[meteorite-list] Hunters and recoverererers

From: Thaddeus Besedin <endophasy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 27 12:07:56 2006
Message-ID: <20060427104534.5910.qmail_at_web32814.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

What may seem random to you may not be so. A random arrowhead is typically only seen as isolated because people picking them up do not know that there is in fact a cultural diversity represented in stone tools and fragments of prehistoric industry overlooked. These proximal objects have little, if any, market value. If one has knowledge that this "random" projectile point is surrounded by copious debris, this would certainly soil the practice, would it not? What constitutes your conception of an adequate distance between isolates, that itself determines the identity of an isolate? Things are buried, but they'll live to see another day without your pocket for protection. I can see that your world provides unlocked vaults, dropped wallets, and unclaimed inheritances. Is it not too much for one who can find time to pick up artifacts to have a GPS and a camera? Could you observe microorganisms without a microscope? What does an arrowhead mean without awareness and record of its
 context and the contexts of arrowheads?
   
   Is your sense of self-regulation a law itself? What do you mean by "studied"? Don't you mean "mined"? Understand that you are an amateur for a reason. Just admit it: you are a profiteer with no consistent, internalized scruple.
  Sure, I have stones, but I don't need a 20 kilo main mass sitting prominently on a shelf. I stopped buying over a year ago when I realized that I not only had enough material for years of personal research, but that my interest was detrimental to certain other areas of research, as well as peripheral sciences that are affected because many suppliers espouse your "treasure hunting" ethos and have expanded their horizons.
  You have to put your foot down at some point.
  I should support the "cause" by collecting from your collection. It will just rot sitting there anyway.
  -thaddeus Besedin
Dave Freeman mjwy <dfreeman_at_fascination.com> wrote:
  BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
What have YOU done to preserve science? And, what do you have in your collection that you shouldn't have (meaning anything that wasn't correctly scientifically removed)? Exactly what are your credentials to be knowledgeable to whine..?
It is very easy for those stoic office types to complain about those in the field doing the real WORK.
   Our western lands are not studied because the amateur is shut out by the scientific lobby in congress so the stuff just sits and gets eroded away by nature. In the CFR, under "artifacts" there is no penalty for collecting random arrowheads on the surface of the ground. So, don't forget that. Don't forget that private land still is private, and what may be collected there is not controlled by blue footed boobies. Poo poo to all those that have an opinion but do nothing to support the cause. I am actually still surprised that anyone can own meteorites or artifacts of any kind with the few bone-heads-for-science that roam our country. There is nothing wrong with good science but letting things erode to nothing in the name of preservation is quite self serving for nothing.
I will get of my soap box now. Mr. Dave and Mr. Jim....got me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DAve F.


Thaddeus Besedin wrote:
    They should be recovered, but we should be aware of how our excavation impacts other deposits. I'll let this rest, guys. You know my position by now. The same argument ("it will rot if I do nothing") is advanced by "relic" hunters who search rivers, but there is a major difference between surface hunting and excavation, and especially in the contexts of drainages and areas subject to mass wasting. to protect their "troves," looters typically do not disclose the provenances of their finds when offered for sale, if at all they have been conscientious enough to record a GPS position. Such negligence is irresponsible, and proves that the motive for these activities is itself personal gain. Seriously, the prices that these meteorites yield would be better deserved if all sciences involved with the thin, fragile surface of the earth are considered. This would be the attitude of a professional in any other invasive field.
  -Thaddeus
  
  
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Received on Thu 27 Apr 2006 06:45:34 AM PDT