A. The Commonwealth of Virginia reserves to itself, through the Director, the exclusive right and privilege of field investigation on sites that are on state-controlled land. The Director shall first obtain all permits of other state agencies required by law. The Director is authorized to permit others to conduct such investigations.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 10.1-2303

  • Director: means the Director of the Department of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
  • Field investigation: means the study of the traces of human culture at any site by means of surveying, sampling, excavating, or removing surface or subsurface material, or going on a site with that intent. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • State-controlled land: includes state parks, state wildlife areas, state recreation areas, highway rights-of-way, and state-owned easements. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300

B. All objects of antiquity derived from or found on state-controlled land shall remain the property of the Commonwealth.

1977, c. 424, §§ 10-150.4, 10-150.6; 1984, c. 750; 1988, c. 891, § 10.1-904; 1989, c. 656.

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