1.) schw.weiss - StoneWatch

Part 1:
Travelling along the Sites
1. Introduction
If a “normal” European - in particular a German - is asked about rock art, he may mention
Altamira in Spain, possibly Lascaux 2 in France or supposedly the rock art of the Central
Sahara 3 within the Tassili, Tibesti or Hoggar Mountains. The rock art of eastern and southern
Africa will be usually unknown to him. This may be demonstrated by the following simple statistic:
I counted the numbers of books and articles dealing with rock art in the public library of
the city I am living in and found a relation of approximately 100 : 10 : 1 for the rock art of
Europe (Spain and France), the Sahara and the eastern and southern parts of Africa.
These different knowledges of rock art sites in Europe and Africa can be shown in another way
too: The caves of Altamira and Lascaux are today closed for normal visitors. The reason was
the danger of damage by the respiration (so-called “green lepra”) caused by the larger number
of visitors. Concerning Altamira only scientists limited to 20 per day get a special permit by
the ministry. Already 23 years after its discovery Lascaux was 1963 totally closed except a
limitation to 5 scientists per day. But between 1973 and 1983 the Administration of Tourism
of the Périgord built as Lascaux II near the original cave a remarkable facsimile now open for
tourists. When we intended to visit Lascaux II in 1997 - we arrived at noon - we got only tikkets
for the following day as there is a limitation to 2000 visitors per day. Compared with our
visits of African rock art sites where we were sometimes the only visitors the day or the week
the figure of a limitation to daily 2000 visitors is nearly unbelievable.
Since a lot of years I am travelling together with my wife around the world interested in old
gone cultures. To find rock art sites is hereat one of my special targets. On the journeys we did
to North, Central and South America we found those in the United States in Colerado, New
Mexico and Arizona, in Mexico, Peru and Chile but on many islands of the Pacific too.
Concerning eastern and southern Africa I must confess frankly that I am not better than the
above mentioned “normal” European. This changed abruptly when we visited first Zimbabwe
in November 1996 (see next chapter). Since this time I am a real “fan” of eastern and southern
African rock art. And I decided to visit the countries concerned: If one ignores that there are a
few rock art sites in western Africa too, the main countries having such archaeological sites
are those 17 shown in Annex 1. We visited 11 of them, i. e. except Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Somalia, Angola and Mozambique where travelling is nearly impossible out of political reasons
and with regard to the poor tourist infrastructure.
Map 1 shows the main countries of the Sahara rock art and then the distribution of the sub-
Saharian rock art which is the subject of this book. As we shall see later on these eastern and
southern areas of Africa are covered by rock art of different groups of people: The San or
Bushmen and the Twa or Batwa, both hunters and gatherers of distinct races, the Bantu speaking
peoples who migrated from west Africa nearly through the whole continent and finally
the Nilotic speaking peoples who came from the northwestern part of Africa. Corresponding
to these different peoples we then find different zones of rock art all over eastern and southern
Africa. A. R. Willcox4 has defined a very complex model of zones. I do not like to follow this.
1 Kühn, H.: Die Felsbilder Europas, Berlin, Köln, Mainz 1971.
2 Delluc, B. und G.: Die Höhle von Lascaux, Bordeaux 1991.
3 Hugot, H. J. und Bruggmann, M.: Zehntausend Jahre Sahara; Bericht über ein verlorenes Paradies, München 1989.
4 Willcox, A. R.: The Rock Art of Africa, London & Canberra 1984.
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