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Photograph of a father and his
three sons who were grave robbers of the Inca ruins of Pachacámac which is
located near Lima, the capital of Peru. In 1965, freelance photographer
Chuck Clark was staying at the elegant Crillon Hotel in downtown Lima and noted
that there was a huge collection of Incan and pre-Incan archaeological artifacts
present in the lobby of the hotel. Clark asked the hotel manager where all
the pots were found and he told Clark that they found them just "lying around"
at the Pachacámac ruins which is located just a short distance to the south of
Lima on the road to Paracas and Nazca. When Clark arrived in Pachacámac,
he found dozens of skeletons and partial skeletons just lying on the ground. In
addition, Clark encountered a family (a Peruvian father and his three sons) with
recently excavated pots and Clark asked them where they found the artifacts.
They told Clark that they had just dug them up from the ground and were going to
sell them to collectors in Lima. The family of grave robbers acted as if this
was normal and showed no remorse or guilt. Presently, Pachacámac is
protected from "tomb raiders" such as those that Clark encountered by the
Peruvian INC ("Instituto Nacional de Cultura" - National Institute of Culture).
However to this day, one can still encounter fragments of human bones scattered
about this important Inca and pre-Inca archaeological site.
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