All over the world people have used the structures of their ancients as quarries for their contemporary building materials. In Egypt, in Rome, in Greece, all along the Great Wall in China, in Zimbabwe, literally everywhere. And why not? Who has more claim to them than their descendants?
(tearing down other peoples’ monuments to build churches and houses for the conquerors is something else entirely)
Only recently have these creations been regarded as having their own intrinsic value as a connection to the past. Which brings me to these two stones in front of my hosts’ house.
One, a former grinding stone or mortar (pics from another site shown for comparison) has been used as a planter. And the other has been carved with the address of this house.
Today, Neyda & Enrique acknowledge, this would never happen. Nor would they want it to. But back in the 60s when this house was being built it was not uncommon.
Having seen many piles of rubble all over Merida, many of which contain stones with sharply squared corners, that are the detritus of old colonial buildings that are being replaced with modern ones of concrete blocks, I find this laudable.
They are used as a way that honors the ancestors of Neyda & Enrique, both of whose ancestors probably helped build a pyramid or two.