1Good afternoon, everyone!
2This is the first seminar in preparation for our archaeological fieldwork in Namibia;
3we are fantastically lucky to have received partial research funding for this trip from our Institute,
4so I shall expect 200% attention and participation from you all.
5First in this seminar, I'm going to give a brief introduction to contemporary research on rock art,
6and in the second part I'm going to give you some do's and don'ts for our fieldwork trip in April -
7so please listen very carefully.
8I'm first going to focus on the interpretation of rock art in Namibia.
9We are very fortunate to be going to an area where you can find some of the most important sites in the entire world.
10And I hope to show you how easy it is for everyone to make mistakes in looking at cultures which are different from our own -
11the first and most important lesson we have to learn.
12In Namibia, there are both paintings and engravings -
13that's where the surface of the rock is cut out.
14Many of the engravings show footprints of animals
15and most scholars used to think that the purpose of these was simple and obvious:
16this rock art was like a school book with pictures to teach children about tracks -
17which track belonged to which animal - giraffe, lion and so on.
18But there were some mysteries.
19First, when you look at a typical Namibian painting or engraving,
20you see the tracks are repeated, there are dozens of tracks for the same animal.
21You'd expect just one clear illustration if the reason... the aim was to teach tracking.
22Now, there were two more problems.
23Why are some of the engravings of animals very accurate as you'd expect - all clearly identifiable,
24and others quite unrealistic?
25And another mystery:
26some of these unrealistic animals that's in the engravings seem to be half human.
27Some, for example, have got human faces.
28Many researchers now think that these were pictures the wise men engraved of themselves.
29They believed they could use magic to control the animals they had drawn,
30so the hunters could then catch them for food.
31This shows you some of the dangers of coming from one culture to another,
32as we'll be doing, without understanding it fully.
33Scholars imagined that children looked at rock art pictures to learn to track
34just because they themselves had learnt skills from pictures;
35many researchers now believe that rock art had a much more complex purpose.
36And we'll talk more about it next week!
37Now, before I invite you to join in a discussion in this second part of the seminar,
38I'd like to make some very important points about our fieldwork
39and in fact, any field trip to look at rock art.
40We're going to a number of sites, and we won't always be together.
41The single largest problem faced by people who manage the sites is...
42yes, I'm sure you've guessed - damage caused by visitors,
43even though it's usually unintentional.
44Whenever you do go to a site,
45don't forget you can learn many things from observing at a distance instead of walking all over it.
46This can really help to reduce visitor pressure.
47People often say, 'Well, there's only two of us and just this one time',
48but maybe thousands of people are saying the same thing.
49And then some basic rules to guide you:
50we'll have our own camp near a village,
51but remember, never to camp on a site if you go on your own.
52It may be disrespectful to the people of that culture,
53and certainly don't make fires, however romantic it may seem.
54It's really dangerous in dry areas,
55and you can easily burn priceless undiscovered material by doing so.
56So, how are we going to enjoy the rock art on our field trip?
57By looking at it, drawing it and photographing it,
58never by touching it or even tracing it.
59Rock art is fragile and precious.
60Remember that climbing on rocks and in caves can destroy in a moment what has lasted for centuries.
61So no heroics in Namibia, please!
62Try to be extra careful and help others to be too.
63And lastly, please don't even move rocks or branches to take photographs.
64You should leave the site intact.
65I'm sure I can rely on you to do that.
66Well, that's about all I want to say before today's first discussion,
67but if you have any questions, please ask them now
68oh, and, don't forget you'll find some fascinating information about world-wide sites on the Internet.
69Right, first question then?