[MSN] Native American artifacts discovered when Lake Okeechobee's waters receded are now under constant guard from looters.

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All eyes on Lake Okeechobee artifacts
Native American artifacts discovered when Lake Okeechobee's waters receded
are now under constant guard from looters.
BY KELLY WOLFE
The Palm Beach Post

BELLE GLADE -- Officer David Burnsed is alone out here except for all the
gators.

And it's his job to keep it that way.

He's an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,
posted at the mucky gateway to 2,000 years of Florida history. He uses an
airboat to pull over boats that get too close to the relics.

''The majority of people know the law and understand we have to do what we
have to do,'' Burnsed said.

He said he's caught a few people poking around the archaeological site. One
person said he wasn't there for artifacts -- but for old Coke bottles.

''Riiiiigggghhhhht,'' Burnsed said.

Burnsed is one of about a half-dozen officers patrolling an area in Lake
Okeechobee where newly discovered Native American artifacts are located.
There's already evidence of looting at the site, which is accessible only by
airboat -- or a long, hot hike through thigh-high muck.

''The people who engage in looting and trafficking are not art lovers,''
said Clifford Brown, an archaeology professor at Florida Atlantic
University. ``They're crooks. And they traffic in anything they can make
money on.''

And old stuff does make money.

A casual look at the online auction house eBay shows arrowheads on sale for
$2.99 to $200. Brown said ceramics can fetch tens of thousands of dollars
and Maya carvings can sell for hundreds of thousands.

The auction house Sotheby's set a new world record for antiquities Thursday
when a bronze figure from 1 A.D., Artemis and the Stag, sold for $28.6
million. A spokeswoman at the auction house said there's a rigorous process
to ensure items sold there are not stolen.

But not everyone is as diligent.

''It's where museums get their stuff as well as collectors,'' Brown said.

FAMOUS FIND

Perhaps the most famous case of looting involves the Elgin Marbles, taken
from the Parthenon by the British diplomat Lord Elgin around 1810. They are
housed in the British Museum in London. Greece wants them back.

But England has argued they are better preserved in the museum.

Brown said stolen antiquities are tricky to police.

For example, he said, if people are selling arrowheads dug from their back
yards on eBay, it's OK. It's only when relics are taken from federal land
that it becomes a crime.

That's the case with the Lake Okeechobee site, said the state archaeologist.

Just disturbing the area is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a
year in jail. Digging at an archaeological site is a felony and carries a
penalty of up to five years in prison.

Local man Boots Boyer stumbled on the Lake Okeechobee site in March, when
water levels dipped below normal. He called county archaeologist Christian
Davenport.

Some of the artifacts discovered include a Native American shell hammer,
some chips of Native American pottery, a broken piece of amethyst glass
(most likely a candleholder), bottles dating back to the early 1900s and
shell pendants that could date back 2,000 years.

Davenport also found a piece of a large ship with copper nails; a 1928
catfish fishing boat; a large, one-cylinder gas engine; and a steam-powered
dredge.

The ship dates back to about 1900 and is splintered across a mile and a
half, Davenport said.

There are also some bones belonging to Native Americans -- but their
presence was previously recorded. They last surfaced after the 2001 drought.

Boyer said he is also pitching in, patrolling the site on his own time.

`RESPECT THE SITE'

''I have a lot of respect for the site,'' Boyer said. ``I ask other people
to please respect the site. It's our history.''

He hopes one day the artifacts will be on display in a historical museum in
Belle Glade.

''It's an awesome find,'' he said.

But even then, the objects may not be safe.

One of the largest antiquities thefts in the southern United States happened
at the Erskine Ramsay Archaeological Repository in Alabama in 1980.

More than 70 percent of the museum's Indian artifact exhibit was stolen --
264 items -- and never recovered.

http://www.miamiherald.com/
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