A light at the end of the tunnel?
Only a handful of agents are assigned to oversee and prosecute site looting in the Southwest. The immensity of their responsibility is driven home after seeing how just many millions of acres of public land they must cover.
• Utah: approximately 23 million;
• Colorado: 8.3 million;
• New Mexico: 13.4 million;
• Arizona: 12.2 million.
In a nation peppered with ancient settlements found not only in these public lands, but in national forests, federal parks, military bases and state turf, there’s simply too much country, too many overlapping agencies, too many diggers and not enough officers.
In 1985, Arizona responded with a volunteer program designed to move across agency lines while combining the expertise of professional archeologists with local enthusiasts. These site stewards visit “their” area for one weekend every 2-3 months, documenting any changes and passing out brochures to visitors. In return, they receive training in cultural history, archeology, even crime scene forensics.
Eventually, other southwestern states began establishing their own, similar models.
Do such simple efforts even work?
Nicole Armstrong, Volunteer Resources Planner for the Arizona Site Steward program, recalls a petroglyph rock recovery from a front lawn. Since a steward had been photographing the rock over a period of time at its original site, agents could easily prove it had been taken from public lands. The homeowner could then be prosecuted for artifact theft.
Martin McAllister notes that these volunteer tactics can be a terrific deterrent strategy because looters will avoid sites showing signs of consistent visitors.
He also favors participatory archeology programs such as Passport in Time (PIT), a volunteer archeology and historic preservation program operated through the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Ray A. Williamson and Fred M. Blackburn also agree. Taking part in these programs achieves success not only for the participants, but also the local community.
“The participants discover for themselves that a serious problem exists and after investing several days in documenting the condition of the sites, they become personally involved. Finally, they begin to ask how they can become even more involved.”
“Within the local community, articles are written in the newspapers about the research… In addition, participants spend time in the small towns surrounding these sites before and after their research experience, using local suppliers who gain financially from the influx of new business.”
Help has also arrived from corporate America.
With the rise of online marketplaces such as Amazon and Ebay, a forum became available for selling the lesser quality looted items. At least that was until Ebay began monitoring suspect auctions and uploading every item sold by a drop-off store selling more than $20,000 worth of goods to Leads Online, a nationwide database used by the police to track stolen goods.
Even technology has made it easier to prove artifact theft.
McAllister is a forensic archeologist by trade and uses several tricks such as DNA testing and tool wear pattern analysis in addition to footprint and tire track identification. Soils analysis is one of the latest innovations. If dirt residue can be found on the looter’s pants or an artifact in his possession, a soil sample can be taken from the disturbed site for comparison. When a match is found, the game is over.
Apparently it’s very difficult to completely rid an artifact of dirt residue.
Yet challenges from the current recession are once again, slowing down this progress.
A sour economy causes a jump in site looting at a time when state budgets are being cut. Ms. Armstrong observes that one program manager can leverage of 800 volunteers for the Arizona Site Steward program but now, funding for that position is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Once more, the burden has been pushed back onto the few assigned agents and the volunteers.
But apparently, grassroots are tough to remove once they’ve taken hold.
Martin McAllister recalls a story about one little boy who had gone through an Arizona Passport in Time program. One day, the boy and his father explored a remote trail, eventually stumbling over a cache of 8-10 prehistoric Sinagua pots.The father wanted to take them home for a fabulous display. The little boy wanted to contact the forest service for repatriation help.
The little boy won.
Resources:
• Arizona Republic: Stolen artifacts shatter ancient culture
• Ray A. Williamson and Fred M. Blackburn: An approach to Vandalism of Archeological Resources
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