Mark.Esarey (talk | contribs) Statements by Vince Barrows (Marburg72) |
207.193.87.114 (talk) |
||
Line 122: | Line 122: | ||
Erosion may be the more correct term, but when I was onsite at the begining of the excavation, the constroction man I talked to used the word "slumping" to describe what the excavation was intended to prevent. --[[User:Pleasantville|Pleasantville]] 14:16, 2 September 2007 (UTC) |
Erosion may be the more correct term, but when I was onsite at the begining of the excavation, the constroction man I talked to used the word "slumping" to describe what the excavation was intended to prevent. --[[User:Pleasantville|Pleasantville]] 14:16, 2 September 2007 (UTC) |
||
li·bel /ˈlaɪbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lahy-buhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -beled, -bel·ing or (especially British) -belled, -bel·ling. |
|||
== Statements by Vince Barrows (Marburg72) == |
|||
–noun 1. Law. a. defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures. |
|||
b. the act or crime of publishing it. |
|||
c. a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge. |
|||
2. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents. |
|||
–verb (used with object) 3. to publish a libel against. |
|||
4. to misrepresent damagingly. |
|||
5. to institute suit against by a libel, as in an admiralty court. |
|||
Digging into an ancient burial site with backhoes is intentially impacting the archaeology. It is not libel to state these facts. If you are attempting to build a crimial case against the "Complainer" , you need to bring it to the "Complainers" attention. |
|||
Repeated statements by Vince Barrows that the repair project was illegal constitute libel. Vince was formerly a volunteer at the Cahokia Mounds Historic Site until about one year ago. Since that time he has spent a great deal of time writing letters attacking how the site is operated. We have copies of many, perhaps all, of these letters on file at the site from people who forwarded them to us asking about his allegations. At least several other statements by Vince (Marburg72) posted in the Wikipedia Cahokia Mounds and Monks Mound pages also appear to consitiute libel. See the point by point discussion of Vince's statements by Bill Iseminger. Larry Barrows is Vince's father. |
|||
Vince's postings appear to repeatedly violate several of Wikipedia's posting rules. Being new to posting on Wikipedia myself in the past few days I am somewhat at a loss to understand how such vilations of Wikipedia's policies are dealt with. |
|||
Mark Esarey, Site Manager |
|||
Cahokia Mounds Historic Site |
|||
also a professional archaeologist [[User:Mark.Esarey|Mark.Esarey]] 00:12, 4 September 2007 (UTC) |
Revision as of 12:30, 4 September 2007
This article is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Grammar
There is a grammatical error in the text ("The city population is thought to have relatively small," should read "The city population is thought to have been relatively small,"), but when I click on edit to correct this, I don't get the Cahokia text (I only get something like "cahokia" with double brackets around it.) Maybe somebody who can figure out how to work with Wikipedia can incorporate this small change.
Given the size of the city, this entry should stay separate.
Descendants
I Agree with a recent edit that removed a statement indicating that living Siouan groups are the descendants of Cahokia. Although some archaeologists have made a case for that, there isn't enough evidence, and the citation was lacking anyway. But I don't agree with the editor's comment that "The first siouan tribes arrived to the Mississippi area in the 16th century and can't possibly be descendants of the builders." Both the historical record and archaeological record are really too fuzzy to be SURE that some of the Siouans aren't descended from Cahokians- after all, the Osage origin story states an origin from the east, which could be Cahokia. The Quapaw supposedly come from the Ohio River Valley, but it could have been Cahokia. That's all; I just wanted to comment. TriNotch 22:57, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
metric
"approximately a mile (1.609 km)" I quite understand the metric system but giving measurements to 1 meter acuracy where the original text only says approximately just is wrong.
213.118.141.127 12:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
Superlative?
The article used to say:
- That means that Cahokia can boast the largest man-made earthen plaza in the world to this day.
I don't think that I believe this; think of a typical farm, or a mid-scale mining operation. I've removed it. If anyone has a reference and a more precise statement of the claim, then feel free to put it back. 24.91.135.162 04:05, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
- A farm or a mine is not a plaza, though so your argument doesn't really apply. Rmhermen 05:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
- How do you define "plaza"? If you think of its etymology ("playa") then any roughly flat surface will do. If the requirement is that it serve some social or organizational function, then I know that many cities have a public park that's still bigger and just as flat, or an athletic field. Does a farmer's field become a plaza if a flea market sets up there? Or can we count flat fields on a military base, if they are used for training?
- How about a city, then? From what they explain at the visitor's center, the area around the mounds was not just bare land, but covered with houses and other buildings. If a "plaza" may contain buildings, then how about Manhattan? Or a typical suburb of St. Louis? The suburb is still more "earthen" than built-up.
- The kind of earthmoving required to level fifty acres and build a hundred foot hill is just not that expensive. They move more dirt when they build a shopping mall. (Try measuring a large one in Google Earth.) There was no documentation of the original claim, and this makes it difficult for me to believe that no one in the modern world has built something larger and flatter, no matter how narrow the definition of "plaza". 24.91.135.162 17:22, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
From Wikipedia: a plaza is "an open urban public space, such as a city square." Linked from that article, list of city squares by size makes Cahokia's Grand Plaza the fourth largest community plaza in the world (Modern or prehistoric cities) at approximately 190,000 square meters. Since all the others are floored with stone or brick, the claim that Cahokia's plaza is the largest earthen plaza in the world is quite plausible- it certainly has no competitors in the United States. Of course, if one were to take that particular plaza definition at face value, it would include things like Central Park, which is indubitably larger than the Grand Plaza. However, the historical definition and etymology is not playa, but from the Spanish Plaza, from the Latin word Placea, "Place," earlier the Greek plateia, a street. This definition generally includes the stipulation that it be the center of town and the center of community activities- which would include the Grand Plaza easily, and Central Park only by a stretch. I believe I will add Cahokia's plaza to the aforementioned list, and restore the mention of Cahokia's plaza as being the largest earthen plaza in the world. I will provide a citation if you'd like- it is already in the references. Pauketat's 1994 volume mentions the size of the plaza in hectares (19, by the by). TriNotch 00:32, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
- Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote "playa"; of course you are right.
- I still don't like this claim. My (very superficial; perhaps you can correct me) understanding was that the area from Monk's Mound outwards was not just an open space; at the height of the civilisation, there were buildings on it. Is this the case? If so, then the fair comparison is not with other open city squares, but with other medium-density urban areas.
- I am also not sure how meaningful it is to restrict the phrase "plaza" (or "city square," as it is now) in order to exclude, for example, Central Park, but still include the space near the mounds. By modern standards, an entirely unpaved surface would not be considered "urban" or "city", for the same reason that you were reluctant to count Central Park as a plaza in New York. This would make an "earthen city square" impossible by definition.
- In general, I think that confusion arises because the space around the mounds is not directly comparable, either in use or in construction, to any modern facility. This makes the meaning of "city square", as it applies to Cahokia, unclear. If "city square" is defined narrowly enough to include Cahokia but exclude (larger) unpaved modern spaces, then the claim might be true, but I am not sure that it is still meaningful or notable. 24.91.135.162 04:04, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
- And from the satellite photos at least (25°40'39.50"N 100°16'59.36"W), the Macroplaza in Monterrey looks mostly unpaved. I am not sure if that makes it "earthen", or whether "earthen" would require bare earth; but Cahokia is covered in grass now anyways. I think the "largest earthen" claim is either confusing or false, not sure which. 24.91.135.162 04:13, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
- Pauketat, Kelly, Fritz, Lopinot, Elias, and Hargrave 2002 is cited as the source for the following statement in the text of this article:
- The Grand Plaza of Cahokia is to this day the largest earthen city square in the world.[1]
- I went through the text of my copy of Pauketat et al. 2002. I could not find a statement in Pauketat to match the assertion in the text. On page 257 of Pauketat et al. 2002 a passage mentions that the central plaza was:
- ...a massive labour project dating to the eleventh century AD that would have necessitated and then enabled collective gatherings....
- The plaza is described again on pg. 258, but I could not find any instances in the text in which the plaza at Cahokia is "to this day the largest in the world". In the event that I have missed something in the text of this paper, kindly indicate the page number that mentions "to this day the largest in the world". Or perhaps there is another paper or publication by Pauketat that mentions this? Mumun 無文 20:07, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
The claim is definitely made in the Cahokia visitors center. I'll look through my photos from last week and see if I have a photo of such claim. It may also be stated during the film shown at the Visitors Center. --Pleasantville 18:03, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
Monk's Mound Excavation
I note some controversy over the Monk's Mound excavation, which excavation I think started on August 1st or the day before. I don't know anything about the governance of the Cahokia site, but fairly early in the morning on August 1st, we arrived and climbed the mound. We were denied access to the top of the mound by a friendly construction man who was just finishing putting orange plastic fencing across the top of the mound. When we mentioned this to the staff of the Vistor's center, they were unaware of it, and seemed not to have much information. There was a backhoe and a dumptruck. We took pictures. I added one of my photos here. The general batch is in my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryncramer/sets/72157601195678203/. I can release others under GDFL if desired. --Pleasantville 22:05, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
- You need to find a published source. Beware the NOR policy. --Kbh3rdtalk 23:16, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
- No you don't. The photo is just fine. We encourage Wikipedians to take pictures. Rmhermen 23:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
- Agreed, photos are great; the more the better! Actually, I think I conflused Pleasantville with Marburg72 whose recent contributions are referenced above. It is that unsourced text that reads more like a newspaper exposé than an encyclopedia article that I have reservations about, and I've flagged it in the article as "citation needed". It may be that it is a very important development, but Wikipedia is not the place for personal reporting. Others' creditable reporting should be referenced and incorported properly in the article. "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth", to quote the official policy. --Kbh3rdtalk 03:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
Cahokia Mounds management did not have a permit to dig into monks mound. The Illinois Historic Preservation agency gave them permission to remove only the historic fill. The site director did this on his own initiative. I saw the letters on the IAS website detailing the site management's explanation of the work on monks mound. They clained to be doing this work to reduce the risk of erosion and to correct the slumpage issue which occurred over 20 years ago. Their comments to the Illinois Archaeology Society are an indictment that they never even considered the archeology when the 30,000 cubic feet of monks mound was torn out of the mound from three separate areas. The site management explanation makes the problem apparent that they did not consider the archaeological impact that this work would have. The fact is that the mound is actually a series of ancient sacred temples stacked on top of one another that the mound may have been covered with elaborate earthen layer of colored in blue, red, white, black, grey, brown, and orange soils. The site management never mentioned the other "Rejected Possibilities" that were proposed for this work in Cahokia Archaeological Society meetings. The website also makes it clear the professional archaeological community had no idea that this work was going to be done. I served as Vice President of the Cahokia Archaeological Society for 2004-2006 and this work of digging deeply into the mound was never mentioned to the CAS. However, the site managment did state in the CAS meetings they said they were looking forward to doing some "minor cosmetic work" on the mound. An elaborate earth painting or series of earth paintings covering the mound is a real possibility considering the complexity of color use in the top 10 feet of the surface of the mound. The unfortunate fact is that no floats were taken, no artifact bags lying around, or clip-boards were on site, No screening took place and the dirt was removed with track-hoe (no hand excavations going on at the time of destruction), and the dirt was piled up in multiple areas around the mound. As of August 25th, the large piles of dirt were still piled on top of monks mound but the excavations were completely filled in with loam with grass seed freshly spread on the soil that had been dumped in place by a dump truck. There was a large geotextile covering half of the newly deposited soil. After attempting to inspect the mound, I was told to stay off the mound by construction workers, who had parked their vehicles on the top of the mound. Construction and crew workers were parking vehicles on top of the smaller mounds, not to mention very large backhoes parked on the top of the mounds. According to Paula Cross, they were only supposed to remove the previous repair fill - and not impact the mound fill. But they went over a meter deep through a 50 ft wide and 50 ft long area. I calculated the volume of removed moundfill to total 30,000 cubic feet based on measurements of the piled up dirt south of the silos that are between Monks Mound and Woodhenge. The IHPA gave site directors permission to repair the damage. The depth of the excavations may have been caused by accidental removal of too much soil. However, a contractor should know that when digging into an archaeological site, the permits must be followed exactly. After a circle of limestone slabs and cedar posts had been hit by the backhoes, Tim Pauketat, an archeology professor at the University of Illinois stopped this excavation and expressed his unhappiness with the work (according to the IAS newsflash website).
The site management told me that "as long as its ripped wide open" then we should salvage what we can find. So they hired archaeologists to look at the profiles of the excavations for a few days. During this time, there were drawings made and measurements taken of the exposed features. However, "as long as it's ripped wide open" was illegal and should never have happened. Foremost for the reason that it is a desecration of sacred burial mounds.
A Doctor of Geophysics with professional licenses including geology, groundwater hydrology, and geophysics, looked at the slumpage with me after it occurred in 2004. His professional opinion of the slumping situation is to improve surface drainage of the mound by installing drainage. Possible methods include installing drainage tubing around the surface of the mound to allow for stormwater runoff to be diverted away from the mound. He said also pumped wells or drainage tubing could be installed to pump the waters out of the mound in extreme situations (like landfills). The archaeological impact of this work is the foremost consideration when deciding what to do. Basic soil engineering mechanics show that the area from the bottom of the excavation to the 45 degree angle from vertical is the affected range of soil. The unsupported excavations with backhoes in monks mound subject a much greater area to the catastrophic collapse. The excavations were about 40 feet deep vertically. The 40 feet over from the top edge of the excavations falls into the angle of repose. This means that point of unstable soil caused by slippage into the mound is now located 40 feet closer to the center of the top of the mound. The recommended methods used to reduce erosion and slumpage in saturated soil includes planting a strong cover of vegetation, and installing stormwater fences with drainage tubing. These recommendations were presented to site directors before the digging into monks mound with a backhoe occurred. Digging into the mound made the problem worse because the angle of repose was ignored. The clay soil of the mound will provide a slip zone for the loam that was deposited on the mound. Also, soil profiling was done after the cuts into the mound were made by the Backhoes. The soil from the mound was not sifted by anyone and this work was done in the area of the "birdman" tablet discovery. I walked around the piled up heaps of monks mound, and quickly found 14 sherds of bright red pottery on the surface of the heaps. Some of the pottery was vivid purple or magenta and red. Preservation is defined as following the laws to protect the archaeological sites. The limestone cairn lined with cedar logs and charred remains that was hit by the backhoe is most likely a burial. The Collected Works of Gregory Perino show many examples of limestone circles, and almost without exception, these surround burials. You might want to further consider the legal problem. Before disturbing an archaeological site a contractor is required to have a permit from the state historical preservation agency. If they only had a permit to remove the historic fill, then there was a criminal violation. The contractor had to know this and Site management had to know this. Below are the links to all the photos that I have taken available on Monks Mound during the destruction. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff280/Marburg72 --Marburg72
- Marburg, I hope you will stay on Wikipedia and make yourself a user page. In the interim, consider this a response both to your comments here and on my user page. Regardless of how egregious you may feel the excavations into Monks Mound were- and I think it is undeniable that invasive excavation into Monks Mound is regrettable- I still feel that Wikipedia is not an appropriate venue for you, or us, to criticize the excavators or the excavations. Because Wikipedia must rely on published sources, preferably from a neutral point of view, none of our personal observations (other than our private photographs) are acceptable submissions to Wikipedia articles. I could not find the Illinois Archaeological Society newsflash that you talked about- if you could link us to that, it would probably be an acceptable source.
- I have a question for you based on my personal curiosity, if you'd be willing to write me about it. I am curious about this "earth painting" or colored layers you talk about, and I'm not sure what you mean. So- What is an "earth painting?" TriNotch 05:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
- I think Marburg should be encouraged to post what is known about the excavation here so we can find appropriate sources. As I said, when it started, there seemed to be a lot of confusion about what was up. (I was there as a tourist at the time.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pleasantville (talk • contribs) 16:07, August 30, 2007 (UTC)
- Earth paintings are found at Wickliffe Mounds, Etowah, Ocmulgee, and other mounds. An earth painting is like a sand painting however it is made with colorful earth materials like clay and soils at a layer in the mounds construction. Some earth paintings include thunderbird motifs with a circle surrounding the image, like at Wickliffe. The earth painting at Wickliffe is on display in the interpretive center and is protected by uv proof glass. This ancient Native American painting is protected from damage as the entire section of soil was removed as one layer. The earth paintings reflect the wisdom that was once current in every mind. It is likely that Monks mound was covered with a major earth painting because the two sides of the cut that were over 50 feet away from each other had use of color that indicates continuity. The book called "The Deleware Indian Big House Ceremony" by Frank Speck describes these events is great detail. In other words, monks mound was at one time covered with a design made with colorful clays. Later it was covered with windblown soil and grasses and trees. Due to the extreme nature of the excavations, all layers of the mound in the area were torn through which destroyed any trace of the paintings and the cut on the sides is like a cross section through layers of paint on a VanGogh being sliced by a saw. The orb shapes in the soil and the blue, red, orange, white and black soils were not just randomly placed on the mound but instead part of a larger earth paining. -- Marburg72
TriNotch: In response to your removal of the information about the excavation for "more neutral" presentation, it does not undo the damage. The site management planned to dig into monks mound with backhoes and got away with it - so far. Their destructive work is against the law and the information I presented was the truth. Rainwater was not in immanent threat of washing away 30,000 cubic feet. -- Marburg72
This is my letter to the editor, written by Dr. Larry Barrows, Environmental Geophysicist (lbarrows@andrews-eng.com) I would like to call your attention to the recent damage done to one our states historic treasures. In this case, the damage was done by the same people and agencies that were responsible for protecting it.
I am referring to the recent misguided attempts to stabilize Monks Mound at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, located in East St. Louis, IL. Cahokia Mounds is the center of an ancient Native American civilization. It contains a series of earthen mounds, the largest of which is Monks Mound. There are also hiking trails and a museum with a visitor’s center. Monks mound is by far the largest mound of the complex. It was the foundation for the chief’s temple.
Historically, Monks Mound has also been subject to erosion and slumping. During August 2007, an attempt was made to prevent further erosion and stabilize the structure. This involved cutting terraces into the sides of the mound with heavy machinery (see photo). Approximately 30,000 cubic feet of mound material was removed and hauled away in dump trucks. Erosion could have been controlled by a good cover of grass. Stability could have been maintained by installation of a system of underdrains that remove water from the material. Neither of these actions would have disturbed the actual mound material.
No attempt was made to properly excavate the terraces, record what was encountered, or to sift the material that was removed. Broken pottery, cedar posts, and limestone blocks were encountered. Also encountered were distinct layers of brightly colored material. Quite possibly, these were brightly colored surfaces covering earlier mounds. These layers of colored soil may have included Native American symbols. With the destructive excavation methods used, we will never know.
It should be remembered that Monks Mound is not a single mound of dirt on which a temple was constructed. Rather, it is a sequence of temples and royal burials built one upon the other. The mound is likely the best preserved record of thousands of years of Native American civilization.
Hopefully the state can review the manner in which historic treasures are protected. Hopefully the people responsible for this destruction can be held accountable for the damage.
For more information and photos, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff280/Marburg72/?action=view¤t=P1050430.jpg
A professional response to this discussion has been made... I think
This is quite interesting. On my user talk page, it appears that Bill Iseminger from the Cahokia Mounds management has decided to respond to this Wikipedia debate we're all involved in. Apparently there will be ample resources for us to cite in a few months. In the meantime, I propose (again) that the recent excavations be mentioned briefly, without either praise or criticism, so that we do not continue to have POV and possibly inaccurate statements about the situation. Clearly we are attracting attention, and must be aware that we are under the scrutiny of professionals in the field; furthermore, our article here may become a touchpoint in a real-world debate on the subject. Allowing the article to express an opinion, pro- or con-, involves us in a real-world dispute, which is really not the point of Wikipedia.
I suspect a couple of new Wikipedians are reading this, so if you are uncertain what I mean by POV, check out Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, which is our official policy on advancing one's own perspective over others. Also, in this circumstance, Wikipedia:No original research would be useful reading. I believe I will institute just such a change in the main article on this. Of course, I welcome further discussion. TriNotch 04:40, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
- It seems to me that this is likely to attract the documentation in the form of news coverage or scholarly papers that would allow the information presented here to make its way into the Wikipedia entry. Those of us uninvolved in the dispute will be better able to find proper documentation if we know what the issues are. Cahokia is a World Heritage site and both the application of a backhoe to its most notable feature, and what was found as a result are both highly notable. --Pleasantville 13:30, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
You might want to also view user Mark.Esarey where the site director responded to several questions that I posted. --Marburg72
corrections and clarifications
Much of the information presented by this discussion has either incorrect statements, misinterpretations, or some blatantly false statements. I could go through these point by point but I am not sure it would influence the other writer as he has already made up his mind and does not appear to be willing to listen to any other point of view.
Just a few bullets here -there was a permit to do the repair project on the mound. If it had not been done, the slump would eat back into the mound more and cause even greater damage to it. -We had professional soil engineers, geotechnicians, geomorphologists, and others all review this project over a two year period, and the project was a result of their recommendations -It s false statement that there was no concern for the archaeology. Having an archaeologist on site at all times was always part of the plan and in the contract. The point we made in our responses and postings on other sites, was that the repair was the primary goal and that the archaeologist would be a monitor in case something came up and the project needed to be stopped. As the project progressed it became apparent that a more massive amount of fill needed to be removed to get behind the slip faces of the slumps. Then, a more intensive archeologocial project developed overa two week period, with sometimes 15-20 people carefully documenting the exposures with maps of each terrace face and profile, over 1000 detailed digital images of the features and profiles, and over 100 soil samples and soil columns recovered for analysis. This was not a whimsy dig but a professionally run one. We were limited on time because we did not want the exposure open to the weather and we needed to do the repairs quickly. Even so, we shut down the contractors for two days so that we could catch up with the mapping and data recording and get ahead of the backfilling. It is a disservice to the dozens of workers who spent many days in 100 degree weather to imply none of this was done. -the repairs were made with bottomland gumbo clay, not loam and it was not dumped in with a dump truck but lifted in with track hoes onto a geotechnical grid in horizontal layers, them compressed with a compactor to a required compaction monitored by the geotechnical firm with each one foot deposit. -Tim Pauketat did not stop the contractor, Tim Schilling and myself did, when the limestone slabs were encountered. Pauketat came up shortly afterwards and asked if we had stopped him and we said we did from working in that particular area. -I could go on and on but at least wanted to set some of the facts straight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WRIseminger (talk • contribs) 17:32, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
- You act as if you own the mounds. The right to dig into monks mound with a backhoe is not yours and will forever be the worst thing that happened to Monks Mound. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.207.180.217 (talk) 02:43, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
"slumping" vs. "erosion"
Erosion may be the more correct term, but when I was onsite at the begining of the excavation, the constroction man I talked to used the word "slumping" to describe what the excavation was intended to prevent. --Pleasantville 14:16, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
li·bel /ˈlaɪbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lahy-buhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -beled, -bel·ing or (especially British) -belled, -bel·ling. –noun 1. Law. a. defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures. b. the act or crime of publishing it. c. a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge.
2. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents. –verb (used with object) 3. to publish a libel against. 4. to misrepresent damagingly. 5. to institute suit against by a libel, as in an admiralty court.
Digging into an ancient burial site with backhoes is intentially impacting the archaeology. It is not libel to state these facts. If you are attempting to build a crimial case against the "Complainer" , you need to bring it to the "Complainers" attention.