'ENIGMATIC' QUADRUPEDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN PETROGLYPH ART
Maarten van Hoek April 2005| HUNTING POWER
It is certain that ancient southern African peoples hunted the local fauna, mainly with spears and poisoned arrows. Yet, it is surprisingly rare in San rock art, especially in petroglyph art, to find true hunting scenes or animals with arrows or spears in their bodies. However, there are notable exceptions. At Site 3 there is a large dolerite boulder with a petroglyph of a quadruped (a two-legged 'eland'?) and a sun-like figure placed (deliberately?) on an almost vertical, east facing surface (Figure 3.A). Projecting from the body of the 'eland' are two enigmatic lines, 1 and 2. Just possibly they are arrows. However, the position of line 2 seems rather unusual for an arrow; it might have been an attempt to depict the animal with two tails (together with line 3 - the alleged 'original' tail). Yet, it is acceptable to suggest that at least line 1 represents an arrow. Its position is similar to an arrow stuck in an 'eland' at Site 16 (Solomon 1994: Fig. 3). This interpretation is enforced by the specific combination of the 'eland' with the sun-shaped figure as, according to San cosmology, game that was shot by a poisoned arrow would die at sunset (Fock 1984: 46), often the following day (Lewis-Williams 1997: 206). Considering this context, it may be significant that in order to observe the scene, one has to look west - towards the direction of the setting sun. A similar petroglyph of an 'eland' with a possible arrow associated with sun-shaped symbols has been reported from Site 11 (Figure 3.B). At Site 9 there are petroglyphs of (dying?) 'eland' associated with sun-like designs (Fock 1969: 5; Fock & Fock 1984: 46-47) but without arrows. It must be realised that these scenes do not merely depict the actual hunting of an animal for its meat. Killing an eland, one of the most venerated animals in San cosmology, is often a metaphor for acquiring supernatural potency. The death of an eland is said to release the enormous supernatural energy which shamans can harness in order to enter the Spirit World (Lewis-Williams & Blundell 1998: 107; Lewis-Williams 1997: 206; Ouzman 1995b: 9; Lewis-Williams, Blundell, Challis & Hampson 2000: 134). Further ethnographies imply that eland functioned as a model for the rain animal and that hunting and killing an eland could result in rain (Ouzman 1995b: 60; Uher 1994: 306). |
 |
Figure 3.
Southern African petroglyphs of 'eland' associated with 'arrows' and 'suns'. A. Site 3; B. Site 11. Based on Dowson 1992: Fig. 101.
|
|
|
||
 |
This Webpage has been created using the my connected community (mc2) Webpage generator. my connected community (mc2) is funded by the Victorian Government and coordinated by Vicnet
|