It's time to talk about concepts. About legal concepts, what did you think???
I am convinced that any owner of a metal detector has at least once heard, or thought about, or tried to understand the legitimacy of his hobby. If there are those who have never heard about the law and the criminal article on the topic of instrument search, write in the comments, it will be interesting to look at the man from the moon.
So, for those who have at least once tried to figure out what exactly a device search enthusiast cannot do according to the law, so as not to get a criminal charge, I will explain and try to make it as simple as possible. According to the law, criminal liability arises for the destruction of a cultural layer.
Why? Because the entire article is spelled out like this: “Search and or seizure of archaeological objects resulting in the destruction of the cultural layer. ” Do you understand? Were you able to figure it out? The search and or removal of some objects from their places of occurrence without destroying the cultural layer is not a violation of the legislation in force in the Russian Federation. This is why the concept of cultural layer is fundamental in understanding whether you are breaking the law by walking across a field with a metal detector and a shovel or not.
Note. It is for this reason that all kinds of stories and speculations that you can dig with a metal detector on the beach or in a plowed field are utter stupidity and idiocy. If a cultural layer is revealed on a beach or in a plowed field, then no links to videos of bloggers on YouTube will save you from criminal liability.
So what does the law tell us about what a cultural layer is??? And it says there that a cultural layer is a certain piece of land within the boundaries of which archaeological objects lie and there are traces of human existence over 100 years old.
It would seem that it couldn’t be simpler. But no. Because the devil, as always, is in the details.
I discussed in detail what an archaeological object is in one of my previous posts. If anyone is interested, please follow the link.
Archaeological item. It is very important for all treasure hunters to know!
Therefore, I will move on to the analysis of what are traces of human existence ? And, as it turns out, no one knows this. Even archaeologists. In scientific literature, which has nothing to do with law or legal terms, traces of human existence in past eras include ash, or humus of buildings, or the image of a settlement on an ancient map, as well as a description of the settlement in chronicles.
Note. Another utter stupidity of some bloggers are statements and assertions that traces of human existence are a coin over 100 years old. The fact is that no one, remember no one, knows what traces of human existence are in past eras.
And now the most important thing!!! We must understand for ourselves that since 2013, when that same criminal article 243.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was adopted, very big changes have taken place in the legislative system of the Russian Federation. Including in the field of museum and security legislation on OKN.
The fact is that even before 2019, as evidence of a crime, it was enough for the investigation to obtain the conclusion of a certain specialist that a cultural layer had been identified on the land plot and this layer had been destroyed with three shovels. The investigation and the courts accepted these scribbles as evidence and had every right to do so, since at that time the legislative norms and regulations introduced during the USSR were in effect.
In 2019, a legislative reform was carried out under the general name “Regulatory Guillotine”. As a result, all Soviet by-laws and other legal subtleties were completely abolished. And in a number of areas they have not been replaced by anything new. And now only a certified and certified expert who has received a plastic certificate of certification can act as an expert in court or for investigations. Now you can't do it the way it was before. A pensioner from a museum storage facility was summoned to court, he stated that he had rich life experience and 50 years of work in the museum, and therefore he could determine by eye and tooth whether this or that object was archaeological. Now, according to the new law, this same “specialist” with extensive experience, but without a plastic expert certificate, can receive a criminal charge, either for giving false testimony or for exceeding official authority.
So, what is the point of this whole note??? The fact is that in our country, at the moment, there is not a single certified expert in the specialty “cultural layer”. No, and it is unlikely that they will appear soon, since, first, it is necessary to develop a method for identifying the cultural layer and, most importantly, determine in which parrots to measure the damage caused by the destruction of the cultural layer. Why is the latter needed? And then, what constitutes a crime under Art. 243.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is material damage, and a criminal case can be initiated only when MATERIAL damage is identified and determined, and not on the basis of the discovery of three coins and a broken cross in the digger’s pocket.
Thank you very much for your attention and I hope that the material in the note was useful to you. And, at the same time, I wish that this knowledge would never be useful to you in practice.
