"The intellectual merit of this proposal is extremely high. It results from the simple but profound fact that it will dramatically increase the number of rock art chronometric ages, and thus data, which archaeologists receive per year.

What does a ten-fold increase in data represent? I view this as analogous to Henry Ford’s creation of an automated vehicle assembly line, which made cars and trucks affordable and available to the general public.

Instead of a rarely obtained kind of data, only available for a very few, select sites, pictograph dating has the potential to become as common as radiocarbon dating is in archaeological research more generally. This research has an extreme opportunity to advance our knowledge and understanding of a key but long elusive aspect of the past."

"Shumla and the PI, Karen Steelman, have already demonstrated their abilities to establish and operate a world-class chronometric facility and to make significant contributions to archaeological research worldwide. I fully support the funding of this project."