Under state law, all artifacts found on town or state land are the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and not the finder. You should report your discovery to the State Archaeologist at the Massachusetts Historical Commission . Any destructive archaeological investigations on state or town land must be conducted under a permit issued by the State Archaeologist . It is unlawful to remove artifacts from state or town land without a permit. The state law Was written in order to conserve sites on public land, recognizing their historic and archaeological value, to be appreciated by generations of citizens of the Commonwealth.
Archaeology is like exploratory surgery on the earth to see what has happened there in the past.
But to open the ground is to destroy forever the way things were. So every detail about the operation must be recorded in measurements, notes, photos, drawings, scientific sampling and video tape. And all this must be done by trained people who know what they're doing . For signs of human activity. You may find a scatter of stone flakes where someone made or sharpened a stone tool.