Using digital techniques to document prehistoric rock art: first approaches on the engraved panels of the Paris Basin shelters

Abstract In the sandstone boulder fields of the southern Paris Basin, over two thousand small engraved shelters have been identified. A new collective research programme aims to investigate on this broad subject and focus above all on Mesolithic contexts, which constitute a large proportion of the engravings in the shelters, among other earlier or later periods represented. Since 2017, several field campaigns led to the documenting of rock shelters at various scales, their environment and a selection of their engraved panels, focusing on issues of relative chronology. Photographic techniques, digital technologies and recording processes are used to meet three objectives: preserving the sites by means of digital archiving, raising awareness of this heritage, and carrying out new studies. The documenting methods, digitisation rationale, and use of the different media, along with their contributions and limits, is discussed below.