remains

I live very close to the eastern edge of downtown Manhattan where the island is partially made of modern landfill. During the process of building upward (and outward) parts of the area were excavated by teams of archaeologists. These artifacts, some of them dating back to between 1600 and 1700, sit in display windows that border the outside of a police precinct in a neighborhood known as Alphabet City. The displays date back to the 1970s and they haven't been maintained since then. All of the artifacts are dusty and the cards that offer explainations of what they are and where they were found have mosty fallen down or are sun-bleached. What does it say to a community when its history is not worth preserving?