Malilangwe Rock Art
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 11 months ago Tags: africa, blogumentary, bushmen san paintings bushmen paintings art rock art, education, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, pamushana, peace parks, photos, teach, zimbabwe.
MALILANGWE’S ROCK ART
There are well over 100 Bushmen paintings sites on Malilangwe.
Wildcast will be posting these on a daily basis.
As these paintings are so old and no one truly knows what they are about, I hope to generate discussion with each painting I put up daily.
I am definitely no expert on this subject, or any actually, so please feel free to provide comments and any information you might have.
And any experts out there, please, we would love you contributions.
INTRODUCTION
The youngest rock paintings in Zimbabwe are estimated to be between 2000 to 3000 years old. These paintings have been dated by their association with stratified cultural material where they happen to occur in the same cave or shelter. It has always been an assumption though that the paintings and the cave deposits belong to the same period.
There is also no absolute certainty about the composition of the medium used to do the paintings. (The fact that they have lasted 2000 years means it was pretty good stuff). To produce the different shades of red and brown it is thought haematite was used and some organic additives were used as binders. This was thought to be animal fat.
All the rock paintings on Malilangwe are on Sandstone. Unfortunately these deteriorate much faster than on the harder rocks. But having said that, most of the paintings are today still in good condition, 2000 years later.
The artistic quality of the paintings is phenomenal. Basically there is a consistent attempt to draw wild animals to real proportions and to depict human figures in caricature with large buttocks, long legs nicked at the knees and ankles. All paintings are done in side profile and 2 dimensional.
Many of the dance scenes are thought to be trance dances, a religious tradition of the San (Bushmen). It was probably in these trances that they depicted figures that can’t be likened to anything we know today.
For the most part the meaning of southern African rock art largely remains a riddle.
CHINZWINI DAM art site
These paintings near Chinzwini dam are part of a large display covering about 15m of rock face, which faces west.
This first photo is a wide shot of the southern most paintings. I put these shots in to put everything in perspective and also because the paintings are often placed in a specific orientation across the display.
Are we seeing depicted here a group of hunters with bows and arrows heading out on the hunt?
And what might that ghost like figure be above them? Was this done at the same time or added afterwards?
Some of the hunters are wearing different headdresses.
Your comments will be greatly appreciated. Roll on the experts.
This is all new to me but I’m fascinated by this amazing art!
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Kim — I really look forward to learning more about these rock paintings. Thank you for your introduction to them.
One small comment — it looks to me like the “ghostly” figure was painted first. The other figure seems to overlap it, not the other way around. But you’ve seen it in person and perhaps the photos are misleading. Why do you think this is pertinent? Could that first figure have been a mistake? Or did/do the bushmen believe in spirits?
Please give us a close-up of the animals on the other face of the wall.
Thanks, K
HI Kim
I’m a bit rusty as it is now 3 years since I guided at Malilangwe, but i do remember they brought out some experts from Cape town university (before my time) but one of the guides who was there then told me all about it. They claimed that the Malilangwe paintings were much more resent than most other Zim painting because of the soft sand stone they also said that the San people lived in this Lowveld area for a lot longer as this being a drought prone area it took the iron age farmers a lot longer to move down there. This is also reflected in the many human figures found here as in the older painting in the Matopos region are from a much earlier time when they had far less sense of community. You can also see how they have drawn some figures differently, Iron age people having a much squarer form than the San people.
I was told that all paintings reflect some for of their spiritual believes and were all drawn whilst the artist was in a trance. These symbols vary from area to area in South Africa the Eland seems to be important where as in Zimbabwe the Kudu is. You will also notice a lot of figures drawn over Elephants. The Chinzwini Men you have photographed are quite famous and evidently depicted a trance dance you will also notice on that wall figures coming out of animals? I am told that they used to go into the bodies of wild animals will in their trances so as to bring them into their hunting grounds.
There is so much to learn and decipher there sadly I do not think the guides kept any notes from the Whits people that came down. Try asking Bruce and Sarah if you have not already done so as they might know more. Still great to see them again!
Regards
Mark
Rats, I missed these while there. I look forward to my next visit & will make a point of a trip to the paintings.
I am enjoying the blog & know how much work it is for you. Keep it up.
moira
Kathy. Bushmen very much believe in spirits and it’s thought a lot of these paintings were done when they were in a trance.
And apparently there are strict rules about painting over other paintings, but they are done purposefully.
Thanks for that info Mark. I’ve got all the documentation from Bruce on the paintings and reading my way through it. You input is great. Keep writing!
Moira you could spend a week here and still not see all the paintings there are many. Be sure to get to see them next time.
Cheers
Kim