New Technology Finds Old Meaning in Our Rock Art

Dating back over 10,000 years, the ancient San rock art we are blessed to have here at Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat is steeped in mysteries indecipherable to the modern eye. Thankfully, owing to recent technological developments in the field of photography, we've been able to unravel some of the hidden meanings of these ancient treasures.

Revealing the Invisible: Digital Enhancement in Rock Art Recording

Photography plays a crucial role in the study of rock art. Today, researchers often rely on advanced digital tools to enhance photographs, making faded or weathered images more visible. This process can reveal details no longer apparent to the naked eye due to centuries of erosion and exposure.

Digital image enhancement techniques aim to present rock paintings in their fullest form, and this can sometimes unveil exciting new elements. One of the most effective tools for this is DStretch (decorrelation stretch), which highlights specific pigments on the rock surface that have faded over time.

This section of the rock wall appears mostly blank, with only a few faint paint smudges.

After DStretch enhancement, several eland antelope are revealed in striking detail.

Dancing With Spirits: A Scene From Bushmans Kloof

Below is a remarkable example of how digital enhancement aids in interpreting a rock art panel at Bushmans Kloof.

Dancing held profound significance in Bushman (San) cosmology. It formed the core of their spiritual and social life, serving as a gateway to the spirit world and a medium of healing, religious expression, and social cohesion. It’s no surprise that dance scenes frequently appear in rock art panels across Southern Africa.

In these scenes, shamans - spiritual specialists - are depicted entering trance states to perform tasks in the spirit world. These tasks might include healing the sick, controlling weather, ensuring successful hunts, or maintaining harmony between people and nature. Achieving such a state required intense rituals, typically through trance dances.

A greyscale enhancement helps bring out the details of this panel, which may otherwise go unnoticed.

DStretch enhancement reveals the faint image of an antelope superimposed over dancing human figures, which is not visible to the naked eye.

In this enhanced panel, we see human figures bent forward with elongated torsos or limbs, an artistic cue often linked to the dramatisation of a dying animal during trance.

The central figure appears to bear the head of an antelope, possibly representing a shaman transforming into an animal form to access the spirit world.

Dancers on either side seem to wear white springbok (antelope) head caps. Some carry traditional hunting gear, such as bows, arrows, and quiver bags.

This scene may be interpreted in two ways. It could depict a shaman assuming the form of an antelope during trance, guided by an “antelope song” associated with the ritual, or it might represent a celebratory dance following a successful hunt of that particular antelope.

In Bushman belief systems, the animal form a shaman takes is closely tied to the task they are about to perform in the spirit world.

Bridging Worlds 

The concept of animal-human transformation may seem strange to modern viewers. However, for hunter-gatherer societies, the boundaries between the natural and spiritual worlds were fluid.

Through digital enhancement, we are not just improving images, we are unlocking new ways to understand the rich and layered worldview of Southern Africa’s first artists, and also, in our own modern way, bridging worlds.