More heritage sites at risk…

If you know me, or have read some of the previous posts you realize that I can be passionate about heritage site protection. On Friday I attended the State’s annual Heritage Preservation Awards ceremony conducted at the Scottish Rite Center in Santa Fe. Of course I’m biased about these awards because I was presented one a few years ago. This year’s awardees are with-a-doubt a deserving group. I walked away from the event thinking: “Some really good work has been going on…” It is often noted that “preservation happens locally.” Without the buy-in of locals we’re doomed to see that which has been passed down to use become irrelevant. Our cultural continuity in New Mexico has some excellent stewards: individuals, tribes, communities and governmental entities. As I look at the list shown in the local paper I see that they listed only the northern new Mexico recipients (how parochial), but failed to include (que lastima!) the Lifetime Achievement Award for JIM COPELAND, the lead BLM archaeologist for northwest New Mexico. Great works Jim (and with the Boy Scouts too): www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Historic-Preservation-Division-State-names-winners-of-preservat

Meme brought to my attention recently a link on Newsweek about endangered sites in east Asia. Since a primary interest of mine as a student (history & anthropology/archaeology) was China I decided I should take a look. I’m glad I did. One site mentioned was in Bangladesh and the brief-blurb it gave about it and noted that archaeological protection laws there only apply on government properties. I thought “gee, the USA isn’t the only one…” I also noted they identified the site (Mahasthanarh) as being the earliest archaeological site in Bangladesh from the “3^rd Century B.C.” This time I found myself thinking: “If that is the earliest, they haven’t been looking.” Here is a link to some of the photos of these important places. As we know HERITAGE TOURISM IS SUSTAINABLE:

 http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/photos-10-most-endangered-heritage-sites-asia  

My final thought is a tip-of-the-sombrero to our brothers-n-sisters in Scotland. Here in the U. S. we pride ourselves on heritage protection and our national parks. Our 1^st so designated was a place called Yellowstone (you may have heard of it). We’ve gone on to include Monuments, Historical Parks, Rivers, Seashores, Recreation Areas & Trails and other designations in our National Park System. Our colleagues in Scotland started with The Whisky Trail. God love ‘em for their proper priorities…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland%27s_Malt_Whisky_Trail