8 ms·

What a tragic waste of a mans life work.

distances 5y ago
I can only imagine how much better the outcome would've been if he used his locating skills to flag archeological sites without taking anything out of the ground. Now his legacy is a grave robber with an illicit, useless hoard of antiquities that have no documentation to place them in context. A complete waste of a life indeed.
- thatguy0900 5y ago
  He didnt get permission to dig anywhere or take anything he found. That is the hard part, not finding where to dig.
upwardbound 5y ago
What life work?? The guy robbed graves and disfigured people's remains. "The skeleton Miller said was Crazy Horse was actually several people. Miller had taken pieces from other skulls, a different mandible, someone else’s teeth and bones, and glued it all together, Frankenstein-like." "The agents analyzed skulls pierced with arrowheads and determined that Miller hammered in those arrowheads himself." "A video clip shows Miller and others at a burial cave on Easter Island, one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, bringing out skulls and other remains, grinning while tossing the skulls into a bag. And in one of the most disturbing shots, a Native American skull cut in half is filled with yellow apples."
- zivkovicp 5y ago
  40k items. Imagine trying to amass a collection of 40k pieces of ordinary silverware; I'll bet most people couldn't, or would require a lifetime to accomplish it. This man could fill museums with genuine artifacts. "Life work" seems perfectly appropriate. While I can't condone collecting the human remains, and fail to see the allure personally, there is no denying what he had accomplished was exceptional. The article is obviously heavily biased and sensationalistic, written to prioritize ad revenue and social media sharing, so I'm reserving judgement on a man I've never met; especially judging his 90+ years through the lens of 2020's social norms.
  - lookalike74 5y ago
    That's ridiculous, a prolific thief is still just a thief.
    - majkinetor 5y ago
      His crime is that he stole from the dead ? So much passion for such trivia...
      - wonderwonder 5y ago
        I think there is a bit of a difference between taking artifacts and digging up corpses and taking parts of them.
        jamal-kumar 5y ago
        Incredible people have to be reminded of this still.
        majkinetor 5y ago
        What is incredible is that people confuse dead nature with the living one. Besides, five minutes ago you didn't even know there is something deep in the ground and now you construct all kind of weird GenZ shenanigan around digging it up... Obligatory, I guess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4
        majkinetor 5y ago
        What difference after so many years? What is this, supernatural episode? Should we stop burning fossil fuel because technically, you are burning dead animals and maybe even some people of ancient civilization ?
        wonderwonder 5y ago
        Whats the limit on how long until we can dig people up? Is it ok if someone digs up a corpse a week after the funeral? a year? a decade? Who gets to decide and if a culture believes that remains must be left untouched forever, who gets to decide that that cultures beliefs are irrelevant and overrule them if that culture is still around?
- QuarterReptile 5y ago
  >At one point, Carpenter was looking at a case of stone axes with an archaeologist who specialized in Celtic cultures. “He said, ‘I’ve spent my entire career looking for just one of these in this condition,’ ” Carpenter said. “ ‘And he has 50.’ ”
  - vdqtp3 5y ago
    Am I the only one that questioned how hard he was actually looking? Or is the assumption that there were only 50 in the whole world and Miller managed to snatch all of them
    - QuarterReptile 5y ago
      I think the implication is that you would find zero if you just tried to process in an orderly way, but this super unprofessional guy was instead making relationships to allow him to only dig in the right places. Also, he was probably moving fast and breaking things.

I can only imagine how much better the outcome would've been if he used his locating skills to flag archeological sites without taking anything out of the ground. Now his legacy is a grave robber with an illicit, useless hoard of antiquities that have no documentation to place them in context. A complete waste of a life indeed.

thatguy0900 5y ago
He didnt get permission to dig anywhere or take anything he found. That is the hard part, not finding where to dig.

upwardbound 5y ago

What life work?? The guy robbed graves and disfigured people's remains. "The skeleton Miller said was Crazy Horse was actually several people. Miller had taken pieces from other skulls, a different mandible, someone else’s teeth and bones, and glued it all together, Frankenstein-like." "The agents analyzed skulls pierced with arrowheads and determined that Miller hammered in those arrowheads himself." "A video clip shows Miller and others at a burial cave on Easter Island, one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, bringing out skulls and other remains, grinning while tossing the skulls into a bag. And in one of the most disturbing shots, a Native American skull cut in half is filled with yellow apples."

zivkovicp 5y ago
40k items. Imagine trying to amass a collection of 40k pieces of ordinary silverware; I'll bet most people couldn't, or would require a lifetime to accomplish it. This man could fill museums with genuine artifacts. "Life work" seems perfectly appropriate. While I can't condone collecting the human remains, and fail to see the allure personally, there is no denying what he had accomplished was exceptional. The article is obviously heavily biased and sensationalistic, written to prioritize ad revenue and social media sharing, so I'm reserving judgement on a man I've never met; especially judging his 90+ years through the lens of 2020's social norms.
- lookalike74 5y ago
  That's ridiculous, a prolific thief is still just a thief.
  - majkinetor 5y ago
    His crime is that he stole from the dead ? So much passion for such trivia...
    - wonderwonder 5y ago
      I think there is a bit of a difference between taking artifacts and digging up corpses and taking parts of them.
      - jamal-kumar 5y ago
        Incredible people have to be reminded of this still.
        majkinetor 5y ago
        What is incredible is that people confuse dead nature with the living one. Besides, five minutes ago you didn't even know there is something deep in the ground and now you construct all kind of weird GenZ shenanigan around digging it up... Obligatory, I guess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ4
      - majkinetor 5y ago
        What difference after so many years? What is this, supernatural episode? Should we stop burning fossil fuel because technically, you are burning dead animals and maybe even some people of ancient civilization ?
        wonderwonder 5y ago
        Whats the limit on how long until we can dig people up? Is it ok if someone digs up a corpse a week after the funeral? a year? a decade? Who gets to decide and if a culture believes that remains must be left untouched forever, who gets to decide that that cultures beliefs are irrelevant and overrule them if that culture is still around?
QuarterReptile 5y ago
>At one point, Carpenter was looking at a case of stone axes with an archaeologist who specialized in Celtic cultures. “He said, ‘I’ve spent my entire career looking for just one of these in this condition,’ ” Carpenter said. “ ‘And he has 50.’ ”
- vdqtp3 5y ago
  Am I the only one that questioned how hard he was actually looking? Or is the assumption that there were only 50 in the whole world and Miller managed to snatch all of them
  - QuarterReptile 5y ago
    I think the implication is that you would find zero if you just tried to process in an orderly way, but this super unprofessional guy was instead making relationships to allow him to only dig in the right places. Also, he was probably moving fast and breaking things.