Technical Specialists

James Pugin

James' research over the passed few years has looked into the application of remote sensing and geographic information systems. Using satellite remote sensing images, James has developed a very successful model for predicting areas that are likely to contain rock shelters which may contain rock art and other archaeological material.

James joined the SNP survey team in May as field instructor, associate researcher, photographer. He has also achieved startling results with image enhancement of faded/obscured rock art. He is responsible for all of the mapping in this report and the tabulation of results. Further, James applied the predictive model to assist with the survey of Sehlabathebe National Park as part of the UNESCO World Heritage survey.

James specialises in GIS, field survey, site recording and photography. He currently updates the MARA database and is responsible for processing all the map data.

Kevin Crause

Kevin is a photographer based in Cape Town. He is employed by the MARA project to produce high-resolution and digitally enhanced photographs of selected rock art sites. These enhancements have the potentail to reveal details of the imagery that are difficult (if not impossible) to see with the naked eye, providing a valauble method for recording these sites. For more information, visit: http://www.fingerprintsintime.com

Iris Guilemard is a PhD student at Paris Ouest Nanterre University (France) and the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) under the collective supervision of Karim Sadr (Wits), Sylvain Soriano (Paris Ouest) and Guillaume Porraz (Ifas). She began to specialize in the study of lithic industries during her Master Degree while at Paris Panthéon Sorbonne University where she studied French Mesolithic. She is presently working on the Final and Final Ceramic Later Stone Age of

South Africa. Her project aims to understand the nature of hunter-gatherers’ lithic industries before and after the appearance of pottery around 2000 BP as well as in more recent times. Together with

David Witelson, she is analyzing the lithic industry from excavations lead by the MARA team.

David Witelson is an MSc candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand under the supervision of David Pearce (RARI). His

undergraduate training comprised geology as well as archaeology, and his subsequent Honours dissertation entailed a study of contact-period stone tool technology from the Vredefort Dome in South Africa. His MSc research project deals with southern African rock art and investigates apparent differences between spatially close painted shelters in the Maclear District of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Together with Iris Guillemard, he is analysing the stone tool material excavated from painted rock shelters by the MARA team.