IDNO

LS.167797.LAR

Description

Close-up of rock paintings showing three overlapping elands,with one overlying a human figure constructed of lines. A figure of man walking with a staff is above the animal figures. [JD 10/01/2024]

Place

S Africa; Zimbabwe; Bambata Cave [Rhodesia]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Armstrong, A. Leslie [Prehistoric Society of East Anglia]

Date

circa 1929

Collection Name

Armstrong Collection

Source

?Prehistoric Society of East Anglia

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.167713.LAR - LS.167807.LAR were found unaccessioned in drawer S.318.

Bibliographical Reference: Armstrong, A. Leslie. "Rhodesian Archæological Expedition (1929): Excavations in Bambata Cave and Researches on Prehistoric Sites in Southern Rhodesia." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 61 (1931): 239–76. On p.251 Armstrong notes "A study of the technique of the wall-painting shows that it was customary to draw the animals and figures first in outline, generally with a fairly bold line, and that subsequently the body was filled in with colour. It is clear that the process of filling in was generally done by scouring the rock with the appropriate colour, in the manner that a child uses crayons. This is particularly noticeable in the drawings of the large animals and is most prevalent in the earlier superpositions, such as the group of elands in (P1. XXXIII and P1. B), but is less evident in the later series. Therefore, strictly speaking, these are pastel drawings rather than paintings. The pencils of haematite and ochre, and the pieces of these materials bearing flat striated surfaces, are just the tools which would be required in outlining and in scouring respectively." [Source: https://doi.org/10.2307/2843833, JD 10/01/2024]