Tags: Bushman Painting

Bath Plug Cave is located in the Cobham area. It's a large cave with bushman paintings, thus no camping is allowed. The cave is 4km from the Cobham Reserve. The cave name comes from the large hole in the cave through which the water disappears into. The images in Bath Plug Cave are very eroded as a result of natural ...
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Boundary Rock is just over 4km from the Cobham Reserve and a stunning pool for swimming is near by. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: A large indeterminate human is depicted bending over a group of sitting people. This image links to the trance dance, since the bending forward posture is part of this dance. After exc ...
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Bulwer Mountain Shelter #2 is outside the Maloti-Drakensberg Park and is located in Bulwer. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: An eland is depicted here apparently ‘entering’ a curtain of natural mineral deposits on the parent rock. San rock paintings sometimes used natural features in this way with people and animals ...
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Bulwer Mountain Shelter #2 is outside the Maloti-Drakensberg Park and is located in Bulwer. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: The paintings show an eland placed vertically on the rock wall. Several features emphasize the significance of the dying eland as a metaphor for the shaman who 'dies" when entering deep trance ...
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Good Hope Shelter #1 is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Men on horses are depicted here. In the Southern Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site, paintings are mainly narrative and can be explained with ease, while rock art in the Central and Northern Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage S ...
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Good Hope Shelter #2 is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Men on horses are depicted here. In the Southern Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site, paintings are mainly narrative and can be explained with ease, while rock art in the Central and Northern Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage S ...
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Ikanti #1 is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: This panel is also called the “Marching Men” panel. The procession is made up of men only, carrying bows, arrows and quivers. Since they are migrating east, to the sea, this panel can be interpreted as seasonal migration of the Bushmen during winter t ...
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Ikanti #2 is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: In this image two tall figures are painted above smaller humans. During trance or altered state of consciousness, shamans felt as if they are “growing taller”. This is the result of psycho-somatic hallucinations experienced during trance.  
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Ikanti #3 is in the Cobham area. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: The painting shows a large herd of eland. The Bushmen mainly painted eland in large herds while rhebuck were painted as being part of smaller family groups. Symbolically, eland herds represent the aggregation phase of social life, when small Bushman b ...
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Mpongweni (Sipongweni) North Shelter is in the Cobham area. Mpongweni North Shelter is a must visit if you are interested in Bushman Paintings. It's a long uphill hike of about 6 hours to the site but well worth the visit. Probably best to overnight and make this a 2 day trip. Interpretation by Celeste Rossouw: Women ...
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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 b ...
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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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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 hors ...
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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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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, mythol ...
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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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