Item NASMUS-RSA-HEL2-2.jpg - NASMUS RSA HEL2 2

Brief description of site: This shelter faces west and is 2.2 m high, 2m deep and approximately 4 m long. The shelter is roughly circular in form.

The shelter floor is deeper than 30 cm in places and very damp. There is low stone walling present - probably built to keep stock in or as a herder's shelter. Two lower grindstones are present s are hornfels and chalcedony stone tools.
Brief description of art: The RSA HELII rock-paintings are executed in the 'Classic' or older manner and there is also a stronger palimpsest of finger paintings. There are approximately 61 rock-paintings in this shelter, though there would have been more, especially at the northern end.

The finger paintings: There is a line of at least 24 black (once white) finger dots and finger 'sausages'. The meaning of these images is unclear but they are the work of non-San Khoe (Khoi) herders.

Other paintings: At the southern end there are 6 red human figures. In a hollow is a 260 mm white quadruped with the white paint turning black as a result of algal colonisation. Surrounding this animal are 3 white human figures, one of which may be herding the animal; which may then be a cow. There is also a second such white ?cow, apparently also being herded. At the northern end of the shelter there are 14+ red human figures, a feathered motif in red and a possible ?dog, also in red. There are also 3 red fish, possibly labeoLabeo or Cyprinid species. One human figure bends forward with a raised knee in a posture diagnostic of the attainment of altered states of consciousness.