Hues of Namibia: characterization and provenience of Erongo rock art pigments. - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Hues of Namibia: characterization and provenience of Erongo rock art pigments.

Résumé

Erongo mountains, central Namibia, host numerous rock paintings. Archaeologists attribute them to San people, hunter-gatherers living in southern Africa for thousands of years. However, the lack of directly connected archaeological data maintains uncertainties about their chronology and attribution. Since 2007, an archaeological franco-namibian team has excavated the site of Leopard Cave (Erongo), and unearthed coloured materials and tools bearing pigments’ traces in layers dated back to approximately 3,000 BP. Together with the paintings on the site and its surroundings, these artefacts support the existence of a ”chaine opératoire” for rock art’s pigments. The study aims at providing new insights into the chronology and attribution of the paintings of Erongo mountains through analyses of rock art’s pigments and study of archaeological coloured materials’ provenience. In situ non-invasive analyses of the paintings, field surveys of geological sources followed with structural observations, elemental and mineralogical analyses of all the material collected should permit to reach these aims. As for the pigments’ characterisation, the first results confirm the use of iron oxides, carbon and various white materials. Besides, first observations point to a rather local procurement’s strategy with higher resemblances between the archaeological artefacts and the local geological sources than of the ones further away. Dating the carbonaceous pigments and correlation of rock art pigments with archaeological materials will provide a chronological milestone for southern African rock art. Paired with the study of the pigments’ provenience, it will provide key insights into the artists’ socio-cultural environment, therefore, confirming or not the nowadays attribution.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-02875950 , version 1 (19-06-2020)

Licence

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02875950 , version 1

Citer

G. Mauran, M. Lebon, Benoît Caron, A. Nankela, F. Detroit, et al.. Hues of Namibia: characterization and provenience of Erongo rock art pigments.. 5th Young Natural History scientists Meeting, Mar 2018, Paris, France. ⟨hal-02875950⟩
74 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Mastodon Facebook X LinkedIn More