FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

homes.We parked and followed a path downhill that paralleledthe old cow pasture. At the bottom I started looking forthe very large bouldersupon which the ancientTecoxquines had carvedtheir symbols.As I walked the baseof the hill I could not findmost of the petroglyphsI had seen the previousyear. I then started to noticethat in those locationswhere the petroglyphsonce stood the groundseemed freshly dug. It beganto dawn on me thatsome of the ancient bouldershad been ripped from the earth and taken away. Wherethese magnificent boulders once stood was now a vacantsite. I searched several times and was very dismayed to seethat many of those wonderful and ancient petroglyph carvings,which had been there for more than a thousand years,had finally fallen prey to thieves, ignorance, or greed.I saw a barbed wire enclosure below the metal corralwhere an ancient ceremonialsite once stood. Icrawled through the wireand was again dismayedto see that much of thesite had been destroyed.The previous year manyboulders with ancientcarvings and ceremonialbowls surrounded thissite; it was easy to envisionit as a sacred place.But all that remainedwere three bowls that hadbeen carved into a naturalstone formation. The essence of the site had been desecrated.I stood there in disbelief and shocked silence. I recalled theamazement and joy I felt last year when I had been shownthe site. Now, all I felt was disappointment and sadness.128