Home > Conservation Science
It is appropriate that the public should be well informed about the physics and chemistry affecting the survival and natural decay of Rock Art, and about how human activities can do damage.
The best approach to rock art sites is of course to take only pictures, and otherwise to have no effect on the rock art or on the land around it. For suggestions on how to get better photos, please click here.
Natural Fading and Spalling -- Please click here. [article not yet available]
Treatments Damage Rock Art -- Please click here. [article not yet available]
Fire Damage and Prevention -- Please click here. [article not yet available] Please click also here for a published article.
Damage to rock art from actions which seem harmless at first
Petroglyphs (pecked rock art)
Water
Pouring water over rock art can sometimes make it more visible. But it encourages growth of small organisms which may eat away any minerals or paints present. Better is to use a sun shade, or to wait for better light at a different time of day, or to exchange pictures with friends who were there at a different time. Life need not be frantic, especially if you wish to fully appreciate the rock art in its landscape.
Chalk
Chalking rock art of course abrades the surfaces of the rock, causing small bits of it to fall off. Worse, the chalk changes the chemistry of the rock surface and adds a nutrient for small organisms to grow. The chalk artificially exaggerates some contrasts, and may very well cause the viewer to completely overlook other parts of the rock art which were not blatant enough to notice, but which, in a careful study of the unchanged rock itself, or in high quality photographs studied later with more understanding, may lead to new knowledge.
Rubbings
Rubbing the rock surface often breaks off small pieces. Both chalk and rubbing are especially to be avoided when there is a “skin” on the rock which can spall off (often that will be much darker than the rock underneath). Such “skins” are often much more fragile than they appear, being undermined already.
Touching
This is one of the most harmful actions, because it actually leaves a residue, oils from the skin of our fingers, which can do more damage than anything else.
Pictographs (painted rock art) – these are even more sensitive than petroglyphs
Touching interferes with Carbon-14 dating
The oils from our skin are organic. Touching painted rock art interferes with getting valid carbon-14 dates from it, as well as changing the chemistry and adding nutrients for organisms to grow.
Disturbing the ground beneath rock art panels breaks archaeological links
The ground can contain crucial evidence to link the rock art with archaeological cultures and dates.
The Conservator’s Work – When Damage Can Be Repaired
and When It Cannot Be – Conservation Mistakes Please click here.
Fire Damage, and Preventing Such Damage
Protecting rock art from cattle rubbing against it by using a fence can have the unintended side effect
that trees grow next to the rock art, exposing it to much greater risk of fire damage.
Please click here for a published article by Tratebas, Cerveny, and Dorn (warning: large file 3.75 megabytes)
? Link also to Carl Bjork’ “Wildland Fire ...” http://home.comcast.net/~carlbjork/fire.html