“A cradle of civilization reduced to ashes.” So lamented Peruvian archaeologist Ignacio Alva Meneses, after the Ventarron Archaeological Complex, a 4,500-year-old temple site he managed, was destroyed by fire on November 12.

A report in Peru’s La Republica said the fire destroyed a mural dating back more than 2,000 years, and that the suspected cause of the fire was the burning of sugar cane in fields near the site.

Alva Meneses, in his Facebook posts documenting the destruction, criticized the “negligence” of the burning operation. He said that the minimum care had not been taken to stop the spread of the fire to the Ventarron complex. Credit: facebook/Ignacio Alva Meneses via Storyful