I paste this here (from Matt in Stow) to illustrate an example of vandalism. Note there was no prior "publicizing" of the site and, in fact, such publicizing might have avoided what did happen:
i just wanted to drop a note, albeit a bit of a sad one. i came home after a run yesterday, and heard noises coming from the grid next door. i immediately investigated. and found two neighborhood kids with a shovel. digging up a rock pile. i confronted them sternly, and explained how wrong they were in what they were doing. dumbasses thought they were being investigative. they rebuilt the pile they were dismantling. but i'm very upset, because of which pile they vandalized. it was the one that looked like a turtle, with the free-standing arch of rocks along it's crest. the one i considered to the be the last undisturbed and complete piles. i don't know if you have good photo of it, i'm going to look through my photos- i tried to replicate the head, and i know i used the proper rock, but it's just not the same. and i know the rebuilding is not advised, but i could not let it stay as a ravaged pile. i spoke at length with the kids, and i still feel like beating my head against the wall for how stupid they were, but there was a time when i had no idea either. they were sincerely remorseful what they had done, but still. so i shared more info with them about what waa round them, and i think i instilled some respect. i'm going to look at the top of the hill this morning for more formations, based on some of what they told me. so some loss occurred, but there are now two more people who will be vigilant about protecting things out here. although it's a bit late.
so sorry, for the bad news, but not many others would be interested in hearing it.
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This is about rock piles and stone mound sites in New England. A balance is needed between keeping them secret and making them public. Also arrowheads, stone tools and other surface archaeology.
statcounter
Another good reason why education is more important than keeping these features secret.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree.
ReplyDeletefind the pictures and do your best to restore. The best thing you can do is photograph these piles. I recently came accross a rock pile that was damaged by ATV's cutting thru the woods and running over it. I was very upset, luckily I have a good photo of it prior. I plan on putting the rocks back together as close I can get. I will post photos when i fix it. Please post before and after photos. I do know how you feel, we all do. sorry.
ReplyDeleteKeith
On the positive side, these kids *were* interested. Yes, they ruined something, but they didn't know that's what they were doing. I wouldn't even go so far as to say they were being stupid. Rather they have been poorly educated, thanks to the neglect archaeology has paid to these sites. But as I said, the spirit of the investigator was in them. Would they be the type who'd want to help you go pile hunting? Maybe they can put paid their debt to the past that way.
ReplyDelete