The United States Bureau of Land Management announced that investigators had recovered five petroglyph panels that were chiseled and sawed away last year from a volcanic escarpment in a remote area of the Eastern Sierra region of California, The Los Angeles Times reported.
No suspects have been publically identified in the theft, which shocked members of the Paiute-Shoshone tribe, who hold the carvings sacred. The glyphs, which depict fauna like deer, rattlesnakes and bighorn sheep, as well as geometric shapes, are not particularly valuable on the black market, so it was unclear why someone went to such trouble to steal them, officials said at the time the thefts were discovered in October.
Federal officials told The Los Angeles Times that they found the panels after receiving an anonymous tip in the mail. “Now, the healing can begin,†Bernadette Lovato, field office manager for the bureau, said. “Recovery was a priority for me, and the public outrage intensified the need for them to be returned.â€
