Defacing Easter Island statues (no spam)

[fable]

And speaking of the general malaise of humankind, we now have this, courtesy of the BBC:

The authorities on Easter Island have detained a Finnish tourist on suspicion of trying to steal an earlobe of one of the world-famous moai stone statues. Police on the Pacific island, which is an overseas territory of Chile, said a woman had seen him rip off the earlobe, which then fell and broke into pieces. Marko Kulju could face seven years in prison and a fine if convicted under laws protecting national monuments.

The statues of Polynesian ancestors are believed to be up to 1,000 years old. There are nearly 900 moai on Easter Island, in various stages of construction, some of them more than 10m (33ft) tall and weighing more than 80 tons. The island's Rapa Nui National Park, in which the moai are situated, became a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1995.

Mr Kulju was visiting Anakena beach on Sunday when he was allegedly seen using his hands to tear off the earlobe of a 4m (13ft) high moai, Easter Island Police Chief Cristian Gonzalez told the Associated Press. The earlobe then fell to the ground and broke into 20-30cm pieces, at least one of which Mr Kulju allegedly attempted to steal, Mr Gonzalez added.

"Fortunately, this type of thing does not happen every day but it does happen and it is almost impossible to control because on Easter Island there are sites of great archaeological value everywhere and the park guards cannot prevent all such incidents," government official Liliana Castro said.

Authorities on the island are inspecting the statue to see if it can be repaired.

Let us assume, for the moment, that this is accurate, and that Mr. Kulju did as he is accused. It would not unexpected. In fact, it is something of a testament to both the strictness of the laws in place and the understanding of modern visitors that so little damage has been done in the last century to this heritage site. History shows us that this view of the past as worth perserving was not always the majority opinion. Rubbings of early Rennaissance tombstones in Britain (that is, impressions caught via charcoal rubbed on paper) were once so common that many tombstones became indecipherable. Classical Greek and Roman ruins were regularly pillaged by later cultures to provide basic building materials. Various religious zealots have made a habit of tearing down the monuments and temples of other religions--the most recent and best known example being the Taliban destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan. Examples of graffitti defacement also date back as far as past cultures regarded anything as a monument. Some Egyptian Old Dynastic burial chambers, unearthed and on display back in the time of the early Roman Empire, show an endless scribble of people wanting to be remembered, saying hello, and asking for prayers from those who followed.

So what has changed? And what should be done about those who deface monuments--assuming you believe anything should be done, at all? How can they best be protected? Monuments, that is. Not monument defacers. They typically don't need much protection. Or at least, they haven't, until recently.

[AvatarOfLight]

I may be in a slightly judgemental mood and let me state that I don't believe heavy punishment works for most offences.

However, seven years for this person I find acceptable. Looking at it from a personal level it's far too great a punishment. I do believe that in cases like this, exorbitant punishment on one offender may discourage others from trying such an act. Simply post a sign: Mess with this site, decade in jail.

I fail to come up with any complex sociological or psychological reason for this act of destruction.

[Oskatat]

we're not talking about a city or burial chamber. theres nothing worth pillaging, so pillager wont leave scribbles on walls (when you're robbing the site, might as well leave a signature), nor are they text. inscriptions might fade, but they do so anyway, and in this case, the inscriptions are usualy not of the greates importance and do not equal wantom destruction

those statues stand in line with the pyramids, stonehenge and the dolmen in france, to name some. no, you are NOT allowed to take a chip home. if you were, there would be nothing left by now

[fable]

we're not talking about a city or burial chamber. theres nothing worth pillaging, so pillager wont leave scribbles on walls (when you're robbing the site, might as well leave a signature), nor are they text. inscriptions might fade, but they do so anyway, and in this case, the inscriptions are usualy not of the greates importance and do not equal wantom destruction

I'm not sure I understand. Did you think I was stating that Easter Island was directly comparable to burial chambers? The central theme of my paragraph above was defacement.

[Craig]

That sort of lack of care, or thought does deserve something hefty I feel. How selfish can you get!

[Claudius]

entropy at work (kind of like when napoleans soldiers shot the nose off the sphinx)

[Millieway]

entropy at work (kind of like when napoleans soldiers shot the nose off the sphinx)

And we have to wonder if the Napoleon soldiers also blasted-off Sphinx's breasts too.

I’d put my money on the fact that the Sphinx is made of soft limestone, it is not the most durable substance and with 4500 thousand years of being at the mercy of the weather. No wonder if a nose would fall off.

And there is a long list of names who could have performed the act of vandalism in question.

[The Eyes of Evi]

In a way, I see killing culture as even worse than killing people. When you kill a person, they leave a legacy. When you kill a culture, you kill that legacy - you kill the immortality, as it were, of very many people who would otherwise be forgotten but "lived on" through their culture. Such defacement leaves me misanthropic to the people of the world at large, but at least it was not a deliberate attempt to destroy cultural items; it was simply absent-minded tom-foolery.
Doesn't mean he should get off lightly, though. In jail with the bugger, and let it serve as an example that you DO NOT get absent-minded and take away valuable cultural items.