What if you found an archeological site? How would you secure it?

Question

Suppose you stumbled on some half burried stonehenge. You wouldnt want to go blabbing your mouth and let some other archeologist make loads of cash writing books etc. about the site, not to mention digging it up and studying whatever artifacts he found. So as a non-archeologist I ask you. How do archeologists protect and "claim" the sites they find?

Answer 1

I and my friends didn't, mistakenly. Hiking the back canyons around the area of Las Vegas, Nevada, the real far back canyons, we stumbled across a small but unused canyon and getting our attention was the hallow depressions in the hill.

     We found numerous places where ancients built there adobes. An ancient creek run nearby. We found hundreds of hieroglyphs and pictographs, showing how these people got here from Arizona, the maps of their travels.

      We, as I said mistakenly, told the DNR and they marked it on a travel map for tourists when they began investigation. Within two years, high school proms, kids with Jeeps and ATV's partying and drinking, all but destroyed the area.

      A group started cleaning the paint off the stone but, it will never be the same. I would never say anything again and just let a place like this to nature.

Answer 2

OK,I actually live 2 mi from Stonehenge and looking out back i can see about 12 burial mounds (really). It's not implausible my house could be sitting on a very important burial.

In fact, it happened 2 blocks away.  They were putting in pipes for a school/housing developement when they came upon a grave. With gold. From about 2500 BC. they were set for the weekend break but immediately had to get an emergency night dig going and get security on site, in case of treasure hunters.

Answer 3

Cover it with a lot of leaves, until you are ready to move in there!

Answer 4

First the legal stuff. Generally, the person that owns the land, also owns the site.They also have the right to post "No Trespassing" signs and otherwise protect the site.

Government land? The Antiquities Act of 1906 protects sites from pot hunting and vandalism. There's also NAGPRA where native American tribes may demand return of their cultural items. Which means that even if you dig the stuff up, there's a chance you'll have to give it up.

Speaking of which, if you sell at a swap meet you'll get taken. If you sell to a collector, ditto and they might find the site.An action house gives the best money but wants to know where the stuff comes from (ie not looted) then there's the IRS.

In practice, archaeologists are reasonable about arranging digs with property owners. The owner finds out about the site, keeps the pot hunters away and gets some of the artifacts. In the case of the East Wenatchee Clovis site in Washington, the owner sold the archaeological rights to the 35-square-meter site for $250,000 to the Washington State Historical Society.

What do you do? First identify where the site is. It's embarrassing to return with a party of archaeologists and not be able to find the right tree.(I know it well) Then find the local heritage resources, state archaeologist or college with an archaeologist. Report it. Take them out to the site.

Most states have laws protecting sites. Once they are registered, developers are stopped from disturbing them and they can be saved for future examination. Sites in the path of development or sites threatened by erosion or people traffic, will often get dug.

Answer 5

I would get all I could out of it before I told a soul.