A South African forensic artist is on a rare mission: conserving ancient rock art by replicating it millimetre by millimetre.
South Africa (27 May 2025) – Stephen Townley Bassett is a forensic artist on a unique mission. Millimetre by millimetre, Stephen recreates rock art found across ancient caves in Southern Africa; symbols, thoughts, depictions and perhaps even spiritual inklings left behind by the ancient ones years and years ago.
His mission is to conserve the rock art panel by panel with hopes that his recreations of each one can either restore a former master piece, help researchers, uncover more about why the works were created, and allow these works to become more accessible in their replicated form.
Recently, Stephen was spotlighted to the world thanks to a CNN feature (his latest moment in front of the world, having been featured in documentaries before). In the piece, the Cape Town-born forensic artist explains his meticulous process, his ‘why’ and how it all began.
Fascinatingly, Stephen only works with mediums that people like the San would’ve had access to. This is how he’s figured out which materials help enhance certain colours (for example, white raptor feces and ostrich eggshells heated by fire make that white pigment) and how he’s come to the suspicion that a bee bi-product helped make a kind glue used to stick animal hairs that created an ancient brush.
For Stephen, it is a matter of protecting the rich cultural heritage that lies within caves. With decades of experience and a diligence like no other, the forensic artist’s efforts are the kind all of us can salute, especially in a world where natural challenges, vandalism and a flair of arrogance in thinking all of history has already been figured out threaten the legacy of generations upon generations before.
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