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South Africa has one of the richest rock art heritages in the world. Thousands of paintings and engravings are a testament to the artistic talent of the San people.
To further the understanding of these paintings, a team of French and South African scientists carried out the first campaign in this country to analyse rock paintings in situ using a Raman spectrometer.
This technique makes it possible to identify the pigments used in the paintings without damaging them. It is an approach that is equally of interest to chemists, archaeologists and curators.

Identification

Audiovisual processReal shots. Use of a map, of animations and of a black-and-white archive film.
Voice over and interviews (live sound).

PersonnalitiesSMITH Benjamin(Rock Art Research Institute, Univ. of Witwatersrand, Afrique du Sud); LE QUELLEC Jean-Loïc(CEMAf, UMR CNRS, Univ. Paris I, EPHE et Univ. Aix-Marseille 1); PRINSLOO Linda C(Dept of physics, Univ. of Pretoria, Afrique du Sud); PARIS Céline(LADIR, UMR CNRS et Univ. Paris VI); BARNARD Werner(Univ. of Pretoria, Afrique du Sud); BASSETT Stephen T.; TOURNIE Aurélie(Dept of physics, Univ. of Pretoria, Afrique du Sud)

NotesCEMAf : Centre d'études des mondes africains.
LADIR : Laboratoire de dynamique, interactions et réactivité.