Twyfelfontein Site Report
by Sven Ouzman
Age of Twyfelfontein’s Rock-Art
Twyfelfontein is a vast site complex with many images – perhaps over 5000. It would therefore seem that this favourable living place and spiritual centre was visited and re-visited over many centuries by Bushmen and Khoekhoen. Southern African rock-art dating is notoriously insecure and a great deal more work needs to be done before we are able to date individual images at individual sites; though Twyfelfontein would be an excellent testing ground for such more. Until specific precision is possible, we are able to say certain things in general about Twyfelfontein’s and Southern Africa’s rock-art. For example, Bushman rock-art is Africa’s oldest artistic tradition having started at least 25000 years ago. This date is one that was obtained from southern Namibia at Apollo 11 cave where Dr. Eric Wendt found, in archaeological layers that are between 22000 – 29000 years old, a painted slab of rock on which a part-human, part-feline is depicted. From the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa we know that the last Bushman rock-art was produced about 100 years ago.
Rock engravings have different degrees of weathering called ‘patination’. When a rock engraving is made, the freshly chipped rock has a very light colour, which contrasts sharply with the darker rock around it. As the engraving ages, it acquires what is known as ‘patination’ or ‘desert varnish’ whereby it goes darker in colour. Thus the lighter the engraving, the younger it usually is (unless it is located in a very protected position). Thus at Twyfelfontein some rock engravings may be only a few hundred years old while other, darker ones may be several thousand years old.
The geometric Khoekhoen engravings are just as difficult to date. We known that the Khoekhoen were in this area between 2500 – 400 years ago and so the engravings must date to within this period, though clearly a great deal more work must be done to gain a greater degree of precision on the age of these geometric images.
Meaning of Twyfelfontein’s rock-art
The Twyfelfontein Valley occupies a very important place in Southern African rock-art research on account of the vast quantity of rock-art and archaeological artefacts encountered there; as well as the presence of at least two, and perhaps three, rock-art traditions. These rock-art traditions belong to the Bushmen (or ‘San’) gatherer-hunters; the Khoekhoen herders (formerly ‘Hottentot’ or ‘Khoi’) and the enigmatic cupule engravings. Though dominantly a rock engraving locale, Twyfelfontein also has Bushman and a few Khoekhoen rock paintings. The co-occurrence of rock engravings and rock paintings is relatively rare and offers research avenues into the investigation of the meaning of and inter-relationship between these two art forms. Furthermore, the spatially extensive site complex at Twyfelfontein allows an examination of the articulation of rock-art with landscape. Below are a few impressionistic remarks made in regard to the meaning of some of Twyfelfontein’s imagery. The full extent and content of this site complex’s meaning for the people that made it will probably never be known, but even the fragments we can glean today indicate a vast, intricate and full meaning-realm.
Bushman rock engravings and rock paintings
These account for perhaps 80% of the imagery at Twyfelfontein.
Ethnography & Interpretation: Thanks to pioneering participative work undertaken in the 1870s by the German linguist Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd with individuals such as //Kabbo, /Han/kass’o of the /Xam Bushman community. The over 12000 pages of transcribed oral tradition so captured, is today an enduring testament to the now-departed /Xam. Though Bleek and Lloyd soon realised the religious and symbolic importance of Bushman rock-art, this insight was held in abeyance for almost 100 years while non-Bushmen interested in rock-art tended to interpret it in facile, non-Indigenous ways. Ideas such as exotic foreigners like Arabians or Phoenicians were in the 1930s - 1950s thought to have made the bulk of our Bushman rock-art – with the White Lady of the Brandberg being the most (in)famous example. Hunting magic, art-for-art’s sake and aesthetic approaches were all tried and found wanting. It was only when researchers such as Janette Deacon, David Lewis-Williams and Patricia Vinnicombe in the 1970s and 1980s re-discovered the Bleek & Lloyd archive in the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town that the now commonly-accepted theory that much if not most of Bushman rock-art relates to the shamanistic and symbolic experiences of the Bushmen.
Bushman Ordinary & Spirit World: In essence, the Bushman world-understanding was that there was an Ordinary World in which normal people physically dwelt, and there was a Spirit World in which Gods, powerful Beings, animals and places were located. This Spirit World could only be accessed by people trained to do so. These people were called shamans or Medicine People. Anyone could become a shaman, but their task was a painful and dangerous one as they had to travel in the strange, inversive and often hostile Spirit World and there perform many labours. These labours included making rain, controlling animal’s movements, fighting against evil shamans, Beings and influences and healing people. Non-Bushman understand this Spirit World to be an hallucination induced by an altered state of consciousness. But for the Bushmen, the visual and bodily ‘hallucinations’ represented a very tangible reality.
The Medicine Dance: The Spirit World was accessed by one of the world’s oldest known religious rituals – the Medicine Dance (also known as the trance dance). This ritual involved all members of Bushman society irrespective of age, gender, initiated status and so forth. Though smaller dances also took place, typically everyone would sit together in a tight circle and people would clap and sing, building up a powerful aural soundscape. People would then dance in a circle, stamping, clapping and emphasising repetitive, percussive rhythms and sounds. The singing and dancing would endure for many hours, often at night, until the combination of faith, aural driving, physical exertion and so forth, would cause the dancers – who were and are also shamans – to enter a trance-state – what the Bushman believed to be the Spirit World. The shamans would verbally explain what they had experienced while in trance/Spirit World, and they would also depict their experiences visually in the form of rock-art. Indeed, Bushman rock-art sites may be understood as places where Spirit and Ordinary Worlds connected.
Animals of potency: The dominance of large, powerful animals such as rhino, giraffe, large antelope, elephant and so forth is because the Bushmen believed that their Great God had placed in these animals vast amount of supernatural potency. This supernatural potency was used by the shamans to aid them in the Spirit World endeavours. Sometimes, these shamans believed they had to physically assume the form of their potency animal in order to use its potency.
Interestingly, these insights were applied to Bushman rock paintings even though the /Xam people lived in the Karoo areas of South Africa – an engraving area. Though even now most researchers concentrate on rock paintings, rock engravings are poised to offer us insights into the Bushman mind that rock paintings are unable to. In particular, the association of engraved sites to the wider landscape is a promising avenue of research.
Twyfelfontein:
At Twyfelfontein, the Bushman rock engravings are best understood not as 2-dimensional copies of 3-dimensional real animals that are copied onto a rock surface. Rather, the Bushmen believed that one of the places the Spirit World was located behind the rock. Thus, the act of engraving may be understood not as putting an image onto the rock, but bringing out a Spirit World animal from behind the rock. This is a radically different but critically important way in which to understand Bushman rock ‘art’.
Spoor imagery: Twyfelfontein is remarkable for the vast number and variety of animal tracks and human footprints (referred to as ‘spoor’) engraved at its many sites. Spoor is an archetypal human metaphor, simultaneously presenting two dominant concerns – identity and journey. A knowledgeable tracker can use spoor to precisely identify an animal – even to its sex and emotional state. Spoor also contains information about travelling animals: their number, speed, intended destination and so forth. The abundance and variety of real spoor in the surrounding landscape make it unlikely that these spoor were engraved in order to teach young hunters how to identify different animals or how to track. Rather, the engraved spoor (Figure 96) are exclusive and signify the physically and spiritually pre-eminent animals, such as large antelope, giraffe, rhino and such like. Where, for example, are the engravings of rock hyrax, small game, tortoises and other animals that would have also been around in Bushman times?
Why do so many of the spoor have extra digits (see for instance Figure 20) – even up to 8 toes? This site complex must have been an important spiritual and social locus that was visited and re-visited by many generations of Bushman. The nature of these visits is elevated to another level by the engraved spoor, which may be understood as part of a track, or pathway that continues directly into, behind the rock to the Spirit World. Given the extra-ordinariness of Bushman rock-art, these spoor rock-paintings are unlikely to be documenting the journey of ordinary animals travelling across an ordinary landscape. Rather, these spoor more likely mark out a pathway from the outer Ordinary World to the inner Spirit World. In this Spirit World nothing is as it seems and it is easy to lose one’s way. The spoor of the potent and protective animals of potency thus act as pathways that guide people safely through the Sacred landscape. Perhaps these spoor were conceptually linked to other rock-art spoor sites in the region; forming a route that people could follow as part of a quest. Such quests were an important part of Bushman life as they allowed people to renew relationships with special places, re-affirm their Bushman-ness and fulfil their duties as custodians of the land.
The rain animal: Another place at which World connected were at waterholes. The watercourse that runs down through the main Twyfelfontein Site Complex will, in and just after the rain, have large pools of water collecting at certain places. These places, especially Sites 10 and 11, are often marked with rock engravings of large animals, especially rhinoceros. The juxtapositioning of these large powerful animals with waterholes may have been a deliberate attempt to visually represent the Bushman belief in the rain-animal. In this belief, the rain is believed not to be a natural chain of events, but to exist as a strange animal. This animal was believed to live in deep pools of water. The rain-making ritual was, on the one hand, an actual event in which the whole San group was involved in the context of a medicine dance where people sang, clapped, danced, talked and contributed to the texture and ambience of the occasion. On the other hand, the genesis, capture and slaughter of the rain-animal was an hallucination which was believed to occur in the spirit world and was thus an event in which only the rain-shamans could participate. The rain-shamans would pacify and capture the rain which was perceived in zoomorphic terms as an animal which the /Xam called !khwa-ka xoro or ‘rain-animal’, though they knew that rain was really !khwa //ki or ‘rain-liquid’. The rain-animal was further perceived as either an irascible ‘rain-bull’ (!khwa gwai) characterised by thunder and lightning, and harmful to life, or as a more desirable ‘rain-cow’ (!khwa /aiti) which provided the soft, soaking rains that renewed the veld. The shamans had to confront, subdue, capture and fetter the rain-animal with a thong and bring it out of the waterhole it was believed to inhabit. Once again, leading the rain-animal was an ambiguous construction of the real and non-real, seen and unseen. For example, the /Xam word #xamma can mean ‘to lead out [the rain-animal]’, ‘work magic’ and ‘conjure’, terms which allude to the hallucinatory labours of the rain-shamans. These rain-shamans would lead or ride the rain-animal across the sky or take it to the top of a hill where they would slaughter it. The milk and blood of the rain-animal would mix to form rain, which would either fall from the sky or flow from the hilltop onto the surrounding plain. The non-real rain-making ritual was thus believed to cause real precipitation. Rock paintings that nineteenth century /Xam identified as rain-animals suggest that the rain-animal was thought to have a large body not unlike a hippopotamus and was often horned. Thus, in some cases, rhinos were believed to be a model of the rain-animal.
Dangerous felines: The Löwenplatte (Figure 97) is perhaps Twyfelfontein’s most famous engraving. Clearly, the lion depicted is not a normal one as its tail is impossibly long and ends in a 6-toed pug mark. Such ‘non-real’ visual elements were intended by the shaman-artists to alert the viewer to the extra-ordinary Spirit World importance of the imagery. In many Bushman societies, the feline was used as a metaphor and physical manifestation of evil influences and evil shamans. At several locations in the Twyfelfontein Valley, there are feline pug marks or spoor depicted in which the claws are shown – suggesting an aggressive and dangerous message (see for instance Figure 89, the “Springbockplatte”).
Enigmas: Twyfelfontein has so much imagery that it is not possible to understand it all and there are many images we do not yet understand. There are, for example, antelope-like animals that have impossibly long snouts. Similar such animals occur as rock engravings in the central interior of South Africa, indicating that there was a widespread Bushman belief about such animals. Also, how do the various engraved images, image clusters and sites relate to each other? Why at Twyfelfontein do we have 4 rare instances of abraded and polished engravings? How do the Bushman rock paintings and rock engravings relate to each other? Which are older and younger or are they of similar ages? And so the list goes on. Perhaps we must each find a rock-art enigma and make it a life’s work to unravel the meaning of that enigma.
Khoekhoen rock engravings and rock paintings
Until recently, it was not commonly recognised that the Khoekhoen herder peoples who moved into Southern Africa a little more than 2000 years ago also made rock-art. Recent research suggests, however, that these people formerly called ‘Khoi’ or ‘Hottentot’ also made rock engravings and rock paintings. These rock engravings and rock paintings differ from those made by the Bushmen in three ways.
First, the Khoekhoen rock-art is visually different, being dominated by apparently non-representational geometric imagery such as circles, internally divided circles, dots, rows of dots, lines, dumbbells, ‘starburst’ and sun-like motifs and so on. There is very little representational imagery – sometimes rudimentary animal and human figures and also handprints. This geometric imagery is not the same as the visual hallucinations known as ‘entoptic phenomena’ that are encountered in Bushman rock-art. Bushman entoptics – a small but critical component of Bushman art – are usually integrated into larger ‘compositions’ that have representational elements. In addition, these entoptics are made up of dominantly a different range of geometric imagery than is encountered in Khoekhoen geometrics.
Secondly, there is a difference in technique between Khoekhoen and Bushman rock-art. Khoekhoen rock engravings are typically made with a large, coarse peck mark while Bushman rock engravings tend to be pecked finer and with smaller, more controlled peck marks. Similarly, Khoekhoen rock paintings are made by means of large, finger-painted lines and dots while Bushman rock paintings tend to be very fine and made with brushes.
Thirdly, Khoekhoen rock-art sites tend to be distributed close to water sources – because they had to water their stock – while Bushman rock-art sites occur almost everywhere. The Khoekhoen also seemed to like more cave-like spaces that the Bushmen tended to ignore. At places like Twyfelfontein, the two people and their rock-arts came together. They may even have lived together simultaneously and linguistic, genetic, archaeological and other evidence shows that these two groups of people had a great deal of interaction; hence today some people refer to the KhoiSan as though they are a single group.
The meaning of this Khoekhoen rock-art is not as yet clear, but it may relate to the desire to mark and display both a personal and a group identity. It may also be that elements of this Khoekhoen rock-art relate to initiation rituals and similar rites of passage.
Cupules
‘Cupules’ are small, semi-hemispherical hollows about the dimensions of half a ping-pong ball and smaller, that have been engraved into the rock surface. Cupules are an unusual rock-art as they do not constitute obvious images but consist of small semi-hemispherical hollows, 20mm - 150mm in diameter and 10mm - 70mm deep, engraved on a rock support. Cupules most often occur in clusters of between approximately half a dozen to several dozen and are placed on horizontal, sloping and vertical surfaces. Cupules differ from grinding hollows, peck marks and pits in terms of appearance, distribution, size and do not appear to have been involved in utilitarian activities. Though visually ingenuous, cupules are articulated with a variety of ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ places and spaces in a complex nexus of cultural marks that seem to relate to Indigenous ideas of place and space. The structured nature and widespread distribution of cupules across Southern Africa suggest that cupules were a rock-art concerned with journeying and the marking of places by indigenous people, though it is not entirely sure who made them. Also, cupules seem to have extra-ordinary longevity and have been made by different cultures at different times. Thus some are ancient while others are very recent and the meaning of cupules is likely to be multiple.
‘Graffiti’
At Twyfelfontein there are a number of instances of ‘graffiti’ – unauthorised marks – made by non-Bushman visitors, usually in the 20th and 21st centuries. Though destructive and usually disrespectful of the rock-art already at Twyfelfontein, graffiti is nonetheless a human artefact and it is able to inform us about the profiles, attitudes and behaviour of visitors to Heritage Sites. For this reason, even when it is removed, graffiti should also be recorded. At times, even the graffiti may be older than 100 years and thus an archaeological artefact, according to current heritage legislation.
Landscape and rock-art
The one thing that binds all of these disparate rock-art traditions is the landscape. This one should not only study the imagery and rock-art sites in isolation, but consider the wider physical landscape too. The Bushman rock engravings of spoor, for example, tell of the importance of journey – even quests and pilgrimages – in times past. Twyfelfontein was clearly a long-term focus for Bushman and Khoekhoen communities and its imagery and Archaeology built up over a long time. It is important that as many different strands of evidence – ecological, hydrological, cultural and so forth, be woven together in a coherent narrative to tell the story of Twyfelfontein, it’s immediate surroundings as well as its important place in Southern African Archaeology and world history.
Management Recommendations
It should universally be accepted that the Archaeological & Cultural Heritage represented at Twyfelfontein is of outstanding value to humanity. Thus, all of our interventions at this site should be of similarly outstanding quality and pay homage to the intellectual and spiritual status of the people who lived at and marked this place before us. Second-best simply will not do. In order to ensure that visitors to Twyfelfontein get the best possible experience, we need properly to understand both the Heritage Site and the profile of the visitors who come to this site.
Baseline Recording: Before any site is opened to visitation it is essential that there is a comprehensive recording of the site. Such recording is not just restricted to the rock-art – number of images, colour, condition, position, technique, type and potential threats – but also to the associated archaeology. A holistic approach should take note of the site type, geology, vegetation, climate and natural, human and future threats to the site. The comprehensive site recording needs to comply with legal requirements and should be undertaken by a person trained in archaeology; consulting with specialists where required. The comprehensive site recording must also be socially sensitive and be governed by the role a rock-art site or region plays in the lives of people who have spiritual and emotional ties to a site. Fortunately, Dr. Scherz’s work largely satisfies this requirement and Archaeologist Goodman Gwasira’s current documentation of the graffiti sites will help complete this important developmental phase.
Site Management Plan: To ensure that the site has a long-term future as a cultural attraction, a sustainable management plan needs to be drawn up and implemented. This step will involve talks with site custodians, landowners, heritage authorities, local communities, politicians and rock-art specialists. Management plans should be simple and practical, including such considerations as when and if to cut back encroaching vegetation, maintaining paths, constructing walkways, updating site information, regular training updates for site custodians, rubbish removal, having pens and paper for visitor’s books and so on. Access control is vital. Ideally, guides should accompany and inform visitors, thereby earning at least an occasional income. Fences are less satisfactory as they are costly, age badly and they create an authoritarian structure around the site. Fences are, however, sometimes necessary to keep animals out of sites and so on. Publicity and marketing are also important parts of any management plan, as are regular revisions of the management plan. The management plan needs to be administered by a nominated individual who is supported by a structure such as a museum, heritage authority, town council or the like.
Current Status: The physical condition of the rock engravings, cupules and Archaeology at Twyfelfontein varies from bad – excellent. Visible human damage is relatively slight with the exception of the grossly insensitive ‘Twyfelfontein Country Lodge’ that has severely disrupted the Archaeological integrity and aesthetic of the Zeremonienplatz (Site 2) and the northern end of the valley. No future such developments should be permitted without adequate consultation and impact assessments, in accordance with Namibian Heritage legislation. There is no use now complaining about the Lodge’s Archaeological insensitivity – not to mention the insult to Bushman culture by displaying metal sculptures of Bushmen in the garden. Rather, the Lodge can perhaps be used as an infrastructural node at which information on proper visitor behaviour & etiquette and the meaning and special-ness of Twyfelfontein can be provided. Also the training of local people could potentially take place here.
Hiking Trail: The hiking trail is also a potential problem as it allows visitors unsupervised access to many of the rock-art sites. Though most visitors are sensitive to proper visitor etiquette, some damage has occurred. For example, the cross-like motif recently pecked at Die sieben Tafeln (Site 3) and the numerous instances of graffiti at this and the main site complex. Visitors should be guided to these sites by competent and trained guides and/or the hiking trail should not pass so close to the Heritage Sites.
Paths & Platforms: In general the paths at Twyfelfontein are not in a good condition. Especially at the main Site Complex many of the paths are severely eroded and will need to be rehabilitated. The impact of the existing paths as well as any new paths should first be carefully considered before implementation. Paths should not always go directly to rock-art sites, but also take in interesting geological features as well as views up and down the valley. Also, the glue used to cement markers in place at the Main Site Complex has been messily applied and should be removed. Occasional benches where people can rest would also be a good idea, preferably where people can contemplate a view or good rock-art imagery. It would also be a good idea to construct viewing platforms at some of the better-known, more visited and famous image clusters such as the Löwenplatte. This will help to keep physical contact with the engravings and their immediate surroundings top a minimum while allowing the visitor the best possible vantage point of the engravings. In this regard, visitors should be informed when are the best times of day to view and photograph certain engraved imagery, as the images face different directions. On these platforms and elsewhere there could be information boards with data on how to behave, what certain images are thought to mean, the names of interesting plants and so forth.
Visitor’s Centre: The information boards currently on-site are good an informative. But the guide’s ‘home’ – the ruined Levin farmhouse is not satisfactory. Perhaps a more modern facility, with even more information, a shop and restaurant could be constructed off-site at the entrance to the valley. This would reduce the physical and aesthetic impact on the site. Visitors could then be bussed into the site. It should be remembered that dust from the road can cause damage to the rock-art. Levin’shomestead should be restored to show the recent colonial history of the valley.
Training & Outreach: The Twyfelfontein guides are generally helpful and friendly, though they lack certain critical areas of knowledge about the age, meaning and identification of many of the engravings. Also, their knowledge of the area’s ecology and local history requires strengthening. For example, the well-intentioned but disastrous attempt to cover up graffiti on the Riesenblock and Carstenplatte clearly stems from goodwill, but in such matter a trained conservator is essential. Furthermore, the image of the guides is important and perhaps they could be issued with uniforms. The guide’s task would also be made easier if each visitor was given an information pamphlet with both textual and visual information on Twyfelfontein. Audio tours are also a possibility worth investigating. Also, as Twyfelfontein represents a node of infrastructure in a generally underdeveloped area every effort should be made to ensure that local and neighbouring communities are made to have a sense of ownership of this place and the powerful history and spirituality that it represents. The site should operate so as to be of immediate benefit to these people.
Recommended reading
Dowson, T.A. 1992. The rock engravings of Southern Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1990. Discovering southern African rock-art. Cape Town: David Philip.
Ouzman, S. G. 2001. The problems and potentials of developing and managing public rock-art sites in southern Africa. Pictogram 12: 4-13.
Scherz, E. R. 1975. Felsbilder in Südwest-Afrika. Teil II: Die Gravierungen im Nordwesten- Südwest-Afrikas. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.
Responsible visitor behaviour at rock-art sites
· Archaeo-tourism is a growing field in which rock-art plays a prominent role.
· Always ask permission to visit sites - most are on private land.
· All visits to rock-art sites are at one’s own risk.
· Take as many photographs as you like. Use natural light for best results.
· Move carefully so as not to generate dust or disturb the special atmosphere.
· Visit rock-art sites with an informed person – it adds greatly to the experience.
· Never touch or wet rock-art – it is damaging and illegal.
· Leave all archaeological artefacts as they are – don’t take them away.
· Report vandalism or new sites to us on: rockart@nasmus.co.za
· Damage to rock-art sites in South Africa carries an R1-million fine and a 2-year prison sentence
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