Making a rhino visible!
Today a joint paper with Springer has been published on a woolly rhino on a rock slab that I analysed using Reflectance Transformation Imaging. My part was actually very small, but I am still happy that this paper is out now and open access! It is also my first paper with the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.
The paper
The paper is about a limestone slab found in central Germany that has an engraved image of a rhinoceros from the Magdalenian period. It is unusual in that the head of the animal is missing, but it has a very distinctive hind end. The paper describes the situation in which the slab was found and how it can probably be dated to 15,350 B.C., making the rhinoceros image one of the most recent of its kind. The excavation was led by the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology in Cologne.
The paper also suggests that this could be one of the last sightings of the (then) woolly rhino, which had been extinct since 14,000 BP. Although the engraving was partially visible after cleaning, the team at the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology decided to let Reflectance Transformation Imaging work its magic and create an RTI file not only for analysis, but also for sharing.
Reflectance Transformation Imaging
RTI was used to get a closer look at the engraving on the limestone slab. I took three sets of data, but we ended up using just one (the most detailed) for analysis. As you can see in the title image of the blog, we divided the image into different areas and chose the best possible filter and light direction for each area. In combination, we were able to make the rhino most visible in one photo.
I also uploaded the RTI dataset to Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8132815), where you can see it for yourself. Just use an RTI viewer software (e.g. from Cultural Heritage Imaging) and you are ready to go. Try to make the rhino visible! The dataset is older now and I have used RTI a lot since then. The last time I used RTI was to document animal bones in Austria.
Where to find it
The paper has been published by Springer in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. It is open access, so you can either read it online or download it as a PDF.
Richter, J., Sauer, F., Orrin, J., Hageneuer, S. A Possible Depiction of a Woolly Rhino from the Late Magdalenian Hunting Camp of Bad Kösen-Lengefeld in Central Germany. J Paleo Arch 7, 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-024-00188-w.
