Mississippi: artifacts

Private land: A person who is not the owner may not enter another's land and intentionally remove, excavate, dig into or damage any artifact, archaeological site or aboriginal remains without the written consent of the owner, lessee or person in charge; digging into Indian burials additionally requires a Board permit. (Miss. Code § 39-7-31.) The landowner's permission is the baseline everywhere; Mississippi's statute says how it must be given.

State land — Permit required: Sites and objects on land belonging to the state or any county, city or political subdivision are Mississippi landmarks and may not be taken, altered, salvaged or excavated without a permit from the Board of Trustees of the Department of Archives and History; violations of the chapter are misdemeanors ($500 to $5,000 and up to 30 days, each day a separate offense). (Miss. Code §§ 39-7-11, 39-7-19, 39-7-35.) 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 — State property: Sunken ships, wrecks, buried treasure and their contents on state land including tidelands, submerged lands and the beds of rivers and the sea within state jurisdiction are declared Mississippi landmarks and state property, not to be taken or excavated without a Board contract or permit. Ordinary artifacts on riverbeds are covered by the same state-land landmark rule if the bed is state-owned. (Miss. Code §§ 39-7-9, 39-7-11.)

Burials: Excavating or removing a prehistoric or historic Indian or aboriginal burial requires both a Board permit and the landowner's written permission; digging up or desecrating a cemetery is punishable by up to a year in jail and $500, and desecrating a corpse or human remains is a felony (up to 3 years, $5,000). (Miss. Code § 39-7-31; Miss. Code § 97-29-25.) Funerary objects are also NAGPRA cultural items under federal law and cannot be sold at all.

Sale: No statute found that restricts sale of artifacts as such; the chapter prohibits reproducing or forging antiquities with intent to deceive and vests permitted finds in the state. (Miss. Code § 39-7-27 (forgery only).)

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.