The rock engravings which are to be found in southern Africa were made by chipping and abrading selected rock surfaces with stone tools. The majority of the engravings are in boldly chiseled outline or in negative relief formed by the complete removal of the rock-face within the outline. There are a few engravings made by incising extremely fine lines and not removing any other part of the rock surface.
The 'canvas' chosen by the artists ranges from outcrops and boulders of hard dolerite and diabase to large slabs of relatively soft sandstone. The oldest engravings are thought to be those that depict the animals in profile, in rather static poses, but executed in some detail. The more recent period includes those engravings that consist of finely chipped and sometimes abraded figures. It was during this later period that the bulls of the engravings were made.
The paintings, found in almost every part of the sub-continent where there are suitable rock-shelters or overhangs, were applied to the rock surface in many ways using fingers, brushes made of animal hair, sticks, feathers or splinters of bone. The painters used pigments ground from naturally-occurring substances. Reds and yellows were obtained from iron oxides in various forms, white from fine clay or even bone charcoal, Binders were mixed with the coloring matter to make if adhere to the rock bur these have not yet been positively identified. Many different additives may have been used but the most likely seem to be egg albumin, plant sap, blood or urine - perhaps even combinations of two or more ingredients depending on their availability and the purpose for which the paint was required.
Dating of paintings or engravings is difficult but occasionally a piece of painted or engraved stone is found in an archaeological deposit and this makes it possible to dare the material within a reasonable degree of accuracy. On rare occasions paintings on small boulders have been found - the so-called 'burial stones' and again, as a result of their associations, it is possible to date them fairly precisely. The earliest dare for a piece of pained rock found in these circumstances is from a fragments excavated from a site in southern Namibia, which was dated to almost 27 000 years ago, using radiocarbon dating. Another fragment from the northern Cape which showed unmistakable engraving has been dated to almost 10 000 years ago.
Often however, dating is imprecise and if is only possible to determine whether one painting is older than another in a sequence, but without showing its actual age. The earliest paintings are thought to be those which show the subject in profile, in static pose and usually in a single color. The next phase seems to be characterized by the use of more than one color, and where more movement and derail are shown. The most spectacular paintings with which the majority of people are familiar are those from the final stage of the art tradition - the shaded polychrome (multicolored) paintings from The eastern Cape mountains and the Natal Drakensberg and which may have been done by hunter-gatherer (San) people as recently as 1860.
Subject matter of paintings and engravings is varied but the painting medium allows much greater flexibility and thus more detail is shown. A large majority of the paintings symbolize activities centered around the ceremonies and rituals involving medicine men and often the subjects depicted are imaginary rather than real.
Research into the various aspects of rock art such as interpretation, age, methods of preservation and patterns of distribution is continuing. It is important to remember though, that this 'art' as we see it, was nor done for aesthetic reasons to decorate or beautify a shelter. It must be examined and studied as a key to the cultural response to the various stresses which existed in the everyday lives of the arises. The art is a key to our understanding of The complex symbolic rituals and ceremonies, and although or first glance many paintings may be seen simply as records of everyday occurrences, further study will reveal deeper meanings. Symbolism and ritual played an extremely important part in The lives of these people who possessed no written language. Story telling, mime and dance were all used to express emo-rion and control stress, and the 'trance dance' was an important aspect of these activities. Art was the only way in which mental images could be shared, and the sharing of trance experiences increased the unity of the group and so improved its chance of survival. Thus the development of the various styles was governed by ritual requirements and nor by a desire to create beautiful paintings.
The medicine men were the link between the spiritual world and everyday life. At a San medicine or curing dance in the Kalahari today, the women sit in a circle around The fire. They sing and clap to provide the rhythm of the special songs which are believed to release the supernatural potency which resides in the medicine men. This intense dancing and incessant music causes the men to enter into a trance, in which state they are believed to cure The sick, go on out-of-body travel, make rain or control animals. As part of the trance experience the medicine men are believed to enter the strange world of the spirits, where they plead with them for the life of the sick person. They also endeavor to counteract all manner of evil and to ensure that their people will not suffer misfortune. When they recover from the trance the medicine men tell of their experiences and share their knowledge with the people. It is the supernatural experiences of the medicine men that give some form to the spirit world and the paintings are a means of illustrating their hallucinations.
There are many unmistakable features of the trance dance depicted in the paintings. The most striking of these was nasal bleeding. The severe stress which the men experienced on entering trance caused nasal bleeding and this blood was considered to be a potent defense against evil or sickness. When a man entered Trance he was said to die but because of his power he was able to return to life. The deal metaphor is expressed in the art in a number of ways, the most important of which was based on animal behavior and likened trance to the death of an antelope, particularly an eland. In some instances the man believed that he took on animal characteristics such as hooves, but it was only people in trance who were able to see the transformation raising place.
San paintings were not composed like framed Western art, where an artist completes The picture. The San contributed different elements to The composition through time and different persons were often responsible for one panel. They also had their own way of relating paintings to one another and sometimes used thin lines to link important elements within a large group of paintings.
In certain parts of the western and southern Cape, there are large numbers of handprints in shelters on the coastal plain or adjacent valleys. It is thought that these hand prints were made by the pastoralist people as part of their rituals.
For thousands of years the San were the only inhabitants of the whole of southern Africa. Their origins are uncertain but it is known that they lived mainly by hunting animals and gathering wild plants.
About 2 000 years ago two major changes occurred, which had a profound impact on the lives of these people. At about the beginning of the Christian era a group of people who owned small livestock - sheep and perhaps goats - moved into the northern and western parts and migrated slowly southward. These pastoralists, who resembled the San in many ways, and who lived by gathering wild plants and from the products of their flocks, were the Khoikhoi or more incorrectly, 'Hottentots'. coincidentally in the eastern parts of the country another migration was occurring - the Bantu-speaking people were moving southward, bringing with them cattle, the concept of plant domestication, settled village life and a new technology in the form of metal working.
Ultimately the Khoikhoi met these Bantu farmers and obtained from them cattle in exchange for animal skins and other items. When the white settlers arrived in the mid-seventeenth century the whole country was inhabited by three different groups - the hunter-gatherer San, the pastoralist Khoikhoi and the farmer Bantu-speaking people. Rock paintings depicting these groups are to be found in various regions and show clearly the differences between them.
The rock art of the San is one of the greatest collections of paintings
and engravings in The world. Many of the paintings are so vivid that they
appear to have been completed very recently, others are so indistinct suggesting
that they are of great antiquity. However, it is the relentless forces
of natural erosion and man's vandalism which are destroying a great deal
of the art before it can be recorded and studied. Rock art is a viral source
of information about the San beliefs and customs and forms an important
part of South Africa's cultural heritage.
Marlene J. Geary | Last Updated: March 4, 1999 | Let us sit upon the ground and speak of the death of kings.