The loot includes pots dating back as much as 1,300 years, a zig-zagging ceremonial prayer stick, a clay canteen in the shape of a frog, a Zuni war god carved from a log - and enough potsherds to pave a garden path and arrow points to take out a herd of buffalo.

The artifacts came with notes of explanation or notes of apology from people who finally got the message that it's wrong to take items of culture, said David Phillips, a professor and curator of archaeology at the University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.

One family said two of them reassembled a large pot, 20 inches wide by a foot tall, from a pile of shards found at Kinlichee, Ariz., ''50 years ago while waiting for the birth of a baby.''

Another note told of a family with the same instinct after finding discarded potsherds. ''Oh what a shame - somebody threw these away,'' said the note that accompanied them. ''Let's take them home and glue them back together, but we never did. We didn't know it was illegal and we never heard it was. Sorry. God bless you.''

Phillips said the writing of Tony Hillerman, whose Navajo detective novels emphasize Navajo culture, has been influential.

''That makes me feel real good,'' Hillerman said Tuesday, a day before the amnesty ends. ''Sometimes you think nobody's listening.''

U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent John Fryar, based in Albuquerque, said news media was instrumental in generating awareness and interest in the program. He said he received 17 calls Tuesday on the tip line from ''people trying to get in under the wire at the last minute.''