![]() Depression Rock Shelter Site Red painting of a rhino Rhinos and a cow-like figure Faded red paintings at Tsodilo Red paintings here, and around Tsodilo, are attributed to the San people. In Rhino Cave, some of the red paintings seem to be older than the white rhino. The Tsodilo Hills have a myriad of red rock art it can be found all over the site. MSA deposits included stone blades as well as other lithic tools. Pottery sherds, ostrich egg shell beads, and mongongo shells were also uncovered. ) LSA layers included hammer stones and grindstones, along with bone artifacts and mircolithics. (There is also evidence that the site was used during the historical period: a nylon button and European glass beads were found in the top layers of excavations at the site. ĭates taken from charcoal, ostrich egg shell, bone samples and the deposits ranged from the MSA to LSA. A handful of them are on horseback, suggesting that these were painted no earlier than the mid-1800s, when horses were first introduced to the area. The human figures are usually painted with their hands on their hips. (There are red paintings in this shelter, as well.) The white paintings depict animals, both domestic and wild, as well as human like figures. Many of the white paintings are located in the aptly named White Paintings Rock Shelter, located on the Male Hill. The white colored rock art at Tsodilo is associated with Bantu peoples. White Paintings Comparison of Red and White Rock Art at Tsodilo They may have been created using hammer stones or grindstones from the LSA period, which have been found at Tsodilo. On the opposite wall, the cave is host to grooves and depressions that have been ground into the rock. Around the rhino and the giraffe are various paintings, mostly in red, of geometrics. The paintings of Rhino Cave are mostly located on the North wall, and have been painted in red or red-orange pigment, excepting the rhino which was painted in white. The points are typically found in various stages of production, some abandoned and some finished. ![]() MSA artifacts from the cave are mostly prepared projectile points. Mostly stone artifacts from the LSA were made from local materials such as quartz and jasper. Giraffe Rock Art Painting: Tsodilo HillsĬharcoal found during excavations has been dated to the African Iron Age, the Later Stone Age (LSA), and the Middle Stone Age (MSA). ![]() This cave lacks ostrich egg shell, bone artifacts, pottery or iron, but there were a few mongongo shell fragments found in Later Stone Age layers. Excavations of the cave floor turned up many lithic materials. The White Rhino painting (for which the cave is named) is located on the north wall, and is split by another painting of a Giraffe. Rhino Cave is located at the North end of the Female Hill and has two main walls where paintings are located. Some of the paintings have been dated to be as early as 24,000 years before present. There is evidence that Bantu peoples were responsible for some of the artworks at the hills. It is believed that ancestors of the San created some of the paintings at Tsodilo, and were also the ones to inhabit the caves and rock shelters. The hills' rock art has been linked to the local hunter gatherers. UNESCO estimates that the hills contain 500 individual sites representing thousands of years of human habitation. People have used the Tsodilo Hills for painting and ritual for thousands of years. There is a small museum and an airstrip near the campsite.Īrchaeology Laurens van der Post panel, 2006 It is near the most famous of the San paintings at the site, the Laurens van der Post panel, after the South-African writer who first described the paintings in his 1958 book 'The Lost World of the Kalahari'. ![]() There is a managed campsite between the two largest hills, with showers and toilets. They are about 40 km from Shakawe and can be reached via a good graded dirt road. The four hills are commonly described as the "Male" (the highest), "Female", "Child", plus an unnamed knoll. The highest is 1,400 metres AMSL, one of the highest points in Botswana. The site consists of a few main hills known as the Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill. UNESCO estimates there are over 4500 rock paintings at the site. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peoples, as well as its unique record of human settlement over many millennia. The Tsodilo Hills ( Tswana: Lefelo la Tsodilo) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in southern Africa.
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