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History lost to gas drilling
The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Mon, May. 9, 2011 | David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted on 05/09/2011 6:19:27 AM PDT by Gondring

Amid shale boom, Pa. law offers little protection to archaeological sites.

An excavation at a Westmoreland County site once occupied by Monongahela Indians produced abundant evidence of two villages and allowed researchers to piece together the violent end of the later settlement at the hands of invaders who sacked it, massacred its inhabitants, and burned houses and food stores, said William C. Johnson, an adviser to the project.

But when Johnson returned last year to the dig, called the Kirshner site, he was stunned.

"There is a drill rig and catchment basin sitting on half the village," said Johnson, who earned a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and served as senior prehistoric archaeologist for Michael Baker Jr. Engineering Inc. "You have something there - which is better than you get with [excavations of] other villages - that has been destroyed by drilling."

[...]

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the state agency that oversees historic sites, including areas of archaeological value, has no power to compel investigation or preservation and no money to conduct field investigations that state law requires it to pay for.

[...]

"A bulldozer can destroy 9,000 years of history in 15 minutes," Kotz said.

A construction site must be 10 acres or larger before the state History Code, or Title 37, takes effect. Smaller sites are exempt and are subject to no state oversight. Drill pads for Marcellus Shale sites are often less than 10 acres.

But even for the larger sites, legislation passed in 1995 requires the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, rather than the company or permit applicant, to pay for archaeological surveys or fieldwork, under a 120-day deadline.

[...]

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: archaeology; godsgravesglyphs; pennsylvania
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I apologize if this was posted previously but I didn't see the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article anywhere.
1 posted on 05/09/2011 6:19:28 AM PDT by Gondring
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To: SunkenCiv; epithermal; thackney

Ping


2 posted on 05/09/2011 6:20:06 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Gondring

Look....the indians lost. They destroyed plenty of their rival indian towns. These archaelogists and museums are infringing on the rights of the owners.....because that’s how they get their grant money. If you’ve every gone on any of these digs, you learn how petty they are.


3 posted on 05/09/2011 6:23:24 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Gondring

The greenies become desperate when cracks appear in their plan to choke energy availability and force themselves into more of the decisions about how individuals and companies consume energy. Boo hoo.


4 posted on 05/09/2011 6:25:29 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Gondring

NO history WON we need the natural Gas!


5 posted on 05/09/2011 6:26:00 AM PDT by Cheetahcat ( November 4 2008 ,A date which will live in Infamy.)
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To: Gondring

It boils down to this... who owns the land and mineral rights to it... how much are they getting paid for the exploitation of said mineral/gas rights and how much the grave robbers were paying the land owner for the rights to study a long dead people. In the end MONEY TALKS and BS walks.


6 posted on 05/09/2011 6:27:15 AM PDT by SouthernBoyupNorth ("For my wings are made of Tungsten, my flesh of glass and steel..........")
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To: SouthernBoyupNorth
so Obama loans money to Brazil who in turn finances Cuba to help the chicoms drill off the Florida Keys where Obama won't let the US drill

Cuba's Hunt For Oil Raises Questions For U.S.

Cuba to lease oil well near Keys

.

7 posted on 05/09/2011 6:28:38 AM PDT by Elle Bee
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To: Gondring

Well, they didn’t get there by walking.


8 posted on 05/09/2011 6:33:13 AM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: Gondring
Is this the site where one tribe of peaceful, noble, undefiled-by-Western-civilization, native Americans massacred every member of another such tribe? Included were every man, woman and child of the attacked village.

The bodies were then disfigured and thrown into a ditch by the attackers, to be found later by archaeologists.

These are things that were done by by everyone everywhere, of course. Just mean that they were no different.

9 posted on 05/09/2011 6:35:17 AM PDT by Huebolt (It's not over until there is not ONE DEMOCRAT HOLDING OFFICE ANYWHERE. Not even a dog catcher!)
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To: Gondring
My late good friend and Marine Archaeologist Peter Throckmorten told me, “I personally find all shipwrecks interesting but that doesn't make them Archaeologically interesting. Not every wreck is worth saving. You can only learn so much and the rest is junk.” I that this applies here!
10 posted on 05/09/2011 6:38:15 AM PDT by WellyP
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To: Gondring
allowed researchers to piece together the violent end of the later settlement at the hands of invaders who sacked it, massacred its inhabitants, and burned houses and food stores...

Well I guess then it's a good thing they studied it so thoroughly before destroying it. Seriously though, liberals want to make everything "hollowed ground" to remove it from "exploitation" by society.
11 posted on 05/09/2011 6:38:31 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Gondring

Back in 1985 while digging trenches for an RV development in North Myrtle Beach, SC, my men came across thousands of pieces of clay pots that dated back about 2500 years, according to some experts in Indian artifacts that saw the pieces. Needless to say, the work did not slow down for any archaeologist to investigate.


12 posted on 05/09/2011 6:40:56 AM PDT by Big_Harry ( Starve the Beast!)
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To: Elle Bee

I didn’t vote for the SOB and Im doing my level best to get him out in 2012.... so what are you doing? I mean other than trolling....


13 posted on 05/09/2011 6:45:29 AM PDT by SouthernBoyupNorth ("For my wings are made of Tungsten, my flesh of glass and steel..........")
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To: SouthernBoyupNorth

The farmer in the story is paying out of his own pocket to lease lands to protect them. Should he have to do that to protect a Common Resource?

The Commonwealth allows leasing of State Lands. If you lease a room in a State building, are you allowed to freely trash the place and leave? No.

The conservative position on this is that nobody should infringe on things that aren’t their own—they should not be doing damage other than extracting the minerals, if they have the mineral rights or access rights.

There’s not enough money for enforcement, but if an area doesn’t have enough police to protect an area, it doesn’t mean that looting is suddenly okay. Plus, the responsibility for study shouldn’t be shouldered by the taxpayer—it should be required of those who wish to exploit the taxpayers’ resources.


14 posted on 05/09/2011 6:50:05 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Elle Bee
Yes, and petroleum production on land in the US has increased greatly, too, since BHO got into office...using up our resources before going to get those in the Gulf of Mexico.

 US Field Production of Crude Oil--ONSHORE (in thousands of barrels)
                   (Red: George Bush; Blue: Barack Obama)

He's really pushing hard for domestic drilling, despite the rhetoric...he wants us to have to bow to the Middle East once we've used up our domestic supplies. He wants to harm America, I'm now convinced.

15 posted on 05/09/2011 6:59:03 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Gondring

That increased production today is due to increased exploration and investment in places like the Bakken years ago.


16 posted on 05/09/2011 7:34:11 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer (biblein90days.org))
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To: thackney

Yes, isn’t it funny how BHO isn’t blocking that (it’s also due to fracking). Not that offshore production is anything close to onshore, but he’s definitely allowing us to use up our onshore, easy to get reserves, rather than letting us get the more distal ones first.


17 posted on 05/09/2011 7:43:17 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Sacajaweau

It’s a simple matter of economics. Can the university offer to the landowner compensation that is competitive with the “mineral rights” and development fees offered by the gas exploration companies? Thought not.

Winners win, losers bitch.


18 posted on 05/09/2011 8:06:19 AM PDT by Tallguy (Received a fine from the NFL for a helmet-to-helmet hit.)
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To: SouthernBoyupNorth

Sorry, missed your post. I said much the same thing, but you said it better.


19 posted on 05/09/2011 8:08:10 AM PDT by Tallguy (Received a fine from the NFL for a helmet-to-helmet hit.)
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To: Big_Harry
my men came across thousands of pieces of clay pots that dated back about 2500 years

That reminds of something I found interesting a little while back.

A hill south of the original city limits of Rome is a man-made mound consisting of broken amphorae (clay containers) of non-recyclable olive oil mostly imported from Spain.

Monte Testaccio

Ah..... the glory that was Rome.

20 posted on 05/09/2011 9:08:57 AM PDT by eddie willers
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