On Monday I attended a event that was hosted by a neighbouring heritage society. The topic was the early history of the Rideau Lakes. It was informative in many ways and the speaker had done a pretty good job considering it's probably not a regular thing for him to be doing.
The speaker had been a teacher also is an archaeologist, carver and other things not important to mention. The experience of his academia showed as he started the presentation at the beginning of the ice age and it filled the first 20+ minutes (yawn) I really think most that attended did this in school at one time as it was all familiar in nature.
The area that the talk entered on was covered with 2.5 km of ice that melted 4000 yrs ago due to climate change (but there was the plug for the current climate change rant)
He went through the 4 main time periods and explained each with some detail showing slides of examples of tools, spear points/knives then arrowheads from the later period.
His archaeologist experience was dully noted as the slides presented numerous sites, how they did it, the structuring of the dig. This was interesting on the why's of the test pits and reasoning behind the exploration.
Slides were shown of examples of finds dug during the different digs.
Note: These digs were not a hobby but were required full exploration requirement before development stage of a building/construction. The other was expanding the fields of a farm and taking down some tree'd areas, so they did a dig.
The request at the end of the presentation was of anyone finding anything related to native culture to send a picture to him so he could record it.
( he went on another rant of the lack of acknowledgement by the township in recognizing that there was any native habitation)
He did throw a few under the bus (hypothetically speaking)
The local museums taking down their native cultural displays and putting them in storage.
Once an item is found/recorded it's put into storage and never seen again type thing.
So I read into this that he was really into displaying-telling hte story then hiding it.
After the talk I waited my turn to have a chat, then there was just the 2 of us while he packed things up-he opened up some.
The 3 finds shown were on the table, noted there were crafts that his wife had made (she's native) also some flakes, points, blade that I didn't photograph.
The large one was really great, I asked him where it was dug/found?
Oh I bought it at a sale in X city. The seller said it was James Bay and it's illegal to be selling these items.
Question in my mind: But it's OK to buy them-right?
The other 2 were shown in the slide presentation as recovered items-yet there they sat on the table in his personal collection.
Question in my mind: So it's OK to pilfer them for his personal pleasure.
He did state that he had many items in his collection and this was just a few things that he brought.
Question in my mind: So this must be a regular event to take for personal and give the "storage" the stuff of no value.
In conversation about displays being dismantled (public) the contributing parties got their items back, meaning then the archaeologists got the items back.
(He stated he didn't know what they did with them, probably just kept them)
Question in my mind: So basically the trowel and paint brush crews get a free ticket/permission to hunt/dig and pilfer for their own collections.
It's always good to act a little dumb when talking to the academia as they do provide an insight on things that we suspect what happens.
This was a just a small slice on what really happens, and the laws of what a person can do in their private life as a collector.
The speaker had been a teacher also is an archaeologist, carver and other things not important to mention. The experience of his academia showed as he started the presentation at the beginning of the ice age and it filled the first 20+ minutes (yawn) I really think most that attended did this in school at one time as it was all familiar in nature.
The area that the talk entered on was covered with 2.5 km of ice that melted 4000 yrs ago due to climate change (but there was the plug for the current climate change rant)
He went through the 4 main time periods and explained each with some detail showing slides of examples of tools, spear points/knives then arrowheads from the later period.
His archaeologist experience was dully noted as the slides presented numerous sites, how they did it, the structuring of the dig. This was interesting on the why's of the test pits and reasoning behind the exploration.
Slides were shown of examples of finds dug during the different digs.
Note: These digs were not a hobby but were required full exploration requirement before development stage of a building/construction. The other was expanding the fields of a farm and taking down some tree'd areas, so they did a dig.
The request at the end of the presentation was of anyone finding anything related to native culture to send a picture to him so he could record it.
( he went on another rant of the lack of acknowledgement by the township in recognizing that there was any native habitation)
He did throw a few under the bus (hypothetically speaking)
The local museums taking down their native cultural displays and putting them in storage.
Once an item is found/recorded it's put into storage and never seen again type thing.
So I read into this that he was really into displaying-telling hte story then hiding it.
After the talk I waited my turn to have a chat, then there was just the 2 of us while he packed things up-he opened up some.
The 3 finds shown were on the table, noted there were crafts that his wife had made (she's native) also some flakes, points, blade that I didn't photograph.
The large one was really great, I asked him where it was dug/found?
Oh I bought it at a sale in X city. The seller said it was James Bay and it's illegal to be selling these items.
Question in my mind: But it's OK to buy them-right?
The other 2 were shown in the slide presentation as recovered items-yet there they sat on the table in his personal collection.
Question in my mind: So it's OK to pilfer them for his personal pleasure.
He did state that he had many items in his collection and this was just a few things that he brought.
Question in my mind: So this must be a regular event to take for personal and give the "storage" the stuff of no value.
In conversation about displays being dismantled (public) the contributing parties got their items back, meaning then the archaeologists got the items back.
(He stated he didn't know what they did with them, probably just kept them)
Question in my mind: So basically the trowel and paint brush crews get a free ticket/permission to hunt/dig and pilfer for their own collections.
It's always good to act a little dumb when talking to the academia as they do provide an insight on things that we suspect what happens.
This was a just a small slice on what really happens, and the laws of what a person can do in their private life as a collector.
Upvote
18