Using the archive to formulate a chronology of rock art in the South-Western Cape, South Africa

Includes bibliographical references.With absolute dating still limited, relative chronologies remain useful in contextualising painting interpretations. This study vouches for the archival capacity of rock art and hence the archival perspective can be used to analyse paintings sites to build a framework their chronological and interpretative formulations. The sequence of paintings in the south-western Cape is customarily accepted to span hunter-gatherer phase from over 10,000 B.P.; then herding/pastoralism from ca. 2,000 B.P., and finally the historical-cum-colonial period several centuries ago. Several painting traditions with distinct depiction manners and content are conventionally linked to these periods. This study does not replace but evaluates this schema in order to refine the diverse hunter-gatherer, herder and colonial era painting contexts and history. Using superpositions as one of my analytical tools, the notion of datum aided the referencing and correlation of layered image categories into relative sequence. Visible differences occur between painting traditions, but indistinguishable within a single tradition. Some themes such as elephants, fat-tailed sheep, handprints and possibly geometric forms and dots were found to occur in various levels, even as parts of different traditions. Such divergences were analysed through the archival concept of respect des fonds to clarify graphic variations through the chronology. Probing other sources of information revealed that change from earlier to later imagery phases reflected shifts in the socio-economic, cultural and political circumstances of the region. These histories through time are indicated by the choice and sustenance of particular thematic subjects although their meaning and form changed. The ensuing sequence and interpretation of selected painted themes is a descriptive template reflecting the organic character in the creation, the order of painting phases and cultural continuities and disjunctions in the use of symbolism. This agenda in part reviews the changing social and historical landscape in order to understand variation of painting over time and to project possible interpretative transformations in the sequence. Painting sequences and cultural (dis)continuities are thus intricately entwined and can be disentangled through an analysis that uses the recursive relationship between the archaeological, ethnographic, and historical sources. This amalgamated approach has the ability to produce historicised past narratives and contextual image meanings. The chronology can be understood through first accepting the social, economic, political, and cultural subtleties of painting production

Microanalysis and dating for rock art studies: Towards a common analytical strategy

International audienc

Microanalysis and dating for rock art studies: towards a common analytical strategy

Usual questions that may require analytical work in rock art relate to investigations that seek correlations between archaeological deposits and the rock wall and human activities within the site, the relationships between sites (material sourcing, landscape use), dating (direct or relative chronology), and conservation studies (nature and causes of alterations). From early works to recent research in archaeology, South Africand France have had many fruitful interactions (e.g. Breuil 1930; Clottes 1996; Henshilwood 2002; Parkington 2005; Hœrlé 2007; Tournié 2010). Today, under the aegis of two international and interdisciplinary programmes linking South Africand France - GDRI-STAR "Science, Technologies, Art Rupestre" and ARCUS le-de-France/South Africa "Rock Art" - the aim, among other topics, is to foster the use of materials microanalytical tools in rock art studies. GDRI-STAR is an international research network gathering together teams of South African and French researchers from backgrounds as diverse as archaeology, linguistics, conservation, materialscience and geosciences, with a common interest in rock art studies. GDRI-STAR is jointly funded by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). The ARCUS le-deFrance/South Africa "Rock Art" project aims at fostering research in the field of rock art by bringing together a cluster of analytical laboratories and archaeological teams in Région le-de-France, France, and leading South African academic centres. It is funded by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the le-de-France provincial council, and managed through the CNRS and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)