This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
From the "Utah's priceless relics" series (Tribune, Dec. 26, 27), clearly there is no way to currently prevent looting of ancient artifacts. Where a black market exists, someone will supply its demands. Today, the richest troves of Southwestern artifacts exist in collections, public and legal, and private and often illegal.
Rewrite the Antiquities Act this way: Declare amnesty for possession of all existing artifacts. Record and register them and allow owners to buy, sell, trade or donate them in a regulated market. This would accomplish several things.
First, the new artifacts that would become available to collectors would overwhelm the black market, reducing or ending the incentive for looting.
Second, an artifact's history, that information valuable to scientists, would be recovered before it's completely lost — for example, a family story about where Uncle Earl found it.
Third, create a digital catalogue, a virtual museum of items hitherto unavailable to researchers.
We need a new paradigm because the current one for protection and preservation is failing. This change would redirect resources currently spent on cops, courts and prosecutions to archaeologists, anthropologists and preservation.
As long as the artifact black market exists, it's going to be cops and robbers in the canyons.
Rory Tyler
Moab