Wisconsin: artifacts

Private land: The licence requirement applies only to state and political-subdivision sites; persons wishing to dig at private sites are strongly encouraged, not required, to obtain a permit, and the statute says it is not meant to burden lawful recreational use. Landowner permission is still needed to enter. (Wis. Stat. § 44.47(4)(b).) The landowner's permission is the baseline everywhere; Wisconsin's statute says how it must be given.

State land — Permit required: No one other than the state archaeologist and persons licensed by the director of the Wisconsin Historical Society may engage in field archaeology (surveying, digging, sampling or removing objects) on a state-owned site or a site owned by a political subdivision. Unlicensed field archaeology carries a $100 to $500 forfeiture; intentional defacement or removal of objects on state sites $1,000 to $5,000, and commercial removal up to twice the gross value gained. (Wis. Stat. § 44.47(2), (3), (7).) 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: Section 44.47(5m) establishes a submerged cultural resources program run by the Historical Society and DNR and allows designation of bottomland preserves, but the state-site definition does not expressly name lake or river beds; whether a given bed is a state-owned site was not verified. (Wis. Stat. § 44.47(1), (5m).)

Burials: No person may intentionally cause or permit the disturbance of a burial site (cataloged or uncataloged) except under a permit from the Historical Society director; forfeitures run from $500 to $10,000 depending on the site, and commercial violations can bring up to twice the value gained plus up to one year in jail. (Wis. Stat. § 157.70(2r), (7).) 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; commercial removal of objects from state sites and commercial burial-site violations carry enhanced forfeitures. (Wis. Stat. § 44.47(7); § 157.70.)

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

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-archaeology-us-wisconsin,
  title        = {Wisconsin: artifacts},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/law/archaeology-us-wisconsin}},
  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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