Laser scanners map rock art

From Philadelphia, at a meeting of the Association of American Geographers

ANCIENT SCRAPES. Petroglyphs at a site near Little Lake, Calif., as seen in visible light (above) and in a false-color, laser-scanned image (below). Wasklewicz

Wasklewicz

Researchers have developed a way to use laser-based surveying instruments to create detailed images of ancient etchings on stone. The new technique, which provides far more information than photographs do, could enable archaeologists to quickly catalog the ancient rock art, or petroglyphs, at sites that are geologically unstable or vulnerable to theft or vandalism.