Jim Owens

Jim Owens was born and raised in Wyoming. His interest in prehistoric items began when he built a house in Arizona and his contractor added a pot shelf to the plans. Jim began filling the shelf first with historic, then prehistoric pottery. This small beginning led to what you view in this book.

Jim is a retired attorney who practiced law for 37 years primarily involving cases in Federal Court. He is an advocational archaeologist and preservationist. For many years, he was an active hunter as well as a conservationist. In recent years, he has given lectures to artifact collectors and dealers and the general public on the various aspects of cultural property law. His interest in preserving cultural property held in the private sector (and making people aware of what is in private collections) led to writing this book. One goal of ARPA, a federal cultural property law, is to encourage the sharing of archaeological information between collectors and archaeologists. Too little of that information sharing has occurred, and Jim hopes this book will help bridge that gap.