Art in the Time of Promontory Cave: Enhancement of Rock Art Figures Using DStretch

Summary

While the Promontory caves are well known for their preservation of perishable cultural materials, the red-ochre pictographs inside Promontory Cave 1 have attracted less attention. The conditions within the cave provided a ‘safe haven’ for organic artifacts, but the pictographs themselves have varying degrees of visibility, from quite good to poor. Archaeologists have relied solely upon descriptions made by Julian Steward during his 1930s work. Advancements in digital imagery and rock art software, such as DStretch, provide the opportunity to greatly enhance these images, providing new insights. Not only were digital analyses successful in providing fuller images of these ancient paintings, but previously indecipherable design elements were clarified, revealing classic late Fremont forms. In addition to the enhancements of previously identified rock art, we report new rock art paintings located in the vicinity of the Promontory caves. We compare these restored Promontory Point images with examples from Grotto Canyon in southwestern Alberta, where identical images document contact between the late Fremont world and a region Apachean ancestors could be expected to have inhabited.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Implications of the Promontory, Dismal River, and Franktown Archaeological Records for Apachean Prehistory

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16019