Recording Rock Art: Strategies, Challenges, and Embracing the Digital Revolution

This chapter examines the how and why of rock art recording by focussing on the tools and recording strategies available to researchers as well as their strengths and weaknesses, with particular emphasis on the role of the digital revolution. The discussion overviews factors considered when recording rock art, along with some of the reasons that rock art recording projects are undertaken. The chapter then turns to other factors, challenges, and unforeseen events that can impact rock art recording projects, paying attention to site context and the motifs themselves. It also explores the use of photography, video recording, computer enhancement techniques, and digital modeling in documenting rock art sites; the most common forms of damage that recorders may inflict; where and how records of sites and motifs are stored; and who should be able to access these records and how. The chapter concludes with a future outlook for documenting rock art sites.