In cooperation with NIO M O UN IM D R T IA A L • P • W L O A I R D L D N H O E M R I E T IN AG O E • PATRIM United Nations World Heritage Educational, Scientific and Centre Cultural Organization TRUST FOR AFRICAN ROCK Art NEWSLETTER December 2012 David Coulson Executive Chairman EXECUTIVE BOARD George Abungu, David Coulson (Chairman), Janette Deacon, Thomas Hill (Treasurer), Audax Mabulla Sada Mire, Susannah Rouse, Victoria Waldock SECRETARY 1 Letter from the Chairman Michael Legamaro ADVISORY COMMITTEE 2 The British Museum Acquires TARA Neville Agnew, Megan Biesele African Rock Art Collection 2012 has been another exciting year with new adventures, challenges and discoveries. Our Jean Clottes, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, From the Chairman Robert Hitchcock, Annette Lanjouw, biggest news of the year was the agreement we reached with the British Museum in London, John Parkington, Heinz Rüther, Abdellah Salih 4 Discovery whereby over the next five years the BM will be acquiring a copy TARA’s rock art archive as part Roberta Simonis, Nigel Winser of their global digital collections. To quote the Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, Kenya FOUNDING PATRONS “Partnership between TARA and the Museum will help preserve and share this notable archive Dr. Mary Leakey, Sir Laurens van der Post Malawi and establish it as a major academic resource.” FOUNDING TRUSTEES Chad Alec Campbell, Bruce Ludwig, Thomas Hill This project was made possible by a generous grant to the Museum by Arcadia, one of TARA’s KTARA Trustees 10 Conservation major donors. From TARA’s perspective the initiative effectively guarantees the long term Fredrick Anderson, David Coulson preservation of the archive. It also guarantees that scientists, historians and conservators all Rupert Watson Kenya Partnership over the world will now be able to access and to use our unique collections. From a personal KENYA Tanzania between perspective, it also means that my life’s work is now in safe hands. Our survey work is in no way Warai South Road, Karen complete yet, but at least the 17 years of work to date is safe and has not been in vain. P.O. Box 24122, Nairobi 00502 Tel: +254-20-3884467/3883735 14 Community Projects TARA and the Fax: +254-20-3883674 Once again our survey trips in 2012 were both productive and exciting. In March, thanks to the Email: [email protected] 16 Museum will www.africanrockart.org Tribute to Alec Campbell generosity of a long-time supporter (also now a board TARA board member), Susannah Rouse, we were able to visit several remote rock art sites, by helicopter, in the region of Lake Turkana, USA 17 Partners and Supporters help preserve 203 North La Salle Street #1900 northern Kenya. One of these sites is a very important and hitherto unknown rock engraving site Chicago, IL 60601-1293 and share situated on an ancient lava beach, about 15 kilometres east of the Lake, south of Alia Bay. The Tel: +1-312-368-3410 Cover: Rock painting of two human figures with cheetah(?) in a engravings, which number in their thousands, were probably made by ancestral Twa, perhaps ABOUT TARA small cave in the Ennedi, Chad. this notable 2000 years ago. (See p. 4). TARA, the Trust for African Rock Art, was founded in 1996 by photographer David Coulson under the patronage archive and Perhaps the most exciting survey trip of the year was a return visit to northern Chad in order of renowned archaeologist, Mary Leakey, and author/ conservationist, Laurens van der Post. establish it to document rock painting sites in the Ennedi Mountains not far from the Sudan, Egyptian and Libyan borders. Alec Campbell and I came here in 1996 but had too little time to do justice to the Based in Nairobi, Kenya, TARA is committed to recording amazing amount of art in this part of the southern Sahara. (See p. 8). the rich rock art heritage of the entire African continent, as a major to making this information widely available and accessible and, to the extent possible, safeguarding those sites most academic On November 24th Alec Campbell, one of TARA’s founding trustees and a personal friend and threatened by both humans and nature, no matter how remote. mentor of mine going back exactly 40 years, died at his home in Botswana at the age of 80. resource. Throughout TARA’s existence Alec was a huge source of knowledge and of inspiration. He will be TARA achieves this through survey and conservation work, sorely missed by all of us. (See p. 16). documentation, exhibitions, publications and community projects. TARA has documented rock art in 19 African countries and digitised over 20,000 images, many of which TARA is meanwhile pleased to welcome to its Executive Board: Dr Sada Mire, former Director of Published by: TARA are available online. It is estimated that over one million Antiquities in Somaliland, and Susannah Rouse, a dedicated conservationist. people have visited TARA’s exhibitions. The organisation ISSN 1996-8191 (print) / ISSN 1996-8205 (online) also works closely with communities in areas where rock art Designed by: Richard Wachara is found, in order to raise awareness of rock art as a fragile heritage resource, and to improve the lives of people in Photos © TARA unless credited otherwise those communities. TARA is registered in the United States as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation. MISSION TARA is a member of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations. Create greater global awareness of the importance and endangered state of African rock art; survey sites; monitor “like” us on: status; be an information resource and archive; and Trust for African Rock Art promote and support rock art conservation measures. TARA Newsletter – December 2012 www.africanrockart.org www.africanrockart.org TARA Newsletter – December 2012 1 From its foundation in 1753, the British Museum has been one of the world’s great resources. As a forum for the comparison of cultures, it is unparalleled. For over two centuries the Museum has united material from diverse societies, documenting histories from around the globe. It remains committed to preserving cultural knowledge for future generations. “The TARA archive will be a significant addition The British Museum is an ideal partner to achieve TARA’s objective of to the African collections at the British making its rock art archive widely and freely available. The Museum Museum. By incorporating this collection is a custodian of endangered knowledge and a centre of academic and including it within the museum’s online excellence. As the UK’s most popular visitor attraction, it boasts over database, visitors across the world will be 6 million visitors a year. The Museum’s online collections attract an able to both contribute to and gain from such average of 1.5 million page visits per month. In 2011, the BM released documentation. Partnership between TARA a Semantic Web version of the database which facilitates wider and the Museum will help preserve and share access to its data and knowledge. As an organisation active in the this notable archive and establish it as a major heritage sector in Africa, the Museum offers TARA many opportunities academic resource.” for leveraging its resources through fieldwork, publications and exhibitions. - Neil MacGregor The British Museum Acquires TARA’s Director of the British Museum African Rock Art Collection The British Museum has formed a partnership with TARA, disseminate this important collection and establish it as a acquiring a digital copy of TARA’s major photographic major academic resource. By combining a wide range of archive both to preserve it and to make it fully available research from the Museum, TARA’s international network and online through the British Museum website. The 25,000 colleagues in Africa, the archive will capture and preserve digital photographs of rock art sites from across Africa will be knowledge about rock art for future generations. catalogued and made accessible through the British Museum’s online collection catalogue, drawing on documentation from Acquisition made possible TARA staff and archaeological and anthropological research. The Museum will digitise its own African pictorial collection through the generous support of 19th and 20th century photographs alongside the TARA images to support the integration of this archive. of the Arcadia Fund The Museum’s African pictorial collection contains nearly 15,000 photographs that range from negatives, gel photos, glass plates, prints, and most recently, digital photographs. These are used for research, exhibitions, training, community outreach, museum partnership programmes and publications. Pictures in this collection are from throughout the African continent and embody the early stages of the medium up to the present day. Subjects include daily life, art, portraiture, Arcadia is the charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and official government photographs, natural landscapes and Peter Baldwin. Since its inception in 2001, Arcadia has pictures from pre-colonial, colonial and independent Africa. awarded grants in excess of $237 million. Arcadia The collection also holds film, video and audio recordings from works to protect endangered culture and nature. For various time periods and regions. more information please see: www.arcadiafund.org.uk The project will take five years and involve research by The name Arcadia carries many associations, including Museum staff and on-going collaboration with TARA, as well a utopian view of the natural world and of the as involving African communities. Through the incorporation aspirations of human societies. To its founders it also of this collection into the British Museum’s online database, embodies Arcadia’s ideal: the desire to preserve but people across the world will be able to both use and also acknowledge the transience of the world’s most contribute to the archive and its documentation.