Caring for America’s Cultural Heritage

This chapter will enable you to answer these questions : 1. What federal policies help protect cultural resources, including archaeological sites? 2. What are the important elements of the 1906 Antiquities Act, the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, and the 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act? 3. Is there an international black market in antiquities? If so, what can be done about it? 4. Why is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 important to archaeologists? How does it differ from other archaeological legislation?

Outline  The Development of Cultural Resource Management  Historic Preservation Comes of Age  The National Historic Preservation Act  The Archaeological Resources Protection Act  What About State and Private Land?  International Efforts to Protect Cultural Resources  NAGPRA (1990)

The Development of Cultural Resource Management  Threats to America’s cultural heritage come from those who loot archaeological sites and from relentless development across the country.  The federal government has passed laws to protect archaeological sites, historic buildings, and landscapes.  These laws have created an important new direction for archaeology, known as cultural resource management (CRM).

The Development of Cultural Resource Management  Cultural resource management (CRM), a professional field that conducts activities, including archaeology, related to compliance with legislation aimed at conserving cultural resources.  Protecting resources for future use and development and leaving lands untouched for their aesthetic values are previous conflicting philosophies that effect modern historical preservation.

The Development of Cultural Resource Management  Prior to the 1960s, nearly all American archaeologists worked for universities and museums.  Today, the number of archaeologists in the United States not only vastly exceeds those working in the 1960s, but well over half of them work in the framework of cultural resource management.  CRM projects account for about 90 percent of the field archaeology conducted today in United States.

Early Efforts to Preserve America’s Heritage  1880, the Archaeological Institute of America sent Adolph Bandelier ( ) to New Mexico to explore pueblo ruins.  The national heritage was already undergoing looting and destruction.

Early Efforts to Preserve America’s Heritage  Legislation to allow protection of some lands was not passed.  Instead, private citizens purchased lands and maintained sites.  Private efforts continued to lead the way for preservation in the late 19c.

The site known as Cliff Palace, in Mesa Verde National Park, was occupied in the late 1200s; it was among the first archaeological sites in the United States to be protected by the government.

1906 Antiquities Act  Although individual sites were protected through specific pieces of legislation or by the actions of concerned citizens, the first legislation to protect all sites on public lands was the 1906 Antiquities Act.

1906 Antiquities Act  Required federal permits before excavating or collecting artifacts on federal land  Established a permitting process  Gave the president the authority to create national monuments  The act became the foundation of all future archaeological legislation.

The River Basin Surveys  Edgar Lee Hewett ( ) helped draft the Antiquities Act and highlighted the problems of looting by:  Creating a permit process  Establishing a mechanism for protecting land.  The resulting act implied that the government had a responsibility toward sites on federal land.

The River Basin Surveys  Dam sites excavated during the Depression under the Civil Works Administration and Works Progress Administration led to the need for the River basin Survey program.  River basins were surveyed prior to inundation, without which many sites would have disappeared without records and excavations.

The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) 1966  Cultural resources, physical features, both natural and artificial, associated with human activity  including sites, structures, and objects possessing significance in history, architecture, or human development. Cultural properties are unique and nonrenewable resources.

National Historic Preservation Act  The first systematic effort to preserve cultural resources.  The act required the government to inventory historic structures and archaeological sites and ensure that development projects consider effects on archaeological sites.  The act established the National Register of Historic Places and State Historic Preservation Offices.

National Historic Preservation Act: Section 106  If federal funding, licenses, or permits are involved, one must determine whether the project will adversely affect any sites “included in or eligible for” the National Register.  The contractor is obligated to mitigate the project’s impact.  The text is short, but with far reaching effects.

The National Register and Archaeological Significance  National Register of Historic Places, a list of significant historic and prehistoric properties, including districts, sites, building, structures, and objects.

Archeological “Significance”  According to NPHA’s regulations, “significance” is based on one or more of the following:  Association with events that made important contributions to broad patterns of history, prehistory, or culture.  Association with important people in the past.

Archeological “Significance”  Possession of distinctive characteristics of a school of architecture, construction method, or characteristics of high artistic value.  Known to contain or likely to contain data important in history or prehistory.

Compliance Archaeology  Area of potential effect (APE) – the area that will be directly and indirectly affected by a construction project;  in some cases it might encompass not only areas that are affected by construction but also areas seen from it.

Steps to Compliance Archaeology  Compliance archaeology begins with a review of available literature and State Historic Preservation Office site files to determine what is known about the proposed site.

Steps to Compliance Archaeology  Next, a systematic survey is conducted according to state standards.  This includes the area directly affected and also areas anticipated to be affected after completion of the project.  Surveys cover 100%, not sampled.  If sites are located, excavations are conducted to assess their significance.

1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)  Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), passed in 1979, this act 1. prohibits the excavation or removal of artifacts from federal property without a permit 2. prohibits the sale, exchange, or transport of artifacts acquired illegally form federal property, and 3. increases penalty for violations of the act over those of the Antiquities Act.

Archaeological Resources Protection Act  This act provided further safeguards against the destruction of archaeological sites on federal and tribal land  increasing the penalties for excavating without a permit and making it illegal to sell, receive, or transport artifacts illegally removed from federal lands.  Violation carries fine of up to $250,000 and/or up to 5 years in prison.

Archaeological Resources Protection Act  Any equipment used to loot can be confiscated.  Civil penalties can be assessed to take into account costs of professional excavation of a looted site.  Looting still continues to be the major threat to the nation’s cultural resources.

A Mimbres pueblo site in the process of being looted by bulldozer; the operator plows away the pueblo walls to expose burial pits beneath the rooms. These burials often contain Mimbres bowls that fetch a high price on the antiquities black market.

What About State and Private Land?  Unlike some countries, no matter how significant or remarkable a site, if it is on private property, it belongs to the landowner.  The exception concerns human burials. The intentional destruction of a burial is a violation of many state laws.  The result is that important archaeological sites on private land can be destroyed.

The Slack Farm Incident  Slack Farm, bottomland along the Ohio River, northern Kentucky, with several large sites and temple mounds.

Rosetta Stone  Rosetta Stone, a black basalt stone tablet found in 1799 that bears an inscription in two forms of ancient Egyptian and Greek.  By working from the Greek texts, scholars were able to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.  Napoleon took the Rosetta Stone from Egypt as part of the spoils of war.

The Thieves of Baghdad  After the invasion in 2003, U.S. military left the Baghdad Museum unguarded.  As of March 2008, many artifacts had been recovered, but others were outside of Iraq within days of their theft.

What Can Be Done?  The United States and many nations around the world are working to stop the flow of illegally acquired antiquities.  Although many measures have been put into place, most countries still find it difficult to stop antiquities from entering a country where buyers are willing to pay high prices for them.

UNESCO Convention of 1970 Requires that signers create legislation and the administrative structure to: 1. Regulate import and export of cultural objects. 2. Forbid museums from acquiring illegally exported cultural objects. 3. Establish ways to inform other nations when illegally exported objects are found within a country’s borders. 4. Return of cultural objects stolen from public institutions. 5. Establish a register of art dealers and require them to register.

Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954)  An international agreement that provides rules for the protection of antiquities in wartime.  Although Congress never ratified this treaty, the U.S. military has abided by it.  During the first Gulf War, Hussein used museums and archaeological sites as military installations.  Sites were bombed, looted and artifacts sold on black market.

Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954)  Society for American Archaeology and Archaeological Institute of America lobbied for protection of sites and museums.  The Pentagon drew up a “no-strike” list that contained more than 4000 archeological sites and cultural institutions.

Archaeology and International Development The site of Machu Picchu, in Peru.

Archaeology and International Development: Machu Picchu  The site draws more than 300,000 tourists a year, accessible only by walking or taking a four-hour train ride from Cuzco.  The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1983)  How do we weigh development against the need to protect precious archeological resources?

Archaeology and International Development: Bamiyan Buddhas One of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas before and after destruction by the Taliban

1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act  (1) protects Indian graves on federal and tribal lands  (2) recognizes tribal authority over the treatment of unmarked graves  (3) prohibits the commercial selling of native dead bodies  (4) requires an inventory and repatriation of human remains held by the federal government and institutions that receive federal funding

1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act  (5) requires these same institutions to return inappropriately acquired sacred objects and other important communally owned property to native owners, and  (6) sets up a process to determine ownership of human remains found on federal and tribal property after November 16, 1990.

NAGPRA Inventories  Inventories showed that American institutions held more than 117,000 sets of human remains, most from Native American burials.  Inventories also included funerary objects placed with a human body as part of a death rite or ceremony or made to contain human remains at the time of burial

NAGPRA Inventories  sacred objects necessary for current practice of traditional Native American religions,  objects of cultural patrimony, objects that have ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to Native American culture.

Native Americans and Cultural Affiliation  Cultural affiliation, in NAGPRA, “a relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced historically or prehistorically between a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and an identifiable earlier group.”

Native Americans and Cultural Affiliation  NAGPRA assumes that human groups have a distinct point of formation;  yet few actually do. Cultures change over time.  Many Native Americans feel affiliated with any burial in their traditional territory, no matter the age.

Is Kennewick Native American?  Most would assume the 9400-year-old skeleton was Native American, but age is not sufficient evidence to determine Native American under NAGPRA.  The ruling argued that the individual must show “general relationship to a present-day tribe, people, or culture” and Kennewick man had no artifacts associated with it.

Is Kennewick Native American?  Based on skeletal morphology, skull looks like southeast Asians, Polynesians, or Japan’s Ainu, not other Native Americans.  Some archeologists argue with the ruling that Kennewick Man is not Native American, that he clearly lived in the U.S. before any colonizing population arrived and the cranial attributes are found among later Native Americans.

Can Kennewick Be Culturally Affiliated with Modern Tribes?  Cultural affiliation requires establishing an identifiable earlier group.  It is impossible to identify Kennewick’s social group.

Can Kennewick Be Culturally Affiliated with Modern Tribes?  The law stipulates showing shared group identity and the capability to trace that identity over time.  Shared group identity can not be archaeologically established over time.

Can Kennewick Be Culturally Affiliated with Modern Tribes?  Oral history of plateau peoples describe times associated with humans and lifeways similar to the present, but beginning well after 6000 years ago;  Earlier events of the environment are described that could include the time Kennewick Man was alive.  Nevertheless, Kennewick cannot be culturally affiliated with the tribes who claimed affiliation.

What Does NAGPRA Mean by “Identity”?  Is identity fixed at birth? Natural?  NAGPRA does not define “identity.”  It assumes that human groups have a distinct point of formation; yet few do.

What Does NAGPRA Mean by “Identity”?  NAGPRA assumes that as one moves back in time, there is a point when a shared group identity is lost.  It is not lost, but simply the differences between modern and past groups are too numerous or large that they do not share an identity.

Summary Questions 1. What federal policies help protect cultural resources, including archaeological sites? 2. What are the important elements of the 1906 Antiquities Act, the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, and the 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act? 3. Is there an international black market in antiquities? If so, what can be done about it? 4. Why is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 important to archaeologists? How does it differ from other archaeological legislation?