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