Old Elites.

• Author: DeLong, James V.
• Position: Brief Article

Archeological finds, we're constantly advised, must be left to experts. For example, under the American Antiquities Act of 1906, permits for "the excavation of archeological sites, and the gathering of objects of antiquity" on government land are to be granted only to "reputable museums, universities, colleges, or other recognized scientific or educational institutions, with a view to increasing the knowledge of such objects, and that the gatherings shall be made for permanent preservation in public museums." Ancient artifacts, building sites, shipwrecks, tombs--all must be preserved from hoi polloi who would treat them with insufficient sensitivity, or from looters who might (shudder) sell things to private collectors. These days, people are arrested for picking up bullets on Civil War battlefields.

Do such protective efforts actually work? The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for sites and artifacts on federal lands. According to a recent report by the Department of the Interior's inspector general, the BLM has surveyed only about 5 percent of its 264-million-acre domain and has recorded only 221,000 significant sites out of more than 4 million. It has issued permits allowing accredited experts to remove more than 20 million objects to BLM-approved repositories, but it has no system for...