Posted inAcademics Featured Geoglyphs Mines Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS SOS South America

El Vagón Violated (Peru).

This short paper reports the unexpected destruction and violation of an important rock art site – El Vagón – in the Moche Drainage of northern Peru. In 2019 I published a full account of this site, based on several surveys by my wife and me. In 2017 there was no destruction visible, but in August 2024 I found (via Google Earth) out that the site had been destroyed by heavy machinery. This short paper discusses the damage, often referring to my earlier publication. It is sad that the site survived from the Formative Period (2000-500 B.C.) up to at least 2022, and was then recklessly and shamefully violated and destroyed in a few days, apparently without any warning or any official archaeological survey. Permission should never have been granted!

By  Maarten van Hoek

Posted inAcademics Featured Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS SOS South America

Vandalism and Falsification of Rock Art

Especially in this time of a dangerously increasing amount of online (deep) fake-news, outrageous lies, falsified photos and misleading information that are used to – for instance – “justify” a disgusting and horrible war in Europe, it should not be tolerated that similar false illustrations are being used in scientific publications by academic professionals. In the following two publications I expose and criticize some of those incorrect illustrations in rock art publications, focusing on the Majes Valley in Peru (Revised September 2023).

By Maarten van Hoek

Posted inFeatured Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS South America

Updating the Rock Art near Huaca Blanca, Peru

Many rock art sites are easily destroyed, also in Peru, especially because of road constructions or mining activities. This paper describes three petroglyph sites near the village of Huaca Blanca in northern Peru. Especially Huaca Blanca has already been partially destroyed by unwanted quarrying. This paper offers a brief inventory of what is (was!) available during our surveys. The thumbnail to the right shows a prehistoric petroglyph next to recent damage.

By Maarten van Hoek

Posted inAcademics Africa Featured Morocco North America Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS South America

The Case of Guelta Oukas, Morocco

Thumbnail

Very recently several petroglyphs at the rock art site of Guelta Oukas in the Anti Atlas Mountains of southern Morocco were severely damaged. However, the mutilation was limited to two panels with mainly depictions of cattle and – moreover – to specific body parts of those zoomorphic images. In this paper I argue that this is not just another case of unwanted vandalism. Instead, I propose that the mutilation at Guelta Oukas could represent an instance of ‘negative’ rock art, involving the desecration of the images.

by Maarten van Hoek

Posted inAsia Mines Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS

Save Mount Latmos rock art! (petition)

Einzigartige Natur- und Kulturlandschaft vor
Karadere Cave

On line petition (please sign it!) to the Turkey Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs. Discovered in 1994 by the Berlin archaeologist Dr. Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat, these rock paintings date back to the 6th and 5th millennia B.C.  They are now greatly endangered by increased stone quarrying in the area: the exploitation of feldspar is causing the drastic metamorphosis of the Latmos from a sacred mountain into a source for bathroom installations!

by APB (online petition)

Posted inAcademics Asia Featured Mines Rock art SOS

Latmos Mountains (Turkey), endangered rock paintings

Latmos paintings
Baliktas paintings

The living environment of the Latmos Mountains and of its communities are threatened by the deforestation caused by feldspar quarrying. The cultural heritage looks back upon a long history, from the Neolithic period up to the Ottoman Empire. More than 170 sites of rock drawings (6th/5th millennia BC) are known, representing one of the most important discoveries in prehistoric archaeology during the past decades in Anatolia. Television documentaries, newspaper reports, symposia and demonstrations, have not succeeded in preventing the devastation of the landscape… please sign the online petition!

by Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat

Posted inAcademics Featured Open access Protection – Salvaguardia Rock art SOS SOS South America TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 31

The Motocachy Pampa Disaster, Peru

Figure 011a
Motocachy Pampa

The UNESCO’s World Heritage List now registers almost a thousand properties. Only two percent of the World Heritage List comprises rock art sites. Regrettably 44 of those properties are in danger, which proves that being on the World Heritage List is not a guarantee that nothing will endanger the site. I will focus the discussion mainly on rock art sites in the deserts of western Peru.

by Maarten van Hoek – rockart@home.nl



Posted inRock art SOS TRACCE Onl. RA Bull. 23 Western Alps

Cavour, deturpate le pitture rupestri neolitiche

Rocca di Cavour, pitture rupestri
Cavour, pitture rupestri

Newly and hardly damaged and defaced the Rocca di Cavour rock paintings. A hand-made white writing now covers the rock-shelter painted wall. Risale al febbraio del 2009 il gravissimo danneggiamento delle pitture rupestri della Rocca di Cavou. Una scritta a smalto bianca copre infatti quasi completamente le figure dipinte.

by Orme dell’Uomo – Footsteps of Man