Tom Wheaton wrote:
 
"Florida does not allow people to dive on wrecks and take home momentos.
However, this does not mean that tourists don't do it, or that charter boat
owners don't allow it to happen.  Florida has generally been pretty good
about trying to enforce its rights to "treasure" to keep it out of the
hands of the treasure hunters.  They lost a round or two with Mel Fisher,
but at least the state got some of it, which is on display in Tallahassee.
Most of the rest of Fisher's stuff has been parcelled out among his
investors, and heaven knows where it is now.  Some has no doubt been melted
down or made into jewelry.  It is now mostly lost for analysis.  It makes
one want to
weep."
-----------------
He is absolutely correct about the jewelry and the crime of pothunting
undisturbed sites.  One company has sold pieces from the Atocha wreck in
department store jewelry counters.
 
But this raises a question: if a kazillion 8 peso coins have been recovered
from wrecks, and there are a kazillion examples of 1644 Mexico City mint
marks in all variations, and the museums are full of them,  is it wrong to
sell the excess once they are documented?
 
As a museum director I can tell you that oncea museum has the 250th 19th
century wedding dress of a certain style, or the 53rd flat iron, there is
no usable purpose for additional identical or near identical examples. The
teaching collections are full, the permanent collections are full, and
perhaps one researcher per decade wants to see them.
 
This situation exists in field archaeology as well, the Park Service and
contract archaeology firms used to make many calls to my office in New
Mexico BEGGING to store crates of potsherds and carbonized wood that came
out of clearance sites. God forbid (according to some purists) they should
be placed in the hands of interested amateurs or distributed to schools for
teaching purposes. The arguments were raised that "perhaps, in the year
2153, someone invents a way of extracting more data from the artifacts?"
 
Yeah, and who pays to keep the stuff in storage until 2153? Newt Gingrich?
You might want to look around, there are more broke museums than ever
before and we can't afford to keep "study collections." Our storage areas
are beginning to look like the last scene from (excuse me)the first Indiana
Jones movie (which I think was shot at the Smithsonian).
 
The simple answer is that no one can afford to pay for storing and curating
this material, which can cost upwards of $10 to $17 per square foot per
year. In most situations I would argue that if the stuff can't be used,
leave it in the ground. If graduate students need field credits, let them
excavate some museum collections, which is a lot cheaper than excavating
field sites these days. If the site is going to be destroyed, and no money
exists to excavate it, let the amateurs salvage something, document it as
best as can be, and hope the next one turns out better. An by all means
prosecute the $#%^ out of pothunters.
 
Many history and archaeology Museums began as places for academics to put
their collections after the papers were written and the kudos were
received. But afterwards, they often acted like persons who fathered
illegitimate children, not caring what happened to them after they got
their use from the materials. At best they would visit the "smart kids,"
pat them on the heads and said "looky here." The undistinguished offspring
(i.e. thousands of sherds, millions of trouser buttons, kazillions of
pistol and rifle balls and gunflints) were never thought of again. Except
by Curators who had to be accountable for the stuff IN PERPETUITY and pay
the bills.
 
Here in Florida we plan to try and recover some materials carried off to
museums in Pennsylvania and other sites that, almost 100 years later, is
still in the crates. We understand that some collections of prehistoric
materials haven't seen the light of day since they were excavated and
"reburied" in expeditionary crates.
 
So let's start a good natured string fellow professionals! I run an
orphanage for the artifacts you recover. My storage bins are full. No one
wants to see the material. What do YOU want me to do with it and how do I
pay the bills?
 
________________________
Byron A. Johnson, Exec. Dir.
The Tampa Bay History Center
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P.O. Box 948
Tampa, FL  33601-0948
Phone: (813) 228-0097
FAX: (813) 223-7021