Treasure hunting is an expression which nowadays applies mainly to maritime salvage. Treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market of antiquities.

Treasure hunting is a legal activity, very different from looting. By definition, looters work illegally.

Treasure hunters tend to fall in one of three main groups:

1. small companies or individuals, working part time, in shallow waters
2. professional groups, sponsored by wealthy collectors, generally operating without any publicity
3. well-advertised companies, seeking money from investors and generally not excessively worried with profitability.

Since the late 1990s, reacting against increasingly energetic efforts by the international community to stop the destruction of the world submerged cultural heritage, treasure hunting companies started hiring archaeologists and marketing directors, making public statements about their good intentions. Treasure hunting activity, however, is primarily motivated by potential for profit.

Geocaching has also become a very popular sport in which participants utilize GPS units to find buried caches of toys and trinkets.

Further reading

• Bass, George F. “After the Diving is Over,” Underwater Archaeology Proceedings, Toni Carrell, ed., Society for Historical Archaeology, 1990, 10-13.
• Bass, George F. “The Men Who Stole the Stars,” INA Newsletter, Vol. 15, No. 2, 11.
• Draper, Robert. “Indian Takers,” Texas Monthly, March, 1993, 104-107, 121-124.
• Elia, Ricardo. “Nautical Shenanigans of book Walking the Plank,” Archaeology, Vol. 48, No. 1, January-February, 1995, 79-84.
• Haldane, Cheryl. “The Abandoned Shipwreck Act,” INA Newsletter, Vol. 15, No. 2, 9.
• Renfrew, Colin, Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership. London: Duckworth, 2000.
• Throckmorton, Peter. “The World’s Worst Investment: The Economics of Treasure Hunting with Real Life Comparisons,” Underwater Archaeology Proceedings, Toni Carrell, ed., Society for Historical Archaeology, 1990, 6-10.
• United States Senate. Public Law 100-298 858, Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, April 28, 1988 (Courtesy of Calvin R. Cummings).

Related Links

• The salvage of the shipwreck RMS Republic - A very real quest/treasure hunt for what may be the greatest lost shipwreck treasure of all time.