<< Our Photo Pages >> Palala River Bluffs San Rock Paintings - Rock Art in South Africa
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Saturday, 06 October 2007 Page Views: 12184
Rock ArtSite Name: Palala River Bluffs San Rock Paintings Alternative Name: Palala River Bluffs Bushman Rock PaintingsCountry: South Africa
NOTE: This site is 133.841 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Vaalwater Nearest Village: Melkrivier
Latitude: 23.81S Longitude: 28.251000E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Palala River Bluffs San Rock Paintings are are a set of prehistoric rock art paintings in the Limpopo Province of South Africa created sometime between 5000 BC and 400 AD by the San Bushmen. These exquisite artworks are painted with natural dyes on cliff overhangs towering above the Palala River within the Lapalala Wilderness in the Waterberg region of South Africa; This Waterberg Biosphere as a whole is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The present treatment of the Palala River site is based upon scrutiny of extant literature, in addition to my 2006 site visit to and analysis of the paintings within this site.
ACCESS. One begins the journey from the main lodge of the Lapalala Wilderness Area. The initial stage is negotiated by a four-wheel jeep drive over unpaved, deeply rutted, seasonally flooded marshland and savanna. Herds of grazing Blue Wildebeest will likely be sighted as well as other big game animals. After the jeep has reached its physical limit as the vegetation density and earth sogginess increases, there is a hike of about 1.6 kilometres, culminating with a vertical cliff descent above the Palala River. Our access was made without rock climbing apparatus. Deeply rewarding views are presented down into the winding Palala River from the vertical bluffs. Furthermore, there are abundant and unusual plants clinging to the rocky passage, with a number or large Paper Trees providing welcome grasping elements. Birdlife is also diverse and abundant on the cliffs, which provide specialised ecological niches for a variety of species; it is doubtful that many of even the more obvious species have been recorded.
SITE DETAILS. Dozens of individual paintings appear on the nearly vertical rock faces in a rather well defined cluster. The bushmen had obviously chosen this locus for its copious ledge, almost a full metre wide, where the ancient artists could stand safely and produce their images. Typical images measure approximately ten centimetres by ten centimetres, although some of the individual paintings are notably larger. The predominant subjects of the paintings are mammals, mostly species that would have been hunted such as antelopes resembling the impala, kudu, klipspringer and blazebuck that thrive in the local savanna and bush at present. (Lapalala, 2006) The paint used to create the images consisted of native vegetable dyes supplemented by local soil minerals. The state of paint preservation is remarkable, and undoubtedly attributed to the relatively sheltered position of the rock overhangs and niches used. The paintings cluster is situated roughly midway between the cliff top and the river, with the total cliff height being about 110 metres.
ORIGIN. Various researchers have attributed rock art paintings in the Lapalala Wilderness to the San Bushmen. (Taylor, 2003) (Hogan, 2006) The Lapalala River Bluffs site fits the literature description of a rainmaking or other San ceremonial site. Besides the subject rock art cluster, there are several other prehistoric San rock painting sites within the Lapalala area and wider Waterberg, including the larger Melora site. The Middle Stone Age inhabitants of this part of the Waterberg were hunters who uses stone tipped spears, but were also gatherers. (Deacon, 1999) Habitation within this portion of the Waterberg is unclear during various stages of the Middle and Later Stone Age; in fact, it has been suggested that there could have been a habitation gap due to climatic variation, from sometime in the Middle Stone Age, say circa 8000 BC to re-settlement at about 900 AD. (M.M. Van der Ryst, 1998) Local tribesmen and guides ascribe to the earlier part of this range.
REFERENCES.
* M.M.Van der Ryst (1998) ‘'The Waterberg Plateau in the Northern Province, RSA, in the Later Stone Age'‘, British Archaeological Reports International Series 715, Oxford, England
* Lapalala Wilderness School Website (2006) ‘'Investing in an environmentally sound future'‘
* William Taylor, David Holt-Biddle and Gerald Hinde (2003) ‘'The Waterberg: Natural Splendour of a Forgotten Wilderness'‘, New Holland Publishers.176 pages, ISBN 1868728226
* C.Michael Hogan, Mark L. Cooke and Helen Murray, ''The Waterberg Biosphere'', Lumina Technologies, May 11, 2006
* H.J. Deacon and J. Deacon (1999) ‘'Human beginnings in South Africa: uncovering the secrets of the Stone Age'‘, David Philip, Cape Town, South Africa
(This is an original article produced for the Megalithic Portal by C. Michael Hogan)
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