Case Study: Brigham Young University preserves prehistoric rock art with Pix4Dmapper

Safeguarding prehistoric rock art through modeling

Brigham Young University worked with Pix4D to preserve a 1,000-year-old Ancestral Puebloan rock-art panel in Utah before its pictographs, petroglyphs, and cliff-face location were lost to fading and deterioration. The team wanted a highly detailed digital record and also needed to test whether terrestrial photogrammetry could accurately capture prehistoric rock art.

Using Pix4Dmapper, Brigham Young University processed 1,261 high-resolution RAW images captured with a Canon EOS 6D, alongside terrestrial LiDAR scans, to create a precise 3D model of the site. The result was a detailed digital archive with sub-centimeter ground sample distance that proved extremely useful for damage assessment: when a rock slide was reported, officials could quickly compare the model and confirm the art had not been damaged, showing that Pix4D helped support preservation, research, and rapid response.

Brigham Young University