Saturday, September 24, 2011

Track Rock Gap Petroglyph Site

The Forest Service is charged with protecting and managing significant archaeological and historic sites. In order to better protect Track Rock, the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests conducted an assessment of the site that documented its condition and made management recommendations. This research at Track Rock Gap was carried out by Johannes (Jannie) Loubser, an archaeologist who specializes in rock art research. Loubser made tracings of the figures using plastic that covered the boulders. Careful tracing of motifs that occur on stable rock surfaces is advantageous over photographs for a variety of reasons. Pens were used to trace the outlines of any natural edges, and the pecked, scraped, and incised figures. The field tracings were then scanned and converted to digital format. Nighttime photography was also conducted to provide additional contrast. Halogen lamps were used to side-light the boulders at Track Rock. These photographs illustrate the dramatic day-time and night-time differences in petroglyph visibility on Boulder 5 at Track Rock.



http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gjAwhwtDDw9_AI8zPyhQoYAOUjMeXDfODy-HWHg-zDrx8kb4ADOBro-3nk56bqF-RGGGSZOCoCAPi8eX8!/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfME80MEkxVkFCOTBFMktTNVVJNDAwMDAwMDA!/?navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&cid=stelprdb5221888&navid=091000000000000&pnavid=null&ss=110803&position=Not%20Yet%20Determined.Html&ttype=detailfull&pname=Chattahoochee-Oconee%20National%20Forest-%20Home

2 comments :

Norman said...

Wonderful to see that the old grates have been removed and that the drawings for the article that Loubser wrote on the site are now posted online. I visited the site around seven years ago, and had a tour of the cairn site opposite the petroglyphs. Loubser wrote about it, too.

Tim MacSweeney said...

See: http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2010/06/archaeological-and-ethnohistorical.html