N.C. bill would check criminal backgrounds before archaeology
06-10-05 - North America — , North Carolina
Excavators who search North Carolina's waters and substrates for historical artifacts should be checked for criminal backgrounds to make sure they aren't likely to pilfer relics, the state's chief said Thursday.
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His requests earned the support of a Senate judiciary committee, which unanimously approved a bill allowing state archaeologist Stephen Claggett to demand criminal background checks before issuing a permit to anyone who wants to dig or dive for artifacts.
The state Department of Cultural Resources is now only able to judge whether an archaeologist is professionally qualified, not whether he's a crook, Claggett said.
That's a problem because the state can't monitor people once they're allowed to work on state lands or in state-governed seas within three miles from shore. Also, teams are there to collect artifacts that someone will pay a price for, Claggett said.
"We are concerned that in some cases people may, in essence, be stealing state property. So we need to be assured that ... everything that belongs to the state returns to the state."
Claggett said the request didn't derive from catching someone fencing American Indian tools or shipwrecked booty. There have been stories of salvage crews keeping some of what they've hauled up from shipwrecks, "but when it comes to investigating, we're not cops, we're archeologists," he said.
The measure next heads to the Senate Finance Committee because it allows the state to charge a fee for the background checks. "
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