Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Troy McCullough, Tim Davis, Jennifer Holland, Kathleen Carlson and Jenny Hykes.

It’s an old story of progress versus tradition. Of what is sacred and what is trivial. What history we cherish and what history we neglect.

We don’t often think of Ames as being an area of burial sites, ancient artifacts and famous archeological finds, but maybe part of the reason we are so unaware is because those treasures of history are often ignored.

Under federal law, burial sites must be preserved, but under Iowa law, no survey for burial sites is required before construction begins. And Iowa law doesn’t even touch on other significant archeological sites. Although some “scholarly types,” archeology professors and the like, want those laws changed, many more “influential types” like things just the way they are. Those influential people are contractors, construction companies and land owners who don’t want to see potential for financial gain and new development turned into a little roped-off museum.

These are legitimate concerns. We also balk at the idea of stopping the building of homes for merely a flake of pottery or a single shard of bone. But we don’t think these tiny and somewhat insignificant sites are the only ones that are ignored, and bulldozed over.

A story in the Daily quoted an Ames construction worker who said he’s seen, “lots of stuff like bones and artifact-looking things. We just keep going.”

The laws need to be stricter, more definite and need to make it easier to preserve a piece of our history that stretches beyond the last century. Beyond the construction of any building at Iowa State, whether it’s name was Old Botany or Beardshear or Morrill Hall. Beyond Justin Morrill’s Act to create a land grant university. Beyond Carrie Chapman Catt’s struggle to get women the right to vote. Beyond the 150 years of Iowa’s statehood.

People were being educated and raising families in Ames before Ames proper and Iowa State existed. Our lives will only be richer by acknowledging their history, and by learning about it. It’s not too small of an investment to make.