Recording Completed

After a magnificent effort from all of the team, project recording, data entry and image archiving was completed last month. The data has now been passed to ADS and will be uploaded to England’s Rock Art database http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/ soon.

Hard to believe it’s been three years since the project launched in Ilkley and a call for volunteers was put out. After the trial phase in early 2011, the main recording phase kicked off in mid October 2011. Since then, nearly 500 panels have been recorded (some known lost / destroyed), photographed and areas immediately around the panels surveyed for other features. During the course of the project, we’ve brought records in from private archives and even added 42 new panels (varying degrees of probability). We’ve tested relatively new recording techniques such as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI / PTM) and also seen the emergence of user friendly 3D modelling, which has been trialled.  One of the main project outputs has been the Condition and Threat Assessments which have been undertaken for every carved rock found, new or old, simple or complex. These assessments will assist heritage managers and landowners in identifying those panels at risk and hopefully lead to action being taken to further protect them.

Thanks to everyone involved in the project, and look out for further information over the coming weeks as the data launch creeps nearer.