This may be of some interest to all the history/anthropology/archaeology peoples here. American Digger follows Ric Savage and his crew as they go across the country trying to find valuable artifacts to sell. The former professional wrestler (he does have a degree in history) accomplishes this by going around to people’s property, crudely ‘surveying’ the area (with a metal detector), and makes an agreement with the property owners of any monetary gains made through the relics (dug up by the use of ‘heavy-duty’ digging equipment). So have you seen the show and what are your thoughts on it? It upsets me and apparently most of the academic community. This guy is running around destroying what could be invaluable archaeology sites and all he does with what he finds is sells it. It’s glorified looting. The worst part about it is that he obtained his degree from the college I am going to now and he recently stuck somewhere around here without our knowledge. True archaeology takes a long time; you don’t just start digging and see what you find. You make maps and take pictures and record everything as you dig. It just makes me angry that some idiot ever thought this was a good idea… From what I know from discussions in some of my classes there are laws protecting archaeology sites but with him being on private property nothing can be done unless he stumbles across some sort of ritual or burial (then the state steps in and things are done correctly).
