FINGERPRINTS OF THE KHOEKHOEN: GEOMETRIC AND HANDPRINTED ROCK ART IN THE CENTRAL LIMPOPO BASIN, SOUTHERN AFRICA

Edward B. Eastwood · Benjamin W. Smith

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Archaeology and Rock Art Studies Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Australian Indigenous Culture and History

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adistinctivegeometrictraditionofrockpaintingsandengravingshasrecently been introduced to rock art studies in southern Africa. Thegeneral characteristics and the overall distribution of this art are nowknownandtheauthorshipofthisarthasbeenprovisionallyassignedtoKhoekhoe herders. But, many aspects of this new art tradition remainobscure. This paper advances our knowledge of Geometric Traditionart by focusing on a specific geographic area in which it is found inunusual abundance: the Central Limpopo Basin. The paper summa-rizesthefindingsofmorethan14yearsofrockartfieldsurveysinthisarea. It sets out the first published typology for the art, investigates itsorigins, and examines the relationships between this art and the otherrockartsoftheareabeforemakingconclusionsaboutthelikelihoodofaKhoekhoe authorship. THE ROCK ART OF THE CENTRAL LIMPOPO BASIN TheCentralLimpopoBasin(CLB)issituatednearlyequidis-tant between the rock art concentrations of the Maloti/Drakensberg Mountains of Lesotho/South Africa and theMatopo Hills of Zimbabwe and comprises four separateand distinct rock art areas: the Limpopo–Shashe ConfluenceArea (LSCA), Northern Venda, the Soutpansberg and theMakgabeng Plateau (Fig. 1). The region is relatively wellresearched (e.g. Schoonraad 1960; Willcox 1963; Pager 1975,1977, Eastwood 1999, 2003, 2005; Eastwood & Blundell 1999;Eastwood & Cnoops 1999; Eastwood

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References

1990Land filled with flies: a political economy of the Kalahari 1993Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa. A Comparative Ethnography of the Khoisan Peoples 2000Tricksters and trancers: Bushman religion and society 1990Images of Power: Understanding Bushman Rock Art 1998The First Herders at the Cape of Good Hope 2000An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400 2004Taking Stock 1978The Evidence for Herding at Boomplaas Cave in the Southern Cape, South Africa

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2020From Fingers to Faces: Visual Semiotics and Digital Forensics 2005Art, Authorship and Female Issues in a Northern Sotho Rock Painting Site 2020Archaeological Ochres of the Rock Art Site of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia): Looking for Later Stone Age Sociocultural Behaviors 2014Dzombo Shelter : a contribution of the Later Stone Age sequence of the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape 2008Against the 'Khoisan paradigm' in the interpretation of Khoekhoe origins and history : a re-evaluation of Khoekhoe pastoral traditions

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