In California stolen ancient petroglyphs
ARTinvestment.RU   21 ноября 2012

Thieves savagely cut pieces of stone with Native American petroglyphs mid II millennium BC from one of the volcanic ridges of the Sierra Nevada. Been stolen at least four petroglyph, and dozens damaged

on the eastern spurs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains vandals desecrated the ancient petroglyphs. At least four rock paintings with chainsaws were carved from volcanic spur near the town of Bishop (California). These petroglyphs about 3.5 thousand years. Local Paiute Shoshone Indians still worship this rock drawings of concentric circles, deer, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep and hunters carved in stone by their ancestors in the second millennium BC These abuses occurred on this land for the first time. Besides the four stolen petroglyphs, one was almost cut out of the rock, and one crashed during transport. Dozens of other paintings were damaged hammers and saws.

place from which was carved petroglyph Footage shot from Los Angeles Times Source: latimes.com

Raymond Andrews, a Paiute Indian Tribe of local-Shoshone, amid attacked petroglyphs Shot Footage from the Los Angeles Times Source: latimes.com

petroglyphs discovered the theft in late October. Substantial efforts vandals took to get it right: in the desert and arid mountains to was to get ladders, power saws and an electric generator. worst thing is that the cost of such artifacts on the antiquities market quite low, one petroglyph can cost from 500 to 1500 dollars. For local Indians as they are priceless.

Because of its sacred significance for Indians living on a reservation Bishop, access to the monument of Indian culture for ordinary tourists is limited. Petroglyphs are administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), but the money for the normal protection of historical monuments is not enough. Local authorities and Indian leaders to agree on what to do: continue to limit access of tourists out of respect for the religious beliefs of the Paiute-Shoshone or make petroglyphs tourist attraction, which would steady stream of funds to health.

Prepared Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources : latimes.com , artinvestment.ru