[MSN] Boulder Colorado. COURT RULING. What tools are left to prevent archeological looting?

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

June 23, 2006

COURT RULING 
What tools are left to prevent archeological looting? 
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
 
 
RENO - On the surface, it would be hard to imagine a simpler theft case than
the one against John Ligon.

Three boulders bearing centuries-old petroglyphs of an archer and bighorn
sheep were part of his front yard landscaping.

So when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out convictions against
the Reno man and a co-defendant, it left prosecutors and archaeologists
questioning whether they had any legal weapon to fight what already had been
an uphill struggle: stopping the plunder of unknown thousands of ancient
sites.

In asking the court for a rehearing, federal prosecutor Robert Don Gifford
said that its March ruling "effectively provides a license to steal"
petroglyphs and other artifacts. 

Alanah Woody, an anthropologist at the Nevada State Museum and head of the
Nevada Rock Art Foundation, said the ruling nullifies widely publicized
convictions that had been viewed as major victories for efforts to protect
archaeological resources. 

"I don't think the citizens of Reno are happy about the decision," Woody
said. "They don't want this to happen anymore."

A three-judge panel of the court did not dispute that Ligon and Carroll
Mizell stole the boulders from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in
August 2003.

The problem, the ruling said, was that the government failed to prove two
critical points: It did not show that the artifacts were worth $1,000 or
that the defendants knew or should have known they were stealing something
of archaeological value.

Gifford wrote that the decision "effectively leaves the government without
the means to stop the needless, careless and intentional destruction of
archaeological sites and organized and intentional theft of the valuable
remains of previous civilizations."

It was unclear when the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit would decide whether
to bring the case before the same three-court panel for a rehearing. 

It is hard to know how many artifacts have been looted from ancient sites,
but the number must be large. The National Park Service alone recorded
11,000 violations in just one year, 2002.

Only a tiny proportion of lootings are prosecuted. 

The two men in the Nevada case admitted they used a winch to remove the
boulders, but insist they did not know they were breaking the law, partly
because no signs marked the site. 

A federal jury found them guilty of theft of government property, but
acquitted them of unlawful excavation of archaeological resources. Ligon was
sentenced to two months in jail; Mizell, who then lived in Van Nuys, Calif.,
was sentenced to four months and ordered to pay $13,169. 

U.S. Forest Service officials believe the petroglyphs are at least 1,000
years old, and an agency archaeologist testified they had an archaeological
value of about $8,000.

An Arizona art gallery owner appraised the boulders' commercial value at
from $800 to $900, but he said they could have sold for $1,500 had they not
been scarred when removed. 

That appraisal was not introduced as evidence, as the government said it was
not credible. Judge William A. Fletcher criticized that decision.

The standard that looters can be convicted of a felony only if they knew, or
should have known, they were removing an archaeological resource was
established by the 9th Circuit in 2000.

The precedent applies only in the court's jurisdiction: Alaska, Arizona,
California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Those states account for a large portion of the nation's ancient sites.

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/