The embedded screencap from The New York Times tells the story in a nutshell.
Vehicles — also including trucks from mining operations — run roughshod over the geoglyphs in Alto Barranco and other zones of the desert, scarring them with hundreds of tracks.“When we saw the drone footage, we couldn’t believe it,” Dr. Pimentel said, noting that several key figures were now barely recognizable. The worst part, he added, is that “the damage is irreversible.”..Marcela Sepúlveda, president of the Chilean Society of Archaeology, noted that big signs had been placed around archaeological zones to prevent damage, meaning that drivers should be fully aware of what they’re heading into. “The geoglyphs are gigantic,” she said. “No one can claim they didn’t see them. That’s impossible.”
WTF is wrong with people. Like the article says, irreversible damage!
ReplyDeleteMany of the Geoglyphs are hundreds of yards (and a few are miles) wide. They can only be seen from a distance and not up close by a driver. No excuse as they were warned the Geoglyphs were in the area, but I'll bet it was not deliberate vandalism buy a case of not giving a crap.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
Yeah I came to say this too... It is absolutely within the realm of plausibility that they didn't know there was a geoglyph there. Heck, people are finding geoglyphs that haven't been recorded there still. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cpqzv3j2xj1o
DeleteI might consider that argument for those geoglyphs that are on a flat desert plain like some of the ones at Nazca, but the ones in the embedded GIF are on the side of a hill, clearly visible to anyone on the ground looking up.
DeletePeople are assholes.
ReplyDelete