UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
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FIG. 26.4 Rock painting showing a group ofhunters m their cave, surrounded by a range ofdigging
sticks, bags, quivers and bows. The perforated stone digging-stick weights are clearly visible
sexes and children represented. The only exceptions to this are, for example,
the groups of 150 and 500 people described by Barrow and a camp of
fifty huts reported by Thunberg, both in the late eighteenth century when
hunters were gathering in unusually large numbers to defend themselves
against European raiding commandos.55 The size of groups represented in
rock paintings seems to confirm that the most frequent social unit was
under twenty people, though larger groupings are found (see Figure 26.4).
Many authorities reported that the 'boschiesmen' occupied caves and
rock shelters where they were available, and these sites figure prominently
in the archaeological literature. At the Great Elephant shelter in the
Erongo mountains in Namibia, three or perhaps four windbreaks, similar
to those described in the veld by early travellers, have been mapped and
described.56 From many sites in the Cape there is evidence that San
groups brought in bundles of grasses as bedding, and that this was laid
around the back and side walls of the caves to form a spongy mattress. In
at least two cases a shallow hollow was scraped out of bedrock or previously
accumulated deposits to hold the grass.57 At coastal sites estuarine grasses,
especially Zostera, were used as bedding, and these sites show that sleeping,
cooking, fire-making and refuse areas were clearly separated.
There is good evidence, in the form of a high correlation between
women and digging-sticks and between men and bows in rock art, that there
was a fairly strict division of labour amongst the San groups. This is con-
55. J. Barrow, pp. 275, 307; C. P. Thunberg, p. 174.
56. J. D. Clark and J. Walton, pp. 1-16.
57. J. E. Parkington and C. Póggenpoel.
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