4/02/2009

Puerto Rico lacks adequate place to house pre-Columbian artifacts

PONCE, Puerto Rico — The chief of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture says the U.S. island does not have an adequate place to house indigenous artifacts.


Institute director Carmen Teresa Ruiz says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to return dozens of ancient ceramic pieces, tools and bones to Puerto Rico but the U.S. territory is not prepared to receive them.


She said Sunday it is "a real problem" since local archaeologists and students do not have the chance to study the pre-Columbian pieces.


In 2007, the Army Corps uncovered a cache of artifacts outside the city of Ponce.


At the time, Puerto Rican archaeologists blasted the federal agency for shipping the indigenous artifacts to the U.S. for analysis.


1 comment:

Hector Olmo said...

Wake up, puerto rico 500 years of
exploitation. This is nothing new,
if you would like to see were all
the artifacts are, Washington DC for starters, then visit all the university museam's thru-out the world. Our ancestors had an oral
tradition of documentation, it is
a shame that there will always be
unanserwed questions relaing to our people.
Hector