Sorry for the delay in posting this, but my mailbox is full and won't
let me in the right way.
 
Anita Cohen-Williams; Reference Services; Hayden Library
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ  85287-1006
PHONE: (602) 965-4579              FAX: (602) 965-9169
INTERNET: [log in to unmask]  Owner: HISTARCH, SPANBORD
*** Forwarding note from HOFFMAN --CMSNAMES 03/03/95 13:26 ***
Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]>
Received: from ASUACAD (NJE origin SMTP2@ASUACAD) by ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU (LMail
          V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 6191; Fri, 3 Mar 1995 13:26:20 -0700
Received: from whflemming.hist.lsu.edu by ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
   with TCP; Fri, 03 Mar 95 13:26:14 MST
Received: by whflemming.hist.lsu.edu (NX5.67c/NX3.0M)
        id AA27169; Fri, 3 Mar 95 14:20:47 -0600
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 14:20:46 -0600 (CST)
From: "Paul E. Hoffman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: Anita Cohen-Williams <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Atocha #2
Message-Id: <Pine.NXT.3.91.950303131135.27107B-100000@whflemming>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
 
This one is for distribution to HISTARCH.
 
Some observations from an historian who has watched the Atocha story at
fairly close range and who also understands the value system of
archaeologists from long experience with them.
 
The level of indignation that the Atocha story raises suggests that more
than a violation of a dearly held professional standard has occurred.
Would someone please explain to me how any professional archaeologist
would have raised the money needed to hunt for, much less excavate this
wreck?  And let's put that in the context of the 1970s or 1980s; the 90s
are, as we all regret, a time of decreasing funding.  Not that Fisher's
salesmanship in raising money justifies his actions when you look at
methods of excavation, but all those who cry that it should have been
left for the professionals have yet to demonstrate how in the world they
would pay for professional excavations.
 
Second, having visited Fisher's Key West museum and looked at his prices
for coins and compared them with Atocha coins offered for sale in other
places in Key West, I can only observe that anyone who buys from Fisher
is paying a premium well above the market.  Ditto with silver jewelry
made from the bars.  Same with his emeralds.  Perhaps you folks should
warn the public....
 
Third, and here I am sure I open up your flame throwers, where is the
indignation at the failure of the pros to use the leverage that the state
of Florida once had to get with fisher and direct his efforts into more
acceptable paths, rather than simply preach in outrage?  Do none of you
ever work with amateurs in your crews?  It is of note that once fisher
did finally listen (and he was stubborn too) and began to map his finds,
then and only then did he begin to make progress toward finding the
"mother lode"  -- how much more "information" might have been obtained
had he been befriended early on and shown better ways to do the job, and
also preserve the contextual information that is so important for
archaeology?  And then too, what of any real value would the scatter of
the ship's upper works tell us other than how a series of hurricanes can
break up a ship and scatter its parts (and their contents) over dozens of
square miles?  The lowerhull and its contents, which were what was found
last -- and apparently examined with some degree of care to record
associations etc -- is a different case.  I understand that as much care
was taken with that as the diving conditions allowed, but haven't seen
the report to verify that.  If you have been reading this far, you see
why I wonder what else is behind all the outrage over the Atocha.  And I
suggest that ordinary folk, not in the academy and so not plugged into
our various subcultural moralisms, will and have asked these questions
and many others.
 
We are all better off, I suppose, for the passage of the Historic
Shipwrecks Act, but we are not better off because of the federal legal
findings that made it necessary, and those findings grew out of an unholy
alliance of outraged archaeologists and politicians with rather different
agendas (from the archaeologists).  Although I don't know any of the
principals I gather that the personal chemistry among them had a great
deal to do with all of this, and personal chemistry is not a matter of
the standards of a discipline.  So give me, and the public, a break on
all the moralizing.  Appropriate members of your guild refused to try to
be part of the solution and so became part of the problem.  Everyday,
professional archaeologists across this country are engaged in "salvage"
archaeology of sites they would not have examined except that a bulldozer
was working just up the way; that is rather like the situation once
Fisher moved onto the right site for the Atocha.  Digging in to save what
you can from highway construction is not so very different from digging
in to guide an amateur in the right direction.  Neither is ideal or the
way the discipline "ought to function", but I don't hear many of you turning
down salvage contracts....
 
Will there ever be a final report on the Atocha that addresses some of
the concerns for excavation data that have been heard on this list?  My
sources say one is being prepared, so maybe we should wait and see.  As
for the artifacts, who exactly is going to study the ways in which the
hand held dies were struck on all those coins, and why?  The unique
pieces should be available for study in public museums, I quite agree; but
any chance of
that was lost in the legal food fight in Florida, and it is clear that
Fisher did not start that one (although he did win it).
 
Adelante!