Keepers and Weepers

  I just finished Finders Keepers, the new book by Craig Childs, and I feel like a child who has just been reprimanded for stealing a pack of gum from a grocery store. I don't mean to say that it was a bad read--as a piece of journalism, it is fairly well-written--it's just that his opinions are so highly critical. The whole gist of Child's book rests on the concept that people do not have the right to keep found artifacts and relics of the past, but that they should be left to remain where they are. As a lifelong "finder" and "keeper", I cannot help but disagree.
  Childs is correct in believing that sacred spaces, such as burial grounds and holy sites, should never be tampered with. That concept is as old as humankind and should be instinctual in anyone with even a hint of conscience. I would never, for instance, go metal detecting in a cemetery, or take the jewelry off an excavated corpse; but he goes so far as to conclude his work with the notion that even arrowheads found in fields should be left alone. He mentions at one point visiting a location where there had previously been a large archeological dig and feeling as if the land itself had been stripped of its belongings, which really feels to me like nothing more than over-sentimentalized rubbish. I get it. I understand what he is saying and I respect his respect for the past; but a shrine to the dead is one thing, and a spear-head in the dirt is another.
  The discovery of lost objects, whether they are relics of primitive civilizations or Civil War belt buckles or Tom Mix pocketknives dropped by children in the 1940's, has always been an act of magical importance and connection to the world for me. The idea that something leaves the hand of another, travels through time and tribulation, for a hundred or even a thousand years, and ultimately ends up resurfacing to land in the hand of another establishes an otherworldly bond with the past that I don't think can be replicated. Anyone who has experienced this knows exactly what I mean. It is the reason I metal detect, the reason I walk the beach looking for sea-glass, the reason I walk freshly plowed fields for arrowhead, or why I go to auctions and thrift stores. It is the hope of finding something beautiful, the hope of finding "treasure".

  Aside from that, Finders Keepers has a great deal to offer in the way of entertainment and information. There are harrowing stories of archaeological plunder by heedless criminals and fascinating tales of discovery by relic hunters who truly believed in what they were doing. I was really intrigued by the harsh reality of the methods by which some of the world's most respected museums acquire there contents--a sordid world of thievery, black markets, murder, and general dishonesty. All in all, it's an interesting read for anyone who has every enjoyed searching for objects of antiquity, whether you are a "keeper" or not.