[ruoflaw]

Our digs were on private property and paid for with local donations....but the archaeologist did file the proper papers informing the state of a legal dig and we had a State dig# that applied to all four of our digs because they were in the same area...I had to check with the Gas,telephone and city utilities to make sure of that no utilities were buried underground...that also fell under a legal number...The archaeologist worked for us and the artifacts belonged to our city...it was decided in advance that the best of the artifacts would be placed in our museum...which is not supported by the state in any way... I was in charge of the site and the digs and the crew and the artifacts.

[famhistorian]

That private property was my husbands. He is the owner of all the artifacts found. We went to the university to see all the stuff found and nothing was there. Fred Willard found nothing but boxes of shells! That is when my husband starting inquiring about the ring, gun flint, etc. We actually held the ring and bird necklace (I loved that piece!) when we went to my husbands property to check out the digs in progress. We plan to take a trip to the university here soon, to see if ALL the artifacts are back at the university where they are being curated. We want to get updated photos. My husband has NOT authorized any reproductions to be made either, as he heard that they wanted to make repos of the ring and sell at the museum. He did authorize the ring and a few other things to be displayed at the museum in Raleigh for the John Smith display, but we were not able to make that trip. :(