The Dirt Brothers vs. Texas Amateur Archeological Association

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I must admit I am not totally clear what the actual activities of this second group, apparently gathered around Bob Wishoff, entail. They too seem to be collectors but promote themselves in a different manner:

We do not sell artifacts! We share them with the world! We show amateurs the real how-to's of professional controlled excavation techniques. [...] Learn how to make a real difference beyond collecting! Visit our Gallery. Check out the Dirt Brothers Excavations! Volunteer to help! See Dirt Brothers and Sisters finding and rescuing the past! Let's define ethical collecting for the world! Read our Statement of What We're About! [...] Don't be a history vandal! There are enough sites being destroyed by progress to salvage and document! Don't dig pristine sites--- document and save them for the future.[...] Stand up and be counted! The majority of the public wants to learn more, wants to work side-by-side with professionals at saving and recording history. Let's redefine looting and isolate those who would, by their actions, make our pursuit illegal. Let's define ethical collecting for the world!

Defining ethical collecting is what this blog is about, so I was interested when somebody drew attention to this website.

The series of pages on the excavation ("Diggin' for Data Investigations at Pecan Springs (41KR21) ") shows a perfectly adequate amateur field project done some five years ago including the 'lab work' done on the recovered material. This is the sort of thing amateur groups could be doing (see the post above this). I would say every one of the points made by the Dirt Brothers about the trashing of sites in the US to provide collectables for the US market also applies to the trashing of sites outside the US to provide collectables for the no-questions-asked market. To use their terminology, no-questions-asked collectors and dealers are history vandals just as much as the guy with the spade who they pay to do the dirty work.

Dirt Brothers have an "editorial" article about the Texas collectors discussed in the post above this: ("It's LEGAL, but is this ETHICAL?").. this is of course the same question that one might address to the no-questions-asked collector of antiquities in general. Mr Wishoff suggests:

Collectors! It's Time to Take A Stand! BOYCOTT THE TAAA! Perhaps we should all be grateful to Bob McWilliams and his pseudo-archaeological association, for clearly defining, once and for all, what "looting" is. [...] All of us who seriously collect artifacts, and have a serious interest in the discipline of Archaeology, have got to see that the actions of this man and his phony Archaeological Association create considerable problems for everyone! McWilliams' actions not only illustrate his lack of interest in the finer details of a site's history, but they also are a smug slap in the face to all of us who seek more credibility with the pros, more chances to learn. McWilliams doesn't care what you think--- he's in it for the cash and he'll rape the land until there's no more sites to exploit. He thinks of all of you [collectors] as greedy little bastards, and that no matter what you privately think of his methods, that you'll continue to show up at his digs. Is he correct???

[...] The TAAA does nothing that could be called Archaeology, not by any stretch of imagination!
[...] BOYCOTT the TAAA! I don't care if you are an artifact dealer or collector. Bob McWilliams is a threat to us all! Each and every time there's someone like him, who cares not a whit about the historical record, who tears up an ancient campsite knowing full well what's being destroyed--- we all suffer--- his image is the one that will be used to put us all down. We will all get lumped into the same category: LOOTER! [...] artifacts, being commodities with high value, encourages folks to organize digs such as McWilliams'. But what if it encouraged controlled digging and the taking of real data that everyone could learn from? What if no one bought artifacts without proof of this kind? Common sense will tell you that this initiative makes more sense than slinging invective around, calling the pros snobs while the pros call us all looters and vandals. [...] McWilliams is a self-confessed Looter. The Texas Amateur Archaeological Association has nothing to do with archaeology. What he's practicing is a load of crap and you all out there know it! His excuses for doing this are all about legality and have nothing to do with the truth: What he does is devoid of morality or ethics. If you, like I, am tired of being called a looter when the truth is that we are the heart and passion of where the discipline of archaeology comes from, then STOP GIVING THIS LOOTER YOUR MONEY--- START GIVING HIM YOUR DERISION FOR MAKING THINGS HARDER FOR US ALL! [...] Stop rationalizing and start boycotting! Stop this industrialization of site destruction in its tracks. If we do, we'll notice the difference. Pros and legislators will notice. Better relations would be on the horizon and I know you want this! [...] Show your power, folks, to stop what's wrong!!!! Take a stand! Tell McWilliams he's doing wrong by withholding the only reason for his actions--- Money ----- I say again: Boycott the TAAA.

I invite Bob McWilliams to engage in an open debate anytime, anywhere. I invite everyone who reads this to comment on it. I will publish every comment I receive on this website.

These arguments appear to have received no answer from the Texas Amateur Archaeological Association whose digs apparently still continue (?). Other comments were however received.

These points of course are exactly the same as can be made about artefact collecting in general. Responsible collectors could start applying an ethical approach, taking responsibility that they are not acquiring artefacts "surfacing" on the market from recent looting by refusing to buy items for which their sellers cannot provide substantiated collecting history indicating that this is not the case. This would lead to a change in attitude towards the collector. it would mirrort what happened in the UK when "finders" who responsibly made a note of the findspot and reported it so it could be recorded have done much to allow the creation of a new image of artefact collecting in the UK, and while in my own opinion that may not be as beneficial as some suggest it is, it nevertheless points the way for collecting in general. the US "collectors' rights" campaigners point to the PAs as a "way forward" for other source nations, but fail to note that its underlying premise is NOT willy nilly collection of unprovenanced artefacts, but the documentation of the provenances of the objects collected. This failure of course is the main indicator that the purpose of the PAS in the rhetoric of the "collectors' rights" movement is a smokescreen.

The unfinished debate between the TAAA and the Dirt Brothers also reflects an important dichotomy, between those who see archaeological sites as collections of loose "artefacts" and those that see them and the "dirt" in which they lay as part of more complex assemblages which provide data about the past of that locality.