Bushman Paintings

Mpongweni (Sipongweni) South Shelter is in the Cobham area. Paintings on the exterior walls of the Shelter are barely visible due to weathering. It's a steep 250m in altitude climb and about 400m from Mpongweni North Shelter below. Due to the weathering of the paintings it may be better to save your energy for other ...
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Mystery shelter in in the Bushman's Nek area. Mystery Shelter is one of only three shelters known inside the Drakensberg that includes several layers of painting, the one executed over the other. This is called super-positioning. A study of super-positioning can be used to date Bushman images indirectly based on style ...
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New Beginnings Shelter is located within the ATKV Drakensville Resort. Interpretation by Tim Forssman and Lee Gutteridge (2012): Rhebuck are the most popular choice for the San when they made headdresses. The San believed by wearing such a headdress one would be able to influence the movement of the game and to ensure ...
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Painter's Cave is in the Bushman's Nek area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: In the contact period and especially after the arrival of the Europeans, Bushman groups changed from being hunter-gatherers to being raiders and traders for the sake of their survival. Bushman raiders kept the horses for themselves as ho ...
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Patrick's Shelter is in the Amangwane Traditional Authority Area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Natural features such as holes and cracks in the parent rock are sometimes incorporated in Bushmen rock art. In this depiction a hole represents one man’s head and three holes represent another’s eyes and mouth. To t ...
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Pholela Shelter is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Paintings of the eland do not only reflect that this animal was hunted by the Bushmen, but also its spiritual significance: Bushmen believed that where the eland is, there they would experience divine protection.  
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Pornographic Shelter (Bushmans River Rock #1) is in the Garden Castle area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: One of the panels at Pornographic Shelter displays a group of running men that seems to be hunting. The parent rock shows signs of flaking, natural weathering and water-wash areas consisting of silica, salt a ...
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Procession Shelter is in the Cathedral Peak area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Here figures are depicted being partly human and partly insect with praying mantis heads. The praying mantis was the Bushman's deity. He was also called the trickster deity as he was a shape-shifter, meaning that he could change int ...
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One of Kamberg's highlights is the San Rock Art Interpretation Centre which runs spectacular DVD presentations on rock art. Trained guides are available to take visitors to Game pass Shelter (3 hours walk), to see rock art painting which have been described as the Rosetta Stone of ancient Rock Art. Contact: Hospitalit ...
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An interesting question that arises from paintings on a ceiling is: “What will the viewpoint of the spectators be?”. When are the paintings upside-down? An upside-down eland is a metaphor for trance or going into an altered state of consciousness. Modern day San refers to the trance dance and entering altered states o ...
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Sigubudu / Ungiyeza is in the Royal Natal area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: This painting includes several animals, such as eland, mountain rhebuck and even part of a cobra (beneath the running eland). Bushmen legends relate that snakes were linked with rain-making rituals. Soft or female rain was interpreted ...
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Snow Hill Cave in not within the Maloti-Drakensberg Park. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: The depiction shows a snake with horns. The Zulus and Bushmen believed that this creature controlled rain. According to legend it travelled from mountain to mountain striking the roofs of huts with actual lightning but, myth ...
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uMhwabane Shelter is in the Amazizi Traditional Authority Area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: A large white snake is painted here with people and animals accompanying it. Local AmaZizi communities believe that a mythological snake with an antelope head, called the “uMhwabane”, lives in the river close to the sh ...
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Uthekwane Shelter is in the AmaSwazi Traditional Authority Area outside of the Monk's Cowl area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Rabbit therianthropes (semi-human and semi-rabbit figures) are rare since therianthropes usually depict a mixture of either human and eland or human and rhebuck features. Contact: Mr. ...
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Vaalekop Shelter, a small and seemingly sparsely painted rock art site on the upper reaches of the iMpofana (Mooi) River, KwaZulu-Natal, was flooded by the construction of the Spring Grove Dam downstream. In mitigation, the site was photographed using a proprietary digital imaging process with the acronym CPED (Captur ...
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Varnish Shelter (Bushmans River Rock #2) is located in the Garden Castle region. Interpretation by Tim Forssman & Lee gutteridge (2012: 124) “Both the San /Xam in Western Cape and the Kalahari Bushmen (!Kung, Nharo and Khwe) believed the eland was the most powerful animal of all and is thus closely linked with n/o ...
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Waterfall Shelter is in the Kamberg area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Several individuals are painted in bending forward postures and some women are depicted, sitting and clapping. These images link with the trance dance when shamans dance in a circle for days, without eating or sleeping. After enduring days ...
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