Below is an article from a recent (in VA-HIST terms) issue of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch which may throw some light on modern applications of cemetery
law with respect to archaeological remains.

Gail Tatum
Reference Librarian
Library of Virginia


DIGGING UP SOLDIER'S SKELETON BROKE LAW
STATE FORBIDS EXCAVATING REMAINS WITHOUT PERMIT


By Wes Allison
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Section: Area/State
Edition: City
Page: B-1
Estimated Printed Pages: 4

Index Terms:
WAR
BODY
HISTORY
VIOLATION



Article Text:

The body was under less than 2 feet of Hanover County topsoil, in a hastily
dug grave on a battlefield that had finally fallen to the tract housing and
quiet cul-de-sacs of the suburbs.

It was a rare find, and an enviable opportunity for Ben Greenbaum, a science
teacher at Collegiate School. A friend had discovered several vertebrae and
coat buttons after clearing a backyard in Gaines Mill, and Greenbaum and a
dozen students spent a day gently unearthing the rest of the time-darkened
bones with hand trowels and brushes.

When they finished, they had a nearly complete skeleton of a young
Confederate infantryman apparently killed during the June 1862 Battle of
Gaines Mill. Last weekend, the Virginia Sons of Confederate Veterans held a
funeral and reburied him at a Richmond cemetery.

But unknown to Greenbaum and the SCV - and apparently unknown to the
Virginia State Police and state medical examiner who were consulted about
the find - unearthing the body was a felony.

Virginia law forbids anyone from excavating any human remains, regardless of
how old, without a permit from the Virginia Department of Historic
Resources.

State law enforcement officers and archaeologists, however, say many
landowners, developers and even police don't know the rules. Often, they
wrongfully assume that if a grave is on private property, they can do with
it as they like.

And as homes, businesses and roads continue to encroach on more of rural
Virginia, authorities say they fear more graves will be improperly
disturbed.

"This is part of the uphill battle when you've got centuries and centuries
of people buried all over the place," said Robert Hicks, an analyst at the
state Department of Criminal Justice Services, which offers classes to
police departments on laws dealing with preservation.

"Some of them are historically significant, but all of them are protected by
law."

The law, officially called violation of sepulcher, is designed to protect
historical artifacts as well as the sanctity of burial sites, including
battlefield graves and forgotten family, slave or community cemeteries.

Violating it is a serious offense, punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
No charges will be filed in the Gaines Mill case, but Greenbaum said school
officials have advised him against discussing it.

Often, however, graves are disturbed for less altruistic reasons, Hicks
said. Historical artifacts, particularly those from the Civil War, may bring
extraordinary prices among collectors. The graves of Native Americans,
soldiers and African-American slaves in Virginia sometimes are looted.

In a report commissioned last year by the Virginia General Assembly and
completed this year, the Department of Historic Resources found that the
state laws against excavating remains and damaging cemeteries are adequately
stiff but woefully under-enforced.

"Complaints are fairly frequent about landowners removing gravestones and
fences and either plowing over the cemetery or simply hiding the stones from
developers interested in buying the land," the report said.

The report recommends several changes, including educating police about the
laws, requiring local governments to inventory unmarked cemeteries, and
offering landowners tax breaks or grants as incentives to preserve
cemeteries.

"There is very little evidence that either of these laws is enforced in the
cases of unmarked graves or cemeteries on private lands," the report, called
House Document 40, says.

"In effect, while the laws themselves are strong on paper, they are largely
ignored."

When the first pieces of the soldier's skeleton were discovered in Gaines
Mill, the property owners called state police to ensure the bones weren't
from a modern-day homicide. A forensics unit determined they were likely
those of a Civil War soldier, and Greenbaum later took the remains to the
state medical examiner, Dr. Marcella Fiero.

She determined that the soldier was between 23 and 25 years old and strongly
built, and that he chewed tobacco. His coat buttons showed he was from North
Carolina, and his location on the Gaines Mill battlefield indicated that he
was probably part of the 6th North Carolina Infantry.

Hicks read a Times-Dispatch story last Sunday about the soldier's reburial
at Oakwood Cemetery in East Richmond. Although Greenbaum and the SCV acted
in good faith, with good intentions, he has contacted Collegiate, Fiero and
the state police to inform them of the law.

"If the state [Department of Historic Resources] had been called, they would
have sent someone over to do scientific recovery," Hicks said.

The law is not routinely addressed in Virginia police academies, but it
could be, he said. Florida, for instance, requires new officers to complete
two hours of training on laws designed to protect historic resources.

The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Department of
Historic Resources offer a joint training program for police that's designed
to teach them about laws protecting artifacts, including human remains.

Hicks, who teaches the course with an archaeologist, also gives police a
list of certified archaeologists they may call for help. They've held about
60 classes in the past four years.

Dr. Ethel Eaton, senior archaeologist for the state Department of Historic
Resources, who reviews the permit applications for excavating remains, said
it is common for developers to find forgotten family cemeteries or slave
graves while building roads or clearing land.

Her department has a procedure for dealing with them, and often the remains
are moved to a nearby site. Graves also may be relocated through a court
order.

On Thursday, the federal Defense Supply Center Richmond will hold a ceremony
for the reburial of six young African-Americans - three men and three women
- whose unmarked graves were discovered during the construction of a child
development center on the base.

An archaeologist excavated the skeletons, which then were sent to Radford
University for study. The six are believed to have died between 1840 and
1920, but Donna Foore, public affairs officer at the base, said they could
not be identified.

Members of the surrounding community have been invited to the ceremony, as
have people who may have a familial link to the remains.

In other cases, the director of historic resources may deny the permit to
relocate a grave, depending on the historical significance of the site and
the wishes of any proven relatives.

"In many cases, what we hope they do is cover the remains back over," Eaton
said. "Whether it's a prehistoric burial or a 19th-century burial which
never had a marker, the people intended them to stay there."

FIND A BODY?

CALL: Local police or the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, (804)
367-2363.

Graphic:
PHOTO


Copyright 1999 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.

Record Number: 9910170066

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