In southern Africa it is thought that ancestral San Bushmen were responsible for the majority of the rock art. This well-preserved panel of eland, located in the Drakensberg Mountains, is typical of such a painting tradition. Indeed, the Drakensberg is almost defined by the delicate and intricately painted eland.

As archaeologists, anthropologists and rock art researchers turned from a Western to a San view of the art, they realised that the eland was far more important in San culture than just a food animal. For the San, the eland was God's special animal, the one most filled with his magical power and potency. Even today, many San groups draw upon eland power in their rituals. 

In this panel, the eland are shown in a variety of postures that seem to show a magical element in the art. Many of the eland are shown with knees bent and heads lowered. This is a dying posture. San ethnography tells us that the dying posture was a metaphor. San healers describe this happening during their trance dances. They say that they die in the dance; for them trance is a form of death, even if just a temporary death. The dying eland does not therefore only represent potency; it is also a metaphor for the dying dancer. 

This panel is a fine example of a palimpsest, a canvas that is used again and again to paint and depict images, suggesting that the place and the process is as important as the painting itself. 

The panel is located in the Eland Cave in the Ndedema Gorge - a Zula word for 'echoes of thunder' - in the Cathedral Peak area of Northern Drakensberg, and protected under the Cathedral Peak Special Conservation Area status, accessible only with a guide.

Visit our South Africa Rock Art Archive and the rock art of the San:

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/south_africa/index.php