146 Field Manual for African Archaeology. Ch a pt e r 3 ROCK ART MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION Benjamin Smith1 Rock art, because it is exposed and immediately accessible, requires greater management attention than most other types of archaeological heritage. In terms of planning out rock art management strategies, standard consultative archaeological, stakeholder-driven, management planning processes apply also to rock art (McDonald & Veth 2012). One must start by identifying the nature and extent of the rock art site and then determine its signiicance in consultation with all interested and affected parties. I. SIGNIFICANCE A key point when assessing rock art signiicance is to ascertain all of the values that the site holds within society, because it is these values that must be managed, rather than the images themselves. In this way both the intangible and tangible rock art heritage values will be included and managed. This is vital for rock art sites, where the living values are often more signiicant to surrounding communities that the art itself. A myopic management focus on the rock art alone can have disastrous consequences for the conservation of the site, as the case of Domboshava in Zimbabwe has illustrated (Taruvinga & Ndoro 2003). With the values of the rock art site understood in the relative regional context, one then needs to consider all of the issues affecting these values and what needs to be done to address these issues. Good rock art management planning must include thinking about how to mitigate threats, but it should also go beyond this to think developmentally about how to fulil the potential of the rock art site within society. A simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is generally useful. This management process will culminate in the writing of a rock art site conservation-management plan. This is an action plan that lays down a ive-year (generally) plan of interventions at the site that will meet the collective needs and aspirations of all interested and affected parties. Every rock art site needs at least a basic management plan and large public rock art sites will need complex plans. Assessing relative site signiicance, 1 School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia, and School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and the degree to which sites are at threat, will provide you with the means to prioritise how time and resources should be allocated between rock art sites. II. TRAINING Most heritage managers in Africa will have to manage at least some rock art sites as part of their work. A certain amount of specialised rock art training will therefore be important. Look out for suitable training workshop opportunities. Many of the natural and human factors affecting rock art are particular. For example, you will ind some rock art surfaces are actively exfoliating. This may be caused by water running across the rock, water moving through the rock, salts within the rock, heating and/or cooling, ire, wind and sand, vibration, silica decay, animal rubbing, abrasion by plants, human vandalism, or a combination of these factors. To identify the causal factor will require training and ield experience. To know how to intervene successfully usually requires the engagement of a specialist. For example, if the major problems are ire and running water then cutting the encroaching vegetation to prevent ire damage could expose the site to greater levels of wind and rain and thereby exacerbate the problem. In some parts of Africa people have installed silicone drip-lines to protect rock art from water running directly over rock art. This sometimes solves the problem, but in other cases it does not. For example, the water may play a vital role in maintaining the silica skin layers that protect the art and in such case the installation of a drip-line disturbs this process and leads to the rapid destruction of the art panel. Great caution must therefore be taken before making any major management interventions at a rock art site and specialised training is always useful. III. CONSERVATION As a general rule, any rock art site that is thousands of years old, whatever its outward appearance, is probably comparatively stable, otherwise it would not have survived. Intervening in the natural decay of the site, given the risks, should not be attempted without the specialist advice of a conservator. A rock art conservator is someone with professional training in technical conservation B. Sm it h . Rock art m anagem ent and conservat ion and with a practical specialisation in rock art; to be credible, they should be a member of an international professional conservation association. If a rock art site is found to be decaying rapidly, it is most likely to be caused by a recent change in the site’s conditions. This could be a human change made to the natural environment such as land clearance/disturbance (expansion of farming, mining, urbanisation), chemicals leaching into the ground water (e.g. sewage, fertilisers), changes in the water table (from dam construction or pumping) or a new burning strategy. If there has been a signiicant change of this kind then this change should be reversed wherever possible, or at least measures should be taken to mitigate the unwelcome new condition. Where tree clearance is the cause, replacement with local indigenous trees is almost always the best solution. Exotics such as Eucalyptus or Pine, while fast growing, also change the acidity level of the soil and can signiicantly affect the local water table. The most common causes of rapid rock art deterioration in Africa are: 1) the introduction of new large mammals (cattle, sheep, goats or game animals) into a landscape, and which then rub against the art; 2) an increase in human activity within a site or its immediate environs. Damage by people most commonly comes from their touching or rubbing the art (e.g. tourists), from grafiti, vandalism, theft, small-scale rock quarrying, and the lighting of ires in shelters. Fire is an especially serious problem. An entire site can be destroyed by a single ire lit against a rock art surface. These common decay factors, whilst often the most damaging, are also the most successfully controlled by effective managers. Fences can help to control animals, but humans almost always break through or steal fences. Fire damage can often be controlled simply by trimming vegetation around the site and ensuring that there is no irewood available near a site. Appointing site custodians and site guides, erecting signs, putting up psychological barriers, building ireproof walkways (ig. 1) and running rock art sensitisation programs are the most effective ways to control the bulk of human damage. Experiences in many African countries have shown that a rapid rise in visitor numbers in the absence of adequate management planning creates immediate and serious rock art conservation problems. Rock art tourism development must therefore always be preceded by management planning. However, when sites are managed effectively, tourism need not be seen as being in opposition to conservation. In fact, tourism can enhance protection as it helps the sites to become an increased source of local income and pride (Duval & Smith 2014). 147 Fig. 1. An example of a wooden boardwalk from a rock painting site in the Free State. The wooden boardwalk and wooden signs burnt in a bush ire, causing considerable damage to the rock paintings. The site was restored using entirely non-lammable materials such as a stone loor and metal signboards. (Upper photo © G. Blundell; lower photo © B. Smith.) REFERENCES Duval, M. & Smith, B.W. 2014. ‘Seeking sustainable rock art tourism: the example of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site’. South African Archaeological Bulletin 69 (199): 34-48. McDonald. J. & Veth, P. 2012. A Companion to Rock Art. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Taruvinga, P. & Ndoro, W. 2003. ‘The vandalism of the Domboshava rock painting site, Zimbabwe’. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 6: 3-10. Field Manual for African Archaeology EditEd by Alexandre Livingstone Smith Els Cornelissen Olivier P. Gosselain Scott MacEachern OnlinE sEriEs ‘Documents on social sciences anD Humanities’ COLOPHON This work belongs to the ‘Documents on Social Sciences and Humanities’. It is only online available on the Royal Museum for Central Africa website: www.africamuseum.be This project has been supported by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD). Cover: tomb in the Upemba depression with grid, 3.10.51. Photo © P. de Maret. Sanga 1974, from de Maret, P. 1974. Fouilles archéologiques dans la vallée du Haut-Lualaba, Zaïre, vol. I: Sanga et Katongo. Tervuren: RMCA (‘Annales de Sciences humaines in 8°’), ig. 28, p. 128. Editorial coordination: Isabelle Gérard (RMAC). Cover layout: Bram de Rudder (RMCA). General layout: Mieke Dumortier (RMCA). Translations & revisions : Emily Divinagracia (RMCA), Lee Gilette, Tadzio Koelb, Scott MacEachern ISBN 978-9-4922-4427-7 Legal Deposit D/2017/0254/06 © Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren 2017 www.africamuseum.be This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Please address all requests or queries regarding this publication to the RMCA Publications service, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium. publications@africamuseum.be Contents FOrEwOrd 6 intrOductiOn. Thinking and writing on the past in Africa 7 Introduction. A. Livingstone Smith & S. MacEachern 8 Recovering the African past: looking back from the present. J. Sutton 10 Archaeology in Africa: who or what sets the agenda? S. K. McIntosh 15 Academic research in West Africa: the case of Senegal. M. Sall 18 African perspectives on academic research: the case of Cameroon. C. Mbida Mindzie 24 chaptEr 1. How do archaeologists plan projects in Africa? 27 Introduction. A. Livingstone Smith 28 Organising an international archeological research project in Africa. A. Haour and D. N’Dah 30 Cultural heritage management in Africa. P. Mitchell 34 Case study: heritage management in Central Africa. N. Arazi 37 Rescue and preventive archeology: roads, thermal power stations and quarries. R. Oslisly 42 Managing cultural heritage in Africa: a study of IFAN in Senegal. I. Thiaw 45 Relations with local communities. N. David 49 chaptEr 2. Finding and describing archaeological sites 53 Introduction. A. Livingstone Smith 54 Archeological exploration in an urban African context: Bangui. A. J.-P. Ndanga 56 Case study: rainforest. M. K. H. Eggert 60 Field survey in the Sahel: an informal guide. K. MacDonald 65 Ancient polities: archaeological survey in a metropolis. A.Ogundiran & B. Agbaje-Williams 69 Surveying towns. J. Fleisher 76 Archaeological ield survey and the recording and cataloguing of archaeological materials. P. J. Lane 79 Large scale reconnaissance and excavation strategy on the Loango Coast. J. Denbow 86 Case study: participating as a student in an impact assessment. P. Nlend 91 Surveying funerary sites. I. Ribot 94 Finding rock art. B. Smith 97 4 Field Manual for African Archaeology. I n t r odu ct ion chaptEr 3. How to protect archaeological sites 101 Introduction. A. Livingstone Smith 102 The excavacation of Stone Age sites. R. Vogelsang 104 Village sites. H.-P. Wotzka 109 The pit: archaeological excavation and analysis. A. Assoko Ndong 116 Excavating in urban contexts. J. Fleisher 121 Megalithism. L. Laporte 125 Metallurgic sites. C. Robion-Brunner & V. Serneels 129 Excavating funerary sites. I. Ribot 134 Recording rock art. B. Smith 138 Documenting and studying a rock-art site: the Lovo massif. G. Heimlich 142 Rock art management and conservation. B. Smith 146 chaptEr 4. Analysis of materials 149 Introduction. A. Livingstone Smith 150 From the ield to the lab. D. Bosquet 152 Cataloguing inds. S. Ozainne 157 Making sense of lithics. N. Taylor 163 A case study: analyzing lithics from Shum Laka, NW province, Cameroon. E. Cornelissen 168 Pottery analysis. A. Livingstone Smith & C. de Francquen 173 Deining pottery styles. T. Huffman 180 Iron objects. D. Killick 187 Copper. L. Garenne-Marot 190 Case study: copper ingots in Central Africa. N. Nikis 197 chaptEr 5. Ecofacts and related studies 203 Introduction. E. Cornelissen 204 Archaeobotanical remains. A. Höhn 206 Archaeozoology in Sub-Saharan Africa. W. Van Neer 210 Case study: domesticated or wild? V. Linseele 214 Soil cover in Central Africa. D. Schwartz 218 Case study in a Sudano-sahelian luvial setting. M. Rasse 223 Human remains. I. Crevecœur 228 Radiocarbon dating. P. de Maret 232 By means of example: Interpreting C14 dates. E. Cornelissen, P. de Maret & D. K. Wright 236 Other radiometric methods of dating. D. K. Wright 237 Relative dating methods. D. K. Wright 243 Cont ent s chaptEr 6. From present to past 247 Introduction. O. P. Gosselain 248 The direct historical approach. A. B. Stahl 250 Oral tradition. D. Schoenbrun 253 Historical Linguistics. K. Bostoen 257 The ‘words and things’ method. B. Ricquier 261 Artworks. J. Polet 264 Ethnoarchaeology. D. Lyons 270 Pottery and oral history in the Faro. A. Mezop Temgoua-Noumissing 275 Architecture. V. Brunfaut & J.-F. Pinet 280 Ceramic technology between past and present. A. Mayor 286 Comparative technology. O. P. Gosselain 292 Genetics and African archaeology. S. MacEachern 296 chaptEr 7. Publishing archaeological research results 301 Introduction. I. Gérard 302 Preparing a manuscript and the process of peer-review. P. Robertshaw 304 Wheree to publish? Elena A.A. Garcea 307 On-line publication and Open Access. J.-P. Devroey 311 chaptEr 8. Afterword The future of the past on the African continent. P. de Maret 315 316 5