A construction company in Belize bulldozed the 2,300-year-old Nohmul pyramid to make gravel for road fill.
The pyriamid is (was) on private land, but under Belize law pre-Hispanic sites are under government protection. Criminal charges may be filed.
May be? They better throw everybody responsible into jail for a nice long time. Unbelievable.
Very sad news. But here in Mexico the same things happen. An area close to the ruins of Mexico city was absorbed by Walmart. It was a protected area. The city council deemed it so. All it lacked was the publication in the local newspaper. When it was published this block was mysteriously omitted. To add further misdeeds, this area could only be excavated with a shovel, by law (to protect artifacts). But Walmart used a backhoe. Walmart distributed cash to officials and bought computers for the schools. I refuse to patronize this business.
This sort of pyramid scheme should definitely be prosecuted!
To a much more modest scale, a similar thing happened in the small village where I was brought up. Merovingian sarcophagi were destroyed and used as filling. The small company’s owner had two close building sites. The sarcophagi were an annoyance on one site and stone was needed on another, so…