This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Governments gathers five national bodies whose ordinary heritage mandate makes each the custodian of something sacred, with access ranging from fully open to entirely sealed.
Ireland's Office of Public Works, tracing to an 1831 board, manages the Hill of Tara, the ceremonial center of early Irish kingship, as an open access national monument with no admission barrier. Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia runs the opposite kind of openness: its National Museum of Anthropology displays the Aztec Sun Stone, its Templo Mayor site museum the Coyolxauhqui Stone, and it authenticated the Maya Codex of Mexico, its scientific authority often invoked to settle disputes over Mexican antiquities.
Israel's Antiquities Authority sits between the two, not a museum but the default holder of state supervised excavation finds, its custody of the Caiaphas Ossuary, recovered from a 1990 salvage dig, meaning public access depends on whatever object is currently out on loan. India's Archaeological Survey, established in 1861 under colonial administration and reconstituted after 1947 independence, administers thousands of protected sites spanning Indus Valley seals to Buddhist stupas, Hindu temple sculpture and Islamic era inscriptions, its holdings scattered across regional museums rather than one collection.
Japan's Imperial Household Agency stands at the opposite extreme from Tara. It keeps the Three Sacred Treasures, the mirror, sword and jewel symbolising imperial legitimacy, at three separate locations, the mirror at the Grand Shrine of Ise, the sword at Atsuta Shrine, the jewel with the Emperor himself, and permits no public or photographic access to any of the three, making it the most restricted custodianship of the five.