Layers of Potency: the eland motif as a key element of the San paintings in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa.

Archaeologists have calculated that the eland appears more often than any other animal in San paintings, in the Drakensberg, even though there were no more eland in the veld than other animals.

According to San ethnology the eland was 'of /Kaggen', full of magic power, God's favourite creature. Sometimes entire panels were painted with just the eland, sometimes one on top of another, as layers of potency.

According to conversations in the 1800's between Dr Wilhelm Bleek and the San people, in trance, the shaman would sometimes feel himself changing into a powerful eland, the essential symbol of spiritual potency. What looks to us like an eland in the painting might be a fully transformed shaman in trance.

Rock shelters were special places where people gathered for important spiritual experiences like the healing dance. The shelter itself, over time, would become a place of special spiritual power.

Visit the Rock Art Archive of South Africa:

www.bradshawfoundation.com/south_africa/index.php