Raid of Ancient Peruvian City Unearths Ethical Questions of Exploration

[HuckleB]

Raid of Ancient Peruvian City Unearths Ethical Questions of Exploration

http://outside.away.com/outside/news/20050907_1.html

"Looters have plundered the ruins of Gran Saposoa, an ancient city that was recently discovered in the isolated mountains of Peru over 330 miles northeast of Lima, raising old questions about the ethics of exploration and discovery.

The ruins were first announced to the world in 1999 and were thought to be a major find for the study of pre-Incan civilization. However, an expedition to further explore and survey the ruins found several of the stone tombs destroyed and artifacts missing, including the stone head of a prominent sculpture in the most important set of ruins.

“It was very sad and disheartening to our teams because we are there to make known these areas so the government can protect them,” Sean Savoy, the leader of the 23-day August expedition, told Outside Online.

Savoy’s father, Gene Savoy, an accomplished Andean explorer, discovered the site in 1999, while looking for Chajamarquilla, one of the lost cities of the Chachapoya civilization, a group that flourished before the Incas.

..."


I know there is good and decency in the world. Sometimes, however, it's quite difficult to remember that.

[chknltl]

1. all things considered....

.... this is still sad. I can not help but think that perhaps someone in the Peruvian gov. had a hand in the looting.

[HuckleB]

3. What? Why do you say that?

[chknltl]

4. I added my own suspicions to the article

Here is the logic: Place lay relatively undisturbed for how many thousands of years until after government is notified of location. So who knows about the place?
Discoverer and government. I may have missed where others were notified of location, hence my inference of the Peruvian government's potential hand in it. I would never suggest that it was a sanctioned thing but more likely a leak of info, perhaps a knowing leak of info.
Just an idle speculation.

[nosmokes]

2. if he'd kept his ego in check and his mouth shut about

the location until something could have been done to protect the site that would have made his discovery even more noteworthy.