Ohio: artifacts

Private land: The permit statute applies only to state-owned land and does not address private land; collecting on private land is a matter of landowner consent, subject to the desecration statute for burials. (Ohio Rev. Code § 149.54 (scope).) The landowner's permission is the baseline everywhere; Ohio's statute says how it must be given.

State land — Permit required: Archaeological survey or salvage work on state-owned land requires a permit from the Director of the Ohio History Connection, who reviews personnel qualifications and methods; the director also determines disposition of artifacts and skeletal remains found on state lands. Unpermitted work is a second-degree misdemeanor and may be enjoined. (Ohio Rev. Code §§ 149.53, 149.54.) 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: Ohio owns the waters and soil beneath Lake Erie in trust for the public, and R.C. 149.56 creates a program to locate abandoned property in Lake Erie, but no statute specific to artifacts on inland riverbeds was found. (Ohio Rev. Code § 1506.10; § 149.56.)

Burials: Desecration covers any place of burial, expressly including sites containing American Indian human remains and burial objects; physically mistreating such a site without privilege is a second-degree misdemeanor, rising to a fourth- or third-degree felony based on damage value. (Ohio Rev. Code § 2927.11.) 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.

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.