Curator’s Choice: Helping to Protect Arizona’s Archaeological Heritage

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Did you know that by order of the Arizona Legislature, Arizona State Museum (ASM) authorizes archaeology on more than 10 million acres of state land in Arizona?  Also by legislative mandate, ASM coordinates the treatment of human remains more than 50 years old when these are discovered on state or private lands in Arizona.

Illegal Activity

Unfortunately, unauthorized excavation (looting and vandalism) sometimes occurs. Recently, a person was convicted of illegally digging at an archaeological site on state land. The sentence was $1000 in restitution and one month in jail. Such crimes often are related to drug habits. Looters obtain items from archaeological sites, such as pottery vessels and rock art, and then sell them to buy drugs.

The photo above shows the destruction of an ancient pueblo on private land; the photo to the right shows a backhoe used to destroy the site. The person responsible for this devastation was convicted on 10 misdemeanor counts for disturbing 10 human burials, and sentenced to pay $3000 in restitution. ASM and law enforcement agencies cooperate to bring these crimes to justice. Unfortunately, the private land statute applies only to human remains and does not protect pit houses, pueblos, or other evidence of Arizona’s past.

Permits

By order of the Arizona Legislature, ASM issues permits for archaeological work on state-owned or controlled land (A.R.S. §41-8421). This includes land of any agency, institution, municipal corporation, county, city, or town, as well as any public school, fire, or water district, or any other subdivision of the state.

Why Are Permits Necessary?

Arizona’s statues exist to ensure that the finite resources for understanding Arizona’s past are professionally investigated by a cultural resource management ("contract archaeology") firm when an archaeological site will be impacted by earth-moving activities, such as the construction of roads, power lines, and buildings. These statutes apply to paleontological (fossil bone) sites in Arizona as well. Academic researchers (archaeologists and paleontologists) must also apply for permits (A Tale of Two Sites2). Without Arizona’s laws, our shared heritage would be unprotected. Legally mandated excavations in the Tucson Basin recently resulted in the discovery of the oldest irrigation system in North America (Early Irrigators3)!

The Permit Process

To obtain a permit, an applicant first must be qualified according to the statutes, rules implementing the statutes, and ASM policy (Links to Legal Information4, Rules5, Principal Investigator Policy6). In addition to a permit application, an applicant also must submit a plan of work that presents research questions, describes methods of excavation, and details the types of artifact analyses that will be performed. If the applicant is qualified and the work plan is approved, a permit is signed by the ASM director and issued through the Permits Office.

Human Remains

Arizona also has statutes that apply to the discovery of human remains on state (A.R.S. §41-8447, Rules8) and private lands (A.R.S. §41-8659, Rules10). According to these laws, human remains 50 years old or older are to be treated with respect and dignity. These statutes are also administered by ASM.

Most human remains discovered in Arizona are prehistoric and Native American, but occasionally historic-period burials of Euro-Americans, Asian-Americans, and African Americans are encountered. When human remains are discovered, ASM consults with individuals that have a direct kinship link to the remains or with representatives of groups having cultural or religious affinity with the remains (ASM Guidelines for A.R.S. §41-844 and §41-86511). If human remains must be removed from a burial location because of construction, for example, individuals or groups with kinship, cultural, and/or religious connections to the remains determine the where the remains are to be reburied.

Other ASM Responsibilities

ASM is the official repository for the artifacts, field records, and reports resulting from the permitting process and human remains discoveries. More than 28,000 cubic feet of artifacts, millions of pages of records, hundreds of thousands of photographs, and thousands of reports are curated by ASM. These are used every day by professional researchers and students and in educational programming for the public, including exhibits.

Arizona’s Heritage and You

Arizona’s cultural resources record 13,000 years of human history, and you can help to preserve them. If you see suspicious activity involving an archaeological site, artifacts, or human remains, please call ASM.

Photos by John H. Madsen

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