Clues to ages gone by are scattered in forested coves across Western
North Carolina. Often they are stone tools, shards of pottery and other
remnants of the lives of Native Americans buried in spots where they
gathered.
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| Preserving
archaeology sites from looters essentia...: Archaeologist Rodney
Snedeker discusses the importance of preserving sites in WNC that hold
historical treasures. He says sites are increasingly being looted by
amatuer relic hunters [Credit: Clarke Morrison, Robert Bradley/Asheville
Citizen-Times] |
Some thousands of years old, the items are important to archaeologists who work to piece together the region's history.
"They tell us about who used to live here and how they lived," said
Rodney Snedeker, forest archaeologist and tribal liaison with the
National Forests in North Carolina. "That tells us about human behavior.
They also contain a lot of data about environmental changes over time."
But Snedeker and other archaeologists say these historical treasures are
increasingly being looted by amateur relic hunters who dig up sites in
the national forests, looking for arrowheads and other artifacts.
The arrowheads can sell for as little as $5 apiece. Other items can fetch thousands of dollars.
A search on eBay for "Indian artifacts for sale" results in a list of more than 3,000 items.
The looting of important historical sites is a felony crime under the
federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act. First-time offenders
can be fined up to $20,000 and imprisoned for up to a year, while
second-time offenders face fines up to $100,000 and up to five years in
prison.
Even with heavy potential sentences, the number of documented violations
of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act in North Carolina's
national forests has nearly doubled in recent years to about 20-25 a
year.
A federal grand jury in Asheville recently indicted two men on charges
of violating the act. According to court records, Michael E. Ballew and
Kelly Daniel Robinson damaged archaeological resources in the Upper
Curtis Creek area of Pisgah National Forest in McDowell County. The
violations occurred in July and August 2011 and the summer of 2012, the
indictment states.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Edwards said he couldn't provide details
about damage done at the site because the case is pending.
Ballew and Robinson were released on $25,000 unsecured bonds following a
hearing in U.S. District Court in Asheville. Trial dates have not been
scheduled, according to court records. Neither man could be reached for
comment.
Thousands of acres, little oversight
Archaeological resources are vulnerable because they usually are in
places where people believe they can do something illicit without being
observed.
Looters know to look by targeting rock overhangs that were used by
Native Americans for shelter, said David Moore, who runs the archaeology
program at Warren Wilson College.
Moore said he witnessed damage to sites in the Upper Curtis Creek area from people digging around the rock outcroppings.
"It was clear that people were vandalizing them, people digging in the
soil in the shelter, very intentionally looking for artifacts," he said.
"We have many examples of these kinds of sites that have been destroyed
by looting."
"They just dig holes and sift the soil," he said. "Usually they are
looking for stone tools, arrowheads and spear points and things like
that. And by definition, when you dig into an archaeological site you
destroy it, because the context of that soil is what makes the site
important."
The Forest Service has documented about 3,000 archaeological sites
across Pisgah and Nantahala national forests, which cover more than a
million acres in Western North Carolina, Snedeker said.
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| This Cherokee
pottery shard was found on national forest land in Wester n North
Carolina.[Credit: US forest Service/Asheville Citizen-Times] |
But only about 20 percent of the forests has been inventoried, meaning there are many more sites yet to be found.
"These would be primarily prehistoric American Indian sites - hunting
camps, areas where stone was quarried to make stone tools, village sites
where groups of Indians lived," he said. "We have sites that are 10,000
to 12,000 years old, and we have American Indian sites that date all
the way up to European contact."
Databases are maintained that contain information about the sites and their locations, but they aren't available to the public.
"There are unscrupulous people who would use them to find the sites and destroy them," Moore said.
Many sites on private land are vulnerable and have been impacted by
development. That's why laws were enacted to protect archaeological
resources on public lands, Snedeker said.
"The amount of damage has increased dramatically," he said. "People are
digging a lot more at these sites and causing a lot more damage."
Snedeker cited the example of an area in Transylvania County that was discovered to have been looted in the late 1990s.
"It had artifacts that were at least 6,000 years old," he said. "It was a
large cove where people had lived for thousands of years. People found
all these holes in the ground and broken artifacts on the surface. It
was heavily damaged."
No one was ever caught.
From historians to thieves
Snedeker believes the increase in looting is because of a greater interest in history and a desire by many to make money.
"They may do that for their own collections, or they may do it to sell
the artifacts," Moore said. "There is a market. Today, it's often driven
by these reality shows on television."
A show on cable network Spike TV called "American Digger" features a
former professional wrestler who digs up artifacts and sells them. The
National Geographic Channel also has a version called "Diggers."
Moore said the shows have been widely protested by professional archaeologists for the damage they promote.
Arrowheads and projectile points from Western North Carolina can sell
anywhere from around $5 to as much as $100, depending on how old they
are and where they were found, Snedeker said.
"Whole vessels can sell for much more. They can sell for hundreds of
dollars, possibly thousands," he said. "The more rare an item is and the
more location information you have on it makes it worth more.
"There's an international market for American Indian artifacts. Some
pottery items in the Southwest have sold for hundreds of thousands of
dollars."
It's not illegal to sell artifacts, but it's illegal to dig them up on federal land, Snedeker said.
Forest Service rangers patrol and sometimes use surveillance in areas
prone to looting in an attempt to catch violators, Snedeker said. They
also get tips from the public about such damage.
The agency also conducts demonstrations to educate the public about why it's important to protect archaeological resources.
"Archaeological sites are public property," he said. "They belong to
everyone. They're the history of everyone who lived here, everyone who
might have done something here."
