Rock art in the Borana Zone (southern Ethiopia), new perspectives from fieldwork

The African continent has many rock art concentrations with different traditions, techniques, and chronologies. A few areas have been widely investigated, while many other regions have been the object of patchy and sporadic research. This was the case in a large part of the eastern African region, where the research was intensive during the 1970s and 1980s. In particular, the area known as the Horn of Africa – including Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, and Ethiopia – hosts a rich and variegated rock art heritage for which several authors proposed direct connections with the Arabian Peninsula. New data from recent investigations carried out in several subregions, mainly in Ethiopia, are improving the knowledge of rock art and possibly setting a foundation for new interpretative models. This paper aims to present the first results of a new project on the southern side of Oromia, specifically in the Borana Zone. The area, investigated by J. Desmond Clark in the 1940s and Hundie Girma in the 1990s, includes a rich set of rock art sites in rock shelters and open-air sites, which are often associated with residual traces of archaeological deposits and scatters of archaeological materials. The preliminary fieldwork and laboratory research data open new perspectives regarding the physicochemical characteristics of paintings, state of preservation, chronology, and stylistic issues. The results will be discussed within the broader framework of rock art research in East Africa and will integrate archaeological research, conservation, and heritage management.