Illinois: artifacts

Private land: The permit requirement applies only to public land; the Act covers private land only for filing site information (Section 10). Landowner consent governs, and the Human Remains Protection Act applies on all land. (20 ILCS 3435/.02, 3435/10.) The landowner's permission is the baseline everywhere; Illinois's statute says how it must be given.

State land — Permit required: Exploring, excavating, collecting or possessing archaeological resources on public land (land owned by the state, its agencies, state universities, municipalities or local governments) requires a permit from the Department of Natural Resources; a first violation not involving human remains is a Class A misdemeanor plus a fine up to $5,000, subsequent violations and any involving human remains are Class 4 felonies, with mandatory restitution. (20 ILCS 3435/3, 3435/5, 3435/6.) ARPA §470ee(c) makes the interstate sale of anything taken against state law a federal offence, so a dealer in another state is bound by this rule too.

Navigable waters and submerged lands — Unclear: The Act's definition of public land turns on state or local ownership and does not expressly mention beds of navigable waters; whether a given riverbed is state-owned public land was not verified. (20 ILCS 3435/.02.)

Burials: Knowingly or recklessly disturbing human remains, unregistered graves, grave markers or grave artifacts without a Department permit is a Class 4 felony; discovery of remains must be reported to the coroner and Department within 48 hours. (20 ILCS 3440/3, 3440/4.) Funerary objects are also NAGPRA cultural items under federal law and cannot be sold at all.

Sale: It is unlawful to offer any object for sale or exchange knowing it was collected or excavated in violation of the Archaeological and Paleontological Resources Protection Act. Separately, selling, purchasing, charging to view, or transporting for sale Native American human remains or grave artifacts is a Class A misdemeanor (Class 4 felony on repeat). (20 ILCS 3435/3(c); 20 ILCS 3440/6.)

This article is generated from Stratum's state table as of 2026-09-20, from the statute pages listed below. It states the rule as written; it is not legal advice. Verify locally before relying on a permit route, and treat any penalty figure as a spot-check item.

Sources

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Illinois: artifacts" (Law & ethics). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20. https://stratum.black/strata/law/archaeology-us-illinois. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-archaeology-us-illinois,
  title        = {Illinois: artifacts},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/law/archaeology-us-illinois}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Law & ethics article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

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Sources