Putting our Past in Danger: How States Protect, or Fail to Protect, Archaeological Material
Open Access
Author:
Hagman, Cortlyn Ann
Area of Honors:
Anthropology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Lee Ann Newsom, Thesis Supervisor Timothy Michael Ryan, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
archaeology federal law state law looting collecting burial private property ownership
Abstract:
The destructive cycle of looting and collecting keeps archaeological artifacts, sites and human burials found on private land constantly at risk. They are at risk of being destroyed, disrespected, and having their provenience stripped from them, rendering them useless to archaeologists and therefore limiting the public’s knowledge of our past. While federal law protects archaeological resources found on federal land or discovered during the course of federally funded projects located off federal land, states are left to create their own laws to protect archaeological resources found on state and private land. This paper set out to discover what types of protective measures states have developed, and what was found is disturbing: most states fail to protect archaeological resources on private land. They place in the hands of the individual resources that ought to be placed in the hands of the public. Raising public awareness of this issue is the first step to change how states view ownership of archaeological resources. This paper calls for greater awareness and demonstrates the need for change.
