Stephen Alvarez

Kchi Pôntegok (Bellows Falls) Petroglyphs, Vermont
There are two groups of engravings on the west bank of the Connecticut river at Kchi Pôntegok (the Great Falls). The images are deeply carved into the bedrock of the riverbank. The petroglyphs have survived periodic flooding of the river channel because of the hardness of the rock and the depth of the engravings. The North Group of the Bellows Falls Petroglyphs. The engravings are associated with Abenaki culture. It is impossible to say how old they are but there has been a Native American presence along the Connecticut River since the receding of the last glacial maximum.   The South Group of the Bellows Falls Petroglyphs The north group of images resemble Abenaki and Iroquois corn masks. The images have been known since historic times and adorn the narrowest point of the Connecticut River. They likely mark that spot as a place of spiritual importance and a place of...
Notre Dame Cathedral
Digital Twins
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A "digital twin," a detailed 3D model of Notre Dame became the blueprint for rebuilding the gothic cathedral after the devastating 2019 fire. In 2010 the late Andrew Tallon set out to make a 3D scan of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. His purpose was pure research, a way to look at the construction and planning of the gothic masterpiece. The craftsmen left no record of why they made decisions about construction, no records of technique, no firsthand accounts. In interviews Tallon said that looking at the details of construction was like looking into the mind of the builders. The best way to take in those details as a whole was to build the cathedral digitally. He used state of the art 3D scanners to collect billions of datapoints. Tallon built a digital twin of the Cathedral. LUX has an excellent post about this (here). And a podcast for those...
Old River Bed Delta Footprints, Utah
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12,000 years ago someone walked through a stream in Utah. What do the footprints they left behind tell us?
National Geographic Storytellers Summit 2024
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It was an honor to present my work on the Mural of America at the National Geographic Storytellers Summit in Los Angeles in February. It was an inspiring 2 days
The Rochester Creek Panel
Rochester Creek Petroglyph Site Video
The Rochester Creek Rock Art Site is an extraordinary Fremont site in Emery County, Utah. With a story telling team of Native American descendants, land managers and archaeologists we have put together this 3 minute film that imagines the site from the point of view of Ute spiritual leader Larry Cesspooch.
National Geographic Summit
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Dustin Mater and I were invited to the National Geographic Storytellers Summit in LA. The Summit is a gathering of National Geographic grantees who come together annually for a few days of inspiration and presentations
Cueva de las Manos
Patagonia Cave Art: A Pictograph Seen Across 3000 Years
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A new paper in Science Advances suggests that a single pictograph motif persists across 130 human generations at a site in Argentina
Petroglyphs in Gold Butte National Monument
Nevada man sentenced to 6 months in prison for damaging rock art
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A Nevada man will spend 6 month in jail for defacing rock art in Nevada
low water in the Amazon
Record low water reveals petroglyphs in Brazil
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Record low water in the Rio Negro of Brazil has revealed petroglyphs that were previously under water. The story was originally reported by Reuters (go here to see the story and images) but has appeared in multiple news outlets. One of the best is in the Guardian (here). The images are not well studied but thought to be of similar age to other petroglyphs in the Amazon -1,000 to 2,000 years old.
Growing evidence of Neanderthal “Art”
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Claims that other species besides Homo Sapiens made art or used "symbolic behavior" have been met with skepticism. But evidence that Neanderthals did produce symbols keeps growing. In a paper published this week in the Journal PLOS One,