Good mood to you, dear readers of our blog.
Today I propose to analyze another legal term from the general legal field of instrument search as a hobby. Items over a hundred years old .
Very often, in comments and discussions of specialized topics, due to the legality of the search tool, I have to see and read people’s comments. People who were very poorly able to understand the legislative formulations. This is why there is an absolutely incorrect opinion that the possession of objects older than a hundred years by a digger will automatically constitute a crime. Let's try to figure out where this opinion came from and why it is absolutely wrong?
And all this went wrong due to an incorrect reading and interpretation of the following article of the law.
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 243.2. Illegal search and (or) seizure of archaeological objects from their locations.
This article has two notes, we are interested in note number 1.
For the purposes of this article, a cultural layer is understood as a layer in the ground or under water containing traces of human existence, the origin of which exceeds one hundred years , including archaeological objects.
How did almost everyone who tried to understand the essence of this law understand this article? And something like this… It is a criminal offense to destroy a cultural layer, and a cultural layer is objects that are more than a hundred years old.
This is where the myth originated, produced on forums and in comments, that the presence of at least one coin older than a hundred years will be indisputable evidence of the guilt of the digger. Therefore, upon seeing police officers, all finds must be quietly and unnoticeably discarded. Like, no body, no business.
And this is an absolutely stupid, harmful and ridiculous delusion.
And that's why. First you need to understand that such a term as “traces of human existence” has a legislative interpretation.
Art. 3 Federal Law 73 (second paragraph) An object of archaeological heritage means traces of human existence in past eras partially or completely hidden in the ground or under water (including all archaeological objects and cultural layers associated with such traces), the main or one of the main sources of information about which are archaeological excavations or finds.
What do we see here? And the fact that traces of human existence is an archaeological object minus archaeological objects. That is, traces of human existence are the foundation of a house, layers of ash and ash, the remains of a road, rotten logs, various garbage of no scientific value, and so on. Therefore, objects lying separately outside the boundaries of the cultural layer: a coin, a cross or a ring, cannot in any way be traces of human existence in past eras .
These finds can only be recognized as archaeological objects by an expert certified by the Ministry of Culture. We discussed the topic of examination of archaeological objects here
Thank you for your attention, I really hope that you found this note interesting and useful. Subscribe to our channel, read the news in Len and follow new posts. We will definitely discuss a few more legal and legislative nuances in the field of instrumental search.
