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Date: | Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:21:43 -0500 |
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Joe Roberts wrote:
> Where is the call for cooperation and mutual education between
> archaeologists and relic hunters? From what I have seen, relic
> hunters will respond to archaeologists if they are met on the
> common ground of interest in history.
The Texas Historical Commission's volunteer Archaeological Stewards
Program has as one of its key activitiies the cataloging of private
collections. The purpose of the program is multifold: to record what
already exists in private hands, to educate collectors -- usually
private land owners who have no legal restrictions whatever on what they
do with archaeological sites on their property -- on the value and
importance of archaeological sites to our shared heritage, to encourage
collectors to keep their collections intact with whatever documentation
they might happen to have, and (hopefully) to discourage them from
further relic-hunting. The THC also formally recognizes private land
owners who encourage and support formal archaeological studies on their
property. In a state where property rights trump virtually everything
else, it's an important recognition that the majority of terrestrial
archaeological sites are located on lands where there is no other
practical way to protect them.
-------------> AH
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