Texas Archaeology and the Law
Archaeological
Resources Protection Act of 1979
Cases
Texas Codes
Other Sources
Archaeology doesn't seem to capture the imagination of the legal community very often. The legislation concerning
the subject doesn't produce a great deal of case law and the term "archaeology" is virtually non-existant in legal indexes. Cases related to archaeology can be found in West publications under "Abondoned and Lost Property 10" and "Health and Environment 25.5(8)".
Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, Pub. L. No. 96-95
http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/ArchNet/Topical/CRM/USdocs/arpa79.html
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 is the main federal statute dealing with archaeology. The act is codified at: 16 U.S.C. §§ 470(aa) - 470(ll) (1994). If you want to dig a little deeper into this law, you can find its legislative history at: Pub. L. No. 96-95, 1997 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1709. This act has produced very little case law. It is mentioned only once by the Supreme Court, in a footnote of a dissenting opinion written by Justice Brennan. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals cites the act only three times. Two of the citations are come from U.S. v. Shivers (which will be discussed later) and one refers to a footnote listing agencies that are required to turn to the courts for enforcement of their subpoenas.
Most of the case law concerning archaeology has to do with lost property rather than serious archaeological study. The most recent notworthy case is:
U.S. v. Shivers, 96 F.3d 120 (1996).
U.S. v. Shivers is illustrates a common theme in the case law concerning archaeology. It seems that people are willing to go to court mostly when the artifact in question is some form of money. Another Texas case that deals with digging up money is:Schley v. Couch, 284 S.W.2d 333 (1955).
In this case, neither party claimed ownership of the money in question. Both parties wanted to "hold" the money until the rightful owner could be located.
Texas Codes dealing with archaeology are mainly covered by the Texas Administrative Code under Cultural Resources. Chapter 25 outlines the "Office of the State Archaeologist" and Chapter 26 covers "Practice and Procedure." The state's "Criteria for Evaluating Archaeological Sites" can be found at:
13 Tex. Admin. Code § 26.8
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/tac/13/II/26/26.8.htmlThe State Archaeological Program can be found at: Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 442.007 (West 1997).
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/codes/gv044200-000700.html
Various other codes briefly mention archaeological sites in provisions discussing the confiscation of land for public domain.
Jessica L. Darraby, Art, Artifact & Architecture Law, New York: Clark Boardman Callaghan (1995).
Sherry Hutt, Elwood W. Jones, and Martin E. McAllister, Archaeological Resource Protection, Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press (1992).
Stephen L. Kass, Judith M. LaBelle, and David A. Hansell, Rehabilitating Older and Historic Buildings: Law, Taxation, Strategies, John Wiley & Sons (1985).
Ellen L. Kettler and Bernard D. Reams, Jr., Historic Preservation Law: An Annotated Bibliography, Preservation Press (1976).
Hal Rothman, Preserving Different Pasts, U. Ill. Press (1989).
Other Texas Archeological Resources
Texas Archeological Society http://www.txarch.org/
Center for Indigenous Research http://www.virtualelpaso.com/archaeology/
The Texas Archeology E-Journal http://www.connecti.com/~texarch/
University of Texas at Austin - Texas Archeological Research Laboratory http://www.utexas.edu/research/tarl/
Southern Methodist University Collections Management and Interpretive Information http://www.smu.edu/~anthrop/anthcollections.html
The University of Texas at San Antonio - Center for Archaeological Research http://www.csbs.utsa.edu/research/car/index.htm
Council of Texas Archeologists http://www.thc.state.tx.us/cta/
Southern Texas Archaeological Association http://www.ijoa.org/staa.html
East Texas Archeological Society http://www.skiles.net/etas/
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