INTRODUCTION

Documentation of any historical object is the process of describing the object's attributes in written and graphic form. It includes the gathering and integration of information which is considered relevant for identification, interpretation and conservation purposes. Such a task might be carried out on various levels and dictated by certain objectives. This paper will focus on the ideology behind documentation for conservation purposes.

The reasoning in this paper is based on the following two hypotheses. First, documentation in general has the potential to communicate attributes which contribute to the understanding of the object's context and meaning. This is a major premise for conserving the object so that its most significant values are retained. Secondly, documentation for conservation purposes is governed by the prevailing conservation ideology. Since this ideology has been subject to quite radical changes over the past 20 years or so, the first part of this paper contains a discussion about current conservation theory. This ought to be read with rock art sites in mind.

The second part of the paper is a discussion about issues of conservation and documentation in the field of rock art.

PART I: INITIAL REMARKS ON CONSERVATION

Conservation procedures are used to assess the nature and condition of the objects in order to rectify or ameliorate the effects of poor use and decay, and to minimise the processes of deterioration. Since the conservation process consistently recreates cultural heritage, it is important to be aware of the context in which it takes place.

Today, conservation is a many-sided process, but its activity has a collective aim, namely to contribute to memory through the maintenance of cultural heritage by which social groups assert their identity and values. The choice of what to preserve and how to preserve it represents every generation's vision of what should be passed on to future generations.

In western societies, cultural heritage has been perceived as primarily comprising material phenomena for nearly 300 years. During the latter half of the 20th century, the main objective was to preserve the physical integrity of the object by stabilising its component materials and by improving its environmental conditions.