Abstract
Mauermanshoek Shelter, in the Korannaberg of the eastern Free State, has traditional San hunter–gatherer rock art together with white finger-painted horsemen of uncertain authorship. The excavated material dates to between 3500 bp and approximately 200 bp. The lithic assemblages show little change throughout, but ceramics, glass beads, and domesticated animal remains appear in the uppermost levels. The issue of most interest is that of the shelter's occupancy in the last few hundred years. Historical records show that the ethnic composition of the eastern Free State was complex during this time and that there were both aggressive and cooperative interactions between the various groups. Kora pastoralists were notorious stock raiders and the secure identification of other people on the landscape was complicated by a tendency for early writers to call all raiders “Kora.” A combination of archaeological and historical evidence suggests that San occupied the shelter for most of its history but that Kora herders may have been responsible for the finger-painted horsemen somewhere between 1837 and 1851 when a Wesleyan Mission Station, Merumetsu, served the Kora of Korannaberg.
La grotte de Mauermanshoek, située dans le Korannaberg, à l'est de la province du Free State, contient des peintres rupestres de tradition San, réalisées par des chasseurs/bergers, ainsi que des cavaliers blancs, peint avec le doigt, d'une origine incertaine. Le matériel qu'on a trouvé dans les fouilles daté d'une période entre 3500 bp et approximativement 200 bp. L'industrie lithique est très homogène sur l'ensemble du site, mais des céramiques, des perles de verre et des restes d'animaux domestiques sont présents aux niveaux supérieurs. L'occupation de l'abri pendant les quelques centaines d'années passées est d'un inérêt tout particulier. Selon les archives historiques, la composition ethnique de la partie est du Free State était, à l'époque, complexe et il y avait les interactions à la fois agressifs et coopératifs entre les groupes différents. Les pasteurs Kora sont bien connus pour leur réputation d'attaquer les troupeaux mais l'identification certaine des autres peuplades est compliquée par le fait que les premiers écrivains rapportaient tous les aggresseurs comme des “Kora.” Une combinaison d'indices archeologiques et historiques suggère que les San occupèrent cette grotte pour la plus grande partie de son histoire mais que des bergers Kora pourraient être à l'origine des cavaliers peints avec le doigt, probablement entre 1837–1851, la période durant laquelle une mission Wesleyan servait le Kora de la région du Korannaberg.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES CITED
Acocks, J. P. H. (1975). Veld types of South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa 40: 1-128.
Ambrose, D. (1993). Maseru: An Illustrated History, Morija Museum and Archives, Morija.
Anderson, G. (1997). Fingers and finelines: Paintings and gender identity in the south-western Cape. In Wadley, L. (ed.), Our Gendered Past: Archaeological Studies of Gender in Southern Africa, Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 13-69.
Anon. (1846). Bechuana country report. Report of the Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society, Mills, Jowlell and Mills, Bolt-Court, London, pp. 66-67.
Arbousset, T., and Daumas, F. (1968). Narrative of an Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, Facsimile reprint, C. Struik, Cape Town.
Archer, F. M. (1990). Planning with people-ethnobotany and African uses of plants in Namaqualand (South Africa). Mitteilungen aus dem Institut fur Allgemeine Botanik Hamburg 23: 959-972.
Ashton, H. (1967). The Basuto: A Social Study of Traditional and Modern Lesotho, Oxford University Press, London.
Backwell, L., Bhagwandas-Jogibhai, K., Fenn, G., James, C., Laue, G., Matier, J., and Wallace, C. (1996). Twyfelpoort Shelter: A Later Stone Age sequence. Southern African Field Archaeology 5: 84-95.
Barnard, A. (1992). Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Brooker, M. (1980). Rescue excavations at the Welbedacht Dam site. Humanitas 6: 35-42.
Cameron, J. (1841). Extract of a letter. The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine 20(Third Series): 183-188.
Cameron, J. (1851). Extracts of letters. Wesleyan Missionary Notices 9(148): 61.
Campbell, C. (1987). Art in Crisis: Contact Period Art in the South-Eastern Mountains of Southern Africa, MA Dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Campbell, J. (1815). Travels in South Africa, Undertaken at the Request of the [London] Missionary Society, Black and Perry, London.
Casalis, E. (1965). The Basutos or Twenty-Three Years in South Africa, C. Struik, Cape Town, Facsimile reprint from 1861.
Casalis, E. (1971). My Life in Basutoland: A Story of Missionary Enterprise in South Africa, C. Struik, Cape Town, Facsimile reprint from 1889.
Damane, M. (1947). Peace the Mother of Nations, Morija printing works of Paris Evangelical Mission Society, Morija.
Davenpoort, T. R. H. (1982). The consolidation of a new society: The Cape Colony. In Wilson, M., and Thompson, L. (eds.), A History of South Africa to 1870, David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, pp. 272-333.
Deacon, J. (1984). Later Stone Age people and their descendants in southern Africa. In Klein, R. G. (ed.), Southern African Prehistory and Paleoenvironments, Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 221-328.
Domleo, H. (1993). Mauermanshoek Shelter: The Horse Annex, Unpublished Honors Project, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Dornan, S. S. (1909). Notes on the Bushmen of Basutoland. Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society 18: 437-450.
Dowson, T. A., and Holliday, A. (1989). Zigzags and eland: An interpretation of an idiosyncratic combination. South African Archaeological Bulletin 44: 46-48.
Dowson, T. A., Blundell, G., and Hall, S. (1992). Finger painting in the Harts River Valley. Southern African Field Archaeology 1: 27-32.
Edwards, J. (1838). Extract of a letter. Report of the Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society, Mills, Jowlell and Mills, Bolt-Court, London, pp. 66-67.
Eldredge, E. A. (1993). A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ellenberger, D. F. (1912). History of the Basuto, Caxton, London.
Ellenberger, V. (1933). Landmarks in the Story of the French Protestant Church in Basutoland During its First Hundred Years of Existence, 1833-1933, Sesuto Book Depot, Morija.
Eloff, C. C. (1979). The So-Called Conquered Territory, H.S.R.C., Pretoria.
Elphick, R. (1985). Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.
Engelbrecht, J. A. (1936). The Kora: An Account of Their Customs and Their History, Maskew Miller, Cape Town.
Esterhuysen, A. B. (1996). Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction From Pleistocene to Present: An Analysis of Charcoal From Sites in the Eastern Free State and Lesotho, MA Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Esterhuysen, A. B., Behrens, J., and Harper, P. T. (1994). Leliehoek Shelter: A Holocene sequence from the eastern Orange Free State. South African Archaeological Bulletin 49: 73-78.
Germond, R. C. (1967). Chronicles of Basutoland, Morija Sesuto Book Depot, Morija.
Giddy, R. (1842). Extract of a letter. The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine 21(Third Series): 369-370.
Gill, S. J. (1993). A Short History of Lesotho, Morija Museum and Archives, Morija.
Hall, S. L. (1994). Images of interaction: Rock art and sequence in the eastern Cape. In Dowson, T. A., and Lewis-Williams, J. D. (eds.), Contested Images, Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 61-82.
How, M. W. (1962). The Mountain Bushmen of Basutoland, J. L. van Schaik, Pretoria.
Jenkins. T. (1833). Extract of a letter. Wesleyan Missionary Notices 7(224): 520-521.
Jenkins. T. (1836a). Extract of a letter. Wesleyan Missionary Notices 8(242): 239-241.
Jenkins. T. (1836b). Extract of a letter. Wesleyan Missionary Notices 8(250): 348-349.
Killick, D. (1990). A Field Guide to the Flora of the Natal Drakensberg, Jonathon Ball and Ad. Donker, Johannesburg.
Kinahan, J. (1995). Much ado about herding at Geduld: A response to Smith and Jacobson. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 176-177.
Kinsman, M. (1995). 'Hungry Wolves': The impact of violence on Rolong life, 1823-1836. In C. Hamilton (ed.), The Mfecane Aftermath, Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 363-394.
Klatzow, S. J. (1996). Interaction between hunter-gatherers and agro-pastoralists in the eastern Free State. In Pwiti, G., and Soper, R. (eds.), Aspects of African Archaeology, University of Zimbabwe Publications, Harare, pp. 327-333.
Laydevant, F. (1978). The Rites of Initiation in Basutoland, The Social Centre, Roma.
Lye, W. F. (ed.) (1975). Andrew Smith's Journal of His Expedition Into the Interior of South Africa, A. A. Balkema, Cape Town.
Maggs, T. M. O'C. (1976). Iron Age Communities of the Southern Highveld, Occasional publications of the Natal Museum 2, Pietermaritzburg.
Maingard, L. F. (1932). Studies in Kora history, customs and language. Bantu Studies 6: 103-162.
Mazel, A. D. (1989). People making history: The last ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 1: 1-168.
Mitchell, P. J. (1996). Sehonghong: The late Holocene assemblages with pottery. South African Archaeological Bulletin 51: 17-25.
Mitchell, P. J., Parkington, J. E., and Yates, R. (1994). Recent Holocene archaeology in western and southern Lesotho. South African Archaeological Bulletin 49: 33-52.
Norton, S. S. M. (1910). Bushmen and their relics near Modderpoort. South African Journal of Science 6: 242-244.
Orpen, J. M. (1979). History of the Basutus of South Africa, Mazenod Book Centre, Mazenod.
Ross, R. (1975). The !Kora wars on the Orange River. Journal of African History 16: 561-576.
Sadr, K., and Smith, A. B. (1991). On ceramic variation in the south-western Cape, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 107-114.
Sanders, P. (1971). Moshweshwe of Lesotho, Heinemann, London.
Schoeman, K. (ed.) (1985). Sotho War Diaries 1864-1865, Human and Rousseau, Cape Town.
Schoeman, K. (ed.) (1988). The Bloemfontein Diary of Lieut. W. J. St John 1852-1853, Human and Rousseau, Cape Town.
Schrire, C. (1992). The archaeological identity of hunters and herders at the Cape over the last 2000 years: A critique. South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 62-64.
Schrire, C. (1993). Assessing Oudepost 1: Reply toYates & Smith. Southern African Field Archaeology 2: 105-106.
Sechefo, J. (undated). Material Clothing of the Basuto, The Catholic Centre, Mazenod.
Smith, A. B., and Jacobson, L. (1995). Excavations at Geduld and the appearance of early domestic stock in Namibia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 3-14.
Smith, A. B., Sadr, K., Gribble, J., and Yates, R. (1991). Excavations in the south-western Cape, South Africa, and the archaeological identity of prehistoric hunter-gatherers within the last 2000 years. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 71-91.
Smith, A. B., Yates, R., and Jacobson, L. (1996). Geduld contra Kinahan. South African Archaeological Bulletin 51: 36-39.
Smith, E. W. (1939). The Mabilles of Basutoland, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Stevens, R. P. (1967). Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland, Pall Mall Press, London.
Theal, G. M. (1964a). History of South Africa Since 1795, Vol. 8, C. Struik, Cape Town.
Theal, G. M. (1964b). Basutoland Records: Vol. 1 1833-1852, C. Struik, Cape Town. Facsimile reprint of the 1883 edn.
Thompson, L. (1975). Survival in Two Worlds: Moshoeshoe of Lesotho 1786-1870, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Thompson, L. (1982). Co-operation and conflict: The Highveld. In Wilson, M., and Thompson, L. (eds.), A History of South Africa to 1870, David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, pp. 391-446.
Thorp, C. R. (1996). A preliminary report on evidence of interaction between hunter-gatherers and farmers along a hypothesized frontier in the eastern Free State. South African Archaeological Bulletin 51: 57-63.
Thorp, C. R. (1997). Evidence for interaction from recent hunter-gatherer sites in the Caledon Valley. African Archaeological Review 14: 231-256.
Thorp, C. R. (1998). A Hypothesized Frontier Between Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers in the Eastern Free State, PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Twells, E. (1864). The Bishop's Journal: Orange Free State and Basuto Mission, W. Skeffington, London. Occasional Paper I.
Tyson, P. D., and Lindesay, J. A. (1992). The climate of the last 2000 years in southern Africa. The Holocene 2: 271-278.
Van der Merwe, H. D. (1990). The Social Context of Rock Art During the Contact Period in the North-Western Cape and the Sea-Cow River Valley, Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Stellenbosch.
Wadley, L. (1987). Later Stone Age Hunters and Gatherers of the Southern Transvaal, British Archaeological Reports International Series, 380, Oxford.
Wadley, L. (1992). Rose Cottage Cave: The Later Stone Age levels with European and Iron Age artefacts. South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 8-12.
Wadley, L. (1995). Review of dated Stone Age sites recently excavated in the eastern Free State, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 91: 574-579.
Wadley, L. (1996). Changes in the social relations of precolonial hunter-gatherers after agropastoralist contact. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 15: 205-217.
Wadley, L., and McLaren, G. (1998). Tandjesberg Shelter, Eastern Free State, South Africa. Natal Museum Journal of Humanities 10: 19-32.
Wallace, C. (1997). Social change at Twyfelpoort Rock Shelter in the early nineteenth century. Southern African Field Archaeology 6: 20-25.
Webley, L. (1990). The use of stone 'scrapers' by semi-sedentary pastoralist groups in Namaqualand, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 45: 28-32.
Webley, L. (1997). Jackalsberg A and B: The cultural material from two pastoralist sites in the Richtersveld, Northern Cape. Southern African Field Archaeology 6: 3-19.
Wilson, M. (1982a). The hunters and herders. In Wilson, M., and Thompson, L. (eds.), A History of South Africa to 1870, David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, pp. 41-74.
Wilson, M. (1982b). The Sotho, Venda and Tsonga. In Wilson, M., and Thompson, L. (eds.), A History of South Africa to 1870, David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, pp. 131-182.
Wilson, M. L. (1996). The late Holocene occupants of Die Kelders: Hunter-gatherers or herders? Southern African Field Archaeology 5: 79-83.
Wright, J. B. (1971). Bushman Raiders of the Drakensberg 1840-1870, University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg.
Wuras, C. F. (1929). An account of the Korana. Bantu Studies 3: 287-296.
Yates, R., and Smith, A. B. (1993). Ideology and hunter/herder archaeology in the south western Cape. Southern African Field Archaeology 2: 96-104.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wadley, L. Who Lived in Mauermanshoek Shelter, Korannaberg, South Africa?. African Archaeological Review 18, 153–179 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010928521810
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010928521810