Archaeology Today: International and Federal Cultural Resource Laws
•Antiquities Act of 1906
•requires federal permits to excavate or collect artifacts on federal lands
•illegal to excavate or collect on federally-held properties
•established a process for/way to get permits
•museums, universities, educational institutions
•gave President authority to create national monuments without approval
•Devil’s Tower, Wyoming
•Montezuma’s Castle, Arizona
•Mesa Verde National Park
•first national park to be created for it archeological significance
•National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) 1966
•“…foster conditions under which our modern society and our prehistoric and historic
resources can exist in productive harmony…”
•attempt to make compromise possible between developers and preservationists
•ways to develop without destroying thyme past
•cultural resources also included in the National Environmental Policy Act (EPA) of 1969
•“…preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage…”
1. created the National Register of Historic Places
•a listing of districts, sites, buildings, structures, objects
•significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture
•over 70,000 properties
•individual sites can be listed
•multiple properties can be listed
•this is true when together they are more significant than a single property
•properties on the NRHP can still be developed and destroyed
•how do we determine significance?
•legal significance
•must meet one or more criteria:
(A) association with events that mad important contributions to broad patterns of history,
prehistory, or culture
•site of a battle
•factory district where a significant workers’ strike took place
•Trail of Tears
•Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area
(B) association with important people in the past
•Lorrain Hotel, Memphis, TN - MLK’s assassination
(C) possession of distinctive characteristics of a school of architecture, construction
method, or characteristics of high artistic value
•ex: house or building of a significant style of architecture (i.e., Frank Lloyd Wright
homes)
•bridge or dam representing technological advances (i.e., Hoover Dam)
(D) known to contain or likely to contain data important in history or prehistory
•Mesa Verde, CO
•Winterville Mounds, Mississippi
2. created the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
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