IDNO

LS.167906.LAR

Description

Tracing of 'The Trumpeter' painting showing a man wearing a headdress and playing an exaggerated long trumpet.
Below is a group of a woman wearing a fringed skirt, a pregnant woman, and a 'mystic' figure that Armstrong compares with conventionalized mantis paintings of a later period.
The paintings are located in a rock-shelter near Bambata Cave. [JD 27/11/2023]

Place

S Africa; Zimbabwe; Mosi-o-Tunya; near Bambata Cave

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Armstrong, A. Leslie [Artist]

Collector / Expedition

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

Date

circa 1927 - 1929

Collection Name

Armstrong Collection

Source

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.167808.LAR - LS.167909.LAR were found unaccessioned in drawer S.319.

Publication: Image published in 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. Fig. 3. - Tracings of 'The Trumpeter' (Red) and a mystical figure group (Chocolate Brown)."
Text on p.273 includes: "Cave of the Trumpeter.
This is a large rock-shelter situated near a high plateau amidst the range on the east of Bambata Valley, and due east of Bambata Cave itself (P1. XXXVII, Fig. 1). It is most difficult to find and was stumbled upon by accident when first making our way to Bambata. It appears to have no native name. There are two groups of paintings and a detached figure. One group consists of a procession of small figures in red and of the later style, the other is more interesting and with the figure of the trumpeter is illustrated in P1. XXXVII, Figs. 2 and 3. The representation of the trumpeter is, up to the present, the only known example and is executed boldly in dark red. It will be noted that the length of the trumpet is one-third greater than the height of the man, this exaggeration being no doubt to emphasize the importance of the trumpet. The head-dress is similar to that seen upon some of the latest (Wilton) Bambata cave-paintings (P1. B), but the technique of the drawing is less refined and the outline harder. he remaining group (P1.
XXXVII, Fig. 3) is of earlier date, possibly late Bambata culture, and executed in chocolate brown. The drawing and general technique is distinctly better than that of the trumpeter, as will be observed from a study of the female figure on the left, the lines of which are most skilfully
drawn; also the skirt with fringe of tails and suspended articles. The group is assumed to represent the performance of magical rites, probably connected with the deliverance of the pregnant woman in the centre, or to ensure pregnancy as represented. Apart from the figures, the remainder of the composition is too mystical to be interpreted, but the form on the right bears certain resemblances to a conventionalized mantis, which frequently appears in the much later Bush'-man art of the South. The position of this group as reproduced is not in true relationship with the figure of the trumpeter, which on the rock is situated several feet to the right. Though several trial holes were dug here, no indication of occupation was obtained earlier than the present-day Matabele." [Source: https://doi.org/10.2307/2843833, JD 27/11/2023]