I'd like to make two points on the question of dealing with bottle
collectors.

1.  Buy books, not bottles.  I think that if you buy a book that a
collector or group has published, it encourages more scholarship, but
does not necessarily encourage more site looting.  If you buy bottles
from a collector, maybe to develop a type collection for your lab, I
think that would fuel a collector to dig up more bottles.  But I don't
think buying a book is the same.  Do you think I'm splitting hairs?

2.  If you treat them as the enemy, they will act as the enemy.  I agree
with the commentor who subscribes to their magazines and tries to
influence them to develop a standard of ethics.  I think interacting
with people on the fringes of archaeology and trying to influence them
to do better is the way to go, not striking out by critisizing what they
have done in the past.  For example, I associate with collectors of
prehistoric artifacts, who always know more local sites than the
archaeologists do.  I try to influence them to record their sites with
the state office; or if not, to AT LEAST keep good records with their
own collections, documenting which finds came from which locations --
and doing it in writing, not keeping it all in their heads.  I tell them
horror stories of a shoebox full of arrowheads inherited by a
collector's son, who has no knowledge of what came from where and no
interest in them.  It at least gets them thinking about the future of
their collection.  I do not have expereince dealing with people who sell
prehsitoric artifacts, but I do refuse to assign monetary values to any
find, for ethical reasons.

Melissa Diamanti
Archaeological & Historical Consultants, Inc.
Centre Hall, PA
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LOCKHART BILL wrote:

>Like Allen, I subscribe to collectors' magazines for the same reason I subscribe to
>the SHA journal -- I like to keep as up to date as possible about what is happening in
>bottle research.  Prior to the last two decades, virtually all bottle literature was written
>by collectors for collectors.  Despite its inaccurate information, Grace Kendricks'
>book, The Antique Bottle Collector, is probably the single most cited work in
>archaeological reports (aside from Toulouse, of course).  Cecil Munsey (a PhD
>holder, by the way) is also frequently cited.  Toulouse wrote for collectors, not
>professionals.
>
>Many collectors are excellent researchers, although frequently uneducated in citation
>and copyright issues.  At this point, at least fourteen of you are not too concerned
>that Dave Bethman is a collector.  In reality, he offers a great deal that Toulouse (in
>his *very* thorough work) missed.  I have learned an incredible amount by reading
>collectors' literature.
>
>Most collectors (who also frequently call us the enemy!) are *not* looters and are not
>lawbreakers.  They very consientiously obey the law by asking permission to dig on
>private land, filling in holes, and never violating public land issues.  As long as the
>law allows what they are doing, we have no legitimate complaint toward them.  We
>may argue that we have a legitimate complaint about the lawmakers who refuse to
>change laws, but how can we censure lawabiding citizens?  I, too, would rather see
>more protection and preservation, but I cannot see punishing people who are not
>breaking the law.
>
>As several of you have noted, collectors' groups are composed of a large number of
>people.  The idea that our money, spent on collecting information in the form of
>publications and books, will have any bearing on whether they continue is a bit silly.
>If every archaeologist in the US boycotts every publication by collectors, not one will
>go out of business, and we will lose a lot of knowledge.
>
>Finally, collectors are here to stay.  As a pragmatist, I suggest that we accept reality
>and coexist as peacefully as possible.  Collectors have a great deal of positive
>information to offer, even if we disagree on how they obtain some of it.  I have
>recorded collections in New Mexico and Texas.  They often provide examples of
>bottles that we would not be able to identify otherwise.  Photos and examples make
>bottle identification (especially local bottles -- which frequently provide the tightest
>date ranges) much easier.
>
>While I understand the moral concerns that are being expressed, I do not see where
>boycotting collectors will actually accomplish anything.  If we could slow down the
>destruction of public and private sites by concrete action, I might take a stronger
>approach.  But I do not see that track taking us anywhere.  In fact, I see it leading to
>information loss.  The collector/researcher is not bound by deadlines, financing, or
>conflicting scheduling.  For him/her, it is a labor of love.  The collector wants the
>"goodies," and we want the information.  Surely, we can fins some middle ground.
>
>Bill LockhartBill Lockhart
>New Mexico State University
>Alamogordo, NM
>(505) 439-3732
>
>
>