RTI Photography inside a Hohokam Great House

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Great House at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is a monumental 11 room, three/four story structure made of puddled mud "caliche" that has been called "the pinnacle of Hohokam architectural achievement" and is significant for its high degree of preservation. The building is home to intact prehistoric red and pink earthen plasters and washes as well as three "plasterglyphs". Yet these glyphs had never been extensively documented due to the inherent difficulties of working inside an important archaeological and ethnographic resource, including access, lighting, and animal waste issues. Following tribal consultation and a grant award from the Western National Parks Association, researchers and resource managers were able to employ a digital photographic technique called reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) photography. This technique generated very high resolution images of selected plaster surfaces and fulfilled project goals: baseline documentation of physical condition, study of layer stratigraphy and age, and investigation for previously unknown elements in surrounding areas. Because of its surface enhancement and lighting features, RTI photography is especially useful in archaeology when one needs to look at objects with low-relief etching or carving, as is the case with petroglyphs, headstones, and certain artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25789