The Sears Point archaeological site in Yuma County, Arizona has been vandalized.

Arizona Bureau of Land Management rangers discovered the vandalism late last year at the large rock art site located on BLM-administered lands. They say the damage includes rolled boulders and fractured petroglyphs.

Archaeology located on public lands is protected by federal law. Authorities say defacement is punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and/or imprisonment for up to five years for each offense.

Sears Point Archaeological District is located about 75 miles east of Yuma. The site consists of petroglyphs, trails, rock alignments and other features which extend for miles along the southern bank of the Gila River

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Vandals have damaged the only surviving prehistoric rock art images to be found on the island of Barbados.

“Unfortunately, these have not been looked after awfully well,” Archaeologist and Professor at the University of Sussex Professor Peter Drewett said while displaying pictures of carvings in the Spring Head cave.

He pointed out several modern carvings that have been placed on top of the prehistoric ones, some of which were scoured out with a knife.

“Fortunately we did record these detailed drawings prior to this latest range of damage to them,” he said.

Expressing his certainty that other caves would have had such markings, he stated that these had more than likely been eroded during the passage of time.

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The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has warned that Israel’s greatest archeological treasures are in grave danger of being destroyed by natural disasters and vandalism.

During the conference, IAA leaders cited dangers, including the possibility of earthquakes, which could threaten sites like Masada, Beit She’an and Jerusalem’s Old City, all of which are located near active fault lines with a history of earthquakes.

Speaking at the conference, IAA director Shuka Dorfman called on the government to take the initiative and be better prepared in case of natural disasters rather than hold “an investigation the day after.”

Dorfman also vowed that the IAA will create a “rapid response mechanism” that will be deployed to minimize damage and boost rehabilitation efforts in event of natural disasters.

The IAA also called for greater security for archaeological sites in order to prevent incidents like the vandalism of UNESCO site Uvdat in the Arava, which suffered millions of shekels in damage when two suspects allegedly poured paint and smashed and overturned ruins at the ancient Nabatean and Byzantine archaeological site.

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Vandals have caused irreversible damage to Avdat, an ancient Nabatean city that dates back to the 3rd century B.C.

The vandals sprayed black and yellow graffiti, destroyed signs, tipped over ancient stone pillars and destroyed a 1,700-year-old marble altar, spokesman Omri Gal said.

Police are currently investigating the incident, Gal said. The vandals could have entered the site any time during the night since it is open and unfenced, he said.

“We don’t know when they came, but they did a lot of damage in a very short time,” he said.

Flint Castle in Wales has survived many bloody battles, but now it is being closed to the public because of drunken British teens.

They claim their staff have been spat upon and threatened by youngsters from nearby housing estates, who smash bottles and treat the ancient ruins as a drinking den.

John Wallis, site operations manager for Cadw – the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage – who run the castle, said the behaviour of the youths was making it too dangerous to keep it open to the public. ’We are extremely frustrated with the ongoing spate of vandalism,’ he said.