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Brief description of site: The Grosse Domschlucht or 'Great Dome Ravine' is so named after the very distinctive 'dome' or Dom that tower 1 560 m above this ravine, which leads into it 900 m below. This ravine is on the western side of the Brandberg-Duares, south of Numas Ravine and north of the Amis Ravine. The entrance to the Domschlucht Ravine is steep-sided dark dolerite boulders with the basal granite also strongly evident. The doleritic section is found in the lower entrance part of the valley and extends for about 800 m before giving way to the granite. The seasonal river flowing through here comes down with some force when it rains; also because much of the riverbed is rock-bottomed. From the ravine entrance one has good views up to the Dom as well as over the flat plain surrounding the Brandberg-Daures. NAM-GHT is unusual in that it is home to both the usual Bushman rock paintings as well and Bushman rock engravings and Khoekhoen rock engravings, making for a complex cultural mosaic. The engraved and painted 'site' covers about 600 m of the entrance ravine on both northern and southern sides. Much less well-known than the rock paintings, the NAM-GHT's engravings were brought to prominence in 1962 by Mr. H. Roth, though they remain mostly unfamiliar even to most rock art researchers.
Brief description of art: The rock art of the Grosse Domschlucht has at least 4 components: Bushman rock paintings; Bushman rock engravings; the gong rock and Khoekhoen rock engravings. These 4 elements combine in a complex cultural mosaic. It is clear that these were not hermetic and separate traditions, but that they had considerable interplay with each other, suggesting a mutual use of the landscape. Thus the 'site' consists of about 600 m of either side of the ravine with at least 21 'pulses' of rock art spread discontinuously along its length with each 'pulse' varying in number of images from a single image to dozens and even several hundred. For a comprehensive account of the rock art site, see the book by Ernst-Rudolf Scherz (reference in 'Recommended Reading' section, below). Dr. Tilman Lenssen-Erz of the Heinrich-Barth Intitut in Cologne, Germany has also documented the site in co-operation with Goodman Gwasira of the Namibian National Museum.

Bushman rock paintings: There are at least 7 localities - all low down near the river bed on vertical and often rock shelter-like surfaces and places. These paintings are very faded and often take the form of an hallated red smear. Where more clearly visible these rock paintings are similar to the others found in the Brandberg-Daures, though the human figures tend to be quite large and tall. It is difficult to estimate the original number of rock paintings here - perhaps as many as 300. Importantly, there are at least three instances of superpositioning between paintings and engravings. On the southern side of the ravine, quite close to the entrance it is clear that an engraving of an equid has been placed on top of a painting of a human. Further up the ravine and on the northern side at one of the largest rock art 'pulses' two red rock paintings occur over geometric engraved rock art.

Bushman rock engravings: These are at least as numerous as the rock paintings and perhaps more so. The peck marks on these varies from fine to rough, but tending to be finer than the peck marks used to make the geometric Khoekhoen rock engravings. Engraved subjects include equids - probably zebra -rhino, many giraffe - the most commonly engraved animal - oryx, antelope and the spoor of humans and antelope. In one instance antelope spoor has been engraved immediately above the back of a small antelope in a potentially revealing vignette. There are some rare engravings of human figures including one very slender one with a buck on a broken rock. Also on this rock are 5 parallel lenticular lines; at least three of which have been rubbed smooth by people. This rock is something of an optical illusion as the 'human' changes into a 'buck' if viewed from the opposite side. Most of these engravings are made with a fine pecking technique, though incised technique has also been used, apparently to copy pecked examples (giraffe, oryx). The incision is very light and somewhat untidy.

Gong rock and flake removals: There is a very good tabular two-part gong rock at the elevated and low-walled rock shelter on the southern side of the ravine about a third of the way in. This gong rock consists of a flat rectangular piece of rock that has split along its length into two pieces. Because this piece of rock rests on a natural rock floor, it has a metallic resonance when struck and bears half-a-dozen old, patinated strike marks on its tonal 'sweet spots'. Being located within a steep and rocky ravine serves also to amplify the sound of this gong rock. At a site pulse on the opposite, northern bank and slightly further up the ravine there is evidence of stone 'tool' flakes being flaked off a rock which bears numerous engravings. Previous research in South Africa suggest that flake removals from engraved rocks may have had more than a utilitarian purpose and may have been intended as a kind of relic or keepsake of an important place. Both the gong rock and flake removals are likely to be Bushman-authored.

Khoekhoen rock engravings: Previously thought to represent Bushman 'entoptic phenomena' or geometric designs 'seen' by shamans while in an altered state of consciousness, recent research indicates an altogether different authorship for these engravings. Entoptic phenomena certainly do exists in Bushman rock art, but they display a different range of forms to geometric designs like these that are either finger-painted or they are pecked in a rough manner as opposed to the finer pecking characteristic of most Bushman rock engravings. These geometric engravings and finger paintings are also distributed differently across the landscape - tending to follow rivers and other permanent sources of water. These and several other factors suggest that these geometric images are the work of Khoekhoen herder peoples (previously called 'Khoi' or 'Hottentot'). There are at least two macro-episodes of geometric Khoekhoen rock engravings in the Domschlucht. There is a younger, very lightly patinated and an older, deeply patinated episode. The dominant image form are circles often joined into large composite motifs. That some of the stone circles have been built around engravings of circular motifs; this suggests a close relationship; even perhaps a plan-type perspective of the stone circles or a conceptual map of a settlement and people's places in it. Some of the representational elements may be Khoekhoen authored and sometimes representational elements like antelope occur on the same rock as geometric engravings.

Brief description of site: The main Site is located on and around the 1281 m, The koppies are remarkable granite formations composed of slab-like and often sharp protuberances that look like huge teeth, and which is located within a varied Bushveld biome. Lesser and larger natural sumps contain water for varying periods. The view from the main site is all-encompassing and other small and large hills appear to rise out of a sea of trees in the wet seasons. The localised landscape is intricate with gullies and alleys.

On the flatter sections and also at the hill's margins there are numerous 'lithics' or stone tools of every description on the surface of the site. These lithics all belong to the Later Stone Age, which covers the period from about 25 000 years ago until historic times. The raw materials used for these lithics are varied. Most are hornfels (also known as lydianite or indurated shale). This raw material is everywhere available in the form of river cobbles. There are also opalines - a crypto-crystalline silicate rock that forms in volcanic pipes and which then occurs either as nodules in rock strata or get washed down streams. Granite fragments appear as if they were tested for stone tools but seem to have been discarded as granite is too coarse-grained and has bad flaking properties. Every stage of stone tool manufacture is present at NAM PTO1. There are cores - large lumps of rock from which stone tools are made. There are flakes - general-purpose cutting tools. Adzes are present and were used for woodworking in much the same way as a spokeshave. End and side-scrapers, often in the shape of a thumbnail were used to prepare leather. There are also rare burins and awls - used to pierce. In addition to the stone tools, there are small pieces of grit-tempered, undecorated pottery fragments. There is also some bone and charcoal and a few metal items of recent vintage. The pottery may belong to herders or early farmers who used the site. The depth of deposit in the shelter is hard to determine because of its size and because of the hard, consolidated earth, but it does exceed 50 cm in places. There are also low stone walls on-site. On the southern side of the site below a panel of engraved ostriches there is a quite substantial set of low (less than 1 m) stone walls. There are numerous flat abraded patches that represent rock on which material such as plant food and possibly ochre was ground fine.
Brief description of art: NAM PTO1's 1 500-plus rock engravings were made by two distinct groups of people. First, there are 'Bushman (also known as 'San') rock engravings that are, broadly speaking, representational within a religious and symbolic framework. Secondly, there are the geometric engravings of Khoekhoen (formerly 'Khoi' or 'Hottentot') herder peoples. Finally, there is a very good example of a 'gong rock' - a naturally occurring granite boulder that has resonant qualities when struck.

Bushman rock engravings: There are many hundreds of pecked outline and pecked infill animals, human figures and others. These engravings are concentrated on the NW and SW of the highest point. The site is dominated by depictions of giraffe, though there are also engraved: a possible antbear; antelope, eland, elephant, felines (leopard?); gemsbok (oryx), a few rare human figures, kudu, ostrich, rhino, zebra. The site has a remarkable western outlier of a huge giraffe engraving that measures 330 cm long - similar to the engraved giraffe of similar size at Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe. There are also engravings of human footprints and animal spoor such as those of giraffe, antelope, rhino and so forth. Most of the engravings have a medium degree of 'patination'. 'Patination' is the degree of weathering the engraved rock has been exposed to. As a general rule, the darker the engraved rock, the older it is; though it must be stressed that local weather conditions and the placement of the engraving on an exposed or sheltered rock can influence matters considerably.

Gong rock: At NAM PTO1 to the east and slightly south of the Trig Beacon, there is what is known as a 'gong rock'. Gong rocks are naturally occurring boulders, usually of dolerite but in this case granite, that are naturally resonant. In other words, these rocks emit a sound like a hammer striking a blacksmith's anvil or tapping a galls of water, when struck with ones hand. These gong rock's resonance is thanks to their being balanced on top of other rocks or having natural cracks through them that act as resonators. The NAM PTO1 gong rock takes the form of a long, lenticular granite slab that rests on other granite. This slab has broken into two parts that measure 204 cm long x 88 cm broad x 27-41 cm thick and 187 cm long x 69 cm broad x 49-70 cm thick. This gong rock has a good tonal range when struck. Please do not strike it with another rock as this causes damage and removes potentially datable patination layers! Rather use a cloth-covered rock or your hand. The places where this gong rock has been struck is shown by 7 small semi-hemisperical hollows known as 'cupules' measuring between 29 mm - 60.5 mm in diameter and 2.5 mm - 9 mm in depth.

Cupules: On a large flat rock to the west are a number of cupules that are not the result of percussive hammering to produce sound like on a gong rock. Measuring between 32.5 mm - 88 mm and 10 mm - 24 mm depth, these 7 cupules are too small and on too sloping a surface to have been used as grinding hollows such as occur elsewhere nearby. Also, these cupules occur as the centre point of an engraved encircling line. This 'motif' is often referred to as a 'cup-and-ring' mark and occurs in many parts of the world.

Khoekhoen rock engravings: NAM PTO1 has a great many non-representational geometric engravings that consist of circles, wavy lines, grid and star-like forms. At times, these geometric motifs bear a striking resemblance to the grid-like patterns found in the bodies of the giraffe engravings. Previously thought to represent the 'entoptic phenomena' or visual hallucinations experienced by trancing Bushman shamans, these geometric are better understood as being the product of Khoekhoen herder peoples that moved into Namibia between 2 000 - 2 500 years ago.

Brief description of site: NAM TIM1 takes the form of an extensive 60 m x 30 m long glaciated knobbly doleritic rock pavement. A fence runs over the western part of the site. Located on a low rise on the 1320 m contour between somewhat higher such other rises, there is still a good view to the north and west.

There is a lot of hard white quartzite material available although it is difficult to tell if many were used as tools or not. There are, however, clear stone tools of the Later Stone Age period dating back from Historic Times until about 25 000 years ago. There are patches on the rock pavement where people have ground presumably plant foods and perhaps ochre. There are also possible stone alignments.
Brief description of art: The site is dominated by pecked infill and pecked outline engravings of animal spoor - perhaps 55-60. Antelope, baboon, eland, giraffe and zebra spoor are depicted. Some of the zebra spoors have a clear 'frog' engraved in the hind-hoof. There are also half-a-dozen human footprints - some quite large (40 cm +) while others are tiny (10 cm and less) - and two bird tracks. There is a 7-toed feline spoor located 45 cm from a 7-toed human footprint, which is 58 cm from a cupule 38 mm in diameter and 6 mm in depth. Representational imagery includes some rudimentary animals, probably antelope and a recent peck-incised human figure. There are also enigmatic axe-head-like motif and 'half-dumbbell' images that are pecked infill, quite large circular motifs atop a thick stem.