"Talking Rocks"
Dr. Anthony L. Peratt
Associate Laboratory Directorate, Experimental Programs and Simulations and Computing,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M
Discussants
Dr. Charles Alcock
Reese W. Flower Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Harold Dibble
Deputy Director of Cultural Affairs, Professor of Anthropology,
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Robert Giegengack
Professor of Earth and Environmental Studies,
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff
The Williams Director, University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Petroglyphs and pictographs, ancient rock carvings and rock paintings, have long been a subject of intrigue. From Easter Island to the Americas to Africa, these carvings and paintings have been discovered on rocks, boulders, cliff walls, cave walls and geological formations. Was there a common thought or purpose behind carving and painting some of these symbols and pictures in sometimes near-impossible locations? What were the makers trying to communicate?

Dr. Anthony L. Peratt, Associate Laboratory Directorate, Experimental Programs and Simulation and Computing, Los Alamos National Laboratory, offers a provocative new hypothesis about the catastrophic "story" that many of the world's petroglyphs, pictographs, rock carvings and rock paintings from antiquity may in fact be telling. Based on new high-technology experimental research, Dr. Peratt argues that some among the numerous rock art designs can be linked to the recording of a highly visible outer space event that occurred many millennia ago.

You are invited to attend a public symposium on the mysteries surrounding petroglyphs and pictorials and the possible catastrophic events that some of them may have been depicting. Dr. Anthony L. Peratt will present his methodology in rock art decoding as well as direct comparisons of rock art to computer simulations and experimental recordings.

Responding to Dr. Peratt's presentation will be Dr. Charles Alcock, Dr. Harold Dibble, Dr. Robert Giegengack and Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff.
Please join us for this very special event.

Wednesday, October 17,2001
Lecture, 6:00 - 7:30 PM (Free)
Reception, 7:30 - 8:30 PM (Separate fee)

at the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology
33rd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia
www.upenn.edu/museum

Co-sponsored by the Center for Ancient Studies, the Institute for Environmental Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
This program is made possible through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Mainwaring.