'ENIGMATIC' QUADRUPEDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN PETROGLYPH ART
Maarten van Hoek April 2005| EXTRA BODY PARTS
As a 'rule', quadrupeds in rock art are depicted the 'natural' way. They have the 'normal' number of horns, tusks, tails, ears and four legs, although numbers may be reduced to show just one horn or tusk, one ear or two legs. However, in several cases it seems as if the palaeoartist was 'unconcerned' regarding the actual number of natural appendages (Scherz 1975: 149) This often yields imagery of 'unreal' zoomorphs with more extremities than naturally explainable. This does not mean that every enigmatic line is unnatural. For instance, in Saharan rock art there are depictions of quadrupeds with three or four horns (Rodrigue 1999: 230 and 319). This seems to illustrate a freak of nature or pure imagination. However, there still exists a special breed of sheep that has three or four horns often pointing in different directions. Such animals are called polycerates - animals with more than one set of horns Sometimes 'extra' extremities seem to be easily explicable. For instance, Site 6 features a 'rhino' petroglyph with ostensibly five legs, but the middle 'leg' may be regarded to be the penis of the animal. The same seems to be true of a petroglyph of an 'elephant' at a site NW of Site 3 (see Lhote 1987: 152 for a petroglyph of an 'elephant' with a 'larger-than-legs' penis in the Aïr Mountains, Niger). However, other instances are difficult to explain. At Toro Muerto, Peru, several petroglyphs of quadrupeds have six digits or even seven legs (Van Hoek 2003c: 158). In the Aïr Mountains of Niger there are petroglyphs of a 'giraffe' with apparently six legs (Van Hoek 2003a: Fig. 4.A2), a 'bovine' with two tails and a line from the nose (Lhote 1987: 130) and an 'elephant' with three ears (Ibid. 156). At Site 15 petroglyphs of spoor and feet with extra digits (a phenomenon called polydactylism) occur (Van Hoek 2003b: Fig. 20) as well as a 'giraffe' with two heads (Scherz 1975: 180). At a site just west of Site 9 there is an 'ostrich' with two necks and heads, one confronting a 'hunter', the other facing a 'hyena' (Fock & Fock 1984: Tafel 112.1). Certain instances of surplus of body parts might have been intended to illustrate movement. This has been suggested for the petroglyph of an 'ostrich with four necks' at Site 15 (Scherz 1975: 196; see also Zilhão 2003: 54). At Wildebeestkuil, a protected rock art site between Kimberley and Site 5, there is a zoomorph said to be a 'feline' (although the front part looks more like an elephant - it may depict a hybrid zoomorph) with two tails (Figure 2.D). It might represent a graphical solution to illustrate the wiggling of the tail. However, another, more likely explanation has been offered. At Chamisso, South Africa, a painting of a 'feline' features two tails. This might indicate the 'wagging of the tail' or simply be a blunder. However, Lewis-Williams & Blundell consider this not to be a mistake. They argue that it may refer to the phenomenon of 'polymelia', the sensation of extra limbs or digits experienced by people, such as the San shamans, in altered states of consciousness (1998: 95). Interpretation is not always as simple as it looks. For instance, at Site 10 a petroglyph of a 'rhinoceros' (an animal with only one or two horns) is said to have three horns; the 'extra horn' directly pointing forward (Figure 2.B). It is suggested that in this way an 'unreal' zoomorph was created (Lewis-Williams & Blundell 1998: 111). This may be so, but, it is equally possible that the 'extra horn' actually represents an emanation from the nose, and another line, interpreted as 'an exaggerated lip' (Ibid: 111), an emanation from the mouth. I will return to this idea later on. At Site 4 several examples occur. A fully pecked 'elephant' seems to have three tusks (Figure 2.C); an 'eland' is said to have four front legs (Fock & Fock 1979: 57); and a 'zebra' seems to have three front legs that, compared with the two 'normally' shaped back legs, are very short (Figure 6). Another, fascinating petroglyph of an indeterminable quadruped (equid?) seems to have two tails, an exaggerated or deformed penis and, most interestingly, four long and curved grooves that extend downward from the legs (Figure 2.A). It thus looks as if the animal is walking on stilts. These (cruder!) extensions seem to be later (?) additions. They may tentatively be compared with the sticks San shamans use when dancing and trancing, or with the very long legs at the painted anthropomorphs and zoomorphs that are walking on a large zigzag line at Bushman's Kloof, South Africa. It is suggested that this latter image is not concerned with reality but with the acquisition of supernatural power (Lewis-Williams & Blundell 1998: 43). The same idea may be true for the 'animal on stilts', as well as for the following examples. |
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Figure 2.
Southern African petroglyphs of quadrupeds with extra body parts. A. Site 4; B. Site 10. Based on Lewis-Williams & Blundell 1989: 86 - by kind permission of the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand; C. Site 4.
D. Wildebeestkuil. After a photo from the website of the National Museum, Bloemfontein: http://www.nasmus.co.za/ROCKART/sites6.HTMsione
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