San rock paintings, scattered over the range of southern Africa, are considered by many to be the very earliest examples of representational art. There are as many as 15,000 known rock art sites, created over the course of thousands of years up until the nineteenth century. There are possibly just as many still awaiting discovery. Taking as his starting point the magnificent Linton panel in the Iziko-South African Museum in Cape Town, J. D. Lewis-Williams examines the artistic and cultural significance of rock art and how this art sheds light on how San image-makers conceived their world. It also details the European encounter with rock art as well as the contentious European interaction with the artists’ descendants, the contemporary San people.
Richly illustrated in colour and black and white, this guide provides a clear understanding of a cultural treasure.
This text draws on records of San beliefs which were recorded verbatim during the 1870s, as well as on research done with the living Kalahari San, to reveal the true meaning of San rock art.
He lives on his own ... in a dwelling that is either a two-storey European house or a tall termite-hill.'28 Even with the introduced Western and biblical nuances, these accounts unequivocally clarify the San understanding of termites' ...
... 15, 16 RARI archive; 17 George Stow, IZIKO South African Museum; 18 Aron Mazel, Natal Museum Collection; 19 left: Richard Katz, right: Aron Mazel, Natal Museum Collection; 20 RARI archive; 21 George Stow, IZIKO South African Museum; ...
Maggs, T. 1967. A quantitative analysis of the rock art from a sample area in the Western Cape. South African Journal of Science 63: 100–104. Mallen, L. 2004. Interpretations of selected images at LAB X rock art site, Maclear District, ...
Many of these 'caves' – really rock shelters – contain Khoekhoen, Korana, Bantu-speaker and European rock art traditions. ... 20 smaller antelope and three dozen human figures in a variety of postures, including a 'mother-goddess'.
Only the sphere of aesthetics remains somewhat unclear, as Maslow has already determined, and the relevance of this issue has recently resurfaced in rock art research (Heyd & Clegg 2005; Lenssen-Erz 2012). Once the basic needs have been ...
This book explores the history of rock art research in North America and is the only volume in the past twenty-five years to provide coverage of the subject on a continental scale.
Collected articles of the world's preeminent rock art researchers and cognitive archaeologists.
The cornerstone of current understanding of rock art of the San of Drakensberg First published in 1976, People of the Eland was the first major step away from the outsider's...