Leave What You Find
Uncovering the Past
Use this activity to introduce the Leave What You Find principle.
Goal
Participants will understand how defacing pictographs ruins the scene for others and destroys historic evidence.
Time
10 minutes
Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Enjoy pictographs artifacts without harming them
- Preserve artifacts for future visitors
Materials
#1 
#2 
#3 
#4 
Motivator
- The images left by ancient people tell a story about their life. These images also spark our imagination.
- Adding our own mark destroys what was left before and ruins the story.
Presentation
- Print these four pictures and staple them together with the first on top down to the last. Or, display the first image with a projector.
- Ask what the image shows. It looks mostly like graffitti. Is there any historic value in the picture?
- Show or flip to the next image. What's different? There is less scratched out area and you can read more of the graffitti.
- Repeat for the next and the final image.
- You may just compare the first and last images to emphasize how small amounts of defacing add up to a real mess.
Reflection
- Why would someone write on a pictograph? - leave their mark, add to the story, become part of history
- What really happens to the story when someone marks over it? - it is destroyed, obscured
- Any ideas on how to prevent this problem? - fence off sites, keep sites secret, educate people
- How can we appreciate pictographs, yet still not destroy them? - take photos, sketch them.
