Saved From Certain Destruction

Whenever I'm in the Crystal River area of Florida I like to visit the Crystal River Archeological Site. It's composed of a set of various mounds that are pre-Columbian. These are some of the oldest known mounds in North America.

Recently much has been made of the destruction of an ancient temple mound in Belize. When a construction company destroyed a huge artifact of the pre-Columbian civilization for the building stone that was held within it. But this is nothing new. The history of the Americas is packed with such stories, and you don't have to range far to find them.

The main temple mound at the Crystal River site was almost destroyed by a real estate

developer for the very same reason the one in Belize was destroyed. The capitalist asswipe wanted the material of which the temple was constructed to use in building nearby roads and houses. To this cause a bulldozer was used to begin dismantling the huge mound, and only last-minute intervention prevented him from going through with it.

As it was, even though most of the main mound was saved, the enormous ramp that led to the summit of the temple mound was all but wiped out, the oyster shell material of which it was made carted away to serve as foundations for roads and concrete.

Carole ascending the main temple mound.

Because this rapacious money-grubbing bastard was halted in his destructive drive, we have the mound system today in a fairly intact plot. One can see the two major temple mounds, the big burial mound, and several other mound systems within the small park. And looking at these, one can get a general idea of what the place may have looked like when it was a major local village in the days long before Europeans arrived to lay ruin to it all.
 

The side of the mound. You can see where the ramp used to be but was removed by bulldozers and dump trucks.

 I have a lot of affection for this park. I first visited it when I was a young child with my father. It hasn't changed much since those days, decades gone. And I'm glad that it has been effectively protected for all to see and enjoy.

The back of the mound closest to the water where most of the damage was done. This entire side of the huge temple mound was utterly destroyed, along with the material that made up the vast ramp that led down to the plaza area of the complex.

This was part of a series of stones that were apparently used in worship services. You can still make out part of a human figure carved into this side of the stone. (In the center, toward the top, you can make out two eyes and an open mouth. Not unlike the face in Edvard Munch's THE SCREAM.)

Carole enjoying the view from the top of the main temple mound.

 Mayan Temple Destroyed.


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