Item RARI-LEE-RSA-ANG1-11.jpg - RARI LEE RSA ANG1 11

Brief description of site: RSA ANG1 is a huge, north-east-facing curved krantz-cave with a waterfall falling 10 m above and flowing through a very noticeable rock aperture. The site is 18 m long, up to 2 m deep and over 30 m high in places. Large blocks of rock lie on the steeply sloping floor. The site has a superb view to the north and east. There is vegetation and trees in the site.

The site has pockets of dry, dusty deposit that could be up to 0.5 m deep in places. There are hornfels and crypto-crystalline silicate raw materials lying on the surface; many of which have been made into stone tools. These stone tools or '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 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. There are also hornfels (also known as lydianite or indurated shale) stone tools and this raw material is everywhere available in the form of river cobbles. Every stage of stone tool manufacture is present at RSA ANG1. 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.
Brief description of art: Therianthropes and Snakes.

There are approximately 200 - 250 individual Bushman rock paintings from different periods present at the site. Angora's rock paintings occur both on the wall in discontinuous pulses (though the whole shelter must once have been densely painted) and on the ceiling, low down near the floor. On the eastern side are deep red coloured human figures with sticks, bows, bags and quivers in attitudes similar to those of dancing people. Further along, the site becomes notable for the many large eland depicted. Some of the eland paintings reach 50 cm in length Eland are present in monochrome, bichrome, polychrome and shaded polychrome techniques. There is also evidence that some of the eland have been re-painted - a rare event in Bushman rock paintings. Even more unusual is the pinkish tinge some of the paint. Sourcing this pigment would be important future research as it may enable researchers to follow a small group or even an individual rock-artist's movements across a localised landscape. There are also human figures with detailed caps, facial figures and accoutrements such as short cloaks painted in a bright orange, chalk-like paint. In deeper pigment there is a very stocky red animal that may be an attempt at a horse - perhaps by someone not yet fully familiar with horses; suggesting an age of 200 - 300 years or more ago. There are also half-a-dozen paintings of rhebuck; mostly in the brighter pigment. There are also 6+ human figures painted in white. On top of one of the large eland panels is an example of White settler rock art in the form of `Lt. T Goss 1901 2 N. [?]C' - possibly made by residents or soldiers in the area during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1901) - sheltering from the conflict.