Dr David Witelson

dw
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow
david.witelson@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research interests:

Rock art, image-making practices, performance theory, Ideational Cognitive Archaeology (ICA), archaeological interpretation, hunter-gatherers, ethnography, anthropology, the history of archaeological thought, archaeological paints and ochres, precolonial society and societies without writing systems.

Geographical area:

Southern Africa; South Africa (Eastern Cape and Free State Provinces)

Research Profile

My MSCA-funded project investigates the dual themes of unity and diversity in southern African hunter-gatherers with a focus on the ethnographic, rock art and excavated archaeological evidence. The project aims to build a custom ethnographic database that can be used to answer questions about forager diversity in the mid- to late Holocene.

Previously, I held a three-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Rock Art Research Institute. My doctoral research developed a performance-theory approach to the study of rock art using San/Bushman hunter-gatherer ethnography and rock paintings in the Stormberg area of South Africa’s north Eastern Cape Province.

Publications
Selected Publications

2025. Witelson, D. M. A performance-theory revisit of the conflict scene at the Ventershoek (2927CA1) rock art site. Arts 14(2): 44 https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14020044

2024. Schmid, V. C., Wadley, L., Brandl, M., Guillemard, I., Rhodes, S. E., Taipale, N., Witelson, D. M., Borner, M., Cnuts, D., Hodgskiss, T., Murungi, M., Nigst, P. R., Porraz, G., Puech, E., Rots, V., Stahlschmidt, M. C., Stelzer, S., Teyssandier, N., Tribolo, C., Val, A., van Schalkwyk, L., & Archer, W. Renewed impetus for Stone Age research in the Eastern Free State (South Africa) centred on Rose Cottage Cave. South African Archaeological Bulletin 79(221): 105–119. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.T2025020700004601124794880

2023. Witelson, D. M. Revisiting the South African unicorn: Rock Art, natural history and colonial misunderstandings of Indigenous realities. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33(4): 619–636. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774323000045

2023. Witelson, D. M. Theatres of Imagery: A Performance Theory Approach to Rock Art Research. Oxford: BAR Publishing. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407356198

2022. Witelson, D. M. Performance theory: a growing interest in rock art research. Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture 15(3–4):313–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696X.2023.2185539

2022. Witelson, D. M. A reappraisal of Walter Battiss’s relative sequence for rock paintings in the Stormberg, Eastern Cape. Southern African Humanities 35: 71–103. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-nmsa_sah_v35_n1_a3