly marked on state lands is wrong. It's one thing to go on private property or just out in a field or river but to desecrate a site is wrong. I don't sell my finds but I know others do and as long as there legally obtained that's their right but to do it and destroy a site is a whole other story. It is people like these that destroy that makes it worse on the rest of us that do it for our hobbies and makes the laws stricter and stricter.

 

[GatorBoy]

All the rivers are state land. Anything that's not private property is state land.

 

[reapp]

I haven't heard that they "ripped the pages out of the history books" yet, but Im sure it's coming.

 

[GatorBoy]

There should definitely be a clear distinction between picking up displaced and isolated items and digging pits and trenches to scarf up as many " monetarily valuable items" as you can.. leaving everything else in a destroyed pile of tailings. That has to stop. At least on public property /state property. A convenient blanket law is far too overreaching. As it is now.. it's illegal to pick up a 1963 penny.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here is the news release from the FWC with the arrestee names and charges. Collecting artifacts in Florida will never be the same old free-wheeling pastime. I know some of these people, and I feel bad for them.
FWC News: FWC shuts down crime ring selling priceless Florida artifacts

 

[NC field hunter]

I haven't heard that they "ripped the pages out of the history books" yet, but Im sure it's coming.

You mean out of the per-history book?

 

[Tnmountains]

Well if you metal detect in a national park or battlefield you are probably going to jail. If you "dig" on federal land you are probably going to jail. If you dig Florida waterways you are probably going to jail. People are greedy now days all these dealers and artifact shows. If no one ever sold the crap this would not happen. You put a value on something it quickly becomes illegal. I have no sympathy for the people out digging. They are not talking about surface hunters here.

 

[mamabear]

Here is the news release from the FWC with the arrestee names and charges. Collecting artifacts in Florida will never be the same old free-wheeling pastime. I know some of these people, and I feel bad for them.
FWC News: FWC shuts down crime ring selling priceless Florida artifacts

I feel bad for them also, but illegal is illegal. It does concern me though that restrictions are hitting the amateurs & helping archeologists. It won't be long before it's against the law to dig in our own yard. We should be able to dig ethically & lawfully.

 

[Tnmountains]

Florida was working on a program called CAP citizen archeology program. Where the surface hunters and average collector could work together. I guess that program for many has been destroyed by a few.

 

[Salvor6]

The state archies have abandoned these archaeological sites for years. Why haven't THEY been digging there? It looks like "pointshunters" avatar should be confiscated too!

 

[GatorBoy]

Florida was working on a program called CAP citizen archeology program. Where the surface hunters and average collector could work together. I guess that program for many has been destroyed by a few.

Oh what could have been.
I think South Carolina has it figured out.

 

[GatorBoy]

The state archies have abandoned these archaeological sites for years. Why haven't THEY been digging there? It looks like "pointshunters" avatar should be confiscated too!

In most cases they already have. they pulled all the information they believed was necessary to properly document the particular site. If they don't believe any new information is going to come from it. what they have gets filed accordingly and that's that....the funding stops. The individual artifacts are not the main interest. it's the story that can be pieced together by their chronological placement while in context. I've watched it done many times. More often than not it's done because a permit for some land disturbing activity has been applied for... like land clearing and building. They just bulldozed a complex of mounds/Middens close to my house last week... crushed artifacts were everywhere.. they still are. they will be digging in the plumbing shortly.. and hole for the swimming pool.. and pouring slabs for five condominiums.
It's my opinion that... these laws have absolutely nothing to do with a desire to preserve history and the artifacts of it. It's a tangled web with a lot of interests involved that I'm sure like most everything else boils down to one thing.

 

[bede2691]

I recognized a couple of names there from Artifactsguide.com and found that site is suspended. I haven't visited the site in a month or so. Does anyone know how long artifactsguide has been down?

 

[GatorBoy]

www.riversoftime.com
www.primitivepast.com.
Check those
www.paleoenterprises.com www.prehistoricflorida.com

 

[bci101tractors]

Well said my friend!!
I don't feel sorry for these folks one bit!! They rolled the dice and lost. They knew exactly what the stakes were. Keep it legal and keep our hobby, if you need the money, go get a second job...

These guys were wrong no matter how you look at it! They weren't in it for any kind of good intentions or any collections they were strictly in it to make money. To destroy graves is one of the worst things you can do in my opinion! And to destroy a site that was clearly marked on state lands is wrong. It's one thing to go on private property or just out in a field or river but to desecrate a site is wrong. I don't sell my finds but I know others do and as long as there legally obtained that's their right but to do it and destroy a site is a whole other story. It is people like these that destroy that makes it worse on the rest of us that do it for our hobbies and makes the laws stricter and stricter.