>he's single-handedly prevented several careers in archaeology. Only by the same reasoning that a hydraulic grabber arm prevents a career in household refuse r

>he's single-handedly prevented several careers in archaeology. Only by the same reasoning that a hydraulic grabber arm prevents a career in household refuse removal. This dude had a career in archeology. Granted he did some dumb stuff, particularly regarding handling skeletons, but I have a hard time believing those practices weren't more prevalent in professional archeology back when he picked them up (being super anal about leaving things undisturbed is a fairly recent trend). He did the traveling and digging part that's hardest to get funding for for on his own time. If anything the stuff the FBI dumped into museum collections has enabled more careers in archeology. Nobody will fund gallivanting around the globe looking for artifacts. But if you have an existing artifact it's much easier to convince people to pay for a trip to go look for more stuff like it, investigate the site further, etc, etc. It's a positive feedback loop. The only way the outcome could have been better would be if the FBI didn't get involved until after he died. That way the bones still could have gotten back to the tribes that wanted them but more of the low value stuff that isn't novel or special enough to be worth museum space or repatriation would have been kept out of the dumpster. The government doesn't have the processes and isn't well practiced at the ways you get rid of many small lots of niche stuff that's not novel enough for museums so that's likely where a large chunk of the collection will end up.