Lesedi Carnets de terrain Field notes #23 November 2020 Recherche The Rock Art of the Hunter-Gatherers L’art rupestre des chasseurs-collecteurs Lesedi #23 | Carnets de terrain | IFAS-Recherche | Novembre 2020 1 www.ifas.org.za/research IFASResearch IFAS_Research IFASResearch IFAS_Research IFAS-Research, created in 1995 in Johannesburg, is one of the French Research Institutes Abroad (UMIFRE), under the joint supervision of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research). As UMIFRE 25, it is associated with research institutes of IFRA-Nairobi, IFRA-Nigeria and SFDAS within the CNRS USR 3336. In additon, it shares its premises, part of its operations as well as transversal projects, with the French Institute of South Africa, whose mission is to ensure the French cultural presence in South Africa. The mission of IFAS-Research is to initiate, support and carry out research projects in the human and social sciences, in conjunction with its many partners in southern Africa, France and Europe. Its activity is carried out within the framework of its regional mandate, which includes twelve countries in southern Africa, from the Republic of Congo to Mozambique. Both a research laboratory and an institutional and logistics support platform for research, it particularly supports young researchers, innovative research fields and bilateral or multilateral scientific cooperation projects. Sophie Dulucq – Scientific Director Matthieu Rey – Senior Researcher, CNRS Chloé Buire – Senior Researcher, CNRS Line Relisieux – Project Manager Dostin Lakika – Secrétaire scientifique Werner Prinsloo – Graphic Designer & Website Lesedi : Sesotho word meaning “knowledge” The views and opinions expressed here remains the sole responsibility of their authors 2 Lesedi #23 | Field notes | IFAS-Research | November 2020 table of contents Focus The Rock Art of the Hunter-Gatherers of Southern Africa L’art rupestre des chasseurs-collecteurs d’Afrique australe Coordinated by Léa Jobard, Carole Dudognon & Camille Bourdier 05 | Introduction: The Rock Art of the Hunter-Gatherers of Southern Africa Léa Jobard, Carole Dudognon & Camille Bourdier 09 | Introduction : L’art rupestre des chasseurs-collecteurs d’Afrique australe Léa Jobard, Carole Dudognon & Camille Bourdier 13 | Approche interdisciplinaire de la paroi ornée. Pomongwe Cave et le programme MATOBART Camille Bourdier, Carole Dudognon, Millena Frouin, Ancila Nhamo, Todini Runganga & Stéphanie Touron 19 | Les sous-sols de l’art rupestre à l’abri Pomongwe (Matobo, Zimbabwe) Guillaume Porraz, Precious Chiwara, Magnus M. Haaland, Joseph Matembo, Thubelile Mnkandla, Kelvin Machiwenyika, Todini Runganga, Chantal Tribolo, Aurore Val & Camille Bourdier 23 | Diversity in Late Stone Age Art in Zimbabwe. An Elemental and Mineralogical Study of Pigments (Ochre) from Pomongwe Cave, Matobo Hills, Western Zimbabwe Jonathan Nhunzvi, Ancila Nhamo, Laure Dayet, Stéphanie Touron & Millena Frouin 27 | Silozwane, étude d’un palimpseste rupestre des Matobo Carole Dudognon 33 | Rock Art Conservation: Floor Stabilisation at Nswatugi Rock Art Site, Matobo Hills Cultural Landscape Senzeni Khumalo, Charity Nyathi, Kelvin Machiwenyika & Todini Runganga 36 | Matobo Rock Art in its Landscape. Understanding Role(s) of Rock Art in Later Stone Age Foragers Territoriality Léa Jobard 42 | The Diversity of the Common. The Significance of Spatial Motif Variation in Studying Cultural Variability using Rock Art in Zimbabwe Ancila Nhamo 48 | Phytanthropes. Human-Plant Conflations in the Rock Art of Zimbabwe Stephen van den Heever Crossed views from Southern Africa 53 | Matières colorantes ferrugineuses, pigments de l’art rupestre et comportements des populations Later Stone Age à Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibie) Guilhem Mauran 60 | Rock Art in Mozambique: Hunter-Gatherers’ Space, Symbolism, and Tools Décio Muianga 64 | Le contexte performatif de l’art rupestre San David Witelson 69 | Dateless substance. White Pigments in the Rock Art of Southern Africa Alice Mullen 74 | La mise en tourisme des sites d’art rupestre dans le massif du Drakensberg. Bilan des recherches engagées depuis 2009 Mélanie Duval & Stéphane Hœrlé Lesedi #23 | Carnets de terrain | IFAS-Recherche | Novembre 2020 3 4 Lesedi #23 | Field notes | IFAS-Research | November 2020 introduction The Rock Art of the Hunter-Gatherers of Southern Africa Léa Jobard, Carole Dudognon & Camille Bourdier After a century and a half of research, Southern illustration (Vinnicombe, 1976; Lewis-Williams, 1983; African rock art is today built up on remarkable Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1989; Lewis-Williams and archaeological materials that make it possible to conceive, Pearce, 2012; van den Heever, this issue; Witelson, in the long term, the history of the hunter-gatherers who, this issue). for a long time, have been deprived of it. While the th Since the end of the 20 century, dating has become a artistic testimonies of contemporary groups have drawn fundamental issue in research, in order to consider the researchers’ attention at the very time when these historical depth of this ontological-religious and socio- populations were disappearing (Ego, 2000), the cultural framework, as encouraged by the constant ethnographic and linguistic stories of the latest artists have renewal of methodological approaches applied to rock tried to give meaning again to these works (Bleek, 1874, art. According to the current data, in Southern Africa, 1932; Orpen, 1874). Considered for a long time as the graphic expression appeared during the Middle expression of the recent history of San populations, these Stone Age in various sites, in the form of geometric artistic productions offer a visual quality that was lauded th decorations on raw materials or on objects (187 000- as early as the 19 century. They have been reproduced on 50 000 years: Marean et al., 2007; Mackay and Welz, the occasion of many redrawing campaigns, some of 2008; Henshilwood et al., 2009, 2014; D’Errico et al., which have initiated parallels with European prehistory 2012; Jacobson et al., 2012: Texier et al., 2013). The (Breuil, 1948). animals painted on the plaques of the Apollo 11 Rock Covering a surface area of a few million square Shelter in Namibia introduced figurative expression kilometres from Namibia to Mozambique, and from the during the Late Middle Stone Age, around 30 000 years north of Zimbabwe to the Cape of Good Hope, the ago (Rifkin et al., 2015). Where rock art is concerned, abundant documentation work has revealed, among direct dating (Mazel and Watchman, 1997; Bonneau et al., hunter-gatherer populations, a powerful traditional 2011) is currently associated with this practice for the heritage of wall iconography. Within this common Holocene Later Stone Age, although some archaeological whole, a complex set of spatial variations leads to contexts point towards initial evidence dating from the recognising four major “artistic” provinces: Zimbabwe- end of the Pleistocene (Walker, 1995). Limpopo, Namibia, South-Eastern Cape and the central Many studies tend to reconsider the antiquity and, plateau of South Africa, i.e. the Western Cape (Lewis- more generally, the age of these graphic productions. Williams, 1983; Garlake, 1987; Parkington et al., 1994; Direct dating is conditioned by the presence of specific Hampson et al., 2002; Eastwood and Eastwood 2006; elements in the way paintings are composed, which only Eastwood et al., 2010). Thanks to the theoretical and concerns a minority of drawing styles, inciting methodological renewal of the 1970s, approaches that, researchers to innovate in their methods (Mullen, this from then on, had turned to social anthropology and issue). When the geomorphology of the site has led to ethnography, shed light on the recurrence of the main their accumulation and conservation, archaeological designs and compositions beyond distances: a shamanic deposits at the foot of or near decorated walls can hold essence of which rock art would be the expression and precious data on the chrono-cultural framework of the Lesedi #23 | Carnets de terrain | IFAS-Recherche | Novembre 2020 5 rock decorations (Muianga, this issue; Porraz et al., this the iconography and the position it takes in the life of issue), through direct or indirect evidence (e.g. fragments individuals, can be understood by considering how the of decorated walls or pigment analyses respectively) location of the decorated sites was chosen within the (Bourdier et al., this issue; Mauran, this issue; Nhunzvi environment (Jobard, this issue), and by analysing the et al., this issue). The study of multiple taphonomic designs compared to those already present on the walls processes concerning the evolution of the walls and (Dudognon, this issue). The material culture and its the actual paint, bring complementary indications remains which testify to past ecosystems (animal remains, (Bourdier et al., this issue; Mullen, this issue). Finally, charcoals, seeds, pollens) offer precious information on the superimposition of graphics – very abundant in some the territorial organisation, the number and socio- sites – offers a relative chronology of the designs, for cultural function of the sites occupied, the socioeconomic which the main challenge, as far as researchers are spaces defined by these populations within their concerned, is to read and understand them from a chrono- environment, as well as the exchange networks of goods stylistic point of view (Bourdier et al., this issue; and ideas (Mauran,