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Brief description of art: Geometrics.
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Brief description of art: Finger dots.
Site
Brief description of site: This site is a high, deep cave with a deeper inner cave. The images are situated above the entrance to the inner cave. The view from the cave is extensive. The presence of a nearby dam suggests the presence of a fairly reliable watercourse in times past.
The site has some bone scatter, as well as quartzite and hornfels lithics. The soil is very stony, but the deposit is about 50cm deep.
Brief description of art: The engravings on the cave wall consist of grooves reminiscent of slash marks. They occur in three parts of the cave and number 5, 6 and 89 at each location respectively. Their length varies between 5-20cm, and they are up to 3cm wide. They appear very smoothly executed, but are patinated.
The painted imagery consists of a large grouping of finger dots as well as some finger painted red lines. Curious images include a large red 'sunburst' with short 'rays' around the outline and a cross motif at its centre. A finger painted white sunburst is much more faded.
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Site
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Brief description of art: The surface is covered with a few finger strokes and dots. They are all in red and are quite faded. The surface is only half a metre in length and 20cm height. Under the geometric art is two vertical grinding grooves, wich are obviously overlain by the geometrics.
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Site
Brief description of art: Finger dots and Geometrics.
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Brief description of art: Rain animal and human figures: Only one engraved boulder has been found. The imagery includes an indeterminate animal being led by human figure. This image is not very clear as the rock is extremely weathered.
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Brief description of art: Rhinoceros with microdots: This image is easily recognised as a pecked engraving of a rhinoceros. The rhino is emerging from a crack resulting in an appearance of incomplete limbs. The shape of the back line is proportionate to that of a rhino down to the very detail of the raised tail. Microdots emerge from the back line as well as the head of the rhino. The microdots are pecked in a spray-like appearance.
Gemsbok : The large straight horns make this antelope readily recognisable in San rock art. This pecked representation of a gemsbok lacks the fine detail that is visible in the rhino engraving. A spray of fine elongated pecks accentuates the gentle hump on the back.
Hippopotamus: This image is made with elongated pecking marks. The animal is clearly a hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) due to the distinctively rounded belly. Very little detail is visible in this engraving.
Birds and Ostriches: There is a single image of a bird with head facing backward. The two are legs and rounded body is very distinctly a small sparrow-like bird. There are three ostriches on the same boulder. The boulder has split into two pieces. One boulder contains just a single ostrich. The other boulder has two ostriches separated by a large crack and face opposite directions.
Human figures and Geometrics: There are two distinct human figures that are stick-like in appearance. The geometrics include sunbursts, concentric circles, circles, semi-circles, rectangles and squares.
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Brief description of site: Located in what is typically rock engraving country.The three sites are in close proximity to each other but are located on separate hills. Boulders containing rock engravings are scattered on the hilltops as well as on the banks of the hills. Brief description of art: RSA RHG1 has a single image located at the foot of a gentle hill. It is about 10 metres from the farm road. The lone image is that of the sacred eland. The image lacks over emphasised detail. Deep incisions have been made into the rock to create a thickened outline. The detail is not fine as pecked engravings; however, great care was taken to show the eland's horn, dewlap and hump. There is also fine detail in the head and especially the mouth. The hindquarters appear to be foreshortened as they take the shape of the boulder. This image demonstrates intentional use of the shape of the boulder. Whether this was a deliberate technique to make the hindquarters appear foreshortened is disputable. However, it does seem plausible.
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