Under what circumstances is a metal detectorist officially an amateur archeologist?

[el padron]

What constitutes an "amateur archeologist", and under what circumstances could an educated, seasoned and well versed metal detectorist reasonably declare him / herself as such?

 

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[jeff of pa]

imo when they want to.


Dictionary results

a professional follows an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain.

amateur is a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.

archaeology is the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains, especially those that have been excavated.

so if you do it for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.
you can say your an amateur

 

[BigWaveDave]

I informed my wife of my new title, and she agreed, yes, I am an immature archeologist.

 

[BARKER]

HI Jeff of PA; Well said. In other words "BINGO." Way to go. you just cleared up 40 years of angst.!!! PEACE:RONB

 

[gollum]

Here's your problem with calling yourself an "amateur archaeologist":

First, when you detect, you are digging into the ground and retrieving things with no consideration of everything around it. An Archaeologist finds an area, then completely grids it off. They then very carefully dig up the site, making careful notes, drawings, and taking pictures of each item found, how it is situated, depth, angles, etc. They also number and itemize each item as they find it. Do any of you do that? NO. Calling yourself an amateur archaeologist will nothing but insult a trained archaeologist.

If you want to call yourself an amateur archaeologist, I recommend heading out to a college, and having a sit down with a REAL Archaeologist. If you can convince them that your interest is more in preserving history than just digging up things that make your metal detector go BEEP, then they may let you participate (with your metal detector) in archaeological projects, but you won't dig your targets. When you get a signal, you will pinpoint it, then mark the spot with a little flag. An Archaeologist or Archaeology Student will then come over an carefully dig up what you detected.

If you take the time to learn about archaeology, preservation methods, site preservation, excavation, etc, then you may legitimately call yourself an "amateur archaeologist". Otherwise, you will just get embarrassed if you try describing yourself as such to a real Archaeologist.

Mike

 

[Tejaas]

I'd say at a minimum, a person needs to have completed some field schools or vocational digs before they can earn affiliation with the word "archeology".

Archeologist aren't "diggers" so much as "surveyors" and records custodians.

Indiana Jones was still badass though.


~Tejaas~

 

[watercolor]

Here's your problem with calling yourself an "amateur archaeologist":

First, when you detect, you are digging into the ground and retrieving things with no consideration of everything around it. An Archaeologist finds an area, then completely grids it off. They then very carefully dig up the site, making careful notes, drawings, and taking pictures of each item found, how it is situated, depth, angles, etc. They also number and itemize each item as they find it. Do any of you do that? NO. Calling yourself an amateur archaeologist will nothing but insult a trained archaeologist.

If you want to call yourself an amateur archaeologist, I recommend heading out to a college, and having a sit down with a REAL Archaeologist. If you can convince them that your interest is more in preserving history than just digging up things that make your metal detector go BEEP, then they may let you participate (with your metal detector) in archaeological projects, but you won't dig your targets. When you get a signal, you will pinpoint it, then mark the spot with a little flag. An Archaeologist or Archaeology Student will then come over an carefully dig up what you detected.

If you take the time to learn about archaeology, preservation methods, site preservation, excavation, etc, then you may legitimately call yourself an "amateur archaeologist". Otherwise, you will just get embarrassed if you try describing yourself as such to a real Archaeologist.

Mike

I just HAD to know what it would be like to do a "pretend" survey of an area supervised by a professional archaeologist. . . it was interesting and I learned a lot.

The beginnings of a 5m x 20m grid. . . the only thing we didn't do was sift the 18" diameter test holes every 5-meters.
Digging and bagging recoveries, plotting target locations, & their ID numbers in field book= another several hours to get a "bigger" picture.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

In my opinion you can call yourself an "amateur anything" any time you wish, saying your an amateur already signifies you are not a professional in the profession......

 

[TheRingFinder]

Why would you want to call yourself that anyway?

The greatest Treasure Hunters in the world are and were NOT archeologists.

I would rather stick with the Highest regarded name - Professional Treasure Hunter...........

 

[jeff of pa]

Why would you want to call yourself that anyway?

The greatest Treasure Hunters in the world are and were NOT archeologists.

I would rather stick with the Highest regarded name - Professional Treasure Hunter...........

I don't use the word Professional.

But when asked What I do "Treasure Hunt" is my answer

When asked if I found any yet,

"Nope I'm still Hunting"

When I call myself a "Treasure Finder", I may have to add the word "Professional"

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very interesting thread!

 

[el padron]

It's true, I noticed a few weeks back,that there doesn't seem to be any official designation or credential that qualifies one as an amateur archaeologist.
Recently, I've learned, that there are times that expressing your intent to be categorized as one can be hugely advantageous.

 

[villagenut]

I'm with gollum on this one, he explained it quite well. I will add that within a pit excavation for example, the earth is not "dug at" as we know digging. It is carefully scraped at along the entire base with square point shovels, a few centimeters at a time. These are called levels, and at each level reached, there are soil samples taken to analyze what type vegetation may have once been in evidence and soil consistency testing done.All the soil removed by buckets are carefully screened and artifacts recorded and bagged, identified as to which "level" they were found. Of course there is much more to it like brushing, troweling, etc. There is the interpretation process that may include things that many of us would never take note of like a "post mold" or a shard of pearl ware and its significance.Without saying, all of this takes lots of field work as well as lab work which often requires a report to be sent to State agencies for part of a permanent record.

I do think that the biggest problem with the archaeologist's world is the lack of collaborative relations with those who use metal detectors. So much could be gained if the two parties worked together. All of the archaeologists that I know will dig nothing unless it has been approved by their University and a grant has been made to proceed.None of that comes easy for them, therefore much of what they do is class room oriented. I was invited to assist on a dig last year where the professor had in attendance, a colleague from out of state who drooled over a few artifacts that I brought for "show and tell". I had found them the previous week on my own site and readily told him about it all and showed him my documentation notes from the site. He asked to photograph the artifacts so he could include them in an upcoming lecture he was giving on what he called "Avocational Archaeology" and how it relates to the degreed archaeologist in fulfilling the "one purpose". As we talked, I got the impression that they (but not all) realize the value in those who responsibly take on digging up history with the intention to preserve it.

Here is a link to a website on pursuing such a course NPS Archeology Program: For the Public not available in all states.

BTW you can call yourself whatever you want, but that won't make it official. But I admit...I am just as guilty.

 

[el padron]

What is your opinion of this quote by me in paragraph 5 of this link ?--http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.com/2014/08/archaeology-and-psyche-part-six.html

i'm just finishing something and I thank you for your opinions, I'd like to share something with you in a few moments, thanks again happy new year by the way

 

[releventchair]

One could call themselves an amateur archaeologist as well as anything. To communicate with others in the field might take some study. The context in which an item is located. Defining what an artifact is and on and on. I took an online course and eventually debated a little about detecting. We parted ways. Some view detectorists as plundering treasure hunters , pothunters and other derogatory terms but they get friction too for their views,and others see a limited value in their use. Those in the field may vary in opinions and ideals just as detectorists do. One example would be in discussing at what age is it (if any) appropriate to unearth a body? While only slightly knowledgeable of all activities related most of it is slow laborious time consuming activity for me.
I'm not crazy about our antiquities act but there is a reason we have it. Debate rages over what preserving history is. My coffee table, or an unused backroom in a museum.
And where are the greatest collections? 225,000 items in Minnesota's historical society's collection...while not all see light often they may be in an environment that will preserve them. The Smithsonian ect..

 

[releventchair]

I hear ya.
The guy that got me into detecting was a historian and member of museums and historical societies. Wrote at least one history book.
But his metal detecting was ,to me anyway very separate and while he did good things for many interests as well as reclaiming some abandoned cemeteries and annually decorating, graves of veterans I never asked what became of his outstanding finds or what he thought of archaeologists. I'm sure he would tell them to fly a kite if they criticized his detecting methods or suggested where artifacts went after recoveries as being anyone's decision but his.

 

[lookindown]

I aint no amateur archie...I do it for fortune and glory.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I aint no amateur archie...I do it for fortune and glory.

Keep the glory, I will take the fortune.. LOL..



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“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
― James Madison
The Constitution of the United States of America

 

[el padron]

It's a matter of technical presentation and recognizing rare opportunity. Your point is extremely valid, simple, and you've made it very very well,
Of course I understand it.
However, I just read an article about a six-year-old amateur archaeologist that discovered a European Hoard.

Baggage handlers are often technically members of airline "mechanics" unions. Its advantageous for them.

The differences between your point and mine is that I am highlighting that the current definition of Amateur Archeologist is so loosely technically defined.

I recently started pondering this question during a recent personal circumstance that possibly may not have turned out so well for me had I not introduced it in the the terms of my defense.

Another example though, illustrates the point much better.

As we all know the Spanish discovered and claimed huge swaths of the west and South before and during the Colonial period of
what later would become the United States
In 1686 (on or about) Robert La Salle potentially laid claim for France the Spanish wilderness that basically consisted of Texas, New Mexico etc, after unintentionally discovering Matagorda bay while searching for the Delta of the Mississippi river.

He validated his claim by establishing and occupying (Through Colonists) a collection of shacks and surrounding them with the cannon salvaged from one of his wrecked vessels.

He called it Fort St Lewis and located it on the banks of a tributary in Brazoria County just north of the Gulf of Mexico in what was widely speculated as being on or near the present day location of abandoned Indianola Texas.

The Spanish got wind of the French Claim and considered it enough of a threat to seek out and destroy the French presence weather valid or not.

About Late 1688 the Spanish patrol discovered the location of the settlement completely abandoned and destroyed.
What was left of the french colonists was scattered around the grounds, as the Karankua (sp?) native people had brutally murdered all the french inhabitants of Fort St Lewis perhaps a few months earlier. la Salle himself was not present during the Massacre.
(Incidentally he was actually murdered by his own crew not to long after during consecutive explorations

After administering proper Christian burials, the Spanish buried the eight cannon that were located on the property so that there was no chance they would be used against them later.

For years the University of Texas was looking for the site near what is now the abandoned gulf settlement of Indianola
(Incidentally,15 years later, Galveston further south actually built a seawall and preserved the city, in an act that would be all but beauricratically impossible today. )

Sorry , we are getting near the end now…bear with me….



Well, the actual site of Fort St Lewis was discovered about 1996 by a ranch hand who worked and lived on the private property it was on all along.
The actual site is approximately 8 miles north of where the University of Texas archeologists had been looking for it.

He was a life long multi generational native who basically knew exactly where it was, and figured out that the sure way to prove its original location would be to pin point the cannon that the Spanish patrol had buried.
He relied on his generational knowledge passed down through the centuries of the "white men who for a short time came and settled there long ago."


Texas A&M fervently looked for the site as it had immense historical significance as the possible first legitimate French claim of occupation and possession to the otherwise Spanish south west wilderness .


In his quest for the buried cannon the ranch hand bought a cheap metal detector to locate them.
After a few months he did so and immediately stopped digging upon locating them.


He reported the find to his employer and the landowner who notified authorities . The landowner informed them that the actual site of historical Ft St Lewis was located by a metal detectorist on his property.

Continued….

 

[el padron]

Two weeks later two tractor trailers and a helicopter showed up to confirm the discovery and begin a profesional excavation of the site.
Upon cofirmation, the real archeologists took complete and total credit for the discovery.

Now I know a thing or two about lower working class hispanic culture, and I have to tell you that the fact that this man found eight 2000 pound cannon and didn't back a pick up truck to them, wrap them in chains and drag them to a recycler says a lot.


He had respect for the site and he had been pursuing it for years.
A west Texas newspaper heard the story a few years back and wondered how Texas A&M suddenly went directly to a spot 8 miles north of where they were looking last and found it instantly.
They admitted that they got a "tip" from a local ranch hand and that they later officially confirmed the site.

Up until a few years ago there was no mention anywhere of a metal detectorist at all....

Its now often a footnote in historical naratives pertaining to La Salle and French Fort St lewis, that a "metal detectorist" discovered the site. The actual metal detectorists name, as far as I know remains completely unacknowledged

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