A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
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Sotero Oviedo, employed to drill and map Montezuma Creek Canyon in southeast Utah by the Utah Bureau of Land Management, was sentenced in November to a year's probation for carving his name beneath 2,500-year-old petroglyphs. Oviedo, who speaks Spanish and required a translator in court, had signed a form confirming that he understood the laws governing archaeological resource protection, according to one report. His company is picking up the tab for the bulk of the estimated $8,000 to repair the damage. Oviedo will pay $837 to reimburse the government for overtime logged investigating the case. $837? One shudders to think how much might have been spent on overtime if Oviedo hadn't been thoughtful enough to carve his name. Meanwhile, in southwestern Virginia, three members of Virginia's now defunct Reed Creek Archaeological Society were indicted in late July for disturbing prehistoric Native American burials. The dossier on these diggers--namely Larry Franklin Price, Arthur Roberts, and Robert Dean Miller (the society's president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer)--was turned over to local police by the FBI when a fourth alleged participant in the excavation, suspected of transporting Native American artifacts over state lines (a federal offense), dropped dead. Price, Roberts, and Miller pleaded guilty to lesser, state charges of violating the Virginia Antiquities Act, which requires that archaeology be conducted with a permit, and that a further permit be obtained before human remains are exhumed. "We did not know we was doing anything wrong. We've done it for over 20 years," Price told the Roanoke Times, which reported that a copy of the law had been sent to the Reed Creek society in 1990. The men, who claim to have cleaned, photographed, and replaced the bones they found in their hunt for artifacts, are not accused of selling artifacts. They have been sentenced to 75 hours of community service each (hopefully, nothing involving a trowel) and must surrender their booty to the state.  © 2000 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/online/news/criminals.html 
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