Digital Reconstruction and Preliminary Rock Art Inventory of the Greybull South Site, Wyoming

In 1962 at least 10 rock art blocks were removed from the Greybull South (48BH92) petroglyph site located along the Bighorn River in northwest Wyoming. These 10 blocks were transported to what is now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. In 2017 the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository under the direction of the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist partnered with the Draper Natural History Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the University of Wyoming Libraries, and the Bureau of Land Management to begin digital documentation of the rock art blocks that had been removed from 48BH92. This paper summarizes the Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry methods used in 2019 to document the Greybull South rock art blocks, as well as the subsequent digital reconstruction using Agisoft Metashape. Further, we provide a preliminary inventory and description of the Plains Ceremonial Tradition, En Toto Pecked, and Plains Biographic Tradition petroglyphs identified on both the rock art blocks and the extant petroglyphs at the site. This paper demonstrates the utility of SfM photogrammetry for digitally reconstructing damaged rock art sites as well as the effectiveness of expedient photographic documentation for rock art recording and documentation.