Which Period of Rock Art in Africa Was the First to Develop? Answers

Stone art and the origins of art in Africa

The oldest scientifically-dated figurative rock art in Africa dates from around 26,000–28,000 years ago and is institute in Namibia.

Between 1969 and 1972, German archaeologist, West.Eastward. Wendt, researching in an expanse known locally as "Goachanas," unearthed several painted slabs in a cave he named Apollo eleven, after NASA's successful moon landing mission.

Vii painted stone slabs of brown-grey quartzite, depicting a multifariousness of animals painted in charcoal, ochre and white, were located in a Middle Stone Age deposit (100,000–60,000 years agone). These images are not easily identifiable to species level, but have been interpreted variously as felines and/or bovids; one in particular has been observed to be either a zebra, giraffe or ostrich, demonstrating the ambiguous nature of the depictions.

Apollo 11 Cave Stones, Namibia, quartzite, c. 25,500–25,300 B.C.E. Image courtesy of State Museum of Namibia.

Fine art and our modernistic listen

While the Apollo 11 plaques may be the oldest discovered representational art in Africa, this is not the beginning of the story of art. It is now well-established, through genetic and fossil bear witness, that anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) developed in Africa more than 100,000 years agone; of these, a small grouping left the Continent around 60,000–80,000 years ago and spread throughout the rest of the world.

Recently discovered examples of patterned stone, ochre and ostrich eggshell, as well every bit prove of personal ornament emerging from Center Stone Age Africa, take demonstrated that "art" is not only a much older phenomenon than previously thought, but that it has its roots in the African continent. Africa is where we share a mutual humanity.

The first examples of what nosotros might term "fine art" in Africa, dating from between 100,000–sixty,000 years ago, sally in two very distinct forms: personal beautification in the course of perforated seashells suspended on twine, and incised and engraved stone, ochre and ostrich eggshell. Despite some sites being viii,000 km and xl,000 years apart, an intriguing feature of the primeval art is that these kickoff forays appear remarkably similar. It is worth noting hither that the term "art" in this context is highly problematic, in that nosotros cannot assume that humans living 100,000 years agone, or even ten,000 years ago, had a concept of fine art in the same way that we practise, particularly in the modern Western sense. Even so, it remains a useful umbrella term for our purposes here.

Incised ochre from Blombos Cave, South Africa. Photo by Chris. S. Henshilwood © Chris. South. Henshilwood

Blueprint and blueprint

The practice of engraving or incising, which emerges effectually 12,000 years ago in Saharan rock art, has its antecedents much before, up to 100,000 years agone. Incised and engraved rock, bone, ochre and ostrich eggshell have been plant at sites in southern Africa. These marked objects share features in the expression of design, exhibiting patterns that take been classified every bit cross-hatching.

1 of the virtually iconic and well-publicised sites that have yielded cross-hatch incised patterning on ochre is Blombos Cave, on the southern Cape shore of South Africa. Of the more than than eight,500 fragments of ochre deriving from the MSA (Middle Rock Age) levels, 15 fragments bear witness evidence of engraving. Two of these, dated to 77,000 years ago, have received the virtually attending for the design of cross-hatch design.

For many archaeologists, the incised pieces of ochre at Blombos are the most complex and all-time-formed evidence for early abstract representations, and are unequivocal evidence for symbolic thought and linguistic communication. The debate most when we became a symbolic species and acquired fully syntactical language—what archaeologists term 'modern human behaviour'—is both complex and contested. It has been proposed that these cantankerous-hatch patterns are clear evidence of thinking symbolically, because the motifs are not representational and as such are culturally constructed and arbitrary. Moreover, in lodge for the meaning of this motif to be conveyed to others, language is a prerequisite.

The Blombos engravings are not isolated occurrences, since the presence of such designs occur at more than one-half a dozen other sites in South Africa, suggesting that this pattern is indeed of import in some way, and not the result of idiosyncratic behaviour. It is worth noting, however, that for some scholars, the premise that the pattern is symbolic is not so certain. The patterns may indeed have a meaning, but it is how that significant is associated, either by resemblance (iconic) or correlation (indexical), that is of import for our agreement of human cognition.

Fragments of engraved ostrich eggshells from the Howiesons Poort of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa, dated to 60,000 BP. Courtesy of Jean-Pierre Texier, Diepkloof project. © Jean-Pierre Texier

Personal ornamentation and engraved designs are the earliest evidence of fine art in Africa, and are inextricably tied up with the development of human cognition. For tens of thousands of years, there has been not just a capacity for, but a motivation to adorn and to inscribe, to make visual that which is important. The interesting and pertinent issue in the context of this project is that the stone art we are cataloguing, describing and researching comes from a tradition that goes far back into African prehistory. The techniques and subject matter resonate over the millennia.

---

Additional resources:

British Museum African Stone Fine art Image Project

Apollo 11 (ca. 25,500–23,500 B.C.) and Wonderwerk (ca. 8000 B.C.) Cavern Stones on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Trust for African Rock Art

© Trustees of the British Museum

smithwhard1991.blogspot.com

Source: https://smarthistory.org/origins-of-rock-art-in-africa/