Along with the remnants of mounds and earthworks constructed by the Ohio Valley's ancient inhabitants, they survive as the last vestiges of prehistoric Native American activity on the landscape. They are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The purpose for their creation, and the meaning behind the symbols, has been lost in time. Although they have endured countless seasons of weathering, many of them may likely be erased by acid rain within the next fifty years, or be destroyed, in a moment, by vandalism. Created by carving (petroglyphs) or by painting (pictographs), these images on stone are collectively known today as rock art, and will be the subject of a one-hour public television documentary entitled Written In Stone: The Prehistoric Native American Rock Art of the Ohio Valley.


 West Virginia PetroglyphKentucky Pictograph

The creation of Written in Stone will be a collaborative effort, researched and written by Steven R. Shaffer, with the assistance of professional archaeologists, Native Americans, historians, and museums. Throughout the five-year period that Shaffer researched the valley's stone enigmas, he observed that a number of formerly documented sites have been vandalized or destroyed by development, while others are endangered by the effects of acid rain. The objectives of Written in Stone are to educate the general public about the little-known surviving prehistoric rock art sites existing in the Ohio Valley, and to encourage their study and preservation, before these cultural treasures are lost forever.

The documentary will be produced in cooperation with Media Working Group, a non-profit 501 (c) (3) media production incubator based in Lexington, Kentucky. This is an exciting and unique project, as Written in Stone will be the first one-hour program exploring the Native American petroglyphs and pictographs which survive in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to support this project, please contact us at Rockart@localnet.com.