Associated Press - April 27, 2009 3:34 PM ET

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - Artifacts of prehistoric people who lived in Arkansas are being excavated by professionals who are trying to piece together more of the story of those who once lived here. Those artifacts are also being dug up by criminals.

Dr. Julie Morrow, station archaeologist for Arkansas Archaeological Survey, wants to get the word out that raiding the state's past can be a felony.

Morrow said that every winter, looters go to the Little Turkey Hill and Harter Knoll sites in Independence County to dig.

Morrow says the Antiquities Act and an unmarked burial law protect the sits. If items taken from a burial site are valued at more than $2,000, it makes the theft a felony, she said.

At one site, looters recently dug up a grave. Morrow found a female mandible from a human skeleton, as well as small teeth, part of her pelvis and other bones. She says the bones had chop marks from a shovel.

Morrow says some rare artifacts can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars. But she says the act of getting the artifact is "like digging your own grandmother up."

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