 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Field Archaeology Act is a state Act legislating the preservation, interpretation and protection of archaeology in the state of Minnesota, United States of America. The Act is divided into twelve sections.
The Act was first brought into force in 1963 and has undergone ten revisions since that time.
The passage of the Field Archaeology Act in 1963 impacted the practice of archaeology in Minnesota in several critical ways. It provided proscriptions related to the practice of archaeology, banned unlicensed practitioners from conducting archaeological investigations on state sites, and enacted penalties for violations of the Act. It also officially established the Minnesota Office of the State Archaeologist, and outlined the licensing process and requirements for archaeologists seeking to work on state sites. In terms of physical archaeological remains and data recovered as a result of field archaeology, the Act explicitly granted ownership and title to the state. [1]
The Act affords protection to state archaeological sites under Section 138.32, in that the state "reserves to itself the exclusive right and privilege of field archaeology on state sites, in order to protect and preserve archaeological and scientific information, matter, and objects". [1]
The Act defines the position of the State Archaeologist, and dictates the lawful duties thereof. The Minnesota Office of the State Archaeologist is charged with the following duties:
The Act provides that any archaeological work conducted on non-federal public land in Minnesota, requires a permit issued by the Office of the State Archaeologist. There are four kinds of licenses, including
The State archaeologist provides a review and vetting of an archaeologist's qualifications, and forwards the application onto the Minnesota Historical Society for license issuance.
Burial grounds and cemeteries in Minnesota are governed by the Private Cemeteries Act . The Act was first enacted in 1976, and has been amended eight times, most recently in 2007. The State Archaeologist oversees the implementation of this Act and has the following associated duties:
Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves more than 200 prehistoric mounds built by pre-Columbian Mound Builder cultures, mostly in the first millennium CE, during the later part of the Woodland period of pre-Columbian North America. Numerous effigy mounds are shaped like animals, including bears and birds.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990.
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved, and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use.
In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human cultures across a large area. Archaeologists conduct surveys to search for particular archaeological sites or kinds of sites, to detect patterns in the distribution of material culture over regions, to make generalizations or test hypotheses about past cultures, and to assess the risks that development projects will have adverse impacts on archaeological heritage.
Alfred Vincent Kidder was an American archaeologist considered the foremost of the southwestern United States and Mesoamerica during the first half of the 20th century. He saw a disciplined system of archaeological techniques as a means to extend the principles of anthropology into the prehistoric past and so was the originator of the first comprehensive, systematic approach to North American archaeology.
Archaeological ethics refers to the moral issues raised through the study of the material past. It is a branch of the philosophy of archaeology. This article will touch on human remains, the preservation and laws protecting remains and cultural items, issues around the globe, as well as preservation and ethnoarchaeology.
Aviation archaeology is a recognized sub-discipline within archaeology and underwater archaeology as a whole. It is an activity practiced by both enthusiasts and academics in pursuit of finding, documenting, recovering, and preserving sites important in aviation history. For the most part, these sites are aircraft wrecks and crash sites, but also include structures and facilities related to aviation. It is also known in some circles and depending on the perspective of those involved as aircraft archaeology or aerospace archaeology and has also been described variously as crash hunting, underwater aircraft recovery, wreck chasing, or wreckology.
Indian Mounds Regional Park is a public park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, featuring six burial mounds overlooking the Mississippi River. The oldest mounds were constructed beginning about 2,500 years ago by local Indigenous people linked to the Archaic period, who may have been inspired by of the burial style known as the Hopewell Tradition. Mdewakanton Dakota people are also known from historic documents to have interred their dead here well into the historic period. At least 31 mounds were destroyed by development in the late 19th century. This burial mound group includes the tallest mounds constructed by people Indigenous to in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Indian Mounds Regional Park is a component of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park System. In 2014, the extant Mounds Group was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination document provides a description of the archaeology and the context. A recent Cultural Landscape Study provides more context regarding the cultural landscape.
Town Creek Indian Mound is a prehistoric Native American archaeological site located near present-day Mount Gilead, Montgomery County, North Carolina, in the United States. The site, whose main features are a platform mound with a surrounding village and wooden defensive palisade, was built by the Pee Dee, a South Appalachian Mississippian culture people that developed in the region as early as 980 CE. They thrived in the Pee Dee River region of North and South Carolina during the Pre-Columbian era. The Town Creek site was an important ceremonial site occupied from about 1150—1400 CE. It was abandoned for unknown reasons. It is the only ceremonial mound and village center of the Pee Dee located within North Carolina.
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology, history or geography.
The Plum Island Eagle Sanctuary is a 52-acre island in the Illinois River owned by the Illinois Audubon Society. It was purchased March 24, 2004, to act as a wildlife sanctuary, to protect foraging habitat for wintering bald eagles. It is close to Matthiessen State Park and adjacent to Starved Rock State Park.
The Riverside Site, also known as 20-ME-1, is an archaeological site located near the Riverside Cemetery in Menominee, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Archaeology and conservation of cultural resources in Ontario fall under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. The Province of Ontario has created Acts to insure the protection archaeological and cultural resources. Acts such as the Ontario Heritage Act and Environmental Assessment Act provide the major legal documents that protect heritage and cultural resources. Additionally, Acts such as the Planning Act, the Aggregate Resource Act and the Ontario Cemeteries Act are also implemented when specific triggers occur during archaeological assessments.
The Baum Site (31Ck9) is one of the most prominent Middle and Late Woodland Period sites of the Colington Phase in the state of North Carolina. It is located north of Poplar Branch in Currituck County, North Carolina. This phase, marked by cultures of the Algonkian peoples, aligns with the Late Woodland period in North Carolina, occurring during English explorations between 1584 and 1587, and permanent settlement at 1650. This village is what the first English explorers encountered when entering the coastal region. The site contained ossuaries and evidence for a coastal village adaptation. The site was registered with the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 1982, after testing and excavations in 1972 and 1973 by David Sutton Phelps, who was an archaeologist at East Carolina University. The site is suffering from erosion due to wave action. After the initial discovery, which was the result of erosion uncovering of remains, Phelps claimed, “this will provide the first glimpse of a coastal village of this type in the state”. A residential subdivision, Currituck Crossing, is now located on the Baum site. https://web.archive.org/web/20160617035403/http://co.currituck.nc.us/pdf/board-of-commissioners-minutes-2013/boc-minutes-13nov04.pdf.
Songo Mnara is a historic Swahiili settlement in located on Songo Mnara Island in Pande Mikoma, Kilwa District in Lindi Region of Tanzania. The island is home to a Medieval Swahili stone town. The stone town was occupied from the 14th to 16th centuries. Songo Mnara has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with nearby stone town Kilwa Kisiwani. In total, archaeologists have found six mosques, four cemeteries, and two dozen house blocks along with three enclosed open spaces on the island. Songo Mnara was constructed from rough-coral and mortar. This stonetown was built as one of many trade towns on the Indian Ocean. The site is a registered National Historic Site.
The Private Cemeteries Act is a state Act, which provides legislation respecting private cemeteries, human remains and burial sites in the state of Minnesota, United States.
The State of Florida, the United States Federal government, local governments, and indigenous tribal governments have particular interests in the protection and preservation of Native American cultural, historic, and sacred sites in Florida. Florida has faced threats to its indigenous sites from looting, a lack of protection, citizen or amateur archaeologists, development, and other factors. Only in recent years has the protection of indigenous sites become a focus in Florida, where a long history of site destruction and looting is now being challenged.
The Bell site is located on the south side of Big Lake Butte des Morts in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, about 52 miles southeast of Green Bay. The site is classified as an early Historic village of the Meskwaki (Fox) people.
The Anker Site (11Ck-21) is located on the Little Calumet River near Chicago, Illinois. It is classified as a late prehistoric site with Upper Mississippian Huber affiliation.
The Fisher Mound Group is a group of burial mounds with an associated village site located on the DesPlaines River near its convergence with the Kankakee River where they combine to form the Illinois River, in Will County, Illinois, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. It is a multi-component stratified site representing several Prehistoric Upper Mississippian occupations as well as minor Late Woodland and Early Historic components.
