Dr. Jim Redd of Blanding, Utah, was found dead in his car yesterday, the apparent victim of a suicide. Dr. Redd was one of 24 people charged with stealing, buying, or selling artifacts by federal authorities on Wednesday.

Some residents of Blanding, Utah, are wondering why the federal government has bothered to arrest people trading in artifacts taken from public lands. “I don’t know how they pick and choose the few that got arrested. It’s just so common in this town to have things like that. … Those people have just been doing what everyone does,” said one woman whose family members were among the indicted.

What happened to the artifacts in the possession of the 24 people indicted in Utah for stealing and trafficking in American Indian antiquities? “They [the suspects] have to keep track of them as a condition for their pretrial release,” said Melodie Rydalch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.   

Neolithic jade vessels have been unearthed from tombs in Zhejiang Province, located on China’s eastern coast.   

Like Greece and Italy, Albania is campaigning to retrieve stolen archaeological artifacts. Albania is home to the Roman colony of Butrint.  

Thailand’s prime minister returned seven statues taken from Angkor to Cambodia. “The return of these artifacts shows that Cambodia and Thailand enjoy good cooperation and respect each other’s laws,” said Cambodia Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

Private homeowners in Illinois will benefit from a new trust fund to help them comply with state laws when artifacts are discovered on their properties. The Department of Natural Resources says the fund will be financed by private gifts and grants.  

In Canada, archaeologists want to know if the sunken wooden sailing vessel they’ve found in Lake Ontario is the HMS Wolfe, flagship of British naval commander James Yeo during the War of 1812. The Wolfe participated in the battle against the Americans known as the Burlington Races for control of Ontario and the Great Lakes.  

There are hundreds of shipwrecks in the waters surrounding the Florida Keys. State underwater archaeologist Roger Smith will map one of them, off Key Largo, that may have been a nineteenth-century barge.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, June 12, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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