archaeology and palaeoanthropology 9
A R C H A E O L O G Y A N D P A L A E O A N T H R O P O L O G Y
Rock art research has also benefited from painters beside the San and some rock art
an expanded horizon in the last few dec- can be linked to Bantu-speaking peoples
ades. The beautiful painted and engraved and the Khoekhoe. Southern African re-
images found on rock surfaces through search has transformed our understanding
much of southern Africa have been of inter- of human cognitive and artistic abilities in a
est since the 1870s. Early research viewed way that stone tool studies cannot. The use
them as primitive pictorial art, but as data of appropriate ethnography and neuropsy-
were gathered from hundreds of sites, chology to interpret rock art has inspired
analysis changed to a numerical approach researchers in other countries to try the
that required ever more data. A Rock Art same methods and the results have made
Recording Centre was started at the South
South African rock art researchers leaders in
African Museum in 1967. An associated ra-
their international field.
diocarbon date of 27 500 years ago for art in
the Apollo 11 in Namibia cave in southern
The inclusion of ethnographic information
Namibia indicated an antiquity as deep as
in the interpretation of rock art has also
the rock art from the caves of Palaeolithic
impacted the analysis of sites and material
Europe. A real advance in rock art research
culture in hunter-gatherer studies. The eco-
came in the 1970s with the work of Patri-
logical approach, although still critically im-
cia Vinnicombe and David Lewis-Williams.
portant, has been partly replaced by discus-
They used San ethnography from the Kala-
sions of social relations and ideologies. Lyn
hari and the historic Northern Cape to inter-
Wadley has investigated the social implica-
pret the images. Lewis-Williams has been
tions of gender roles and aggregation and
the greatest proponent of this new ‘inter-
dispersion of foraging groups, and Aron
pretive’ focus and has argued that the im-
Mazel has examined alliance networks seen
ages were essentially religious and could be
through material culture and site use in the
linked to shamanistic beliefs and practices
KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg
9
foothills. The
that included visions and other experiences
importance of spatial distribution of small
connected to the trance or healing dance.
sites and day-to-day activities of foragers
Not all current researchers agree with has been studied by John Parkington and
Lewis-Williams’ explicitly ‘shamanistic ap- his students at Dunefields near Elands Bay
proach’ and much of the newest literature in the Western Cape. Pastoral and fora-
has attempted to dissect the nature of the ging communities in southern Africa were
rock art symbolism, especially with regard technologically similar and therefore their
to women’s roles and possible initiation sites have been notoriously difficult to dif-
practices. Other researchers are examining ferentiate. Andy Smith, Lita Webley and Ka-
different traditions of rock art in terms of rim Sadr have examined this question, and
both style and authorship. There were other although no consensus has been formed, a
9 The Drhe Drakensberg moung mountain rtain range or escarange or escarpment separt separates the ines the interior highior highveld plaeld plateau freau from the surom the surrounding counding coastal aroastal area. ea. The he
Drakensberg mountains mark the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal.
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