So What Would You Have Done?

[tracer]

linked below is an interesting article about an amateur making a mammoth find and what ensued from it. one point it made me consider was that when you find something in a bank of a river, there can be much more relevant stuff in the area, and it seems like it would be pretty difficult for even a dedicated amateur to do what a big team can.

can you dig it

[jpbowden]

LET'S SEE, WHERE DID I PUT THAT SHOVEL?

[Hawkeye]

LET'S SEE, WHERE DID I PUT THAT SHOVEL?

I probably would have gotten out the shovel as well if I knew it were legal to take them. I probably would not have called a university about a legal find. If I knew I couldn't take them, I'm not sure if I would have contacted somebody or just left them. You never really know what you'd do until it actually happens to you. I know I would NOT risk getting in trouble.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Many years ago, an artifact hunter showed up at the university (where I worked in the museum) with a femur from a mastodon. He didn't really know what it was, but thought it was significant. After being informed of what he had, he offered to take me to the site where it was located.

The thing was in a large dissolution joint fracture(2m), that intersected an outcrop(5m in height), that was part of an off ramp for an interstate highway. It was obvious that there was much more of the critter buried under the regolith. Pieces of bones were scattered down the face of joint, and I picked a few of the pieces up and went back to the university to inform the paleontologist what I observed.

We decided to remove the thing, but first, since it was on federal property, maintained by the state, I contacted the appropriate state agency and did another reconnoiter with state officials. We were told that a 5k bond would be required before any work could start.

At the time, I was also taking an anthropology class, and I decided to inform my instructor of the find. Once the Anthropology Dept. became involved, everything started becoming much more difficult... inter-departmental politics???

Apparently, they thought it would be a good project for some grad students, and started putting up a fight about letting us "un-qualified" geologists have a go at the thing; even to the point of getting the state archeologist to put a halt to our efforts.

,

The site sat there for at 2 years with no work being done. I eventually left the area, and forgot about it. Recently, I returned to the outcrop(after 20+years) and noticed that someone finally dug the thing up, but I have no ideal who it was; it was probably Anthropology as not only was the regolith removed from the joint fracture, but it had been widened greatly... someone put a lot of work into the dig.

I still have a few pieces from the thing, mostly small bone shards, and what is probably a couple pieces of the verts that are small, so I would assume pieces of the tail.

[Auspex]

Well, if I found something that was significant and clearly beyond my meager experience to retrieve, I'd get help from someone who knew what they were doing. In the case of a legal public lands find, my first choice would be to avoid the red tape and locate a qualified amateur (not to say that the find wouldn't wind up in a museum collection afterwards). If the find was hot enough to get a museum moving without delay, then they might be my first call.

[mommabetts]

If I was some where that it is legal for me to dig, I would probably start digging to just try and see what was there to get an ideal of what I was finding, how much is there and see if I thought I could do it by myself or call some friends. Then go from there. It would depend on what it is and what it would take to get it out.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Anthropology became involved thinking it might be a kill site. The year previous to this find, a farmer had un-earthed a kill site in a neighboring county, however, this site was located on an ancient river strath(covered with alluvium from same) that hadn't seen a current in several million years. Clearly, there was no way it could be associated with man.