This includes all ground-disturbing activities, including on Civil War sites. To surface collect, metal detect, or to legally dig on any state property, you must have a permit from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. State property includes state parks, historic sites, wildlife management areas, and state forests, as well as state highway rights-of way, navigable river and stream bottoms, and the Atlantic coast all the way to the three mile limit. Generally, it is illegal to surface collect, metal detect, or dig on any federal lands without a federal permit. Federal lands in Georgia include Corps of Engineers lakes and the lands around them managed by the Corps, U.S. Forests, National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and military bases.
Indian burials vary greatly and can be difficult to identify.
Burials are often in relatively shallow pits containing small bone fragments and associated ritual objects, such as pots, beads, pipes, and ornate objects, such as carved shells. However, unless scientific investigation methods are used, it will be difficult to recognize many burials. Georgia also has many unmarked historic cemeteries, often on hilltops or not far from old houses that may now be long gone. Sometimes, too, there are burials outside of and adjacent to marked cemetery areas. Again, archaeological consultants can help identify unmarked historic graves.