DOCSLIB.ORG

Rock Art Researchers in the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rock Art Researchers in the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Rock art researchers in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg by Elwyn Jenkins he uKhahlamba Drakensberg the development of an understanding mountain range has a very of the art. Tlarge number of rock paintings, The first serious analysis of the including some of the most beautiful meaning of a Drakensberg painting in the world. Some date back possibly came about in 1873, when Joseph thousands of years and others were still Orpen, who was the British Resident being painted by San people late in the in Nomansland, was sent at the head nineteenth century. Since the nineteenth of a Sotho contingent to pursue Lan- century, they have fascinated visitors. galibalele. He found as a guide Qing, a People have searched for them and young San survivor, who was working recorded them in various ways. They as a hunter for a Sotho chief (Nquasha, have recorded their location; counted of Qacha’s Nek). Orpen had already them; made freehand copies, traced and copied paintings, and he now copied photographed them; excavated around paintings he saw along the way. He them; vandalised them; and removed requested Qing to give him explana- them. Many people have written about tions of the paintings. Qing spoke in the paintings, attempting to date them, sePhuti, which was translated by a So- describing them and analysing them. tho interpreter into English, and Orpen In this article I give a personal view of recorded his explanations. One of his the most notable of these personalities, copies, made in Sehonghong shelter, at the same time recounting in broad shows people interacting with strange outline what I believe to have been animals. The copy was not accurate, but 50 Natalia 49 (2019) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2019 Rock art researchers in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg it has become very well known and is that included Qing’s explanations for still often reproduced (Figure 1). two sets of paintings, to which Bleek’s Orpen sent his copies to the editor notes, which included Diä!kwain’s of the Cape Monthly Magazine, who comments, were published as an ad- forwarded them to Dr Wilhelm Bleek, dendum.2 a German linguist living in Cape Town. The first researcher to have been Together with his sister-in-law Lucy commissioned by a professional prehis- Lloyd, and later his daughter Dorothea, torian was Louis Tylor, a nephew of Sir Bleek had undertaken a project to tran- Edward Tylor, curator of the Pitt-Rivers scribe the lore of some San people who Museum in Oxford. In 1893, at his re- were living with them in Cape Town. quest, Louis went to the Drakensberg, The extensive Bleek records are now where he located 30 sites and copied housed at the University of Cape Town.1 about 80 groups of paintings freehand. Bleek showed Orpen’s copies to He also removed slabs, of which six are Diä!kwain and asked him to explain on display at the Pitt-Rivers. Many of them – thus his explanation was inde- the shelters he located have since been pendent of any other. Diä!kwain said claimed to have been found by people that the strange painting depicted rain who have named them after themselves. animals. Lucy Lloyd’s transcription of One of the paintings he copied, in what his account is the first record of San is now called Willcox Shelter, was of beliefs in rain animals and rain making. an enigmatic figure which is also to be The painting is now understood to show seen at two other sites (Figure 2).3 We shamans leading rain animals, while will return to it later. Tylor’s interest in two of them are thought to be hold- it shows that from the outset observers ing buchu plants, which were used to saw that the paintings included ones that subdue the rain animal. Orpen wrote an must have a ‘magical’ or supernatural article for the Cape Monthly Magazine explanation. Figure 1: Orpen’s copy of the rain animals panel 51 Natalia 49 (2019) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2019 Rock art researchers in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Trooper A.D. Whyte, who in 1905 was instructed to locate all the paintings in the Bushman’s Nek district. He located 37 sites. Patricia Vinnicombe reports that ‘As a result of his recommenda- tions, about 20 groups of paintings, some comprising more than one stone, were removed from various sites by an expert stone mason, R. Clingan, and deposited in the Natal Museum.’4 Wil- liam Anderson, government geologist in Natal, published a report in 1907 that included the first photographs of paintings.5 Jeremy Hollmann and Lawrence Msi- manga, of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg, reported in 2008 on a sad case of vandalism and the removal of rock art: uMhwabane Shelter (also known as eBusingatha Shelter) is a rock art site alongside the eBusingatha River in the amaZizi Traditional Authority Area. It is one of KwaZulu-Natal’s problem rock art sites. Today it still contains at least 50 hunter-gatherer paintings Figure 2: The figure in Willcox Shelter but there used to be many more. As copied by Tylor with other easily accessible rock art sites that have no access control, While Tylor was working at Main the art has suffered from vandalism. Caves, a farmer, Mark Hutchinson, told Authorities responded by removing some 31 painted rocks at the time of him that he had copied paintings eight- the visit of the British royal family to een years before at the request of Sir South Africa in 1947. The institutions Henry Bulwer. His copies are housed in entrusted with their care subsequently the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, and two neglected the art. Action is now be- of them were published in 1905 in the ing taken to conserve and display the Natal Agricultural and Mining Record. removed rock art.6 At the same time, Brother Otto Mäder This intervention shows how valuable from Mariannhill, an artist, removed the growth of professional archaeol- slabs – one is at Mariannhill – and he ogy has been in providing an overview made copies, mostly on the Kei River. of the situation regarding rock art in Subsequently, many enthusiasts have the Drakensberg and minimising ill- written about the paintings, copied them informed interaction with the art. and removed them. The KwaZulu-Natal Increased overseas awareness of Museum has many records and original the art led to visits by two prominent paintings. An early contributor was prehistorians. The Frenchman Abbé 52 Natalia 49 (2019) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2019 Rock art researchers in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Henri Breuil dominated ideas about his coloured copies. He had a serious rock art around the world in the first aim: to cut through the ‘maelstrom’ of half of the twentieth century. He first theories and find a ‘sober approach’. visited South Africa in 1929, and took This was an artistic one, not a rational, shelter in the country during the Second logical procedure: it was what he called World War. He promoted two theories ‘pure aesthetic enjoyment’. Though he about rock art: that it was motivated said he was putting aside preconceived by sympathetic magic, painted to aid ideas, his approach was subjective and the hunt (though there are actually few Western. He did not refer to San beliefs hunting scenes in southern African rock because he said the significance of the art); or that it was art for art’s sake – a art was ‘self-evident’. philosophical view of the nature of Battiss’s mentors were Abbé Breuil art dating from the early nineteenth and the government archaeologist C. century – consisting of ‘pictures that van Riet Lowe, who wrote the preface resulted from a universal, innate desire and foreword respectively to The Art- to express oneself and from a simple ists of the Rocks. He thought South delight in capturing daily life’.7 His African rock art could be divided into utterances on southern African rock three periods. He could not believe that art were unhelpful, as he believed the the most beautiful and skilled art was artists were ancient Minoans, Cretans painted and engraved by the San; he or Phoenicians. He claimed to have believed the ‘little Bushmen’ were naïve identified paintings of Phoenicians in and primitive and incapable of great the Drakensberg.8 art. Therefore the ‘Early’ art, which Professor Leo Frobenius, who un- was the most beautiful, was probably dertook expeditions from Germany to done by unidentified artists. He wrote South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and approvingly that ‘in Game Pass Valley other parts of the world that made vast in the Natal Drakensberg there are very numbers of copies, brought out a team clear hooded and cloaked figures with in 1928–1930 that copied among oth- white monkey faces. Professor van Riet ers 55 paintings from western Lesotho Lowe, who has made a special study and 45 from the Drakensberg. They of them, considers they are foreigners’ are housed in the Frobenius Institute in (Figure 4).11 His ‘Middle’ period was Frankfurt-am-Main. problematic, and the ‘Last’ period – The most prominent South African consisting of scenes – was by the San. to popularise awareness of the art was A different approach to investigating the artist Walter Battiss, who frequently the art was taken by Marion How, who acknowledged the influence of southern was born in Basutoland. Her father and African rock art on his own work. He grandfather had an intimate knowledge published two books on rock art, The of the Basotho and their history. She Amazing Bushman (1939)9 and The drew on their records and the help Artists of the Rocks, which appeared of many other people in publishing in a handsome limited edition of 500 her book, The Mountain Bushmen of copies in 1948.10 He was a pioneer Basutoland (1970).12 The illustrator, in the use of photography to record James Walton, lived in Basutoland rock art, and included monochrome for thirteen years, during which time photographs in his books in addition to he copied paintings from hundreds of 53 Natalia 49 (2019) CC-BY-NC cc Natal Society Foundation 2019 Rock art researchers in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg rock shelters, many of them previously information of this kind was uncovered unknown.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Of the Nineteenth-Century Maloti- Drakensberg Mountains1
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery The ‘Interior World’ of the Nineteenth-Century Maloti- Drakensberg Mountains1 Rachel King*1, 2, 3 and Sam Challis3 1 Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom 2 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom 3 Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract Over the last four decades archaeological and historical research has the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains as a refuge for Bushmen as the nineteenth-century colonial frontier constricted their lifeways and movements. Recent research has expanded on this characterisation of mountains-as-refugia, focusing on ethnically heterogeneous raiding bands (including San) forging new cultural identities in this marginal context. Here, we propose another view of the Maloti-Drakensberg: a dynamic political theatre in which polities that engaged in illicit activities like raiding set the terms of colonial encounters. We employ the concept of landscape friction to re-cast the environmentally marginal Maloti-Drakensberg as a region that fostered the growth of heterodox cultural, subsistence, and political behaviours. We introduce historical, rock art, and ‘dirt’ archaeological evidence and synthesise earlier research to illustrate the significance of the Maloti-Drakensberg during the colonial period. We offer a revised southeast-African colonial landscape and directions for future research. Keywords Maloti-Drakensberg, Basutoland, AmaTola, BaPhuthi, creolisation, interior world 1 We thank Lara Mallen, Mark McGranaghan, Peter Mitchell, and John Wright for comments on this paper. This research was supported by grants from the South African National Research Foundation’s African Origins Platform, a Clarendon Scholarship from the University of Oxford, the Claude Leon Foundation, and the Smuts Memorial Fund at Cambridge.
    [Show full text]
  • Repainting of Images on Rock in Australia and the Maintenance of Aboriginal Culture [1988]
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269164534 REPAINTING OF IMAGES ON ROCK IN AUSTRALIA AND THE MAINTENANCE OF ABORIGINAL CULTURE [1988] Article in Antiquity · December 1988 DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00075086 CITATIONS READS 34 212 4 authors, including: Graeme K Ward Australian National University 75 PUBLICATIONS 1,081 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Cosmopolitanism, Social Justice and Global Archaeology View project Pathway Project View project All content following this page was uploaded by Graeme K Ward on 06 December 2014. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. REPAINTING OF IMAGES ON ROCK IN AUSTRALIA AND THE MAINTENANCE OF ABORIGINAL CULTURE [1988] David MOWALJARLAI Wanang Ngari Corporation, PO Box 500, Derby WA 6723 Patricia VINNICOMBE Department of Aboriginal Sites, Western Australian Museum, Perth WA 6005 Graeme K WARD Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, GPO Box 553, Canberra ACT 2601 Christopher CHIPPINDALE Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ Published in Antiquity 62 (237): 690-696 (December 1988) Introduction This paper has grown out of public and private discussions at the First AURA (Australian Rock Art Research Association) Congress held in Darwin (NT), Australia, in August 1988. DM is a traditional Aboriginal ‘lawman’ concerned to make his viewpoint known to a wider audience following controversy over the repainting of images in rock-shelters in his territory, A highlight of the AURA Congress was the participation of Australian Aboriginal people. They and their ancestors are the source of the painted and engraved images discussed in Australian sections of the conference and seen on field excursions.
    [Show full text]
  • TRADITION OR INVENTION: REMEMBERING and REVIVING MEANING of PLACES Marilyn TRUSCOTT*, Australie / Australia
    Sub-theme B: Impact of change and diverse perceptions Sous-thème B : Impact du changement et perceptions diverses ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Section B2: Diversity of perceptions Session B2 : Diversité des perceptions et des sens ________________________________________________________________________________________________ TRADITION OR INVENTION: REMEMBERING AND REVIVING MEANING OF PLACES Marilyn TRUSCOTT*, Australie / Australia I would like to acknowledge the Nambia people here at Case Study 1 – Rock Art Repainting Mosi Oa Tunya (Victoria Falls) and thank them for their welcome to ICOMOS earlier this week. I also dedicate The first case study is in the far north west of Australia in this paper to colleague Pat Vinnicombe, the South African the extensive Kimberleys. In the wet tropics, this is an and Australian rock art specialist, who died earlier this extensive area of rugged sandstone plateau dissected by year, working on the cause of the protection of rock art in rivers, remote from main population centres (distances), Western Australia. although increasingly it is a destination for Australian and international tourists wanting a wilderness and / or Continuity of intangible cultural values often required a Indigenous Australian experience. For this area is not tangible manifestation. This may be a place where the only rich in natural biodiversity but has a rich and relationship between the physical nature of the place – its longstanding and still vital Aboriginal culture. fabric and the ‘intangible’ associations with that place and the meanings that place has to a group of people have I have explained aspects of the Australian Indigenous continued through time. Such associations and their cultures in past papers at ICOMOS Scientific Symposia, cultural significance are increasingly recognised in which although there were 300 different language groups, national and international systems.
    [Show full text]
  • On a Brighter Note, Menick Posnansky, Profes- Has Been
    NYAME AKUMA No. 59 June 2003 at the University of Witwaterssand in Johannesburg as the RARIVicombe Collection. Over the last year or so, we have lost some of On a brighter note, Menick Posnansky, Profes- the leaders in Afii.ican archaeology, most notably Pro- sor Emeritus of History and Anthmjmlogy at UCLA fessor J. Desmond Clark, a pioneer of stone age re- has been awarded the John Haniugton medal of the search and a strong proponent of SAEA. Many of us SocietyforHistorical~l~rchaeology2003.Thisaward will remember his retirement confkmnce, held at the is named in honor ofJohn Carl Harrin,gton (19O1-1998), University of CaLifomia, Berkeley in 1986. It was only one of the pioneers of historic archaeology in North a retirement liom regular teaching as Desmond con- America. The award is presented for a life time of schol- tinued to contribute in many ways. The year 200 1 saw arly contributions to the discipline. This is richly de- the publication of the third volume of his Kalambo served. Menick pioneered the study of historical ar- Falls Prehistoric Site reports, completing the descrip- chaeology at U-, and trained a number of people tion of the stone age archaeological assemblages at doing Afican historic archaeology as well as what is this important long term Zambian locality. generally referred to as “diaspora studies”, the study of Black people throughout the Americas. It is perhaps In April 2003, Susan Kent ofold Dominion Uni- fitting that this issue of Nyame Ahma should have a versity passed away suddenly in Milwaukee, where diaspora article (by Johnson), the fmt since I became she was attending the annual meeting of the Society editor.
    [Show full text]
  • December 2005
    ~.THE DIGGING STICK Volume 22, No 3 ISSN 1013-7521 December 2005 THE MALEOSKOP ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT Groblersdal District, Mpumalanga Willem Boshoff and Danie Kruger The Maleoskop area represents a diverse by a combined Swazi and Boer force. It was this collection of archaeological sites. Included are attack that ended the Bakopa occupation of scattered Middle and Late Stone Age sites, Thabantsho. ancient mining sites, a Late Iron Age settlement at ThabantSho and the remains of a mission The Maleoskop Archaeological Project station named Gerlachshoop. Unisa's Maleoskop Archaeological Project got This was the first mission station to be estab­ underway in 2001. Despite the rich variety of lished by the Berlin Missionary Society north of archaeological remains in the area, it was decid­ the Vaal River. Furthermore there are the ed to focus attention on the settlement area at remains of an early 20th century trader's settle­ Thabantsho and the Gerlachshoop mission ment, post point and wagon route. The sites, station. Thabantsho comprises several distinct concentrated on the farm Rietkloof JS166 south­ features: the highest hill Thabantsho, the settle­ east of Groblersdal in Mpumalanga, previously ment areas at its base and the flanking hills to the formed part of an SAPS training base called north and west. A surface survey (2001 to 2003) Maleoskop. The area has since been returned to yielded circular fortification walls on the three the Bakgaga 8akopa tribe after a successful land hills and numerous demarcation walls in the claim. valley, a huge kgoro (meeting place), many con- The historical context In 1859, the Bakopa moved from their previous settlement at De Oude Stadt to settle in the vicinity of a prominent hill named Thaban­ tsho.
    [Show full text]
  • New Perspectives on Anxiety, Refuge, and Colonialism in Southern Africa
    Living on edge: New perspectives on anxiety, refuge, and colonialism in southern Africa Rachel King1, 2, 3 1 Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge 2 McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge 3 Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract Archaeologies of colonialism have have called for exploring the culturally dynamic entanglements of people and objects while acknowledging the violence that accompanied these entanglements. Heeding these calls requires attention to how the state and state power were materialised, particularly in settler colonies where state apparatuses advanced unevenly, insidiously, and clumsily. Here, I explore how the (mis)understandings and (mis)apprehensions of people and places that accompanied the halting expansion of colonial frontiers were materialised. Focusing on southern Africa’s Highveld and Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, I offer anxiety as a framework for conceiving of colonialisms as epistemic encounters: processes of ‘making sense’ of new people, things, and places based on material practices, empirical experience, and desire. Through a narrative of the nineteenth-century Maloti-Drakensberg told with archival, archaeological, and ethnographic materials, I re-visit a longstanding trope of southern African archaeology and historiography: refugia from social distress. I argue that refuge can be taken as a sense-making practice rather than as reaction to stress. I close with thoughts on what an anxiety framework can offer the still-developing field of African historical archaeology. Keywords anxiety, resistance, southern Africa, colonialism, Maloti-Drakensberg Author’s biographical note Rachel King is the Smuts Research Fellow in African Studies at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand.
    [Show full text]
  • Patricia Vinnicombe
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Book review: Patricia Vinnicombe 'People of the Eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought,' and Benjamin Smith (eds), 'The Eland's People: new perspectives in the rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Bushmen. Essays in memory of Patricia Vinnicombe.' Citation for published version: Barnard, A 2010, 'Book review: Patricia Vinnicombe 'People of the Eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought,' and Benjamin Smith (eds), 'The Eland's People: new perspectives in the rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Bushmen. Essays in memory of Patricia Vinnicombe.'', Africa, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 663-664. https://doi.org/10.3366/afr.2010.0407 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3366/afr.2010.0407 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: Africa Publisher Rights Statement: © Cambridge University Press. Barnard, A. (2010). Book review: Patricia Vinnicombe 'People of the Eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought'. Africa, 80(4), 663-664 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
    [Show full text]
  • CATALOGUE 2009 | 2010 WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS Is Strategically Placed at the Crossroads of African and Global Knowledge Productio N and Dissemination
    CATALOGUE 2009 | 2010 WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS is strategically placed at the crossroads of African and global knowledge productio n and dissemination. We are committed to publishing well- researched, innovative books for both academic and general readers. Our areas of focus include art and heritage, popular scien ce, history and politics, biography, literary studies, women’s writing and select textbooks. Physical address: 23 Junction Ave, Parktown, Johannesburg Postal address : P O Wits, 2050, South Africa Tel: +27 11 484 5906/07/10/13 Fax: +27 11 484 5971 Online: http://witspress.wits.ac.za Cover photograph by Alon Skuy, taken from Go Home or Die Here: Violence, Xenophobia and the Reinvention of Difference in South Africa, page 188. Design and layout: HotHouse South Africa CATALOGUE 2009 | 2010 CONTENTS Politics 2 Migration Studies 6 Cultural Studies 9 Environmental Studies 14 Social Sciences 16 Biography 18 Heritage Studies 21 Historical Archaeology 23 History 24 Anthropology 26 Rock Art 28 Wits P&DM Series 30 Literary Studies 32 Popular Culture 35 Film/Theatre 36 Education 41 African Treasury Series 42 Women’s Writing 44 Art/Photography 48 Popular Science 52 Natural Sciences 53 Textbooks 54 Backlist 58 Index 61 POLITICS NEW Mbeki and After TITLE Reflections on the Legacy of Thabo Mbeki Edited by Daryl Glaser For nearly ten years – indeed more if we include his period of influence under Mandela’s presidency – Thabo Mbeki bestrode South Africa’s political stage. Despite attempts by some in the new ANC leadership to airbrush out his role, there can be little doubt that Mbeki was a seminal figure in South Africa’s new democracy, one who left a huge mark in many fields, perhaps most controversially in state and party management, economic policy, public health intervention, foreign affairs and race relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservation Perspectives, Spring 2019, Rock Art Issue
    ROCK ART CONSERVATION A Note from the Director The human desire to capture and explain the world by creating what we today would call “art” predates human settlements and anything we might define as civilization. Tens of thousands of years ago, humans began painting and engraving on rock, an activity that did not end in some distant epoch but continued among peoples over the course of time. Nor has this most ancient of creative acts been restricted to a singular region or terrain. Rock art can be found in Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, in caves, deserts, rock shelters, and cliffs, among other locales. But its ubiquity is no protection. Exposed to the natural elements and, unfortunately, the predations of people, its lengthy existence until now is no guarantee of future survival. That said, there is renewed international interest in collaboration to protect this vulnerable heritage and to learn from preservation initiatives that work. This edition of Conservation Perspectives examines rock art and its conservation from a number of angles. Neville Agnew, who has spearheaded the GCI’s rock art conservation efforts Photo: Anna Flavin, GCI for many years, outlines the challenges of preserving this earliest of humanity’s cultural heritage and writes of some of the efforts the Institute has taken to meet those challenges, including training, site management, and, most recently, the initiation of an informal international network of individuals and organizations to promote awareness of this endangered global heritage. Jean-Michel Geneste, a world-renowned specialist in rock art, describes Chauvet, the extraordinary Paleolithic cave in France, and the steps taken to protect it, including the creation of a replica for visitors.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesotho Badger (Mellivora Capensis)
    •' Lesotho white). In his notes, added at the end ofrhe chapter (p. 184), P Mitchell writes: "This is the honey Jn 1971, the archaeologist Patricia Vinnicombe badger (Mellivora capensis)". 'Sele' is the Sesotho conducted an interview with two old residents of name for the honey badger. l{homo-ea-Mollo village, near the well-known rock A recent survey of the mammals did not produce shelter near Sehonghong in the Senqu River Valley any honey badger records for Lesotho (Lynch in south-eastern Lesotho (Vinnicombe 2009b: 165- 1994), and Ambrose (2006:26-27) does not list 190). One of these men - Lise1o Rankoli - who any recent records (but see Lesotho under 'Written was born in 1880 or 1881, told her that the people records'). The honey badger is included in a recent very much liked to eat the animal known as sele, list of the mammals of Lesotho (Ambrose and (described as being like a jackal, but black and Talukdar 2000:38). Overview: historical incidence of the honey badger The incidence of the honey badger in the area covered by this book, during the early historical period, is open to conjecture. Going by the Jack of archaeological records (for the "4 OOO yrs BP-Recent" period) and the general lack of recent records, and also the information in Skinner and Chimimba (2005:502-503), it could perhaps be argued that it was absent, from the Free State Province, at least. However, the early, written records and recent records that are provided in this account, some or all of which may be reliable, could indicate that it did in fact occur in the area that concerns us, during the early historical period.
    [Show full text]
  • 2 • Cartographic Content of Rock Art in Southern Africa
    2 • Cartographic Content of Rock Art in Southern Africa TIM MAGGS Africa has an unassailable claim, based on the fossil and which occur in all areas of the subcontinent where the archaeological evidence, to be considered the cradle of local geology and geomorphology has allowed the for­ humankind and of culture. Much of the current debate on mation of caves and rock-shelters, and also engravings, the emergence of anatomically modern humans and of which are found in many of the drier central and western modern modes of behavior, including the origins of art, areas where there are suitable rock outcrops. Where this likewise centers on the African evidence. Although little art can be linked to particular groups of people, it is al­ evidence of early art has yet been forthcoming from tropi­ most always to Khoisan hunter-gatherers, a group popu­ cal Africa, in southern Africa, defined here as south of the larly, though often derogatorily, called Bushmen or San Zambezi and Cunene Rivers (fig. 2.1), rock art has been by others. dated to at least twenty-five thousand years ago. This Interpretation of southern African rock art has pro­ places the origins of African rock art in the same age ceeded through the twentieth century with a series of range as the oldest art anywhere in the world. wide pendulum swings. The most important advance In southern Africa, a significant change took place in has come in the past two decades with the pioneer­ the Stone Age sequence about thirty thousand years ago, ing work of Vinnicombe, Lewis-Williams, and others.
    [Show full text]
  • X. Obituaries
    X. Obituaries From Peter Robertshaw: Several prominent archaeologists of southern Africa died this year. Patricia Vinnicombe (1932–2003) revolutionized the study of southern African rock art by integrating San ethnography into rock art interpretation. An obituary by David Lewis- Williams is available here – www.waspjournals.com/journal_20032/news/20032_12.pdf – or in print form in the South African Archaeological Bulletin 58: 46–47 (2003). The Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, holds the Vinnicombe Collection, which includes large numbers of tracings and photographs made by Vinnicombe as well as files of her correspondence. The collection would seem to be a treasure trove for those interested in the history of rock art research. For more information, see ‘The Vinnicombe Project’ by Justine Olofsson in The Digging Stick, volume 20, no. 1, pages 1–4 (April 2003), and ‘Forty-odd years down the track’ by Patricia Vinnicombe in The Digging Stick, volume 18, pages 1–2 (2001). The Digging Stick is a newsletter published by the South African Archaeological Society. As posted in the Society of Antiquaries online newsletter, ‘Raymond Inskeep died on 3 August, aged 76. His obituary in The Guardian described him as the inspirational teacher of many of today’s most distinguished archaeologists both in Britain and in Africa, a profound influence on the rise of South African archaeology over the last forty years, and a tireless contributor to the work of learned societies, university administrative bodies and editorial boards’. Ray was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town before becoming a curator at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.
    [Show full text]