I’m relatively new to CWT and I’d be surprised if this topic hasn’t been covered before. Please forgive me for bringing this up again if that’s the case. Also, MAJOR caveat here: I am not trying to criticize anyone but just looking for some perspective. I promise.
A little personal background: I am a historical architect, currently employed by the National Park Service. I take a keen interest in affiliated professions such as history, archaeology, ethnography and anthropology. I have worked closely with archaeologists, both prior to joining the Park Service and during my tenure with the NPS. I believe that from the viewpoint of a professional archaeologist, battlefield detecting and digging would likely be considered a form of looting, not unlike digging pots from ancient ancestral Puebloan sites in the Southwest. I know that such is not allowed on Federal land, and I assume that responsible ACW collectors will only do so on private land with the owner's permission. However, my own philosophy is that doing so still robs current and future historians and the like of valuable data critical to a proper understanding of important events. For example, I learned several years ago about battlefield investigations at the site of the famed charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava; I believe it was a Discovery Channel or similar TV program. I recall that archaeologists were able to retrieve just a small number (maybe four or five) Russian canister fragments from a certain location that gave an important insight into how much impact the Russian artillery had on the charging British forces at a key point on the battlefield. Had these few fragments found there way into private collections beforehand, that critical understanding would have been lost.
I have a number of specific related questions:
1. When does collecting of this kind stop being an acceptable hobby and become something else? Would it be OK, for instance, to dig at Thermopylae? Masada? Hastings? Verdun? Normandy? Fallujah? If collecting from any of these places isn't OK (and I don't know that it isn't), why is it OK to dig at ACW sites?
2. Is this simply a question of property ownership, i.e. it's OK on private land?
3. If in the US it is a question of property ownership, should we consider something more like the laws in the UK where artifact hunters must cooperate with archaeologists?
4. Do ACW collectors have any informal "rules" (for want of a better word) about sharing finds with government agencies, universities, museums, etc.?
I genuinely would like to know how members of this forum feel about this particular hobby and if there have been concerns raised in the past. Again, I am NOT being judgmental. If I were on private land with permission and happened to come across a Minié ball, belt buckle or anything else of interest, I, too, would likely pick it up and go home happy with such a find. I have had just such opportunities elsewhere, on public land. Once I pocketed a nicely made projectile point while backpacking on remote BLM land, but I look back now on that incident with some regret. More recently, I found a very interesting 19th century rifle shell casing on the grounds of an old frontier US Army fort. I would like to have kept it, but I put it back and hid it in the bushes where I found it. I'm not perfect, but learning.
Anyway, what do y'all think?
A little personal background: I am a historical architect, currently employed by the National Park Service. I take a keen interest in affiliated professions such as history, archaeology, ethnography and anthropology. I have worked closely with archaeologists, both prior to joining the Park Service and during my tenure with the NPS. I believe that from the viewpoint of a professional archaeologist, battlefield detecting and digging would likely be considered a form of looting, not unlike digging pots from ancient ancestral Puebloan sites in the Southwest. I know that such is not allowed on Federal land, and I assume that responsible ACW collectors will only do so on private land with the owner's permission. However, my own philosophy is that doing so still robs current and future historians and the like of valuable data critical to a proper understanding of important events. For example, I learned several years ago about battlefield investigations at the site of the famed charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava; I believe it was a Discovery Channel or similar TV program. I recall that archaeologists were able to retrieve just a small number (maybe four or five) Russian canister fragments from a certain location that gave an important insight into how much impact the Russian artillery had on the charging British forces at a key point on the battlefield. Had these few fragments found there way into private collections beforehand, that critical understanding would have been lost.
I have a number of specific related questions:
1. When does collecting of this kind stop being an acceptable hobby and become something else? Would it be OK, for instance, to dig at Thermopylae? Masada? Hastings? Verdun? Normandy? Fallujah? If collecting from any of these places isn't OK (and I don't know that it isn't), why is it OK to dig at ACW sites?
2. Is this simply a question of property ownership, i.e. it's OK on private land?
3. If in the US it is a question of property ownership, should we consider something more like the laws in the UK where artifact hunters must cooperate with archaeologists?
4. Do ACW collectors have any informal "rules" (for want of a better word) about sharing finds with government agencies, universities, museums, etc.?
I genuinely would like to know how members of this forum feel about this particular hobby and if there have been concerns raised in the past. Again, I am NOT being judgmental. If I were on private land with permission and happened to come across a Minié ball, belt buckle or anything else of interest, I, too, would likely pick it up and go home happy with such a find. I have had just such opportunities elsewhere, on public land. Once I pocketed a nicely made projectile point while backpacking on remote BLM land, but I look back now on that incident with some regret. More recently, I found a very interesting 19th century rifle shell casing on the grounds of an old frontier US Army fort. I would like to have kept it, but I put it back and hid it in the bushes where I found it. I'm not perfect, but learning.
Anyway, what do y'all think?