Fire Damages Pre-Inca Site in Peru

CHICLAYO, PERU—BBC News reports that as much as 95 percent of Ventarron, a 4,500-year-old site located on Peru’s Lambayeque region on the northern coast, has been damaged by a fire thought to have been started in a nearby sugar cane field and spread by strong winds. The site is known for its murals, including an image of a deer trapped in a net, which is said to be among the oldest-known murals in the Americas. “We are losing an exceptional monument unique to its generation,” said archaeologist Walter Alva, who discovered the mural in 2007. To read about another set of murals in Peru, go to “Painted Worlds.”