Recent research on Later Stone Age (LSA) San rock art in southern Africa has unveiled some of the paint recipes the artists employed. However, these discoveries still need to be linked to human activities in or near the rock shelters where the paintings were made. In this paper, we report characterization and dating results from the catchment of the Metolong Dam, Phuthiatsana Valley, Lesotho. A total of 92 rock painting samples, six grindstones with traces of colouring materials from an excavated context, and 17 potential raw colouring materials were studied. We identified three previously unreported ingredients used by the artists: manganese oxides, calcined bones, and soot. Grindstones are stained with the same raw materials that the painters used. We propose that one of them may have served to prepare the red pigment used to make a human figure and a bichrome eland at Ha Makotoko, but direct links remain difficult to establish with certainty. The potential colouring materials in the valley are red clays, white clays (kaolinite and illite-or-montmorillonite), and gypsum, three compounds used as paints by the artists. Tests conducted to verify their suitability for paintings show these materials may have been ground, but settling (after pre-grinding) offers a quicker and easier way to obtain a fine powder as observed in the paints. Finally, 12 AMS dates provide an initial framework for studying the changing use of paint recipes in the Phuthiatsana Valley over time. Charcoal appears to have been employed over a period of at least 3000 years and carbon black for at least 2000 years, with soot seemingly used only before 2000 cal. BP. This study is currently the largest characterization and dating study of LSA rock art in southern Africa and shows the potential that such combined investigations offer for linking excavated and parietal components of the region's hunter-gatherer archaeological record.

最近对南部非洲晚期石器时代 (LSA) 圣人岩画的研究揭示了艺术家使用的一些油漆配方。然而，这些发现仍然需要与制作这些画作的岩石避难所内或附近的人类活动联系起来。在本文中，我们报告了莱索托 Phuthiatsana 山谷 Metolong 大坝集水区的特征和测年结果。总共研究了 92 幅岩画样本、6 块带有出土背景着色材料痕迹的磨石和 17 种潜在的着色材料。我们确定了艺术家使用的三种以前未报告的成分：氧化锰、煅烧骨头和烟灰。磨石被染色的原材料与画家使用的原材料相同。我们认为其中之一可能用于制备用于在 Ha Makotoko 制作人物形象和双色大羚羊的红色颜料，但仍然难以确定地建立直接联系。山谷中潜在的着色材料是红粘土、白粘土（高岭石和伊利石或蒙脱石）和石膏，这是艺术家用作颜料的三种化合物。为验证其适用于绘画而进行的测试表明，这些材料可能已经过研磨，但沉降（预研磨后）提供了一种更快、更容易获得如在涂料中观察到的细粉的方法。最后，12 个 AMS 日期提供了一个初始框架，用于研究 Phuthiatsana 山谷中涂料配方的使用随时间的变化。木炭似乎已经使用了至少 3000 年，炭黑至少使用了 2000 年，烟灰似乎只在 2000 cal 之前使用。BP。这项研究是目前南部非洲最大的 LSA 岩石艺术特征和年代测定研究，并显示了这种联合调查为将该地区的狩猎采集者考古记录的挖掘和顶叶部分联系起来的潜力。