Marine archaeology

I tend to be annoyed with all the archaeological experts out there. Mainly the ones focused on what they claim is maritime or marine archaeology. The people I am talking about tend to be participants on diveforums who have either found something which could fall under the category of archaeological artefacts underwater or have gone underwater to look for it. Some people who do this on a regular basis even titulate themselves as archaeologists and publish books about "recreational archaeology". This is something that bothers me to no end whenver I read about a group of divers messing up a site by conducting what they have interpited to be research and digouts from what little they have been able to gather from the discovery channel. Don't get me wrong - Divers finding and looking for stuff is fantatsic, but once something which might be an archaeological artefact has been found, they should bloody well leave it alone unless it's in danger of immediate destruction by the enviroment and contact a university or institute which will be able ti field people who actually have a clue what they are doing. The recreational and/or technical (I have yet to find the technical diver who doesn't do it for recreational purposes) divers who fancy themselves archaeological professionals lack A: understanding of archaeology and maritime archaeology as a scientific discipline and B: Education dealing with any relevant subjects of archaeology and archaeological material. C: they lack credibility in the publishing scientific community - which will in many cases discredit anything but the actuall find.

I think that recreational divers should be included in digs - if for no other reason to keep them away from other sites thereby preventing damage or destruction. This should be done under the directions and supervision of professional archaeologists.

One problem seems to be the romanitc Indiana Jones association. People want to find during treasure during expidtions while fighting stronc currents, sharks and the ocational undead pirate. With that kind of a mindset it's no wonder we find divers with private "museums" in the basement, above the fireplace or in the garage. A private collection of stolen maritime items, of archaeological interest or not, damages both the scientific communities and the divecommunities aswell as the knowledge generated by both.