vociferously to having their ancestors or sacred objects excavated and stored in museums without their knowledge or permission, so rock-art researchers in several parts of the world (especially Australia) have had to modify their procedures and outlook after aboriginal groups campaigned for control of their own culture and provided input into (and demanded feedback from) research into their art. It is safe to say that, today, nobody in Australia would dream of beginning a study of rock art without consulting the aboriginal custodians of the region in question.

On the technical side, photography was adopted quite early—the first photograph of an African rock painting was taken in 1885—but the procedure became commonplace within a decade. Much later, color photography began to be used, at first by pioneers such as Alex Willcox in South Africa beginning in 1951, and technology such as digital cameras, video, and computer enhancement is now coming into its own. In the last few years of the twentieth century, new techniques of direct dating began to revolutionize (in some cases) or at least fine-tune (in others) the traditional chronologies built up over decades, and newly dated rock art at last joined the already well-dated portable art in being embraced by mainstream archaeologists as data worthy of attention. It remains to be seen in what new directions the latest technology and the impending discoveries of the twenty-first century will take rock-art studies, especially as the field is one of ever-increasing popularity in many parts of the world.

Paul G. Bahn

References

Bahn, P. 1998. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bahn, P. G., and Jean Vertut. 1988. Images of the Ice Age. New York: Facts on File.

Chippindale, C., and P. S. Tacon, eds. 1998. The Archaeology of Rock-Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Romania

Romania is rich in archaeological discoveries because of its geographical location in southeastern Europe, through which important roads used since ancient times have passed, and because of its temperate climate (Istoria României 1 1960; Istoria României 2 1962). Its diverse landscape includes thick forests and mountainous areas that afforded natural protection from invaders, and broad plains where native populations could live during peaceful times, allowing them to survive for millennia on Romania’s plentiful natural resources.

In the early nineteenth century, amateur archaeologists began to collect artifacts from ancient settlements, which led to the founding of the first museums: in Sibiu in 1817, the National Museum in Bucharest in 1834, the Historico-Natural Museum in Iaşi also in 1834, and another in Cluj in 1859. In the late nineteenth century, these amateurs began to unearth and study some Neolithic and Geto-Dacian settlements. In 1880 Grigore Tocilescu published a paper entitled “Dacia before the Romans,” and in 1912 Ion Andrieşescu published the “Contribution to Dacia before Romans.” These publications encouraged Vasile Pârvan, with the aid of Ion Andrieşescu, to train some young scholars to specialize in archaeology, and Romanian archaeological research blossomed. Young researchers started their fieldwork with university scholars such as Ion Nestor in Bucharest, Constantin Daicoviciu in Cluj, and Mircea Petrescu-Dâmboviţa in Iaşi; all over the country, archaeologists began prospecting and excavating and publishing the results in the journal Dacia, which was translated into several languages. Other museums based on small collections were founded in counties, towns, and villages (mostly small collections). Between 1926 and 1948, sites representing all historical periods were systematically excavated (Nestor 1933). Since 1950, the Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest has published Studies and Research of Ancient History and Archaeology (in Romanian) in addition to the internationally translated Dacia and numerous monographs. In the last few decades of the twentieth century, dozens of specialized periodicals were being published (almost