Black Axe Village

Research carried out at Petrified Forest National Park-Black Axe Ruin
This 3D video model was produced by Professors Gregson Schachner and Wesley Bernardini of UCLA and the University of Redlands working in partnership with Petrified Forest National Park to study and document Black Axe Ruin, an important site belonging to the Pueblo IV period (AD 1325-1425AD). The work at Black Axe Ruin is part a larger study being conducted by Dr Schachner that examines people's movements within and between settled areas across the greater Southwest during this time.

The video was created using computer software to combine hundreds of digital photographs taken from a small balloon with detailed elevation data collected using a surveyor's total station unit. The site is located in a protected designated wilderness area, so all equipment-including the heavy setups for the hot air balloon and the mapping transit-was carried in by researchers. In addition, wind conditions had to be favorable for the helium-filled balloon, controlled by two operators on the ground holding guide lines hundreds of meters long, to be brought into position to take the aerial shots. Schachner, Bernardini and park archeology staff worked together to overcome these challenges and complete the project in only one day.

For a long time, Black Axe Ruin was lost to science as scholars debated, but never discovered its location following errors in record-keeping that made it virtually disappear in the 1920's. Working with Schachner and Bernardini following its "rediscovery" allows Petrified Forest National Park to begin to address the effects of years of neglect by documenting this important resource for research, preservation planning and protection needs.