From: NASA (National Association of State Archaeologists)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Doershuk, John F
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [NASA] Report on Spike TV's "American Diggers"
Dear Colleagues:
I watched the premiere episode of Spike TV's "American Diggers" broadcast
yesterday evening. Happily, it was just a 30-minute episode, which they
immediately repeated. I scanned ahead a bit on the channel guide and it
appears Spike typically reruns shows heavily, so the same episode aired at
midnight and will run again every day this week. This episode was shot in Alaska,
next week’s program was shot in Detroit. As is the case with most TV these
days it was chock full of ads (more on these, below), so I doubt there
was more than 18 minutes or so of content, especially since they repeat prior
bits after an advertising block to remind the viewer of the storyline. The
intro segment to the show describes the intent of the series, and it is
unabashedly as the Internet advertising indicated: find historical objects,
ignore context, sell for profit. Very entrepreneurial and a premise that is
hard to argue with, after all, isn't a basic principle of America the right
for all to exploit everything they can to earn a living?
The cast of "American Diggers" includes a crew of four headed by Ric
Savage, who was center stage throughout, with the other three really filling
minor roles. Savage is an ebullient larger-than-life character but no fool.
Interestingly, one of his crew, identified only as "Bob," was labeled as a “
battlefield historian” while the other, younger crew members were simply
muscle. Otherwise, they were all self-styled “diggers” with "let's dig!"
being their byline. In this first episode they limited themselves to using
metal detectors and hand tools (they were exploiting Alaska gold rush-era
camps) but the intro segment shows that backhoes, jackhammers, and even high
explosives will be used in future episodes. Savage and his crew joke around
some, but the buffoonery that characterized Natl Geo's "Diggers" was
missing. Savage is portrayed as a man in serious pursuit of his passion – i.e.,
digging up and selling historical objects. He claims his passion is finding
history and holding it in his hands, but as with "Diggers," "American
Diggers" falls well short of communicating any sort of "discovery rush."
Unfortunately, the "rush" provided by the show was most evident when Savage sells
the items recovered at the antique mart and "the past" gets translated into
cash. True to his word, Savage shared the take with the property owner
(70/30 split with the landowner getting the smaller amount)—and the producer
made sure the camera caught the enthusiasm blossoming in the face of the
landowner when Savage handed over the money. You could literally see the wheels
turning—that's a landowner who will never think of cultural resources on
their property as something to preserve. So even though Savage and the
"American Diggers" crew came and went relatively quickly, that landowner (and
everyone he talks with in the area) will be thinking $$ for objects.
There was zero mention of archaeology or science, and no effort made at
all trying to legitimate this activity as anything remotely educational or
additive to general knowledge. The term "artifacts" was used as Savage
characterizes his firm as an "artifact recovery company." The recent New York
Times article published March 20 on the show indicates that Rita Savage, Ric's
wife, researches "the historical record of an area, compar[ing] period
maps with contemporary maps" but this activity (and Rita) did not make it into
the program. Savage did describe the gold rush-era landscape they were
interested in from an informed perspective and had a good idea about where to
target his metal detecting. Given the lack of concern the show has for
documenting findings, it is in my opinion just as well the archival research
efforts were not portrayed and I’m glad there was no attempt made cast the
show as science of any sort.
As I noted for "Diggers," the most damaging thing about "American Diggers"
is that no effort is made to document where anything came from and there
is no discussion of associations—each discovered item was handled
piece-meal. "The past" and "history" were repeatedly invoked as cool and
interesting, but ultimately, simply a source of cash. And cash, in the end, is what
this show is about, just as with “Diggers.” With “American Diggers,” Savage
is about finding thousands of dollars’ worth of objects whereas the Natl
Geo guys were happy with recovering just hundreds of dollars. Spike TV is,
of course, involved because of advertising revenue. Here's the "American
Diggers" advertiser list: Subway, DQ, Chilis, Red Robin, Red Lobster, Arbys,
Taco Bell, Best Western, GEICO, Esurance, Quaker State, Reeses, Cheetos, FOX
Channel, other Spike TV shows, Nintendo, several current movies, and
Internet Explorer 9. Quite a mix (and as noted, volume), but notably no cell
phone companies, upscale cars, or premium beer (in fact, contrary to my
expectations, no beer ads at all which amply demonstrates the target audience is
not archaeologists), so rather different that the Natl Geo “Diggers”
advertising clientele.
Here's the most ironic—and telling—observation I can offer: Savage
recognizes that linking an object to its broader historical context increases
collector interest and the monetary value of items his crew recovers. For
example, he knows a Civil War sword is more valuable than a sword with no
period or conflict association and that a Confederate Civil War sword has even
more value, and particular battlefield or officer association would really
up the ante. However, he does not participate in recording any contextual
detail for the finds he makes. Thus, he uses—and profits from—the accrued
historical knowledge base that has built up through time about these objects
but doesn't in turn contribute. Rather, he tears individual items out of
context and then injects them into a collector market where he excitedly
discusses probable age, maker's marks, and condition with the buyer but there
is no effort made to communicate the locational details of the discovery or
associations between items or the landscape from which they came. So just
as the value of a newly purchased car diminishes as soon as one drives off
the lot, the items Savage recovers diminish in potential cash value (and
knowledge value) as soon as he sells and the scant contextual details are
eroded or lost. Exclamations of “this is really rare!” fail to trigger in
Savage’s mind thoughts of “we should learn all we can about this context as we
destroy it recovering this item.” The show certainly doesn’t attempt to
prompt such thinking by its viewers. Each subsequent buyer of these items
knows less and less as there are no accompanying data communicated about where
and with what the item was found. So the big problem with the “American
Diggers” approach is that artifacts rapidly become mere collectibles, not
necessarily without cash value, but in fact "worth" far less than they might
be if their full contextual story was recorded and transmitted/preserved
from seller to buyer.
Dick (and others receiving this report), if you are so inclined, please
feel free to use whatever portion of this information you like to continue
conversations—now informed rather than speculative—with Spike TV (and send
to Fred Limp at SAA and others if you like); I'll be sharing this report on
the ACRA list.
John Doershuk
State Archaeologist (Iowa)
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