Hopi petroglyph sites web portal launched

CyArk and partners have launched the Hopi Petroglyph Sites Digital Preservation Project website, a portal featuring sacred Hopi sites documented through state-of-the-art 3D capture technology. The resulting information collected has been used to create online interactive and educational multimedia freely available to the public.

Vandalism and deterioration

The 3D models and virtual tours captured at Tutuveni and Dawa Park in Arizona provide the basis for this rich interactive web portal, but they also represent a permanent and highly-accurate 3D digital archive of the sites and the petroglyphs contained within. With the increasing vandalism and deterioration occurring at these sacred Hopi Sites, it is more important than ever to document what exists and educate the public about its importance, not only for members of the Hopi tribe, but for all of us who stand to learn a great deal about the diverse history of the Native American people.
The main focus of the project is Tutuveni, a petroglyph site sacred to the Hopi people and is located on Navajo Nation land. Tutuveni means “newspaper rock” and was included on the 2008 World Monuments Fund Watch List in the company of Machu Pichu in Peru and the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. With support from WMF and Arizona Public Services, Hopi crews recently fenced off the site and installed security cameras. With the leadership of CyArk, laser-scanning crews also digitally documented the site.

Collaboration

This monumental project is the result of collaboration between important tribe representatives and heritage organizations. With the support of World Monuments Fund (WMF), a New York-based non-profit dedicated to preserving cultural heritage sites across the globe.

The WMF website states ” The Tutuveni Petroglyph site boasts more than 5,000 Hopi clan symbols that were inscribed during the ceremonial pilgrimage to Ongtupqa, or the Grand Canyon, which is for many Hopi the point of their people’s emergence into the world. At this stopping point of the pilgrimage, Hopi carved symbols relate to known historic and extinct Hopi tribal groups. The glyphs date from 1200 A.D. to the 1950s and cover large sandstone blocks and boulders. The site contains over 150 boulders spread over an area of approximately 6,000 square metres along the slope at the base of the Echo Cliffs. The majority of the glyphs are found on eight boulders, and one stone known as boulder 48 contains 60% of the total symbols at the site. It is a ritual for Hopi youths to visit the site and its petroglyphs as part of their education about their ancestors, tribal traditions, and the history of the Hopi nation. The glyphs also play an important role in the modern scholarship of Hopi language, iconography, and history“.

Quick guide
■An introduction slideshow on the Hopi Petroglyph Sites Digital Portal Homepage, which introduces the user to the history of the Hopi Tribe, petroglyphs of the Hopi clan symbols, and the sacred Hopi Salt Trail. Subsequent slides showcase some components of the web portal including virtual tours of Tutuveni and Dawa Park, the various educational activities, and rich digital media.
■The Multimedia Gallery, which displays the various types of rich content created and collected as a part of the digital preservation project. This includes interactive 3D Point Clouds, drawings, historic photographs, 3D models, panoramic photographs, perspectives of the point cloud, current-day photographs, and various animations and educational videos.
■A link to 3D Content, which takes the user to a condensed version of the Multimedia Gallery, focused on 3D content created.
■A link to Site Information, which gives the user access to textual information about the Hopi Tribe, their sacred Salt Trail, the two sites documented, Tutuveni and Dawa Park, and the digital preservation project.
■A link to CyArk’s GIS interface, which allows users to navigate the wealth of media items in an intuitive map interface.
■The Virtual Tour, which allows the user to explore Tutuveni in-depth through an interactive and narrated virtual tour interface.
■In addition to the above five components which are highlighted on the homepage with distinct blue icons, the Hopi Petroglyph Sites Web Portal also links to three lesson plans for the classroom, which were created during an Educational Workshop held in March of 2011
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/01/2012/hopi-petroglyph-sites-web-portal-launched