------------- DESERT ANDES PETROGLYPHS ------------- linking images from several Andean petroglyph sites

Rock art is vulnerable: PROTECT it ! But most importantly, rock art is the legacy of ancient civilisations and many or perhaps all rock art sites are religious sites and valuable for those civilisations and their ancestors: RESPECT the rock art, the rock and its environments ! Therefore I especially ask tourists to obey the code of ethics - discussed below - when visiting an archaeological site, with or without rock art.

That such a code of ethics is truly necessary is demonstrated by (too !) many instances of damaged and vandalized rock art sites. Unfortunately the photos to the right show only a fraction of vandalized rock art panels in the Desert Andes. The first photo (Fig. 0-2-1) shows one (Panel Da-056) of the literally hundreds of vandalized and/or damaged stones at Toro Muerto in the south of Peru. The second photo (Fig. 0-2-2) shows panels 019 and 020 at Alto de la Guitarra in northern Peru that are indelibly vandalized by Spanish graffiti and texts. Bearing in mind that - in order to reach these stones - one has to walk through rugged desert landscape, crossing a watershed at about 850 m; a single way trip of at least three hours ! I cannot imagine what idiot(s) has(have) planned to bring paint to this enchanting spot in order to destroy the legacy - perhaps his (their) own - of ancient Andean civilizations. Figures 3a and 3b show boulder MIS-010 at Miculla, a large rock art site in the extreme south of Peru. Fig. 0-2-3a is the photo taken by Rainer Hostnig in January 2007, while almost two years later I took a photo (Fig. 0-2-3b) of the same boulder. It clearly proves that a large part of the boulder is now missing. It most likely has been broken off in order to steal rock art. The missing part shows (se Fig. 0-2-3a) a row of petroglyphs of suris (a suri - or ñandu - is the Andean ostrich).

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NEVER touch or wet rock art - it is highly damaging, especially to rock paintings.

Do not walk on rocks bearing rock art. Keep a respectful distance ! If avoiding walking on a rock art panel is really impossible, please take off your shoes and walk on your socks and avoid walking on the petroglyphs!

Leave all archaeological artefacts as they are. Please, do take photographs of the archaeological remains and inform the local archaeological institutes but leave any artifacts or stones of a structure as they are.

Only take photographs; only leave your footsteps. *** This means that every visitor to any site should take home all the litter that he or she produced during their visit to the site. It is a shame to see how many empty plastic water bottles are scattered throughout a large and relatively much visited rock art site like Toro Muerto. I myself only recorded rock art in the study area through naked eye observations and by making as many photographs as possible, and - at home - by using several computer programs to enhance the photos of the images. However, if enhanced photographs appear in my web pages, it will be clearly stated in the caption or text.

NEVER chalk or enhance petroglyphs by touching the rock surface in any way. *** Unfortunately, chalking and scratching of petroglyphs in order to enhance the images still occurs. Several images at Rosario in the extreme north of Chile have been scratched (possibly with a metal object). The work about the petroglyphs of Pitis and Cantas in the Majes Valley of Peru by archaeologist Paúl Jofrey Álvarez Zeballos (published in 2009 on the internet: http://www.arqueologiadelperu.com.ar/majes/CANTAS.html) clearly shows that several images have been enhanced by chalking (especially Fig. 8 in the Cantas section). All these practices must be strongly disapproved of!

* FIG. 0-2-1: TORO MUERTO - PERU

* FIG. 0-2-2: ALTO DE LA GUITARRA - PERU

* FIG. 0-2-3a and b (below): MICULLA - PERU