Category — Graffiti

 How is this different from today’s taggers gaily altering public space in the modern world. What would the archaeologists of 2230 say about the current trash spray painted on various surfaces by so-called artists du jour.

One man’s art is another’s graffiti.

Thousands of prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep and other wildlife, hunters wielding spears, and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Now, a dramatic increase in natural gas drilling is proposed on the plateau above the canyon, and preservationists fear trucks will kick up dust that will cover the images. They also worry that one proposed solution, a chemical dust suppressant, could make things worse by corroding the rock.

“They’re irreplaceable,” said Steve Tanner, a member of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, which wants industrial traffic to be funneled away from the canyon to protect the art on the sandstone walls. “When they’re gone, they’re gone.”

The more than 10,000 petroglyphs have been a source of fascination and speculation since their discovery in the late 1800s. The art is thought to be the work of the Fremont people, who lived in present-day Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Nevada from 700 to 1300 A.D., and the ancestors of modern-day Ute Indians. [snip]

This graffiti lauds war, animal torture and defaces public property. These antisocial individuals hacked and scraped soft stone, permanently transforming the natural beauty of the area.

Don’t you prefer your sandstone outcrops unfettered by bad childish art?