Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170120
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB BAIRD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This new crime that beckons the attention of federal law-enforcement is none other than relic hunting, a simple hobby enjoyed by many Virginians. Relic hunting is the use of a metal detector to find, recover and preserve metallic objects lost long ago.
Some people, primarily archaeologists, believe that such recovery is always bad because we are "losing the historical context" by doing so. They would prefer that any excavation be done "professionally" by an archaeologist. But that just won't happen.
Unfortunately, this attitude is not limited to relics. Many want to severely limit everyone's ability to enjoy such hobbies as arrowhead, rock and even fossil collecting on federal land. Gone are the days of "public" land, replaced by the concept of federal land and all the baggage and implications that go with it. No hiking. No swimming. No fishing No hunting. No picnicking. No relic hunting. No arrowhead hunting. No rock hunting. No fossil hunting. This is your park; enjoy it.
Archaeological procedure is one of the slowest ways to remove anything. Imagine, as we have all seen on National Geographic specials, someone going over a single square yard of land area with a dental pick, a toothbrush and a sieve to extract every possible chip and speck. Now picture this technique applied to the many tens of thousands of acres of historic land throughout the state.
Archaeologists, of course, are patient enough to wait a hundred thousand years if necessary to finish the task, and they don't want anyone else touching anything until they have the interest, the time and the funds to pursue it.
While their patience is admirable, for relics there is a problem. Relics recovered with metal detectors are metal - and metal in the ground doesn't wait for archaeologists, no matter how sincere they may be.
Iron objects rust away, and objects made with thin sheet brass (such as buttons) also oxidize very quickly. Many relics have already been destroyed, not by relic hunters but through a policy of wanton neglect by a federal government that allows objects to degrade unless an archaeologist chances to come along.
Archaeologists maintain that each site contains history much like a book, and that relic hunters destroy the book. The real problem, however, is that these books are all written with disappearing ink and the text will soon be entirely gone. Many of us believe that, given this reality, anyone reading the book at all before the text disappears is better than letting it be lost forever simply because the federal government feels that only certain people should read it.
Federal officials complain that relic hunters take and destroy the past, when, in fact, leaving these precious remaining bits of metal in the ground is the surest way to guarantee their permanent destruction. Once this happens, no one, not the federal government, the archaeologist or the relic hunter will ever see them again.
Even worse is the callous and disrespectful treatment that relics all too often get on "protected" federal land. Many such lands are under continuous cultivation, which means that the land is plowed and tilled, with fertilizer and pesticides applied regularly. If 130 years of oxidation hasn't destroyed the relics, plowing and tilling them is sure to. Agricultural chemicals then help to dissolve in a few seasons what little manages to avoid the plow. There is no rhyme or reason for this; it is simply federal "policy."
Stewardship is not leaving relics to corrode and decay in the ground. They can and should be recovered now, and because it is simply impossible for archaeologists to do it, that leaves relic hunters.
For example, the Central Virginia Relic Hunters Association is preparing a proposal to a private land trust to recover relics from its land. We will note the locations on a map of what is found, and provide a write-up of the significance of what was found where. They will get the historical information, and we will keep any relics we find.
When all of us die, our carefully preserved collections will be passed to another generation. At the same time, what little now remains on federal land exclusively for the benefit of future generations of archaeologists will not even exist.
Bob Baird of Glen Allen is a member of the Central Virginia Relic Hunters Association.
by CNB