Education: prehistoric rock art
Rock and cave art found all over the world – including SA – tells us about life in the Stone Age
ROCK art consists of prehistoric drawings, paintings and etchings (also known as petroglyphs) done on stone. It includes stones that have been arranged to form patterns. Rock art depicts mostly animals, tools, body parts such as hands and activities such as hunting.
Studying prehistoric art can help us understand what life was like for our ancestors thousands of years ago. Rock art is found all over the world but South Africa has many of the most beautiful examples, created by the San. Let’s find out more.
THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD
Rock art in most parts of the world was made between 10 000 and 20 000 years ago, but the oldest is believed to date from 290 000 BC! We’re not sure why this art was created but most experts think it wasn’t decorative and had something to do with rituals. This is because a lot of rock art isn’t found near places where people used to live but in hard-to-reach areas and deep inside dark caves.
The caves of France and northern Spain are particularly rich in rock art. Two examples are the cave paintings in the Lascaux Cave in France (see page 80) and Altamira Caves in Spain.
The Altamira cave complex is in the region of Cantabria. The caves stretch back about 270m and have three main galleries. A landslide centuries ago sealed the main entrance, so the spectacular paintings remained preserved.
Although the caves were rediscovered in 1868 by a local hunter searching for his dog, it was only in 1879 that the land owner’s eight-year-old daughter, Maria, pointed out the painted ceiling to him.
Because of the artistic quality and how well preserved the paintings were, archaeologists at first thought they were fake. It was only in the late 1900s that they were acknowledged as genuine.
Humans lived only near the cave mouth but the paintings were made deep in the back of the complex. The main gallery is known as the Chamber of Frescoes. It’s 18m long and 9m wide. Its low ceiling is covered in realistic depictions of horses, deer and bison (a type of buffalo) in various poses. They are thought to date from 15 000 BC. There are also handprints, hand stencils and abstract engravings that date back to 34 000 BC.
The caves were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1985. The breathing and body heat of the large number of visitors the site attracted eventually damaged the paintings and the caves were closed in 2002. A replica was built nearby.
ROLE OF THE SHAMAN
It’s thought the artists were usually the tribe’s spiritual leaders, called shamans. A shaman was a hunter-
sorcerer who was believed to have supernatural powers and could influence the outcome of a hunt with his drawings.
We’ve already mentioned that the Altamira Caves contain several drawings of deer and bison. Can you guess why? It was probably because the shamans were trying to control the movement of these animals so the hunt could have a positive outcome.
ART OF THE SAN
The best-known rock art in Southern Africa was made by the San people, the area’s earliest inhabitants. They used this art to portray spiritual beliefs and practices, such as their trance dance, as well as hunting expeditions. The San’s spiritual leader or shaman was known as the !gi:xa.
Dance clearly played a big part in the spiritual and cultural life of the San. Many rock paintings show specific dance postures – such as a bowed figure or one with arms stretched out behind him. There are also depictions of people with nose bleeds, which experts believe has to do with ritual dance, and the dancer or shaman reaching a state of ecstasy.
CONSERVATION SITES
The Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town has an exquisite rock art collection.
The Main Caves Bushman Museum in Giants Castle in the Drakensberg is an open-air museum containing about 500 rock paintings.
Kamberg near Estcourt in Kwa-Zulu-Natal is where you’ll find the Shelter Cave, which can be visited with a guide.
Boesmanskloof in the Western Cape’s Cederberg and Gifberg have excellent rock art galleries.
Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre in Kimberley has been established at the site of a hill considered spiritually significant by the San and Khoi people.
The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, Northern Cape, and the Vryburg Museum in North West also house rock art exhibits.
Unesco – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – describes the value of rock art as “clear and long-lasting evidence for the transmission of human conceptual thoughts and beliefs through art and graphic representations”.
Unesco recognises the spiritual importance of rock art, the need for research into it, and the great value of having the descendants of the original artists involved in managing and decision-making regarding these sites.
Rock art is considered vulnerable, which is why Unesco’s World Heritage Centre held a conference in July 2010 with experts on rock art in order to establish an international digital archive, with conservation as its main priority.