Unearthed War Relics See Battle Again

Unearthed War Relics See Battle Again Archaeologists Decry History Buffs' Digs By Brigid Schulte Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 16, 2006; Page A01 Comment: (to histarch) I recall stopping at the Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park (Spring Creek Road PO Box 5 Delano, TN, near Etowah mounds in northern Georgia) a number of years ago and with only a few employees year-round its hard to watch everything the ranger there stated. There were looters in the mounds on the islands in the river with backhoes, he related which is a different type of activity than "relic hunting". Where I am I think we need better laws, for example in nearby Suffolk County, where traditional barn building is still a business (one old one on a register site had roman numerals marking the joins, it was "saved" to a county park, where it was burned by vandals) a man was having a barn built and a cellar dug for it and found a number of burials of native origin which technically I am given to understand have very few regulations in regard to procedure and treatment on private property. Another example was a "twin" adult burial I cleared in NYC's City Hall Park in the planned water fountain construction. I don't know how that was handled per se (I haven't been back there yet since 1999) I hope the fountain was moved, around the edge of the "First Almshouse" because there is no law I can read that says "if...then...". The first legal basis I know of, from research in the Bowery where the Methodists and Quaker burials were moved in the mid-nineteenth century, was when a burial left behind was found in the construction of the Courthouse on 2nd Ave and 2nd Street, which required a special vote in the State Legislature in Albany, NY giving the right to the Dept. of Education to remove and supervise. Unfortunately, the records of the proceedings of that session before the NY Legislature burned in an archives fire in the State Capital a number of years later, so only the actual law and its pronouncement has survived in the numerous publications of government by outside printing concerns. Today the courthouse is the Anthology Film Archives "Screening site and film preservation center, located at 2nd Ave and 2nd Street, New York, NY" supported by many in the media. It is across the street from "The New York City Marble Cemetery" which "...was begun in 1831 and was the second non-sectarian burial ground in the City opened to the public." In it was once ex-President James Monroe, who, after a vote in the Virginia legislature was finally interred in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia sometime after July 2, 1858. Other notable people are interred there see: The New York City Marble Cemetery http://www.nycmc.org/history.html. One other example might be the Montaukett burial ground of which one burial was dug up and whose history in commemorated in the "Montauk Club" building in Brooklyn, NY, designed in a Venice, Italy building style, its terracotta entablature relief commemorates the meeting of Europeans with the Montaukett natives of eastern Long Island, New York. At one time building lots on the what became known as one of the cemeteries of theirs, were going in 1980's dollars, $1 million. Not knowing for sure, an archaeologist found one who had dug up the grave ("Contact period") and made an effort to screen the backfill pile for anything small that might have been missed, beads, etc., and the land was bought by Suffolk County and set-aside from development, another "undefined area" of the law. I am also given to understand, that abandoned cemeteries become the property and care of the Brookhaven Town in New York State, it's largest town in area, though I have not read the law, just cut the grass in one in the Bicentennial (1976) for their parks dept., in a summer job I won in a lottery. Perhaps a model for consideration there, where George Washington had his "Spy Nest".