Ancient Rock Art At Risk Of Vandalism And Destruction

LONE PINE, CALIFORNIA - MAY 13: Ancient petroglyphs include the depiction three bighorn sheep, which are believed to be represented by the three stars of Orion's Belt during a hunt, are seen at a sacred site that was mostly destroyed for material to use in the construction of a nearby road, on May 13, 2024 near Lone Pine, California. Sacred indigenous rock art sites in the region have been increasingly subject to chiseling, graffiti, target shooting, theft using stone cutting saws, and outright site destruction. The petroglyphs range from 3,000 to as old as 12,000 years old, near the end of the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, when glaciers and volcanoes dominated much of the landscape and many animals in the region, such as mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, saber-toothed cats, American lions, dire wolfs, camels, and giant armadillos, were becoming extinct. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)