I never understood that. Most of these archeologist work for universities, many of which are privately owned, so why should these private corporations have exclusive access to historic sites to stock their basements with artifacts while the normal American is banned from even the most unimportant sites. England has the right idea, let people go out and find the items, and if they deem them important enough for the state to buy, they give them a fair price. It's a win win, which is why so many amazing treasure finds are reported. Here in the states if you find anything worthwhile you better keep your mouth shut or some commie archeologist will be having the feds come and take it for their private college basement collection. They realize most sites we hunt are not worthwhile to mount digs at, it's not worth the time and effort to find a few common buttons and coins, but instead of allowing us to enjoy the thrill of finding history they ban us, letting the items rot away rather than fall into the hands of anyone but themselves.