Protea Hills I 80

Brief description of site: RSA PRH1 is a cavernous and huge rock shelter. The site is over 40 m long with the main cave section being 15 m long, up to 10 m deep and up to 8 m high with smaller, inner caves along the back wall. The rest of the krantz has only a very shallow overhang. Large blocs of rock lie on the sloping floor and a water seep, that may be quite strong at times, and may even be described as a waterfall - flows in the main cavern part of the cave. The cavern is dominated by a huge Podocarpus yellowood that must be of some antiquity. The site has a limited view to the steep slope of the valley's opposite side.

The site has pockets of very dry, dusty deposit. This deposit has accumulated best towards the back of the cavern part of the site. Here, under a rock capping is some remarkable preservation of plant material. Watsonia corms, pieces of Podocarpus sticks and what may be a bedding layer are still visible. There are also stone tools present - mostly semi-precious agate raw material also known as crytpo-crystalline silicates. Along the krantz are more such stone tools and also hornfels or indurated shale stone tools. In the ashy parts of the deposit bone is well-preserved and there is occasional charcoal.
Brief description of art: Bags.

There are approximately 150 - 200 individual Bushman rock paintings; mostly dating from the older classic period that is 600 years and older. The paintings in the cavern have remained well-preserved; those on the krantz section less so:

Cavern rock paintings: There is a rare rock painting of an elephant, eland, rhebuck and human figures. The cavern is dominated by a 1, 4 m x 0, 4 m image cluster of over a dozen thick-set and elaborately decorated human figures. These human figures also have animal features like hooves and are therefore therianthropes - part-human and part-animal beings. Many have 'Rastafarian' like hairdos and body decoration in the form of white dots and stripes on red, brown and orange bodies and red stripes on white and orange faces. Many of the figures are shown wearing animal cloaks or karosses. Smaller more gracile human figures - about 9 - cluster attendant-like around the big therianthropes. Amongst these figures is a painting of a bag with two buck heads protruding from it, facing the viewer. This is a very unusual image; one that is a theme in the area, being also found on the removed RSA LIN1 panel. There is also a painting of an eland lying down with its head turned as if into the rock face. At a juncture in the rock wall four sphinx-like animal figures are depicted in a vertical row. There are at least two buck that are hartebeest present.

Krantz rock paintings: These paintings have mostly not preserved well. There is one image cluster of a large red, white and black bull eland surrounded by at least 6 human figures. Isolated human and animal figures are scattered along the krantz. Eland dominate.