More petroglyphs and helicopters

 

An incised pebble we found eroding out of the site near the petroglyphs

On Tuesday I went on another helicopter Petroglyph documenting survey.  This one was to Afognak Island. The petroglyphs we documented were pits, circles and slashed lines all carved into the local slate bedrock.  Because of the lichen on the rock they were very difficult to see!

To help with the mapping we carefully and methodically examined the rock and marked all the pecked holes and circles with chalk.  We also set up a grid over the whole outcrop and then mapped the whole thing square by square.  We used blue chalk to mark the corners of the 1 by 1 meter squares.

Ordinarily using chalk on petroglyphs is frowned upon.  If everybody did it every time they visited the chalk would damage the petroglyphs.  But we had a really hard time keeping track of which ones we had seen and which we had not.  So we used the chalk.  We figure a one time use is justified because we are documenting them for posterity.  

Now to figure out what they mean . ... ...

Patrick