WILLIAMS, Ariz. -- Investigators have yet to identify any suspects in the case of a 1,000-year-old rock art panel that was damaged in northern Arizona over the summer, but officials say what happened on the Kaibab National Forest is a reminder of the ongoing assault on archaeological sites in Arizona and across the Southwest.
A hiker reported the damage in August at Keyhole Sink, named for a keyhole-shaped lava flow. The word "ACE" was written in silver paint over the rock art, known as petroglyphs.
"It's beyond words," Kaibab archaeologist Neil Weintraub said of the damage. "It feels like an attack on this site. What has it done except give people pleasure for years?"
Officials say sites around the Southwest are being vandalized, from graffiti and looting to littering and garbage-dumping. Sites are defaced with paint, bullet marks, paintball stains and messages scratched into rocks. Professional thieves remove pottery, hack out chunks of ancient art-covered rock and dislodge anything they can carry away.
The sites are vulnerable because they're not behind locked doors, and monitoring is intermittent at many of the locations.
There aren't enough people to check them frequently, there are simply too many sites, and often, they're hard to reach.
A hiker reported the damage in August at Keyhole Sink, named for a keyhole-shaped lava flow. The word "ACE" was written in silver paint over the rock art, known as petroglyphs.
"It's beyond words," Kaibab archaeologist Neil Weintraub said of the damage. "It feels like an attack on this site. What has it done except give people pleasure for years?"
Officials say sites around the Southwest are being vandalized, from graffiti and looting to littering and garbage-dumping. Sites are defaced with paint, bullet marks, paintball stains and messages scratched into rocks. Professional thieves remove pottery, hack out chunks of ancient art-covered rock and dislodge anything they can carry away.
The sites are vulnerable because they're not behind locked doors, and monitoring is intermittent at many of the locations.
There aren't enough people to check them frequently, there are simply too many sites, and often, they're hard to reach.
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