Item NASMUS-RSA-ROX1-17.jpg - NASMUS RSA ROX1 17

Brief description of site: The site is located on the 1 300 m contour and takes the form of a large SSE facing bilobial rock shelter made of tabular rock. The site is unusual in that there are few rock shelters in the area. The site has stone block and fine consolidated rock floor and is 13.36 m long with variable overhang and a very steep slope in front.

There are pockets of quite deep archaeological deposit - up to 1 m deep in parts of the cave. There is a sloping rock floor in places and numerous boulder tumbles. There are also numerous hyrax (dassie) middens. There are few stone artefacts visible on the surface - most were probably cleared off the slope in times past. There are, however, some indurated shale (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 tolls were made on-site and that this was a major habitation site in the past. The acidic conditions prevent the preservation of any leather, shell, bone or wood.
Brief description of art: The RSA ROX1 rock-paintings number over 270 individual paintings that fall into three different types:

San or Bushman rock-paintings: Most of these paintings are painted in a red and white paint and include depictions of baboon, cattle, eland (Tragelaphus oryx), indeterminate antelope, human figures - some with spears - and some large animals. There is also an exceptional and unique rock-painting of a wild dog or Cape hunting dog (Lycaon pictus). As far as is currently known, there are no other San rock-paintings of wild dogs known. There is also a rare 480 mm x 220 mm painting in black of a rhinoceros with a large and wiggly horn.

San/Khoe rock-paintings: About 25% of RSA ROX1's rock-paintings represent a mixture of San and Khoe (Khoi) styles. These are mostly the paintings in a less fine black paint than was used for the San paintings, such as the large black bag with fine white dots. There are also 7 front aprons depicted in black with white dots. There are two large and strange black animals; possibly representations of the rain-animal. Interestingly, one of these animals has at least 42 deliberate scratch marks through it.

Enigmatic paintings: In the western enclosure are some enigmatic paintings; principally two large white balls with rays.

The Wild Dog Panel: This panel or image cluster is located in the western end of the rock shelter. The panel measures 180 mm x 270 mm and consists of a wild dog carefully painted in white and black. This dog appears to chase 4 other black animals and there are 3 black human figures nearby. There are also 2 black lines with trifurcations. This wild dog is unique in southern African rock-art.