Welcome to the African Rock Art Archive

Introduction by the Bradshaw Foundation

Our ancestors originated in Africa. This continent was the birthplace of modern man and woman. By the time of the first single successful exodus 85,000 years ago, we were dancing, singing and painting. Evidence of the earliest rock art is notoriously difficult to confirm, but its tradition is not - from desert to rainforest to savanna, we see a vast display of spectacular rock art, both paintings and engravings, depicting a staggering array of subjects. Many of these, not all by any means, are presented here in the Bradshaw Foundation Africa section, one of the largest online collections of ancient African rock art in the world, brought to you in collaboration with the leading African authorities on cave paintings and petroglyph carvings. As more rock art is discovered, and dating techniques become more sophisticated, greater light is shed on the thoughts, beliefs, joys and fears of our African ancestors.

AFRICA ROCK ART ARCHIVE


	Africa Travel Expeditions


	Giraffe Carvings of Niger, Africa


	The Rock Art of South Africa


	Bring out the adventurer in you with these unique travel expeditions, to some of the most famous rock art sites of Africa, in the epic landscapes of this ancient continent.


	The project to take a mould of one of the largest rock art carvings in the world. Two life size Giraffe found in the Sahara, and to carry out a programme of preservation.


	The Bradshaw Foundation join Dr. Benjamin Smith director of South Africa's Witwatersrand University - Rock Art Research Institute, to view the historic San Rock Art Paintings.


	Journey of Mankind - Out of Africa


	The World's Oldest Rock Art


	Africa Documentary Films


	Who were our ancestors? From where did we originate? If we came out of Africa, what governed our migration routes? Finally this map reveals the epic journey.


	The dating of the earliest rock paintings and engravings in Africa is uncertain. Direct dating techniques are not advanced enough to accurately indicate an age.


	Documentary films on Africa from the iLecture series, includes Out of Africa, San Rock Art Paintings of South Africa, Africa - Place of Origins & Lost Art of the Sahara.


	Rock Art Research Institute


	African Rock Art Gallery


	Rock Art of Western Central Africa


	RARI at the Witwatersrand University, is perhaps the largest specialist rock art institution in the world, renowned for its research and publication record.


	David Coulson, is probably the leading photographer of African Rock Art. On this site are a selection of 20 of his photgraphs covering the whole of Africa continent.


	Much of Western Central Africa's rock art is still being discovered today. The region appears to have been a major conduit for migration over a long period of time.


	Gilf Kebir - Cave of Swimmers


	The Tuareg Salt Caravans of Niger


	The Tuareg of the African Sahara


	The remote Cave of Swimmers is located at Wadi Sura in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Sahara, Africa, in southwest Egypt near the Libyan border.


	In Niger Tuareg caravans continue across the Tenere Desert, this section celebrates the survival of one of the world's most ancient cultures - The Caravans of Salt.


	Africa and the Sahara is the home of the Tuareg people. This photograph section is an overview of Life and Culture in present day Dabous Tuareg society in Niger.


	North Central Tanzania, Africa


	Twyfelfontein, Namibia, Africa


	Rock Art in the Niassa Reserve


	Despite its significant position astride the most important rock art regions of Africa, i.e. southern Africa and the Sahara, the study of rock art in Tanzania is relatively new.


	Maarten van Hoek's extensive survey covering the relations in rock art between cupules and animal imagery at Twyfelfontein in Namibia. Site Report by Sven Ouzman.


	Rock Art paintings found in the Niassa Reserve, the vast wilderness area of 42,000 sq km in northern Mozambique where approximately 25,000 people live.