Subject: Re: Private Property...law? From: Lynn S Teague Date: July 04, 1998 I'm a professional archaeologist, and have been involved in administration of federal and state laws for the protection of cultural property for about 25 years. I haven't lived in SC for more than 20 years so I can't offer chapter and verse on current laws there, but I'll summarize the general situation: About the only hope you have of protecting historic sites (or prehistoric sites) on your property is by prosecuting for theft. It doesn't take much (unfortunately) to reach dollar levels to make this a felony because the market in antiquities always flourishes, so if you can actually get the attention of your sheriff and county prosecutor this could be an effective deterrent. However, you'll have to deal with a) priorities, convincing them that this is worth doing when they are otherwise occupied with murders, drugs, etc. and b) their self-interest, since you'll frequently find that law enforcement personnel or their relatives view digging for antiquities as their own weekend recreation. Why no specific laws protecting antiquities on private land? Many European countries have such laws, viewing such sites as the shared heritage of the entire country. The largest part of the answer is that any effective law would also protect the antiquities from the landowner -- would make it harder to plow up, develop, flood, or otherwise damage and destroy sites on private land. There is an enormous lobby against this. Second is the lobby of people who think hunting old shells with metal detectors, digging up arrow points, and so forth is good clean fun and they lobby very vocally against even federal and state land protections. Remember that until recently the Boy Scouts had a merit badge for such activities, until the Society for American Archaeology finally got through to them. As I recall, the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) for South Carolina is part of the Department of Archives and History (wonderful agency beloved of all us genealogy types). This is probably your best source of information on what protections are available to you locally in your area in SC. The primary functions of the SHPO have to do with federal law but they become involved in virtually every aspect of legal protections of sites and cultural properties. Lynn [email protected] ==== SCROOTS Mailing List ==== Go To: #, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Main |