A college prank may have damaged ancient American Indian petroglyphs on a butte overlooking Arizona State University's Tempe campus.
Vandals climbed Tempe butte and painted a large red "A" — the University of Arizona's color — before the annual football game between the two rivals on Nov. 25. The paint job was first spotted two days before ASU whipped the Wildcats 28-14.
Pranksters also hit the Sun Devils' practice field, painting a blue "A" and "Bear Down," the University of Arizona motto, on the turf.
But the red paint on the rocks of the butte could have erased rock art that dates to 1250, city officials said. Tempe could be forced to spend thousands of dollars to fly in a petroglyph expert and have the paint tediously removed by hand.
The north side of the mountain overlooking Sun Devil Stadium apparently was chosen to circumvent the game-week guards watching over the gold "A" on the southern side of the butte in downtown Tempe. Vandals struck that site in 2005, painting the "A" red and blue.
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City leaders consider the crooked red "A" visible from the nearby freeway an act that many have damaged or erased history.
"There is art up there made by the Hohokam, who, of course, are no longer here," said Amy Douglass, the Tempe Historical Museum administrator who must figure out how to get the paint off.
"They are non-renewable resources in essence," she said of the petroglyphs. "Once they are gone, there is no way to get them back. They are a window into our past. They are irreplaceable."
City workers gathered paint cans, rollers and beer bottles left behind by the pranksters, and Tempe police checked the items for fingerprints and other clues. But they were unable to identify any suspects, said Brandon Banks, a Police Department spokesman.
"I wish they could find them," said Joe Goglia, 22, a recent ASU grad living in Tempe who was hiking the butte Friday.
The city can't sandblast the site because the many petroglyphs nearby may be damaged.
"I was horrified when I heard about the paint, really," Douglass said. "I don't know what we'll ultimately have to do. I don't know what would possess someone to do that. It's just ugly."
The rivalry between the Sun Devils and the Wildcats goes back more than a century, starting in 1899 with their first game. ASU, then called the Territorial Normal School, beat UA for the Territorial Championship Cup.
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