Powder keg - yes indeed which is unfortunate for all sorts of reasons. Chatting to Aluta, she tells me of the deplorable "red neck" attitude to North American prehistory " Its only Indian stuff" and "Bulldoze the lot - you can pick up Indian arrowheads anywhere"

In a weird sort of way, perhaps the American authorities - local and national - may give more respect to ancient sites if they think they can prove that white "Europeans" got there first or at the same time. Sad and mad, but it won't be the first time racism and politics have distorted and destroyed archaeology. The Chinese are or were pretty hostile to the discovery of the graves of caucasian horse riding warrior women in western China. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe just had to have been built by Phoenicians rather than black Africans. So it is with the stone structures of the Oley Hills. The bigots declare that they must be European root cellars because "Injuns jest cain't build in stone" - they obviously haven't seen the pueblos of the south-west or the fantastic cities and pyramids of Mexico.