Treasure hunting

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Gems may be found by treasure hunters.
Gems may be found by treasure hunters.

Treasure hunting is the search for real treasure which has been a notable human activity for millennia.

Contents

[edit] Background

In recent times, the early stages of the development of archaeology included a significant aspect of treasure hunt; Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Troy, and later at Mycenae, both turned up significant finds of golden artifacts. Early work in Egyptology also included a similar motive.

Some people hunt for treasure on sunken galleons of the Spanish treasure fleet.
Some people hunt for treasure on sunken galleons of the Spanish treasure fleet.

More recently, most serious treasure hunters have started working underwater, where modern technology allows access to wrecks containing valuables which were previously inaccessible. Starting with the diving suit, and moving on through Scuba and later to ROVs, each new generation of technology has made more wrecks accessible. Many of these wrecks have resulted in the treasure salvage of many fascinating artifacts from Spanish treasure fleets as well as many others. Unfortunately, in their search for valuable artifacts, treasure hunters destroy forever unique archaeological sites. For this reason, treasure hunting is illegal in most developed countries.

Additionally with the advent of affordable, state of the art satellite imaging from companies such as GlobeXplorer, GeoEye and others, the average income household can now contact a satellite imaging company and pay to have a specified area scanned. This has made it infinitely easier for treasure hunters to do extensive research previously impossible to do without physically going to the specific point of interest, and saved the real life treasure hunters much time and money, even providing for a new level of safety to be incorporated in to treasure hunting expeditions.

In fact, even companies such as Google with their Google Maps and Google Earth products, have given the ability to virtually anyone to have eyes across the globe and conduct research into specific points of interest before launching a treasure hunting expedition. In 2005, a treasure hunter found the remains of an ancient Roman villa when he browsed Google Earth maps showing satellite images of his local area.[1]

[edit] Famous treasure hunters

Treasure hunter Heinrich Schliemann.
Treasure hunter Heinrich Schliemann.

[edit] See also

Pirates burying their treasure
Pirates burying their treasure

[edit] Fictional treasure hunters and archaeologists

[edit] Treasure found by treasure hunters

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC news Internet maps reveal Roman villaretrieved 10/3/07

[edit] Further reading