I agree entirely with Ryan Gray.  It's not so much the loss of valuable
whole bottles that we as archaeologists get angry about, it's the loss of
context for the entire feature.  Each time a privy digger goes to work,
another snapshot of someone's life is lost.

I think an educational website would be an excellent idea.  The ASC has
produced interpretive websites for several of our historical archaeology
excavations, and we have found that it's a great way to reach the public.

I'd be willing to put together a grant application to fund the development
and production of such a site, and I'll also volunteer to be involved in
the process if someone else wants to take this on as a cooperative
project.

Any takers???

Regina George
Education Outreach Coordinator
Anthropological Studies Center
Sonoma State University
(707) 664-23
http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/



> You know, the Net is rife with the 'privy digger' web
> sites. Many of them have extensive how-to sections,
> which range considerably in terms of safety, ethics,
> and destructiveness. The most objectionable thing to
> me is that so many adopt the term 'urban
> archaeologists', which makes our lives as
> archaeologists more difficult. While it's technically
> legal and while our privydigger Eddie may have a nice
> website, and while he may be enthusiastic about
> history and a nice guy to boot, this does not mean we
> should legitimize it. Privy diggers like this take out
> all material at the same time, pick and choose what
> they want, and toss the rest. Information on faunal
> and floral remains, actual MNIs, stratigraphy, etc,
> gone. Forever.
>
> I think a hundred years from now, historical
> archaeologists will look back at our attitudes about
> this much like we look back at amateur archaeologists
> from a hundred years ago who excavated burial mounds
> with dynamite: why didn't professional archaeologists
> try to do more to protect sites? Why didn't they try
> to reach the public more to explain the difference
> between archaeology and treasure hunting? Why didn't
> they realize that these resources will be gone with no
> record for the future?
>
> So, anyone out there interested in putting together an
> urban archaeology web site aimed