Item IZI-HT-01-26HC.jpg - IZI HT 01 26HC

Brief description of site: This rock shelter is a large 35 m cliff overhang with a smaller 7.7 m long and 2.2 m deep and low vestibule at the northern end. The shelter faces NW and is situated unusually high up with a commanding view over the adjacent Leeukloof and river. The sandstone's case-hardening has mostly weathered away, exposing the very soft heartrock beneath. The approach to the site is remarkable on account of the many ocular cavities that have eroded out of the rock. Some are large enough to be shelters and bear traces of archaeological artefacts.

There is a lot of dung overburden in the main shelter. In one section, however, an intact lens or organic material is visible. This lens consists mostly of grass and may represent the bedding material of the San who lived in the cave. In other areas there are ostrich eggshell fragments that would have been from water containers. There are also a few ostrich eggshell beads. Lithics (stone tools) are also present and are mainly of hornfels (lydianite) or crypto-crystalline silicates (chalcedonies or opalines). There are some hornfels endscrapers that were used to scrape and prepare hides for various leather goods such as karos, bags, clothing, thongs, shoes and so forth. There are also lots of chips and chunks that indicate stone tools were made on-site and that this was a major habitation site in the past. There are also artefacts present in some of the ocular cavities to the south.
Brief description of art: The rock-paintings are concentrated in a single 3.25 m x 0.58 m panel in the vestibule on the northern end, though the entire shelter must have at one stage been painted; though the case-hardening has now weathered away.

The RSA GNH1 rock-paintings number over 140 individual paintings that fall into two distinct types:

San or Bushman rock-paintings: Most of the paintings are San or Bushman and may be recognised by their fine, brush-applied outlines and infills. Painted in red, yellow, white and black paint and include depictions of over 35 eland (Tragelaphus oryx), vaal rhebuck (Pelea carolus) indeterminate antelope, human figures - some with spears - and some large animals. One human figure is exceptionally large at 310 mm; similarly, two of the eland exceed 400 mm in length. There is a rare rock-painting of a quagga (Equus quagga). Many of the 80+ human figures have bows and arrows while at least a dozen are depicted in postures associated with the Medicine or Trance Dance. There are also more curious human figures in a whitish-black pigment that bear clubs and may be representations of early Black farmers. There are two curious white bell-shaped motifs. There is also a cluster of 35 motifs that have been identified as aloes (see below), making these one of only three known San rock-paintings of plants.

Khoe (Khoi) rock-paintings: In contrast to the fine, brush-applied rock-paintings of the San, there are also Khoe rock-paintings in the shelter. There are the thicker motifs and stripes that have been applied with the finger. In the main shelter there are 15 black (once white) finger dots in a row. In the vestibule there are rows and isolated finger 'sausages' or stripes 70 mm - 110 mm long. There are also circle-like motifs and a motif that looks like a cross. These Khoe (Khoi) rock-paintings are painted on op of the San paintings and are thus younger in age.

The Aloe ferox Panel: There are 35 white and red rock-paintings of what Dr Ziets Zietsman, botanist at the National Museum, has identified as Aloe ferox. Aloe ferox is a plant endemic to the area. These paintings are exceptional, as this is only the third known San rock-painting in Lesotho and South Africa so far known. The other two examples are a Brunsviga at LES THB in Lesotho and aloes and lilliacea in the RSA GEN near Zastron. Though 70% of the San's diet consisted of plantfood, paintings of plants are exceedingly rare. Aloe ferox has a host of medicinal uses and the nectar is known to be narcotic.

History of the collection

The Tongue collection is currently split between two Institutions. The final colour copies, just over 100 in total, including those that were exhibited and published, are stored at the Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Tongue's original tracings and line drawings (some derived directly from Stow copies) are housed at the Rock Art Research Institute. A large number of these had originally been donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in 1921, but these were returned to the Rock Art Research Institute in South Africa in 1990s thanks to the farsighted vision of Professor Ray Inskeep. Read Less
Background of the Recorder

M. Helen Tongue was a school teacher at Rockland Girls' High during the 1890s and 1900s in the town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was here that she met Dorothea Bleek, daughter of famous San linguist and ethnographer, Wilhelm Bleek. The two travelled widely visiting rock art sites in the region. Tongue developed a direct contact tracing technique to record each image (both painted and engraved) in its exact proportions and in its relationship to other images as they appeared on the rock surface. In this way, she took an important step beyond the pioneer recording work of George Stow. Tongue's Eastern Cape copies are her earliest. Her first copy was made on a farm in Molteno District. In this early work, she worked alone. But, the bulk of her copies were made during three longer fieldtrips beyond the Eastern Cape border, together with Dorothea Bleek. At the beginning of 1906, Tongue and Bleek made a train trip from Cradock to Bloemfontein and Ladybrand (Free State), where they recorded various rock art sites. Most of the sites visited were located by using the descriptions of George Stow. A second expedition in the summer of 1906/07 took them through the Eastern Cape and into Lesotho. Their third and final expedition was by train to Fauresmith (Free State) and wagon to Luckhoff in the Karoo (Western Cape). In 1908 a selection of Tongue copies were exhibited at the South African Public Library in Cape Town and then at the Royal Anthropological institute in London. In 1909 a series of copies were brought together in a handsome portfolio of 54 plates and an accompanying book with two collotype plates and eight black-and-white photographs. Helen Tongue wrote descriptions for each site and each plate, Dorothea Bleek contributed "Notes on the Bushmen" and Henry Balfour wrote a preface. The book was titled "Bushman Paintings", it was Tongue's first and only rock art publication