Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Living Edition

Rock Art in Southern Africa, Regional Difference

  • Ghilraen LaueEmail author
Living reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3438-1
  • 31 Downloads
How to cite

Introduction

Before the interpretative approach to San rock art in the 1970s (Lewis-Williams 2002: xiv), a significant interest of amateurs and rock art specialists was the regional differences seen across the southern African subcontinent. After a long hiatus, there has been a renewed interest in regionality (e.g., Hampson et al. 2002; Hampson 2015; Laue 2017). There are three distinct art traditions in southern Africa, the geometric art of the Khoekhoen pastoralists, finger painted art of Bantu-speaking farmers, and the fine line art tradition of the San (Bushman) hunter-gatherers. Considered here is this fine-line San hunter-gatherer tradition. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence points to the wide distribution of San hunter-gatherers and their ancestors throughout southern Africa. Their art is found painted and engraved across the subcontinent with similarities and distinct differences seen.

It has long been recognized that the art was made by peoples with a similar world...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Bleek, D.F. 1932. A survey of our present knowledge of rock paintings in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 29: 72–83.Google Scholar
  2. Blundell, G. 2004. Nqabayo’s Nomansland: San rock art and the somatic past. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press.Google Scholar
  3. Boast, R. 1997. A small company of actors a critique of style. Journal of Material Culture 2: 173–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Bonneau, A., R.A. Staff, T. Higham, F. Brock, D.G. Pearce, and P.J. Mitchell. 2017. Successfully dating rock art in southern Africa using improved sampling methods and new characterization and pretreatment protocols. Radiocarbon 59 (3): 659–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Brady, L.M., and J.J. Bradley. 2014. Reconsidering regional rock art styles: Exploring cultural and relational understandings in northern Australia’s Gulf country. Journal of Social Archaeology 14: 361–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Burkitt, M. 1928. South Africa’s past in stone and paint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  7. Davis, W. 1990. The study of rock art in Africa. In A history of African archaeology, ed. P. Robertshaw, 271–295. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
  8. Fiore, D. 2007. The economic side of rock art. Concepts on the production of visual images. Rock Art Research 24: 149–160.Google Scholar
  9. Hampson, J. 2015. Rock art and regional identity: A comparative perspective. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
  10. Hampson, J., Challis, W., Blundell, G. and De Rosner, C. 2002. The rock art of Bongani Mountain Lodge and its environs, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa: an introduction to problems of southern African rock-art regions. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 57: 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Hollmann, J.C. 1993. Preliminary report on the Koebee rock paintings, Western Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 48: 16–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Hollmann, J.C. 2005. ‘Swift-people’: Therianthropes and bird symbolism in hunter-gatherer rock paintings, Western and Eastern Cape provinces, South Africa. South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 9: 21–33.Google Scholar
  13. Laue, G.B. 1999. The rock art of the Uniondale District: The significance of regionality in Southern African rock art. Unpublished BSc Honours Project, University of the Witwatersrand.Google Scholar
  14. Laue, G.B. 2017. McAll’s Cave: Characterising the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek Mountains, eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Humanities 30: 145–183.Google Scholar
  15. Laue, G.B. 2019. Exploring regionality in the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek Mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
  16. Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1984. Ideological continuities in prehistoric southern Africa: The evidence of rock art. In Past and present in hunter-gatherer studies, ed. C. Schrire, 225–252. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
  17. Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2002. Cosmos in stone: Interpreting religion and society through rock art. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.Google Scholar
  18. Rudner, J., and I. Rudner. 1970. The hunter and his art. Cape Town: Stuik.Google Scholar
  19. Smith, B.W., and J.A. van Schalkwyk. 2002. The white camel of the Makgabeng. The Journal of African History 43: 235–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Stahl, A.B. 2009. The archaeology of African history. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 42 (2): 241–255.Google Scholar
  21. Taçon, P.S.C. 1993. Regionalism in the Recent Rock Art of Western Arnhem Land. Archaeology in Oceania 28: 112–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Van Riet Lowe, C. 1952. The distribution of prehistoric rock engravings and paintings in South Africa. Archaeological Series VII: 1–59. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
  23. Wenger, E., R.A. McDermott, and W. Snyder. 2002. Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business Press.Google Scholar
  24. Willcox, A.R. 1984. The rock art of Africa. Johannesburg: Macmillan.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.KwaZulu-Natal MuseumPietermaritzburgSouth Africa
  2. 2.Rock Art Research InstituteUniversity of the WitwatersrandWitwatersrandSouth Africa

Section editors and affiliations

  • Inés Domingo Sanz
    • 1
  • Danae Fiore
    • 2
  • Ewa Dutkiewicz
    • 3
    • 4
  1. 1.Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i ArqueologiaICREA/Universitat de Barcelona/SERPBarcelonaSpain
  2. 2."CONICET - AIA - UBA Asociación de Investigaciones Antropológicas"Buenos AiresArgentina
  3. 3.Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer KulturbesitzBerlinGermany
  4. 4.Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary EcologyUniversity of TübingenTübingenGermany