# just thinking



## oochee hunter (Jan 16, 2017)

I was on my farm this weekend strolling around looking for points and got to thinking " what if " I found a really significant artifact on my farm.  It was talked about a few years ago that a guy up river from me found a complete native american canoe .  Also I was told of a guy that has a petrified bow that was found.  If any of yall found a really incredible find like those what would you do with them?  I did not find anything like what was mentioned above but I was thinking if I did what to do with them?  Just wondering!


----------



## Kawaliga (Jan 16, 2017)

Hard to say what would be best. A friend of mine gave his lifetime collection to a county historical society so that the public could enjoy seeing it. I was in that area recently, and stopped by to see the collection. The lady in charge told me viewing it was by appointment only, and only on certain days of the week.


----------



## dtala (Jan 16, 2017)

so much for the public "enjoying" the collection.


----------



## Forest Grump (Jan 16, 2017)

Kawaliga said:


> Hard to say what would be best. A friend of mine gave his lifetime collection to a county historical society so that the public could enjoy seeing it. I was in that area recently, and stopped by to see the collection. The lady in charge told me viewing it was by appointment only, and only on certain days of the week.



Talk to Son & see what happens a few years later, when the "museum" runs out of funding & suddenly the entire collection disappears. Most museums & subsidized collections just put it all in drawers & envelopes, never to be seen again & refuse to allow anyone access to it if they are not a PhD candidate. Always reminds me of the end of the first Indiana Jones movie, where the Arc of the Covenant winds up in a huge Smithsonian warehouse in a numbered crate.


----------



## dtala (Jan 17, 2017)

I had access to the University of Alabama Archeology storage facility for several years. I was ASTOUNDED at the stuff in there. Some was from sanctioned digs, some donated. None was ever put on display for the public to enjoy. Such a waste.


----------



## Nicodemus (Jan 17, 2017)

I would lay my entire collection of artifacts on an anvil and pound them into dust finer than talcum powder before I would donate any of them to any museum or institute.


----------



## NCHillbilly (Jan 17, 2017)

UNC sent teams up here in the 60s to <strike>loot</strike> excavate all the Mississippian-era Indian mounds. They got out thousands of amazing artifacts, from projectile points to gorgets inscribed with winged rattlesnake and falcon man motifs, to woven cane mats, pottery, panther claw necklaces, stone effigy pipes, copper ear spools, and all kinds of other things that they took some photos of, wrote up a paper about, and are now all presumably sitting in cardboard boxes in some dusty basement in Chapel Hill, if they haven't been surreptitiously became part of  private collections over the years. If tax money funds excavations of archaeological sites, the results should be available to the public, IMO.


----------



## 1eyefishing (Jan 17, 2017)

NCHillbilly said:


> UNC sent teams up here in the 60s to <strike>loot</strike> excavate all the Mississippian-era Indian mounds. They got out thousands of amazing artifacts, from projectile points to gorgets inscribed with winged rattlesnake and falcon man motifs, to woven cane mats, pottery, panther claw necklaces, stone effigy pipes, copper ear spools, and all kinds of other things that they took some photos of, wrote up a paper about, and are now all presumably sitting in cardboard boxes in some dusty basement in Chapel Hill, if they haven't been surreptitiously became part of  private collections over the years. If tax money funds excavations of archaeological sites, the results should be available to the public, IMO.



Betcha those same sites are now posted up preventing the public from collecting artifacts.
Govment- " only the government is authorized to vandalize these sites."


----------



## Kawaliga (Jan 17, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> I would lay my entire collection of artifacts on an anvil and pound them into dust finer than talcum powder before I would donate any of them to any museum or institute.



Me too, Nic, and it's a shame it has to be that way. I have collected since the late fifties, and probably walked a 1000 miles in plowed fields finding artifacts. Many professional archaeologists resent hobby collectors, and some of them would go so far as to criminalize surface collecting, which is silly because surface artifacts from the plow zone are out of context anyway.


----------



## Nicodemus (Jan 17, 2017)

Kawaliga said:


> Me too, Nic, and it's a shame it has to be that way. I have collected since the late fifties, and probably walked a 1000 miles in plowed fields finding artifacts. Many professional archaeologists resent hobby collectors, and some of them would go so far as to criminalize surface collecting, which is silly because surface artifacts from the plow zone are out of context anyway.





Yep, I agree. It was good to see you the other week.


----------



## White Horse (Jan 17, 2017)

The Park Mound in Troup County was excavated by the University of Georgia in the early 1970's, then was covered by the West Point Reservoir. Once again, the artifacts discovered there were boxed up and stored, never to be seen again. By now, they probably couldn't even be located.

Not all museums are stingy, however. I have done research at the Gilcrease in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and at the British Museum in London, and staff at both museums were very open and helpful.

Many of you will know that the earliest near complete Muscogee Creek outfit of clothing that still exists is in the British Museum. It was given to his British host by Creek leader Hillis Hadjo or Josiah Francis in 1815 while he visited London to try to get the British to continue their fight against the new USA regime in South Georgia and Northern Florida.

Interestingly enough, the leggings in the outfit appear to have never been worn.


----------



## oochee hunter (Jan 17, 2017)

*Thanks*

I think I have my answer!!  Maybe one day something significant will be found and it will be here for family and friends to admire.  Thanks again.


----------

