African Rock Art

The most interesting thing for me to learn about is African rock art. Each piece tells a story! Some of the most famous rock art pieces can be found in South Africa and were created by the San. The reason I find rock art so interesting is because they were made over three thousand years ago, and you can still see them today.They were done by some of the first humans on this earth who were assumed to be very unintelligent. Looking at these rock art designs proves that theory wrong, they were actually very intelligent

I found two websites on rock art that I would like to share.  

This website shows pictures of some of the most famous rock art in South Africa and gives information about each piece of rock art.
This website gives information on how rock art is created and also show some famous rock art designs in South Africa.
African rock art depicts paintings or carvings of animals and people. Rock art pictures were carved or painted on rocks outside and also inside caves. There are many theories on why these pieces were created. Many archeologists believe that these rock art designs were created to bring the people of that time good fortune. Others believe that they painted and carved things into rocks that they thought were beautiful in nature. Although African rock art has been around for over three thousand years, they were only discovered 350 years ago.

What I found the most interesting about this website was the section on what ancient rock artists used. Since the people that created these didn't have the same supplies that we did today, everything they used to create rock art was from the earth and animals. The brushes they used to paint with were made from bird feathers or animal hair. They used quill pens to make the really skinny lines in their rock art and to add detail. The paint they used were made of red ochre pigment. This pigment came in three different shades, but archeologists believe that they added different shades of white clay and bird droppings to create different colors. The carvings were created using sharp sticks and other sharp items they found in nature. It is said that the reason that we can still see these rock art designs today is because ancient rock artists put egg whites on top of the rock art to preserve it!

All the pictures of rock art on this page are from the Brad Shaw Foundation Gallery. It was taken on their field trip to South Africa.