Border wall work destroys ancient 6,500-year-old desert carving

A 50-foot section of the Las Playas Intaglio, a massive fish-shaped ground carving in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, was destroyed when contractors for a second border wall scraped the site in April. New research places the intaglio’s creation between 6,500 and 7,500 years ago, making it older than Stonehenge, Egypt’s earliest pyramid and the Nazca Lines, and the oldest known geoglyph in the Americas. The Center for Biological Diversity, which recorded the damage, called the destruction a cultural and historical atrocity.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the disturbance was inadvertent, that the remaining portion is now secured, and that the agency will review its construction protocols. The Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation straddles the border, is suing to halt further wall work that threatens other sacred sites such as Quitobaquito Springs. The case highlights tensions over the Secure Fence Act’s waivers that allow the Department of Homeland Security to bypass environmental and cultural protections.