Aron Mazel
Biographic Data
| ID | 600037 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aron Mazel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aron |
| FAMILY NAME | Mazel |
| SIGNATURE | MAZEL A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newcastle University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0243-0920 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Revisited and Revalorised: Technological and Refitting Studies at the Middle Stone Age Open-Air Knapping Site Jojosi 1 (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa is mainly known from rock shelters and caves. How early modern humans interacted with their landscapes remains comparatively understudied. The site of Jojosi 1, situated north of Nquthu in north central KwaZulu-Natal, is set within erosional badlands known locally as ‘dongas’. This locality offers a rare opportunity to study MSA technology and settlement dynamics in an open-air context. G. Botha initi…
Mountain living: The Holocene people of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa
Signalling and Performance: Ancient Rock Art in Britain and Ireland
A graduate of Reading
Indigenous Heritage and Rock Art: Worldwide Research in Memory of Daniel Arsenault
Engagement and Management: Developing a Monitoring System for Open-air Rock Art in the UK and Ireland
Neolithic and Early Bronze Age rock carvings in the United Kingdom and Ireland represent an internationally unique rock art tradition as it is, to the best of our knowledge, the only wholly abstract global rock art tradition. This heritage resource is, however, under threat from an array of factors, such as increasing population densities and agricultural intensity. In this paper, we report on the Condition Assessment Risk Evaluation (CARE) proje…
Narratives and Journeys in Rock Art: A Reader
Teaching Archaeological Heritage Management. Towards a Change in Paradigms
The concept of archaeological heritage management (AHM) has been key to wider archaeological research and preservation agendas for some decades. Many universities and other education providers now offer what is best termed heritage management education (HME) in various forms. The emphasis is commonly on archaeological aspects of heritage in a broad sense and different terms are often interchangeable in practice. In an innovative working-conferenc…
Rock art Care: A cross-platform mobile application for crowdsourcing heritage conservation data for the safeguarding of open-air rock art
Purpose Crowdsourcing heritage information has enormous potential to help gather data needed to make decisions over the deployment of resources and heritage conservation funding. Taking advantage of the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, packed with sensors to record data about the real world, and the global growth of mobile app stores, reaching potential crowdsourcing volunteers is easier than ever before. The pur…
Valuing rock art: A view from Northumberland in North East England
Since the turn of the millennium three rock art projects focusing primarily on Northumberland in the United Kingdom (Northumberland Rock Art: Web Access to the Beckensall Archive, Rock Art on Mobile Phones and Heritage and Science: working together in the CARE of rock art) have made information and images widely available to the public via the Internet. All three projects were strongly underpinned by the ethos expressed in the Faro Convention and…
Condition assessment and preservation of open-air rock art panels during environmental change
Thousands of Neolithic and Bronze Age open-air rock art panels exist across the countryside in northern England. However, desecration, pollution, and other factors are threatening the survival of these iconic stone monuments. Evidence suggest that rates of panel deterioration may be increasing, although it is not clear whether this is due to local factors or wider environmental influences accelerated by environmental change. To examine this quest…
Paint and Earth: Constructing Hunter-Gatherer History in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa
(2013). Paint and Earth: Constructing Hunter-Gatherer History in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, South Africa. Time and Mind: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 49-57
Safeguarding a Fragile Legacy: Managing uKhahlamba‐Drakensberg Rock Art
This chapter contains sections titled: Abstract Overview of UDP Rock Art Management Since the 1960s Institutional Responsibilities Inventories, Planning, Implementation, and Indigenous Voices World Heritage, Tourism, and Public Interpretation Discussion Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References
I want to be provoked: Public involvement in the development of the Northumberland Rock Art on Mobile Phones project
Northumberland has a long history of public engagement surrounding its ancient rock-art. Recent advances in digital technologies have enabled archaeologists to enrich this engagement through the provision of open access to substantial rock-art datasets online. Building on these achievements, the Rock Art on Mobile Phones (RAMP) project allows Northumberland's countryside visitors to access in situ interpretation at three rock-art areas on their m…
Time, Color, and Sound: Revisiting the Rock Art of Didima Gorge, South Africa
This article explores the abundance of rock art in the Didima Gorge where 3,909 paintings were documented in seventeen rock shelters. It is proposed that the richness of the gorge's rock art is associated with its acoustic properties, which may have established the gorge as a significant spiritual place for the San hunter-gatherers. In making this correlation, the article explores Pager's (1971) comment that the Zulu name for the gorge means “The…
Presenting the San Hunter-Gatherer Past to the Public: A View from the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, South Africa
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park (UDP) was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 on the basis of its magnificent scenery, biodiversity, and archaeological richness, comprising a rich corpus of rock paintings and occupation deposits relating to the San hunter-gatherers. The desire to encourage heritage tourism to the UDP following the declaration, along with the wish to present a more positive picture of the San hunter-gatherers, led to the develo…
Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-Art of Britain
Museums and their messages: The display of the pre- and early colonial past in the museums of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe
South Africa is on the threshold of major change. Indeed, one of the most commonly used political clichés in South Africa today is &s;the new South Africa&s;. What does this cliché imply and what is the &s;new South Africa&s; going to herald? Is it simply going to mean a change in power-holders, leaving many of the relations of domination intact, or will there be fundamental changes affecting the entire fabric of society?
Digging through Darkness: Chronicles of an Archaeologist
Accelerator radiocarbon dating of Natal Drakensberg paintings: Results and Implications
As Rosenfeld & Smith report in this number of ANTIQUITY, the reconciliation of conventional chronologies for rock-art with the emergent radiocarbon-based dates is not proving an easy affair. Here are the first steps for the classic area of San hunter-gatherer art, on the South Africa/Lesotho border
Extending the Distribution of Bifacial Tanged and Barbed Arrowheads into Central Natal
Rock art and Natal Drakensberg hunter–gatherer history: A reply to Dowson
A further contribution on art, history and archaeological attitude in South Africa
Comment on Schrire: The Archaeological Identity of Hunters and Herders at the Cape
Fear of Running: A Reply to Barham
Early Pottery from the Eastern Part of Southern Africa
Gender and the Hunter-Gatherer Archaeological Record: A View from the Thukela Basin
In this paper I argue that it is imperative for archaeologists to incorporate a gender focus in their research. Coupled with this however, must be the notion that both women and men were active participants in the making of history. It is submitted that adopting this approach will enable archaeologists to develop a deeper understanding of human history. I then present my views concerning the development of gender relations in Thukela Basin 7000-2…
Time and Place: Some Observations on Spatial and Temporal Patterning in the Later Stone Age Sequence in Southern Africa [with Comments and Reply]
John Parkington, Charles Cable, P. L. Carter, H. J. Deacon, Janette Deacon, A. J. B. Humphreys, R. R. Inskeep, Glynn Isaac, L. Jacobson, Mary Leslie Brooker, Aron Mazel, P. T. Robertshaw, C. Garth Sampson, Anne I. Thackeray, Thomas P. Volman, Time and Place: Some Observations on Spatial and Temporal Patterning in the Later Stone Age Sequence in Southern Africa [with Comments and Reply], The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 132 …
Accelerator radiocarbon dating of Natal Drakensberg paintings: Results and Implications
As Rosenfeld & Smith report in this number of ANTIQUITY, the reconciliation of conventional chronologies for rock-art with the emergent radiocarbon-based dates is not proving an easy affair. Here are the first steps for the classic area of San hunter-gatherer art, on the South Africa/Lesotho border
Stone tools and resources: A case study from Southern Africa
Taking the Clanwilliam District in the south‐western Cape as a case study, this paper examines the implications of differences in the composition of contemporary tool assemblages from a restricted area. A breakdown of the assemblages from eleven sites is presented, with analyses of the occurrences of adzes, bored stones, scrapers, and backed pieces at each of them. In some situations, the patterning of tool type variability from site to site can …
Meddling with the Mind: The Treatment of San Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of South Africa's Black Population in Recent South African School History Textbooks
A. D. Mazel, P. M. Stewart, Meddling with the Mind: The Treatment of San Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of South Africa's Black Population in Recent South African School History Textbooks, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 42, No. 146 (Dec., 1987), pp. 166-170
Controlling the Past in the Museums of Natal and Kwazulu
History and Ideology The basic premise of this paper is that history is not a set of facts about the past but, rather, a set of ideas about the past held in the present. If this is a truism, it is not one that is widely reflected in the discourse and practice of professional historians, and for that reason it is worth elaborating. Ideas about history are based on 'evidence', whether in the form of written documents, recorded oral evidence, or arc…
Early Pottery from the Eastern Part of Southern Africa
Rock art and Natal Drakensberg hunter–gatherer history: A reply to Dowson
A further contribution on art, history and archaeological attitude in South Africa
I want to be provoked: Public involvement in the development of the Northumberland Rock Art on Mobile Phones project
Northumberland has a long history of public engagement surrounding its ancient rock-art. Recent advances in digital technologies have enabled archaeologists to enrich this engagement through the provision of open access to substantial rock-art datasets online. Building on these achievements, the Rock Art on Mobile Phones (RAMP) project allows Northumberland's countryside visitors to access in situ interpretation at three rock-art areas on their m…
Changing fortunes: 150 Years of San hunter-gatherer history in the Natal Drakensberg, South Africa
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Changing Social Relations in the Thukela Basin, Natal 7000-2000 BP
Condition assessment and preservation of open-air rock art panels during environmental change
Thousands of Neolithic and Bronze Age open-air rock art panels exist across the countryside in northern England. However, desecration, pollution, and other factors are threatening the survival of these iconic stone monuments. Evidence suggest that rates of panel deterioration may be increasing, although it is not clear whether this is due to local factors or wider environmental influences accelerated by environmental change. To examine this quest…
Time, Color, and Sound: Revisiting the Rock Art of Didima Gorge, South Africa
This article explores the abundance of rock art in the Didima Gorge where 3,909 paintings were documented in seventeen rock shelters. It is proposed that the richness of the gorge's rock art is associated with its acoustic properties, which may have established the gorge as a significant spiritual place for the San hunter-gatherers. In making this correlation, the article explores Pager's (1971) comment that the Zulu name for the gorge means “The…
Gender and the Hunter-Gatherer Archaeological Record: A View from the Thukela Basin
In this paper I argue that it is imperative for archaeologists to incorporate a gender focus in their research. Coupled with this however, must be the notion that both women and men were active participants in the making of history. It is submitted that adopting this approach will enable archaeologists to develop a deeper understanding of human history. I then present my views concerning the development of gender relations in Thukela Basin 7000-2…
Gender Relations in the Thukela Basin
Signalling and Performance: Ancient Rock Art in Britain and Ireland
A graduate of Reading
Valuing rock art: A view from Northumberland in North East England
Since the turn of the millennium three rock art projects focusing primarily on Northumberland in the United Kingdom (Northumberland Rock Art: Web Access to the Beckensall Archive, Rock Art on Mobile Phones and Heritage and Science: working together in the CARE of rock art) have made information and images widely available to the public via the Internet. All three projects were strongly underpinned by the ethos expressed in the Faro Convention and…
News and Short Contributions
Principles for Conserving the Archaeological Resources of the Natal Drakensberg
Time and Place: Some Observations on Spatial and Temporal Patterning in the Later Stone Age Sequence in Southern Africa [with Comments and Reply]
John Parkington, Charles Cable, P. L. Carter, H. J. Deacon, Janette Deacon, A. J. B. Humphreys, R. R. Inskeep, Glynn Isaac, L. Jacobson, Mary Leslie Brooker, Aron Mazel, P. T. Robertshaw, C. Garth Sampson, Anne I. Thackeray, Thomas P. Volman, Time and Place: Some Observations on Spatial and Temporal Patterning in the Later Stone Age Sequence in Southern Africa [with Comments and Reply], The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 132 …
Stone tools and resources: A case study from Southern Africa
Taking the Clanwilliam District in the south‐western Cape as a case study, this paper examines the implications of differences in the composition of contemporary tool assemblages from a restricted area. A breakdown of the assemblages from eleven sites is presented, with analyses of the occurrences of adzes, bored stones, scrapers, and backed pieces at each of them. In some situations, the patterning of tool type variability from site to site can …
Principles for Conserving the Archaeological Resources of the Natal Drakensberg
Eland, Rhebuck and Cranes: Identifying Seasonality in the Paintings of the Drakensberg, Natal, South Africa
A. D. Mazel, Eland, Rhebuck and Cranes: Identifying Seasonality in the Paintings of the Drakensberg, Natal, South Africa, Goodwin Series, Vol. 4, New Approaches to Southern African Rock Art (Jun., 1983), pp. 34-37
News and Short Contributions
Reply to A. R. Willcox
Reply from A. D. Mazel
Economy and Technology in the Late Stone Age of Southern Natal
Cattle, Sheep and Horses: A Review of Domestic Animals in the Rock Art of Southern Africa
A. H. Manhire, J. E. Parkington, A. D. Mazel, T. M. O'C. Maggs, Cattle, Sheep and Horses: A Review of Domestic Animals in the Rock Art of Southern Africa, Goodwin Series, Vol. 5, Prehistoric Pastoralism in Southern Africa (Jun., 1986), pp. 22-30
Meddling with the Mind: The Treatment of San Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of South Africa's Black Population in Recent South African School History Textbooks
A. D. Mazel, P. M. Stewart, Meddling with the Mind: The Treatment of San Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of South Africa's Black Population in Recent South African School History Textbooks, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 42, No. 146 (Dec., 1987), pp. 166-170
Gender Relations in the Thukela Basin
Changing Social Relations in the Thukela Basin, Natal 7000-2000 BP
Controlling the Past in the Museums of Natal and Kwazulu
History and Ideology The basic premise of this paper is that history is not a set of facts about the past but, rather, a set of ideas about the past held in the present. If this is a truism, it is not one that is widely reflected in the discourse and practice of professional historians, and for that reason it is worth elaborating. Ideas about history are based on 'evidence', whether in the form of written documents, recorded oral evidence, or arc…
Comment on Schrire: The Archaeological Identity of Hunters and Herders at the Cape
Fear of Running: A Reply to Barham
Early Pottery from the Eastern Part of Southern Africa
Gender and the Hunter-Gatherer Archaeological Record: A View from the Thukela Basin
In this paper I argue that it is imperative for archaeologists to incorporate a gender focus in their research. Coupled with this however, must be the notion that both women and men were active participants in the making of history. It is submitted that adopting this approach will enable archaeologists to develop a deeper understanding of human history. I then present my views concerning the development of gender relations in Thukela Basin 7000-2…
Changing fortunes: 150 Years of San hunter-gatherer history in the Natal Drakensberg, South Africa
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Rock art and Natal Drakensberg hunter–gatherer history: A reply to Dowson
A further contribution on art, history and archaeological attitude in South Africa
Extending the Distribution of Bifacial Tanged and Barbed Arrowheads into Central Natal
Digging through Darkness: Chronicles of an Archaeologist
Accelerator radiocarbon dating of Natal Drakensberg paintings: Results and Implications
As Rosenfeld & Smith report in this number of ANTIQUITY, the reconciliation of conventional chronologies for rock-art with the emergent radiocarbon-based dates is not proving an easy affair. Here are the first steps for the classic area of San hunter-gatherer art, on the South Africa/Lesotho border
Museums and their messages: The display of the pre- and early colonial past in the museums of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe
South Africa is on the threshold of major change. Indeed, one of the most commonly used political clichés in South Africa today is &s;the new South Africa&s;. What does this cliché imply and what is the &s;new South Africa&s; going to herald? Is it simply going to mean a change in power-holders, leaving many of the relations of domination intact, or will there be fundamental changes affecting the entire fabric of society?
Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-Art of Britain
Presenting the San Hunter-Gatherer Past to the Public: A View from the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, South Africa
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park (UDP) was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 on the basis of its magnificent scenery, biodiversity, and archaeological richness, comprising a rich corpus of rock paintings and occupation deposits relating to the San hunter-gatherers. The desire to encourage heritage tourism to the UDP following the declaration, along with the wish to present a more positive picture of the San hunter-gatherers, led to the develo…
Geography (32 works) · Archaeology (30 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (26 works) · History (18 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Rock art (12 works) · Geology (11 works) · Art (9 works) · History (8 works)