As part of the new XpLrR partnership between Scott Wolter and J. Hutton Pulitzer, the two men have agreed to do a 39-part series in which they rehash each old episode of Wolter’s 2012-2015 TV series America Unearthed. As a testament to how little planning went into this first product of the pair’s joint venture, the first two reviews appeared on Pulitzer’s Soundcloud channel as audio podcasts, while this, the third edition, appeared as a grainy webcam livestream video on Pulitzer’s private Facebook page, to an audience of approximately 300 people, before being uploaded to YouTube with a bombastic set of opening graphics that saddle Wolter with Pulitzer’s self-styled moniker, naming them both “History Heretics.” (He also ascribed to Wolter one of his own Twitter handles rather than Wolter’s Twitter handle.) Despite this being an XpLrR production, Pulitzer wears his Treasure Force hat and brands the video with the Treasure Force logo alongside the XpLrR title card. (Note: This is the pyramid logo, not the steampunk one of his own face that he used for Treasure Force: Commander’s Quest.) Pulitzer is never exactly “on brand,” but the sheer number of different brands he throws together make him one of the most ineffective fringe marketers I’ve ever seen. Technology is not these men’s friend. The audio drops in and out. At one point, Wolter turned off his webcam by mistake. The screen capture Pulitzer uses is primitive, and seems to be a camera physically recording a computer screen it is aimed at, rather than a video capture of video output. Over time, the computer or the camera seem to move, and the image takes on a larger and larger Dutch angle, making the two look like villains from the beloved 1966-1968 Batman series. King Tut and Louie the Lilac? I’m not sure. But since they have branded their chats with their poorly designed XpLrR logo, I suppose I should start branding my reviews with something more attractively designed. There. Now it feels all professional and serious. The little red circle can change to represent whatever they are talking about. Today it is Minoans, so we have a Minoan royal symbol.
The XpLrR livestream discussion, which aired Saturday afternoon on Facebook, right after Wolter “got out of the shower,” discusses America Unearthed S01E03 “Great Lakes Copper Heist.” Pulitzer says that at this point America Unearthed had “great reviews,” which I know to be untrue since there were virtually no reviews except mine, and I wasn’t very keen on it. Wolter restates many of the false claims of the episode, particularly the allegation that massive amounts of copper—1.5 billion pounds—had been removed from Lake Superior and that Native Americans could not have been responsible. As I discussed three years ago, there is no missing copper, and the claims for missing copper are false, invented by some fringe historians in the 1960s. As Dr. Susan R. Martin explained a long time ago, “The mythic calculations involve the numbers and depths of copper extraction pits, the numbers and weights of stone hammers, the percentage volume of copper per mining pit, the numbers of miners, and the years of mining duration.” Early fringe writers made wild assumptions about these numbers and generated a fake number that neither Wolter nor Pulitzer understands the origin of. Wolter then asserts that archaeologists refuse to acknowledge the missing copper and are actively conspiring to reject Wolter’s views. “It’s silly,” he said. Pulitzer agrees with Wolter and says that archaeologists are required to explain where the “missing” copper went, even though said copper is not missing. Wolter asserts that there were brass artifacts found in Native mounds, particularly the Bat Creek mounds, which proves that Europeans came to America. Such artifacts are almost certainly planted by the same hoaxer who made the Bat Creek Stone. As Ken Feder explained in the Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology, the brass bracelets are chemically identical to nineteenth century English brass bracelets (and earlier ones, too, as must be noted), and no one witnessed their recovery except for the alleged nineteenth century hoaxer. What is astonishing is that these two blowhards are entirely unfamiliar with the scholarly arguments against their claims, even to criticize those arguments. They have only anger and bluster. About 18 minutes in, Wolter decides to discuss behind the scenes scuttlebutt about the program, which is of little interest except to America Unearthed die-hards. Pulitzer tries to pull back to blasting archaeologists for not accepting radiocarbon dates that would put people in the Great Lakes copper mines around 6000 to 8000 BCE. “It’s completely illogical,” Wolter says. “The reason they don’t accept it is because they don’t like the results.” I admit that I wasn’t entirely clear what radiocarbon dating they were talking about, and they blather on so much that the facts tend to get lost amidst the howling. Wolter subtly twists the evidence presented on his old show. In the episode, he identified the Great Lakes copper with that of the Minoans because his laboratory analysis of Michigan copper found that it was 99% pure, the same level of purity found in Minoan copper, but now he changes the story and alleges that “trace element analysis” shows that the two are identical. He declines to provide reports of these trace elements to prove the assertion, or which Minoan artifacts he tested that did not appear in the TV show’s presentation of the data Wolter refers to here. I’m comfortable concluding from this that he is intentionally misrepresenting his show’s 99% purity test. Pulitzer next introduces the allegation that there are “ox-hide ingots” found in North America, despite the fact that the alleged ox-hide ingots of America are not the same as their European counterparts. Both men allege that there is a cover-up to prevent examination of these objects, which are mostly chunks of metal promoted by the Ancient Artifact Preservation Society, a fringe group in the Midwest, and Ancient American magazine, a fringe publication, as Andy White explored last year. Wolter says that he has “heard” that the Minoans buried their copper during the winter because they couldn’t transport it, which is why we sometimes find large chunks of copper in the ground, for like squirrels with their nuts the Minoans occasionally forget where they stored their caches. Wolter delivers a very long discussion about how he investigates artifacts, and he explains a case where a viewer tried to pass off a fabricated site as ancient and Wolter exposed the hoax. Around this point I started to notice that even though this episode was about Minoan copper miners from Crete, Pulitzer keeps bringing up the Middle East and making reference to what he can only mean to be Hebrew inscriptions and Jewish artifacts. It’s a strange but subtle undercurrent that is in tension with Wolter’s oblivious bluster. After a long diatribe about where treasure hunters could find the best copper artifacts—not presented as such, but the clear conclusion viewers are meant to take from Pulitzer’s questions—Wolter explains that archaeologists need to stop being so damned certain about the past. “Why do they have this burning desire to draw a definitive conclusion every time you ask them a question?” he asks. Clearly, Wolter has never read academic literature, or else he would understand the provisional nature of archaeological conclusions, and the fact that there is a difference between data and inferences. Pulitzer notes that archaeologists “are not required to try their theories in a (legal) case,” while “forensic geologists” must prove their cases in a court of law. That’s not at all how forensic geology works, or even how law cases work. Expert witnesses are not the actors with the burden of proof in a legal case. Pulitzer finishes the show by inviting viewers to attend the upcoming Ancient American magazine and AAPS conference this October, where both men plan to present alongside former American Nazi party leader Frank Joseph. Pulitzer also tells viewers to stop paying attention to academics and instead research American archaeology from nineteenth century journals and magazines, which he considers to be more honest about diffusionism and less “politically correct.” Pulitzer says that by doing so, one will become convinced that people from the “Ancient Middle East” once colonized America—even though that’s not at all what Wolter’s imaginary Minoan copper miners “prove” at all. It seems that Pulitzer’s end game is to convince the world that America was founded by Israelites to the glory of God. Hosanna in the highest; we are living in the Holy Land of the Chosen People.
71 Comments
Andy White
6/27/2016 01:04:00 pm
Pulitzer's declaration about a year ago that he had discovered "smoking gun evidence that the Minoans discovered America" was a dress rehearsal for the Roman sword debacle. I can't wait to see who's next.
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Charles Hambleton
6/29/2016 05:19:26 am
In my experience with Jeffry Jovon (aka Hutton Pulitzer) he has, consistently and to the the detriment of not just history but the best treasure Finders in the world adapted an agenda that not only speaks to his naresism, greed, and inability to discover historical truth (of which we have) ..... I'm sure you know what I mean.... It's sad man that can type quickly and can be so persuasive and manipulative ... I'll give the details if you contact me .... I have found shipwrecks, ancient sites, and things that can only be discussed in person ..contact me ...just call Scott Mithcen - The Real Treasure finder (Hutton will love that (Ha ) ...He actually knows what's up without scamming ..... It's a shame that Jeffery's Biz acumen is not just self serving ...
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Joe Scales
6/27/2016 01:12:11 pm
Considering that Wolter can't tell the difference between silver and lead (Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar Debacle), perhaps he should avoid metals altogether...
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Andy White
6/27/2016 01:13:53 pm
Pulitzer said the brass on the "Roman sword" was gold, so there you go.
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Joe Scales
6/27/2016 11:58:21 pm
Perhaps the next academic conspiracy these two unmask will involve the Periodic Table?
Bob Jase
6/29/2016 08:09:06 am
And it was before those meddling alchemists butted in.
Uncle Ron
6/27/2016 01:27:28 pm
"Scott Wolter and J. Hutton Pulitzer . . . have agreed to do a 39-part series in which they rehash each old episode of Wolter’s 2012-2015 TV series America Unearthed."
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DaveR
6/27/2016 01:34:13 pm
That's as bad as that time he was on a series called America Unearthed.
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Only Me
6/27/2016 01:28:02 pm
This is why we should let W&P talk their heads off. They continuously demonstrate how little they actually understand about science and its disciplines.
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DaveR
6/27/2016 01:30:47 pm
All of this for the massive audience of around 300 people. It's no wonder America Unearthed got canceled.
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An Over-Educated Grunt
6/27/2016 01:31:30 pm
If they'd only interviewed James Cagney they'd know that the missing copper was wearing cement shoes, see, at the bottom of the lake, see, that's what happens when you stick your nose where it don't belong.
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DaveR
6/27/2016 03:39:51 pm
I can picture Wolter, standing proudly at the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, shouting to the world:
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Bob Jase
6/29/2016 08:10:27 am
And then the dust from the grain stored in the pyramid causes a huge explosion.
Scott Hamilton
6/27/2016 02:11:53 pm
Assuming I can get one comment in before this thread get buried under demands that we all agree Jesus wasn't real, do the believers in the "missing copper" ever explain why the Minoans didn't just get copper from a closer source than the interior of a continent across an ocean? Cyprus had plenty of copper at the time, and the there mines are still in use, so how could getting copper from America possibly be worth it when there was more copper than they could use a couple islands over?
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An Over-Educated Grunt
6/27/2016 02:41:44 pm
Sad thing is that in Bronze Age sites it's not even copper that's hard to come by. Copper and iron are relatively easy to find in near-surface deposits. It's tin that was hard to find. Having access to an infinite amount of copper without tin to smelt it into bronze is kind of like running out of gas, only to find the first station's only able to air up your perfectly good tires. It solves a problem you didn't even have to begin with.
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V
6/27/2016 04:51:04 pm
As far as I can tell, they just say that there "wasn't enough copper" in Europe to "fuel the copper age." Which, as you say, obvious untruth when there are still-operating copper mines in Europe today.
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Mikey
6/27/2016 02:20:57 pm
How can Scott Walter associate himself with this fraud. He will lose all respect of the scientific community.
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John
6/27/2016 02:43:35 pm
Sarcasm?
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Only Me
6/27/2016 02:46:06 pm
That, um, assumes Wolter *had* any respect within the scientific community. That's highly unlikely given his wont to attack said community.
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Time Machime
6/28/2016 05:11:03 am
Only Me does not have any respect in the scientific community if that person believes in miracles and raising from the dead stories in the Bible. This message is not "Off Topic"
Only Me
6/28/2016 11:00:49 am
>>>This message is not "Off Topic"<<<
Time Machine
6/28/2016 11:21:53 am
Only Me,
Only Me
6/28/2016 11:30:37 am
You're still making a personal attack. That means it's still off-topic.
Time Machine
6/28/2016 11:33:43 am
I have copied a list of your messages where you have made personal attacks against me, you silly person.
Joe Scales
6/28/2016 12:04:42 am
Might want to google "birds of a feather" to explain it Mikey.
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Kal
6/27/2016 05:06:24 pm
So even though they had a TV show and claimed to be producers and all that, they didn't have someone with a basic understanding of Final Cut Pro or Photoshop and couldn't get their live stream onto some sort of media? They had to use a camera to film a camera! Ha. Even some lesser programs like Movie Maker have iPhone conversion by now. Were they using an old style vhs S 80 mm camcorder from 2004 or something? Hah ha.
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Oh No.....
6/27/2016 07:48:55 pm
Templar Freemasonry originated with Karl Gotthelf, Baron von Hund and not with Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat
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Clint Knapp
6/27/2016 08:21:23 pm
First, plainly not me above. Now our troll is stooping to identify fraud.
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Graham
6/27/2016 09:05:33 pm
From the looks of that it would appear that followup volumes to "Unearthing the Truth" covering the remaining seasons of "America Unearthed" might be in order
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flip
6/27/2016 09:23:39 pm
Jason, I just checked on the comments on the two previous posts and see they have been culled somewhat. I know it's your blog and your right to do that, but I'm just curious if I overstepped a mark somewhere? I'd rather learn from the experience than shrug my shoulders and pretend like the conversation never happened. Thanks, and apologies for derailing!
Reply
6/27/2016 09:26:41 pm
No, I am just trying to purge conversations of Time Machine's off-topic material. Your posts in response to those were deleted along with the rest of the conversations.
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flip
6/27/2016 11:27:59 pm
Ok thanks. I was hoping that was the case. Sorry for encouraging more chaos on your end.
Clete
6/28/2016 12:44:24 am
Glad to see that you did that. Have you considered banning him from your comments section?
Not the Comte de Saint Germain
6/28/2016 02:07:07 am
As I understand it, the website's setup doesn't allow Jason to ban particular commenters or their IPs. He has the ability to close the comments sections on particular blog entries and to remove individual comments manually, but that's about it.
flip
6/28/2016 03:04:13 am
Maybe Jason should consider porting the blog to a different platform. Banning commenters and IPs is fairly basic functionality these days. They also come with import/export functions so you don't lose a thing in transition. ... But probably more trouble than it's worth in terms of having to redo any layout/design.
NOT OFF-TOPIC
6/28/2016 05:07:29 am
Could it be that I believe that the origin of human intelligence and human civilization lies in drugs and not in ancient astronauts - and that drugs are also the ultimate origin of all religions, as indicated in sacred texts and sacred artwork.
Grim Reaper
6/28/2016 05:16:31 am
But the "Off-Topic" tool will always be used in order to delete the messages, And Jason Colavito will never promote himself as a Biblical Aplogetic skeptic because that would compromise his credibility.
Denise
6/28/2016 01:37:27 pm
Jason,
Time Machine
6/29/2016 08:36:49 am
Shut up, Denise. If Wolter can be criticised on this Blog then so can other people in exactly the same way.
Elmo Blatch
6/28/2016 05:36:10 am
Time Machine,
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SCOTT
6/27/2016 09:27:38 pm
Both are frauds
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Killbuck
6/27/2016 10:29:47 pm
Having seen the alleged copper ingot, it bears a strong resemblance to one dug up by relatives once in the mining business. Now in my guestroom with the antique mining relics, I can confirm no Minoans were involved and is a natural copper formation.
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Dan
6/27/2016 11:12:52 pm
The original AU program was one of the first episodes I ever saw of the show and I think my attempt to do some basic research on these preposterous claims brought me here way back when. So AU wasn't all bad.
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Confused
6/28/2016 01:14:53 am
Forgive my ignorance but how exacly did they linked minoans and israel? Is there some obscure connection or did they took it stright from their behinds like the rest of their claims?
Reply
6/28/2016 06:28:41 am
No, they didn't link them at all. Pulitzer just kept mentioning the "ancient Middle East," seemingly at random. The only real connection is that they believe that the copper ended up in the hands of Israelites who turned it into brass and brought it back to Bat Creek, where they buried two bracelets along with the alleged Paleo-Hebrew inscription on the Bat Creek Stone.
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DaveR
6/28/2016 10:08:08 am
So they want us to believe that it was easier for people in the bronze age to travel across the Atlantic to find North America, and then travel hundreds of miles inland to discover the Great Lakes copper reserves, to bring the copper back to the ancient Middle East to smelt into bronze, and then bring two bracelets back to bury in a mound, as opposed to them just finding more copper locally.
An Over-Educated Grunt
6/28/2016 10:28:16 am
DaveR - What are you talking about? Everyone knows they also travelled a week further inland and built a small pyramid in a depression, as was revealed in the episode with the mini-sub!
DaveR
6/28/2016 11:33:59 am
I missed that episode, now it all ties together and makes perfect sense. They must have also built Stonehenge to help them navigate across the Atlantic westward, and then built the structures in Salem, NH to help them navigate eastward. We need at look at the ley lines because I'm sure that plays into their navigation as well.
An Over-Educated Grunt
6/28/2016 01:05:35 pm
They were of course guided by the Proto-Cistercians, who also gave us the Three Wise Men.
DaveR
6/28/2016 02:02:10 pm
That is the trick, indeed.
Peter Geuzen
6/28/2016 07:56:48 am
"The little red circle can change to represent whatever they are talking about. Today it is Minoans, so we have a Minoan royal symbol."
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Mike Morgan
6/28/2016 10:43:54 am
I believe this to be "on topic" since it pertains to the dynamic duo.
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Hi Jason. As you may have noticed, I have not been able to get Scott Wolter interested in the Norse Code-stone I discovered just over a year ago, though the discovery is well-documented, with ample information and photos.
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Gunn
6/28/2016 11:11:51 am
Thanks for your consideration in getting this supposed Norse Code-stone up for evaluation, with the hope that whatever is buried on the lonely ridge will reveal a thing or two about just who buried it there so very long ago
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Denise
6/28/2016 01:54:19 pm
Hey Gunn,
Andy White
6/28/2016 04:32:58 pm
I'm interested in the stone holes because they seem to have become a "one size fits all" piece of physical evidence that is used to support various claims. Do you have data on the locations (e.g., UTM coordinates) and dimensions of the holes? I can think of many reasons to bore holes in rocks.
Andy White
7/1/2016 07:11:12 am
Gunn,
Gunn
7/1/2016 10:12:02 am
Andy, I answered your question in my response to Mark L., below.
Denise
6/28/2016 02:01:38 pm
Were medieval stoneholes for surveying purposes or indicating buried items? If for surveying, could this tradition have continued into more modern times. now I am off topic....sorry
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Denise
6/28/2016 02:11:50 pm
I'm sorry to all to keep this up....but some of my earlier studies were on early colonial stone fortifications and how they evolved from medieval structures where stone holes were used as murdering holes and left as permanent fixtures in the structure for scaffolding and fighting platforms. Obviously different terminology is being used here? Sorry for my confusion.
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Gunn
6/28/2016 08:55:12 pm
Thank you for your comments, Denise and Andy. I'm always glad when anyone takes what seems to be a sincere interest in stoneholes, instead of dismissing them offhand. I'll try to answer your questions in a succinct manner, but first I will attempt to be somewhat on topic by suggesting that the Copper Harbor petroglyph of a sailing vessel seen here
Mark L
6/29/2016 06:44:54 am
Gunn, I appreciate its interest to you, but have you considered that these holes are just part of the late 1800s holes you found previously? Balance of probabilities and all that.
Gunn
6/29/2016 11:40:49 am
Mark L, that is a good, honest question. Thank you. Within my offering of photos are two examples of the small-diameter stoneholes exhibited on the ridge, but at different locations, one just across the border in SD (near Wilmot), and the other on the so-called Viking Altar Rock (googleable) located near Sauk Lake, MN. These stoneholes all also exhibit the medieval "triangular shape" made by chiseling out a stonehole by hand. These several small-diameter stonehole rocks on the ridge are the same as the two examples in both SD and MN, and they are mixed in with late 1800's examples.
Gunn
7/2/2016 05:23:08 pm
One of the problems for me, in this instance of the Norse Code-stone, is that the mystery surrounding its existence is so very esoteric in nature. But please make no mistake about the validity that comes with this mystery--which is the merging of historical data, in this case about stoneholes, with modern technology, which in this case is an expensive ferrous metal detector.
Karl
6/28/2016 02:54:11 pm
"Pulitzer also tells viewers to stop paying attention to academics and instead research American archaeology from nineteenth century journals and magazines, which he considers to be more honest about diffusionism and less 'politically correct.' "
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Kensington Man
6/28/2016 03:57:48 pm
I'm one of the 800 members of the Kensington Runestone group on Facebook, as are Wolter and Pulitzer. When they post things the group essentially ignores them. Neither have credibility - they just seek attention and relevance but they both are considered clowns, especially Wolter with his discredited KRS aging work.
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justanotherskeptic
6/28/2016 05:09:43 pm
"Such artifacts are almost certainly planted by the same hoaxer who made the Bat Creek Stone." To that I have to ask: What does a hoaxer wish to gain from planting fake artifacts to an apparently obscure location if the artifacts are indeed fake? Personal satisfaction?
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justanotherskeptic
6/28/2016 05:21:36 pm
BTW I'm baffled by the prospect (no pun intended) of 39 episodes to explain - aka rehash - each episode of "America Unearthed". Who would even think of producing these even if Pulitzer and Wolter underwrote this. I can get a better video output on my tablet with a brightly lit window behind me and a lousy microphone.
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Bob Jase
6/29/2016 08:14:31 am
To be positively nerdist I must point out that King Tut wasn't blue, that was Mr. Freeze. We all have our special fields of study.
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Denise
6/29/2016 02:43:46 pm
Hey again Gunn,
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Gunn
6/30/2016 01:35:08 pm
Thanks Denise, that's some pretty good advice. I especially like the idea of using GPR, since it wouldn't disturb the site. The only problem here is that a chunk of rock about the size of half a basketball is sitting directly over the spot.
Reply
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