digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.21884
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of painted rock art showing a human figure and an unidentified quadruped, upright and infilled, with the animal figure at the lower right, infilled in white and covered with red dots. The animal’s head is black. The human figure is to the left, facing left and infilled in white, with an exaggerated belly (pregnant? woman?). The figure holds a black sickle-shaped object in the right hand. Rainman Shelter, Namibia.
Scanned
- Production date
-
26 April 2006 (date digitized)
-
July 1993 (original photograph)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 112 megabytes
-
Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- Detail of 2013,2034.21891.
Otjohorongo is a granite massif with several rock art sites. This site is at a large fault which parts the rock and around 50m across at the mouth. The shelter, which has been studied by John Kinahan, contains over 150 figures over a space of about 30m. Some paintings are found in deeper areas. Within the cave are wooden poles with evidence of strikes from a steel implement and radiocarbon dated to around 350 years ago, indicating relatively recent use. Kinahan has posited that some of the imagery may relate to rainmaking practices.
Namibia is home to over 1,200 rock art sites countrywide. Rock art is found across the country from the southern border almost to the northern border, although rock art sites are scarce in the far north. The majority of known rock art sites are found in the rocky and mountainous areas forming the escarpment edge in the west of the country. Particular concentrations of rock art are found in the west-centre of the country, north of the edge of the Namib’s coastal sand sea. Namibia’s most well-known rock art locales are clustered in this area, among them the Brandberg (also known as Dâures) and Erongo mountains and the Spitzkoppe peaks, as well as the well-known engraved rock art complex at Twyfelfontein | /Ui-//aes.
Much of the painted rock art in Namibia may be broadly compared to the wider hunter-gatherer-fisher rock art traditions found throughout southern Africa, although some geometric rock art has been attributed to herder people and some finger paintings appear to have been painted later which fit neither tradition.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2013
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2013,2034.21884
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: NAMDMO0010025 (TARA number)