Archaeologists use cameras on drones to make high-quality photographs of engravings and study them later.
Photo: Philip Riris.
The research is part of the Cotúa Island-Orinoco Reflexive Archaeology Project. Drone technology help to get the most detailed images of the world’s best known petroglyphs.
National Geographic writes that drones are equipped with photogrammetry cameras allowing to create three-dimensional renderings of engravings. Drones are used because engravings on islands in the Orinoco River may measure up to 30 metres in length and be part of larger groups of carvings. For example, one 300-square-metre panel features 93 engravings. The distance between individual engravings may have importance for scientists.
Photo: Philip Riris.
The discoveries have been published in the journal Antiquity by Philip Riris, a member of the project and researcher at UCL Institute of Archaeology. Newsweek quotes him as saying: “The size precluded us from doing traditional sketches and tracings of the art itself—it's simply too big to avoid gross errors in recording.”
The detailed photographs helped Riris and his colleagues note similarities between the carvings at the Atures Rapids, Venzuela, and rock art at other sites in the region, as well as at more distant areas in Brazil and Colombia.
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