Ring Tabs, Now 50. Historical Artifacts!

[Sourdough Scott]

http://westerndigs.org/ring-tab-beer-cans-are-now-officially-historic-artifacts/

[Gold Seeker]

OMG!!!

I've always thought that archaeologists go a little overboard and to the extreme now we have solid proof!!!  

I'm guessing that using a metal detector will be a hard road from here on out!! 

 

This statement says it all....

" Schroeder noted, because the ring-tab’s new status means it can be used to identify sites that may have historic value. "

So I'm guessing the historic value he will learn is all the places people used to go and get drunk!!!

[AU_Solitude]

 

  Beyond ridiculous... 

Quote

 

“This means that even beverage-can pull tabs are eligible for protection under state and federal laws.”

 

[Steve Herschbach]

It is to chuckle over. I have been detecting long enough to have been digging these stupid things for as long as they have been in the ground. I know I have dug tens of thousands of pull tabs and tossed them in the trash. Because that is what they have always been all these years - trash targets.

I always understood the old tear it off and toss it pull tab and why I had to dig them. Nature of the item. What always irritates me is they redesigned pop tops ages ago to where they stay attached to the can. So what do people do then? They tear them off the can they are meant to stay attached to and toss them on the ground! It is amazing to me how many people think that is a great idea. No matter how many aluminum tabs you dig up and properly dispose of there will always be more out there.

I know in my case disposing of other people's garbage has made me a real foe of people who litter. Anyone caught littering should be sentenced to picking up other people's trash for as long as it takes for them to decide people should not litter. It certainly worked on me.

So now the old pull tabs, and I suspect me along with them, are becoming artifacts of another age. Life cracks me up sometimes - thanks for posting Scott!

[DDancer]

Interesting and informative.  Funny how things get enshrined in the archy community.  Hehh, just about any experienced MD'er could have pointed out the venerable pull tab and its relation to human inhabitation.  Wonder how long it'll be before this little grasping of straws leads to more prohibition for detectorists. 

[Carpdogman]

 I .have never dug a pull tab.                                                                                                                               That I Liked.

[beatup]

man you got to to be kidding me.

[nvchris]

I've got socks older.....this means the cans also...

Had a FS archaeologist point to a pile of rusty wire rope, sardine cans and beer bottles and told me not to disturb them that they were protected, I told them it was Klunker's lunch spot and not to mess with his stuff. 

[Sourdough Scott]

I remember as a kid, people using the ring tabs to make art out of them. I remember a lady making a beautiful eagle. Years ago I was was out in the sticks riding my ATV. Somehow the nut holding my sprocket on was lost. So I had to do a redneck fix. An old deer hunting camp was near by. I found several tabs by the fire pit. The ring tabs fit almost perfectly on the bolt threads. The tabs and a piece of wire I was able to nurse the ATV back to the barn.

[Steve Herschbach]

4 hours ago, Carpdogman said:

 I .have never dug a pull tab.                                                                                                                               That I Liked.

Oddly enough I have come to like finding pull tabs. I am getting ready to go detect a park I have never detected and hopefully there will be some pull tabs for me to find. In my experience pull tabs means rings to find. No pull tabs, somebody has beat me to it. Still possibilities but they would have to be recent drops.