Dating and Context of Rock Engravings in Southern Africa

TLDR

Rock art is rarely found in sealed contexts, making dating difficult; South African low‑rock engravings illustrate this problem. The authors employed a multiscale spatial analysis of technique, themes, faunal content, geoarchaeological patterns, settlement history, and ethnoarchaeological context to infer environment, chronology, and group identity. Naturalistic animal engravings date to 3200–2500 and 2250–1800 BP, with some possibly older than 4000 BP, while geometric designs appear after 1300 BP, coinciding with drier climates and the first contact between identity‑conscious Bushman engravers and domesticated animals.

Abstract

Rock art is seldom recovered from sealed archeological contexts and is therefore difficult to date or integrate with other artifactual assemblages. South African engravings, found on low rocks at open-air sites, exemplify the problem. Multiscale spatial study of technique, thematic variation, faunal content, geoarcheological paterning, settlement history, and ethno-archeological setting provides coherent information on environment, time, and group identity. The major periods of naturalistic animal engravings coincide with wetter and warmer climates abot 3200 to 2500 and 2250 to 1800 years before present, but the earliest engravings may be older than 4000 years. Geometric designs were favored after 1300 years before present, when climate was drier and when one identity-conscious population of Bushman engravers first encountered domesticated animals.