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Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre

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Zukiswa And Richard
July 23, 2016
The engravings at Wildebeest Kuil (18km from The Solomon on the west of Kimberley) were made between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago by the 'pecking' technique: a hard, pointed stone was used to chip away the outer crust of the rock, exposing the lighter coloured rock beneath. With time, the exposed portions become as dark as the outer crust through weathering and the build-up of desert varnish. San and Khoe people, researchers and other stakeholders joined together to conserve the engravings here - more than 200 are spread over a small hill. A visit here can be a deeply moving experience, and an informative one for school groups. The site, surrounded by land owned by the !Xun and Khwe San people, is on a servitude set aside for rock art conservation and public access. The rock art custodians/guides will help make your visit special. The experience begins at a visitor centre, where there are displays, and an auditorium with a twenty minute introductory film. The 800 m walk-way weaves up and over the hill via a number of information boards. Your guides will provide commentary and will answer your questions. On your return, the shop at the Centre has art and craftwork from the !Xun and Khwe community. Rock art and related books also available. In South Africa, there are 15,000 recorded rock art sites and probably as many as yet unrecorded. The art occurs in two forms: engravings and paintings. Engravings are found mostly on the dry inland plateau of South Africa, while paintings occur mostly in the mountainous areas, such as the Drakensberg and the Cederberg. Most of the rock art in Southern Africa was made by Later Stone Age people, ancestors of the historical San. People who called themselves /Xam from the northern Karoo and the Postmasburg District, who were interviewed in the 1870s, said their fathers had made engravings of animals. Some of South Africa’s rock art has been linked with Khoekhoe herders and with Bantu-speaking farmers. It is not known exactly how old the engravings at Wildebeest Kuil are, but it is estimated they were made between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago. Engraved stones have been found at Wonderwerk Cave near Kuruman in levels dating between 2,000 and 10,000 years ago and rock paintings have been dated in southern Namibia to about 27 000 years ago, indicating that the tradition of Southern African art is an exceptionally long one. An engraved piece of ochre from Blombos Cave on the south Cape coast is dated to 77 000 years ago. Research indicates that the engravings are not products of idle doodling, nor are they straightforward narratives, but comprise a sophisticated religious art associated with rituals in San society mediated by medicine people or shamans. It was believed that power received through controlled use of trance could harnessed to heal the sick, control animals, and make rain. It is suggested that many of the engravings were inspired by visions experienced during trance, and were depicted on the rocks so that others could share and draw inspiration from them. They may relate particularly to rain-making rituals. Sites chosen by the artists for their engravings were probably significant places in local beliefs. The andesite rock surfaces at Wildebeest Kuil may have been, to the artists, a kind of interface with the spirit world. A number of curious “unfinished” images of animals at Wildebeest Kuil may represent the “luring” of the power of these animals from the spirit world behind the rock. The magical expanses of smooth, glaciated rock surface at Driekopseiland and Nooitgedacht may similarly have been marked with rock art because they were in some way special places in local religious belief. Some engravings from Wildebeest Kuil were removed and exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886, and are currently in the collection of the British Museum. Others are on display in Kimberley at the William Humphreys Art Gallery and the McGregor Museum. Early removals of the art were often rationalised in terms of preserving the art in museum contexts. We now know that placement of the art within a site was significant, and removal thus destroys part of its meaning. (Text courtesy of David Morris and the McGregor Museum)
The engravings at Wildebeest Kuil (18km from The Solomon on the west of Kimberley) were made between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago by the 'pecking' technique: a hard, pointed stone was used to chip away the outer crust of the rock, exposing the lighter coloured rock beneath. With time, the exposed porti…
Lokasyon
Kimberley, NC