Diagrammatic and Interactive Relighting Visualizations of Pictographs: Case Studies on Pinwheel, Boulder and Pleito Cave

Summary

This presentation discusses two complementary approaches for visualization of pictographs; interactive relighting and diagrammatic representation. Visible and false colour Reflectance Transformation Images (RTI) provide enhanced visualization of texture in combination with colour enhancement. By extension, the proposed techniques offer the opportunity to explore the characteristics and application of paint as well as the layering and preservation state of pictographs. The extracted information can be formatted according to DOT language syntax and rendered in GraphViz as diagrams. The resulting diagrams are not only alternative ways for communicating analysis results but also useful tools for enhanced detection of patterns within a single pictograph and across panels. As demonstrated by case studies on Pinwheel, Boulder and Pleito cave (CA-KER-77), which showcase different scale and level of complexity, the comparative assessment of interactive relighting and diagrammatic visualizations is a step towards a more holistic approach for rock-art recording, documentation and analysis, that can be further enriched by spectroscopy and 3D digitization.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20650