Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre
Encyclopedia
Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is a rock engraving site with visitor centre on land owned by the !Xun and Khwe San
situated about 16 km from Kimberley
, Northern Cape
, South Africa
. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site managed by the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust in association with the McGregor Museum
. The engravings exemplify one of the forms often referred to as ‘Bushman
rock art’ – or Khoe-San rock art – with the rock paintings of the Drakensberg
, Cederberg
and other regions of South Africa being generally better known occurrences. Differing in technique, the engravings have many features in common with rock paintings. A greater emphasis on large mammals such as elephant
, rhino
and hippo
, in addition to eland
, and an often reduced concern with depicting the human form set the engravings apart from the paintings of the sub-continent.
occurs in the form of engravings on the interior plains, and paintings in the more mountainous areas, their distributions overlapping in places. Different hunter-gatherer, herder, agriculturist and colonial rock art traditions have been discerned; while some variability may reflect a dynamic interplay of history and landscape which is not easily resolved in purely ethnic, culture and/or techno-economic terms.
The region bounded by the Vaal
and Orange
Rivers has a particularly concentrated distribution of engraving sites, of which Wildebeest Kuil (situated between Kimberley
and Barkly West) is one.
in Cape Town
: "their publication,” wrote Bleek, “cannot but effect a radical change in the ideas generally entertained with regard to Bushmen
and their mental condition." Several of the engravings copied by Stow are still to be seen on site, but others were removed towards the end of the nineteenth century. Some of these were exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition
in London
in 1886, and at least one is preserved in the collection of the British Museum
. It was Stow's copy that, in the 1960s, enabled positive identification of its origin.
The first systematic work on rock art in the region was the survey published by Maria Wilman
. Gerhard and Dora Fock followed up Wilman's work in the 1960s-1970s, documenting in detail the engravings at the major sites of Bushman's Fountain, Kinderdam and Driekops Eiland
, and at several hundred other locales in the Northern Cape
and adjoining districts.
When G. and D. Fock documented Wildebeest Kuil in 1968, they recorded 178 individual engravings. Detailed mapping has since revealed more than 400 engravings.
outcrops (as at Wildebeest Kuil and Driekopseiland) while to the south, in Karoo
geological settings, the koppies are mostly dolerite. With time, the exposed portions of the older engravings have become as dark as the outer crust through the build-up of patina.
, hinge, however, on a calibration curve of uncertain reliability, and the samples were too small to run more than one assay each. Hairline engravings, known from a few sites in this area and more commonly in the Karoo, are consistently beneath pecked engravings in superimposed sequences, and are thus older. Butzer used geomorphological
evidence to infer bracketing ages for the engravings at Bushmans Fountain and Driekopseiland, with the resulting scenario being in broad accord with more recent work on palaeoenvironmental change at a regional scale, as well as with findings at other sites, and observations of associated archaeological material. At Wildebeest Kuil some of the engravings were undoubtedly made by Later Stone Age occupants of the site 1200–1800 years ago, as suggested by the radiocarbon readings cited below.
J.H. Power
had picked up here a pressure-flaked tanged and barbed stone arrowhead – this being an example of distinctive artefacts which occur as unusual “trace objects” at a number of post-2000 BP sites from Lesotho
into the western interior, which have been interpreted as stone skeuomorphs of iron originals.
in 1909 by missionary Westphal refers to the last Khoe-San occupants of the site being “’Scheelkoos’ and his family” - a rare reference to a named Khoe-San individual from the protocolonial frontier era in South Africa. Scheelkoos, also known as Kousop
, led resistance to colonial settlement in the region, and was killed with 130 of his followers, in a counter-attack, on the banks of the nearby Vaal River
in 1858.
groups, speaking distinct Khoe-San languages and having different histories, had been caught up in political turmoil in Angola
in the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently in Namibia
. In 1990, at the time of Namibia’s independence, some 4000 of them (men then employed by the South African Defence Force
together with their families) were flown to a tent-town at Schmidtsdrift, west of Kimberley
. This area was subsequently awarded to its former Tswana owners in a land claim, forcing the !Xun and Khwe to move again. Having purchased Wildebeest Kuil and adjoining farms, resettlement from the Schmidtsdrift tent towns to a new housing scheme at Platfontein on the outskirts of Kimberley took place in 2003-5.
As the owners today of the land on which the Wildebeest Kuil engravings occur, the !Xun and Khwe see in the art a link (as do other Khoe-San descendants in the region) to a broad Khoe-San cultural inheritance in Southern Africa.
to develop the site for public access date back to at least the mid 1990s, and these were discussed with the !Xun and Khwe CPA after they took ownership of the farm. Funding became available in 2000 from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, through the Rock Art Research Institute. The project to establish the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre (opened December 2001 by Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico
and Cheryl Carolus
) was driven by a Steering Committee formed in Kimberley, with representation from the Rock Art Research Institute, the McGregor Museum, community members (!Xun and Khwe and other Khoe-San organisations), and a range of further stakeholders. Out of this committee grew the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust which now manages the site.
With funding support through its link with the McGregor Museum, the site employs custodians who guide visitors and school groups to the engravings and other heritage features.
Nominated by the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust in 2006 as a Provincial Heritage Site, the Wildebeest Kuil rock art site was declared, on 19 September 2008, as the first new Provincial Heritage Site since the implementation, in 2000, of the National Heritage Resources Act.
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
situated about 16 km from Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...
, Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site managed by the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust in association with the McGregor Museum
McGregor Museum
The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a province-aided museum established in 1907.- Overview :...
. The engravings exemplify one of the forms often referred to as ‘Bushman
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
rock art’ – or Khoe-San rock art – with the rock paintings of the Drakensberg
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba , and in Sesotho as Maluti...
, Cederberg
Cederberg
The Cederberg mountains and nature reserve are located near Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town, South Africa at about . The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam Cedar , which is a tree endemic to the area. The mountains are noted for dramatic rock...
and other regions of South Africa being generally better known occurrences. Differing in technique, the engravings have many features in common with rock paintings. A greater emphasis on large mammals such as elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, rhino
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
and hippo
Hippo
A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water:* Hippopotamus* Pygmy HippopotamusHippo may also refer to:-Given names:...
, in addition to eland
Taurotragus
Taurotragus, commonly called Eland, is a genus of antelopes of the African savannah, containing two species: the Common Eland and the Giant Eland...
, and an often reduced concern with depicting the human form set the engravings apart from the paintings of the sub-continent.
Background
South Africa’s rich heritage of rock artRock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
occurs in the form of engravings on the interior plains, and paintings in the more mountainous areas, their distributions overlapping in places. Different hunter-gatherer, herder, agriculturist and colonial rock art traditions have been discerned; while some variability may reflect a dynamic interplay of history and landscape which is not easily resolved in purely ethnic, culture and/or techno-economic terms.
The region bounded by the Vaal
Vaal River
The Vaal River is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source in the Drakensberg mountains in Mpumalanga, east of Johannesburg and about 30 km north of Ermelo and only about 240 km from the Indian Ocean. It then flows westwards to its conjunction...
and Orange
Orange River
The Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
Rivers has a particularly concentrated distribution of engraving sites, of which Wildebeest Kuil (situated between Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...
and Barkly West) is one.
Rock art records
The earliest records of rock engravings at Wildebeest Kuil are the copies made by George William Stow who was on the Diamond Fields in the early 1870s. In 1875 Stow sent copies of paintings and engravings, including those made here, to Dr Wilhelm BleekWilhelm Bleek
Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was a German linguist. His work included A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages and his great project jointly executed with Lucy Lloyd: The Bleek and Lloyd Archive of ǀxam and !kun texts.-Biography:Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was born in Berlin on 8...
in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
: "their publication,” wrote Bleek, “cannot but effect a radical change in the ideas generally entertained with regard to Bushmen
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
and their mental condition." Several of the engravings copied by Stow are still to be seen on site, but others were removed towards the end of the nineteenth century. Some of these were exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition
Colonial and Indian Exhibition
The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was a very substantial exhibition held in South Kensington in London, and intended "to stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majesty's Empire"...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1886, and at least one is preserved in the collection of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. It was Stow's copy that, in the 1960s, enabled positive identification of its origin.
The first systematic work on rock art in the region was the survey published by Maria Wilman
Maria Wilman
Maria Wilman was the first Director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa.Born in Beaufort West on 29 April 1867, she matriculated at the Good Hope Seminary in Cape Town before going on to complete a natural science tripos in geology, mineralogy and chemistry at Newnham College,...
. Gerhard and Dora Fock followed up Wilman's work in the 1960s-1970s, documenting in detail the engravings at the major sites of Bushman's Fountain, Kinderdam and Driekops Eiland
Driekops Eiland
Driekops Eiland is a rock engraving or petroglyph site in the bed of the Riet River close to the town of Plooysburg, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.-The engravings:...
, and at several hundred other locales in the Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
and adjoining districts.
When G. and D. Fock documented Wildebeest Kuil in 1968, they recorded 178 individual engravings. Detailed mapping has since revealed more than 400 engravings.
Engraving technique
Most of the engravings in the Kimberley area are made with the 'pecked' technique: a hard stone was used to chip away the outer crust of the rock, exposing the lighter coloured rock beneath. Sites north west of Kimberley are often on andesiteAndesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
outcrops (as at Wildebeest Kuil and Driekopseiland) while to the south, in Karoo
Karoo
The Karoo is a semi-desert region of South Africa. It has two main sub-regions - the Great Karoo in the north and the Little Karoo in the south. The 'High' Karoo is one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger South African Platform division.-Great Karoo:The Great Karoo has an area of...
geological settings, the koppies are mostly dolerite. With time, the exposed portions of the older engravings have become as dark as the outer crust through the build-up of patina.
The age of the engravings
The pecked engravings of the area are estimated to span a period from perhaps a few hundred to possibly several thousand years ago. Direct cation ratio dating methods applied at Klipfontein, giving estimates spanning the entire HoloceneHolocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
, hinge, however, on a calibration curve of uncertain reliability, and the samples were too small to run more than one assay each. Hairline engravings, known from a few sites in this area and more commonly in the Karoo, are consistently beneath pecked engravings in superimposed sequences, and are thus older. Butzer used geomorphological
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
evidence to infer bracketing ages for the engravings at Bushmans Fountain and Driekopseiland, with the resulting scenario being in broad accord with more recent work on palaeoenvironmental change at a regional scale, as well as with findings at other sites, and observations of associated archaeological material. At Wildebeest Kuil some of the engravings were undoubtedly made by Later Stone Age occupants of the site 1200–1800 years ago, as suggested by the radiocarbon readings cited below.
Interpreting the engravings
Given a shamanistic understanding of the art, the Wildebeest Kuil engravings may well relate to beliefs about the rain and rain-making. Medicine people or shamans could access the spirit world through altered states of consciousness and harness supernatural power to heal the sick, control animals, and make rain. It is possible that many of the engravings were inspired by visions experienced in altered states of consciousness, and depicted on the rocks so that others could share and draw inspiration from them. It also appears that places selected for making engravings were chosen for their significance in relation to these beliefs.Stone circles and stone artefacts
Stone circles and clearings, containing Later Stone Age occupation or activity debris, on and around the hill were noted by Stow in the 1870s. One, near the crest of the hill, was excavated in 1983 by Beaumont, yielding two Later Stone Age aggregates - a Wilton assemblage overlain by Ceramic Later Stone Age, with associated radiocarbon readings of 1790±60 BP and 1230±80 BP.J.H. Power
John Hyacinth Power
John Hyacinth Power was the second Director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa.Born in Waterford, Ireland on 2 November 1884, Power emigrated to South Africa in 1904 to take up a post as school master at Kimberley’s Christian Brothers’ College...
had picked up here a pressure-flaked tanged and barbed stone arrowhead – this being an example of distinctive artefacts which occur as unusual “trace objects” at a number of post-2000 BP sites from Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
into the western interior, which have been interpreted as stone skeuomorphs of iron originals.
Kousop’s residence
A comment made to Louis PéringueyLouis Péringuey
Louis Albert Péringuey was a South African entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera and prehistorian.He was Director of the South African Museum in Cape Town from 1906 to his sudden death in 1924....
in 1909 by missionary Westphal refers to the last Khoe-San occupants of the site being “’Scheelkoos’ and his family” - a rare reference to a named Khoe-San individual from the protocolonial frontier era in South Africa. Scheelkoos, also known as Kousop
Kousop
Kousop , birth date unknown, killed in a battle at Slypklip, Vaal River, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, on 6 July 1858, was the leader of a group of San or Khoe-San who inhabited the area between the Modder, Riet and Vaal Rivers, western Orange Free State, in the mid nineteenth...
, led resistance to colonial settlement in the region, and was killed with 130 of his followers, in a counter-attack, on the banks of the nearby Vaal River
Vaal River
The Vaal River is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source in the Drakensberg mountains in Mpumalanga, east of Johannesburg and about 30 km north of Ermelo and only about 240 km from the Indian Ocean. It then flows westwards to its conjunction...
in 1858.
Colonial era sites
Colonial era ruins and middens, of hotel sites dating from the 1870s-early twentieth century, and those linked with twentieth century farm-workers, occur on the fringes of the hill and are subject to on-going research.!Xun and Khwe ownership of the farm
Since 1996 the farm of Wildebeest Kuil has been owned by the !Xun and Khwe communities. These two SanBushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
groups, speaking distinct Khoe-San languages and having different histories, had been caught up in political turmoil in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
in the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. In 1990, at the time of Namibia’s independence, some 4000 of them (men then employed by the South African Defence Force
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force was the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. The former Union Defence Force was renamed to the South African Defence Force in the Defence Act of 1957...
together with their families) were flown to a tent-town at Schmidtsdrift, west of Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...
. This area was subsequently awarded to its former Tswana owners in a land claim, forcing the !Xun and Khwe to move again. Having purchased Wildebeest Kuil and adjoining farms, resettlement from the Schmidtsdrift tent towns to a new housing scheme at Platfontein on the outskirts of Kimberley took place in 2003-5.
As the owners today of the land on which the Wildebeest Kuil engravings occur, the !Xun and Khwe see in the art a link (as do other Khoe-San descendants in the region) to a broad Khoe-San cultural inheritance in Southern Africa.
Public access
Plans by the McGregor MuseumMcGregor Museum
The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a province-aided museum established in 1907.- Overview :...
to develop the site for public access date back to at least the mid 1990s, and these were discussed with the !Xun and Khwe CPA after they took ownership of the farm. Funding became available in 2000 from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, through the Rock Art Research Institute. The project to establish the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre (opened December 2001 by Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico
Manne Dipico
Manne Emsley Dipico, first Premier of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, was born in Kimberley on 21 April 1959. He was appointed Chairman of the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa in 2006...
and Cheryl Carolus
Cheryl Carolus
Cheryl Carolus is a South African politician. She was born in Silvertown, on the Cape Flats, Cape Town. Carolus became involved in politics while still at school and became an activist after joining the United Democratic Front in 1983...
) was driven by a Steering Committee formed in Kimberley, with representation from the Rock Art Research Institute, the McGregor Museum, community members (!Xun and Khwe and other Khoe-San organisations), and a range of further stakeholders. Out of this committee grew the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust which now manages the site.
With funding support through its link with the McGregor Museum, the site employs custodians who guide visitors and school groups to the engravings and other heritage features.
Nominated by the Northern Cape Rock Art Trust in 2006 as a Provincial Heritage Site, the Wildebeest Kuil rock art site was declared, on 19 September 2008, as the first new Provincial Heritage Site since the implementation, in 2000, of the National Heritage Resources Act.
Other nearby rock art sites
- Driekops EilandDriekops EilandDriekops Eiland is a rock engraving or petroglyph site in the bed of the Riet River close to the town of Plooysburg, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.-The engravings:...
- NooitgedachtNooitgedacht Glacial PavementsThe Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements comprise a geological feature between Kimberley and Barkly West, South Africa, pertaining to the Palaeozoic-age Dwyka Ice Age, or Karoo Ice Age, where the glacially scoured ancient bedrock was used, substantially more recently, during the Later Stone Age period...
- Wonderwerk CaveWonderwerk CaveWonderwerk Cave is an archaeological site, formed originally as an ancient solution cavity in Dolomite rocks of the Kuruman Hills, situated between Danielskuil and Kuruman in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a National Heritage Site within a servitude ceded to and managed as a...