>John and Phil,
>
>Make something clear. Are you advocating a law restricting the rights of
>property owners to do undocumented amateur archaeology on their land? Thats
>what I am reading into your messages. These laws, I am assuming would be
>similar to the preservation statutes in England.
>

Most Australian States have laws which do exactly this. (So does New
Zealand, most of Europe, and even a few Asian countries).  They also seem
to have a considerable level of public support. Proportionally, very few
people are in the business of digging up historical sites, and fewer
digging up Aboriginal sites, where the archaeology and relics protection
laws were originally formulated. I think it is now generally and widely
accepted that digging up ancient or even more recent archaeological relics
for personal gain, is unacceptible and imoral, particularly where it may
also involve desecrating Aboriginal sacred sites. The change (which
happened in the 1970s) possibly made it harder for some bona-fide research,
but once implemented, was rapidly adopted. Enforcement and prosecution is
another matter. There have been some celebrated cases of raids and
confiscation of illegally obtained Aboriginal and maritime relics, but no
prosecutions for illegally obtained historical collections to my knowledge
(bottle hunters are the main culprits here). The relics acts, are closely
tied to the buildings preservation movement, and there have been important
cases where illegal destruction of protected historical buildings have been
prosecuted.

Go for the legal solution. Property rights should not override every other
social obligation. And I expect the majority of collectors who go for the
in situ finds, are trespassing and stealing to get their material.

Gary Vines



Melbourne's Living Museum of the West
P.O. BOX 60 Highpoint City, 3032
Victoria, Australia
ph. +61 3 93183544
fax. +61 3 93181039
email- [log in to unmask]
www.livingmuseum.org.au