[MSN] An Island in the Hudson, Plundered in Search of Indian Artifacts

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December 12, 2007
An Island in the Hudson, Plundered in Search of Indian Artifacts 
By ANTHONY DePALMA

MAGDALEN ISLAND, N.Y. - For more than 3,000 years, this alluring isle of
stone in the Hudson River north of present-day Kingston has beckoned
strangers. Over the millennia, Indians stopped at its graywacke shores - and
at least one was laid to rest here. They took shelter in a west-facing
sandstone rock shelter. They pulled mounds of shellfish from the river. And
they shaped countless arrowheads in the high, flat belly of the island
before setting out to hunt or fight. 

Strangers still come to Magdalen, but now they arrive with shovel in hand to
dig up arrowheads and other prehistoric artifacts illegally. Because
Magdalen is half a mile from the Dutchess County shore, they work undetected
and largely undisturbed, shoveling up great chunks of earth, even chopping
through the roots of huge oaks and hickory trees, hoping they topple in a
strong wind to reveal a new trove of treasure. 

The quarter-mile-long island is so pockmarked with looters' holes that parts
look more like a bombing range than a state-owned parcel of land listed on
the national and state registers of historic places. 

Magdalen's defenses now consist of about a dozen white signs warning "Don't
Dig." They are routinely ignored. There are holes at the bases of some trees
to which the signs have been nailed. 

Months and months go by, and the only watchful eyes are those of Mary
Gregorie Burns, a 58-year-old resident of nearby Rhinebeck, N.Y., who admits
that she has grown obsessed with the island, its history and the need to
protect it from looters. It is a site that was used on and off by different
Indian groups from the Late Archaic period dating from 3,000 to 6,000 years
ago. Archaeologists believe that after the natives made contact with
arriving Europeans, Magdalen was primarily used as a seasonal camp and a
tool-making workshop. 

"There are little clues to the subsistence strategy of people who lived here
thousands of years ago, and that's something we don't know a whole lot
about," said Ms. Burns, who first set foot on the island in 1994 as she
began work on a master's thesis in environmental studies at Bard College,
which is a few minutes away in Annandale-on-Hudson. Hudsonia, a research
institute at Bard's field station in Annandale, has supported Ms. Burns's
work. 

Professionally surveyed by archaeologists in 1939, Magdalen - also called
Goat Island - has proved to be a productive site. Hundreds of projectile
points and ceramic pieces from the island are stored in the State Museum in
Albany, and archaeologists found human bones at a burial site from the early
Woodland period at the back of the rock shelter, a 45-foot-long overhang of
graywacke, a local sandstone.

But hundreds, perhaps thousands of artifacts have been taken by amateur
pothunters, whose activities can disturb the soil and ruin the chance of
serious research. In the past 13 years, Ms. Burns has spent hundreds of
hours surveying and numbering looter holes in a one-acre section of flat
ground known as the "campsite" in the island's center. She has found 217
pits, and new ones show up all the time.

Ms. Burns plots the location of each hole and uses the information to make
the case repeatedly to state and local officials that the island must be
protected.

"I'm not saying that this is the most important archaeological site around,"
she said during a snowy morning hike around the island this week. The
persistent looting in itself indicates that there are still artifacts to be
found, she said. "People are not coming out here digging for nothing," she
said. 

Protecting archaeological sites is a long-standing problem, one for which
professionals say there is no easy answer. Erecting a fence can call more
attention to the sites, potentially drawing more looters. Even a "Don't Dig"
sign can backfire by piquing the curiosity of looters.

"We've wrestled with the whole issue of protecting sites and not drawing
attention to them," said Nina M. Versaggi, president of the New York
Archaeological Council, a professional association. The council has not
taken a policy position on site protection but handles the issue case by
case. In some instances, Ms. Versaggi said, it makes sense to post signs
that are not tempting. 

"We might use other types of markings, like 'Environmentally Sensitive Zone:
Do Not Enter,' that neutralize the site without making it attractive to
looters," she said. 

New York has laws against digging on state land without permits, but
penalties are small (a few hundred dollars) and the laws are imprecisely
worded and in need of updating. The list of known archaeological sites kept
by the State Museum in Albany exceeds 5,000, and the locations of the most
sensitive ones are kept secret, said Christina B. Rieth, the state
archaeologist. 

The Department of Environmental Conservation, which has owned Magdalen
Island since 1985, controls about 400 archaeological sites sprinkled across
the state, and officials say people are tempted to explore them.

"People often think that things found on public lands are like raspberries
on a bush and it's O.K. to take a few," said Charles E. Vandrei, the
department's historic preservation officer. 

Mr. Vandrei said the state tried not to draw public attention to
archaeological sites on state land, but sometimes it tries a different tack.
In Lake George, a few underwater wrecks from the French and Indian War are
clearly marked with buoys. Divers are allowed to explore them, but only
after reviewing rules designed to protect the artifacts. 

But preserving a site like Magdalen Island is more complicated, Mr. Vandrei
said. "The bad guys already know where it is," he said. The department has
considered filling in looter holes because the appearance of so much damage
could encourage more vandalism. 

"But realistically, the only way to stop the looting is to catch the people
who are doing it," Mr. Vandrei said. Other states have experimented with a
stewardship program where volunteers monitor sites and notify authorities of
problems. New York has a similar program, the Archaeological Site
Preservation Initiative, which has had limited success. 

Mr. Vandrei said he has not hiked Magdalen Island since Ms. Burns invited
him there more than a decade ago. But now that he is aware that the
situation there has not improved, he said he was willing to reconsider the
way the state protects the site. 

Ms. Burns considers this a hopeful sign. Although she has scrambled over the
island's rocky outcrops uncounted times, each visit is a voyage of discovery
for her. The telescoped sense of time, the echo of forgotten voices, the
deep emotion of knowing that this is a place where people lived and died,
long, long ago, energizes her. 

She said she had a dual purpose for spending so much time there. She is
mapping the looter holes because she wants to protect what is left of people
long gone. And she is doing it for the sake of people who have not yet been
born.

"If any archaeologist 100 years from now wants to know what the state of
this site was in 2007, this would be the baseline," Ms. Burns said. New
technology is constantly being developed to pry open more secrets, she said,
and the site should be protected as well as it can possibly be.

"I love the past," she said, "but I'm very concerned about the future."

http://www.nytimes.com/