Georgia Laws

[olfacere]

There has been a lot of confusion about the metal detecting laws in Georgia. Some new legislation passed a few years ago, scared everyone, and we had a bunch of people saying, "You can't detect in Georgia anymore! The sky is falling!" So, I want to cite the Georgia codes most relevant to our interest. I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice. If anyone else knows of any more applicable laws, please post about them here. I want to have as complete a representation of the metal detecting laws in Georgia as possible.


TITLE 12. CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 3. PARKS, HISTORIC AREAS, MEMORIALS, AND RECREATION
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
PART 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
O.C.G.A. § 12-3-10 (2007)

This law establishes the right of the state and specifically the Department of Natural Resources to control certain lands and waters. It lists which lakes allow boating, even providing times for some. It establishes rules about fishing, hunting, trapping, and drinking. Actually, it says here that it's illegal to be intoxicated on lands or waters controlled by the DNR. More of interest to us is subsection (n): "It shall be unlawful for any person to use in any park, historic site, or recreational area any electronic device for the detection of metals, minerals, artifacts, or lost articles or for treasure hunting." So, state parks are right out. This law totally prohibits all unauthorised digging and use of metal detectors on land controlled by the DNR, and the permits are meant for scientists and officials.


TITLE 12. CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 3. PARKS, HISTORIC AREAS, MEMORIALS, AND RECREATION
ARTICLE 3. HISTORIC AREAS
PART 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
O.C.G.A. § 12-3-52 (2007)

This law establishes a number of things, including the exclusive right of the state and its representatives to control historic and archaeological sites, issue permits to scientists, and to use contract labour for scientific purposes. As you read through this particular document, keep a look out for the phrases "on all lands owned or controlled by the state" and "on state owned or state controlled lands." This law was meant to enable the state the protect significant sites and artifacts. It does not directly mention metal detecting and most of it only applies on state-owned lands.


TITLE 12. CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 3. PARKS, HISTORIC AREAS, MEMORIALS, AND RECREATION
ARTICLE 9. PROTECTION OF ARCHEOLOGICAL, ABORIGINAL, PREHISTORIC, AND HISTORIC SITES
O.C.G.A. § 12-3-621 (2007)

This law does not specifically mention metal detecting, but totally prohibits all non-authorised persons from entering into or changing in any way "archeological, aboriginal, prehistoric, or historic sites." That exact phrase is used over and over with only one major exception. Subsection (c) is as follows:

(c) Possession of any archeological artifact collected on or after July 1, 2001, without the written permission of the owner of the land from which the artifact was removed shall be prima-facie evidence that the archeological artifact was taken in violation of this chapter. As to archeological artifacts unlawfully in the possession of any person or entity, same shall be confiscated and held by the appropriate law enforcement official(s) and shall be returned by said official(s) to the property owner from whose property the artifacts were improperly removed.

Note that the phrase "archaeological artifact" is used in key places. This law states that written permission must be obtained from the land owner in order to lawfully possess an "archaeological artifact." It does NOT say that you need written permission to detect or dig on private land. As far as I'm aware, there is no law in the state of Georgia that says verbal consent from a land owner isn't good enough, unless you're talking about "archaeological artifacts." Actually, when put like that, it seems rather silly that you would need someone to sign a piece of paper to let you dig on their land when they already said it was fine.

The law does not, however, provide any definition for "archaeological artifact." It seems that the state of Georgia wants all judgments about artifacts to be made on a case-by-case basis (i.e. it's somebody's judgment call every single time). The rest of this law covers obvious things: no fence jumping, no violating posted signs, no violating human burials, et cetera. The interesting thing is that subsection (d) explicitly states that violations of subsections (a) or (b) are to be considered misdemeanors, but does not mention (c) with the talk about the artifacts.


In effect, the Georgia codes aren't all that different from laws elsewhere in the country. The big thing to remember is that metal detecting is not allowed in state parks at all. They are serious about that. This doesn't apply to city, county, or private parks, but be careful about historic districts. As long as you aren't offending some archaeologist, the rules are pretty much the same as most other states. Be reasonable in picking your sites, be responsible while you're there, and be respectful of anyone in the area.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

well said. Thanx for posting. You're right: all too often someone reads stuff about their "state" (some dire sounding things), and assumes that this means ....... doh .... their entire state! But the CONTEXT of what they're reading, is for STATE owned lands. It has nothing to do with county, city, private, federal, etc.... And as for the "archaeological items" stuff, I mean, seriously, does anyone follow you or I around in our friend's yards, or the sandbox, etc... to see if you found an "archaeaological" item? No, of course not.

I would also add that the same confusion is country-scale as well: There is an oft-cited website that details various European country's laws. And as can be expected, some (most) of them are downright dire sounding (or out-right "no's"). And they will usually always cite some sort of antiquities things that WAY predate metal detectors (you know, stuff to protect the pyramaids, etc... no different, I suppose, than the USA's ARPA, for example). And some people have read that website, and clicked on the various countries, coming away with the same type impressions: "Oh no, you can't detect in such & such country" Yet oddly, there are detector hobbyists in those countries, and dealers, and clubs, and so forth. Doh! So when you press them for an answer, they'll chuckle and tell you that those laws only apply to federal lands (they're federal laws afterall, so read them in context!). And thus you can detect farmer's fields with permission till you're blue in the face. (Or ..... quite frankly, they're so far back in the woods, that there's no one there to care anyhow.)