PBS NewsHour America’s archaeology data keeps disappearing

[tomclark]

"America’s archaeology data keeps disappearing" article

Interesting.

[Scorpion68]

Tom - Do you have a link to it or is it in the current news?? I don't recall seeing it??

[tomclark]

I saw it on PBS but it's on other sites. Google search "America’s archaeology data keeps disappearing" brings up multiple links.

[Scorpion68]

Thanks Tom

[Tam]

Looking that up . And what gets me is I have watched some specials where how many thousands of artifacts are collected and put in storage ! For what ? Let’s catalogue it and get it out for the public eye to see . How many bones and other mysteries are lost , stored and forgotten .

[Scorpion68]

The main problem with your line of thought Tam is, the shear volume of information/artifacts collected and stored would take an awful lot of people and money to accomplish. I talked with a curator at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., when I was stationed in D.C. and he was telling me about the tons of material in storage and how they try to rotate the displays. It's a huge task and that's just with the Smithsonian. Can you imagine the volume of material throughout the U.S.

[Scorpion68]

Seems to me Tom that the Govt organization that commissions the research is not following through with it's responsibility of ensuring proper documentation and safe storage for future retrieval. There's an easy solution - back track and hold em accountable.

[Kyflintguy]

Interesting read Tom, I saw it earlier today. I was surprised by the content because I assumed it was going to bash collectors by the title.

[Tam]

Yes Chuck many reads and specials on TV just mind blowing .Just goggle the guy in Geprgia that has been a cotton picker his entire life . Looks like a museum .