[MSN] Trafficking in illegal antiquities ranks alongside gun and drug trafficking in terms of profitability, and archaeologists say Wyoming's wealth of American Indian and frontier-era artifacts can make the state an antiquities gold mine.

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Remote sites aid hunt for illegal antiquities
By Associated Press
July 18, 2006

CHEYENNE - Trafficking in illegal antiquities ranks alongside gun and drug
trafficking in terms of profitability, and archaeologists say Wyoming's
wealth of American Indian and frontier-era artifacts can make the state an
antiquities gold mine. 

"The thing about illegal activity on archaeological sites is (that) so many
of them are in remote, rural locations. It's hard to quantify what goes on
out there because you're not out there a lot," said State Archaeologist Mark
Miller. 

Collectors provide a market for illegal antiquities, said Julie Francis, an
archaeologist at the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and the Internet
has worsened the problem. 

In Wyoming, the problem includes surface collecting, theft or defacement of
rock carvings and even trade in human remains. 

Francis said two of her own sites in highway rights of way were looted at
night. 

Bottles and other artifacts of frontier life are also popular targets, she
said. 

At Fort Laramie National Historic Site, excavations by assistant state
archaeologist Danny Walker in 2003 revealed a large looter hole in the
site's historical trash dumps. 

Walker said the culprit likely was looking for old bottles and had left
behind a plastic-handled garden trowel. The trowel had little rust, leading
Walker to suspect that the looting occurred within the previous 10 years. 

In 2002, someone dug up World War I-era graves in Gebo, a town occupied from
the 1890s to 1970s. Mike Bies, the archaeologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management's Worland field office, was worried someone might have been
trying to get the skulls, although no bones were removed. Others have
suggested that the grave robbers were looking for jewelry or possibly coins
placed over the corpses' eyes. 

Whatever the motive, it was illegal. Collecting on public land is always
illegal without a permit. And so is collecting on private land without
permission from the landowner. 

But collecting isn't entirely off-limits to amateurs. 

Archaeologists say that recreational collectors have helped the profession
enormously. 

"Many professional archaeologists got their start collecting arrowheads as
kids," Francis said. "And there have been many, many positive relationships
between professional archaeologists and avocational groups." Reports from
recreational groups to archaeologists, he said, have led to the discovery of
many important sites. 

"Some people consider them the eyes and ears of the profession because
they're out in the field more often than professionals," Miller said. 

Professional looters, on the other hand, care about one thing: profit. They
know where the sites are. Often they are well-educated and may have taken
archaeology classes or volunteered on excavations, Francis said. 

They also frequently have histories of alcohol or drug abuse and have been
known to collect artifacts to fund their habits. Bies urged anyone who sees
suspicious activity on public land not to approach suspected looters. 

"In the Southwest, where they've caught looters, they're almost always found
in possession of illegal firearms and drugs," Bies said. "So there's a very
good chance that these are not the kind of people you want to talk to out in
the country."

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.