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Dating of pigment from San rock paintings and ochre analysis - 2929CC 038

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Site: 2929CC 038 See full site images on https://sahris.sahra.org.za/node/580587 Application for permit to remove pigment from San rock paintings in one site on the farm Fairview, Harry Gwala District Municipality and to collect pieces of ochre lying on the ground close to the site. For the project: Identity, Ritual and Potency Exploring personhood and identity marking in the San rock paintings of the Drakensberg, South Africa

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See attached full motivation report. Purpose This permit application is to acquire permission to: 1. Remove pigments from San paintings for characterization and in black pigments, to assess the presence of carbon blacks for future 14C dating. 3. Remove ochre rock samples found lying on the ground close to sites. Context of research The San rock art of the Drakensberg-Maloti mountains and adjacent areas is world-famous. In recognition of its outstanding universal value, sections of this landscape have been declared as the Maloti-Drakensberg Park UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are over 690 sites, and an estimated 35 000 individual images painted by San over a period of at least 4 000 years (UNESCO Maloti-Drakensberg Park). ‘Sites’, in this context are rock shelters where one or more paintings have been placed. They may not be neatly bounded entities nor considered as sites by past people (see Witelson 2018: 16). Many San paintings found in these areas are interpreted as depicting ritual specialists and their labour – known as the shamanistic and neuropsychological interpretation (Lewis-Williams 1981a&b, 1982, 1984a&b; Lewis-Williams & Pearce 2004; Lewis-Williams & Challis 2011). Using this interpretation as a wholesale framework for understanding San rock art obscures issues of identity and agency. Little attention is given to emic notions of intersectional (gender, sexuality, age, status, class) personhood and identity in groups of San living and painting in the Drakensberg range (but see Dowson 1988, 1994, 1998; Solomon 1992, 1994; Blundell 2004; Mullen 2018; Green 2020), although important research has been undertaken on the rock markings and identities of other groups of people, or mixed groups of San (Smith & Ouzman 2004; Ouzman 2005; Eastwood & Eastwood 2006; Challis 2008; Mallen 2008; Henry 2010; Green 2015). I will build on this latter research, seeking a deeper understanding of, and the differences and similarities between, the emic identities and personhood portrayed in paintings of people and animals in the research areas. I interpret identity as the specific type of intersectional personhood and agency that is tied to and distributed in collectives and individuals from specific areas (Hodder 2011) and personhood as the specific and dynamic beliefs of dividual and individual notions of being a person (Fowler 2004, 2016). I will use a feminist and decolonised (Bardwell-Jones & McLaren 2020) approach to investigate what San chose to present about themselves and how these presentations may have differed in paintings located in approximately 15 sites in valleys selected from three adjacent areas, namely, the central Drakensberg (Area 1), the southern Drakensberg (Area 2) and the area of Jamestown (Area 3) adjacent to the southern Drakensberg (Fig. 1). Historically, this area was occupied by different groups of San (Wright 1971; Vinnicombe 1976; Opperman 1987; Jolly 1996; Blundell 2004), but we do not know the situation for times predating this period. My approach is unique as every painting in each of the fifteen selected sites will be recorded (this is not the norm in southern African rock art archaeology). Analysing the images from the 15 sites will allow me to cross-check the results from each in the mutually enabling and constraining web of evidence as advocated by feminist philosopher Alison Wylie (1989, 1992, 2007, 2012). At each site, I will record how people and animals are depicted – if possible, their gender/sex, age, status, body decoration, clothing, equipment (Viestad 2018) – the behaviour and relationships that are portrayed, while also noting associated painted, archaeological and topographic contexts. Paintings of animals are significant because for many San, ‘people were animals and animals were people’ and understandings of personhood were partly relational (Lewis-Williams 1981a; Ouzman 1995, 1996; Hollmann 2002, 2004; 2005; Eastwood 2006; Mguni 2006; McGranaghan & Challis 2016; Mullen 2018; Green 2020). In addition, with permission, I aim to take samples of paint from the recorded sites in each of the three areas to characterise the pigments used. Adelphine Bonneau and colleagues (2021) have shown that characterising the pigments used for San rock paintings is possible. With her assistance, and with permission from the relevant Provincial Heritage Resources Authorities and the South African Heritage Resources Agency, I aim to sample pigments from a sequence of sites in the three areas to ascertain what pigments were used and what the similarities and differences are, between sites in valleys, and between areas. This pilot characterisation may provide important information about the identities of artists in and between the areas and may also signify some type of identity marking (McDonald & Veth 2011 for Australia). It will also act as an important first step for possible future 14C AMS dating if carbon blacks are identified in the pigments (Bonneau et al 2017a&b). Recording the different types of painted humans, non-human animals and human/animal combinations with their placements on the rock shelter walls and the pigments used, will allow me to: 1. Assess what these intersectional choices express about San notions of personhood. 2. Assess what these notions of personhood express about the relational social and material conditions that enable and constrain the actions of agents, whether individual or collective (Dobres & Robb 2000; Gero 2000; Robb 2010; Hodder 2011, 2012). 3. Assess whether these notions of personhood and agency were used in specific ways in each area. 4. Compare the information from each area to understand differences and the degree of variation, if any, in San identity constructions and the way in which they may have been used in ritual and other domains. I will compare sites to identify elements and pigment choices that vary in and between regions and assess whether these variations may be expressions of differences in how individuals and small-scale forager groups used rock art to negotiate their constructions of self in ‘natural’ and supernatural contexts with reference to both individuals and groups. Differences may also be an index of contact with other groups such as Khoekhoe pastoralists and incoming Sotho and Nguni farmers (Wright 1971; Vinnicombe 1976; Opperman 1987; Jolly 1996; Prins 1999; Blundell 2004). Even without direct ‘contact’, people’s beliefs can be influenced by knowledge of the as-yet unmet presence of others (Blundell 2004). Furthermore, sampling pigments for chemical analysis will be predicated on this in-depth understanding of the context of the images recorded. Study of the images and characterisation of the pigments are components of one integral whole. The combination of detailed multi-site analyses of three adjacent areas, use of current scientific chemical pigment analyses, supported by historical ethnographic research may provide an understanding of the specific types of intersectional personhood chosen for depiction. It may also provide more information on the role the paintings may have played in ritual and other domains.

ApplicationDate: 

Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - 15:19

CaseID: 

17139

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ReferenceList: 

CitationReferenceTypeDate Retrieved
Bonneau, A., Pearce, D.G., Mitchell, P.J., Staff, R., Arthur, C., Mallen, L., Brock, F. and Higham, T.F.G. 2017a. The earliest directly dated rock paintings from southern Africa: new AMS radiocarbon dates. Antiquity 91: 322–333.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Bonneau, A., Staff, R.A., Higham, T.F.G., Brock, F., Pearce, D.G. and Mitchell, P.J. 2017b. Successfully dating rock art in southern Africa using improved sampling methods and new characterization and pretreatment protocols. Radiocarbon 59: 659–677.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Bonneau, A., Pearce, D.G., Mitchell, P.J., Didier, L., Eoin, L.N., Higham,T.F.G., Lamothe, M., Arthur, C. 2021. Characterization and dating of San rock art in the Metolong catchment, Lesotho: A preliminary investigation of technological and stylistic changes, Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.03.014.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
 
 

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