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Forwarded from Brian Kenny
 
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Urgent Notice
he following letter was sent to a local museum curator, then forwarded to
me.  The publishing company has obtained a mailing list and may be sending
this letter out around the country.
 
PLEASE TAKE DIRECT IMMEDIATE ACTION !!  Then, please be sure to re-post
this  message across the Internet with as many responsible historic
preservation
groups as feasible.
 
Ask the publisher to send you a draft of the publication for review.  Call
the publishing company via their 800 number and "chew" on Ms. Slabaugh a
bit.  Send the publisher copies of federal, state and tribal regulations
regarding surface collecting, and take time to explain what the regulations
really mean.  Mention the Site Steward programs now in place around the
country.
 
This book should not be published or distributed without some serious review
 
and mountains of input from the caring avocational and professional
archaeological communities.  The publisher's oxymoronic comments about a
chapter on the ethics of collecting must be challenged.  If you care not to
speak now, don't be surprised about the vandalism coming your way.
 
Thanks
Brian Kenny
 
attachment below
 
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Adventure Publications, Inc.
October 2, 1995
 
Tempe Historical Museum
809 East Southern Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85282
Phone: (602) 350-5105
 
Dear Park, Site, Center, Organization or Museum:
 
We are publishing a book to be released in March of 1996 entitled
"Adventures in Stone Artifacts" by Sandra Livoti and Jon Kiesa.  It is
designed to encourage young people in the hobby of arrowhead/surface
hunting.  Along with information about where to look and what to look for,
we are devoting an entire chapter to the ethics involved and an appendix
with listed resources.  We would like to include your organization (or park,
 
site, center or museum) as a resource for further study or information.
 
Please verify the above address and phone number, where applicable, by
signing on the line below and returning in the envelope provided or faxing
to the number below.  We will then know we are providing correct information
 
to our readers.  Also, please indicate if you are interested in receiving
promotional/ordering information on the book when it is available.
 
Thank you so much for your cooperation.
 ____________________________
Signature to indicate information is correct.
 
Name Printed:
 
Title:
 
I am interested in receiving more promotional/ordering
information:        yes  no
 
Sincerely,
 
Gerri Slabaugh
Adventure Publications
Box 269
Cambridge, MN  55008
1-612-689-9800
1-800-678-7006
1-612-689-9039 (fax)
 
If not correct, please correct above or provide below:
 
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Comments From Brian Kenny
From my web site:
Artifact collections should be made only with a precise research plan.   If
one person picks up a sherd, there's not much impact; it (the artifact)
might even do some good (educating children). If each visitor to the site
collects a few sherds or tools, the site is damaged, and research data and
spatial relationships are lost forever. Often people keep these artifacts
and collected oddities, but more usually the "goodies" eventually get thrown
out with a thorough spring house cleaning or a family household move. What a
waste!
 
When the collector dies, the information he or she knows about general
artifact provenience
may be lost forever. With this type of collecting going on, we get more and
more samples of
artifacts floating disconnected in time and space, with no way to recover
the meaning they
might have once held as they rested in association with other artifacts in
the site, in a
particular lanscape, at a precise point in time.
 
Archaeologists always focus on the spatial relationships (provenience) of
artifacts as they are found in a site. This is the information
archaeologists set out to record when you see them
making their voluminous notes and measurements. Artifacts may be pretty to
look at, but
without their precise provenience, they often lose much cultural and
archaeological meaning.
 
Artifacts may be no bigger than a thumbnail, archaeologists can radiocarbon
date some items that are smaller than a matchhead. The small number and
physical size of artifacts are no justification. They could have great
meaning given a known provenience and an approppriate research context.
Collecting artifacts in an unorganized manner may provide some educational
opportunities, but these tend to be poor and most meager educational
opportunities for children because greater insights are lost for a lack of
understanding the provenience of these artifacts.
For more information, please contact:
Brian W. Kenny
(602) 227- 3154
(voice msg pager)
E-mail Addresses:
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