Treasure hunting

In Florida, treasure salvors generously donate 20% of material found on each site to the state for display in museums while also meticulously cataloguing each artifact for archaeologists and contributing much knowledge to the understanding of the wreck itself.In the 12th century text Account of Egypt, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi wrote about the historic value of the Egyptian monuments, and praised the contemporary governments for trying to preserve them.American treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew spent sixteen years searching for the shipwreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.[5] In 2002, the Odyssey Marine Exploration entered into an arrangement with the British government in finding HMS Sussex which carried 10 tons of gold coins on board.[12] Since the late 1990s, reacting against increasingly energetic efforts by the international community to stop the destruction of the world submerged cultural heritage, treasure hunting companies started hiring archaeologists and marketing directors, making public statements about their good intentions.Even where good quality archaeological research is carried out by archaeologists working with treasure hunters, concerns remain that treasure hunting, by definition, ignores the principle that in-situ preservation of cultural heritage should always be considered first, and that the sale of recovered artifacts breaks up the assemblage of cultural heritage material, resulting in a loss of opportunity to study the whole picture.The counter argument is that professional salvors have the resources to fund archaeological research of sites that would otherwise be unrecorded, and be subject to destruction by looting or natural forces.[citation needed] Underwater archaeologist and sometime treasure hunter Peter Throckmorton, in a paper he wrote in 1969 as part of a Historical Archaeology Forum on E. Lee Spence's salvage of a Civil War blockade runner, addressing the question of whether treasure hunting and archaeology are in conflict, stated: “The foregoing discussion may seem like an attack on Mr. Spence.[14] More recently, most serious treasure hunters have started working underwater, where modern technology allows access to wrecks containing valuables, which were previously inaccessible.[11] Hand tools, probes, screens, containers, shovels, metal detectors, and sifters are useful for land treasure hunting (Smith, 1971).[10] In diving, masks allow for improved vision, fins increase swimming speeds, safety vests provide lifesaving assistance, diver's flags alert others of a diver's location, wetsuits conserve body heat and also provide skin protection, weight belts offset buoyancy of rubber suits, knives prove useful as a tool, tanks supply air, and snorkels conserve energy.[11] The countries England, Wales, and Northern Ireland claim gold and silver finds that are more than three hundred years old for the crown by way of the Treasure Act of 1996.