Monday, May 19, 2008

Forum.treasurenet.com

I think I commented in the past that it is not clear that interaction with the treasure hunters network is a good idea. But they are noticing some interesting things withall: Like this piece of quartz in a stone wall [Click here] . I cannot quite make out the structure of the wall behind the quartz. Is it set back?

I was over there looking at treasurenet because it is bringing in new visitors today. Then I go back and read some comments on the piece of quartz in the wall and about "bringing it home". So this may be my best chance to tell treasure hunters that that is pointless vandalism. That piece of quartz is not lost and you should not take it any more than you would try to take a piece of a historic building.

How about this from a comment: "
take your heavy crow bar and move the rock under it." Are they crazy?

6 comments :

JimP said...

I have had "treasure" hunters contact me. I know of at least one other member of our community who was contacted also. I know, too, that some of them are members of NEARA. There is a very real community of "treasure" hunters out there watching us. It is the very reason I concealed the locations of the sites that I posted about on here.

pwax said...

As you know I feel I have to publicize some sites and they are, in particular, ones where there would be no treasure to find. The treasure hunter community seems legit in use of metal detecting to come up with lost coins and such. But tearing up a stone wall on a whim?

JimP said...

While I don't know Massachusetts' laws, I do know Rhode Island's and I don't see how anyone could use this blog to go about this hobby without breaking the law there. And I mention that because the 'treasure' hunter that contacted me was based in Rhode Island.

If they find an artifact on federal land, they are not allowed to remove it. If they find it on state land, they are not allowed to remove it. If they find it on private land, it belongs to the landowner.

I don't doubt the laws are similar elsewhere in New England.

JimP said...

Just to make sure I'm clear, burials are an entirely different thing altogether. Not even a private landowner would own those.

I was talking about non-funerary artifacts only.

theseventhgeneration said...

A man from Oregon was recently accused of digging for artifacts in Deschutes National Forest. Click here for the link. Don't think that no one is watching!

pwax said...

Neither rain nor sleet nor all kinds of sh*t keeps the public from hearing about rock piles.