An historic petroglyph has been forcibly eliminated within the Mexican state of Coahuila. The drawing of a hand, now gone, was one in every of greater than 150 motifs relationship from between 500 and 5,000 years in the past on a big rock floor at La Cueva Pinta, situated within the Sierra de Australia mountains in Cuatro Ciénegas. The overlapping drawings seem to have gathered over hundreds of years, created in a wide selection of colors by tons of of generations of native peoples.
After the vandalism was reported, archaeologists decided that somebody had additionally tried to dislodge no less than two different historic drawings from the identical rock. The marks on its floor level to using an electrical noticed to chop into it, a reckless methodology that brought on vital injury. Fragments of painted rock discovered on the bottom level to the likelihood that the hand drawing itself was chipped within the course of.
“That is an irreparable loss,” Francisco Aguilar Moreno, director of the Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past’s Coahuila Heart, stated in an announcement. “These work should not simply fairly photos; they’re a direct hyperlink to our ancestors, an important a part of our historical past and cultural identification.”
The La Cueva Pinta petroglyph earlier than it was vandalised Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past (INAH)
La Cueva Pinta is sometimes called a residing museum of the desert’s cultural heritage.
Mexico’s cultural ministry condemned the actions of the would-be looter or looters and has filed a proper grievance with the legal professional common’s workplace in an try and carry the vandal(s) to justice and forestall future injury to this and different vital archaeological websites.
“It is a profound disrespect to the traditional individuals who as soon as referred to as this desert house,” a ministry of tradition spokesperson stated in an announcement. “We are going to pursue this matter with the complete power of the legislation. Our nationwide archaeological heritage is protected by federal legislation, and it’s the accountability of each Mexican to respect, preserve and defend it.”
