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Science 23 March 1979:
Vol. 203. no. 4386, pp. 1201 - 1214
DOI: 10.1126/science.203.4386.1201
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Articles

Dating and Context of Rock Engravings in Southern Africa

Karl W. Butzer 1, Gerhai J. Fock 2, Louis Scott 3, and Robert Stuckenrath 4

1 Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Geography and in the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
2 Senior professional officer for archeology (retired), McGregor Museum, Kimberley 8300, South Africa
3 Research associate in the Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
4 Director, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Smithsonian Radiation Biology Laboratory, Rockville, Maryland 20852

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.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Rock varnish.
R. I. Dorn and T. M. Oberlander (1982)
Progress in Physical Geography 6, 317-367
   PDF »
Dated Rock Engravings from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa.
A. I. Thackeray, A. I. THACKERAY, J. F. THACKERAY, P. B. BEAUMONT, and J. C. VOGEL (1981)
Science 214, 64-67
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)