Effort to preserve petroglyphs
CASS CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s state archaeologist says more than 100 ancient rock etchings at Sanilac Petroglyphs State Park are being digitally preserved through a partnership with tribal groups.
MLive.com reports that the Michigan Department of Transportation is using special technologies to scan the Native American petroglyphs and build digital models of them that will help document the site and track its preservation.
The project comes a year after vandals damaged some of the petroglyphs at the 240-acre park that’s about 85 miles north of Detroit in Cass City.
State archaeologist Dean Anderson says some of the stone etchings could date back as much as 1,400 years. He says the bows and arrows depicted in some of the etchings were first used as technology across the Great Lakes region about that time.