To the guy farther up the thread, about archaeologists -
Historical groups, DNR, State Archaeologists, College archaeologists, etc. are all different in how they do things (even from state to state and county to county) You shouldn't just lump all of us into one big pot where everyone thinks the same and is looking for some way to screw you. I personally consider that rude. I've met archaeologists that I couldn't stand. Self-serving jerks. BUT, the majority of us aren't like that. I LOVE looking for treasures of all kinds. Gives me goose bumps every time I find something. My favorite is exploring previously unknown sites, but honestly, couldn't care less what someone else has found and removed before I got there, except to see what they found and hear them tell me the story of their discovery. Now, I do need to say that every single thing removed from the site without in depth study is history that has been permanently lost for all time. It's just a truth of things. That means all of our children and grandchildren could possibly be lied to in history class forever because of something you yourself, or me, may have done to alter what we know about civilization. We're all guilty of that in some fashion. 'Excavating' a site by archaeologists is 'destroying' a site, by it's own definition. Think about all of the runestones and crazy artifacts found by arrowhead hunters in the US that point to Vikings, or Egyptians, or the Japanese being here WAY before Columbus. You have to admit, it would be nice if just ONE of all of those types of sites had actually been excavated under some form of controlled dig, instead of looted for money. Most times the collection comes to light after that guy is DEAD (where the knowledge and location of the finds just die with them). After we're gone, it's not going to matter what we have in a showcase in our living room...right? Our stuff won't ever be used to fix the lies we have ALL been told about where we come from, and why. That's all I think of after I've found something totally awesome, 'Oh Crap, I just altered history.' Almost all archaeologists think this in the back of their own heads while they're digging something cool up.
You know, we're not as different as you think. Try to get to know a few of us before just assuming we're part of some super-enviro-wacko group looking to loot the world all to ourselves...and not include you. I love metal detecting when I'm off work, and prospecting. I have several friends that do both and aren't scientists at all. All of us are experts in some way, so I'm sure that we can all learn something from each other. It seems the only reason we don't dig together all the time is just POLITICS. True? We should get rid of that.
Dave