Patricia Joan Vinnicombe was a South African archaeologist and artist, known for identifying and copying San rock paintings in the valleys and foothills of the Drakensberg.
16 Facts About Patricia Vinnicombe
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Patricia Vinnicombe's work transformed the study of rock art into a science.
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Patricia Vinnicombe was active in the preservation of Aboriginal art in Western Australia.
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Patricia Vinnicombe made her first copies of these paintings at the age of 13.
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The credibility of Patricia Vinnicombe's method provided her with the opportunity to return to South Africa and trace rock paintings in the Drakensberg.
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Patricia Vinnicombe was profoundly influenced by anthropological theory and encouraged by the anthropologists Edmund Leach and Isaac Schapera and by archaeologist Peter Ucko.
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Patricia Vinnicombe consulted with the Natal Archives in Pietermaritzburg, the Natal Society library, the Killie Campbell Africana Museum and the Natal Museum to obtain more information about the history and background of the San.
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Patricia Vinnicombe assisted in documenting UNESCO sites that were later flooded by the filling of the Aswan dam in Egypt.
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In 1974 Carter and Patricia Vinnicombe searched for rock art sites in the Hadar and Dire Dawa provinces of Ethiopia.
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In 1978, Patricia Vinnicombe emigrated with her son to Australia where she was employed by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra and the National Parks and Wildlife Service in New South Wales.
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Patricia Vinnicombe spent time in Sydney surveying aboriginal sites in the North Hawkesbury Archaeological Project, prior to construction of a dam in the area.
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Patricia Vinnicombe used the data from the North Hawkesbury project to determine various characteristics of Aboriginal rockshelters.
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Patricia Vinnicombe claimed it was easier to interpret Aboriginal art since she could ask the Aborigines what the intentions of the painters were.
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Patricia Vinnicombe spent this time, with the help of her assistant J Olofsson, cataloguing copies of rock art that she had made in the 1950s and 1960s which had not been looked at since.
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Patricia Vinnicombe was expected to return to South Africa again in May 2003 but she died suddenly on 30 March 2003 in Karratha, Western Australia.
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Patricia Vinnicombe had been on a field trip at the time with a colleague from South Africa, Warren Fish.