Title:

An eye for the cycle of life: exploring rock art in the Khomas Region

Author(s):
Publication Year:
2021
Abstract:

Rock art sites in the Khomas Region can best be understood if located within a landscape-based approach as Kinahan (2020) compellingly argues. Such an approach has the advantage of connecting primary resource sites with evidence of scattered occupation of secondary resource sites, mediated by social relations that determine access to these resources. Many rock art sites are in mountainous terrain, for the Region is named after the Nama ǀomas (mountain) which, with an average height of almost 2,000m, acted as natural retreats for hunter-gatherers competing with herders and farmers for resources. Most rock art sites are located in relative proximity to water. Even so, some sites are far from river courses and water – several kilometres in fact. Despite an overall similarity of paintings across the region, no two sites have quite the same set of images. For this reason, it is important to explore the relationships between the art, social life, landscape and its resources, hence the title of this article. Keywords: Rock art, Khomas Region, Harmonie, panels/panoramas, shamans/shamanistic, Holocene, Nauzerus, Naukluft, Noab.

Publication Title:

Journal of the Namibia Scientific Society

Volume:
68
Pages:
59-70
Item Type:
Journal Article
Language:
en
Keywords:

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