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Over the past decade, physical and chemical analyses have been widely applied to the study of rock art contexts, particularly to examine the composition of rock art paintings and for direct radiometric dating. Different sampling and analytical methods have been applied to rock art from different parts of the world. However, in Africa these analyses are still at an embryonic stage. The results are often problematic in terms of reliability, mainly as concerns the chronology. This is due to a wide range of fossil and active biodegradation processes affecting rock surfaces and pigments; such processes are still widely underestimated. This paper aims to discuss the state of the art of the physical and chemical analyses undertaken on African rock art contexts, and the urgent need to establish protocols and best practices for sampling and analysis. The preliminary results of a new project in southern Ethiopia are presented here as an example of an integrated study of a rock art context, combining Archaeology and Earth Sciences. Preliminary field observations and SEM-EDS analyses, run on samples from two rock shelters in the Borana area, reveal the presence of a complex set of physical, chemical, and biological weathering processes with manifold effects on the rock art evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microliths and microlithic industries are central to definitions of the Later Stone Age technologies. It is generally accepted that microliths are associated with a change to more complex hunting technologies and strategies. However, because there is evidence of microlith production in Middle Stone Age contexts, there are debates regarding the significance of the presence of microliths within an assemblage. This paper aims to analyse the microlithic component of Middle and Later Stone Age assemblages in the eastern Ethiopia region, by means of lithic assemblages from two major cave sites, Porc-Epic and Goda Buticha. This paper presents a short review of the different meanings of the term “microlith” and of the diversity of microlith-bearing assemblages in the Middle and Later Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa. An analysis of the microliths is presented using a methodology which helps to distinguish intentionally produced versus accidentally produced microliths, from Porc-Epic and Goda Buticha assemblages. The results of this study indicate that no intentional microliths are present in Porc-Epic assemblages, in contrast with those recovered in the Goda Buticha assemblages. Interestingly, very few microliths are present in the Pleistocene Middle Stone Age levels; they are more numerous (but not overwhelmingly) in the Holocene Later Stone Age levels of these sites. These results contribute to the discussion of the role of microliths in the Middle and in the Later Stone Age in this particular region of eastern Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The horn of Africa provides the setting for the evolution of early modern humans and their dispersal out of Africa as well as for the entry, many thousands of years later, of pastoralists who brought Near Eastern and, later, South Asian livestock into Africa. However, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the late Upper Pleistocene archaeological record of the horn of Africa, mainly due to the paucity of well-stratified sites from the period. The discovery in southeastern Ethiopia of a number of caves with rich Upper Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological deposits, many of which also had rock art depicting domestic animals, offers an unprecedented opportunity for exploring the later prehistory of the region. In 2007, 2008 our survey documented twenty-one cave sites and shelters with evidence of cultural deposits, including Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) stone artifacts, faunal remains, and rock art. Active and fossil speleothems, important for paleoclimatic reconstructions and chronology, were found from two other caves in eastern and western Harerghe. Test excavations were conducted at three sites, with abundant archaeological material documented from stratified deposits at two of these sites – Gilbo Tate and Goda Buticha. The latter is a subject of another paper in this volume. Rock art was recorded at eighteen sites, three of which (in western Harerghe) had not previously been documented. At many of the sites, much of the art is faded and in a vulnerable state, and continued efforts to document and conserve this art are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]