That dig in Arizona got shut down after the backhoe cracked a Hohokam metate

I was on a volunteer dig near Phoenix last spring when someone ran a backhoe bucket right through a grinding stone that had been sitting there for 800 years. The whole operation got halted for three days while the state archaeologist came out to document the damage. We lost almost a week of field time and the guy who did it got banned from the site permanently. Now they're making everyone do a hands-on training before they even start a machine. Has anyone else seen equipment damage ruin a good site?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_nguyen71mo ago

Bet they're gonna start calling that guy "Bonecrusher" now or something. Real smooth move.

paul_owens251mo ago

Did you see the video of the other guy on the ice trying to get up after that hit... looked like his legs were made of spaghetti or something. I heard some radio guy say that's gonna be a suspension for sure because he left his feet. They were talking about how the league is cracking down on stuff like that this season. Kinda reminds me of that hit from a few years back where the guy got like 20 games.