Looting MS Doxie Mound yields DOH!! SMH! WTF!?!?

[tomclark]

Saw this news recently about looters getting screwed over near Oxford, MS for digging up a protected site...

http://www.therepublic.com/2017/09/3...ifacts-stolen/

and a followup 3 person affair same "investigation":
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-...-indian-mound/

Of course it never ends everywhere else:https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/ar.../#.WfKdDmhSzmY

Nooo! Not on that other site!.... AH http://www.cbs8.com/story/35377068/a...ican-artifacts

http://www.sumtercountytimes.com/content/three-face-charges-artifact-digging

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/06/13/arrowhead-hunters-face-felony-charges/392289001/

http://www.wtoc.com/story/35630171/two-charged-for-illegally-digging-on-state-property-theft

[Havenhunter]

Always a few bad apples who make us all look bad.

[tomclark]

Fact!

[gregszybala]

Like the title!
We humans seem to think we can do as we please when ever we want.

[Scorpion68]

I imagine all these people knew full well that what they were doing was illegal, especially on state and federal land areas. It's usually all about the money. This is one reason that I only hunt on private property where I can get permission to hunt and know that I'm doing it legally. I kinda didn't like the the tone that was used when the news commentator talked about Arrowheadology.com and the posting of artifacts. IMO She made it sound like we are wrong for collecting and sharing our finds regardless if it's legal or not. May be wrong but just left me a little PO'd.

[tomclark]

I had an FWC officer come upon our digging group on private property. Was asking about what we found, etc., sounded like a nice guy.... then another showed up and they started asking "other" questions like "Where's the pot? Digging and pot go together"..... and inferred something about Meth. I called the owner down to kick 'em off his property. News for years has drugs, wastoids and trespassing attached to looking for artifacts. People who con't collect or even appreciate the hobby are getting the idea that we are all involved in nefarious things. Just a few bad apples YES. These guys were over the fence line where they should not have been and BOOM!

[Jethro355]

That guy on the ground in cuffs ain't on meth...at least he hasn't been for long if he is.

[Scorpion68]

In all my years of arrowhead hunting here in Tennessee - I've had nothing but positive associations with TWRA and State and Federal Park officials. I took my collection over to the Big South Fork Recreational Area office and met with the Archaeologist there. We spent quite sometime going over my collection and he helped my identify a lot of my points. He asked me if they were local finds and I told him that they were and where I was hunting, on private land. He did tell me that if I ever found any artifacts in the Park, not to remove the artifact from the Park but to take a pic, mark the location on my GPS and then, if I didn't mind, provide him with a copy of the pic and the artifacts location. He invited me back anytime if I needed help. I've also run across Game Wardens while hunting and they just pass the time of day, BS a little, then head on out. But then I'm usually on private land.

[Pinetree1]

They want to know where so they can add them to their collections. I've looked at several university museums that had fewer artifacts than most collectors. Why is that when I've read about all the places they've excavated over the last 150 years? The rooms the artifacts were displayed in were large enough to display thousands of artifacts but they only had a few cases with mostly worn out exhausted points and broken ones. Where are all the artifacts? In some professors home that's where! I've been told not to pick up points on lake bottoms where the creation of the lake has destroyed the sites completely. Paleo lying next to Mississippian. I think it's a shame that if some people want to destroy sites to build a lake it's ok, but if an advocatioal archeologists wants to do some exploring it's the end of the world. Hypocritical if you ask me. I do believe digging burials is a crime and violators should be prosecuted. Enough of my rambling but I had to speak. 😋

[Kyflintguy]

I saw this the other day and just shook my head... Pretty disrespectful and just stupid act. I also saw the fines that were handed out, whoa! No artifact is worth those kind of repercussions...

[Jethro355]

I saw the fines too....and I was a little bit shocked. There is literally nothing anyone, or even a small army of “anyone’s” could do with a shovel that would amount to “$40,000.00 in damages to the land”.

apparently they wanted to make a statement with this ruling.

[tomclark]

I've been called "Chicken" for NOT participating in questionable or illegal collecting and have never sorry, rather proud.... Cluck Clark

[Scorpion68]

I've known people who knew where these burial sites were and specifically targeted them because the artifacts were pristine and usually made specifically for the burial. It reminded me of someone digging up a modern grave in hopes of finding jewelry or gold teeth on the body. It's happened. If that had been a relative of mine, $40,000 fine would have been the least of their worries.