Project Description
To mitigate the distractive and destructive effects of graffiti on precontact petroglyph and pictograph panels within public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Stratum Unlimited recorded 15 sites within White River Narrows Archaeological District, Lincoln County, southern Nevada. During three rounds of recording and graffiti mitigation, over 2,000 motifs were recorded, ranging in age from 7,000 years ago to CE 1860. With the aid of drone photography and mapping, 360° photography, and LiDAR images, 3D models were generated of the sites, including the location of stone walled vision quest enclosures located on ledges above at least four sites. Acoustic measurements along the main White River Narrows canyon yielded evidence for the enhanced propagation of sound.
Explore a fully immersive 360° tour of the Northern Site at White River Narrows — a site that holds thousands of years of human history pecked in stone.
Key Highlights
- Direct overlaps between paired images as summarized with Harris Diagrams show that Great Basin Abstract Style grids and spirals pre-date Basin and Range Style petroglyphs, the latter including feet, bighorn sheep, figures, long horizontal lines, thin lined incisions, and red ocher smears and designs.
- The creation of virtual tours to selected sites within the White River Narrows help inform the public about their significance without having to drive there.
