Sunday, May 21, 2017

U of Alabama Archeology Map Website - and words of wisdom from "People of One Fire"

Richard Thornton writes [here] about the U of Alabama Website.

To access the web site, click this URL link:   Alabama Office of Archaeological Research

[He continues:]
Why is this so important?  I can tell you first hand.   It is impossible to protect Native American heritage sites, if you don’t know where they are.  Look what happened in Oxford, Alabama!  

1 comment :

Chris Pittman said...

For what it is worth I strongly agree with this. Any would-be looter has no problems identifying sites as it is. I know of several intact places where there are artifacts under the ground and where I could dig as much as I wanted to, if I wanted to- but I don't. If towns and landowners and neighbors knew what resources were under the surface in these places, it might be more risky to stroll in there with a shovel. But I strongly believe that the greatest threat to these sites is development, not looting. I am watching sites that are known to the state and that have been written about in the MAS Bulletin just get bulldozed into oblivion. I doubt that towns or developers in most cases are aware on any level of just what it is that they are erasing. I believe that professional archaeologists on the whole have done a poor job of getting information out there. Someone looking for information about common projectile point types in Massachusetts is more likely to find this blog, than anything published by a professional. My opinion.