A New Interpretation of Black Dragon Canyon's Rock Art
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
BLACK DRAGON CANYON, UTAH—Petroglyphs discovered in 1928 in Utah’s Black Dragon Canyon have been examined using the latest technology, including X-ray fluorescence and a computer program called DStretch that highlights the original pigments in a painting, even when they are invisible to the naked eye. Archaeologist Paul Bahn, who co-directed the project, tells LiveScience that these new techniques have allowed him and his colleague Jean-Loïc Le Quellec to put forth a new interpretation of the paintings, created by the Fremont culture, that sees them as not just one image of a kind of flying monster (or a pterodactyl), but as a set of five images including one of a human figure with spindly legs and outstretched arms. The DStretch results showed "very clearly that these are a set of separate figures," Bahn says. To read more about some of the Fremont culture’s unique artistic style, go to “Investigating a Decades-Old Disappearance.”
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Panama’s golden grave, Viking dental exams, an unusual papyrus preservative, playing games in ancient Kenya, and a venerable Venetian church
Within a knight’s grasp
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