A similar correlation exists in the much, much more lucrative traffic in
illegal antiquities, which have much higher values than artifacts from
the Civil War, due to their status as artistic objects.  Illegal
antiquities smugglers connect most closely to people smuggling illegal
drugs (also to the trades in illegal arms and in people) because they
use the same smuggling networks, then diverging to serve different sales
networks and, usually, different clienteles.  Antiquities smuggling
predates archaeology as an organized academic/scientific discipline,
and, unfortunately, has an intimate connection to the origins of our
science.  Perhaps strangely, it also predates smuggling of illegal
drugs, since none of these substances were illegal until anti-drug laws
began to be passed, as part of the Prohibition movement of about a
century ago.  In this past century, as noted in other posts, law
enforcement has had no real success in stemming the trade in illegal
drugs; the shorthand for this situation is that the drugs have won the
"war on drugs."  Not an encouraging example, for efforts to stop illegal
trade in antiquities (pouring out of Iraq, from sites being looted on an
industrial scale, right now:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article
_id=8536) or site destruction from artifact collecting.

D. Babson.


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Roderick Sprague
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 12:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Relic hunting and illegal drugs

HISTARCH

Many correlations that are eventually determined to be valid through 
statistical analysis often begin as intuitive impressions.  The 
correlation between arrowhead collecting and illegal drug production 
and distribution is one that has shown up with more than a casual 
frequency in the Pacific Northwest.  As close as 35 miles away in 
Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington this association has been 
utilized by the local drug enforcement task force as a means of 
locating the local suspects.  Ridicule does not seem the proper 
reaction to a very real archaeological violation being utilized by 
law enforcement for secondary purposes.  Just for the record we are 
not within the area of the Civil War but do have very important 
historic sites subject to vandalism.

Rick