I have read with interest the postings on the topic of enforcement of cemetery laws. Lyle has pretty well summarized the state of things. We have an intensive effort to train law-enforcement officers in Virginia on state and some federal laws pertaining to criminal violations regarding human burials. We are teaching officers to be alert to all kinds of phenomena regarding theft of and vandalism to historic (and archaeological) resources and in the five years since we began this training (called "time crime"), issues concerning human burials have proven to be the number one enforcement problem from the law enforcement viewpoint. Whether a commonwealth's attorney chooses to prosecute is another matter. We have coordinated many successful collaborations between archaeologists and LE officers to resolve problems with human burials (inadvertent discovery of them or perhaps intentional looting) and some evolve into prosecution, but many don't. I consider any collaboration a success: if the officer knows that an archaeologist is available to consult on a human burial question, then this collaboration registers as a success for me. Prosecutions are not the sole measures of success. Robert D. Hicks, Ph.D. Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement Services Department of Criminal Justice Services 805 E. Broad Street Richmond, Virginia 23219 USA 804-786-8421 804-692-0948 fax -----Original Message----- From: Gail Tatum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 11:34 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: VA CEMETERY LAWS 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 To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html