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The northern parts of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, are home to some of the richest rock art in this part of Africa, and indeed, the world. Rock paintings there evidence the complex beliefs and practices of hunter-gatherers, and the changes which precipitated in the context of inter-group contact. Much of the formative research on southern African rock art was undertaken in this region.

This long-running research project aims to investigate the rock art and associated archaeology of the north Eastern Cape. The local archaeological record spans some 29 000 years and preserves material evidence of precolonial hunter-gatherers, their cross-cultural engagements with incoming herders and farmers, and socio-cultural processes in the colonial period.

The good preservation of the art in the project area and its diversity in terms of how the paintings were made and what was painted create an ideal situation for investigating changes and continuities across space and through time. The primary focus of the project is on the hunter-gatherer rock art of the region, but also includes their contact with incoming peoples.

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Project staff
足球竞彩app排名s
  • Fabiana Katz, Masters student
  • Frances Munro, Masters student
  • Sandee Oster, Masters student
  • Keegan Bagley, Honours student
Publications, theses and dissertations

Publications

2023

Witelson, D. M. 2023. Revisiting the South African unicorn: rock art, natural history and colonial misunderstandings of indigenous realities. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33(4):619–636.

Witelson, D. M. 2023. The meaning and function of southern African San rock art and beyond. Expression 39:56–75.

2022

Mallen, L. R. and Pearce, D. G. 2022. Nodes of interaction: Changing rock paintings in the Eastern Cape mountains of South Africa. In Clack, T. and Brittain, M. (eds) Archaeologies of Cultural Contact: At the Interface:44–61. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pearce, D. G. 2022. Interpreting unusual imagery: A rare rock art depiction of a bushbuck in the southeastern mountains, South Africa. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 57(2):239–251.

Witelson, D. M. 2022. A reappraisal of Walter Battiss’s relative sequence for rock paintings in the Stormberg, Eastern Cape. Southern African Humanities 35:71–102.

2020

De la Peña, P, and Witelson, D. M. 2020. ‘Project Piedemonte’: Between the Maloti-Drakensberg and the Great Escarpment in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Antiquity 94(376):e20, 1–9.

Mullen, A. 2020. Dateless substance: White pigments in the rock art of southern Africa. Lesedi Field Notes 23:69–73.

Snow, L. 2020. Poisoned, potent, painted: Arrows as indexes of personhood. In Wingfield, C., Giblin, J. and King, R. (eds) The Pasts and Presence of Art in South Africa: Technologies, Ontologies and Agents:31–39. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Witelson, D. 2020. Le contexte performatif de l’art rupestre San. Lesedi Field Notes 23:64–68.

2019

Witelson, D. M. 2019. A Painted Ridge: Rock Art and Performance in the Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Oxford: Archaeopress.

2018

King, R., Pearce, D., Bonneau, A. and Mallen, L. 2018. Changing lifeways in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, southern Africa: Towards a history of innovation and belief in the late Second Millennium AD. Archaeology International 21(1):82–88.

Witelson, D. M. 2018. Frogs or people: Dorothea Bleek and a genealogy of ideas in rock art research. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 53(2):185–208.

2017

Bonneau, A., Pearce, D., Mitchell, P., 足球竞彩app排名, R., Arthur, C., Mallen, L., Brock, F. and Higham, T. 2017. The earliest directly dated rock paintings from southern Africa: New AMS radiocarbon dates. Antiquity 91:322–333.

Bonneau, A., 足球竞彩app排名, R., Higham, T., Brock, F., Pearce, D. and Mitchell, P. 2017. Successfully dating rock art in southern Africa using improved sampling methods and new characterization and pretreatment protocols. Radiocarbon 59(3):659–677.

Laue, G. 2017. McAll’s Cave: Characterising the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek Mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Southern African Humanities 30:145–183.

2016

Hœrlé, S., Pearce, D. G., Bertrand, L., Sandt, C. and Menu, M. 2016. Imaging the layered fabric of paints from Nomansland rock art (South Africa). Archaeometry 58:182–199.

Laue, G. 2016. Towards concepts of territoriality in southern African pre-colonial rock art: New insights from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. In  Gutierrez, M. et Honoré, E. (dir.) L’art Rupestre d’Afrique, Actualité de la Recherche, Actes du Colloque International Paris, 15 au 17 Janvier 2014, Université Paris 1, Centre Panthéon et Musée du Quai Branly:263–274. Nanterre: Editions l’Harmattan.

2014

Pearce, D. G. 2014. Understanding hunter-gatherer rock art in southern Africa. The Digging Stick 31(3):11–13.

2012

Bonneau, A., Pearce, D. G. and Pollard, A. M. 2012. A multi-technique characterization and provenance study of the pigments used in San rock art, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:287–294.

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2012. Framed idiosyncrasy: Method and evidence in the interpretation of San rock art. South African Archaeological Bulletin 67:75–87.

2011

Bonneau, A., Brock, F., Higham, T., Pearce, D. G. and Pollard, A. M. 2011. An improved pretreatment protocol for radiocarbon dating black pigments in San rock art. Radiocarbon 53(3):419–428.

Pearce, D. G. and George, L. 2011. An unusual case of overpainting in an Eastern Cape rock art site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 66:173–177.

2010

Pearce, D. G. 2010. Conservation and management of collapsing rock paintings: Three sites in Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 65:96–103.

2009

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2009. Constructing spiritual panoramas: Order and chaos in southern African San rock art panels. Southern African Humanities 21:41–61.

2008

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2008. From generalities to specifics in San rock art. South African Journal of Science 104(11/12):428–430.

2002

Pearce, D. G. 2002. Changing men, changing eland: Sequences in the rock paintings of Maclear District, Eastern Cape, South Africa. American Indian Rock Art 28:129–138.

Theses and dissertations

2023

Bagley, K. 2023. A comparison of the frequency of depictions of black wildebeest in the Drakensberg and Stormberg regions. Unpublished Honours report, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Oster, S. M. 2023. Examining the remaining rock art at Linton, Eastern Cape, and its relationship with the Linton Panel at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town. Unpublished Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2022

Witelson, D. M. 2022. Rock art and performance in the Stormberg, South Africa. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2021

Snow, L. M. 2021. Poisoned, potent, painted: Arrows as an index of San personhood. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2019

Laue, G. 2019. Exploring regionality in the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2018

Mullen, A. 2018. Re-investigating Significantly Differentiated Figures in the rock art of the south-eastern Mountains. Unpublished Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Witelson, D. M. 2018. Sheltered performances: Differences and similarities between painted sites on a southern Drakensberg ridge in the Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpublished Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2015

Mullen, A. 2015. Laying lives: An object-centred approach to sequence and symbolism at RSA TYN2. Unpublished Honours report, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

2013

George, L. 2013. Painting postures: Body symbolism in San rock art of the north Eastern Cape, South Africa. Unpublished Masters dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Funding and support

Over the years this research has been supported by a number of sources. The project is currently supported by the South African National Research Foundation, the French Institute in Southern Africa and Mrs Susan Ward.

We are grateful to the numerous landowners and communities who have allowed us access to their properties and sites to undertake this research.

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