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A tourist with a camera, looking at human skeletons left in Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in Belize, had an “oops” moment with a camera recently:
Recently, we had a small accident at the Actun Tunichil Muknal Archaeological Park. We believe that a guest - a tourist - who was in there, was taking a photograph with a camera. The camera slipped and fell out of their hands, and it landed and damaged one of the skulls, and it broke a section of the upper part of the skull. I sent in a team from the Institute of Archaeology, and we went in.
ATM Cave Closed – Tourist Dropped Camera On Ancient SkullThe skeletons may be over a thousand years old.
I could be wrong, but I am guessing that the site does not have “regular” tourists and that these people went in on a guided tour. I can see how poor countries are not always the best equipped to preserve and house artifacts in a museum, and perhaps the skeletons were left in the cave for the time being. Still, I find it strange that they would be left there given the amount of objects sold on the black market.
I read another article on the cave that says the artifacts can't be moved because many of them have been calcified to the floor. It also said that tourists are brought in on guided tours and there are no ropes or barriers. I find that to be an amazing lack of care for such a site. At least make the tourists keep some standoff disyance from the artifacts, it is unconscionable that someone could get close enough to an unprotected artifact to actually drop his camera on it.
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