RE site security.  At one urban site with a lot of public interest and no 
real barriers around our site we contacted the local historical society.  They 
took shifts, moved in a motor home and stayed on site through the night and 
weekends for the two weeks we were excavating.  I understand they had a BBQ out 
there on weekends and a lottery to see who was the fortunate one to camp out on 
site and protect it.  This was on property owned by a City and the City agreed 
and covered liability.  It worked out great with no problems and didn't cost 
me or the City (my client) anything.  As an aside, they also provided site 
docents during our excavation.  I would talk to the docent every hour or so and 
fill them in on what we were doing and finding.  They then dealt with all the 
general public who wandered up with questions.  They provided historical 
research for "their site" and passed that on to the public.  It worked really well. 

On another site in the same City I hired a security firm and paid for a 
private security guard 12 hours a night at $14/hour.  We also had temporary chain 
link fencing around the entire block.  I came in one morning and found a 
feature that we exposed at the end of the day and left open had been totally dug out 
over night and everything whole taken.  Turned out the security guard was a 
pothunter and spent the 12 hour shift happily using our shovels and screens to 
dig out the feature.  He dumped his goods at his girlfiend's house and skipped 
town.  The security company filed a police report and it turned into a formal 
investigation.  After many months I received a box of bottles that may or may 
not have come from the site and the guard lost his job and had to pay a $400 
misdemeanor fine.  go figure.

Mary L. Maniery
PAR Environmental Services, Inc.