Previous work of the age of the rock art in South Africa's uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, a World Heritage Site, concluded it is less than 1,000 years old. But the new study, by archaeologists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and Australian National University in Canberra, estimate the panels were created up to 3,000 years ago.
The findings, published in the current edition of the academic journal South African Humanities *, have major implications for our understanding of how the rock artists lived and the social changes that were taking place over the last three millennia.
When Europeans first encountered the rock paintings in the mountainous uKhahlamba-Drakensberg region, around 150 years ago, they considered it primitive and crude. Today, experts consider the area to be one of the top areas in the world for rock art, with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara. Over 40,000 paintings exist in 500 rock shelters.
The artwork, made by the San hunter-gatherers who first settled in the area around 8,000 years ago, was made using mainly black, white, red and orange pigments. It depicts animal and human scenes and are said to represent the religious beliefs of the San, whose occupation of the mountains ended in tragic circumstances in the nineteenth century following their conflict with European colonists. Subjects include the indigenous eland (a large, spiral-horned antelopes) and huntsmen.
Until recently, archaeologists have struggled to tell exactly how old the paintings were, mainly because dating techniques have required larger samples for analysis than it has been possible to collect without destroying the art work.
However, the research team analysed salt samples taken from rocks adorned with the paintings using a new highly-refined radiocarbon dating technique known as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS).
The results showed some of the paintings are up to 3,000 years old. Experts suspect they could be even older due to the San people's long occupation of the area but say they need to carry out further tests to prove this theory.
Dr Aron Mazel, a South African researcher, formerly of the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and now based at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who carried out the work with Australian archaeologist Dr Alan Watchman, said:
"This is a small but important step forward in the interpretation of some of the world's finest collection of rock art. The data will contribute to a much wider understanding of one of the key periods in South African and world history, the occupation of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg by the San hunter-gatherers.
"We hope to use this technique to date more of the paintings and organise them in chronological order in the hope that, like a family photograph album, they can tell us a little more about how life evolved for the San people during the several thousands of years they occupied the mountains.
"For example, how did their society change, and how did their beliefs change with it? Was there periods of stress that led to increased episodes of painting? Did the themes of the paintings develop over time? So many questions like this are unanswered at the moment."
Dr Mazel, of Newcastle University's School of Historical Studies, added: "We are still in the early stages of exploiting this new technology but it's possible further investigation could reveal that some of the paintings could be even older than 3,000 years, especially as we knew the San people first occupied the area 8,000 years ago."
Dr Chris Chippindale, reader in archaeology at Cambridge University and professor with the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, said:
"The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg sequence is one of the great riches in rock art, and rock art is one of the great riches in archaeology. The pictures are a direct firsthand record of the world that ancient people lived in, experienced, and understood.
"Dating is important to all archaeology and rock art has proved very hard to date. It looks as if the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg rock art sequence may be very long. Any new study which tells us reliably about its age is very much to be welcomed."
The research has been supported by the Anglo American Chairman's Fund in South Africa.
CONTACT FOR INTERVIEWS/FURTHER INFORMATION:
Dr Aron Mazel, 44-191 222-7845 a.d.mazel@ncl.ac.uk
Availability: From 9am-4pm GMT Friday February 6 2004
Notes to editors:
* SOURCE MATERIAL
Research paper: Dating rock paintings in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg and the Biggarsberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A.D Mazel & A.L. Watchman, South African Humanities, Vol 15 Pages 59-73.
PHOTOGRAPHS
High quality photographs are available free of charge via email from Newcastle University press office. Please email requests to press.office@ncl.ac.uk
Captions for photographs (please credit Dr Aron Mazel):
1. Rock art: Bundoran 1 – Split bodied human figures with hunting equipment
2. Rock art: Eland Cave – Group of eland
3. Rock art: Eland Cave – Group of eland
4. Rock art: Procession Shelter – procession of therianthropic (i.e. half human-half animal) figures. These figures have human bodies, but also display animal features such as animal faces, hooves and hair on their bodies.
5. Alan Watchman collecting a sample of a painting at Blesbok Paddock Shelter
6. General scene: Giants Castle area. One of the dated rock shelters (Main Caves North) is located in the sandstone band in the centre of the photograph.
7. Rock art: Dated eland from Main Caves North. The crusts overlying the red paint from the torso has been dated to 2900 years ago, while the crust overlying white paint from the neck has been dated to 2760 years ago.
Please note:
i) All the images are from the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg.
ii) The scale pictured in the photographs is 10cm.
USEFUL WEB LINKS:
Further information about the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg rock art: http://www.drakensberg-tourism.com/bushman-rock-art.html
INFORMATION FOR BROADCASTERS: Newcastle University has a radio studio with ISDN line and we are five minutes from BBC/independent TV studios.
Issued by Newcastle University Press Office.
Further information from Claire Jordan.
Tel.: 44-191-222-6067/7850
Email: press.office@ncl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office