High Tide in the Lower Pecos: Digital Documentation of the Threatened Rattlesnake Canyon Mural

Summary

Rockshelters of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands display visually striking and compositionally complex Pecos River style murals painted by hunter-gatherers during the Late Archaic. The Rattlesnake Canyon mural (41VV180) is regarded as one of the six finest surviving examples of this world-renowned pictograph style. However, the site is severely threatened by repeated flooding episodes along the Rio Grande, exacerbated in recent years by siltation of Amistad Reservoir. Three known flooding episodes have impacted the paintings since 2008. Building upon the recording project conducted by the TAS Rock Art Recording Task Force during the 1990s, Shumla is collaborating with the National Park Service and Texas Tech University to record the Rattlesnake Canyon mural using state-of-the-art, digital documentation techniques before it is damaged further and eventually lost. Fieldwork sessions in June and September 2014 collected comprehensive baseline data facilitating current and future research, conservation, and public education for this threatened cultural legacy.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage