Druggies Stealing Arkansas Artifacts

Enduring another onslaught of heavy rain on Tuesday, the wide rural fields of Northeast Arkansas don't exactly belie the undiscovered treasures that are often buried deep beneath their soggy surfaces.

In praising the land and what it can yield about past civilizations, Arkansas State educator, Dr. Juliet Morrow, observes, "There is more traces of past cultures here in this part of Arkansas than there is in a lot of places in the United States. Yeah, maybe they didn't invent rocket fuel. Maybe they didn't invent computers. But, they knew things that help us as a society today deal with some of the problems."

However, the area, Dr. Morrow, a Jonesboro-based station archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey, regards as a "paradise" for those in her profession, has also become a lucrative site for those interested not for scientific sake, but for black market bucks gained from looting farms in search of valuable antiquities.

Morrow explains, "There are some people who collect artifacts and there's others who loot them so that they can then sell them to get money to purchase drugs. Especially, methamphetamine that's popular in this part of the state."

Earlier this month, Morrow and her aide, Shawn McGaha, learned of indian burial ground looting which took place at a farm located about an hour east of Jonesboro, where thieves, in the process, left behind unearthed bones from a human female skeleton.

Morrow says, "We can tell they filled the holes back in. But, left artifacts and human skeletal remains scattered across the whole area."

McGaha, who spoke with the property owner, added, "There have been large holes out there and I believe he's even had a tractor fall in which can damage equipment."

However, with laws already on the books in Arkansas, increasing the criminal penalties against desecrating burial grounds for profit, Dr. Morrow when it comes to illicit drug buyers the "unscrupulous" know only monetary boundaries.

Morrow says, "They can bring very high dollar figures upwards of 50-thousand dollars for a single pottery vessel. If it's the right time period. The right style. There are spear points that can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's what the buyers are willing to pay. This is a market that's been escalating over the last couple of decades."

Through a seminar scheduled for next week at A-S-U, Dr. Morrow hopes to secure help from surrounding local law enforcement agencies to aggressively enforce the law, which currently brings with it a Class-C felony charge.

A convinced Dr. Morrow concludes, "If we fight the looting problem, we'll also be putting a damper on the drug trafficking that's going on because it's connected. It's intricately connected."