The Search for Giant's bones in NZ

Popular member, T-Bob, has his master's degree in archaeology and explained why you can't go dig into things willy-nilly.
Archaeological digs are destructive. No matter the care, time, $, or technology.
And the people in the article are not Pros, and they are digging on private property without the owner's permission.
 
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Just the fact that they're trying to pass of a moa bone as a human femur annoys me. While I don't agree that archeologists are always on the up and up and absolutely academically honest, I do believe that if there were evidence of a pre-maori civilization in NZ, we would have found it already.
 
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Just the fact that they're trying to pass of a moa bone as a human femur annoys me. While I don't agree that archeologists are always on the up and up and absolutely academically honest, I do believe that if there were evidence of a pre-maori civilization in NZ, we would have found it already.

What is a moa ?
Yeah , I agree that a lot of archaeology and anthropology is not on the up-and-up. Heck science in general. History, the softer sciences, Major League Baseball, how the radio ratings are taken, and the guy at the golf shop who tried to sell me a new driver that would go 20 yards further.:(
We live in a time where our institutions our suspect.
 
Moa were large flightless birds endemic to New Zealand- they are all extinct now.

I studied archeology and anthropology at Western Oregon University (back when it was Western Oregon State College). I did work-study to help pay my tuition, and for an entire semester, I got to help put old handwritten cards describing artifacts in the WOSC museum into the computer. At the time, the "There was nothing Pre-Clovis in the Americas" was still the prevailing theory, and I remember sitting with a huge pile of points (arrowheads, spearheads, scrapers, etc) and these stupid index cards that were barely legible, and saying to my prof, "Look at this... this doesn't look Clovis, but it's classified as Clovis. It's not like anything else here but it says it came from lower levels of the same dig." And he said, and I quote, "Just enter it as Clovis. Even if it is pre-Clovis, no one is going to believe us." And I entered it as a Clovis point and that was that. Years later, I learned that professor had fought tooth and nail to have a pre-Clovis site certified, and it had cost him his reputation, and nearly, his career. There's a LOT of pressure to not rock the boat, not go outside of the mainstream, and there are professional archeologists who will fight like crazy to maintain their professional theories, even when they are shown to be wrong. It still bothers me to this day- that point, I entered, as I was told to, and it's probably still there, in the archive, misclassified.
 
Woah !
ElliO, thanks for that, understand the frustration. (Too much. I may PM you one day when I need to vent about finishing my Psy.D.:confused: and throw stones at the old alma mater.):D
Are you still in the rocks and bones game? I put paint on the wall today. The only thing left from psychology school is I'm somewhat useful at funerals.
 
Nah. Turns out pretty much the only things you can do with an anthro degree are drive schoolbus or manage a bookstore. I worked in the book industry for the next twenty years, and now I'm a freelance editor writing novels on the side. :)
 
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Nah. Turns out pretty much the only things you can do with an anthro degree are drive schoolbus or manage a bookstore. I worked in the book industry for the next twenty years, and now I'm a freelance editor writing novels on the side. :)
So we are both on track to making the world a better place.;)
Putting beauty out there.
 
Nah. Turns out pretty much the only things you can do with an anthro degree are drive schoolbus or manage a bookstore. I worked in the book industry for the next twenty years, and now I'm a freelance editor writing novels on the side. :)
Ellio is there a place we can look at the books you’ve written ?
 
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Oh, sure! Book 1 of my cozy mystery series, "Ghost in the Surf", from Camel Press, is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Just search for E.L. Oakes Ghost in the Surf and it should come right up.
Book 2 should be coming out in June or July. I'm doing final proof edits on that one now. (Or rather, supposed to be... I'm in Tacoma, WA currently visiting family and doing cryptid research for my non-fiction project, which is more fun than proofreading!)
 
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