John Kinahan

The of /Ui-//aes (Twyfelfontein) ’s first World Heritage Site

Introduction North-western Namibia has a spectacular array of ancient rock art sites, containing a rich heritage of well preserved paintings and engravings. Namibia’s first World Heritage site, Twyfelfontein, or /Ui-//aes1, is the largest concentration of ancient rock engravings in southern Africa. The site has over two thou- sand images, including , elephant, rhi- noceros, ostrich, and a variety of other animal subjects, as well as abstract forms. The engrav- ings, and a small number of paintings, were created during the last 5 000 years when the people of this area lived mainly by hunting and gathering. During the long dry season the hunters depended on small waterholes such as at Twyfelfontein, where they waited for the before resuming their travels.

Approached from the north, Twyfelfontein lies in a wide open valley flanked by cliffs of The general distribution of rock art sites in Namibia reddish-coloured sandstone. These are the remains of fossilized sand dunes deposited up archaeological remains shows that this spring to 200 million years ago, in the Jurassic Period. has sustained all who ever lived in the valley. The fossil dunes rest on layers of shale which formed the bed of a shallow lake system that Twyfelfontein was proclaimed a National covered a vast area of south western Africa Monument more than fifty years ago. Since and adjacent parts of what became South Namibian independence in 1990 the site has America after the splitting of the continents. become an important tourist attraction and it Today, underground water flows between the now receives more than 50 000 visitors every shale and sandstone beds and emerges near year, from all over the world. Major repair and the foot of the cliffs at Twyfelfontein. The rehabilitation work on the site was funded dense concentration of rock art and related by the European Community in 2002, when

39 Zebra, showing the use of false relief technique Densely engraved panel with rhinoceros and giraffe, and showing the use of shallow pecked technique the site facilities had fallen into disrepair and threaten its integrity and reduce its value as them to respond quickly to life-giving rainfall, year. They would remain at these sites as the uncontrolled erosion of visitor paths threat- a heritage and tourism asset. while retaining the ability to endure long weaker and less reliable springs dried up, and ened a number of important rock art panels. periods of drought. A brief global warming sometimes groups of several families might Following an extended period of consultation event about 5 000 years ago brought a new have been forced to remain together for sev- and research, Twyfelfontein was nominated Archaeological background wave of human settlement to this region, and eral months, their food supplies running lower as a World Heritage site in 2007. The site was Modern people and their ancestors have lived it is during this time that the great florescence as they awaited the first . During these acknowledged by the World Heritage Com- in the dry western parts of Namibia for more of rock art began. Hunter-gatherer communi- times of near famine, tensions would have mission for its outstanding significance as an than half a million years. The archaeological ties, ancestral to the San or Bushman people run high, with social harmony threatened by example of the final florescence of hunter record of this region is characterized by short of today, evolved highly specialized uses of conflict over scarce resources. Descriptions of gatherer ritual art. The exceptional preserva- periods of intensive occupation, followed by food plants, as well as sophisticated hunting life among historic and recent hunter gatherer tion of the art and its natural surroundings prolonged gaps, such as during the glacial strategies employing snares, poisons and the communities in southern Africa emphasize the were important additional considerations2. maximum at the end of the Tertiary Period, deadly composite arrow. These techniques great importance of ritual healing, as most when the western parts of Namibia were al- were combined with a highly mobile way of illness and misfortune was thought to have The National Monument, which forms the most completely depopulated. life in which small family groups moved over its origins in social discord. Ritual healers, also core area of the World Heritage site is just large distances between water sources, hunt- known as medicine people, or shamans, would over 50 hectares in extent. This area contains About 10 000 years ago, climatic conditions ing grounds and patches of nutritious plant have been in demand during the dry time of the bulk of the rock art and forms the main returned to something like we have today: foods3. the year, and it is no surprise to find that the focus of attention. Surrounding the core area patchy and often unreliable summer rains, fol- archaeological sites near these main water is a buffer zone of more than 9000 hectares lowing a long dry season. Sometimes, several The archaeological evidence shows that sources also contain the highest concentra- which is intended to protect the general en- years pass with little or no rain. Plants and over the last 5 000 years hunter-gatherers liv- tions of rock art in Namibia4. vironment of the site against encroachment animals in this environment exhibit a wide ing in western Namibia kept returning to the Most of the thousands of rock art sites in by settlement and other activities that could range of special adaptations which enable same water sources in the dry months of the Namibia are located along the mountainous

40 41 and often ambiguous archaeological evidence. Time and circumstance lead to the extinction of some communities, while others adopted farming and changed their customs forever. This diverse cultural landscape included the an- cestors of the San or Bushman people of today, as well as the Damara, but the precise identity of the artists may never be discovered5.

Radiocarbon dates from excavations at Twyfelfontein show that two of the painted sites were occupied at least 5 000 years ago. It is possible that some of the engravings are older, but some are very much younger. En- gravings of cattle at this site must date to within the last 1 000 years6, when farming communities spread through Namibia, bring- ing domestic animals, crops and metals. A men’s game depicted among the engravings is known in Khoekhoegowab as //hus, and this was almost certainly introduced to Namibia at the same time as cattle, for the rules of the game are rooted in the social values of nomadic pastoralism. A less obvious indicator of recent date might be the use of polishing as an engraving technique, suggesting a link with women’s work in the grinding of wild grass seed, a practice that only began with View of the site from the south. the widespread use of pottery in the last 1 000 The broad, open area halfway up the slope below the cliffs has a high density of engraving sites years. The art tradition seems to have largely died out in Namibia centuries ago, and many rock art sites were unoccupied during the last Twyfelfontein, coming to rest on the slopes in profile, usually with both fore- and hind thousand years. below where further disintegration has pro- legs depicted. Sometimes folds in the skin are duced a chaotic rubble slope. Natural fractur- shown, as is the patterning of the hide, in the ing of the sandstone is both parallel and semi- stripes of the zebra or the reticulated pattern Rock art technique and placement perpendicular to the bedding, and engravings of the giraffe. Some of the engravings appear Twyfelfonein sandstone is a hard, coarse- appear on both kinds of faces. Generally, the crude, while others seem obviously unfinished, grained quartzitic material with clearly visible faces parallel to the bedding are prone to persuading some earlier observers to suggest bedding planes showing characteristic features spalling, and significant areas of engraved that this reflected differences in artistic ability, All bird engravings depict non-passerine (striding) species such as ostrich of aeolian deposition. These include both rip- surface have been lost to natural disintegra- certain artists being more accomplished or ple marks and indications of sheet collapse on tion of the rock. In some places, the engraved practiced than others. Still others suggested the leeward or slip-face of an unconsolidated surface is barely attached to the parent rock that variation in the art reflects the ontoge- escarpment. Some places, such as the Dâures, dune. Some of the sandstone in the lower and these engravings are highly vulnerable. netic development, florescence and decline or Brandberg massif, have a remarkably high parts of the sequence was deposited under The fracture planes that are perpendicular to of rock engraving. There could be merit in concentration of rock art sites. Today, the rock semi-fluvial conditions and shows characteristic the bedding are generally harder and much these arguments, but it is just as likely that art of southern Africa is recognized as the features such as load casts resulting from the less prone to spalling. These faces also form technique was dictated by subject matter, cultural legacy of hunter-gatherer peoples compaction of moist sediments under heavy the overhangs where the paintings are con- according to specific rules which are still to who occupied the whole of the region before overburden, and shallow lenses of rounded centrated. be discovered. It is equally probable that the the coming of agriculture, livestock farming pebbles in a fine mudstone matrix. combinations of technique and subject matter and, more recently colonial rule. However, Most, but by no means all, of the engrav- seen at Twyfelfontein characterize the work our knowledge of them is incomplete, as it Large masses of rock have broken away ings at Twyfelfontein present the subject in of specific individuals, artist shamans whose must rely to a large extent on fragmentary from the overhanging sandstone cliffs at broad, generalized outline. Animals are shown identity we will never know.

42 43 Densely engraved panel including five toed lion spoor An example of the many inaccessible engravings found at the site

No fewer than six distinct engraving tech- subject, such as in muscle folds, to vivid effect to be deliberately positioned to make use of surrounding rocks shows that they were delib- niques are recognizable at the site. Most of in raking light. These techniques rely mainly the physical setting as part of the rock art7. erately positioned to overlap the edge of the the images are engraved by shallow pecking on percussion, unlike the deep ground cupules Examples of deliberate placement of en- rock. There are no broken pieces bearing parts to define the outline, leaving the rock cortex which appear to have been made by rotating gravings include a significant concentration of the engraving. This positioning of images intact in the case of an animal subject. Clearly a sharp stone, possibly with the use of an abra- of animal spoor and related imagery at the relating to the onset of trance may therefore different is the use of deep pecking, which of- sive. Abrasives are certain to have been used entrance to a natural tunnel in the rock face have used the edge of the rock surface as an ten creates a rough surface within the body of to create the unique flat polish effect seen which allows movement from one physical artistic device possibly signifying the edge of the engraving. These are not stages of devel- in the Dancing Kudu, also described below. space to another. There are also human foot- consciousness, in much the same way as fis- opment but separate techniques, deep pecked prints placed several meters above normal sures and tunnels were used to denote points images usually having more precisely defined Most of the paintings at Twyfelfontein are reach, on a sheer rock-face. The footprints of entry to the supernatural realm. outlines. Shallow pecked animal spoor are found in open rock shelters. Hidden paintings, may refer to the shaman’s sensation of rising often poorly defined, whereas deep pecked located in rock crevices and other such places, through the air as he enters trance, as well as The rock art, primarily the engravings, at spoor are more precise, being clearly iden- have a double significance in the sphere of rit- the belief that the shaman could actually fly. this site shows that the images were inte- tifiable to species, and sometimes gender. ual practice. On the one hand they are located grated with the terrain, so that significance A third technique is that of false shading, a in places of seclusion which may have been A relatively common example of deliber- does not reside in the image by itself but in shallow type of engraving which removes only used by the shaman in solitary preparation, ate placement concerns what are sometimes its placement in the physical space inhabited superficial cortex to create a colour variation while on the other hand, crevices and fissures loosely referred to as abstract, or inanimate by the artists and ritual participants. Clearly, in the body of the subject, best exemplified would also have served as points of entry to subjects. These frequently appear at the edge the physical qualities of the terrain were im- by the Lion Man engraving described below. the supernatural world. There are similar pat- of large rock slabs and seem at first sight to portant in ritual practice. This is differs from the technique of false re- terns to be seen among the engravings: most have been broken by the natural splitting of The dense clustering of rock art at Twyfel- lief, where the outline is deeply incised and are found on open and highly visible rock the rock after the engraving was made. But fontein, close to the spring would have had the cortex removed to show the form of the surfaces, while others are hidden, or seem close examination of these engravings and the ritual as well as practical importance; while

44 45 The well known dancing kudu engraving, an example of the extremely unusual flat polish technique Anatomically perfect form of a black rhino showing the use of deep pecked technique there are suitable rock faces elsewhere in the the engraved surface is parallel to the bedding There are several features of the Dancing the top of the panel appear to be broken but area that were not used for rock engraving, of the sandstone and therefore vulnerable to Kudu that refer directly to women’s sexuality in this is an example of the convention by which and many of those on the site itself were used fracture. The nearly black surface of the panel the context of ritual trance. The kudu is shown the artists used the edge of the rock to show many times over. is unusual; it is caused by the presence of dark- with its neck extended and shoulders lowered, the edge of consciousness, and the onset of The whole site centring on the spring was coloured heavy minerals, such as manganese, typical of the submissive female when ready to ritual trance. The semicircles surrounded by clearly of immense ritual importance; then, which were separated from the lighter quartz mate. Importantly, in rock art the same posture cupules to the right of the kudu could depict certain places among the rocks were recog- grains when the dune sands were transported indicates the state of ritual trance, combined the seclusion shelters where young women nized as physical portals, or access points to by the wind. here with the outspread legs and half-raised were confined during initiation. Paintings of the supernatural realm, while others answered tail, two further artistic conventions signifying initiation rites including such shelters are well the special requirements for performance ar- Kudu are not common in the rock engrav- ritual trance. The fact that the Dancing Kudu known, and there are also detailed ethno- eas. For the Great Dance, adequate space was ings of Twyfelfontein, and this image produced is shown heavily pregnant amplifies this inter- graphic descriptions of the practice. Although needed, as well as desirable acoustic qualities. by the technique of flat polishing rather by pretation. Another possible allusion to women these engravings are highly stylized they very chipping, provides unique insights into the is the polished surface of the engraving which likely represent the small semicircles of upright meaning of the art. Kudu, especially females, recalls the grindstones used to prepare food rocks which may be seen on the area of flat Some outstanding examples played an important part in the ritual life of from wild plants. Women communicated with ground in front of the Dancing Kudu panel. Not all of the engravings at Twyfelfontein are hunter-gatherers, because of their relevance ancestral spirits by pounding on rock surfaces open to the visitor as some have become very to the concerns of women. The behaviour of near waterholes, and these places often have More cross-referencing of hunter-gatherer fragile, and others are situated on unstable, the female kudu was thought to exemplify highly polished grinding surfaces. This could ritual and details of animal behaviour and dangerous slopes. The Dancing Kudu panel is the attitudes that marriageable women were explain polished circle with its central cupule physiology are to be seen in the Lion Man on the top of a large flat rock where a viewing expected to display, and for this reason the in front of the Dancing Kudu. panel. The Lion Man itself is also a very fine ex- platform has been erected for the conveni- Dancing Kudu engraving may have played a Some of the other images on the Danc- ample of false shading technique, here leaving ence of the visitor and for the protection of part in women’s initiation rites carried out ing Kudu panel might also relate to rituals the natural rock cortex intact on the shoulders the panel. At a glance it is possible to see that at this site8. of female initiation. The abstract figures at and flanks of the lion, to create an illusion of

46 47 north-western Namibia. These two engravings ago, when community-based management (and their few related images on the same systems proved inadequate to the conservation site) exhibit advanced mastery of technique, problems at the site. Footpaths had become both highly idiosyncratic. In contemporary art severe erosion gullies which threatened to these distinctions would in all likelihood be ex- destabilize important rock art panels; there plained as marking the work of specific artists. were no toilet facilities, and much of the site In the rock art context it would be permissible was badly polluted. The emergency repair suggest that these highly developed styles had works undertaken at Twyfelfontein, initiated a deeper significance due to the combination by the European Community-funded Namibia of artistic and ritual practice. These are but Tourism Development Programme and the two of several distinct styles at Twyfelfontein, Namibia Archaeological Trust, laid the founda- which, if they were roughly contemporaneous, tions for the eventual nomination of Twyfel- might reflect the rise of specialist shamans here fontein as a World Heritage site. as elsewhere in the region, during the last one to two thousand years. The methods used in the emergency repairs at Twyfelfontein comply with the UNESCO Burra Charter, especially regarding the use of Future prospects and concerns site facilities that are removable, and that the In Namibia, rock art sites are particularly vul- minimum necessary interventions are made. nerable: site management is generally weak, or To meet these standards, visitor pathways even absent, and visitor pressure is higher than at Twyfelfontein were rationalized and old anywhere else in Africa. Combined with this is paths that had become erosion gullies were the natural threat posed by extremely friable backfilled and closed down. New paths were rock, making sites such as Twyfelfontein par- built using packed stone gabion steps on all ticularly prone to landslides and other forms steep gradients. Loose gravel was used as a of natural deterioration. Without properly dust suppressant measure, and all handrails The famous Lion Man engraving, showing the use of false shading technique, especially around the torso trained site management, and full cooperation and rest shelters were made from recycled of the tourism industry, major rock art sites scrap-metal, salvaged from old mine workings. in Namibia will become degraded, so losing The viewing platforms installed at three of depth. The giraffe immediately behind the the skin of a shaman under the influence of much of their value as cultural heritage10. the rock engraving panels were made from lion was done with the same technique, but a lion familiar. prefabricated modular components designed the rest of the panel, including zebra, rhino, The Lion Man engraving is so named be- If properly monitored and managed, to meet industrial safety standards, although cattle and various antelope all show use of the cause its paws have five rather than four toes. Twyfelfontein can bear the impact of visitor the steel parts of the platforms were treated more commonplace shallow pecking. This shows that the engraving depicts a sha- numbers in excess of 50 000 per year, the level to accelerate superficial rusting and so allow man in the form of a lion. One of the paws it has recently attained. However, the flow of the structures to blend visually into the ter- Lion occupied a special place in the ritual has more than five toes, and the tail has a visitors is uneven, both over the peak and low rain. Dry compost toilet facilities were installed life of southern African hunter-gatherers; the paw at the end. Shamans in trance sometimes visitor seasons, where numbers vary by up to at the Visitor Centre and two places on the folklore is replete with lion stories, and these experienced what is known as polymelia, the five hundred percent, and over the cool and guided routes. very often refer to the ability of shamans to possession of extra limbs. This is a form of hot hours of the day, where similar variation become lions, or at least take on some of their somatic hallucination, in which things are felt occurs in both peak and low seasons. The visi- One of the most important requirements characteristics. In ritual trance, the shaman rather than imagined. The tail of the lion is tor facilities at Twyfelfontein were specifically for World Heritage nomination is the formula- would sometimes experience what felt like taken as the extra limb, and it is interesting to devised to cater for the average group size, tion and implementation of a Property Man- short hair, similar to that of a lion, actually note that lion do occasionally show a claw-like of ten or fewer people. Paths, rest areas and agement Plan. Part of this is the establishment sprouting from his skin. The fact that people growth near the end of the tail, in the tuft toilet facilities were designed around this av- of a visual exclusion zone based on a “views- in trance were apt to bite their fellows, was of hair at the end. This engraving illustrates erage, and the viewing platforms at the main cape” from the site itself. The idea behind the considered another potentially dangerous both the influence of trance experience on sites were designed to carry a safe maximum exclusion zone is to ensure, by agreement of feline characteristic. Lion were often associ- the art, and a highly detailed knowledge of of eight people. all management stakeholders, that the visual ated with evil or malignant forces, in contrast the animal, its physiology and behaviour9. setting of the site is not disturbed by unsightly to antelope, which represented benign and Tourist numbers in this part of Namibia developments. The undisturbed setting of socially harmonious qualities. Antelope fat The Dancing Kudu and the Lion Man are have increased ten-fold in the last decade, and Twyfelfontein, and the absence of intrusive was used as an antidote, to be rubbed on unusual among the engravings of Twyfelfon- Twyfelfontein, as well as several other sites, structures was one of the major features of its tein, but unique among the engravings of faced extreme deterioration about five years World Heritage nomination. The Twyfelfontein

48 49 Notes Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Dowson, T. 1989. 1. The name Twyfelfontein means Images of power: understanding Bushman “doubtful fountain” and refers to the spring rock art. Johannesburg: Southern. on the hillside above the ruined farmstead built in the late 1940’s by David Levin. Levin 8. Eastwood, E. B. and Cnoops, C. 1999. Cap- was one of the hardy pioneers who moved turing the spoor: towards explaining kudu in into this part of Namibia after the Second San rock art of the Limpopo-Shashe confluence World War. Displaced indigenous people be- area, South African Archaeological Bulletin gan to return in the 1960’s when the colonial 54: 107-119. government expropriated the farms for reset- tlement of urbanized Damara communities. 9. Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Dowson, T. 1989. The traditional Damara or Khoekhoegowab Images of power: understanding Bushman name, /Ui-//aes, or “place among the rocks” rock art. Johannesburg: Southern. has been revived as an alternative name for the site, in acknowledgement of the small 10. Hitchcock, R. 2007. Rock art, cultural tour- nomadic community removed from the site ism and the indigenous peoples of southern Steps on the visitor pathway constructed as steel gabions An unusual example of super-positioning, with an ante- under colonial rule. Africa. In Deacon, J. ed. African rock art: the filled with loose rubble to allow surface drainage lope, probably orxy superimposed on a bird figure future of Africa’s past. Proceedings of the 2004 2. Kinahan, J. and Kinahan, J. H. A. 2006. International rock art conference, Nairobi. Twyfelfontein /Ui-//aes World Heritage Site Nairobi: TARA, pp. 49-58. Property Management Plan also includes a of relieving pressure by spreading the volume Volume 1: Nomination dossier & Volume 2: specially devised GIS, linking a graphic and of visitors over a number of sites. Property management plan. National Com- 11. Deacon, J. 2007. Management strategies analytical database for the engravings, with mittee for the Implementation of the World for African rock art. In Deacon, J. ed. African a baseline survey of the site and buffer zone, The sandstone cliffs of Twyfelfontein are Heritage Convention in Namibia. rock art: the future of Africa’s past. Proceed- from footpaths, to gravel pits, landing strips, prone to landslides and other potentially disas- ings of the 2004 International rock art confer- accommodation establishments and all other trous events. Little or nothing can be done to 3. Richter, J. 1991. Studien zur Urgeschichte ence, Nairobi. Nairobi: TARA, pp. 29-34. facilities. prevent these, but effective site management Namibias: Holozana Stratigraphien im Umkre- can control and reduce the effects of human iss des Brandberges. 3. Afrika Praehistorica. 12. Molin, J. 2006. Twyfelfontein – a rock art As with other sites in southern Africa, traffic and its tendency to accelerate natural Koeln: Heinrich Barth Institut. site of local significance. Studies in the African where the rock art is located on communal deterioration. Here, a combination of weak Past 5: 34-46. or state land rather than private property, the management with no technical oversight, and 4. Kinahan, J. 2001. Pastoral nomads of the Twyfelfontein management plan requires that an aggressively profit-driven tourism industry Namib : the people history forgot. 2nd all stakeholders are involved in the planning, pose a serious threat to the future of one of Edition. : Namibia Archaeological execution and management of site develop- the world’s most remarkable rock art sites. Trust. ments11. Site management objectives include developing a sustainable local tourism effort John Kinahan 5. Coulson, D and Campbell, A.C. 2001. African which would generate employment, training Namib Desert Archaeological Survey rock art: paintings and engravings on stone. and small enterprise opportunities. Urgently P.O. Box 22407 New York: Abrams. Also, Scherz, E. R. 1975. needed at the site are better coordination of Windhoek, NAMIBIA Felsbilder in Suedwest-Afrika, Teil II. Koeln: visitor traffic and appropriate training for [email protected] Bohlau. local guides12. If tourism in the Twyfelfontein area contin- Rock art photographs by Markus Weiss. 6. Wendt, W. E. 1972. Preliminary report on an ues to grow at its present rate, visitor numbers archaeological research programme in South will exceed the carrying capacity of the site West Africa. Cimbebasia (B) 2, 1-61. (estimated at no more than 1 000 visitors per The text of this article is based on the book day); guides and site management may find Spirit Rocks: the ancient art of /Ui-//aes, by 7. Dowson, T. 1992. Rock engravings of south- it difficult to control the flow of visitors and John Kinahan, to be published by the Na- ern Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand Uni- facilities may start to deteriorate. The man- mibia Archaeological Trust in August 2011. versity Press. agement plan for Twyfelfontein therefore requires that the National Heritage Council, Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Blundell, G. 2000. as the responsible authority, investigate ways Fragile heritage: a rock art field guide. Jo- hannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

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