State-level law and prosecutorial interest in archaeological resources protection

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Heritage Protection: Accomplishing Goals" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological site damage, destruction, and looting is nothing new. For years, the archaeological community has bemoaned the minimal protections for these resources under federal law. Little discussion has occurred regarding what protections may exist under various states’ legal regimes. This paper reviews Louisiana’s archaeological resource protection laws with an eye towards identifying how such laws can work in tandem with federal law to expand resource protection as well as to examining the existing laws for possible improvements. These laws are also reviewed through the lens of real-life experiences in Louisiana related to looting at the Toledo Bend Reservoir and Lakes Vernon and Anacoco. Included in this latter review is a brief discussion of prosecutorial discretion and mechanisms to raise interest in local law enforcement communities and ethical obligations of archaeologists in this process.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Perspectives on Heritage Protection: Accomplishing Goals

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23403