For as long as I have been at Boston University I have gotten letters
& resumés annually from people asking me to hire them despite the
fact that I am not an employer; these always come absolutely cold and
unsolicited.  I can't imagine anyone ever got a job in this manner.

Email strikes me as having turned into everyone's excuse to ask you
for anything of any sort, so it has made it worse on the unsolicited
job application front along with all the high schools students
demanding immediate responses to questions for the report they have
due in a week, etc.  Most requests come from people who haven't even
bothered to find out what sort of archaeology I do.