{"id":8960,"date":"2026-03-10T13:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:45:32","slug":"research-portrait-david-witelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/uncategorized\/research-portrait-david-witelson\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Portrait \u2013 David Witelson, \u201cMining the Riches of Rock Paintings\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Mining the Riches of Rock Paintings in the Stormberg Mountains (Eastern Cape)&#8221;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">March 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"_ap3a _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade wp-block-paragraph\">Voici le \u00ab Portrait de recherche \u00bb de David Witelson, publi\u00e9 sur <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ifas_research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">notre compte Instagram<\/mark><\/a> en mars 2026. David est postdoctorant \u00e0 l&#8217;Universit\u00e9 d&#8217;Oxford et associ\u00e9 au Rock Art Research Insitute (Universit\u00e9 du Witwatersrand), et allocataire de l&#8217;IFAS-Recherche en 2024. Sp\u00e9cialiste de l\u2019\u00e9tude de l\u2019art rupestre d\u2019Afrique australe, il s\u2019int\u00e9resse notamment aux interactions entre les communaut\u00e9s de chasseurs-collecteurs et les communaut\u00e9s fermi\u00e8res qui s\u2019installent dans la r\u00e9gion du Stormberg \u00e0 partir du XVe si\u00e8cle. Ses recherches portent en particulier sur la provenance des pigments utilis\u00e9s dans les peintures rupestres, dont certains indices sugg\u00e8rent qu\u2019ils auraient pu circuler gr\u00e2ce aux r\u00e9seaux commerciaux de longue distance mis en place par les communaut\u00e9s fermi\u00e8res.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"_ap3a _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade wp-block-paragraph\">Here is the &#8220;Research Portrait&#8221; of Dr David Witelson, published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ifas_research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">our Instagram account<\/mark><\/a> in march 2026. David is a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford University and associate researcher at the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand), supported by IFAS-Research in 2024. As a Southern African rock art specialist, he is interested in the interactions between hunter-gatherer and farming communities that began settling in the Stromberg region from the 15th century. In particular, he investigates the provenance of pigments used in rock paintings, which some evidence suggests may have circulated through long-distance trade networks established by African farming communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8963\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8964\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8965\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8966\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Mining the Riches of Rock Paintings in the Stormberg Mountains (Eastern Cape)&#8221; March 2026 Voici le \u00ab Portrait de recherche \u00bb de David Witelson, publi\u00e9 sur notre compte Instagram en mars 2026. David est postdoctorant \u00e0 l&#8217;Universit\u00e9 d&#8217;Oxford et associ\u00e9 au Rock Art Research Insitute (Universit\u00e9 du Witwatersrand), et allocataire de l&#8217;IFAS-Recherche en 2024. Sp\u00e9cialiste [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,43,21,46,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-dissemination","category-news","category-research-portraits","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9220,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions\/9220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifas.org.za\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}