Twyfelfontein rock engravings, Namibia

 For a long time I have wanted to see the rock art in Namibia, and I finally got my chance when I went to Twyfelfontein.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage site - Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes . This UNESCO page says "Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes has one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs, i.e. rock engravings in Africa. Most of these well-preserved engravings represent rhinoceros, but also includes six painted elephant, ostrich and giraffe, as well as drawings of human and animal footprints in rock shelters with motifs of human figures in red ochre. The objects excavated from two sections, date from the Late Stone Age. The site forms a coherent, extensive and high-quality record of ritual practices relating to hunter-gatherer communities in this part of southern Africa over at least 2,000 years, and eloquently illustrates the links between the ritual and economic practices of hunter-gatherers."

At 2000 years old, they are much younger than the rock art found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, where the paintings have recently been revised to over 50,000 years old. In Australia the rock art is of a similar age, 30,000-50,000 years old.

There is a small permanent spring in the area, and the surveyor who made a report mentioning the engravings in 1921 named the site as Uais - /Ui-//aes= place among rocks or jumping waterhole in Khoekhoegowab, the language of the local Damara people. Later, the land came into the use of farmer David Levin, whose concern over the survival of the spring led ultimately to its being referred to as Twyfelfontein -‘doubtful spring’ in Afrikaans.

I visited at the end of June, which is the dry season. The yellow grass contrasted well against the red sandstone rocks and the blue sky. 

There are over 2000 engravings, so we only saw a very small number. The first rock we came to, at first glance I thought this was part of the art, but it is actually just the weathered "skin" of the rock face -

Next to it is a very detailed collection of engravings. Each engraving has a meaning.

The giraffes were the easiest to spot. Apart from giraffes there are rhinoceroses, zebra, gemsbok antelope and ostriches.

Large human footprints can be seen on these rocks -

Giraffes are very common in Twyfelfontein rock art. They are generally shown without hooves, with legs tapering away into long thin lines. The represents the sensation of rising into the air, as the shaman would feel in a trance. If there are five protrusions on the head this shows the shaman has changed into a giraffe, as it represents the five toes.

There are also sea creatures such as this seal or sea lion. There are also penguins. This shows that the people used to go to the sea. This is also the case in Malaysia where the Gua Tambun rock art depicts what many people think is a dugong.

This panel shows the famous "Lion Man" -

The Lion Man engraving shows five toes on each paw. This deliberate combination of animal and human features shows that this is a shaman who has transformed into a lion. It has a long tail with a rectangular kink and a pugmark (animal footprint) at its tip. It also appears to be eating an antelope -

A close up with my camera shows more texture of the rock -

The white markings on the rock are caused by the rock dassie, or rock hyrax.

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See more on this British Museum page.