Archaeological Notes from the Northern Cape

Willcox, A. R.

doi:10.2307/3888784

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The motifs-as-entoptics argument is vitiated. Nor does the social division that Lewis-Williams (1988a) and others (Eastwood et al 2010: 92) make between painters and engravers hold: we find similar motifs painted and engraved in certain parts of the Northern Cape province, for example, at sites on the Vaal River (Willcox 1965;Fock 1969), the Harts River valley (Dowson et al 1992) and tributaries of the Sak River near Williston (Hollmann & Hykkerud 2004;Hykkerud 2006).…”

Section: Geometric Motifsmentioning

confidence: 50%

The cutting edge: Khoe-San rock-markings at the Gestoptefontein-Driekuil engraving complex, North West Province, South Africa

Hollmann¹

2011

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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This thesis addresses two key issues in current rock art research, the first theoretical, the second exemplary. Researchers often write of rock art regions without according the concept sufficient theoretical consideration. Instead, this thesis argues that rock art regions are more usefully defined by the presence and absence of ethnographically informed motifs than by aesthetics.The argument is supported by reference to two understudied rock art regions: the Texas Trans-Pecos, United States of America, and Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The parallels between the two regions are enlightening: both are cultural 'crossroads' with complex histories of migrations, group interactions, and colonial settlements. Both provide archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherer, herder, and farming peoples. Moreover, both regions are adjacent to other, better-known rock art corpuses that have been explicated using ethnographic analogy and other anthropological approaches.Using these heuristic tools, some of the motivations and meanings behind the production and consumption of rock art in the Trans-Pecos and Mpumalanga are explained. The most effective method for understanding the significance of the motifs Á many of which are also found in the neighbouring regions Á is to focus on ritualism, embodiment, and shamanistic belief in supernatural potency and a tiered cosmos. In Mpumalanga, analysis concentrated on images in 49 hunter-gatherer San (Bushman) rock art sites in and around Kruger National Park. In Texas, it focused on interactions between indigenous hunter-gatherer groups and colonisers from Europe, from Mesoamerica, and from the Plains to the north, using a total of 44 rock art sites as manifestations of indigenous ideologies.Because rock art sites are implicated in cultural identity formation, the lack of theoretically informed presentation perpetuates misleading stereotypes of rock art and the indigenous people who made it. This thesis shows, to the contrary, that the presentation of rock art can and does change people's attitudes towards the past.

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Section: Geometric Motifsmentioning

confidence: 50%

The cutting edge: Khoe-San rock-markings at the Gestoptefontein-Driekuil engraving complex, North West Province, South Africa

Hollmann¹

2011

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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“…The remains of a stone fish trap have also been recorded in the Riet River a few kilometres above its confluence with the Vaal (Stamelman 1948;Willcox 1965). Direct evidence of fishing by hunter-gatherers in the Kaap Escarpment area lies in the discovery of fish bones in the rock shelter Dikbosch I (unpublished data).…”

Section: Utilization and Resotircesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Eye‐witness accounts of hunter‐gatherer activity in the Kaap Escarpment‐vaal river area, Northern Cape

Humphreys¹

1975

African Studies

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“…The south-western Cape coastal fish traps that allow mass-harvesting were initially considered prehistoric (G. Avery 1975;Goodwin 1946), but are more likely colonial (Hine 2008;Hine et al 2010) and can be excluded from this discussion. Whether the historically recorded trapping of fish in inland rivers by the Bushmen (Lichtenstein 1812;Mossop 1935;Stow 1905;Willcox 1965) could have produced sufficient fish for storage is unknown. Mitchell et al (2008;Mitchell 2009) argue against the notion of immediate slaughter by citing Likoaeng, a late first millennium AD site in highland Lesotho located 100 to 150 km from the nearest contemporary farming settlement and on the other side of a 3000 m escarpment.…”

Section: Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Holocene Archaeology in Namaqualand, South Africa: Hunter-Gatherers and Herders in a Semi-Arid Environment

Orton¹

2013

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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This study examines mid-to late Holocene Later Stone Age archaeological residuesspecifically flaked stone artefacts, ostrich eggshell beads and potteryfrom Namaqualand, north-western South Africa. Through its implication in all models so far proposed, Namaqualand is crucial to understanding the introduction of herding to the southern African subcontinent. Despite numerous publications on early herding, many key debates remain unresolved.

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Archaeological Notes from the Northern Cape

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The cutting edge: Khoe-San rock-markings at the Gestoptefontein-Driekuil engraving complex, North West Province, South Africa

The cutting edge: Khoe-San rock-markings at the Gestoptefontein-Driekuil engraving complex, North West Province, South Africa

Eye‐witness accounts of hunter‐gatherer activity in the Kaap Escarpment‐vaal river area, Northern Cape

Late Holocene Archaeology in Namaqualand, South Africa: Hunter-Gatherers and Herders in a Semi-Arid Environment

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