'ENIGMATIC' QUADRUPEDS IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN PETROGLYPH ART
Maarten van Hoek April 2005| THE 'NOSE-LINE': EMANATIONS
However, the trunk does not explain many other situations. Referring to the 'rhino' at Site 10 (Figure 2.B), I recap the possibility that certain grooves might represent emanations from the nose or mouth. This idea seems to be repeated at the site NW of Site 3 where a petroglyph of a 'rhinoceros' features four parallel lines from the head (Fock & Fock 1989: 87). The image belongs to the so-called group of hair-line petroglyphs that are said to represent the oldest style in the long span of San petroglyph tradition. It is also held that these hair-line petroglyphs hardly ever show mistakes. This means these lines are intended to be there and must have had a meaning. However, most 'nose-lines' involve a single pecked or 'hacked' groove, like the straight groove from the nose of a 'zebra' at Site 4 (Figure 5.B). Even more 'enigmatic' are the lines that curve back from the nose and in some instances connect with the legs or the front part of the body. Described earlier (Van Hoek 2003a) are the 'zebra' and 'giraffe' found very near a waterhole at Site 14 (Figures 7.A and D). At Site 6 there is a petroglyph of a 'zebra' that has a line from its nose that curves back to the hooves of its front legs without actually touching anything (Figure 5.A). Site 8 features a quadruped executed in fine and medium-sized peckings (Figure 5.C:3). But the line that curves towards the front leg consists of a flow of short, crudely 'hacked' grooves (2). Moreover, it seems as if the nose-end of the animal's head was first extended with fine pockmarks (1) before the 'hacked' line was added. Both this pecked area (1) and the line (2) might be later additions. Site 4 has a boulder with a 'giraffe' petroglyph featuring a similar line of 'hacked' grooves that runs from roughly the nose to the front leg. A 'springbok' at the same site (Figure 7.B) has a straight line of coarse pockmarks from the nose to its front 'legs' (apparently joined into one broad band representing two legs - this practice occurs quite often at Site 4; see Figure 2.C). Significantly, the nose of the 'springbok' is 'blurred' (or ritually hammered?) by crude pecking which might be an indication that both the line and the 'obliteration' represent (a) later stage(s) of petroglyph action. Tentatively, this 'blurring' may be compared with the practice of rubbing or hammering certain parts of an animal petroglyph or selected parts of the rock. Even the rubbing of painted areas has been recorded in South Africa. In most cases rubbing is said (Ouzman 2001: 245) to yield an additive mark that focuses on selected (parts of) an image (in the case of the springbok, only the nose was 'hammered'). Ouzman further suggests that rubbing the imagery [and/or the rock - my addition] allowed people to access the potency that especially the spiritually pre-eminent animals like eland and rhinoceros embodied (Ibid. 245). Thus, hammering selected parts, or connecting particular parts by a string of hammer marks in order to harness potency (either from the image or the rock) might offer an explanation for the 'nose-line'. This brings me to another interesting petroglyph. Another boulder at Site 4 shows the 'zebra' with apparently three front legs (Figure 6). It is 'surrounded' by strings of 'hacked' markings. The marks are definitely not placed at random but form curved lines that might have been intended to connect body parts. Line 1 seems to connect the tail with the hind legs; line 2 apparently links the head with the shoulder-hump and an ear; and line 3 may be regarded as a line from the nose to the front part of the body. However, it must be noticed that the lines roughly form two ovals and initially may have been intended as ovals that became superimposed by the 'zebra'. There are many more instances in the rock art of the central plateau of South Africa where ovals or rings (and many 'random' areas) of coarse or fine marks are found near zoomorphic petroglyphs (see for instance Figure 8.B). Such marks might as well epitomise instances of controlled, ritual hammering. At Site 5 a petroglyph of a 'giraffe' (Figure 7.C) was at first taken for a horse because of the pecked line that runs from the nose to the front part of the body. Moreover, the legs are short for a giraffe; the body is rather massif and the head has only two appendages unlike the usual four. The line from the nose is not a broad trunk-like groove as with the 'giraffe' from Site 15, but a rather thin line that clings to the chest of the zoomorph. There is, however, a natural feature that might explain this image. When a giraffe feeds on a tree species whose leaves have got much tannin, its saliva produces an antidote that neutralises the poison. After eating tannin-rich leaves an excess of saliva often drools from a giraffe's mouth. The mucus forms a long, thin line that moves in the wind and often clings to a lower part of the body. Yet, this natural phenomenon does not explain petroglyphs of 'eland' that have been recorded with 'similar' grooves. At Site 9 there is an 'eland' with two enigmatic lines. One runs down from its neck and another line connects the nose with the dewlap (Figure 8.A). A most interesting petroglyph of an 'eland' occurs at Site 1 (Figure 8.C). It has several special features. First, it too has a groove from its head to the dewlap; second, the legs end in circular pecked areas (not hooves); and third, its horns have been elongated with crude (secondary?) grooves that possibly join at the end. The ball-like appendages at the legs seem to be unique but are similar to the ball-like appendages at the legs of an 'elephant' petroglyph at Site 15 (and, tentatively, may be compared with many petroglyphs in Saharan rock art). They may also be compared with the 'balls' at the tail ends of 'eland' at Site 4. The extensions from the horns are quite exceptional as well, but have been recorded elsewhere. At a site near Site 9 (Fock & Fock 1984: Tafel 89.3) there is an 'eland' with a line from one horn that joins a 'blob' on its back; both line and blob seem to be later additions, as may be a long broad groove that seems to form a second, exaggerated 'tail'. This may also be true for the lines from the horns of the 'eland' at Site 1, but it is almost certain that the coarse lines from the horns at a quadruped at Site 8 are secondary (Figure 8.B). Interestingly, the lines from the horns connect in such a way that an oval is formed (which, tentatively, may be compared with Saharan petroglyphs of quadrupeds with a ring or oval for horns). |
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Figure 6.
Southern African petroglyph of 'zebra' with possible 'nose-line'. Site 4.
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Figure 7.
Southern African petroglyphs of quadrupeds with 'nose-line'. A. Site 14; B. Site 4. Site 4. Based on Fock 1979: Abb. 55; C. Site 5; D. Site 14. All scales 10cm.
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