Twyfelfontein 534 XIV

• Large Malereiblock “I”
• Uais Site 26 & 25

Brief description of site: This site comprises a large overhang making for a cave-like space up to 2 m deep and up to 3 m high (but typically 1.5 m) on a large rock bloc with a sloping and reasonably extensive floor area. This cave-like overhang is sited next to large upstanding rock bloc complex. The overhand has Bushman rock paintings and Bushman rock engravings, while the upstanding rock bloc has Bushman rock engravings. This site and its Outlier - NAM TWT15 - marks the southernmost extent of the main NAM TWT Site Complex. The site is south of the small tributary that separates NAM TWT10 from Sites NAM TWT11-13. There is a good view down the valley and towards the main site complex. This site is on the 640 m contour and just outside of the main declared monument area. There is a noticeable echo and wind roar at this site.

The overhang part of the site has a very hard, gritty floor that slopes. Rain and tourists have picked the surface of this site clean of artefacts. There are stone tools further down the slope and also bone and ostrich eggshell, fragments.
Brief description of art: There are about 20 Bushman rock engravings and 25 Bushman rock paintings here (with perhaps some Khoekhoen art also present), probably the best-preserved paintings in the valley.

Overhang site: The overhang interior wall has two facets, both of which are painted.

Facet 1: On the one facet are the well-preserved torsos of 7 buck painted in red paint with an average dimension of 150 mm x 90 mm. One of these buck is gracile and may represent a springbok, while the other six are sturdier and may represent oryx, though one sturdy buck has very kudu-like legs. There is a large 400 mm x 290 mm white buck painted on top of the red buck torsos. There is also a white belly of an oryx surviving as a remnant of a once-whole animal painting. There are at least 4 ostrich heads in white paint and two very enigmatic motifs. The enigmatic motifs consist of alternating thin red and while parallel lines arranged in an open triangle or roughly arrow shape. There does not seem to be any paint nearby and it is not yet possible to say what these enigmatic motifs may signify. There is also a partial red outline buck.

Facet 2: On the overhang's other fact there are four red buck painted, one of which has part of an eland-like head surviving. This buck has dimensions of 360 mm x 230 mm. There are also three fragmentary human figures paintings. There is an upside-down nested catenary curve. There is then a central red finger-painted motif enclosing two red lozenge shapes. There is an incomplete second such red finger-painted outline. These finger paintings may represent a Khoekhoen presence. There is also a painted and partially rubbed out arrow motif and a recent engraved 'd'-like shape.

South wall: Just outside the painted shelter are four pecked-infill engraved spoor - 1 antelope, 2 equid and a horseshoe-like spoor, probably also zebra. There are two other pecked areas. Less than 10 m from the paintings there are 5 more spoor associated with little dots/cupules.

Passageway: Between the south-eastern painted facet and the spoor engravings is a narrow passageway, formed where the rocks abut. Inside this passageway 2 m an in an area that gets no sunlight and which is dark, there is a very detailed rock painting of a kudu in red with white body stripes and no apparent head. This rock painting is very difficult to see and one wonders to what purpose it was placed here. It does not seem as if the engraved rock bloc rolled onto the painted shelter either, making it seem as though the artists intentionally sought out a dark and hidden location for her or his art.

Upstanding rock bloc complex: Immediately north-north-west of the painted overhang is a huge rock bloc complex that has Bushman rock engravings on it northern and western face. There is a pecked-outline equid, 2 fine pecked-infill giraffe - one large at 800 mm x 360 mm and the other with a very short neck, 3 very schematic animals in a rough pecked-outline. To the north is a third partial pecked-infill giraffe and perhaps an accompanying juvenile, part of which has flaked off. There is a schematic pecked-outline ?equid and the pecked-outline head of a third animal. A fourth giraffe emerges out of a large circular exfoliated area of rock. There may be an abraded groove below the main image cluster.