# It's official! Diving for beer bottles , makes the national news! Alex Keith Halifax



## CreekWalker (Nov 27, 2015)

Very interesting video from Canada, but linked to MSN news feed. Enjoy, have a great Thanksgiving weekend and be safe, not sorry. It's wet here, so enjoying family time and football! http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/century-old-beer-bottle-found-by-ns-diver/vi-AAfGHiu?ocid=iehp


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 27, 2015)

I don't get why it made news. Many Canadian diggers will dig up still full bottles that are even older than Canada and look better than that one. No offense to him.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 27, 2015)

I had the same thoughts on this. Possibly because Alexander Keith was mayor of Halifax, brings the beer this recognition. Our forums own divers, have had spectacular finds, that's also newsworthy!


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## CanadianBottles (Nov 27, 2015)

I think it's because Alexander Keith's is a very popular brand of beer in Canada, so finding a full bottle of it is deemed interesting.  Either that or someone contacted a reporter when this guy found a bottle, but no one contacted a reporter for all the other full bottles that have been found.


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 27, 2015)

I think they should drink it.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 27, 2015)

Toasts!


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 27, 2015)

*Clinks my glass to yours and downs it.* LOL.


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## cowseatmaize (Nov 27, 2015)

Canada is only about 100 years old. I did not know that.[]


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## RCO (Nov 27, 2015)

i have no idea why the CBC news here decided this was newsworthy , I'm not even sure the bottle he found was that old it looked to have machine made markings on the bottom , meaning there is no way the bottle is older than Canada which was founded in 1867 , more likely bottle is 1910-20's era or even newer . I'm sure people find all kinds of interesting items on the east coast of Canada


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## nostalgia (Nov 27, 2015)

Clich here for an interesting follow-up to that story  Do you guys have the same kind of laws where you live?


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## hemihampton (Nov 27, 2015)

As far as I know the USA has similar stupid laws. LEON.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 27, 2015)

RCO , I would say it dates 1890-1900's. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





Maybe 1880's at the earliest, note the applied top.        That's a British type relic law, similar to the United Kingdom. It's state by state here, individual laws that apply to certain citizens. My state is a finder's keepers state, but municipalities and state owned properties and parks have very strict and sharply enforced relic laws. Hunting on private land by request or lease, and all relics are the finders to keep.


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 27, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

So I renamed the thread as these laws suck.


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## coldwater diver (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

"If one finds an object and removes the object from its context, we lose all the context and most of the information that is most valuable historically," McKeane said. _(Sean McKeane of the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage says the province can seize a heritage object.)_ *What a crock of BS!   News flash citizens of Nova Scotia your fore fathers and mothers brewed and made beer. Sometimes they bottled some and went on floating vessels called boats, sadly some fell off these boats on occasion. Today we can only imagine how heartwrenching and sad this must have been. Uuuuuugh* _What context is there in this case. If it were me I would bring it back to the bottom "back to its context" and have the media film it live , maybe Segway onto this law for a news story . Thanks Creek Walker for the link, its a great story. Just has a bad ending. _


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## coldwater diver (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

Sean McKeane  Its right here. Its on the bottom under a couple of feet of silt. [attachment=water.jpg]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

Thanks, got a good laugh out of that post!


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## hemihampton (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

"If one finds an object and removes the object from its context, we lose all the context and most of the information that is most valuable historically," McKeane said. I dont understand this part, how can they lose historical value for something they would never go look for & find themselves in the first place. The lesson he & everybody should learn is don't tell the news media of any finds & bring to the attention of BoneHeads like McKeane & others like him.


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles leads to forum debates! (I can change titles!)*

I take a bottle out of a building's dirt floor (building now bought and being prepared for major reconstruction.)Had I not recorded where I found it, its historical context as being there is lost.A man tried buying the bottle off of me. I declined. Has he bought it, the story of where it spent most of its life would be lost-- no one would know that the TOC liniment bottle was in a building next to my city's most well-known Brewery, the building absorbed by a wire factory. No archaeologist would have found this one, for none would ever have been called in, but had it been found by one... They'd try to figure out why it was there. It's a part of that place's history.  As an urban archaeologist, I record where I find things and what I gather from where I found them-- the item, the context in what it was found and why it was there, the use of it, etc. It all gives a story. How deeply we can read into that story depends on much.  The issue is that we find and rescue the stuff, but the archaeologists never learn about it. And they hate us, but we dislike them because they don't want us out searching.


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

And so, the moral is....Don't let the news or historical societies know of your exploits! (and thus, you live with your bottles happily ever after till you sell them off and story is lost.)


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

Double-post.


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## Ace31 (Nov 28, 2015)

*Re: It's official! Diving for beer bottles makes the national news then gets you trouble!*

Sounds like he said Nuttal & Co, I'd say late 1890s early 1900s, maybe even later, cool bottle, a shame if he has to give it up due to some heritage law.  If he does it will probably end up in a wooden box tucked away in a large storage facility, remember the end of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark? []


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## CreekWalker (Nov 30, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

" And so, the moral is....
Don't let the news or historical societies know of your exploits! (and thus, you live with your bottles happily ever after till you sell them off and story is lost.) " I have a new link to support this, bear. The writing is on the wall , take heed. I would suggest ALL future posts be headed" "Found at the antique mall today...." http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/with-shipwreck-treasure-easier-to-reach-a-duel-is-on/ar-AAfPwvC?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=iehp  Read and understand, fellow diggers, surface hunters and scroungers, the regulators are at the gates, and about to be in your privy.


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 30, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

I knew this for a long time-- since before I joined the forum. We're considered thieves. [>:]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 30, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

Yep, wrote a post about this a couple years ago, where pro. Archie's compared "rabid relic hunters" to thieving crack heads. I wrote that after spending a Saturday, at public university employed Archie's estate sale. As I talked to his wife and children about the, awesome native American and Civil War relics, in his collection, I asked, if he had spent a small fortune during his lifetime, accumulating such a collection. "No, his wife said with a twinkle in her eyes, " it was his favorite perk , he enjoyed most about his job!"  Wink, wink!


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## mctaggart67 (Nov 30, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

The arrogance of this statement in the posted link above is appalling and disturbing:"If one finds an object and removes the object from its context, we lose all the context and most of the information that is most valuable historically," McKeane said.Wow!


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## cowseatmaize (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

The real thieves and looters were the countries that backed the people that stole it in the first place. If a museum REALLY wants it they can go spend the millions to locate and recover it themselves or wait until it hits the sales floors.


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## Lordbud (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

I once dug a deep privy. The homeowners had given us permission. The house was of 1880s vintage. Yet the privy was strictly TOC. Turns out the homeowners let us know that the house had been moved to the current lot - from a couple lots down the street back in the day. The house's "context" was no longer valid having been moved. The privy had nothing to with the house. So the privy had no valid "context". This was the first privy I ever dug.Something local archies would have never sought out, and most certainly wouldn't have bothered digging. But just imagine their confusion at the "context" -- all the bottles and other rusted garbage were floating around in a mixture of human waste and who knows what else for many years after being "deposited". The original house on the lot was gone. An unrelated house was now in its place. Context?The context here is that the only reason state/local county governments pass laws requiring "archaelogists" to examine construction sites is because government representatives are lobbied by the private archaeological firms, so those same private firms have a given state-sponsored work load. Income inotherwords -- for folks who'd otherwise have nothing to do but teach more aspiring archaelogists! And it is well-known all the best material (bottles, artifacts) get sold out the back door or taken by the archies themselves. Scam scam scam.


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## hemihampton (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

Can Archaelogists afford to lobby anybody, where do they get the big money to lobby or bribe/buy off/ donate to political funds &/or Parties?  LEON.


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## mctaggart67 (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

They really don't have to lobby in any Canadian province and most American states, since these jurisdictions already have archaeology-friendly legislation in place.


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## nostalgia (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

Just read an interesting fact on the CBC web site in the comment section and I quote: "_The Province of Nova Scotia has no claim whatsoever to this bottle. Provincial jurisdiction ends at the high tide line. The bottle was found in the ocean–federal jurisdiction. Any attempt by the province to seize it wouldn't get very far. Tell NS to buzz off._"


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## mctaggart67 (Dec 1, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

It's an interesting point about which level of government in Canada, provincial or federal, has jurisdiction over archaeological matters in territorial water zones (12 miles out from the shoreline). At first glance, it certainly seems to fall under federal authority, but there are precedents in Canadian law which see the provinces, chiefly under the provincial powers sanctioned under Section 92 of the Constitution Act (1867) (originally the British North America Act (1867)), Canada's founding constitutional statute, have some authority over marine archaeological heritage within the territorial water zones contiguous to their provincial landmasses.


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## Lordbud (Dec 5, 2015)

*Re: Diving for beer bottles story moral: Don't Tell Archaeologists/News!*

State trained (via state college funded universities) archaeologists are funded by each state (in question). Thus each state's legislature pass laws to provide for the state's trained archaelogists (and other government soon-to-be employees) -- part of the government's game. Done without much lobbying at all. Passed in annual government funding bills.


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