Cleaning Quartz Portable Rock Art to Remove Dirt and Bring Out Paintings

When I find a Quartz with Portable Rock Art (PRA) paintings, I do not have to do much cleaning.

The sedimentary rocks are usually stained by the red clay soil we have here in central North Carolina.

Cleaning sedimentary rock takes time, and effort, because the paintings can be ruined if rushed.

Quartz has a higher hardness level than the sedimentary making it less likely to absorb clay.

The featured picture below is a quartz mix. I simply use my garden hose nozzle to clean them.

Don't make the mistake of setting the outgoing water pressure to high in order to hurry up the process. This would destroy some of the paintings/drawings.

I set my nozzle to low pressure with a steady stream to eat away at the dirt a little at a time.

I do it this way for all rocks that need cleaning.

If you have a different method, please share.

The quartz shown here is mixed with some other type of rock.

To me it looks like a man and woman facing each other. Or a man kneeling to a superior.

There are a couple of people behind them.

Underneath the man and woman mix of human characters and animals have something going on.

It's full of faces-in-faces. One minute it looks one way. The next minute it's something else.

Tell me what you see in the comments.

The image shown here can be magnified nicely if you're using the Edge browser.

Right-click the image then choose the magnify options.

If you would like to learn more, or view or purchase Portable Rock Art (PRA), visit my website. www.bonesoftheearth.net

Click here Bones of the Earth to get your hands on my 92 - page comprehensive  Rock, Mineral, and Portable Rock Art Journal.