Background and Controversies
Dump digging for potentially valuable collectibles is at least as old as the Pharaohs. For practical reasons dump diggers often use a much less forensic style than academic archeologists or museum curators would on their projects. Not unlike the privies, cisterns and wells that other historical diggers explore and salvage in, dumps are typically fleeting sources. They are often located on properties which are in the process of being permanently altered by major development and other factors.
Academics responding to speculation regarding dump digging, privy digging, metal detecting, scavenging and so on have helped create laws which basically criminalize anyone discovering any object of a certain age, usually only 50-100 years old, no matter where it is found.
Read more about this topic: Dump Digging
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