Explaining the Earliest Religious Expression, that of Animism (beginning 100,000 to 70,000 years ago?) to Totemism (beginning 30,000 to 3,000 years ago?) in Southern Africa

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Explaining the Earliest Religious Expression of Animism (beginning 100,000 70,000 years ago?) to Totemism (beginning 30,000 to 3,000 years ago?) in Southern Africa

Animism: a belief among some indigenous people, young children, or all religious people!

Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system?

 My Speculations are, Yes.

“Animism (from Latin anima, “breath, spirit, life”) is the religious belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is the oldest known type of belief system in the world that even predates paganism. It is still practiced in a variety of forms in many traditional societies. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous tribal peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, “animism” is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples’ “spiritual” or “supernatural” perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most animistic indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to “animism” (or even “religion”); the term is an anthropological construct.” ref

* “animist” Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife (you are a hidden animist/Animism : an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system Qafzeh: Oldest Intentional Burial of 15 individuals with red ocher and Border Cave: intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament (possibly extending to or from Did Neanderthals teach us “Primal Religion (Animism?)” 120,000 Years Ago, as they too used red ocher? well it seems to me it may be Neanderthals who may have transmitted a “Primal Religion (Animism?)” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife they seem to express what could be perceived as a Primal “type of” Religion, which could have come first is supported in how 250,000 years ago Neanderthals used red ochre and 230,000 years ago shows evidence of Neanderthal burial with grave goods and possibly a belief in the afterlife. Think the idea that Neanderthals who may have transmitted a “Primal Religion” as crazy then consider this, it appears that Neanderthals built mystery underground circles 175,000 years ago. Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Or maybe Neanderthals had it transmitted to them Evidence of earliest burial: a 350,000-year-old pink stone axe with 27 Homo heidelbergensis. As well as the fact that the oldest Stone Age Art dates to around 500,000 to 233,000 Years Old and it could be of a female possibly with magical believed qualities or representing something that was believed to)

No, Religion and Gods were not Created due to fear of Lightning.

I hear some say that the fear of lightning, caused or inspired religion it most likely did not as it is not well represented in the most ancient religious forms like animism at least 100,000 years ago and rather seems to gain its importance around the time of agriculture after paganism around 12,000 years ago relating to the bull and was connected to the early goddess faiths connected to the worship of cereal grains believed to be goddesses and rain/thunderstorms/lightning the bull was worshiped as it was thought to help fertilize the goddess. To the animist, spirit believer the goal is to create the proper atmosphere so that spirits add their benefit and not their harm. All existence is connected commonly lacking strict or permanent divisions or distinctions between that seen as animate or inanimate, human or non-human and while there may be prescribed patterns to avoid discomfort to the spirits even a fear in doing so, animists don’t generally view themselves as a helpless or passive victim of the world nor do they hesitate in utilizing almost any means which will provide protection as it is merely a way of relating effectively in the world. ref

Understanding Religion Evolution

My thoughts on Religion Progression

1. Animism (a belief in a perceived spirit world) passably by at least 100,000 years ago “the primal stage of early religion”
2. Totemism (a belief that these perceived spirits could be managed with created physical expressions) passably by at least 50,000 years ago “progressed stage of early religion”
3. Shamanism (a belief that some special person can commune with these perceived spirits on the behalf of others by way of rituals) passably by at least 30,000 years ago
4. Paganism “Early organized nature-based religion” mainly like an evolved shamanism with gods (passably by at least 12,000 years ago).
5. Institutional religion “organized religion” as a social institution with official dogma usually set in a hierarchical/bureaucratic structure that contains strict rules and practices dominating the believer’s life.

Over 100,000 years ago or so, Southern Africa, in the Land before and the beginning Time of Animism?

75,000-70,000 years old Stone Snake Possible Worship

Then, to me, this African Animism spread out across the globe and is very loosely connected to almost all religions across the planet. That is my reasoned speculations from the evidence I feel we have to justify this claim.

74,000 years ago, or so, infant Burial pit in Border Cave, with a perforated Conus shell, and this is considered the oldest burial from Africa as well as earliest grave goods are seen in Africa. 100,000-year-old, grave goods are seen in Israel.

In Africa, it is interpreted that after around 500,000 years ago as some of the earliest evidence for collective ritual. The ubiquitous use of red ochre by 170,000 years ago.

In Africa, symbolic culture was in place by around 100 years ago seen in evidence such as red ochre use, geometric engravings, beads. In Israel around this time, burials even with animals and ochre. In southern Africa around 70,000 to 75,000 years ago sees the first worship of a monolithic stone snake stone in a cave before humanity’s common ancestry separated out of Africa.

Rhino Cave in the Tsodilo Hills of Botswana holds what may have been a believed spirit rock-being, i.e. “supernatural- snake-spirit” they worshiped.

Offerings to a Stone Snake provide the Earliest clear Evidence of Religion in 70,000-year-old African ritual practices linked to the mythology of modern Botswanans.

Is there a seeming gradual evolution of collective ritual, out of which was forged a template of symbolic culture, or at least elements which might be inferred by the time of “Modern Human” dispersal beyond Africa? So, one can reason red and glittery pigment use in Rain Serpents in Northern Australia and Southern Africa: a Common Ancestry?

Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

“Religion is an Evolved Product”

What we don’t understand we can come to fear. That which we fear we often learn to hate. Things we hate we usually seek to destroy. It is thus upon us to try and understand the unknown or unfamiliar not letting fear drive us into the unreasonable arms of hate and harm.

“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is “faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

Did Neanderthals teach us

“Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)”

120,000 Years Ago?

Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. 130,000 years ago – Earliest undisputed evidence for intentional burial. Neanderthals bury their dead at sites such as Krapina in Croatia. ref

Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct.  ref

Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct.  ref

A population that diverged early from other modern humans in Africa contributed genetically to the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains roughly 100,000 years ago. By contrast, we do not detect such a genetic contribution in the Denisovan or the two European Neanderthals. In addition to later interbreeding events, the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains and early modern humans met and interbred, possibly in the Near East, many thousands of years earlier than previously thought. ref

In 2005, a set of 7 teeth from Tabun Cave in Israel were studied and found to most likely belong to a Neandertal that may have lived around 90,000 years ago ref

and another Neandertal (C1) from Tabun Cave was estimated to be in northern Israel. The limb bones are characteristic of Neanderthals, whereas the lower jaw has a combination of Neanderthal and earlier features. These fossils date from more than 150,000 years ago ref

A fossilized human jawbone in a collapsed cave in Israel that they said is between 177,000 and 194,000 years old. ref

The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-type female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel.  ref

Objects at Tabun suggests that ancestral humans used fire at the site on a regular basis since about 350,000 years ago. ref

The remains of seven adults and three children were found, some of which (Skhul;1,4, and 5) are claimed to have been burials. ref

Assemblages of perforated Nassarius shells (a marine genus) significantly different from local fauna have also been recovered from the area, suggesting that these people may have collected and employed the shells as a bead as they are unlikely to have been used as food. ref

Skhul Layer B has been dated to an average of 81,000-101,000 years ago with the electron spin resonance method, and to an average of 119,000 years ago with the thermoluminescence method. ref

Skhul 5 had the mandible of a wild boar on its chest. The skull displays prominent supraorbital ridges and jutting jaw, but the rounded braincase of modern humans. When found, it was assumed to be an advanced Neanderthal, but is today generally assumed to be a modern human, if a very robust one. ref, ref

It is possible that Neandertals and early moderns did make contact in the region and it may be possible that the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids are partially of Neandertal descent. Non-African modern humans contain 1-4% Neandertal genetic material, with hybridization possibly having taken place in the Middle East. ref

It has been suggested, however, that the Skhul/Qafzeh hominids represent an extinct lineage. If this is the case, modern humans would have re-exited Africa around 70,000 years ago, crossing the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait between Eritrea and the Arabian Peninsula. ref

Modern humans were present in Arabia and South Asia earlier than currently believed, and probably coincident with the presence of Homo sapiens in the Levant between ca 130 and 70,000 years ago. ref

This is the same route proposed to have been taken by the people who made the modern tools at Jebel Faya. ref

This Neandertal girl’s toe bone had ancient DNA her ancestors picked up by mating with modern humans more than 100,000 years ago. ref

If the Skhul burials took place within a relatively short time span, then the best age estimate lies between 100,000 and 135,000 years ago. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the material associated with the Skhul IX burial is older than those of Skhul II and Skhul V. These and other recent age estimates suggest that the three burial sites, Skhul, Qafzeh, and Tabun are broadly contemporaneous, falling within the time range of 100,000 to 130,000 years ago. The presence of early representatives of both early modern humans and Neanderthals in the Levant during Marine Isotope Stage 5 inevitably complicates attempts at segregating these populations by date or archaeological association. Nevertheless, it does appear that the oldest known symbolic burials are those of early modern humans at Skhul and Qafzeh. This supports the view that, despite the associated Middle Palaeolithic technology, elements of modern human behavior were represented at Skhul and Qafzeh prior to 100,000 years ago. ref

As some of the first bands of modern humans moved out of Africa, they met and mated with Neandertals about 100,000 years ago—perhaps in the fertile Nile Valley, along the coastal hills of the Middle East, or in the once-verdant Arabian Peninsula. These early modern humans’ own lineages died out, and they are not among the ancestors of living people. But a small bit of their DNA survived in the toe bone of a Neandertal woman who lived more than 50,000 years ago in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, Russia. ref

100,000 years ago – The oldest known ritual burial of modern humans at Qafzeh in Israel: a double burial of what is thought to be a mother and child. The bones have been stained with red ochre. By 100,000 years ago anatomically modern humans migrated to the middle east from Africa. However, the fossil record of these humans ends after 100,000 years ago, leading scholars to believe that the population either died out or returned to Africa. 100,000 to 50,000 years ago – Increased use of red ochre at several Middle Stone Age sites in Africa. Red Ochre is thought to have played an important role in ritual. The human skeletons were associated with red ochre which was found only alongside the bones, suggesting that the burials were symbolic in nature. ref

Within Israel’s Qafzeh Cave, researchers found evidence of a sophisticated culture and remains of modern humans that are up to 100,000 years old. About 100,000 years ago, tall, long-limbed humans lived in the caves of Qafzeh, east of Nazareth, and Skhul, on Israel’s Mount Carmel. The Skhul-Qafzeh people gathered shells from a shoreline more than 20 miles away, decorated them, and strung them as jewelry. They buried their dead, most likely with grave goods, and cared for their living: A child born with hydrocephalus, sometimes called water on the brain, lived with a profound disability until the age of 3 or so, a feat only possible with patient, loving care. The Qafzeh humans were around 92,000 years old, and the Skhul people were even older, averaging about 115,000 years ago. Around 75,000 years ago, close to the time, the Homo sapiens of Skhul and Qafzeh disappear from the fossil record, the climate in the Levant shifted in Neanderthals’ favor. Rapid glaciation left the region both cooler and drier. Steppe-deserts advanced, and forests retreated. Neanderthal bodies were adapted for colder conditions. Their stocky, barrel-chested build lost less heat and offered plenty of insulating muscle, and their systems were streamlined to extract calories from food and turn them into body heat. The Skhul-Qafzeh people’s slender physiques were better at getting rid of heat than making it. Or, as Shea says, “Neanderthals liked cold and dry. Our ancestors liked warm and wet. It got cold, and humans retreated.” ref, ref

Neanderthals may have transmitted:

“Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife may have been transferred from Neanderthals to arcane humans when they bread with them.

Neanderthals,  also interbred with Homo erectus, the “upright walking man,” Homo habilis, the “tool-using man,” and possibly others which means they could have possibly learned some pre-animism ideas from one of them like that expressed in portable anthropomorphic art that could have related to so kind of ancestor veneration as well. ref

Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)

• Around 500,000 – 233,000 years ago, Oldest Anthropomorphic art (Pre-animism) is Related to Female
• 400,000 Years Old Sociocultural Evolution
• Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art at least 300,000-year-old
• Homo Naledi and an Intentional Cemetery “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago?

First, there was Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art

Around a million years ago, I surmise that Pre-Animism, “animistic superstitionism”, began and led to the animistic somethingism or animistic supernaturalism, which is at least 300,000 years old and about 100,00 years ago, it evolves to a representation of general Animism, which is present in today’s religions.

Anthropology states that Pre-animism is “A stage of religious development supposed to have preceded animism, in which material objects were believed to contain spiritual energy.” ref

To me, it is a kind of “Primal Pre-Religion (Pre-Animism/Proto-Animism” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife, may have been transferred from the Neanderthals to arcane humans when they bred with them. Neanderthals, also interbred with Homo erectus, the ‘upright walking man,’ Homo habilis, the ‘tool-using man” and possibly others, which means they could have possibly learned some pre-animism ideas from one of the other hominids thas is expressed in portable anthropomorphic art, which could have been related to some kind of ancestor veneration as well. ref

Around 500,000 to 400,000 years ago, the earliest European hominin crania associated with Acheulean handaxes are at the sites of Arago, Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos, and Swanscombe. The Atapuerca fossils and the Swanscombe cranium belong to the Neandertals whereas the Arago hominins have been attributed to Homo heidelbergensis or to a subspecies of Homo erectus, which is an incipient stage of Neandertal evolution. A cranium (Aroeira 3) from the Gruta da Aroeira (Almonda karst system, Portugal) dating to 436,000 to 390,000 years ago provides important evidence on the earliest European Acheulean-bearing hominins as well as could show a transfer of ideas. ref

Homo erectus, the “upright walking man,” lived between 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago, whereas early African Homo erectus and sometimes called Homo ergaster are the oldest known early humans to have possessed modern human-like attributes. The earliest evidence of campfires occurred during the time of Homo erectus. While there is evidence that campfires were used for cooking, and probably sharing food, they are likely to have been placed for social interaction, used for warmth, to keep away large predators, and possibly even relating to Primal Religion, “Pre-Animism,” which may have included Fire Sacralizing and/or Worship. ref

Neanderthals used fire 400,000 years ago and there is evidence of a 300,000-year-old ‘campfire’ from Israel, which is not that surprising since our human ancestors have controlled fire from 1.5 million to 300,000 years ago and beyond. The benefits of fire are not only to cook food and fend off predators, but also extended their day and added to the community by how a fire in the middle of the darkness mellows and also excite people, which possibly inspire pre-animism’s “animistic superstitionism.” ref

Sun-worshipping baboons rise early to catch the African sunrise and race each other to the top for the best spots. Thus, we may rightly ponder how much did fireside tales aid to the socio-cultural-religious transformations or evolution. In the dark under flickering lights from the stars above and the fire below was the scene of wonder, fear, and mystery. Was superstition expanded and religion further imagined? It would seem that superstition was expanded and religion further imagined because both heavenly lights and flickering fire have been sacralized. This does seem to be somewhat supported by a researcher who spent 40 years studying African Bushmen who gathered evidence of the importance of gathering around a nighttime campfire as a time for bonding, social information, and shared emotions with fireside tales. This may provide a correlation that our prehistoric ancestors likely lived in a similar way to how the Bushmen currently do. Although, we cannot directly peer into the past or fully know the past from the indigenous Bushmen, these people do live in a way that our ancient ancestors lived for around 99% of our evolution.

Fire, as sacred or magic, can be seen in:

• Consuming fire as volcanos/lightning as gods and gods’power/vengeance.
• Holy fire as a means of transformation or magical purification.
• A magical being as used in worshipping the sun or punishment such as hell/lake of fire, which could be seen as mixing fire and water, if only symbolically.
• Ceremonies such as bonfires, eternal flames, or sacred candles/incense/lights/lamps are in one form or another incorporated in many faiths such as judaism, christianity, islam, hinduism, buddhism, sikhism, bahaism, shintoism, taoism, etc.  ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

All this worship of fire/sun is hardly special to humans since many other primates worship thunderstorms, others fire, or sunrises. We have forgotten how nature worship, animistic superstitionism, animistic somethingism, or animistic supernatralism is presented in today’s religion. The mega religions now think they are removed from animistic superstitionism, which they are not. Their rituals, beliefs, and prayers have a connection to animism nature worship but are more hidden or stylized such as burning candles, which is worshipping fire.

Archaeology reveals that the world’s oldest sculpture was enhanced by hominid hand. To date, the oldest known human three-dimensional representation is the Tan-Tan sculpture, which is an anthropomorific human form from Morocco was found in ancient river deposits of the Draa river. It is Acheulian and has been dated between 500,000 to 300,000 years old. 500,000 to 233,000 years ago, in Israel, another sculpture, which may be the oldest Stone Age Art was found at the Berekhat Ram site on the Golan Heights that consist of a small quartzite pebble, which resembles a human female figure with magical believed qualities or representing something that was believed to be magical. ref

Is this just art or a form of ancestor veneration?

Pre-animism ideas can be seen in rock art such as that expressed in portable anthropomorphic art, which may be related to some kind of ancestor veneration. This magical thinking may stem from a social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration, which cultivates kinship values such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity and it remains an important component of various religious practices in modern times.

Humans are not the only species, which bury their dead. The practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants, and possibly dogs. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, signify a “concern for the dead” and Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years ago with remains stained with red ochre, which show ritual intentionality similar to the Neanderthals before them. ref, ref

• “300,000 years ago: the first possible appearance of Homo sapiens, in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.
• 270,000 years ago: age of Y-DNA haplogroup A00(“Y-chromosomal Adam“).
• 250,000 years ago: the first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis (Saccopastore skulls)
• 250,000-200,000 years ago: modern human presence in West Asia (Misliya cave)
• 230,000–150,000 years ago: age of mt-DNA haplogroup L (“Mitochondrial Eve“)
• 195,000 years ago: Omo remains (Ethiopia), the emergence of anatomically modern humans.
• 160,000 years ago: Homo sapiens idaltu
• 170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.
• 150,000 years ago: Peopling of Africa: Khoisanid separation, an age of mtDNA haplogroup L0
• 125,000 years ago: the peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
• 120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.” ref 

Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art

Pre-animism ideas seen in rock art, such as that expressed in portable anthropomorphic art that could have related to so kind of ancestor veneration, which may be a magical thinking but stem from the social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration is to cultivate kinship values, such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity, and it remains an important component of various religious practices in modern times. Ancestor reverence is not the same as the worship of a deity or deities. In some Afro-diasporic cultures, ancestors are seen as being able to intercede on behalf of the living, often as messengers between humans and the gods. As spirits who were once human themselves, they are seen as being better able to understand human needs than would a divine being. In other cultures, the purpose of ancestor veneration is not to ask for favors but to do one’s filial duty. Some cultures believe that their ancestors actually need to be provided for by their descendants, and their practices include offerings of food and other provisions. Others do not believe that the ancestors are even aware of what their descendants do for them, but that the expression of filial piety is what is important. Although there is no generally accepted theory concerning the origins of ancestor veneration, this social phenomenon appears in some form in all human cultures documented so far. David-Barrett and Carney claim that ancestor veneration might have served a group coordination role during human evolution, and thus it was the mechanism that led to religious representation fostering group cohesion. Humans are not the only species that bury their dead; the practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants, and possibly dogs. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, signifies a “concern for the dead” and Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel, and Krapina in Croatia. The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years with remains stained with red ochre showing ritual intentionality similar to the Neanderthals before them. ref, ref

Pre-animism: Anthropology; “A stage of religious development supposed to have preceded animism, in which material objects were believed to contain spiritual energy.” ref

Animism (from Latin anima, “breath, spirit, life”) is the religious belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is the oldest known type of belief system in the world that even predates paganism. It is still practiced in a variety of forms in many traditional societies. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous tribal peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, “animism” is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples’ “spiritual” or “supernatural” perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most animistic indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to “animism” (or even “religion”); the term is an anthropological construct. ref

Animism (beginning around 100,000 years ago)

Animism (such as that seen in Africa: 100,000 years ago)

• Aterian Culture (North African 145,000–20,000 years ago)
• Sangoan Culture (sub-Saharan African 130,000-10,000 years ago)
• Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system?
• Rock crystal stone tools 75,000 Years Ago – (Spain) made by Neanderthals
• Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago
• Similarities and differences in Animism and Totemism
• Did Neanderthals Help Inspire Totemism? Because there is Art Dating to Around 65,000 Years Ago in Spain?
• History of Drug Use with Religion or Sacred Rituals possibly 58,000 years ago?

Animism is approximately a 100,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden animist.

The following is evidence of Animism: 100,000 years ago, in Qafzeh, Israel, the oldest intentional burial had 15 African individuals covered in red ocher was from a group who visited and returned back to Africa. 100,000 to 74,000 years ago, at Border Cave in Africa, an intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament, which may have possible connections to the Africans buried in Qafzeh, Israel. 120,000 years ago, did Neanderthals teach us Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism) as they too used red ocher and burials? ref, ref

It seems to me, it may be the Neanderthals who may have transmitted a “Primal Religion (Animism)” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife. The Neanderthals seem to express what could be perceived as a Primal “type of” Religion, which could have come first and is supported in how 250,000 years ago, the Neanderthals used red ochre and 230,000 years ago shows evidence of Neanderthal burial with grave goods and possibly a belief in the afterlife. ref

Do you think it is crazy that the Neanderthals may have transmitted a “Primal Religion”? Consider this, it appears that 175,000 years ago, the Neanderthals built mysterious underground circles with broken-off stalactites. This evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel, and Krapina in Croatia. Other evidence may suggest the  Neanderthals had it transmitted to them by Homo heidelbergensis, 350,000 years ago, by their earliest burial in a shaft pit grave in a cave that had a pink stone ax on the top of 27 Homo heidelbergensis individuals and 250,000 years ago, Homo Naledi had an intentional cemetery in South Africa cave.  ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

• “120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.
• 120,000 to 75,000 years ago: Khoisanid back-migration from Southern Africa to East Africa.
• 82,000 years ago: small perforated seashell beads from Taforalt in Morocco are the earliest evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.
• 75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption that almost made humanity extinct. Populations could have been lowered to about 3000-1000 people on the Earth.
• 70,000 years ago: earliest example of abstract art or symbolic art from Blombos Cave, South Africa—stones engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns.
• 70,000 years ago: Recent African origin: separation of sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans.” ref

143,000 – 120,000 Years Ago – Tabun Cave (Israel), found evidence of a Neanderthal-type burial of an archaic type of human female. There is some evidence of burial in Skhul Cave 130,000 – 100,000 which may be Neanderthal humans hybrids, thought early modern humans started engaging in burial around 100,000 years ago. So one should wonder did Neanderthals teach humans religion or at least ritual burial around 120,000 – 100,000 years ago? I think maybe it seems to possibly be the case by 100,000 years ago, but this is just my speculation of somewhat loose but interesting evidence. Burial seems to have been and is now certainly evidence of some concern about what happened when someone died perhaps even proof of a belief that would be one of the key tenets of most religions of the world today, which is life after this one.

100,000 Years Ago – Qafzeh cave (Israel), found a burial site of 15 early modern humans stained with red ochre and grave goods, 71 pieces of red ocher, and red ocher-stained stone tools near the bones suggest ritual or symbolic use, as well as seashells with traces of being strung, and a few also had ochre stains which may also suggest ritual or symbolic use. Likewise, a wild boar jaw found placed in the arms of one of the skeletons.

Only after 100,000 years ago modern human burials become more frequent. Could this seemingly new practice of barrel among early modern humans with the use of red ochre be in some way connected or influenced by the meeting, interbreeding, and possible idea sharing with the Neanderthal ancestors of the Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains of Central Asia around 100,000 years ago possibly in the Near East, maybe even in Israel or some other part of the with the levant? Well to me it sounds like a real possibility that Neanderthals may have directly taught or indirectly been observed thus in a way are responsible candidates for possibly teaching humans the beginnings of religion, or at least superstitionism/supernaturalism seen in the act of doing burial and the ritual and seemingly sacralized use of red ocher around 100,000 years ago. This thinking Neanderthals Primal Religion could have come first is supported in how 250,000 years ago Neanderthals used red ochre and 230,000 years ago shows evidence of Neanderthal burial with grave goods and possibly a belief in the afterlife.

*Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife (you are a hidden animist/Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system) Animism: the (often hidden) religion thinking all religionists (as well as most who say they are the so-called spiritual and not religious which to me are often just reverting back to have to Animism (even though this religious stance is often hidden to their realization so they are still very religious whether they know it or not) some extent or another. Ref

References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Ancient human burials, By Sally McBrearty

Whereas with modern people, anatomically modern Homo sapiens from somewhat later in time, you find artifacts that are definitely grave offerings. You find quantities of red ochre, which have been sprinkled over the skeleton, beads, and other kinds of objects, bone tools, and things like that, which appear to have been placed in the grave with the person when they were interred. And there’s really no doubt that they’re deliberate burials. The evidence for the burial of the dead in Africa is very very spotty. There’s one site in South Africa that’s called Border Cave, where there are a number of burials, including the burial of an infant, with a little shell ornament, it’s a pierced sea shell ornament, and the argument has been about whether that is in good stratographic context or whether it is an intrusive burial into earlier deposits. And so the age of that is not particularly well established. If it is in good context, then it’s about 100,000 years old, and it is the earliest in Africa. There are early burials of anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Israel, from the site of Qafzeh. There is a modern human that probably dates to about the same time, about maybe 90,000 to 100,000 years ago. ref

Neandertal burials, By Sally McBrearty

The Neandertals have always been thought to bury their dead, because there’s so many complete skeletons of Neandertals that have been found. And I think from the number of skeletons that have been found, it’s probably a good guess that they were deliberately burying the dead. However, there are a lot of skeletons of other cave-dwelling animals that are found in caves: cave bears or hyenas, that because they live in caves they often die in caves. And there, people have argued about whether rock falls, or simply accidental death, or natural death, occurring in a cave could preserve whole skeletons better than in the open air. But the argument has also been about the objects that you find associated with the Neandertal burials, because what you find together with Neandertal skeletons are really mundane objects, like stone tools, or animal bones that would be food remains. ref

Pic ref 

Pic ref 

“The earliest ancestors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in a region south of the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa, according to a new analysis of modern human’s mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA or mitogenome) from the L0 lineage, the oldest known mtDNA lineage on Earth.” ref

ref

Did Pleistocene Africans use the spearthrower‐and‐dart?

“Well, evidence grows apace for ever-more ancient bow-and-arrow use. List of age estimates, locations, and current evidence bundles for the use of either arrows or darts by/before 30,000 years ago, the list may not be exhaustive, but we suggest that it broadly summarizes current knowledge (MSA = middle stone age).” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref ,ref, ref, ref 

Homo Naledi

“Homo Naledi is a species of archaic human discovered in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens, representing 737 different elements, and at least 15 different individuals. Despite this exceptionally high number of specimens, their classification with other Homo remains unclear.” ref

“Along with similarities to contemporary Homo, they share several characteristics with the ancestral Australopithecus and early Homo as well (mosaic anatomy), most notably a small cranial capacity of 465–610 cm3 (28.4–37.2 cu in), compared to 1,270–1,330 cm3 (78–81 cu in) in modern humans. They are estimated to have averaged 143.6 cm (4 ft 9 in) in height and 39.7 kg (88 lb) in weight, yielding a small encephalization quotient of 4.5. Nonetheless, Homo Naledi’s brain anatomy seems to have been similar to contemporary Homo, which could indicate equatable cognitive complexity. The persistence of small-brained humans for so long in the midst of bigger-brained contemporaries revises the previous conception that a larger brain would necessarily lead to an evolutionary advantage, and their mosaic anatomy greatly expands the known range of variation for the genus.” ref

“Homo Naledi anatomy indicates that, though they were capable of long-distance travel with a humanlike stride and gait, they were more arboreal than other Homo, better adapted to climbing and suspensory behavior in trees than endurance running. Tooth anatomy suggests consumption of gritty foods covered in particulates such as dust or dirt. Though they have not been associated with stone tools or any indication of material culture, they appear to have been dextrous enough to produce and handle tools, and likely manufactured Early or Middle Stone Age industries. It has also been controversially postulated that these individuals were given funerary rites, and were carried into and placed in the chamber.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref 

Chimpanzees Sacralizing Trees?

There is evidence currently limited to West Africa where chimpanzees mainly adult males but also females or juveniles are observed creating a kind of shrine of accumulated stone piles beside, or inside trees as well as regularly visiting these trees picking up these stones, and then throwing them at these trees accompanied with vocalization “performativity” which is (speech, gestures) to communicate an action.

Chimpanzees have been observed engaging in “social learning,” both teaching and learning such as tool use as well as communication signals: vocal and gestures. Such social learning is seen as playing an important and unique role in the development of human language, culture, and mythologizing.

All together such things observed in these West Africa where chimpanzees could indicate some kind of what could be perceived as magical thinking or at least quasi-magical thinking in the sacralizing of trees as it does not seem connected to some utilitarian or food foraging practice of which rocks or tools would make since. This at first may sound too complex for a nonhuman animal but what needs to be understood is that chimpanzees have been known to exhibit “metacognition,” or think about thinking.

Also, chimpanzees have the greatest variation in tool-use behaviors of any animal, second only to humans, where humans seem to have magical thinking or irrational beliefs are hardwired in our brains at a very ancient level because they involve mentally-fabricated patterns of thinking. Moreover, such processing abilities are somewhat common among non-human primates if not lower mammals as well to some extent and can be seen as a part of evolutionary survival fitness and thus not uniquely human.

It can be thought that different emotions evolved at different times with fear being ancient care for offspring relatively next later followed likely by extended social emotions, such as guilt and pride, evolved among social primates. Why this could be important is it is believed that emotions evolved to reinforce memories of patterns adding to survival and reproduction as well as responses to internal or external events and in such remapping facilitated by emotions could involve mentally-fabricated patterns of thinking which could superstitionize things in the world that do not truly limit it to the way it is possibly adding a kind of animism or the like involving some amount of magical thinking such as sacralizing of trees.

Magical thinking such as beliefs that there are relationships between behaviors or sounds thought to have the ability to directly affect other events in the world. Whereas quasi-magical thinking is acting as if there is a false belief that action influences outcome, even though they may not really actualize or intentionally hold such a belief.

Now I doubt West African chimpanzees are fully mythologizing the trees to a human magical thinking extent but we can see some possibilities of what about them could be inspired by magical thinking. Magical thinking may lead to a type of causal reasoning or causal fallacy that looks for meaningful relationships of grouped phenomena (coincidence) between acts and events.

Moreover, magical thinking when applied to trees are significant as believed sacred totems and natural sacred representations in many of the world’s oldest myths possibly because of using magical thinking when observing the growth and annual death and then revival of their foliage, seen them as symbolic representations of growth, death, and rebirth.

As well as trees may be conceived as existing in three realms the underworld or death with the roots the world of the living the trunk existing in our world above the ground and its branches reaching to the heavens thus existing in the realm of the spirits, ancestors or gods.

An Old Branch of Religion Still Giving Fruit: Sacred Trees

References 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism

The interconnectedness of religious thinking Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism

So, it all starts in a general way with Animism (theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits), then this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (theoretical belief in mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to do this worship and believed interacting Shamanism (theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through ritual), and then there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above giving you Paganism (often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking it stems from). My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theatrical house (modern religions development).

Religion and it’s fixation with holy land or places which is both an animism belief that areas or natural features have a sacredness and the totemistic clan thinking that a tribe of people own areas or natural features as some sacred right, often along with believing only they belong there, sometimes and n some places outsiders or those not deemed sacred enough are excluded or harmed even possibly killed. Similar to sectarianism, isolationism, extreme nationalism, ethnocentrism, racism, is one of the most decisive factors leading to harmful effects and death in the past, present, and likely into the future.

Yes, you need to know about Animism to understand Religion

Hidden Religious Expressions: “animist, totemist, shamanist & paganist”

• *Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife (you are a hidden animist/Animism : an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system)
• *Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects (you are a hidden totemist/Totemism: an approximately 50,000-year-old belief system)
• *Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife (you are a hidden shamanist/Shamanism: an approximately 30,000-year-old belief system)
• *Believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife who are guided/supported by a goddess/god or goddesses/gods (you are a hidden paganist/Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system)

Religious Evolution?

In my thinking on the evolution of religion, it seems a belief in animistic spirits” (a belief system dating back at least 100,000 years ago on the continent of Africa), that in totemism (dating back at least 50,000 years ago on the continent of Europe) with newly perceived needs where given artistic expression of animistic spirits both animal or human “seemingly focused on female humans to begin with and only much much later is there what look like could be added male focus”, but even this evolved into a believed stronger communion with more connections in shamanism (a belief system dating back at least 30,000 years ago on the continent of Siberia/Aisa) with newly perceived needs, then this also evolved into Paganism (a belief system dating back at least 13,000 years ago on the continent of eastern Europe/western Asia turkey mainly but eastern Mediterranean lavant as well to some extent or another) with newly perceived needs where you see the emergence of animal gods and female goddesses around into more formalized animal gods and female goddesses and only after 7,000 to 6,000 do male gods emerge one showing its link in the evolution of religion and the other more on it as a historical religion.

Ps. Progressed organized religion starts approximately 5,000-year-old belief system)

Promoting Religion as Real is Harmful?

Sometimes, when you look at things, things that seem hidden at first, only come clearer into view later upon reselection or additional information. So, in one’s earnest search for truth one’s support is expressed not as a one-time event and more akin to a life’s journey to know what is true. I am very anti-religious, opposing anything even like religion, including atheist church. but that’s just me. Others have the right to do atheism their way. I am Not just an Atheist, I am a proud antireligionist. I can sum up what I do not like about religion in one idea; as a group, religions are “Conspiracy Theories of Reality.”

These reality conspiracies are usually filled with Pseudo-science and Pseudo-history, often along with Pseudo-morality and other harmful aspects and not just ancient mythology to be marveled or laughed at. I regard all this as ridiculous. Promoting Religion as Real is Mentally Harmful to a Flourishing Humanity To me, promoting religion as real is too often promote a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from who they are shaming them for being human. In addition, religion is a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from real history, real science, or real morality to pseudohistory, pseudoscience, and pseudomorality.

Moreover, religion is a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from rational thought, critical thinking, or logic. Likewise, religion is a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from justice, universal ethics, equality, and liberty. Yes, religion is a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from loved ones, and religion is a toxic mental substance that can divide a person from humanity. Therefore, to me, promoting religion as real is too often promote a toxic mental substance that should be rejected as not only false but harmful as well even if you believe it has some redeeming quality. To me, promoting religion as real is mentally harmful to a flourishing humanity. Religion may have once seemed great when all you had or needed was to believe. Science now seems great when we have facts and need to actually know.

A Rational Mind Values Humanity and Rejects Religion and Gods

A truly rational mind sees the need for humanity, as they too live in the world and see themselves as they actually are an alone body in the world seeking comfort and safety. Thus, see the value of everyone around then as they too are the same and therefore rationally as well a humanistically we should work for this humanity we are part of and can either dwell in or help its flourishing as we are all in the hands of each other. You are “Free” to think as you like but REALITY is unchanged. While you personally may react, or think differently about our shared reality (the natural world devoid of magic anything), We can play with how we use it but there is still only one communal reality (a natural non-supernatural one), which we all share like it or not and you can’t justifiably claim there is a different reality. This is valid as the only one of warrant is the non-mystical natural world around us all, existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by superstitions like gods or other monsters to many people sill fear irrationally.

Do beliefs need justification?

Yes, it all requires a justification, and if you think otherwise you should explain why but then you are still trying to employ a justification to challenge justification. So, I still say yes it all needs a justification and I know everything is reducible to feeling the substation of existence. I feel my body and thus I can start my justificationism standard right there and then build all logic inferences from that justified point and I don’t know a more core presupposition to start from. A presupposition is a core thinking stream like how a tree of beliefs always has a set of assumed sets of presuppositions or a presupposition is relatively a thing/thinking assumed beforehand at the beginning of a line of thinking point, belief projection, argument, or course of action. And that, as well as everything, needs justification to be concluded as reasonable. Sure, you can believe all kinds of things with no justification at all but we can’t claim them as true, nor wish others to actually agree unless something is somehow and or in some way justified. When is something true that has no justification? If you still think so then offer an example, you know a justification. Sure, there can be many things that may be true but actually receiving rational agreement that they are intact true needs justification.

Without Nonsense, Religion Dies

I am against ALL Pseudoscience, Pseudohistory, and Pseudomorality. And all of these should openly be debunked, when and where possible. Of course, not forgetting how they are all highly represented in religion. All three are often found in religion to the point that if they were removed, their loss would likely end religion as we know it. I don’t have to respect ideas. People get confused ideas are not alive nor do they have beingness, Ideas don’t have rights nor the right to even exist only people have such a right. Ideas don’t have dignity nor can they feel violation only people if you attack them personally. Ideas don’t deserve any special anything they have no feelings and cannot be shamed they are open to the most brutal merciless attack and challenge without any protection and deserve none nor will I give them any if they are found wanting in evidence or reason. I will never respect Ideas if they are devoid of merit I only respect people.

I Hear Theists?

I hear what theists say and what I hear is that they make assertions with no justification discernable of or in reality just some book and your evidence lacking faith. I wish you were open to see but I know you have a wish to believe. I, however, wish to welcome reality as it is devoid of magic which all religions and gods thinkers believe. I want to be mentally free from misinformed ancient myths and free the minds of those confused in the realm of myths and the antihumanism views that they often attach to. So, I do have an agenda for human liberation from fears of the uninformed conception of reality. Saying that some features of reality are not fully known is not proof of god myth claims. II’s not like every time we lack knowledge, we can just claim magic and if we do we are not being intellectually honest to the appraisal of reality that is devoted of anything magic.

Theists seem to have very odd attempts as logic, as they most often start with some evidence devoid god myth they favor most often the hereditary favorite of the family or culture that they were born into so a continuous blind acceptance generation after generation of force indicated faith in that which on clear instinctually honest appraisal not only should inspire doubt but full disbelief until valid and reliable justification is offered.

Why are all gods unjustified? Well, anything you claim needs justification but no one has evidence of god claim attributes they are all unjustified. All god talk as if it is real acts as if one can claim magic is real by thinking it is so or by accepting someone’s claim of knowing the unjustifiably that they understand an unknowable, such as claims of gods being anything as no one has evidence to start such fact devoid things as all-knowing (there is no evidence of an all-knowing anything). Or an all-powerful (there is no evidence of an all-powerful anything).

Or the most ridiculous an all-loving (there is no evidence of an all-loving anything). But like all god claims, they are not just evidence lacking, the one claiming them has no justified reason to assume that they can even claim them as proof (it’s all the empty air of faith). Therefore, as the limit of all people, is to only be able to justify something from and that which corresponds to the real-world to be real, and the last time I checked there is no magic of any kind in our real-world experiences.

So, beyond the undefendable magical thinking not corresponding to the real-world how much more ridicules are some claimed supreme magical claimed being thus even more undefendable to the corresponding real-world, which the claimed god(s) thinking is a further and thus more extremely unjustified claim(s). What is this god you seem to think you have any justification to claim?

God: “antihumanism thinking”

God thinking is a superstitiously transmitted disease, that usually is accompanied with some kind of antihumanism thinking. Relatively all gods, in general, are said to have the will and power over humans. Likewise, such god claims often are attributed to be the ones who decide morality thus remove the true morality nature in humans that actually assist us in morality. So, adding a god is to welcome antihumanism burdens, because god concepts are often an expression. This is especially so when any so-called god somethingism are said to makes things like hells is an antihumanism thinking.  A general humanism thinking to me is that everyone owns themselves, not some god, and everyone is equal. Such humanist thinking to me, requires a shunning of coercion force that removes a human’s rights or the subjugation of oppression and threats for things like requiring belief or demanding faith in some other unjustified abstraction from others. Therefore, humanism thinking is not open to being in such a beliefs, position, or situations that violate free expression of one’s human rights which are not just relinquished because some people believed right or their removal is at the whims of some claimed god (human rights removing/limiting/controlling = ANTIHUMANISM). Humanism to me, summed up as, humans solving human problems through human means. Thus, humanism thinking involves striving to do good without gods, and not welcoming the human rights removing/limiting/controlling, even if the myths could somehow come to be true.

But Why do I Hate Religion?

I was asked why I openly and publicly am so passionate in my hate of religion. further asking what specifically in your life contributed to this outcome.

I hate harm, oppression, bigotry, and love equality, self-ownership, self-empowerment, self-actualization, and self-mastery, as well as truth and not only does religion lie, it is a conspiracy theory of reality. Moreover, not only is religion a conspiracy theories of reality, it is a proud supporter of pseudohistory and or pseudoscience they also push pseudomorality. Religion on the whole to me deserves and earns hate, or at least disfavor when you really analyze it. Not to mention the corruption it has on politics or laws. As well as how destructive this unworthy political influence has and creates because of these false beliefs and the harm to the life of free adults but to the lives of innocent children as well (often robbed of the right to choose and must suffer indoctrination) as the disruption of educated even in public schools. Etc…

I as others do have the right to voice our beliefs, just as I or others then have the right to challenge voiced beliefs.

Long live mental freedom…

I would first like to point out that there seems to be some scant possible hinting of the earliest pseudo-superstition before 1 million years ago and possibly back to 2 million years ago.

Yet likely this is not truly full superstitionism and defiantly not religion, but there are still elements there that are forming that will further religions’ future evolution.

Superstition begins around 1 million years ago, to Pre-Animism 300,000 years ago, & then Animism Religion 100,000 years ago:

“Pseudo-superstition before 1 million years ago“

1. Primal superstition at around 1 million years ago

2. Proto superstition at around 600,000 years ago

3. Progressed superstition at around 300,000 years ago (pre-animism)

4. Primal religion Animism at around 100,000 years ago

5. Proto religion Early Animism at around 75,000 years ago

6. Progressed religion Totemism at around 50,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago with Shamanism

This pseudo-superstition starts with symbolic, superstition, or early sacralized behaviors seen mostly in tools that may have been possibly exhibited even if only in the most limited ways at the start to further standardize around 1 million years ago with primal superstition. Then the development of religion’s evolution increased around 600,000 years ago with proto superstition and then even to a greater extent around 300,000 years ago with progressed superstition. Religions’ evolution moves from the loose growing of superstitionism to a greater developed thought addiction that was used to manage fear and the desire to sway control over a dangerous world. This began to happen around 100,000 years ago with primal religion. next, the proto religion stage is around 75,000 years ago or less, the progressed religion stage is around 50,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago, and finally after around 13, 500 years ago, begins with the evolution of more organized religion.

The set of stages for the development of organized religion is subdivided into the following: the primal stage of organized religion is around 12,000 years ago with paganism with the emergence of goddesses. The proto organized religion stage of paganism is around 10,000 years ago spreading out to other areas and adapting and developing, and finally, the progressed organized religion stage of paganism is around 7,000 years ago involving the emergence of male gods with limited mythology to 5,000 years ago with the emergence of religious nation-states as well as the forming of full mythology and its connected set of Dogmatic-Propaganda strains of sacralized superstitionism.

Superstitionism is the Mother of Supernaturalism, thus Religion is its child.

Aron Ra interviewing me on my “Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

“Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Paganism & Progressed organized religion”

Understanding Religion Evolution:

• Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
• Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago)
• Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
• Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago)
• Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)
• Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago), (Egypt, the First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)
• CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
• Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)

“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

Animism (such as that seen in Africa: 100,000 years ago)
Did Neanderthals teach us “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” 120,000 Years Ago? Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. 100,000 years ago, in Qafzeh, Israel, the oldest intentional burial had 15 African individuals covered in red ocher was from a group who visited and returned back to Africa. 100,000 to 74,000 years ago, at Border Cave in Africa, an intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament, which may have possible connections to the Africans buried in Qafzeh.

Animism is approximately a 100,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden animist.

The following is evidence of Animism: 100,000 years ago, in Qafzeh, Israel, the oldest intentional burial had 15 African individuals covered in red ocher was from a group who visited and returned back to Africa. 100,000 to 74,000 years ago, at Border Cave in Africa, an intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament, which may have possible connections to the Africans buried in Qafzeh, Israel. 120,000 years ago, did Neanderthals teach us Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism) as they too used red ocher and burials? ref, ref

It seems to me, it may be the Neanderthals who may have transmitted a “Primal Religion (Animism)” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife. The Neanderthals seem to express what could be perceived as a Primal “type of” Religion, which could have come first and is supported in how 250,000 years ago, the Neanderthals used red ochre and 230,000 years ago shows evidence of Neanderthal burial with grave goods and possibly a belief in the afterlife. ref

Do you think it is crazy that the Neanderthals may have transmitted a “Primal Religion”? Consider this, it appears that 175,000 years ago, the Neanderthals built mysterious underground circles with broken off stalactites. This evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Other evidence may suggest the Neanderthals had it transmitted to them by Homo heidelbergensis, 350,000 years ago, by their earliest burial in a shaft pit grave in a cave that had a pink stone axe on the top of 27 Homo heidelbergensis individuals and 250,000 years ago, Homo naledi had an intentional cemetery in South Africa cave. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)

Did Neanderthals Help Inspire Totemism? Because there is Art Dating to Around 65,000 Years Ago in Spain? Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture. Pre-Aurignacian “Châtelperronian” (Western Europe, mainly Spain and France, possible transitional/cultural diffusion between Neanderthals and Humans around 50,000-40,000 years ago). Archaic–Aurignacian/Proto-Aurignacian Humans (Europe around 46,000-35,000). And Aurignacian “classical/early to late” Humans (Europe and other areas around 38,000 – 26,000 years ago).

Totemism is approximately a 50,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden totemist.

Toetmism may be older as there is evidence of what looks like a Stone Snake in South Africa, which may be the “first human worship” dating to around 70,000 years ago. Many archaeologists propose that societies from 70,000 to 50,000 years ago such as that of the Neanderthals may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their presumably religious burial of the dead. Did Neanderthals help inspire Totemism? There is Neanderthals art dating to around 65,000 years ago in Spain. ref, ref

Shamanism (beginning around 30,000 years ago)

Shamanism (such as that seen in Siberia Gravettian culture: 30,000 years ago). Gravettian culture (34,000–24,000 years ago; Western Gravettian, mainly France, Spain, and Britain, as well as Eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians, which include the Pavlovian culture). And, the Pavlovian culture (31,000 – 25,000 years ago such as in Austria and Poland). 31,000 – 20,000 years ago Oldest Shaman was Female, Buried with the Oldest Portrait Carving.

Shamanism is approximately a 30,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden shamanist.

Around 29,000 to 25,000 years ago in Dolní Vestonice, Czech Republic, the oldest human face representation is a carved ivory female head that was found nearby a female burial and belong to the Pavlovian culture, a variant of the Gravettian culture. The left side of the figure’s face was a distorted image and is believed to be a portrait of an elder female, who was around 40 years old. She was ritualistically placed beneath a pair of mammoth scapulae, one leaning against the other. Surprisingly, the left side of the skull was disfigured in the same manner as the aforementioned carved ivory figure, indicating that the figure was an intentional depiction of this specific individual. The bones and the earth surrounding the body contained traces of red ocher, a flint spearhead had been placed near the skull, and one handheld the body of a fox. This evidence suggests that this was the burial site of a shaman. This is the oldest site not only of ceramic figurines and artistic portraiture but also of evidence of early female shamans. Before 5,500 years ago, women were much more prominent in religion.

Archaeologists usually describe two regional variants: the western Gravettian, known namely from cave sites in France, Spain, and Britain, and the eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians include the Pavlovian culture, which were specialized mammoth hunters and whose remains are usually found not in caves but in open-air sites. The origins of the Gravettian people are not clear, they seem to appear simultaneously all over Europe. Though they carried distinct genetic signatures, the Gravettians and Aurignacians before them were descended from the same ancient founder population. According to genetic data, 37,000 years ago, all Europeans can be traced back to a single ‘founding population’ that made it through the last ice age. Furthermore, the so-called founding fathers were part of the Aurignacian culture, which was displaced by another group of early humans members of the Gravettian culture. Between 37,000 years ago and 14,000 years ago, different groups of Europeans were descended from a single founder population. To a greater extent than their Aurignacianpredecessors, they are known for their Venus figurines.

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Paganism (beginning around 12,000 years ago)

Paganism (such as that seen in Turkey: 12,000 years ago). Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” around 12,000 years ago. Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago. Pagan-Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and 12,000 – 10,000 years old Paganistic-Shamanistic Art in a Remote Cave in Egypt. Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago and Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 10,000 years ago.

Paganism is approximately a 12,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife and who are guided/supported by a goddess/god, goddesses/gods, magical beings, or supreme spirits. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden paganist.

Around 12,000 years ago, in Turkey, the first evidence of paganism is Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” and around 9,500 years ago, in Turkey, the second evidence of paganism is Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”. In addition, early paganism is connected to Proto-Indo-European language and religion. Proto-Indo-European religion can be reconstructed with confidence that the gods and goddesses, myths, festivals, and form of rituals with invocations, prayers, and songs of praise make up the spoken element of religion. Much of this activity is connected to the natural and agricultural year or at least those are the easiest elements to reconstruct because nature does not change and because farmers are the most conservative members of society and are best able to keep the old ways.

The reconstruction of goddesses/gods characteristics may be different than what we think of and only evolved later to the characteristics we know of today. One such characteristic is how a deity’s gender may not be fixed, since they are often deified forces of nature, which tend to not have genders. There are at least 40 deities and the Goddesses that have been reconstructed are: *Pria, *Pleto, *Devi, *Perkunos, *Aeusos, and *Yama.

The reconstruction of myths can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and by additional research, many of these myths have since been confirmed including some areas that were not accessible to the early writers such as Latvian folk songs and Hittite hieroglyphic tablets. There are at least 28 myths and one of the most widely recognized myths of the Indo-Europeans is the myth, “Yama is killed by his brother Manu” and “the world is made from his body”. Some of the forms of this myth in various Indo-European languages are about the Creation Myth of the Indo-Europeans.

The reconstruction of rituals can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and is estimated to have been spoken as a single language from around 6,500 years ago. One of the earliest ritual is the construction of kurgans or mound graves as a part of a death ritual. kurgans were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas. Kurgans are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots.

The speakers of Pre-Proto-Indo-European lived in Turkey and it associates the distribution of historical Indo-European languages with the expansion around 9,000 years ago, with a proposed homeland of Proto-Indo-European proper in the Balkans around 7,000 years ago. The Proto-Indo-European Religion seemingly stretches at least back around 6,000 years ago or likely much further back and I believe Paganism is possibly an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system.

The earliest kurgans date to 6,000 years ago and are connected to the Proto-Indo-European in the Caucasus. In fact, around 7,000 years ago, there appears to be pre-kurgan in Siberia. Around 7,000 to 2,500 years ago and beyond, kurgans were built with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which display the continuity of the archaic farming methods. Kurgan cultures are divided archaeologically into different sub-cultures such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish, and Kuman–Kipchak. Kurgans have been found from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Around 5,000 years ago, kurgans were used in the Ukrainian and Russian flat unforested grasslands and their use spread with migration into eastern, central, northern Europe, Turkey, and beyond.

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Progressed organized religion (around 5,000 years ago)

Progressed organized religion (such as that seen in Egypt: 5,000 years ago “The First Dynasty dates to 5,150 years ago”). This was a time of astonishing religion development and organization with a new state power to control. Around the time of 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, saw the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power.

*The First Dynasty* Date: 3,150 B.C.E. (5,150 years ago):

“The Beginning Rise of the Unequal State Government Hierarchies, Religions and Cultures Merger

The Pharaoh in ancient Egypt was the political and religious leader holding the titles ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ Upper and Lower Egypt and ‘High Priest of Every Temple’. In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt and this reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later.

Around 4,890 years ago during the Second Dynasty, the King was linked with the divine and reign with the will of the gods. Following this, rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between the gods and the people, and when he died, he was thought to become Osiris, the god of the dead. As such, in his role of ‘High Priest of Every Temple’, it was the pharaoh’s duty to build great temples and monuments celebrating his own achievements and paying homage to the gods of the land.

Among the earliest civilizations that exhibit the phenomenon of divinized kings are early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the king Menes (now believed to be Narmer). Menes/Narmer is depicted on inscriptions wearing the two crowns of Egypt, signifying unification, and his reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later. During the Second Dynasty of Egypt 4,890-4,670 years ago King Raneb (also known as Nebra) linked his name with the divine and his reign with the will of the gods. Following Raneb, the rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth. The honorific title of `pharaoh’ for a ruler did not appear until the period known as the New Kingdom 3,570-3,069 years ago. Monarchs of the dynasties before the title of `pharaoh’ from the New Kingdom were addressed as `your majesty’ by foreign dignitaries and members of the court and as `brother’ by foreign rulers; both practices would continue after the king of Egypt came to be known as a pharaoh. RefRef

CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)

Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago). Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. Christianity around 2,000 years old. Shinto around 1,305 years old. Islam around 1407–1385 years old. Sikhism around 548–478 years old. Bahá’í around 200–125 years old.

Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by around 2,600 Years Ago)

Around 2,600 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is“faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

Damien Marie AtHope: Atheist-Humanist Philosopher & Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher at  damien.marie.athope.com

• Damien AtHope: Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher chats with Lisa For Truth: Origins of Religion and Anthropology of Religion
• Damien AtHope: Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher chats with Legesse Allyn: Writer/Researcher in Ancient Languages and Ancient Scripts

“Religion is an Evolved Product”

What we don’t understand we can come to fear. That which we fear we often learn to hate. Things we hate we usually seek to destroy. It is thus upon us to try and understand the unknown or unfamiliar not letting fear drive us into the unreasonable arms of hate and harm.

Now on to the Archaeology:

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Animism: a belief among some indigenous people, young children, or all religious people!

Over 100,000 years ago or so, Southern Africa, in the Land before and the beginning Time of Animism: LINK

Shivering in the Pleistocene: New analyses of prehistoric climate conditions map human adaptations to cold

400,000-year-old hominids in a winter landscape. 

“Jesús Rodríguez and Ana Mateos, scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), working with the geographer Christian Willmes of the University of Cologne (Germany), have analyzed the climatic conditions humans experienced in western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, evaluating their possible adaptations to the cold using a thermoregulation model that simulates an individual’s heat loss during sleep. The Middle Pleistocene (125,000-780,000 years ago) was marked by periodic oscillations between a climate similar to today’s and much cooler phases. In this work, which has just been published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the temperatures humans had to endure in Europe during several of these climatic phases were estimated with the help of paleotemperature maps.” ref

“On the basis of these maps, generated by Willmes, the temperatures for a total of 68 sites with documented human presence between 360,000 years ago and 470,000 years ago were obtained. The results of this research demonstrate that humans had to withstand very low temperatures during this period and, surprisingly, not only during the glacial phases, but also at milder times, even at places in the Iberian Peninsula such as Ambrona or Atapuerca. “That humans were able to endure such harsh conditions is difficult for us to imagine if we bear in mind that evidence for the use of fire in Europe during this period is extremely sparse. In fact, many researchers think that they were not capable of generating and using fire habitually,” explains Rodríguez.” ref

Battling the cold without fire?

“To assess the efficacy of other strategies for combating the cold, the researchers used a mathematical model that simulates heat loss during sleep and applied it to one male and one female individual from the Sima de los Huesos site in Atapuerca (Burgos). “This enabled us to evaluate the insulating effects of a fur covering, of a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and of producing internal heat through metabolism, in addition to allowing for heat loss due to wind action,” says Mateos. Exposure to cold, especially at night, would represent a real challenge for thermoregulation. There is a limit to the metabolic response cold temperatures at night elicit, but where physiological mechanisms do not reach, human behaviors can plug the gap, as Mateos says: “They could put up with very low nighttime temperatures if they slept covered in furs, especially if they did this as a group in a spot where they were sheltered from the wind.” ref

Africa, it is interpreted, that after around 500,000 years ago as some of the earliest evidence for collective ritual. The ubiquitous use of red ochre by 170,000 years ago. In Africa, symbolic culture was in place by around 100 years ago seen in evidence such as red ochre use, geometric engravings, beads. In Israel around this time, burials even with animals and ochre. In southern Africa around 70,000 to 75,000 years ago sees the first worship of a monolithic stone snake stone in a cave before humanity’s common ancestry separated out of Africa. Is there a seeming gradual evolution of collective ritual, out of which was forged a template of symbolic culture, or at least elements which might be inferred by the time of “Modern Human” dispersal beyond Africa? So, one can reason red and glittery pigment use in Rain Serpents in Northern Australia and Southern Africa: a Common Ancestry?

The jigsaw puzzle of our African ancestry: Unsolved, or unsolvable?

“Somewhere around about 200,000 years ago, our direct earliest modern human’s ancestors were at home in a region of northern Botswana. A revised root for the Y chromosome phylogeny further fragments the picture of modern human origins that can be reconstructed from genetic, linguistic and archaeological data.” ref

“Where  do we come from?’  ‘When did the  first humans live?’ ‘Apparently, we’re all supposed to be Africans, how is  that  possible?’ These are some of the questions that people ask,  and to which a variety of researchers in anthropology,  archaeology, and genetics try to give reasonable answers. The publication of a revised root for the Y chromosome phylogeny by Scozzari and colleagues now contributes new genetic evidence on the dating and geographical origins of early modern humans.” ref

“Yes, we do all come from Africa, or, more precisely, the population ancestral to all modern humans lived south of the Sahara Desert,  probably around 200,000 years ago. This conclusion is supported by several approaches, among which the study of modern human genetic variation has played a major role. A key finding is that, among global samples, the highest DNA diversity is found among African populations, and this diversity declines with migration distance from Africa. Furthermore, when ‘gene trees’ are constructed from sequence variants of particular loci, in most cases the earliest branches are found within African populations.” ref

“Within the great continent of Africa, however, the details are much less clear. Was there only one ancestral population that expanded from a  specific area?  If so, where was it? What was its size? Those who study African prehistory know that answers to these questions are much more difficult to find:  this is a complex jigsaw puzzle for which the final picture and the number of pieces are still unknown.” ref

A time and place for our Y-chromosomal roots 

Recently, a  new piece of the puzzle has turned up. In a paper in the  American Journal of Human Genetics, Rosaria  Scozzari and colleagues present a revised structure for the deepest part of the tree of the male-specific region of the  Y chromosome. The novelty of their study is that they took a  large-scale sequencing approach, allowing the unbiased ascertainment of many previously undescribed variants. They sequenced 206,000 years of  Y-chromosomal  DNA  in seven males,  including members of the previously deepest-rooting major branches A and B,  which are almost exclusively African and reach their highest frequencies in scarce hunter-gatherer populations.  Previously,  the root lay between these two branches,  but it has now moved to a  new position that is within A,  between  A1b  and  A1a,  from which descend all other Y branches. In addition to proposing a new root for the human Y  chromosome phylogeny,  Scozzari and colleagues also use their data to argue for a revised view of the dating and geographical origins of early modern humans. The 138 SNPs discovered  provide sufficient stable  molecular  information  to  be  used  for  dating estimates, yielding a time to the most recent common ancestor  (TMRCA)  of  141,000 years ago;  this  is considerably  older  than  previous  estimates,  which were  more  recent  than  100,000 years ago.” ref

“In addition,  a population survey of more than 2,000 males shows the earliest sub-branches  A1b and A1a to be rare (8/2,204 individuals analyzed)  and restricted to  North and Central  Africa.  This geographical distribution is probably the most controversial issue, in the context of previous evidence,  but is consistent with a  recent lower-resolution study showing that the early sub-branches of both  A  and  B  show a  mainly  Central African distribution. Due to the paucity of fossil remains and the poor conditions for preservation, no study of ancient DNA has yet been carried out on African samples, so all we have is the variation found among extant populations.  But, where are the rest of the pieces,  do they fit with the new Y-chromosomal evidence, and  what picture is beginning to emerge?” ref

Modern humans left Africa much earlier

“New dating of fossils from Israel indicates that our species (Homo sapiens) lived outside Africa around 185,000 years ago, some 80,000 years earlier than the previous evidence. Prof Chris Stringer of London’s Natural History Museum, said: “The find breaks the long-established 130,000-year-old limit on modern humans outside of Africa.” ref, ref

“110,000-90,000 years ago, or so there was a Temporary moving out of Africa towards southwest Asia, associated with what seems clear early symbolism. The Toba supervolcanic eruption occurred around 75,000 years ago in Sumatra, Indonesia. Seeming to coincide with this was a rapid climatic and environmental changes that happened around 80,000-70,000 years ago to where Humans. Almost Vanished 70,000 years ago. Roughly a thousand reproductive adults. One study says we hit as low as 40. 70,000 years ago, saw the first genetic split, a migration northeast out from Botswana and from 70,000-60,000 years ago, or so, there was major population expansion in Africa from a small source area and people.” ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“When researchers completed the final analysis of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, they confirmed that the 3 billion base pairs of genetic letters in humans were 99.9 percent identical in every person. It also meant that individuals are, on average, 0.1 percent different genetically from every other person on the planet. And in that 0.1 percent lies the mystery of why some people are more susceptible to a particular illness or more likely to be healthy than their neighbor – or even another family member.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“There are two geographically plausible routes that have been proposed for humans to emerge from Africa: through the current Egypt and Sinai (Northern Route), or through Ethiopia, the Bab el Mandeb strait, and the Arabian Peninsula (Southern Route).” ref

“Although there is a general consensus on the African origin of early modern humans, there is disagreement about how and when they dispersed to Eurasia. This paper reviews genetic and Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic archaeological literature from northeast Africa, Arabia, and the Levant to assess the timing and geographic backgrounds of Upper Pleistocene human colonization of Eurasia. At the center of the discussion lies the question of whether eastern Africa alone was the source of Upper Pleistocene human dispersals into Eurasia or were there other loci of human expansions outside of Africa? The reviewed literature hints at two modes of early modern human colonization of Eurasia in the Upper Pleistocene: (i) from multiple Homo sapiens source populations that had entered Arabia, South Asia, and the Levant prior to and soon after the onset of the Last Interglacial (MIS-5), (ii) from a rapid dispersal out of East Africa via the Southern Route (across the Red Sea basin), dating to ~74,000-60,000 years ago.” ref

“Within Africa, Homo sapiens dispersed around the time of its speciation, roughly 300,000 years ago. The so-called “recent dispersal” of modern humans took place about 70–50,000 years ago. It is this migration wave that led to the lasting spread of modern humans throughout the world. The coastal migration between roughly 70,000 and 50,000 years ago is associated with mitochondrial haplogroups M and N, both derivative of L3. Europe was populated by an early offshoot that settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago. Modern humans spread across Europe about 40,000 years ago, possibly as early as 43,000 years ago, rapidly replacing the Neanderthal population.” ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Mtoto’s burial, to experts it is believed the child was around three years old when they died and was likely wrapped in a shroud and had their head on a pillow. Besides the seemingly deliberate position of the body, the team noticed a few clues that suggested the child was swaddled in cloth, possibly with the intention of preserving the corpse. They also speculate the body was placed in a cave fissure — known as funerary caching — before being covered with sediment.” ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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This is my thoughts/speculations on the origins of Totemism

Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture

• Pre-Aurignacian “Châtelperronian” (Western Europe, mainly Spain and France, possible transitional/cultural diffusion between Neanderthals and humans around 50,000-40,000 years ago)
• Archaic–Aurignacian/Proto-Aurignacian (Europe around 46,000-35,000) 
• Aurignacian “classical/early to late” (Europe and other areas around 38,000 – 26,000 years ago)

“In the realm of culture, the archeological evidence also supports a Neandertal contribution to Europe’s earliest modern human societies, which feature personal ornaments completely unknown before immigration and are characteristic of such Neandertal-associated archeological entities as the Chatelperronian and the Uluzzian.” – (PDF) Neandertals and Moderns Mixed, and It Matters: Link

Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“There were at least several “out-of-Africa” dispersals of modern humans, possibly beginning as early as 270,000 years ago, including 215,000 years ago to at least Greece, and certainly via northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula about 130,000 to 115,000 years ago. These early waves appear to have mostly died out or retreated by 80,000 years ago.” ref

“The most significant “recent” wave out of Africa took place about 70,000–50,000 years ago, via the so-called “Southern Route“, spreading rapidly along the coast of Asia and reaching Australia by around 65,000–50,000 years ago, (though some researchers question the earlier Australian dates and place the arrival of humans there at 50,000 years ago at earliest, while others have suggested that these first settlers of Australia may represent an older wave before the more significant out of Africa migration and thus not necessarily be ancestral to the region’s later inhabitants) while Europe was populated by an early offshoot which settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago.” ref

• “An Eastward Dispersal from Northeast Africa to Arabia 150,000–130,000  years ago based on the finds at Jebel Faya dated to 127,000 years ago (discovered in 2011). Possibly related to this wave are the finds from Zhirendong cave, Southern China, dated to more than 100,000 years ago. Other evidence of modern human presence in China has been dated to 80,000 years ago.” ref
• “The most significant out of Africa dispersal took place around 50–70,000 years ago via the so-called Southern Route, either before or after the Toba event, which happened between 69,000 and 77,000 years ago. This dispersal followed the southern coastline of Asia, and reached Australia around 65,000-50,000 years ago, or according to some research, by 50,000 years ago at earliest. Western Asia was “re-occupied” by a different derivation from this wave around 50,000 years ago, and Europe was populated from Western Asia beginning around 43,000 years ago.” ref
• “Wells (2003) describes an additional wave of migration after the southern coastal route, namely a northern migration into Europe at circa 45,000 years ago. However, this possibility is ruled out by Macaulay et al. (2005) and Posth et al. (2016), who argue for a single coastal dispersal, with an early offshoot into Europe.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Sacred Snakes or Dragons and Rivers? To me, it’s snakes/dragons in one theme express as rivers thus developed on animism to gods or totem and other believed sacred beings

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago

Evidence from Rhino Cave, in Botswana produced results that revealed a very special set of behavioral patterns which best-fit ritualized behavior. There were colorful non-local stone tools carefully and often elaborately made just to be offered to the stone snake; burned and smashed beyond use then abandoned. ref

Rain Serpents in Northern Australia and Southern Africa: a Common Ancestry? (proof)

“In the late 1980s, geneticists announced that we evolved in Africa close to 200,000 years ago, with a tentatively inferred initial migration between ~50,000 years ago and  ~100,000 years ago. Paleolithic archaeologists immediately recognized that these findings made the long-established consensus that there was no compelling evidence for symbolic behaviors pre-dating ~40,000 years ago (treated as a cognitive Rubicon) look decidedly anomalous. How could the fundamental trait distinguishing our species from earlier hominins postdate our dispersal? New research in Africa was initiated, as a  result of which it is now widely accepted that symbolic culture was in place by ~100,000 years ago.  The evidence includes habitual use of red ochre  (closely associated with the dispersal),  geometric engravings on ochre, beads (some with ochre residues), and (in the Levant) male burials with parts of game animals (indirectly associated with ochre). In southern Africa, the most intensively studied portion of the continent for the relevant period, it seems that ubiquitous use of red ochre can be inferred from ~170,000 years ago,  suggesting that symbolic culture correlates with our speciation.” ref

“The use of red and glittery pigments in southern Africa from ~500,000 years ago has been interpreted as the earliest evidence for collective ritual. At first sight, a speculative case might be made for a gradual evolution of collective ritual, out of which was forged a template of symbolic culture, at least three elements of which might be inferred by the time of dispersal beyond Africa – belief in ‘other’ worlds (associating the dead with game animals), cosmetic ‘skin-change, and some form of ‘blood’ symbolism. For reasons concerning the history of the discipline, social anthropologists have been slow to respond to the possible implications of our recent dispersal out of Africa.” ref

The “Snake” art is Rhino Cave, Botswana. Carved rock panel on the south

“Among the first to do so was Alan Barnard, who made a case for why Bushmen, rather than Australian Aborigines,  are more appropriate for thinking about early human society, identifying six areas of difference where parsimony suggested this was the case – essentially that the Australian world-view was too ‘structurally evolved’. Within the field of belief, he considered that Australian Aborigines differed from ‘all other modern hunter-gatherers … (in) their belief in the Rainbow Serpent and the Dreaming’. He went on to note: ‘Although Rainbow Serpent-type creatures feature too in African mythology and rock art, they do not carry this symbolic weight; and that there is no African equivalent to the Dreaming’. The  Dreaming is a parallel but ontologically prior world where the distinction between animals and humans is not fixed; other Bushmen specialists do see an equivalence, so Barnard’s assertion is debatable. Regarding Rainbow Serpent-type creatures, a more interesting issue than their relative symbolic weight in the two regions is the implicit question about the nature of the identity, and whether this should be attributed to trivial or non-trivial factors.” ref

“Rainbow Serpent-type creatures are representative of the wider set of dragons, serpents, and rain-animals widely distributed in world mythology. The set has primarily been based on a number of recurrent themes, prominent among which have been controlling of water,  an intimate relationship to women, transformative power  (including ‘death’, healing and ‘resurrection’), movement between ‘worlds’, and an antithesis to cooking and exogamous sex/marriage. They have fascinated European commentators since anthropology’s emergence as a  distinct discipline Initially, building upon an earlier, theological research agenda, attention largely focused on ‘serpent worship’ in state societies. Even as the scope of inquiry broadened, it remained a search for fixed meanings. A  notable exception was Vladimir Propp’s formalist approach, which recognized that all magical tales were uniquely constrained; he concluded that Eurasian fairytales could be treated as variants of one tale only, in which a dragon kidnaps a princess. Only with the influence of structuralism in the 1970s did researchers begin to focus on the underlying logic informing such supernatural beings.” ref

“Radcliffe-Brown  (1926)  first noted possible parallels between Australian Rainbow Snakes and Bushman belief in snakes protecting waterholes, but without comment or citing any African literature. The issue remained dormant until a preliminary treatment by Knight,  drawing on rock-art studies and limited ethnographic material  (predominantly from Khoe-speaking, historically pastoralist cultures)  to compare the logic of belief with that he had identified in greater detail in Australia. In the most recent and exhaustive evaluation of Khoisan Rainbow Snake-type creatures, Sullivan and Low (2014) end by quoting  Knight’s conclusion about Australian Rainbow Snake myths. To give the full quote, ‘what all these myths are referring to is not really a “thing” at all, but a cyclical logic which lies beyond and behind all the many concrete images – moon,  snakes, tidal forces, waterholes, rainbows, mothers and so on  – used in partial attempts to describe it’.” ref

“Sullivan and  Low’s own conclusion is that the Khoisan material ‘affirms in all its detail and particularity the broad contours of this “logic”’. So what is this cyclical logic? Knight had proposed a model of the origin of symbolic culture in which evolving women, faced with the costs of giving birth to and rearing larger-brained, more dependent offspring, needed to secure unprecedented levels of male investment. To achieve this, they had,  through collective ritual action, made themselves periodically sexually unavailable, declaring themselves ‘sacred’  and ‘taboo’ until men surrendered the product of a collective hunt. This was achieved by exploiting the signaling potential of menstruation. The evolutionary logic was more precisely specified by Knight, Power, and Watts, identifying menstruation as a valuable cue to males of imminent fertility.” ref

“The posited strategy was that the most reproductively burdened females prevented would-be philanderer males from targeting an imminently fertile menstruant at the expense of other females, forming a ‘picket-line’ around her, sharing the blood around or using blood substitutes to scramble the information, thereby using cultural or cosmetic means to ‘synchronize’  bleeding, while at the same time advertising her attractive qualities. These female cosmetic coalitions inverted standard fertility signaling, ritually pantomiming ‘Wrong species, the wrong sex, wrong time’. The economic logic was the imposition of a rule of distribution dissociating people from their own produce, whether the product of hunting labor (a hunter’s ‘own kill rule’),  or reproductive labor (incest prohibitions). Synchronizing ‘strike’ action across communities required an environmental cue of appropriate periodicity.  Collective spear-hunting of medium to large game – liable to take several days and nights  –  needed to optimize available natural light,  making the days and nights immediately before full moon ideal, implying that the ‘strike’ began at the dark moon.” ref

“The cyclical logic is the movement from blood-defined kinship solidarity to ‘honeymoon’, from temporary death (to marital relations) to resurrection, from ritual power ‘on’ to ritual power ‘off’. If lack of meat motivates the sex strike, it should also be a cooking strike, and if women’s blood marks them as periodically taboo, then killed and bloody game animals should also be taboo, until they are surrendered and the blood removed through cooking. Treating metaphor as the underlying principle of symbolic culture  (Knight and  Lewis, this volume), the fundamental metaphor is that women’s blood be equated with that of game animals.  What kind of phenomena might be suitable for elaborating the logic informing this metaphor? Anything that could represent periodicity,  movement between worlds, association with wetness, ambiguous sex, minimal morphological differentiation,  skin-change,  and transformative powers (e.g. death-dealing) would be appropriate. Rainbows meet some of these requirements, and for a tropically evolved species, pythons would also be particularly good to think with.” ref

“In comparing aspects of Yurlunggur (the  Yolngu Rainbow Snake of Arnhem Land, northern Australia) and !Khwa (the Rain Bull of the  /Xam Bushmen in the Upper Karoo, South  Africa). Following Knight, focusing on the relationship of these supernatural beings to menstrual blood, hoping to show how this throws their logic and structural role into sharpest relief.” ref

Background

“The study of Rainbow Snakes in  Australia can be divided into two main phases:  an initial period identifying and describing the phenomena in the late 1920s; and structuralist influenced work in the 1970s and early 1980s. Some Aboriginal cultures permitted relating the mythological entity to ritual practice. The second phase recognized the Rainbow Snake as perhaps the ultimate symbolic representation of paradox and transformation. The Yolngu live in northeast Arnhem Land, in the Australian tropics. Seasonal flooding and a difficult landscape made the area unattractive to Europeans, allowing the Yolngu to keep their culture relatively intact well into the twentieth century. The myth of how, as a result of the actions of the two Wawilak Sisters, Yurlunggur created the present world is the most extensively recorded and thoroughly analyzed of Australian Rainbow Snake myths, allowing me to present an abridged version here.” ref

“A history of research on Khoisan Rainbow Serpent-type creatures in southern Africa is beyond the scope of this writing. Suffice it to say that they have been indigenously described as  ‘Watersnakes’, ‘Great Snakes’, eland-bulls, ‘Rain Bulls’, and indeterminate large quadrupeds. Such creatures are considered to lie at the heart of ‘a dynamic assemblage of extant cognitive associations between snakes, rain, environmental/landscape dynamics,  water, fertility, blood, fat, transformation, dance, and healing’. The /Xam were Bushmen of the Upper Karoo, the interior, semi-arid region south of the Orange River. Because they were killed or brutally assimilated into the colonial frontier economy of the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries,  virtually everything we know about them is through the remarkable linguistic endeavors of Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd in the 1870s, and the equally remarkable co-operation of a  succession of  /Xam prisoners released into their custody, several of whom stayed well beyond their prison terms. This vast corpus of material included information on ritual and an extensive body of mythology.” ref

“The myths can be supplemented by Gideon Retief von Wielligh’s Afrikaans narratives, recorded from /Xam farmworkers in the  1880s,  while  Ansie  Hoff’s salvage anthropology among contemporary descendants of the /Xam provides valuable fragmentary details concerning ritual and belief. Linguistically, the  /Xam belonged to the southern group of three Khoisan language families. There is considerable overlap in beliefs between historically pastoralist Khoe-speaking cultures and historically hunter-gatherer (Bushmen) Khoe and San speakers. Bushman religion is best characterized in terms of fluidity and ambiguity, both within and between linguistic groups, but a menarcheal ritual and healing dances are remarkably uniform in their performative structure and associated beliefs. Both are means of entering into what the Ju/’hoan  call First Creation, where the distinction between animals and people is not fixed.” ref

The Wawilak Sisters

“This summary is largely taken from Warner (1958): Two Dreamtime sisters of the Dua moiety, the elder carrying a baby boy, the younger pregnant, are crossing the land. They carry stone-tipped spears, bush-cotton, and hawk’s down. During their travels, they kill iguana, opossum, and bandicoot, giving them the names they bear today, saying that they will become maraiin (sacred), in the meantime putting them in their dilly bags. The younger sister gives birth during their travels. They intend to circumcise the boys. They meet classificatory brothers and have sex with them. They finally arrive at the big waterhole near the coast, Mirrimina (‘snake swallows’) or Ditjerima (‘menstruation blood’). The older sister tries to cook the animals they’ve caught, but each time one is placed on the fire, it comes back to life and jumps into the waterhole. A  drop of her menstrual blood falls into the water (in another version, this  ‘pollution is ascribed to the younger sister and occurs before the animals are placed on the fire. Lying at the bottom of the waterhole, Yurlunggur,  also of the Dua moiety, smells the blood, and rises to the surface,  drawing the water level up with ‘him’ or ‘her’  (the seasonal flooding that’s such a determinant factor to life in Arnhem Land). He spits water into the air, to become a small,  black cloud.” ref

“The sisters,  alarmed by the growing black cloud that came from nowhere,  start to sing and dance, performing increasingly sacred songs; in some versions, the younger sister starts to bleed. It is at this point that Yurlunggur entrances them, licks them, bites their noses to make them bleed, swallows them alive, and rises up into the sky, where he is joined by other snakes (all  Dua moiety, each speaking a  different language). Regretting their different tongues, Yurlunggur calls upon them to sing out together, making an unprecedented noise and creating a common ceremony. Confronted over his incestuous cannibalism, he regurgitates the sisters and their children onto an anthill, to dry. They are revived by Yurlunggur’s trumpet and the biting ants. The swallowing and regurgitation are repeated (only the sisters are regurgitated again, it being legitimate to consume flesh of the opposite moiety  – the sons), Yurlunggur finally returning the sisters to Wawilak country.” ref

“Meanwhile, two Wawilak men saw the lightning and heard the thunder accompanying all this commotion and tracked the sisters to Mirrimina, where they find their blood and scoop it up, gather hawk’s down and bush cotton,  and fall asleep. The sisters appear in their dreams and recount everything that happened, instructing them in the songs and how to perform male circumcision ceremonies. They sang Yurlunggur and Muit (another name for Yurlunggur, with a proposed Kareira root meaning: ‘blood & red & multi-colored & iridescent). ‘You must dance all the things we saw and named on our journey, and which ran away into the well’.” ref

The myth of the Wawilak Sisters is re-enacted in various male initiation rituals, notably the interclan Djungguan ritual, when boys are circumcised. The day before, initiated men are blown over by the Yurlunggur trumpet, and produce arm blood to hold the hawk’s down and bush-cotton on the dancers’ bodies and the Muit emblems. That night, the neophytes are shown the snake for the first time, two padded poles ‘with the rock pythons painted in blood on white surfaces gleaming in the light of the many fires’. The men say they stole this power from women. As an informant told Warner:” ref

“The cycle of the seasons with the growth and decay of plants, copulation, birth, and death of animals as well as men, is all the fault of those two Wawilak Sisters. If they hadn’t done wrong in their own country and copulated with Dua Wongar men and then come down to the Liaaloamir country and menstruated and made that snake wild, this cycle would never have occurred.” ref

Aspects of  Bushman Cosmology

“Before turning to Bushman myths bearing on Rainbow Serpent-type creatures, comment is needed on the connection between eland and snakes, and on the place of menarche in Bushman cosmology.” ref

Eland and Snakes

“The eland, the largest and fattest of African antelope, has been described as the Bushman ‘animal de passage’.” ref

Zoomorphism?

“The word zoomorphism derives from the Greek (zōon), meaning “animal“, and (morphē), meaning “shape” or “form”. In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal-like another species of animal or art that uses animals as a visual motif, sometimes referred to as “animal style.” In ancient Egyptian religion, deities were depicted in an animal form which is an example of zoomorphism in not only art but in a religious context. It is also similar to the term therianthropy; which is the ability to shapeshift into animal form, except that with zoomorphism the animal form is applied to a physical object. It means to attribute animal forms or animal characteristics to other animals, or things other than an animal; similar to but broader than anthropomorphism. Contrary to anthropomorphism, which views animal or non-animal behavior in human terms, zoomorphism is the tendency of viewing human behavior in terms of the behavior of animals. It is also used in literature to portray the act of humans or objects with animalistic behavior or features. The use of zoomorphism served as a decorative element to objects that are typically quite simple in shape and design.” ref

Archaeology, Oslo.

“Archaeologists would wish for more secure evidence linking this apparent zoomorphic to the MSA and for absolute dating estimates. A cautious attitude is certainly required; the ‘snake’ may prove to be much younger. But, in view of the evidence marshaled here, it could be argued that there are strong theoretical and empirical grounds for anticipating that the temporal association will prove valid.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Notes

1.  “Montague claimed to have seen ‘a small green snake which sometimes takes up his residence there (in the forelock of an eland bull)’ (parentheses added). This directly follows his reporting a ‘Caffre’ (probably  Swazi or Zulu) belief concerning a ‘maggot’ in the brain of wildebeest. Montague possibly took  the snake/forelock  association from  Arbousset (changing the color from yellow to  green), but  I found  nothing else  to suggest he plagiarized the extensive southern African travel literature.” ref

2.  “A  deep, if masked, relationship between  /Kaggen and !Khwa would be consistent with a wider pattern, where Bushman tricksters, in their ritual personae, oversee adolescent initiation; tricksters may assume the persona of the great watersnake.” ref

3.  “In drier regions, gemsbok may replace eland (Heinz 1994). The fact that the girl is identified with both fatness and rain accounts for why one of the menarcheal dances performed among the G/wi and //Gana is named after and mimics the nuptial flight of a  species of termite. These also epitomize fatness and their nuptial flights occur  at the start of  the rains.” ref

4.  “For lunar scheduling, see  Watts  2005, see also  Imamura 2001.” ref

5.  “The widespread (but not ubiquitous) reintroduction to water is a feature missing from Guenther’s characterization of the ritual. It was present among the Nharo, Guenther’s own study group, the girl slapping the water with a branch, consistent with hints of a former belief in the Rain Bull and possibly the Watersnake.

6.  “//xeiten or //kheten, a supernatural snake associated with rain and whirlwinds, is comparable to Khoe Keinaus or Kaindaus, and an aspect of the G/wi and  //Gana trickster !Koanxa.” ref

7.  “This term of abuse for selfish  – not to say ‘incestuous’ – behavior by hunters suggests a link between the fate of these men and the fate of men (including /Kaggen) out on the hunting ground tricked into massaging the neck of the menorrhagic tortoise (grandmother or older sister to the males); their arms decayed Tortoises were also one of the Rain’s creatures, and among the Griqua (of Khoe descent), who share very similar beliefs and practices with the /Xam, they provide a metaphor for vaginas.” ref

8.  “Bleeding from the nose is one of the key motifs associated with entering into a trance. This is also the state in  which the Wawilak sisters were swallowed by Yurlunggur.” ref

9.  “Ambush hunting by waterholes at night, restricted to dry-season nights leading up to the full moon, was one of the most productive forms of Bushman hunting. In the MSA it would have played a critical role,  as one of the few techniques where hunters could get close enough to use a spear with much chance of success. In southern Africa, eland are the only herbivores to regularly use waterholes at night; they dominate the large mammal assemblages of many MSA sites.” ref

10.  “See also  Hoernlé  (1987) for a  similar Nama belief.  Conversely, among the Ju/’hoan,  correct observance on the part of the girl was believed to protect the band from snakes. Given the habitual use of metaphor, circumlocution, and respect words for animals of exceptional potency (Biesele 1993), I suggest that the Ju/’hoan explanation for why the new maiden hits the young hunters with an ochre-covered wand  – to protect them while out hunting from being pricked by a stick  (Lewis-Williams  1981: 77) – is a metaphor for being bitten by a snake, as in G/wi and //Gana belief. Similarly, the /Xam new maiden painted haematite stripes on the young hunters to protect them from !Khwa’s lightning while out on the veld. Damara and Hai//om equate lightning strikes with the bite of a snake.” ref

11.  “G!kon//’amdima has multiple identities. The first syllable of her name is the word for termites; Biesele was told this was not significant, but see note 3.” ref

Rhino Cave in the Tsodilo Hills of Botswana holds what may have been a believed spirit rock-being, i.e. “supernatural- snake-spirit” they worshiped.

“Offerings to a Stone Snake provide the Earliest clear Evidence of Religion in 70,000-year-old African ritual practices linked to the mythology of modern Botswanans.” ref, ref

“Somewhere around about 200,000 years ago our direct earliest modern human’s ancestors were at home in a region of northern Botswana.” ref

Shell Beads from South African Cave Show Modern Human Behavior 75,000 Years Ago

“A few years ago, Blombos excavators found chunks of inscribed ochre and shaped bone tools that challenged the then-dominant theory of behavioral evolution, which held that humans were anatomically modern at least 160,000 years ago but didn’t develop critical modern behaviors until some punctuating event 40,000 or 50,000 years ago. Henshilwood and his colleagues (including Francesco d’Errico and Marian Vanhaeren of the University of Bordeaux, France, and Karen van Niekerk of the University of Bergen) believe the Blombos bone tools and ochre show that modern behavior like the use of external symbols developed gradually throughout the Middle Stone Age, not suddenly when our ancestors spread from Africa to Eurasia.” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Our origins originate from Southern African (NOT THE FIRST ANCESTORS EVER AS THAT WOULD BE NORTH AFRICA AROUND 300,000 YEARS AGO TO EAST AFRICA AROUND 200,000 YEARS AGO OR SO BUT RATHER OUR LAST MAIN COMMON ANCESTORS AROUND 100,000 YEARS AGO), with a population divergence around 120,000 to 110,000 years ago and this is after the two other main areas of North and East Africa either migrated south or largely went extinct around 100,000 years ago. This is the most recent glacial era that consisted of a larger pattern of glacial and interglacial periods beginning around 115,000 which may have influenced both the migrating south and possibly could connect to some of the influences relating to the extinctions as well. Moreover, as these Ancient Southern African peoples developed over time, they also expanded out from there to populate the globe, and the DNA of us all points to a southern African origin. Furthermore, it seems as they expanded back out, they either replaced the other populations in central and east Africa that may have been left or absorbed any remaining individuals. ref

Southern African Middle Stone Age sites:

(Ap) Apollo 11; (BAM) Bambata; (BBC) Blombos Cave; (BC) Border Cave; (BGB)Boegoeberg; (BPA) Boomplaas; (BRS) Bushman Rock Shelter; (BUN) Bundu Farm; (CF)Cufema Reach; (CK) Canteen Kopje; (COH) Cave of Hearths; (CSB) Cape St Blaize; (DK)Die Kelders Cave 1; (DRS) Diepkloof Rock Shelter; (EBC) Elands Bay Cave; (FL) Florisbad; (≠GI) ≠Gi; (HP) Howiesons Poort; (HRS) Hollow Rock Shelter; (KD) Klipdrift; (KKH) Klein Kliphuis; (KH) Khami; (KK) Kudu Koppie; (KP) Kathu Pan; (KRM) Klasies River Main Site; (L) Langebaan; (MBA) Mumbwa Caves; (MC) Mwulu’s Cave; (MEL)Melikane; (MON) Montagu Cave; (NBC) Nelson Bay Cave; (NG) Ngalue; (NT) Ntloana Tšoana; (OBP) Olieboomspoort; (PC) Peers Cave; (POC) Pockenbank; (PL) Plover’s Lake; (POM) Pomongwe; (PP) Pinnacle Point; (RCC) Rose Cottage Cave; (RED) Redcliff; (RHC) Rhino Cave; (SCV) Seacow Valley; (SFT) Soutfontein; (SEH) Sehonghong; (SIB)Sibudu Cave; (SPZ) Spitzkloof Rock Shelter; (SS) Sunnyside 1; (STB) Strathalan Cave B; (STK) Sterkfontein; (TR) Twin Rivers; (UMH) Umhlatuzana; (VR) Varsche Rivier 003; (WPS) White Paintings Shelter; (WK) Wonderkrater; (WW) Wonderwerk; (YFT)Ysterfontein 1; (ZOM) Zombepata Cave. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

Adapted from: ref

Here we see the tracings of the engraved ochres from the Blombos cave site’s in South Africa, from its Middle Stone Age layers and their stratigraphic locations where they were found in the dirt and the years they relate to. M1 dates to around 73,000 years ago, M2 around 85,000 to 77,000 years ago, and M3 dates to around 100,000 to 99,000 years ago. Middle Stone Age generally started around 280,000 years ago and ended around 25,000 years ago or so. Therefore, amazing as it is, here we have proof that “Symbolic Meaning,” seems to be clear at the beginning of Animism, as seen in Africa 100,000 years ago. In a landmark study, it was demonstrated, for the first time, that there are seeming tradition in the production of geometric engraved representations, includes the production of a number of different patterns and this set of evolving traditions have roots that go back in time to at least 100,000 years ago (around a time I say Animism begins in Africa). The fact that they were created, that most of them are deliberate and were made with representational intent, strongly suggests they functioned as artifacts within a society by symbols with meaning. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

ref

Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system?

Qafzeh Cave held early modern human remains dating to the Middle Paleolithic period which is the oldest levels are dated to the Mousterian culture period, about 80,000-100,000 years ago. At the site there were hearths; and stone tools use the Levallois technique on the stone tools. various layers at Qafzeh were dated to an average of 96,000-115,000 years ago and the Qafzeh cave contains some of the earliest evidence for burials in the world and included 27 anatomically modern humans, with some archaic features dating to around 92,000 years ago and were directly associated with Levallois-Mousterian assemblage, appear to have been purposefully buried: dated to around 92,000 years ago. The remains are from anatomically modern humans, with some archaic features; they are directly associated with Levallois-Mousterian assemblage. Modern behaviors indicated at the cave include the purposeful burials; the use of ochre for body painting; the presence of marine shells, used as ornamentation, and most interestingly, the survival and eventual ritual interment of a severely brain-damaged child. Moreover, deer antlers at Qafzeh 11 seem to be associated with burials unlike the marine shells which do not seem to be associated with burials, but rather are scattered more or less randomly throughout the site, possibly as a sacred offering, one that sanctifies an area? Or kind of blessing the aria? ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

 ref, ref, ref 

At Border Cave, a “savanna-woodland” vegetation community is implied before 100,000 years ago and the matching density of stone tools vary considerably through time, with high frequencies of stone blades occurring before 100,000 years ago. ref 

Around 74,000 years ago, in Border Cave, South Africa, the burial of a 4 to 6-month-old child was found in a pit with a personal ornament, a perforated Conus shell. ref

Border Cave is the only African site covering a time span of 250,000 years, with Middle Stone Age human remains, and also records the first emergence of key cultural innovations such as things like grass bedding dated between 70,000 to 30,000 years ago. ref 

In South Africa, some of the oldest beads are made of marine shells that come from the Still Bay layers of Blombos Cave dating back to around 72,000 years ago, and engraved ostrich eggshells dated to around 60,000 years ago from Diepkloof in South Africa. Some of the oldest beads made of non-marine shells involve ostrich eggshells and from Border Cave, there are some that date to around 42,000 years ago. Beads were also collected from the late MSA/early LSA context of similar age at Apollo 11 and from layers associated with MSA at Boomplaas Cave. Furthermore, beads were also reported from the MSA at Cave of Hearths. Other sub-contemporaneous beads have been recovered north of South Africa. ref 

“Haplogroup L1, most common in Central as well as West Africa, highest among Mbenga Pygmies and likely was more widespread, as a result of powerful waves of Bantu migration that largely carried L2 DNA, bringing another religion with connections to totemism with them between about 3,000-2,000 years ago. And it is largely those with connections to Bantu peoples that show totemism in Africa even today. Haplogroup L1, most common in Central, as well as West Africa, highest among Pygmie people and likely, was more widespread, as a result of powerful waves of Bantu migration that largely carried L2 DNA, bringing another religion with connections to totemism with them between about 3,000-2,000 years ago. And it is largely those with connections to Bantu peoples that show totemism in Africa even today.” ref, ref, ref, ref

“U6 is thought to have entered North Africa from the Near East around 30,000 years ago. It has been found among Iberomaurusian specimens dating from the Epipaleolithic at the Taforalt prehistoric site.” ref

“Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years ago, and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years ago. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.” ref

“The excavations at Blombos Cave have yielded important new information on the behavioral evolution of anatomically modern humans. The archaeological record from this cave site has been central in the ongoing debate on the cognitive and cultural origin of early humans and to the current understanding of when and where key behavioral innovations emerged among Homo sapiens in southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene. Archaeological material and faunal remains recovered from the Middle Stone Age phase in Blombos Cave – dated to ca. 100,000–70,000 years ago – are considered to represent greater ecological niche adaptation, a more diverse set of subsistence and procurements strategies, adoption of multi-step technology, and manufacture of composite tools, stylistic elaboration, increased economic and social organization and occurrence of symbolically mediated behavior.” ref

“The most informative archaeological material from Blombos Cave includes engraved ochre, engraved bone ochre processing kits, marine shell beads, refined bone as well as stone tools, and a broad range of terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including shellfish, birds, tortoise and ostrich egg shell and mammals of various sizes. These findings, together with subsequent re-analysis and excavation of other Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, have resulted in a paradigm shift with regard to the understanding of the timing and location of the development of modern human behavior. On 29 May 2015 Heritage Western Cape formally protected the site as a provincial heritage site. Cross-hatching done in ochre on a stone fragment found at Blombos Cave is believed to be the earliest known drawing done by a human in the world.” ref

The earliest evidence of personal ornaments associated with burial: The Conus shells from Border Cave

Abstract

“The four to six-month-old infant from Border Cave, found with a perforated Conus shell in a pit excavated in Howiesons Poort (HP) layers dated to 74,000 years ago, is considered the oldest instance of modern human burial from Africa, and the earliest example of a deceased human interred with a personal ornament. In this article we present new data retrieved from unpublished archives on the burial excavation, and conduct an in-depth analysis of the Conus found with the infant, and a second similar Conus that probably originates from the same layer. Based on morphological, morphometric, and ecological evidence we assign these two shells to Conus ebraeus Linnaeus 1758, a tropical species still living on the nearest coastline to Border Cave, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. This attribution changes the paleoclimatic setting inferred from the previous ascription of these shells to Conus bairstowi, a species endemic to the Eastern Cape and adapted to colder sea surface temperatures. Reconstructions of 74,000 years ago sea surface temperatures along the southern African east coast are consistent with our reassignment. Analysis of shell thanatocoenoses and biocoenosis from the KwaZulu-Natal coast, including the microscopic study of their surfaces, reveals that complete, well-preserved living or dead Conus, such as those found at Border Cave, are rare on beaches, can be collected at low tide at a depth of c. 0.5–2 m among the rocks, and that the archeological shells were dead when collected. We demonstrate that the perforations at the apex were produced by humans, and that traces of wear due to prolonged utilization as an ornament are present. SEM-EDX analysis of patches of red residue on the Conus found in the pit with the infant indicates that it is composed of iron, phosphorus, silicon, aluminium, and magnesium. Results indicate that, at least in some areas of southern Africa, the use of marine gastropods as ornaments, already attested in Still Bay, extended to the first phases of the HP.” ref

74,000 years ago

The earliest evidence of personal ornaments associated with burial: The Conus shells from Border Cave

Abstract

“The four to six-month-old infant from Border Cave, found with a perforated Conus shell in a pit excavated in Howiesons Poort (HP) layers dated to 74,000, is considered the oldest instance of modern human burial from Africa, and the earliest example of a deceased human interred with a personal ornament. In this article, new data retrieved from unpublished archives on the burial excavation is highlighted, and conduct an in-depth analysis of the Conus found with the infant, and a second similar Conus that probably originates from the same layer.” ref

“Haplogroup L1 is found most commonly in Central Africa and West Africa. It reaches its highest frequency among the Mbenga Pygmies. It is likely that it was formerly more widespread, and was constrained to its current area as a result of the Bantu migration (which is largely associated with haplogroup L2). Haplogroup L1 has been observed in specimens from the island cemetery in Kulubnarti, Sudan, which date from the Early Christian period (CE 550–800 years ago). An ancient Beaker culture individual at the Camino de las Yeseras in Spain (San Fernando de Henares, Madrid; [I4245 / RISE695] F) has also been found to carry the L1b1a mitochondrial haplogroup. L1 has two branches, L1c and L1b (the formerly named haplogroups L1d, L1k, L1a, L1f have been re-classified into haplogroup L0, as L0d, L0k, L0a, L0f; L1e as L5).” ref

L1c

“Haplogroup L1c emerged at about 85years ago. It reaches its highest frequencies in West and Central Africa, notably among the Mbenga Pygmy peoples. (see map). Among the Mbenga, it is carried by 100% of Ba-Kola, 97% of Ba-Benzélé, and 77% of Biaka. Other populations in which L1c is particularly prevalent include the Tikar (100%), Baka people from Gabon (97%) and Cameroon (90%), the Bakoya (97%), and the Ba-Bongo (82%). Common also in São Tomé (20%) and Angola (16–24%).” ref

L1b

“Haplogroup L1b is much more recent, dated at about 10,000 years ago. It is frequent in West Africa. It has also been found in Mozambique (1%), Ethiopia (2%), Egypt (1%), the Nile Valley (4%), Kung (1%), Cape Verde (8%), Senegal (17–20%), Niger/Nigeria (15%), Guinea Bissau (11%), Morocco (4–5%), and Algeria (1–2%).” ref

L2

“L2 is a common lineage in Africa. It is believed to have evolved between 87,000 and 107,000 years ago or approx. 90,000 years ago. Its age and widespread distribution and diversity across the continent makes its exact origin point within Africa difficult to trace with any confidence. Several L2 haplotypes observed in Guineans and other West Africa populations shared genetic matches with East Africa and North Africa. An origin for L2b, L2c, L2d, and L2e in West or Central Africa seems likely. The early diversity of L2 can be observed all over the African Continent, but as we can see in the Subclades section below, the highest diversity is found in West Africa. Most of the subclades are largely confined to West and western-Central Africa.” ref

According to a 2015 study, “results show that lineages in Southern Africa cluster with Western/Central African lineages at a recent time scale, whereas, eastern lineages seem to be substantially more ancient. Three moments of expansion from a Central African source are associated to L2: one migration at 70,000–50,000 years ago into Eastern or Southern Africa, postglacial movements 15,000–10,000 years ago into Eastern Africa; and the southward Bantu Expansion in the last 5,000 years ago. The complementary population and L0a phylogeography analyses indicate no strong evidence of mtDNA gene flow between eastern and southern populations during the later movement, suggesting low admixture between Eastern African populations and the Bantu migrants. This implies that, at least in the early stages, the Bantu expansion was mainly a demic diffusion with little incorporation of local populations”.” ref

Haplogroup L2a

“L2a is widespread in Africa and the most common and widely distributed sub-Saharan African Haplogroup and is also somewhat frequent at 19% in the Americas among descendants of Africans (Salas et al., 2002). L2a has a possible date of origin approx. 48,000 years ago. It is particularly abundant in Chad (38% of the sample; 33% undifferentiated L2 among Chad Arabs), and in Non-Bantu populations of East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) at 38%. About 33% in Mozambique[14] and 32% in Ghana. ” ref

“This subclade is characterized by mutations at 2789, 7175, 7274, 7771, 11914, 13803, 14566, and 16294. It represents 52% of the total L2 and is the only subclade of L2 to be widespread all over Africa. The wide distribution of L2a and diversity makes identifying a geographical origin difficult. The main puzzle is the almost ubiquitous Haplogroup L2a, which may have spread East and West along the Sahel Corridor in North Africa after the Last Glacial Maximum, or the origins of these expansions may lie earlier, at the beginnings of the Later Stone Age ∼ 40,000 years ago.” ref

“In East Africa, L2a was found 15% in Nile Valley–Nubia, 5% of Egyptians, 14% of Cushite speakers, 15% of Semitic Amhara people, 10% of Gurage, 6% of Tigray-Tigrinya people, 13% of Ethiopians, and 5% of Yemenis. Haplogroup L2a also appears in North Africa, with the highest frequency 20% Tuareg, Fulani (14%). Found also among some Algeria Arabs, it is found at 10% among Moroccan Arabs, some Moroccan Berbers, and Tunisian Berbers. (watson 1997) et al., (vigilant 1991) et al. 1991. In patients who are given the drug stavudine to treat HIV, Haplogroup L2a is associated with a lower likelihood of peripheral neuropathy as a side effect.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1

“L2a can be further divided into L2a1, harboring the transition at 16309 (Salas et al. 2002). This subclade is observed at varying frequencies in West Africa among the Malinke, Wolof, and others; among the North Africans;in the Sahel among the Hausa, Fulbe, and others; in Central Africa among the Bamileke, Fali, and others; in South Africa among the Khoisan family including the Khwe and Bantu speakers; and in East Africa among the Kikuyu from Kenya.” ref

“All L2 clades present in Ethiopia are mainly derived from the two subclades, L2a1 and L2b. L2a1 is defined by mutations at 12693, 15784, and 16309. Most Ethiopian L2a1 sequences share mutations at nps 16189 and 16309. However, whereas the majority (26 out of 33) African Americans share Haplogroup L2a complete sequences could be partitioned into four subclades by substitutions at nps L2a1e-3495, L2a1a-3918, L2a1f-5581, and L2a1i-15229. None of those sequences, were observed in Ethiopian 16309 L2a1 samples. (Salas 2002) et al.

“Haplogroup L2a1 has also been observed among the Mahra (4.6%). Haplogroup L2a1 has been found in ancient fossils associated with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture at Tell Halula, Syria. A specimen excavated at the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic site of Luxmanda in Tanzania also carried the L2a1 clade. Admixture clustering analysis further indicated that the individual bore significant ancestry from the ancient Levant, confirming ancestral ties between the makers of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1a

“Subclade L2a1a is defined by substitutions at 3918, 5285, 15244, and 15629. There are two L2a clusters that are well represented in southeastern Africans, L2a1a and L2a1b, both defined by transitions at quite stable HVS-I positions. Both of these appear to have an origin in West Africa or North West Africa (as indicated by the distribution of matching or neighboring types), and to have undergone dramatic expansion either in South East Africa or in a population ancestral to present-day Southeastern Africans. The very recent starbursts in subclades L2a1a and L2a2 suggest a signature for the Bantu expansions, as also proposed by Pereira et al. (2001).” ref

“L2a1a is defined by a mutation at 16286. The L2a1a founder candidate dates to 2,700 (SE 1,200) years ago. However, L2a1a, as defined by a substitution at (np 16286), is now supported by a coding-region marker (np 3918) (fig. 2A) and was found in four of six Yemeni L2a1 lineages. L2a1a occurs at its highest frequency in Southeastern Africa. Both the frequent founder haplotype and derived lineages (with 16092 mutation) found among Yemenis have exact matches within Mozambique sequences. L2a1a also occurs at a smaller frequency in North West Africa, among the Maure and Bambara of Mali and Mauritania.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1a1

“L2a1a1 is defined by markers 6152C, 15391T, 16368C.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1b

“L2a1b is defined by substitutions at 16189 and 10143. 16192 is also common in L2a1b and L2a1c; it appears in North Africa in Egypt, It also appears in Southeastern Africa and so it may also be a marker for the Bantu expansion.” ref (Totemistic-Shamanism expansion is what it also was)

Haplogroup L2a1c

“L2a1c often shares mutation 16189 with L2a1b, but has its own markers at 3010 and 6663. 16192 is also common in L2a1b and L2a1c; it appears in Southeastern Africa as well as East Africa. This suggests some diversification of this clade in situ. Positions T16209C C16301T C16354T on top of L2a1 define a small sub-clade, dubbed L2a1c by Kivisild et al., which mainly appears in East Africa (e.g. Sudan, Nubia, Ethiopia), among the Turkana and West Africa (e.g. Kanuri). In the Chad Basin, four different L2a1c types one or two mutational steps from the East and West African types were identified.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1c1

“L2a1c1 has a north African origin. It is defined by markers 198, 930, 3308, 8604, 16086. It is observed in Tunisia Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Jews, Hebrews, Moroccans, Egyptians, Nubians, and Yemenis.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1f

“Khosian, Zambia, Madagascar” ref

Haplogroup L2a1k

“L2a1k is defined by markers G6722A and T12903C. It was previously described as a European-specific subclade L2a1a and detected in Czechs and Slovaks.” ref

Haplogroup L2a1l2a

“L2a1l2a is recognized as an “Ashkenazi-specific” haplogroup, seen amongst Ashkenazi Jews with ancestry in Central and Eastern Europe. It has also been detected in small numbers in ostensibly non-Jewish Polish populations, where it is presumed to have come from Ashkenazi admixture. However, this haplotype constitutes only a very small proportion of Ashkenazi mitochondrial lineages; various studies (including Behar’s) have put its incidence at between 1.4–1.6%.” ref

Haplogroup L2a2

“L2a2 is characteristic of the Mbuti Pygmies.” ref

Haplogroup L2b’c

“L2b’c probably evolved around 62,000 years ago.” ref

Haplogroup L2b

“This subclade is predominantly found in West Africa, but it is spread all over Africa.” ref

Haplogroup L2c

“L2c is most frequent in West Africa, and may have arisen there. Specially present in Senegal at 39%, Cape Verde 16%, and Guinea-Bissau 16%.” ref

Haplogroup L2d

“L2d is most frequent in West Africa, where it may have arisen. It is also found in Yemen, Mozambique, and Sudan.” ref

Haplogroup L2e

“L2e (former L2d2) is typical in West Africa. It is also found in Tunisia, and among Mandinka people from Guinea-Bissau and African Americans.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Around 74,000 years ago, Border Cave, South Africa, burial of a 4 to 6 month old child was found in a oval pit with a personal ornament, a perforated Conus shell. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Totemism is associated with kinship and the veneration of some natural objects, animals, plants, elements, and other physical objects, believed to have some spiritual or supernatural powers. So, harming of totemic animals is considered a taboo in most African cultures. Animism (‘breath, spirit, life’) belief objects, places, and nature may possess spiritual essence spirit.

Animism

“Animism (from Latin: anima, ‘breath, spirit, life‘) is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organised religions. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples’ “spiritual” or “supernatural” perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to “animism” (or even “religion”); the term is an anthropological construct.” ref 

“Aka people” Central African nomadic Mbenga pygmy people (Animist)

“Aka are very warm and hospitable. Relationships between men and women are extremely egalitarian. Men and women contribute equally to a household’s diet, either a husband or wife can initiate divorce, and violence against women is very rare. No cases of rape have been reported. The Aka are fiercely egalitarian and independent. No individual has the right to force or order another individual to perform an activity against his or her will. Aka have a number of informal methods for maintaining their egalitarianism. First, they practice “prestige avoidance”; no one draws attention to his or her own abilities. Individuals play down their achievements.” ref 

Mbuti People of the Congo (Animist)

“The Mbuti hunter-gatherers in the Congo’s Ituri Forest have traditionally lived in stateless communities with gift economies and largely egalitarian gender relations. They were a people who had found in the forest something that made life more than just worth living, something that made it, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, a wonderful thing full of joy and happiness and free of care. Pygmies, like the Inuit, minimize discrimination based upon sex and age differences. Adults of all genders make communal decisions at public assemblies. The Mbuti do not have a state, or chiefs or councils.” ref 

Hadza people of East Africa (Animist)

“The Hadza of Tanzania in East Africa are egalitarian, meaning there are no real status differences between individuals. While the elderly receive slightly more respect, within groups of age and sex all individuals are equal, and compared to strictly stratified societies, women are considered fairly equal. This egalitarianism results in high levels of freedom and self-dependency. When conflict does arise, it may be resolved by one of the parties voluntarily moving to another camp. Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher point out that the Hadza people “exhibit a considerable amount of altruistic punishment” to organize these tribes. The Hadza live in a communal setting and engage in cooperative child-rearing, where many individuals (both related and unrelated) provide high-quality care for children. Having no tribal or governing hierarchy, the Hadza trace descent bilaterally (through paternal and maternal lines), and almost all Hadza can trace some kin tie to all other Hadza people. ” ref  

The highest concentration of the seemingly oldest DNA A00, estimated at around 275,000 years old, or so, is found in Bangwa individuals, a Yemba-speaking group of Cameroon (Grassfields Bantu).

“There was a significant back-migration of bearers of L0 towards eastern Africa between 120,000 and 75,000. In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans, of a virtual skull shape of the last common human ancestor to anatomically modern humans, representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through a merging of populations in East and South Africa.” ref

“Migrations out from Africa continued along the Asian coast to Southeast Asia and Oceania, colonizing Australia at least by around 50,000 years ago, or so. A 2016 study presented an analysis of the population genetics of the Ainu people of northern Japan as key to the reconstruction of the early peopling of East Asia. The Ainu were found to represent a more basal branch than the modern farming populations of East Asia, suggesting an ancient (pre-Neolithic) connection with northeast Siberians. A 2013 study associated several phenotypical traits associated with Mongoloids with a single mutation of the EDAR gene, dated to c. 35,000 years ago.” ref

A Back Migration from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa Is Supported by High-Resolution Analysis of Human Y-Chromosome Haplotypes

“The variation of 77 biallelic sites located in the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome was examined in 608 male subjects from 22 African populations. This survey revealed a total of 37 binary haplotypes, which were combined with microsatellite polymorphism data to evaluate internal diversities and to estimate coalescence ages of the binary haplotypes. The majority of binary haplotypes showed a nonuniform distribution across the continent. Analysis of molecular variance detected a high level of interpopulation diversity (ΦST=0.342), which appears to be partially related to the geography (ΦCT=0.230). In sub-Saharan Africa, the recent spread of a set of haplotypes partially erased pre-existing diversity, but a high level of the population (ΦST=0.332) and geographic (ΦCT=0.179) structuring persists. Correspondence analysis shows that three main clusters of populations can be identified: northern, eastern, and sub-Saharan Africans. Among the latter, the Khoisan, the Pygmies, and the northern Cameroonians are clearly distinct from a tight cluster formed by the Niger–Congo–speaking populations from western, central-western, and southern Africa. Phylogeographic analyses suggest that a large component of the present Khoisan gene pool is eastern African in origin and that Asia was the source of a back migration to sub-Saharan Africa. Haplogroup IX Y chromosomes appear to have been involved in such a migration, the traces of which can now be observed mostly in northern Cameroon.” ref

Introduction

“The sex-specific portion of the human Y chromosome is haploid, is paternally transmitted, and escapes recombination. These features make its DNA sequence variation an invaluable tool for the study of modern human evolution. Haploidy and patrilineality translate into increased levels of population subdivision compared with the autosomes, and the lack of recombination permits the reconstruction of an unequivocal haplotype phylogeny, which can be related to the geographic distribution of the Y haplotypes, in an approach known as “phylogeography”. Since the discovery of the first polymorphisms in the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) ∼15 years ago, a large number of studies involving various aspects of human population genetics have been published, but the paucity of usable polymorphic loci on the NRY, which reflects its low level of sequence variation, and Hammer et al. reported a large number of Y-chromosome biallelic polymorphisms, which has provided a detailed phylogeographic portrait of the contemporary global population structure and past population movements and interactions. The availability of these highly geographically structured sets of markers has stimulated the analysis of more restricted areas, leading to important clues about the peopling of Europe.” ref

“Africa has had a central role in human evolutionary history. Both genetic and paleoanthropological evidence has accumulated in support of an African origin for our species. However, few studies specifically dealing with the Y-chromosome diversity of this continent have been published, and these were either based on a small number of polymorphic markers and/or focused on specific geographic areas inside the continent.” ref

“In the present study, we report the Y-chromosome haplotypes detected by surveying 77 biallelic markers in 22 African populations, representing all major population groups on the continent. In addition, the internal diversity of each binary haplotype was assessed by determination of the allele state at seven STR markers. The observed pattern of NRY variation reveals a profound geographic structuring in Africa, suggestive of several complex demographic episodes involving size fluctuations, migrations, expansions, mergers, and subdivisions.” ref

“Thus, both the age and the high frequency of the M81 haplotypes suggest that a demographic expansion has occurred in northwestern Africa about 2,000 years ago.” ref 

I think totemism likely originated in Europe from 50,000-40,000 years ago with the Aurignacians, who did a back migration to Africa starting 35,000 years ago from Europe to Africa. There were other later back migrations that could have brought another shamanistic totemism Eurasian DNA-related group that back migrated into northern or western Africa.

35,000-year-old Homo sapiens from Europe supports a Palaeolithic back-migration to Africa

“After the dispersal of modern humans (Homo sapiens) Out of Africa, hominins with a similar morphology to that of present-day humans initiated the gradual demographic expansion into Eurasia. The mitogenome (33-fold coverage) of the Peştera Muierii 1 individual (PM1) from Romania (35,000 years ago) we present in this article corresponds fully to Homo sapiens, whilst exhibiting a mosaic of morphological features related to both modern humans and Neandertals. We have identified the PM1 mitogenome as a basal haplogroup U6*, not previously found in any ancient or present-day humans. The derived U6 haplotypes are predominantly found in present-day North-Western African populations.” ref

“Aurignacian figurines depicting now-extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinoceros, and tarpan, along with anthropomorphized depictions seem to be ritualistic and interpreted as some of the earliest evidence of religion.” ref

“The U6 haplogroup has a southwestern Asia origin approximately 40,000 or 45,000 years ago. The early Upper Paleolithic carrying U6 return to Africa from the Mediterranean area. This expansion had affected, not only North Africa, but also the Near East, Iberian Peninsula, and Canary Island. Then U6 haplogroup diffused to Europe through Gibraltar straits or Sicily, but also in Sub-Saharan regions. ref, ref

Archaeology in West Africa could rewrite the textbooks on human evolution

“Our species, Homo sapiens, arose in Africa some 300,000 years ago. The objects that early humans made and used, known as the Middle Stone Age material culture, are found throughout much of Africa and include a vast range of innovations.” ref

“Among them are bow and arrow technology, specialized tool forms, the long-distance transport of objects such as marine shells and obsidian, personal ornamentation, the use of pigments, water storage, and art. Although it is possible that other ancestors of modern humans contributed to this material culture in Africa, some of the earliest Middle Stone Age stone tools have been found with the oldest Homo sapiens fossils found so far. The textbook view is that by around 40,000 years ago, the Middle Stone Age had largely ceased to exist in Africa. This was a milestone in the history of our species: the end of the first and longest-lasting culture associated with humanity, and the foundation for all the subsequent innovations and material culture that defines us today.” ref

“Despite its central role in human history, we have little understanding of how the Middle Stone Age ended. Such an understanding could tell us how different groups were organized across the landscape, how they may have exchanged ideas and genes, and how these processes shaped the later stages of human evolution.” ref

“Unfortunately, vast swathes of Africa remain near-complete blanks on the map when it comes to such deep prehistory, making it difficult to address these questions. Research has tended to focus on areas such as eastern Africa, where preservation is known to be high, understandably minimizing risks and maximizing gains. However, the emerging consensus that all of Africa played some role in human origins means that we can no longer afford to neglect vast regions of the continent if we want to reconstruct our evolution in a realistic framework.” ref

Read more: Ancient DNA increases the genetic time depth of modern humans

“For these reasons, my colleagues and I have been focusing on West Africa, one of the least well-understood African regions for human evolution. And our recent work is validating earlier claims of a rich Middle Stone Age past.” ref

New work in Senegal

“In 2014, our work in Senegal led to the discovery of a site in the country’s north that suggested the Middle Stone Age ended there far more recently than the textbooks suggested. Several young dates in West Africa had been reported in the past, but the work was largely dismissed owing to problematic dating conducted before the present-day standards existed.” ref

“Dates from Ndiayène Pendao indicated that the site was around 12,000 years old. Yet the material culture was classically Middle Stone Age, without any Later Stone Age tools or production methods. In 2016 and 2018, we returned to the field to look for sites in different regions of Senegal and on different river systems, on tributaries of the Senegal and the Gambia. This is because sources of fresh water were critical to people in the past, just as they are to people today; river terraces also often offer excellent preservation conditions and are therefore good places to search for archaeological sites. The site of Laminia on the Gambia had never been dated. We conducted a detailed assessment of its rock layers to obtain dating samples we could confidently link to the artifacts. The samples returned a date of 24,000 years ago for the site, which confirmed that a young Middle Stone Age was indeed present in the region.” ref

“The site of Saxomununya produced an even greater surprise. As the classically Middle Stone Age artefacts, such as retouched Levallois points, and ‘scrapers’, from this site were found upon and within a young terrace of the Falémé River, it was obvious that the site was relatively young. However, the date of 11,000 years ago took the youngest Middle Stone Age into the Holocene epoch, the period after the last major ice age. This was the first time such old material culture had been found in such recent times in Africa. It indicated that the results from Ndiayène Pendao were neither a fluke nor an error. These results extend the last known occurrence of the Middle Stone Age by a staggering 20,000 years. At the same time, work by colleagues in Senegal also suggested an equally late first occurrence of the Later Stone Age at around 11,000 years – younger than in most other African regions.” ref

Why did the Middle Stone Age last so long and why did the Later Stone Age arrive so late?

Population expansions

“Part of the answer to the first question may lie in the fact that parts of West Africa appear to have been less affected by the extremes of repeated cycles of climate change. This may have created stable environmental conditions over a long period of time. As a result of such stability, a finely tuned toolkit that had worked well for millennia might not have needed to change, regardless of the social complexity of the people who made the tools.” ref

“The answer to the second question lies in the fact that this region of Africa was relatively isolated. To the north, it meets the Sahara Desert and to the east, there are the Central African rainforests, which were often cut off from the West African rainforests during periods of drought. However, around 15,000 years ago, there was a major increase in humidity and forest growth in central and western Africa. This may have linked different areas and provided corridors for the dispersal of human populations. This may have spelled the end for humanity’s first and earliest cultural repertoire and initiated a new period of genetic and cultural mixing.” ref

Read more: Major new study unveils complexity and vast diversity of Africa’s genetic variation

“What is clear is that the long-held simple unilinear model of cultural change towards ‘modernity is not supported by the evidence. Groups of hunter-gatherers embedded in radically different technological traditions may have occupied neighboring regions of Africa for thousands of years, and sometimes shared the same regions. Long isolated regions, on the other hand, may have been important reservoirs of cultural and genetic diversity. This matches genetic studies and may have been a defining factor in the success of our species. Our findings are a reminder of the dangers of ignoring gaps on the map.” ref

“15,100-13,900 years old “First-Europeans/Aurignacian” 40,000-year-old, origin-U6a Iberomaurusian-ADNA reached 86% at the Taforalt site in Morocco, Africa.” 

The Iberomaurusian Enigma: North African Progenitor or Dead End?

“Data obtained during an ongoing dental investigation of African populations address two long-standing, hotly debated questions. First, was there genetic continuity between Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and later northwest Africans (e.g., Capsians, Berbers, Guanche)? Second, were skeletally-robust Iberomaurusians and northeast African Nubians variants of the same population? Iberomaurusians from Taforalt in Morocco and Afalou-Bou-Rhummel in Algeria, Nubians from Jebel Sahaba in Sudan, post-Pleistocene Capsians from Algeria and Tunisia, and a series of other samples were statistically compared using 29 discrete dental traits to help estimate diachronic local and regional affinities. Results revealed: (1) a relationship between the Iberomaurusians, particularly those from Taforalt, and later Maghreb and other North African samples, and (2) a divergence among contemporaneous Iberomaurusians and Nubian samples. Thus, some measure of long-term population continuity in the Maghreb and surrounding region is supported, whereas greater North African population heterogenity during the Late Pleistocene is implied.” ref, ref

“Iberomaurusian DNA from Taforalt and Afalou all belonged to either North Africa or the northern as well as the southern Mediterranean region, indicating gene flow since around 20,000-10,000 years ago, or so with the mtDNA Haplogroup N subclades like Aurignacian U6 and M which points to population continuity in the region dating from the Iberomaurusian period.” ref

Aurignacian (to me, the first clear totemists)

“Aurignacian figurines have been found depicting faunal representations of the time period associated with now-extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinoceros, and tarpan, along with anthropomorphized depictions that may be interpreted as some of the earliest evidence of religion.” ref

Gravettian (to me, likely the first clear totemistic-shamanists, though it may have been started by the Aurignacians, who may date to as old as 50,000 years old were gone by around 26,000 years ago and though they likely started totemism it also seems they may have started changing towards totemistic-shamanists about 35,000 to 30,000 years ago about the same time it seems the Gravettian totemistic-shamanism is being expressed)

“The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years ago. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified and had mostly disappeared by c. 22,000 years ago, close to the Last Glacial Maximum, although some elements lasted until c. 17,000 years ago. At this point, it was replaced abruptly by the Solutrean in France and Spain, and developed into or continued as the Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, Ukraine, and Russia. They are known for their Venus figurines, which were typically carved from either ivory or limestone. The Gravettian culture was first identified at the site of La Gravette in the Dordogne department of southwestern France.” ref

Toba catastrophe theory

“The Youngest Toba eruption was a supervolcanic eruption that occurred around 75,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the Earth‘s largest known explosive eruptions. The Toba catastrophe theory holds that this event caused a global volcanic winter of six to ten years and possibly a 1,000-year-long cooling episode. In 1993, science journalist Ann Gibbons posited that a population bottleneck occurred in human evolution about 70,000 years ago, and she suggested that this was caused by the eruption. Geologist Michael R. Rampino of New York University and volcanologist Stephen Self of the University of Hawaii at Manoa support her suggestion. In 1998, the bottleneck theory was further developed by anthropologist Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Both the link and global winter theories are controversial. The Youngest Toba eruption is the most closely studied supervolcanic eruption.” ref

How Human Beings Almost Vanished From Earth In 75,00 to 70,000 years ago

“Add all of us up, all 7 billion human beings on earth, and clumped together we weigh roughly 750 billion pounds. That, says Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, is more than 100 times the biomass of any large animal that’s ever walked the Earth. And we’re still multiplying. Most demographers say we will hit 9 billion before we peak, and what happens then? Well, we’ve waxed. So we can wane. Let’s just hope we wane gently. Because once in our history, the world-wide population of human beings skidded so sharply we were down to roughly a thousand reproductive adults. One study says we hit as low as 40.” ref

“Forty? Come on, that can’t be right. Well, the technical term is 40 “breeding pairs” (children not included). More likely there was a drastic dip and then 5,000 to 10,000 bedraggled Homo sapiens struggled together in pitiful little clumps hunting and gathering for thousands of years until, in the late Stone Age, we humans began to recover. But for a time there, says science writer Sam Kean, “We damn near went extinct.” ref

Earliest Clear Evidence of Religion

“70,000-year-old African ritual practices linked to the mythology of modern Botswanans.” ref

Rock Art in Southern Africa: LINK

San rock art

“The San, or Bushmen, are indigenous people in Southern Africa particularly in what is now South Africa and Botswana. Their ancient rock paintings and carvings (collectively called rock art) are found in caves and on rock shelters. The artwork depicts non-human beings, hunters, and half-human half-animal hybrids. The half-human hybrids are believed to be medicine men or healers involved in a healing dance.” A painting discovered at Blombos Cave is thought to be the oldest known instance of human art, dating to around 73,000 years ago. Gall writes, “The Laurens van der Post panel at Tsodilo is one of the most famous rock paintings.” High on this rock face in Botswana is the image of a “magnificent red eland bull” painted, according to Van der Post, “only as a Bushman who had a deep identification with the eland could have painted him.” Also on this rock face is a female giraffe that is motionless, as if alarmed by a predator. Several other images of animals are depicted there too, along with the flesh blood-red handprints that are the signature of the unknown artist. The Drakensberg and Lesotho is particularly well known for its San rock art. Tsodilo was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001; not all the art covered by this is by San people or their ancestors.” ref

Learning from rock art

“According to Thomas Dowson, “a lot of rock art is actually in symbols and metaphors.” For example, eland bulls, meant marriage, and curing or the trance dance. Rock art gives us a glimpse of the San’s history, and how they lived their lives.” ref

“San also used rock art to record things that happened in their lives. Several instances of rock art have been found that resemble wagons and colonists. Dowson notes that, “The people who brought in the wagons and so forth thus became, whether they realized it or not, part of the social production of southern African rock art. They added a new dimension. Dorothea Bleek, writer of the article “Beliefs and Customs of the /Xam Bushmen”, published 1933, says the San also recorded “rain dance animals”. When they did rain dances they would go into a trance to “capture” one of these animals. In their trance they would kill it, and its blood and milk became the rain. As depicted in the rock art, the rain dance animals they “saw” usually resembled a hippopotamus or antelope, and were sometimes surrounded by fish according to Dowson.” ref

“We can also learn more about how the San lived through their rock art. In the following depiction, the people are all in a dancing stance, and the women are all clapping. So, according to Dowson, it is believed to be one of their healing or trance dances. Everyone is the same; one is not more elaborate or more detailed than another. This shows that though the healers held special powers, they were not thought of as higher or better. Healing was not for becoming a more prominent and powerful person, it was for the good of the entire community.” ref

“H. C. Woodhouse, the author of the book Archaeology in Southern Africa, says historical sources have also said that the San often disguised themselves as animals so they could get close enough to grazing herds to shoot them. The head of the buck was an important part of this disguise, and was also used in dancing and miming of the actions of animals. The large number of buckheaded figures in paintings is proof that the San did this.” ref

“Later San rock art began to illustrate contact with European settlers. A famous example is of a sailing ship, known as the Porterville Galleon (found 150 kilometers inland in the Skurweberg Mountains near the town of Porterville). The picture is thought to represent a Dutch ship and have been created in the mid-17th Century. Later examples of colonial subject matter include women wearing European-style dresses, men with guns, and wagons and carts made during the 19th Century.” ref

Production of rock art

“Woodhouse also says the San used different colored stone to do the drawings. He says, “They usually used red rock, which they ground until it was fine, and then mixed it with fat.” They then rubbed this on the rock to form the pictures. This paint that they used withstands the rain and weather for very long periods of time. The San then, according to Phillip V. Tobias, an Honorary Professor of Palaeoanthropology at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, used this paint in four different styles. These four style techniques are “monochromes, animal outlines in thick red lines, thinly outlined figures, and white stylized figures.” A.R. Willcox, the writer of the article “Australian and South African Rock-Art Compared”, published 1959, says the tool they used to do these paintings was “a brush made from animal’s hair or a single small feather.” This may be one reason for the great fineness and delicacy of their painting. I. and J. Rudner, writers of the journal “Who Were the Artists? Archaeological Notes from South West Africa”, published 1959, say the form that the San use is often referred to as a Dynamic School. “It has a lot of action and color, and reached its climax in the shaded eland pictures.” It is usually associated with the San.” ref

“According to Woodhouse, clues are given as to who worked on the rock art by the subjects that are chosen. There are many pictures of the Eland, Reybuck, Hartebeest, and Lion, and also of San and fighting. However, there are few depictions of plants. Wilcox notes that, “plants usually fell in the domain of women, so it is presumed that the authors of these paintings were men.” ref

Digitization and Conservation

“The South African Rock Art Digital Archive (SARADA) contains over 250,000 images, tracings, and historical documents of ancient African rock art. In addition to making images of the art accessible to a much wider swath of the public, the project help protects art from the physical damage that comes from regular in-person visits.” ref

Rock art in Africa

North Africa

· “South Oran in Algeria.” ref

· “Saharan rock art” ref

· “Tadrart Acacus in Libya – World Heritage Site.” ref

· Tassili n’Ajjer in Algeria – national park and World Heritage Site, known for its 10,000-year-old paintings.” ref

· “Cave of Swimmers is a cave in southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya, along the western edge of the Gilf Kebir plateau in the central Libyan Desert (Eastern Sahara). It was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy. The site contains rock paintings of human figures who appear to be swimming, which have been estimated to have been created at least 6,000 to 7000 years ago. The Cave of Beasts 10 km westwards was discovered in 2002.” ref

· “Jebel Uweinat, a large granite, and sandstone mountain, as well as the adjacent smaller massifs of Jebel Arkenu and Jebel Kissu at the converging triple borders of Libya, Egypt, and Sudan, harbors one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric rock art in the entire Sahara. The rock art here mainly consists of the Neolithic cattle pastoralist cultures, but also a number of older paintings from hunter-gatherer societies.” ref

· “Sabu-Jaddi rock art site in Northern Sudan.” ref

· “North Sİnai Archaeological Sites Zone − World Heritage Site. Limestone cave decorated with scenes of animals such as donkeys, camels, deer, mule, and mountain goats was uncovered in the site in 2020. Rock art cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high.” ref

East Africa

“Rock art in the Adi Alauti cave, Eritrea” ref

· “Qohaito in Eritrea – 7,000 years old rock art near the ancient city Qohaito.” ref

· “Dorra and Balho in Djibouti – Rock art sites with figures of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe.” ref

· “Kundudo in Ethiopia – Flat top mountain complex with rock art in a cave.” ref

· “Laas Geel in Somalia – A number of cave paintings and petroglyphs can be found at various sites across the country. Among the most prominent examples of this is the rock art in Laas Geel, Dhambalin, Gaanlibah, and Karinhegane.” ref

· Nyero Rockpaintings, Uganda-World Heritage Site, pre-historic paintings was noticed before 1250 CE.” ref

· “Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in Tanzania – Archaeologists announced the discovery of ancient rock art with anthropomorphic figures in a good condition at the Amak’hee 4 rock shelter site. Paintings made with a reddish dye also contained buffalo heads, giraffe’s head, and neck, domesticated cattle dated back to about several hundred years ago.” ref

Southern Africa

“Cave paintings are found in most parts of Southern Africa that have rock overhangs with smooth surfaces. Among these sites are the cave sandstone of Natal, Orange Free State, and North-Eastern Cape, the granite and Waterberg sandstone of the Northern Transvaal, and the Table Mountain sandstone of the Southern and Western Cape.” ref

· “UKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa – The site has paintings dated to around 3,000 years old and which are thought to have been drawn by the San people and Khoisan people, who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago. The rock art depicts animals and humans and is thought to represent religious beliefs.” ref

· “Tsodilo Hills in Botswana – A World Heritage Site with rock art” ref

· “Brandberg Mountain (Daureb) in Namibia – It is one of the most important rock art localities on the African continent. Most visitors only see “The White Lady” shelter (which is neither white, nor a lady, the famous scene probably depicts a young boy in an initiation ceremony), however, the upper reaches of the mountain is full of sites with prehistoric paintings, some of which rank among the finest artistic achievements of prehistory.” ref

· Bambata Cave, Zimbabwe- Animal paintings and human drawings are supposed to be age from 2.000 to 20.000 years old” ref

· “Mwela and Adjacent Areas Rock Art Site, Zambia” ref

“Some of the paintings have been dated to be as early as 24,000” ref

• Tsodilo Hills in Botswana

Cultural significance

“These hills are of great cultural and spiritual significance to the San peoples of the Kalahari. They believe the hills are a resting place for the spirits of the deceased and that these spirits will cause misfortune and bad luck if anyone hunts or causes death near the hills. Tsodilo is also an object of debate regarding how the San once lived.” ref

“In 2006 the site known as Rhino Cave became prominent in the media when Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo stated that 70,000-year-old artifacts and a rock resembling a python’s head representing the first known human rituals had been discovered. She also backed her interpretation of the site as a place of ritual based on other animals portrayed: “In the cave, we find only the San people’s three most important animals: the python, the elephant, and the giraffe. Since then some of the archaeologists involved in the original investigations of the site in 1995 and 1996 have challenged these interpretations. They point out that the indentations (known by archaeologists as cupules) described by Coulson do not necessarily all date to the same period and that “many of the depressions are very fresh while others are covered by a heavy patina.” Other sites nearby (over 20) also have depressions and do not represent animals. The Middle Stone Age radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating for this site does not support the 70,000-year figure, suggesting much more recent dates.” ref

Oral Traditions

“Many local peoples around the Tsodilo Hills have stories of times past that deal with the many painted caves and rock shelters at the site. Oral traditions often tell of the Zhu people, a local San group, using rock shelters for protection from the elements or as ritual areas.” ref

Open rock paintings

“One tale claims that hunters would come into the rock shelters to contact ancestors if a hunt was unsuccessful. They would then ask for a good hunt the next time they went out. In thanks, when the hunt was successful, the people would return to the shelter and cook for their ancestors. In some of these alleged campsites, there is little to no evidence of fire remains.” ref

“Still, there are areas where rituals, such as rain-making prayers, are performed. Older people in the area can still remember using some rock shelters as campsites when they were children. The Whites Paintings rock shelter may have been used as a camp during the rainy season as early as 70 – 80 years ago.” ref

“The local San people believe Tsodilo is the birthplace of all life, art there made by the descendants of the first people. Tsodilo’s geography, trails, and grooves in the earth are known as the trails and footprints of the first animals, making their way to the first watering hole). A natural water spring at Tsodilo, near the Female Hill, is used as both a water collection site and a ritual site. It is seen as sacred, and used by countless peoples to cleanse, heal, and protect.” ref

White rock art above at Tsodilo is Bantu, you can see the difference in styles.

“African Totem Carving” carved by unknown carver on pre-ban African Ivory tip. A fine example of African folk art carving. Tribal figures carved 360 degrees, each depicting scenes of everyday life in the village. A rich patina on the tusk as well.” ref

Southern African Art

A ‘first’ glimpse into the Maloti Mountains: The diary of James Murray Grant’s expedition of 1873-74

“An unforeseen consequence of the suppression of Langalibalele’s Hlubi in 1873 was Joseph Orpen’s encounter with the Bushman Qing, which led him to publish an account of Bushman myths and paintings that has proven crucial to the development of an ethnographically informed understanding of Bushman rock art. Rather less well known is the fact that Orpen was one of two British officers on this expedition across theMaloti Mountains of Lesotho. Here we publish for the first time the complete diary kept by his superior, James Murray Grant of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police. As well as casting light on the political and military background to the Langalibalele affair, Grant’s diary helps contextualize Orpen’s encounter with Qing and provides important information on the social and natural history of the Maloti Mountains at a point midway between the disappearance of their Bushman inhabitants and their settlement by Basothofarmers.” ref

Southern African Art Pictures: LINK

Over 30,000 years ago or so, in the Land before to the beginning time of Totemism in Southern Africa?

The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus Tragelaphus:

· Lesser kudu, Tragelaphus imberbis, of eastern Africa

· Greater kudu, Tragelaphus strepsiceros, of eastern and southern Africa ref

“The two species of the Kudus look quite similar, though Greaters are larger than the lesser kudu. A large adult male Greater Kudu stands over 5 ft. tall, and a large male Lesser Kudu stands about 4 ft. tall. Both species have long horns, which point upward and slightly back, and curl in a corkscrew shape.” ref

“Namibia has large numbers of rock art sites scattered across the country, especially rock engraving sites. The best-known rock art areas are the Brandberg Massif in Damaraland (2697m – mainly painting sites), and Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage rock art site, also in Damaraland. Both of these sites are in the Erongo region in northwestern Namibia. Another important painting area is the Erongo Mountains southeast of the Brandberg. One of the richest rock painting areas/sites in the subcontinent, the Brandberg has large numbers of sites scattered across its 750 sq kms which are mostly the work of ancestral Bushman/San hunter-gatherers and may be up to 2,000 years old or more in some cases. Meanwhile Twyfelfontein is one of the most important rock engraving sites in southern Africa.” ref

Namibia Rock Art African Art Pictures: LINK

YouTube: The Rock Art Of Twyfelfontein – Namibia – Africa

YouTube: The Rock Art Of Twyfelfontein – Namibia – Africa

The White Lady (Namibia)

“The White Lady is a rock painting, located on a panel, also depicting other art work, on a small rock overhang, deep within Brandberg Mountain. The giant granite monolith located in Damaraland and called ‘The Brandberg’ is Namibia‘s highest mountain. The painting’s German name is Weiße Dame. The painting has long been an archaeological dilemma, and several different hypotheses have been put forth on its origins, authorship, and dating. It is now usually accepted to be a bushmen painting, dating back at least 2000 years ago.” ref

Location and description

“The “White Lady” archaeological site is located close to the road from Khorixas to Hentie’s Bay, in the area of Uis, on the Brandberg Massif. The Brandberg itself hosts over 1.000 bushmen paintings, scattered around in rock shelters and caves. The “White Lady Group” is found in a cave known as “Maack Shelter” and portrays several human figures as well as oryxes, on a rock panel measuring about 5.5 m x 1.5 m. The “White Lady” is the most detailed human figure in the group, and measures about 39.5 cm x 29 cm. To reach The White Lady it is necessary to hike for about 45-60 minutes over rough terrain, along the gorge of the – normally – dry Tsisab river.” ref

“It is usually assumed that the painting shows some sort of ritual dance, and that the “White Lady” is a shaman. She has white legs and arms, which may suggest that her body was painted or that she was wearing some sort of decorative attachments on her legs and arms. She holds a bow in one hand and perhaps a goblet in the other. Because of the bow and the oryxes, the painting has also been interpreted as a hunting scene. Apart from the shaman/lady, the other human figures have less detail, and are mostly completely black or completely white. One of the oryxes has human legs. The painting was probably made of ochre, charcoal, manganese, hematite, with blood serum, egg white, and casein used as binding agents.” ref

“The painting has undergone severe damage since it was first discovered in the early 20th century. For a few decades, tourists would pour water on the painting to make the colors more clearly visible, causing the painting to fade quickly. The site is now a protected heritage site of Namibia, and visiting is only permitted with official guides. For the protection of the art, bags and bottles are not allowed at the far end of the trail. Because of tourist protests, the metal wire netting has been replaced by only two metal bars, for a much better view.” ref

Finding and interpretation controversy

“The White Lady was first discovered in 1918 by German explorer and topographer Reinhard Maack as he was surveying the Brandberg. Maack was impressed by the main figure of the painting, which he described as “a warrior”. In his notes, he wrote that “the Egyptian-Mediterranean style of all the figures is surprising”. He made several hand-drawn copies of the painting, which were later published in Europe.” ref

“In 1929, Maack’s notes came into the hands of the well-known French anthropologist Henri Breuil while he was visiting Cape Town. Breuil noted analogies between the White Lady and paintings of athletes found in Knossos (Crete), and suggested that the Brandberg might have been visited by a group of travelers coming from the Mediterranean area. It was Breuil who first referred to the painting as “the white lady”. In 1945 Breuil could finally visit the White Lady site, and published his theories on the Mediterranean origin of the painting first in South Africa and then in Europe.” ref

“Breuil’s arguments were influential of several later hypotheses concerning the painting, some of which suggested that it could be Phoenician in origin. In the second half of the 20th century, most theories on Mediterranean influences on the ancient history of Subsaharan Africa (like those about Great Zimbabwe being “non-African” in origin) were gradually dismissed.” ref

NAMIBIAN ROCK ‘N ROLL | ROCK ART IN NAMIBIA

“Way back in time when the land didn’t belong to anyone and before roads criss-crossed the country, groups of hunter-gatherers traveled between the mountain enclaves, attracted by pools of water and game.” ref

Archaeological Ochres of the Rock Art Site of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia): Looking for Later Stone Age Sociocultural Behaviors

Abstract

“The use of ochre has been documented in many Middle Stone Age sites of Southern Africa. However, the literature on the exploitation of ochre within the archaeological contexts of Later Stone Age (LSA) rock art sites is scarce. Despite the discovery of several painted shelters within the Erongo Mountains (Namibia), no archaeological study of ochre assemblages has been conducted in the region. Here, we present the archaeological ochre assemblage recovered from an LSA sequence at the rock art shelter of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia), spanning ca. 5,700 to 2,100 cal. BP. The use-wear traces present on some ochre fragments and the stone tools bearing red residues are indicative of different stages of ochre processing at the site. The presence of other artifacts, such as ostrich eggshell and bone beads with red residues, and the existence of rock paintings in the cave are pointers to the importance of ochre for understanding the sociocultural behaviors of the LSA populations in central Namibia.” ref

The White Lady

In a time when the majestic lands of Namibia were young, there existed an anomaly that harbored great secrets which cannot be fathomed by the common human mind, except the first rulers of the prodigious Namibian plains: The mighty Bushmen.

“The rock paintings at the Brandberg do convey a plethora of knowledge, but they do not do the ancient history of Namibia’s first men any justice in conveying the past. There exists a rock painting titled The White Lady at the Brandberg Mountains whose origin is far more sinister than it appears, as The White Lady rock painting’s origin is anything but human.” ref

“One fateful evening, Sanu, the preeminent artist amongst his fellow Bushmen, had been conducting his prayers to Cagn, the supreme deity of the Bushmen when their earth beneath him suddenly began to tremble and the great dunes on which he stood rose high enough to touch the sky. What was more chilling was the fact that those dunes didn’t move of their own accord.” ref

“As Sanu readied his bow and arrow to strike down any adversary behind that nebulous sandy cloud, he found himself standing before a magnificent yet terrifying creature. It was over ten meters tall with a humanoid form and a calabash-like head surrounded by long, leathery, emerald tentacle-like protrusions emerging from the base of its head. Its body was clad in a wholly unfamiliar silvery-white metal Sanu had never seen before. Its head, although proportionately smaller than the rest of its body, had a myriad of unimaginable and exotic colors that moved in an amorphous manner. These colors made the rainbow look dull in comparison while its eyes were large, burning crimson diamonds.” ref

“The entity, which was surprisingly friendly and introduced itself as N’garakh, ensconced Sanu in its hands and the two darted off into the star-filled sky beyond the oblivious unknown where Sanu glimpsed at the blueprints of the universe. Here he saw wonders which may never grace the human eye. He saw different life forms, of some bearing great resemblance to N’garakh while others bore perverse and ghoulish forms such as the Reptilian Men who slumber in the depths of the Namib Desert. It is also here where Sanu saw one of humanity’s greatest and unknown adversaries: the dreaded Aigamuxa. The Aigamuxa, who were creatures as black as night, were the first non-humans to tread the ancient deserts of Namibia until the arrival of the Bushmen. These horrid creatures seemingly appeared humanoid but had backward feet while they stood at eye level with trees. Their faces were monstrous and deformed with large, yellow eyes, teeth forever stained by human blood, and a repulsive stench reminiscent of death. As the two species came into conflict eons ago, a battle ensued with the Bushmen emerging victorious, with the aid of N’garakh.” ref

“When N’garakh and Sanu returned to earth, Sanu was horrified to discover that nearly a century had passed since his departure while N’garakh was too weak to return to wherever he came from. As a result, N’garakh assumed the form of the Welwithia mirabilis, the oldest living plant on earth in order to regain his strength and end his sojourn on earth. Sanu, however, was considered a madman as his mind had been stretched beyond its limits and was unable to convey the knowledge he possessed. The best way he could do so was painting on the rocks the extraordinary things he saw, but unfortunately, these rock paintings became lost in time, like their master. All that remains of Sanu’s account is The White Lady.” ref

Africa’s rock art is the common heritage of all Africans and all people.

“Africa’s rock art is the common heritage of all Africans and all people. It is the common heritage of humanity. As populations increase and vandalism and theft of Africa’s rock art are on the rise, this irreplaceable resource is highly threatened. It is time for Africa’s leaders to take a new and more active role. We must save this cultural heritage before it is too late”. Kofi Annan – Former UN Secretary-General (2005)” ref

“Africa has an embarrassment of rock art riches. When we hear the words ‘African rock art’ we think of the exquisite paintings made by the San in southern Africa, and the evocative desert paintings of the Tassili in north Africa. But, Africa has dozens more rock art traditions, made by many different groups and over thousands of years. Let us take a quick journey across the mother continent to explore these traditions and reconnect with the lands of our oldest ancestors and the place where art began.” ref

The ‘Fighting Cats’ petroglyph Wadi Mathendous, Libya  

“Found in the Messak Settafet of Libya, the ‘Fighting Cats’ petroglyph is a striking depiction of two long-tailed figures confronting each other on their hindquarters as if fighting. They stand on an outcrop looking down over Wadi Mathendous, in a position of power and respect.” ref

“In the dry deserts of the Sahara. Here we find some of Africa’s oldest exposed rock paintings and engravings. We will see even older, buried, rock art images later, but for now let us travel back some 12,000 years to the end of the last Ice Age. 12,000 years ago much of the Sahara was a wet and rich grassland supporting great herds of plains animals. In the rock art of this time, we see antelope, giraffe, elephant, rhino, lion, ostrich as well as forms of prehistoric cattle that became extinct about 5,000 years ago. We even see images of hippo and crocodiles, showing that there were pools and rivers in what is now a desert. Decades of research, by many specialists, have given us a rich understanding of the age, sequence and regional variation in Saharan rock art.” ref

“But, the meaning of its complex symbolism remains elusive. Like all of Africa’s hunter-gatherer arts, this was far from a simple record of daily life: we see creatures that are part-human part-animal; giraffe with lines emanating from their mouths that meander across the rock-face until they finally join to a floating human form and many other mysterious beings. Cracking the code of this art is one of the greatest of research challenges today. The Dabous giraffes of Niger are one such example, with lines carved from both the male and the female giraffe leading down to small human-like figures. For these to be included in the spectacular deep, polished engravings is surely significant. The giraffe engravings are located on an isolated outcrop; thought to be between 8,000 and 6,000 years old, the largest one measures almost 5.5 m. from horn to hoof. The outcrop has many other much smaller engravings.” ref

“Moving south on our journey we enter what is now the tropical zone of Africa, famous for its dark impenetrable rainforests. This is the land of the forest hunter-gatherers that we know as the Pygmies. Genetic studies show that the varied Pygmy groups spread across central Africa are of great antiquity: they have lived in the region for at least the last 40,000 years. They are truly first peoples. Across the whole of the forest region from Uganda to Angola, we find a remarkable tradition of geometric art. This area was termed “the Schematic Art Zone” by one of the fathers of African archaeology, Desmond Clark. Whilst geometric tradition art is not well known, nearly three thousand sites have been recorded. As well as the geometric images there are also a small number of sites with highly stylized and distorted animal figures plus rows of finger dots. The geometric art always dominates, but the two traditions appear together as a pair: they co-occur across a huge area and are regularly found close by. They seem to be kept near, but apart. Pygmy traditions are helping researchers to understand the reasons behind the existence of two Pygmy arts. Another film in this series will focus on this research. This pair of rock art traditions extends far beyond the forests suggesting that Pygmy groups once occupied a much larger section of central Africa.” ref

The Kondoa region, Tanzania, Africa

“The Kondoa Irangi Rock Paintings are a series of paintings on rock shelter walls in central Tanzania. The Kondoa region was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006 because of its impressive collection of rock art. These sites were named national monuments in 1937 by the Tanzania Antiquities Department.” ref

“In eastern Africa, in central Tanzania, lies one of the most intriguing of Africa’s hunter-gatherer rock arts. Whilst other traditions cover huge geographic areas and are represented at many thousands of sites, this tradition occurs at just a few hundred sites in an area of land less than 100km in diameter. It is an island within the Pygmy rock art zone. The art is made up entirely of animal and human forms. Its closest parallels are with the San art of southern Africa, but a number of its elements, such as its distinctive human head forms, are unique. The rock art distribution corresponds to the spread of people who speak click-languages: the Sandawe and the Hadza. These groups, whilst much integrated with other groups today, have a hunter-gatherer ancestry that extends back long before the coming of pastoralists and farmers into the region. Again, geneticists confirm that these groups are of exceptional antiquity; along with the San of southern Africa, these are the oldest peoples on earth in terms of their genetic markers. There are a handful of accounts that, tantalizingly, describe Sandawe individuals making rock art early in the twentieth century. These accounts provide evidence that the practice of rock art was linked to particular Sandawe rituals, most notably to simbo. Simbo is an ecstatic dance in which the Sandawe communicate with their spirits. Elements in the art provide independent confirmation of this link because they display features that can only be understood by reference to simbo. The Kondoa region was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006 because of its impressive collection of rock art. These sites were named national monuments in 1937 by the Tanzania Antiquities Department.” ref

The Chongoni Rock-Art Area

“Situated within a cluster of forested granite hills and covering an area of 126.4 km2, high up the plateau of central Malawi lies the Chongoni Rock-Art Area, the 127 sites of this area feature the richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa. They reflect the comparatively scarce tradition of farmer rock art, as well as paintings by BaTwa hunter-gatherers who inhabited the area from the late Stone Age. The Chewa agriculturalists, whose ancestors lived there from the late Iron Age, practiced rock painting until well into the 20th century. The symbols in the rock art, which are strongly associated with women, still have cultural relevance amongst the Chewa, and the sites are actively associated with ceremonies and rituals. In view of this cultural importance, the Chongoni Rock-Art Area was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006 under Criteria III for the rich cultural traditions of rock art and Criteria VI for its continued link to the present society.” ref

“Far to the south, beyond the great Zambezi River, is the land of the oldest known of all the first peoples: the San or Bushmen. This is the place where, it seems, art began. The more recent San rock paintings and engravings of southern Africa, dating to the past 10,000 years, are amongst the most beautiful and fine of all world arts in terms of their technique. They are also amongst the most complex and sophisticated in terms of symbolism. Far from a general view of life, the art focuses on a particular part of San experience: the spirit world journeys and experiences of San religious specialists, people we know today as shamans. Thus we see many features from the all-important trance dance, the venue in which the shamans gained access to the spirit world. We see dancers with antelope hooves, showing that they have taken on antelope power, just as San shamans describe in the Kalahari today. Then, we see shamans climbing up the ‘threads of light’ that connect to the sky-world. We see trance flight. But, the art was far from just a record of spirit journeys. Powerful substances such as eland blood were put into the paints so to make each image a reservoir of potency. As each generation of artists painted or engraved layer upon layer of art on the rock surfaces they were creating potent spiritual places. San rock art continued to be made into historical times. One of the last rock painters, Lindiso Dyantyi, was still painting as late as the 1930s.” ref

Matobo Hills

“The area exhibits a profusion of distinctive rock landforms rising above the granite shield that covers much of Zimbabwe. The large boulders provide abundant natural shelters and have been associated with human occupation from the early Stone Age right through to early historical times, and intermittently since. They also feature an outstanding collection of rock paintings. The Matobo Hills continue to provide a strong focus for the local community, which still uses shrines and sacred places closely linked to traditional, social, and economic activities.” ref

“There were other rock art traditions being made in southern Africa at the time of the last San rock artists. Pastoralist groups, known as Khoekhoen, were finger-painting and engraving a tradition of geometric art; farmer groups such as the Northern Sotho were making white paintings as part of their boys and girls initiation ceremonies. These traditions have a particular history; they were brought to southern Africa when these groups moved into the region some 2000 years ago. Rock art traditions belonging to farmers and pastoralists are also found in a thin scatter across other parts of Africa. Typically each tradition is found at a few hundred sites rather than the many thousands of sites typical of hunter-gatherer traditions. The later arts tend to use white as their primary color and pigment is often applied by hand rather than using a brush. Many pastoralists and farmer groups did not make rock art. They chose instead to make their ritual art in another medium, such as wooden and clay figurines or hut paintings. Farmer and pastoralist rock arts are therefore comparatively rare, even though they are some of the most recent.” ref

Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape

“Mapungubwe is set hard against the northern border of South Africa, joining Zimbabwe and Botswana. It is an open, expansive savannah landscape at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. Mapungubwe developed into the largest kingdom in the sub-continent before it was abandoned in the 14th century. What survives are the almost untouched remains of the palace sites and also the entire settlement area dependent upon them, as well as two earlier capital sites, the whole presenting an unrivaled picture of the development of social and political structures over some 400 years.” ref

“To find out how this richness of ancient arts began we need to travel back far in time, nearly 80,000 years, to the dawn of modern humans. This was a time before our direct ancestors had reached beyond Africa and the Middle East. In the last decade, we have found an unexpected richness in the early human archaeological sites of southern Africa. We have evidence that people were making harpoons. This means that they were planning their food-collecting strategies in much more sophisticated ways than had ever been done by other animals or other hominids. They were also making awls and therefore were probably wearing skins for clothing. In terms of their mental capacity, they were just like us.” ref

“The key question is whether they thought like us, and the evidence seems to be that they did. What sets us apart from other animals is our ability to think ahead and to imagine things we cannot see. We can remember our dreams and we can imagine that they may come true. We can also imagine that we see visions of other things and other places, such as ghosts and a spirit world. We can think symbolically. We accept that an object can denote something that it is not. A shiny piece of stone can denote high status when it is worn, or a few lines on a rock can denote an animal. This ability is uniquely human and it has given us, and only us, the capacity to develop religion and to make art. We have the oldest proof of this kind of symbolic thinking 80,000 years ago in southern Africa. People in South Africa’s southern Cape were wearing beads and making complex patterned designs (or art) on pieces of ochre and eggshell. Other people in Botswana were carving into a strangely shaped rock that protrudes out of a cave and were bringing stone tools from hundreds of kilometers away and then breaking them in front of this rock. What exactly these early beliefs involved is hard to know, but a form of religion had begun and with it had come art. From this time we see art and religion continue and develop, and then spread out to other parts of the world. It is thus with good reason that we call Africa the place of Origins and recognize it as having the longest tradition of art on earth.” ref

Africa’s rock art: LINK

Origins of rock art in Africa: Rock art and the origins of art in Africa

“The oldest scientifically dated rock art in Africa dates from around 26,000-28,000 years ago and is found in Namibia. Between 1969 and 1972, German archaeologist, W.E. Wendt, researching in an area known locally as “Goachanas,” unearthed several painted slabs in a cave he named Apollo 11, after NASA’s successful moon landing mission.” ref

“Seven painted stone slabs of brown-grey quartzite, depicting a variety of animals painted in charcoal, ochre, and white, were located in a Middle Stone Age deposit (100,000–60,000 years ago). These images are not easily identifiable to species level, but have been interpreted variously as felines and/or bovids; one, in particular, has been observed to be either a zebra, giraffe, or ostrich, demonstrating the ambiguous nature of the depictions.” ref

Art and our modern mind

“While the Apollo 11 plaques may be the oldest discovered representational art in Africa, this is not the beginning of the story of art. It is now well-established, through genetic and fossil evidence, that anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) developed in Africa more than 100,000 years ago; of these, a small group left the Continent around 60,000-80,000 years ago and spread throughout the rest of the world. And more recently discovered examples of patterned stone, ochre, and ostrich eggshell, as well as evidence of personal ornamentation emerging from Middle Stone Age Africa, have demonstrated that “art” is not only a much older phenomenon than previously thought, but that it has its roots in the African continent. Africa is where we share a common humanity.” ref

“The first examples of what we might term “art” in Africa, dating from between 100,000–60,000 years ago, emerge in two very distinct forms: personal adornment in the form of perforated seashells suspended on twine, and incised and engraved stone, ochre, and ostrich eggshell. Despite some sites being 8,000km and 40,000 years apart, an intriguing feature of the earliest art is that these first forays appear remarkably similar. It is worth noting here that the term “art” in this context is highly problematic, in that we cannot assume that humans living 100,000 years ago, or even 10,000 years ago, had a concept of art in the same way that we do, particularly in the modern Western sense. However, it remains a useful umbrella term for our purposes here.” ref

Pattern and design

“The practice of engraving or incising, which emerges around 12,000 years ago in Saharan rock art, has its antecedents much earlier, up to 100,000 years ago. Incised and engraved stone, bone, ochre, and ostrich eggshell have been found at sites in southern Africa. These marked objects share features in the expression of design, exhibiting patterns that have been classified as cross-hatching.” ref

“One of the most iconic and well-publicized sites that have yielded cross-hatch incised patterning on ochre is Blombos Cave, on the southern Cape shore of South Africa. Of the more than 8,500 fragments of ochre deriving from the MSA (Middle Stone Age) levels, 15 fragments show evidence of engraving. Two of these, dated to 77,000 years ago, have received the most attention for the design of cross-hatch pattern.” ref

“For many archaeologists, the incised pieces of ochre at Blombos are the most complex and best-formed evidence for early abstract representations, and are unequivocal evidence for symbolic thought and language. The debate about when we became a symbolic species and acquired fully syntactical language – what archaeologists term ‘modern human behavior’ – is both complex and contested. It has been proposed that these cross-hatch patterns are clear evidence of thinking symbolically, because the motifs are not representational and as such are culturally constructed and arbitrary. Moreover, in order for the meaning of this motif to be conveyed to others, language is a prerequisite.” ref

“The Blombos engravings are not isolated occurrences, since the presence of such designs occur at more than half a dozen other sites in South Africa, suggesting that this pattern is indeed important in some way, and not the result of idiosyncratic behavior. It is worth noting, however, that for some scholars, the premise that the pattern is symbolic is not so certain. The patterns may indeed have a meaning, but it is how that meaning is associated, either by resemblance (iconic) or correlation (indexical), that is important for our understanding of human cognition.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Ref

60,000 years old fragments of engraved ostrich eggshells from the Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. 

Symbolic meaning expressed in art or designs and patterns, starting with animism at 100,000 years ago and more so around 50,000 years ago with the emergence of totemism and shamanism 30,000 years ago which I think all connect in a general way to religious thinking or mindsets that create the art or patterns and are not only a much older phenomenon than previously thought and has its roots in the African continent. Such early symbolic expression is seen in things like personal ornamentation and engraved designs, traditions that go far back into African prehistory. The patterns are symbolic and could have been used to express religious clan connections, group relations or personal expression. The patterns may indeed have a meaning and while abstract in representation they are unequivocal evidence for symbolic thought and one step closer to language. Ref

“Fragments of engraved ostrich eggshells from the Howiesons Poort of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa, dated to 60,000 years ago. Personal ornamentation and engraved designs are the earliest evidence of art in Africa, and are inextricably tied up with the development of human cognition. For tens of thousands of years, there has been not only a capacity for, but a motivation to adorn and to inscribe, to make visual that which is important. The interesting and pertinent issue in the context of this project is that the rock art we are cataloging, describing, and researching comes from a tradition that goes far back into African prehistory. The techniques and subject matter resonate over the millennia.” ref

More African Art Pictures: LINK

Deeper Introduction to rock art in Southern Africa

“The southern African countries of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana, and Namibia contain thousands of rock art sites and southern African rock art has been studied extensively. Due to perceived similarities in subject matter, even across great distances, much southern African rock art has been ascribed to hunter-gatherer painters and engravers who appear to have had a shared set of cultural references. These have been linked with beliefs and practices which remain common to modern San|Bushman¹ people, a number of traditional hunter-gatherer groups who continue to live in Southern Africa, principally in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. There are, however, differences in style and technique between regions, and various rock art traditions are attributed to other cultural groups and their ancestors. As is often the case with rock art, the accurate attribution of authorship, date, and motivation is difficult to establish, but the rock art of this region continues to be studied and the richness of the material in terms of subject matter, as well as in the context of the archaeological record, has much to tell us, both about its own provenance and the lives of the people who produced it.” ref

Geography and distribution

“There is wide variation in the physical environments of southern Africa, ranging from the rainforests of Mozambique to the arid Namib Desert of western Namibia, with the climate tending to become drier towards the south and west. The central-southern African plateau is divided by the central dip of the Kalahari basin, and bordered by the Great Escarpment, a sharp drop in altitude towards the coast which forms a ridge framing much of southern Africa. The escarpment runs in a rough inland parallel to the coastline, from northern Angola, south around the Cape, and up in the east to the border between Zimbabwe and Malawi. Both painted and engraved rock art is found throughout southern Africa, with the type and distribution partially informed by the geographical characteristics of the different regions. Inland areas with exposed boulders, flat rock ‘pavements’ and rocky outcrops tend to feature engraved rock art, whereas paintings are more commonly found in the protective rock shelters of mountainous or hilly areas, often in ranges edging the Great Escarpment.” ref

Types of rock art

“Rock art of the type associated with hunter-gatherers is perhaps the most widely distributed rock art tradition in southern Africa, with numerous known examples in South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, but also with examples found in Botswana and Mozambique. This tradition comprises paintings and engravings, with both techniques featuring images of animals and people. The type and composition varies from region to region. For example, rock art sites of the southern Drakensberg and Maloti mountains in South Africa and Lesotho contain a higher proportion of images of eland antelope, while those in Namibia in turn feature more giraffes. There are also regional variations in style and color: in some sites and areas, paintings are polychrome (multi-colored) while in others they are not.” ref

“Differences also occur in composition between painting and engraving sites, with paintings more likely to feature multiple images on a single surface, often interacting with one another, while engraving sites more often include isolated images on individual rocks and boulders. However, there are commonalities in both imagery and style, with paintings throughout southern Africa often including depictions of people, particularly in procession and carrying items such as bows and arrows. Also heavily featured in both paintings and engravings are animals, in particular large ungulates which are often naturalistically depicted, sometimes in great detail. Additionally, images may include people and animals which appear to have the features of several species and are harder to identify. Some hunter-gatherer type paintings are described as ‘fine-line’ paintings because of the delicacy of their rendering with a thin brush.” ref

“Hunter-gatherer rock paintings are found in particular concentrations in the Drakensberg-Maloti and Cape Fold Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho, the Brandberg and Erongo Mountains in Namibia, and the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe, while engraving sites are found throughout the interior, often near water courses.” ref

“A different form of rock painting from the hunter-gatherer type, found mainly in the north-eastern portion of southern Africa is that of the ‘late whites’. Paintings in this tradition are so-called because they are usually associated with Bantu language-speaking Iron Age farming communities who entered the area from the north from around 2,000 years ago and many of these images are thought to have been painted later than some of the older hunter-gatherer paintings. ‘Late white’ paintings take many forms, but have generally been applied with a finger rather than a brush, and as the name suggests, are largely white in color. These images represent animals, people, and geometric shapes, often in quite schematic forms, in contrast to the generally more naturalistic depictions of the hunter-gatherer art.” ref

“Sometimes ‘late white’ art images relate to dateable events or depict objects and scenes which could only have taken place following European settlement, such as trains. Other forms of southern African rock art also depict European people and objects. These include images from the Western Cape in South Africa of a sailing ship, estimated to date from after the mid-17th century, as well as painted and engraved imagery from throughout South Africa showing people on horseback with firearms. Such images are sometimes termed ‘contact art’ as their subject matter demonstrates that they follow the period of the first contact between European and indigenous people.” ref

“This kind of imagery is found in a variety of styles, and some of those producing ‘contact’ images in the Cape may have been people of Khoekhoen heritage. The Khoekhoen were traditionally cattle and sheep herders, culturally related to modern Nama people and more loosely to San|Bushman hunter-gatherers. A distinct tradition of rock art has been suggested to be of ancestral Khoekhoen origin. This art is predominantly geometric in form, with a particular focus on the circle and dotted motifs, and engravings in this style are often found near watercourses.” ref

History of research

“The first known reports of African rock art outside of the continent appear to come from the Bishop of Mozambique, who in 1721 reported sightings of paintings on rocks to the Royal Academy of History in Lisbon. Following this, reports, copies, and publications of rock art from throughout modern South Africa were made with increasing frequency by officials and explorers. From the mid-19th century onwards, rock art from present-day Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana began to be documented, and during the first few decades of the twentieth-century global public interest in the art was piqued by a series of illustrated publications. The hunter-gatherer rock art, in particular, had a strong aesthetic and academic appeal to western audiences, and reports, photographs, and copied images attracted the attention of prominent figures in archaeology and ethnology such as Miles Burkitt, Leo Frobenius, and the Abbé Breuil, researchers whose interest in rock art worldwide let them to visit and write about southern African rock art sites. A further intensification of archaeological and anthropological research and recording in the 1950s-70s, resulted in new insights into the interpretations and attributions for southern African rock art. Rock art research continues throughout the area today.” ref

Interpretation

“Rather than showing scenes from daily life, as was once assumed, it is now usually accepted that hunter-gatherer art in southern Africa shows images and motifs of spiritual and cultural importance. In particular, it is thought that some images reflect trance visions of San|Bushman spiritual leaders, or shamans, during which they are considered to enter the world of spirits, where they are held to perform tasks for themselves and their communities, such as healing the sick or encouraging rain. This interpretation, which has been widely accepted, explains certain features of the art, for example, the predominance of certain animals like eland antelope (due to their special cultural significance) and themes such as dot patterns and zigzag lines (interpreted as geometric patterns that shamans may see upon entering a trance state).” ref

“The rock art attributed to ancestral San|Bushman hunter-gatherers has many varied motifs, some of which may also relate to specific themes such as initiation or rainmaking (indeed within its cultural context one image may have several significances). San|Bushman informants in the 19th century told researchers that certain ambiguously shaped animals in the rock art repertoire represented animals related to water. Images such as these are known to researchers as ‘rain animals’ and it has been suggested that certain images could reflect—or prompt—the shaman’s attempt to control rainfall. Some ‘late white’ art has also been proposed to have associations with rainmaking practices, and indeed the proximity of some geometric rock art images, proposed to be of possible Khoekhoen origin, to watercourses appears to emphasize the practical and spiritual significance of water among historical southern African communities. It has also been proposed that some forms of geometric art attributed to Khoekhoen people may be linked by tradition and motif to the schematic art traditions of central Africa, themselves attributed to hunter-gatherers and possibly made in connection with beliefs about water and fertility. Much in the “late white” corpus of paintings appears to be connected to initiation practices, part of a larger set of connected traditions extending north as far as Kenya.” ref

“The long time periods, cultural connections, and movements involved can make attribution difficult. For example, the idiosyncratic rock paintings of Tsodilo Hills in Botswana which appear to have similarities with the hunter-gatherer style include images of domesticates and may have been the work of herders. More localized traditions, such as that of engravings in north-western South Africa representing the homesteads of ancestral Nguni or Sotho-Tswana language speakers, or the focus on engravings of animal tracks found in Namibia, demonstrate more specific regional significances. Research continues and in recent decades, researchers, focusing on studying individual sites and sets of sites within the landscape and the local historical context, have discussed how their placement and subject matter may reflect the shifting balances of power, and changes in their communities over time.” ref

Dating

“Although dating rock art is always difficult, the study of rock art sites from southern Africa has benefitted from the archaeological study, and excavations at rock art sites have sometimes revealed useful information for ascribing dates. Some of the oldest reliably dated examples of rock art in the world have been found in the region, with the most well-known examples probably being the painted plaques from Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia, dated to around 30,000 years ago. A portion of an engraved animal found in South Africa’s Northern Cape is estimated to be 10,200 years old and painted spalls from shelter walls in Zimbabwe have been dated to 12,000 years ago or older. However, it is thought that the majority of existing rock art was made more recently. As ever, the subject matter is also helpful in ascribing maximum date ranges. We know, for example, that images of domestic animals are probably less than 2,000 years old. The condition of the art may also help to establish relative ages, particularly with regards to engravings, which may be in some cases be categorized by the discoloration of the patina that darkens them over time.” ref

“The multiplicity of rock art sites throughout southern Africa form a major component of southern Africa’s archaeological record, with many interesting clues about the lives of past inhabitants and, in some cases, continuing religious and cultural importance for contemporary communities. Many sites are open to the public, affording visitors the unique experience of viewing rock art in situ. Unfortunately, the exposed nature of rock art in the field leaves it open to potential damage from the environment and vandalism. Many major rock art sites in southern Africa are protected by law in their respective countries and the Maloti-Drakensberg Park in South Africa and Lesotho, Twyfelfontein/ǀUi-ǁAis in Namibia, Tsodilo Hills in Botswana, and the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe are all inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.” ref

“San|Bushmen is a collective term used to describe the many different hunter-gatherer-fisher groups living in southern Africa who have related languages and cultural traditions. Both ‘San People’ and ‘Bushmen’ are considered offensive terms by some members of these groups, although others have positively adopted them.” ref

 TOTEMS AND TABOOS IN AFRICAN WORLD VIEW

Introduction

“Totemism is, therefore, a complex of varied ideas and ways of behavior based on a worldview drawn from nature. There are ideological, emotional, reverential, and genealogical relationships of social groups or specific persons with animals or natural objects, the totems. Taboos direct the society and instill fear into people’s minds, and had their own consequences on whoever treated it with levity. The violation was not only seen as a crime against the gods and the society, but also against the traditional institution, regarded as the representative of the god the institution was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring peace, orderliness, and development of the society. This work shall examine totems and taboos in the African traditional religion and life.” ref

Totem; the definition

“According to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary totem is from Ojibwa, the most basic form of the word in Ojibwa is believed to be “ote” but 18th century English speakers encountered it as “ototeman” which became our word totem. According to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, totem refers to an emblematic depiction of an animal or plant that gives a family or clan its name and that often serves as a reminder of its ancestry. Totem according to Wikipedia the online encyclopedia, is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe. While it has an Ojibwa origin, however, it is not indigenous to the Americas alone but to a number of other cultures worldwide. Here we shall focus on African worldview.” ref

Totem in the African worldview

“Now, what is a totem? As a rule, it is an animal, either edible and harmless, or dangerous and feared; more rarely the totem is a plant or a force of nature (rain, water), which stands in a peculiar relation to the whole clan. The totem is first the tribal ancestor of the clan, as well as its tutelary spirit and protector; it sends oracles and, though otherwise dangerous, the totem knows and spares its children. The members of a totem are therefore under a sacred obligation not to kill (destroy) their totem, to abstain from eating its meat, or from any other enjoyment of it. Any violation of these prohibitions is automatically punished. The character of a totem is inherent not only in a single animal or a single being but in all the members of the species. From time to time festivals are held at which the members of a totem represent or imitate, in ceremonial dances, the movements, and characteristics of their totems. The totem is hereditary through either the maternal or the paternal line; (maternal transmission probably always preceded and was only later supplanted by the paternal).” ref

“People generally view a totem as a companion, relative, protector, progenitor, or helper, and ascribe to it superhuman powers and abilities, and offer it some combination of respect, veneration, awe, and fear. Most cultures use special names and emblems to refer to the totem, and those it sponsors engage in partial identification with the totem or symbolic assimilation to it. In Africa, wives praise their husbands using the name of their Totem, for example, a wife may call her husband ‘the great lion of the forest’ that is, if the husband’s totem is a lion. There is usually a prohibition or taboo against killing, eating, or touching the totem.” ref

The African Concept of Taboo

“The word “taboo” traces its roots to Polynesia, and was first used in English by the great explorer, Captain Cook. In the context of traditional Africa, taboos have being embedded in the African traditional religion. However, before one can undertake any careful study of taboos, one must really understand the meaning of taboos as well as their impact on the society.” ref

“Etymologically speaking, “taboo” in its Polynesian rendering means, “forbidden.” It is similar to the saucer in the Greek, Kadesh in Hebrew, and Nso in Igbo language of Nigeria. In the Akan parlance, a taboo can be termed as an “Akyiwade,” that which is forbidden or prohibited. It is also related to “Mmusu” which is a prohibition against very grievous evils like incest, murder, and suicide. Thus, all taboos are “Akyiwade,” however, not all taboos are “Mmusu.” Ackah (1988) commenting on taboos referred to them as prohibitions such as certain wrong acts and consequences of which are believed to be automatic, though not necessarily immediate. Thus, one cannot escape the punishment that comes with breaking a taboo, although this punishment is not time-bound. The three aforementioned definitions of the term “taboo” tend to agree on a particular point: taboos are prohibitions and non-adherence to them comes along with a punishment for the individual who commits the act or for the entire community, of which he is a member.” ref

“Taboo may be used in two senses. The narrower sense represents the cultic or purely religious usage, while the broader sense represents its usage in socio-economic and political contexts. Therefore, cultic or religious taboos represent a subset of taboos, but not taboos as a whole set. For the same reason, religion is useful, but not a necessary condition for the existence and existential application of taboos.” ref

“Given the nature of the African society which is religious, ‘taboos’ are religious and its violation often linked to the ontological order of the universe, as it can upset the relationship between God and human beings. Taboos in traditional African societies vary from one place to another. As such, what may be regarded, as a taboo in one part of Africa may not be in another. It is from this understanding that Kanu (2015), in his book stated, A Hermeneutic Approach to African traditional Religion, approximately ten (10) obtainable taboos in the African ontology.” ref

“First is Incest, which ensures that people did not have canal knowledge of their mother, sister, or daughter, this taboo. Every clan has a totem (usually an animal, sometimes a plant, or force of nature) and people are not allowed to marry those with the same totem as themselves.” ref

“Secondly, Adultery which taboo is meant to protect the integrity of the marriage institution, which Onyeidu (1976) maintains is a holy sacrament. Both families to cement the relationship equally regard marriage as a covenant that is consummated by a woman’s dowry and sealed by the blood of a victim that is slaughter and consumed.” ref

“In addition, Murder is another taboo in African existence, which is aimed at protecting citizens of the society. Murder according to Ore (1999) is an abomination in traditional Igbo society. It is a punishable offense by death by the cult of Ancestors popularly known as Alekwu among the Otukpa-Idoma people. Furthermore, we have Suicide, which is an abomination to commit, especially by hanging. In Igbo traditional society, such persons were not buried with the full traditional rites. No sympathy, or crying, or mourning is done for them.” ref

“Fifthly, killing a sacred Animal, some animals are considered sacred because of their relationship with divinities and some are totems belonging to a particular clan or tribe or community. Sometimes, they have been sacrificed to the gods and allowed to roam about. It is a taboo to kill them. Bestiality is also a taboo and even unheard of to have sexual relationships with animals such as goats, cattle, etc. In addition, Pregnancy Taboos exist in African communities this is aimed at protecting the baby in the womb of the woman. She is forbidden by this taboo from eating certain kinds of meal like snail, monkey, egg, rat, etc.” ref

“Also, hunting taboos where, especially in Igbo traditional society, men were not allowed to go for hunting while their wives were a baby. Their wives are also expected to be chaste and to keep away from the meat while their husbands are out in the field hunting.” ref

“Additionally, there is also taboo associated with Kings and Chief since, they are considered sacred persons and, thus, had taboos that were associated with their offices, which they must observe. For instance, it was a taboo for the Alaafin to leave the palace after his coronation. Lastly, there is Stream Taboo that prohibits fighting in a stream. The main purpose is to avoid stirring the stream and, thus, polluting the water. To see that it is adhered to, a religious consequence is attached to it (185).” ref

Evaluation/Conclusion

“Totem is a sacred animal, plant, or force selected by a clan or tribe which its members cannot eat, kill or touch unless on a certain special ritual. Totem in relation to taboo refers to the symbolic representation of a clan or tribe in the African world. The totem system structures the tribe, clan, group, or community. It in turn informs taboos as laws and prohibition for the common good. Every moral system requires the existence of guiding principles, source(s) of motivation, and some grounds for objectivity. Additionally, some moral systems also provide moral transformation. Taboos represent the main source of guiding principles regulating and directing the behavior of individuals and the community towards the Supreme Being and especially the gods and the ancestors in African traditional societies.” ref

TOTEMISM IN AFRICA: A PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION OF ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN A WORLD OF CHANGE 

“Totemism has to do with the veneration of some natural objects, namely, animals, plants, and other physical objects. Totems are believed to have some spiritual or supernatural powers. In this regard, the mishandling or killing of totemic animals is considered a taboo in most African cultures. Belief in totems is a common practice in the traditional African society. African people have deep sense of reverence for either their personal or group totems. This study focuses on Igbo society. The study is guided by the following questions: What is the rational basis for belief in totems? Does belief in totems have any significance in Igbo society in the world of change? Or can we say that belief in totems is now obsolete and without any practical significant value? Therefore, employing the philosophical methods of critical analysis and hermeneutics, the study argues that totems in themselves have no inherent powers and as such, belief in them can best be regarded as irrational and superstitious. However, it further concludes from a functional perspective that totemism has some significance in the areas of ecology and tourism.” ref

“The idea of the sacred in African society is as old as the African. Faced with the puzzles, wonders, and mysteries in nature, the Africans had no choice than to consider certain objects and plants as sacred. These objects and places are seen from the perspective of the divine. And as such, they are not to be toyed with; they are given special reverence especially as objects of worship. “The sacred”, in the understanding of Roberston, “is to 26 Totemism in Africa: a Philosophical Evaluation of its Significance in a World of Change be treated with a certain specific attitude of respect.”1Africans believe that spirits inhabit the sacred objects and places. This understanding also gave rise to the reality of totems in African ontology. For sure, belief in totems is an existential fact among African people. Certain trees, animals, places, and individuals are regarded as totems. They are seen as sacred objects that symbolize something real for the people that entertain such belief.” ref

“Totems are also believed to possess some spiritual and supernatural powers. The thrust of this study is to expose the belief and practice of totemism in Africa and also to ascertain the significance of such belief and practice in a world of change. The focus of this study is on Igbo – African society. Totemism: A Brief Exposé Generally, the notion of totem is associated with the idea of kinship between certain animals, animate or inanimate beings, and a particular individual or group of individuals in a given society. it shows that there is a spiritual link between a totemic object and the person or persons concern. The concept, totem, is derived from the Ojibwa2word ototeman which simply means a brother – sister blood tie. The grammatical root ote actually signifies a blood relationship between brothers and sisters who have the same mother and who, according to custom, may not marry each other.3The Dictionary of Beliefs and Religion sees totems as objects that serve as a representation of a society or person, and from which the members of that society are thought to descend. This implies that totems are symbolic in nature. Various scholars have varied views on the concept of totem.” ref

“In the understanding of Burton as cited in Nwashindu and Ihediwa, “totems are used to designate those things whose names the clan or family bears or revers.”4In this sense, the kind of name of a person or a particular clan or community can be traced to their totems. Amirthalingam observes that “totemism denotes a mystical or ritual relationship among members of a specific social group and specie, of animals or plants.”5 Theoderson sees the notion of totems as a kind of spiritual bond that exists between a particular animal and a tribe which accounts for the wellbeing of the people.6One thing to note from the various views of scholars is that totemism is an expression of a relationship that exists between particular human beings and their natural environment. This relationship could be between the people and a particular animal, plant, or place. For the simple fact of the relationship Ejikemeuwa J. O. Ndubisi 27 that exists between a totemic group and the totem, there is a deep reverence for the totemic being. There are rules and regulations to ensure the protection, preservation, and reverence of the totemic beings. In most African societies, it is a taboo and a violation of cultural and spiritual life to hurt, mishandle or kill a totemic animal. Totems are handled with utmost respect and care.” ref

“Totemism implies respect for and a prohibition against the killing and eating of the totemic animals or plants. Underlying this practice is the belief that the members of the group are descendants from a common totemic ancestor and thus are related.” Nwashindu and Ihediwa related that a survey of Igboland shows the ubiquity of totemic laws, deification of animals and trees, sanctions, and retributive actions guiding men, animals, and trees. The point here is that totems are very much respected by the totemic group. This deep respect may also stem from the belief that totems protect the totemic group from enemies and dangers. Totemism in Africa The reality of totems or the belief in totems among Africans is not something that is new to the African. Africa is well known for the belief and practice of totemism. The African people believe that the human person can be related in two ways. First, a person can have a blood relationship. This type of relationship shows that the persons in question have the same father or mother. This is a type of relationship that can be traced by blood.” ref

“The second understanding of relationship is the totemic relationship. This means that the people in question share the same totems. This can be seen from the perspective of a clan, village, or a whole community or even people from different communities with the same totemic being. So human relationships in African perspective can be consanguineous or totemic. Without mincing words, belief and practice of totemism is a well-known fact in African thought and culture. The world of the African is not only the world of human beings alone; it includes both living and nonliving things. This position is amplified by Onwubiko: “Ideologically speaking, the African world is a world of inanimate, animate and spiritual beings. The African is conscious of the influence of each category of these beings in the universe. Their existence, for the African, is reality; so also is the fact that they interact as co-existent beings in the universe.”9 Totemism in Africa constitutes part of the cherished cultural values of the African 28 Totemism in Africa: a Philosophical Evaluation of its Significance in a World of Change people. The nature of this study will not allow us to expose everything about the belief and practice of totemism in Africa. However, we shall focus on totemism in Igboland as a unit of African society.” ref

Totemism in Igbo Worldview 

“The Igbo people are an ethnic group native to the present-day southeast and south-south Nigeria. Igbo people constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. “As one of the ethnic groups in Africa, there are many totemic animals and plants in Igboland. These animals and plants are seen as sacred and as such, are accorded deep reverence. Below are some of the totemic animals and plants in some parts of Igboland: Python: A python is a large reptile found in many communities of the Igbo cultural area.” ref

“Some clans and communities see python as a totem. Among those communities are Idemili, Enugwu Ukwu, Abagana, Nnewi, Ogidi, Oguta, Mgbidi, Njaba, Urualla, Awo-Omamma, etc. In these communities, python is very much revered and cared for. Nwashindu and Ihediwa observed that “deification of python is a common heritage and religion in Idemili area of Anambra state”11 In the communities that have python as a totem, it is a taboo to hurt or kill a python. If consciously or unconsciously one kills a python, the person is expected to carry out burial rites for the python as if it is a human being. This view is in line with the submission of Adibe as cited in I. A. Kanu: “No one makes the mistakes of killing it [python] voluntarily or involuntarily. When it is done accidentally, it is buried with the appropriate religious rituals and rites accorded to it. If it is killed knowingly, it is considered an abomination.”12 Monkey: This is another totemic animal in Igboland. The people Awka in Anambra state do not joke with monkey. It is a taboo to hurt or kill a monkey in Awka. It is believed among the people that monkeys possess some spiritual and supernatural powers and they were quite instrumental to Awka people in the time of war. Following the instrumentality of the black monkeys in helping Awka people defeat their enemies, there is an annual Imoka festival in Awka which is linked to the myth of the black monkey.” ref

“Also, brown monkeys are seen as totems in Ezioha in Mgbowo community of Enugu state. The people “are forbidden to harm, eat or kill a species of brown monkey called Utobo. It is the family’s belief that Utobo are representatives of the kindred, and bear a direct link between the Ejikemeuwa J. O. Ndubisi 29 living and the dead.”13 Among the people of Akpugoeze in the Enugu state, monkeys are also seen as totems. They are regarded as sacred and no one dares to challenge them. Any attempt to hunt or kill a monkey in Akpugoeze is seen as an abomination. Ram: This is another totemic animal in some parts of Igboland. The people of Umuanya Nwoko kindred of Itungwa in Abia state regard ram as a totemic animal. Every member of the community is forbidden from hurting, killing, or eating ram. The people can have rams as domestic animals but they are not allowed to eat it. Anyone who eats the meat of a ram automatically falls sick which will certainly lead to the person’s death. Tortoise and Crocodile: These reptiles are regarded as totemic animals in Agulu community of Anambra state. Also, most communities in riverine Ogbaru local government area of Anambra state treat tortoise and crocodile as sacred animals. Tiger: This is an animal that is generally dreaded by people. But in Umulelu in Obingwa of Abia state, tiger is a sacred animal. It is not harmful to the people. As a totemic animal among the people, tiger is neither eaten nor killed among the people of Umulelu.” ref

“Oral history has it that some members of the community transformed themselves occasionally into tigers and performed some assignments as tigers and later changed back to human beings. There is a close tie between the people and tiger. There is a story of a man who quarreled with his wife; but when the wife, out of annoyance, parked her baggage to go back to her father’s house, the husband did not resist. But no sooner had she left his house than the husband transformed into a tiger and pounced on her along the road and in the process, the woman, out of fear, changed her mind and returned to her husband’s house. It is a taboo to shoot, harm or kill a tiger among the people of Umulelu. It is important to note at this point that there are many totemic animals in Africa generally and Igboland in particular. The above are simply highlighted as a foundation for this study. We have also to note that totemism in African is not all about animals; there are some plants and trees that are regarded as totemic in Igbo – African ontology, namely, ogilisi, akpu, ofo, udala, ngwu, oji, etc.14 F. C. Ogbalu opines that “some species of plants are held sacred or are actually worshiped or sacrifices offered to them.” ref

“Examples of such trees held sacred in some places are Akpu (silk-cotton tree), Iroko, Ngwu, Ofo, Ogirisi, etc. Such plants are used 30 Totemism in Africa: a Philosophical Evaluation of its Significance in a World of Change in offering worship to the idols”15 Significance of Totemism in Africa in a World of Change There is no doubt about the belief and practice of totemism among the African people. It is part of the everyday experience of the Traditional African. In the Traditional African Society, no one ever toyed with totems of a given community. This is not the case in our contemporary African society. In this regard, some questions disturb the questioning mind of the researcher: What is the significance of totemism in Africa in a world of change? Put differently, what is the place of totems in our ever-changing world? Experience has shown that the belief and practice of totemism does not have the original meaning and understanding in our contemporary society as against what existed in the Traditional Africa society. Kanu submits that the influence of western education, cross-cultural influence, Christianity, and Islamic influence has actually brought about a decline in the original way and manner our people accorded reverence to totems in Igbo – African ontology. He noted that some totemic animals are being killed while totemic plants are being cut down for economic purposes.16However, one can say without mincing words that belief in totems can have some significance in the areas of ecology and tourism. There is no gainsaying the fact that the belief and practice of totemism can foster the growth and preservation of totemic animals and plants in the areas where they are considered as sacred. It is an existential truism that animals relax, procreate, and survive more in the areas where they are not treated with hostility. The friendly expression makes it possible for the different species of the animal to multiply within the totemic community.” ref

“In this regard, one can say that the preservation of totemic animals and plants is a way of maintaining the ecosystem. It is the responsibility of every person within the totemic society to care for and feed the totemic animal. This is a traditional way of environmental conservation. This is actually what is needed in our contemporary society. Chemhuru and Masaka as cited in Chakanaka Zinyemba are of the view that the belief and practice of totemism have been institutional wildlife conservation measures to preserve various animal species so that they could be saved from extinction due to unchecked hunting.17 Furthermore, the belief and practice of totemism can be said to be very significant in the area of tourism. Tourism is a good source of revenue for Ejikemeuwa J. O. Ndubisi 31 many countries of the world. People like to travel for fun and also for sight-seeing. Tourism attracts both local and international tourists. This is what the preservation of totemic animals and plants brings to a totemic community. There are certain animals that are going into extinction in some communities because the people engage in hunting and killing of animals without restrictions. Also, in some places, people engage in cutting down trees without any form of restrictions. ” ref

“But as we have state earlier, the belief and practice of totemism brings deep reverence for the totemic beings coupled with rules and regulations to that effect. And so with the preservation of totemic beings, it will certainly bring about a large amount of income to the local economy since the community will be the center of attraction for both local and international tourists. Concluding Reflections The belief and practice of totemism in Africa has to do with the culture and tradition of the African people. However, the idea that totemic beings possess some spiritual and supernatural powers can best be described as superstitious. The claim cannot stand before the Court of Reason. The researcher witnessed in a community where python was regarded as a totem but was killed by a man in that community. The man was asked to carry out the burial rites as demanded by their custom or else he will be visited with strange sickness and die. The man refused and till today he is still hale and hearty. There are instances of this kind in many other places as experience has shown. In this regard, one can say that there is no rational basis for totemic practice. It is simply a matter of belief without any rational justification for its claim. On another note, this paper submits that in our ever-changing world, the basis for the belief and practice of totemism can only be viewed from its ecological and tourist significance. There is a need for people to be encouraged to preserve animals and plants. Indiscriminate hunting and cutting of trees should be highly frowned at.” ref

“Forest reserves and game villages should be encouraged by both the governments and non-governmental organizations. Governments in Africa should step up their lukewarm attitude in this regard. The media should also be involved in sensitizing our people about the need for the preservation of animals and plants in order to maintain the ecosystem and more so to ensure tourist attraction. The federal and state ministries of culture and tourism should set up monitoring agencies to ensure the protection of animal rights. 32 Totemism in Africa: a Philosophical Evaluation of its Significance in a World of Change There should be a stringent penalty for those that violate the rights of animals and forest reserve. In sum, this paper submits that totems have no inherent spiritual and supernatural powers in themselves. The belief and practice of totemism in Africa in a world of change can only be encouraged on the basis of its significant roles in maintaining the ecosystem and also bringing about revenue generation through tourist activities.” ref

African Totems, Kinship and Conservation

“In traditional African culture, kinship is two-pronged and can be established on either bloodline or a totem. Extended family is made up of intricate kinship, with parents, children, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters, all regarding each other as closely related. The word “cousin” does not exist in sub-Saharan languages/dialects, and kinship ends at the nephew and niece level. On a father’s side (which is more important being traditionally a patrilineal society) there is the actual father and big and small fathers, brothers and sisters. On the maternal side are uncles, younger and older mothers, nephews, and nieces. Totems protect against taboos such as incest among like totems.” ref

“The concept of using totems demonstrated the close relationship between humans, animals, and the lived environment. Anthropologists believe that totem use was a universal phenomenon among early societies. Pre-industrial communities had some form of totem that was associated with spirits, religion, and success of community members. Early documented forms of totems in Europe can be traced to the Roman Empire, where symbols were used as coats of arms, a practice that continues today.” ref

“In Africa, chiefs decorated their stools and other court items with their personal totems, or with those of the tribe or of the clans making up the larger community. It was a duty of each community member to protect and defend the totem. This obligation ranged from not harming that animal or plant, to actively feeding, rescuing, or caring for it as needed. African tales are told of how men became heroes for rescuing their totems. This has continued in some African societies, where totems are treasured and preserved for the community’s good.” ref

“Totems have also been described as a traditional environmental conservation method besides being for kinship. Totemism can lead to environmental protection due to some tribes having multiple totems. For example, over 100 plant and animal species are considered totems among the Batooro (omuziro), Banyoro, and Baganda (omuzilo) tribes in Uganda, a similar number of species are considered totems among tribes in Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic, (CAR).” ref

“In Zimbabwe, totems (mitupo) have been in use among the Shona groupings since the initial development of their culture. Totems identify the different clans among the Shona that historically made up the dynasties of their ancient civilization. Today, up to 25 different totems can be identified among the Shona ethnic grouping, and similar totems exist among other South African groups, such as the Zulu, the Ndebele, and the Herero in Botswana and Namibia.” ref

“Those who share the same totem regard each other as being related even though they are not blood relatives and will find difficulty in finding approval to marry. Through totem use, one can practically establish some form of kinship with anyone else in the region. Establishing relationships this way made it easier for a traveler or stranger to find social support. Totems are also essential to cast a curse.” ref

“Today, the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre uses a community-based approach for animal protection. Individuals are encouraged to donate funds for feeding animals in the former zoo. Donations are applied to the donor’s totem; such a donation is considered an act of “feeding one’s brother” who is unable to feed himself. By taking their cue from such activities, environmental activists can use knowledge of totems and their cultural significance to revitalize environmental awareness, especially where animal protection laws are weak and unimplemented, and where the community has become detached from the environment.” ref

Totem

“A totem (Ojibwe doodem) is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe.” ref

“While the term totem is derived from the North American Ojibwe language, belief in tutelary spirits and deities is not limited to indigenous peoples of the Americas but common to a number of cultures worldwide. Contemporary neoshamanic, New Age, and mythopoetic men’s movements not otherwise involved in the practice of a tribal religion have been known to use “totem” terminology for the personal identification with a tutelary spirit or spirit guide. However, this can be seen as cultural misappropriation.” ref

Anthropological perspectives

“Totemism is a belief associated mainly with animistic and shamanistic religions (Thus, to me, also extends to most hunter-gatherer religious beliefs as well to some extent or another, but that can also be said about paganism, including almost all religion for that matter). The totem is usually an animal or other natural figure that spiritually represents a group of related people such as a clan.” ref

“Early anthropologists and ethnologists like James George Frazer, Alfred Cort Haddon, John Ferguson McLennan, and W. H. R. Rivers identified totemism as a shared practice across indigenous groups in unconnected parts of the world, typically reflecting a stage of human development.” ref

“Scottish ethnologist John Ferguson McLennan, following the vogue of 19th-century research, addressed totemism in a broad perspective in his study The Worship of Animals and Plants (1869, 1870). McLennan did not seek to explain the specific origin of the totemistic phenomenon but sought to indicate that all of the human race had, in ancient times, gone through a totemistic stage.” ref

“Another Scottish scholar, Andrew Lang, early in the 20th century, advocated a nominalistic explanation of totemism, namely, that local groups or clans, in selecting a totemistic name from the realm of nature, were reacting to a need to be differentiated. If the origin of the name was forgotten, Lang argued, there followed a mystical relationship between the object — from which the name was once derived — and the groups that bore these names. Through nature myths, animals and natural objects were considered as the relatives, patrons, or ancestors of the respective social units.” ref

“British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer published Totemism and Exogamy in 1910, a four-volume work based largely on his research among Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, along with a compilation of the work of other writers in the field.” ref

“By 1910, the idea of totemism as having common properties across cultures was being challenged, with Russian American ethnologist Alexander Goldenweiser subjecting totemistic phenomena to sharp criticism. Goldenweiser compared Indigenous Australians and First Nations in British Columbia to show that the supposedly shared qualities of totemism – exogamy, naming, descent from the totem, taboo, ceremony, reincarnation, guardian spirits and secret societies and art – were actually expressed very differently between Australia and British Columbia, and between different peoples in Australia and between different peoples in British Columbia. He then expands his analysis to other groups to show that they share some of the customs associated with totemism, without having totems. He concludes by offering two general definitions of totemism, one of which is: “Totemism is the tendency of definite social units to become associated with objects and symbols of emotional value”.” ref

“The founder of a French school of sociology, Émile Durkheim, examined totemism from a sociological and theological point of view, attempting to discover a pure religion in very ancient forms and claimed to see the origin of religion in totemism.” ref

“The leading representative of British social anthropology, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, took a totally different view of totemism. Like Franz Boas, he was skeptical that totemism could be described in any unified way. In this, he opposed the other pioneer of social anthropology in England, Bronisław Malinowski, who wanted to confirm the unity of totemism in some way and approached the matter more from a biological and psychological point of view than from an ethnological one. According to Malinowski, totemism was not a cultural phenomenon, but rather the result of trying to satisfy basic human needs within the natural world. As far as Radcliffe-Brown was concerned, totemism was composed of elements that were taken from different areas and institutions, and what they have in common is a general tendency to characterize segments of the community through a connection with a portion of nature. In opposition to Durkheim’s theory of sacralization, Radcliffe-Brown took the point of view that nature is introduced into the social order rather than secondary to it. At first, he shared with Malinowski the opinion that an animal becomes totemistic when it is “good to eat.” He later came to oppose the usefulness of this viewpoint, since many totems—such as crocodiles and flies—are dangerous and unpleasant.” ref

“In 1938, the structural functionalist anthropologist A. P. Elkin wrote The Australian Aborigines: How to understand them. His typologies of totemism included eight “forms” and six “functions”.” ref

The forms identified were:

· individual (a personal totem),

· sex (one totem for each gender),

· moiety (the “tribe” consists of two groups, each with a totem),

· section (the “tribe” consists of four groups, each with a totem),

· subsection (the “tribe” consists of eight groups, each with a totem),

· clan (a group with common descent share a totem or totems),

· local (people living or born in a particular area share a totem) and

· “multiple” (people across groups share a totem).

The functions identified were:

· social (totems regulate marriage, and often a person cannot eat the flesh of their totem),

· cult (totems associated with a secret organisation),

· conception (multiple meanings),

· dream (the person appears as this totem in others’ dreams),

· classificatory (the totem sorts people) and

· assistant (the totem assists a healer or clever person).

“The terms in Elkin’s typologies see some use today, but Aboriginal customs are seen as more diverse than his typologies suggest. As a chief representative of modern structuralism, French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, and his, Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (“Totemism Today” [1958]) are often cited in the field.” ref

“In the 21st century, Australian anthropologists question the extent to which “totemism” can be generalized even across different Aboriginal Australian peoples, let alone to other cultures like the Ojibwe from whom the term was originally derived. Rose, James, and Watson write that: The term ‘totem’ has proved to be a blunt instrument. Far more subtlety is required, and again, there is regional variation on this issue.” ref

Literature

“Poets, and to a lesser extent fiction writers, often use anthropological concepts, including the anthropological understanding of totemism. For this reason, literary criticism often resorts to psychoanalytic, anthropological analyses.” ref

Totem poles

“Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest of North America are monumental poles of heraldry. They feature many different designs (bears, birds, frogs, people, and various supernatural beings and aquatic creatures) that function as crests of families or chiefs. They recount stories owned by those families or chiefs or commemorate special occasions. These stories are known to be read from the bottom of the pole to the top.” ref

Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders

See also: Australian Aboriginal kinship and Dreaming (Australian Aboriginal art)

“The spiritual, mutual relationships between Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders and the natural world are often described as totems. Many Indigenous groups object to using the imported Ojibwe term “totem” to describe a pre-existing and independent practice, although others use the term. The term “token” has replaced “totem” in some areas.” ref

“In some cases, such as the Yuin of coastal New South Wales, a person may have multiple totems of different types (personal, family or clan, gender, tribal and ceremonial). The lakinyeri or clans of the Ngarrindjeri were each associated with one or two plant or animal totems, called ngaitji. Totems are sometimes attached to moiety relations (such as in the case of Wangarr relationships for the Yolngu). Torres Strait Islanders have auguds, typically translated as totems. An augud could be a kai augud (“chief totem”) or mugina augud (“little totem”).” ref

“Early anthropologists sometimes attributed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander totemism to ignorance about procreation, with the entrance of an ancestral spirit individual (the “totem”) into the woman believed to be the cause of pregnancy (rather than insemination). James George Frazer in Totemism and Exogamy wrote that Aboriginal people “have no idea of procreation as being directly associated with sexual intercourse, and firmly believe that children can be born without this taking place”. Frazer’s thesis has been criticized by other anthropologists, including Alfred Radcliffe-Brown in Nature in 1938.” ref

See also

· Anishinaabe clan system

· Aumakua

· Charge (heraldry)

· Devak, a type of family totem in Maratha culture

· Fylgja

· Huabiao

· Jangseung

· Little Arpad

· Religious symbolism in U.S. sports team names and mascots

· Tamga, an abstract seal or device used by Eurasian nomadic peoples

· Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud

· Arnold van Gennep Les rites de passage: étude systématique des rites (The Rites of Passage). É. Nourry, 1909

Haplogroup U6

“Haplogroup U6 was dated to between 31,000 and 43,000 years ago by Behar et al. (2012). Basal U6* was found in a Romanian specimen of ancient DNA (Peștera Muierilor) dated to 35,000 years ago. Hervella et al. (2016) take this find as evidence for Paleolithic back-migration of Homo sapiens from Eurasia into Africa. The discovery of basal U6* in ancient DNA contributed to setting back the estimated age of U6 to around 46,000 years ago.” ref

“Haplogroup U6 is common (with a prevalence of around 10%) in Northwest Africa (with a maximum of 29% in an Algerian Mozabites) and the Canary Islands (18% on average with a peak frequency of 50.1% in La Gomera). It is also found in the Iberian peninsula, where it has the highest diversity (10 out of 19 sublineages are only found in this region and not in Africa), Northeast Africa, and occasionally in other locations. U6 is also found at low frequencies in the Chad Basin, including the rare Canarian branch. This suggests that the ancient U6 clade bearers may have inhabited or passed through the Chad Basin on their way westward toward the Canary Islands.” ref

“U6 is thought to have entered North Africa from the Near East around 30,000 years ago. It has been found among Iberomaurusian specimens dating from the Epipaleolithic at the Taforalt prehistoric site. In spite of the highest diversity of Iberian U6, Maca-Meyer argues for a Near East origin of this clade based on the highest diversity of subclade U6a in that region, where it would have arrived from West Asia, with the Iberian incidence primarily representing migration from the Maghreb and not the persistence of a European root population. According to Hernández et al. 2015, “the estimated entrance of the North African U6 lineages into Iberia at 10,000 years ago correlates well with other L African clades, indicating that U6 and some L lineages moved together from Africa to Iberia in the Early Holocene.” ref

U6 has four main subclades:

“Subgroup U6a reflects the first African expansion from the Maghreb returning to the east. Derivative clade U6a1 signals a posterior movement from East Africa back to the Maghreb and the Near East. This migration coincides with the probable Afroasiatic linguistic expansion. U6b and U6c clades, restricted to West Africa, had more localized expansions. U6b probably reached the Iberian Peninsula during the Capsian diffusion in North Africa. Two autochthonous derivatives of these clades (U6b1 and U6c1) indicate the arrival of North African settlers to the Canarian Archipelago in prehistoric times, most probably due to the Saharan desiccation. The absence of these Canarian lineages nowadays in Africa suggests important demographic movements in the western area of this Continent. — Maca-Meyer 2003” ref

· “U6a: subclade is the most widespread, stretching from the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa and Near East. The subhaplogroup has its highest diversity in Northeast Africa. Ancient DNA analysis of Iberomaurusian skeletal remains at the Taforalt site in Morocco, which have been dated to the Later Stone Age between 15,100 and 13,900 years ago, observed the U6a subclade among most of the fossils (6/7; ~86%). Fossils at the Early Neolithic site of Ifri n’Amr or Moussa in Morocco, which have been dated to around 7,000 years ago, have also been found to carry the U6a subhaplogroup. These ancient individuals bore an autochthonous Northwest African genomic component that peaks among modern Berbers, indicating that they were ancestral to populations in the area. U6a’s estimated age is 24,000-27,500 years ago.” ref

It has one major subclade:

o “U6a1: similar distribution to U6a parent clade; found particularly among Copts (27.6%) and Beja (10.4%).[59] Estimated age: 15,000-20,000 years ago.” ref

· “U6b: shows a more patched and western distribution. In the Iberian peninsula, U6b is more frequent in the north, whereas U6a is more common in the south. It has also been found at low frequencies in Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, and Nigeria. Estimated age: 8,500-24,500 years ago.” ref

It has one subclade:

o U6b1: found only in the Canary Islands and in the Iberian peninsula. Estimated age: c. 6000 years ago.” ref

· U6c: only found in Morocco and Canary Islands. Estimated age: 6,000-17,500 years ago.” ref

· U6d: most closely related to U6b. Localized in the Maghreb, with a presence in Europe. It arose between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago.” ref

“U6a, U6b, and U6d share a common basal mutation (16219) that is not present in U6c, whereas U6c has 11 unique mutations. U6b and U6d share a mutation (16311) not shared by U6a, which has three unique mutations.” ref

Population expansion in the North African Late Pleistocene signaled by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6

“The archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking center stage. Debates have focused on population transitions between the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian industry and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb, as well as between the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Improved resolution of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup U6 phylogeny, by the screening of 39 new complete sequences, has enabled us to infer a signal of moderate population expansion using Bayesian coalescent methods.” ref

“To ascertain the time for this expansion, we applied both a mutation rate accounting for purifying selection and one with an internal calibration based on four approximate archaeological dates: the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East. A Bayesian skyline plot placed the main expansion in the time frame of the Late Pleistocene, around 20,000, and spatial smoothing techniques suggested that the most probable geographic region for this demographic event was to the west of North Africa. A comparison with U6’s European sister clade, U5, revealed a stronger population expansion at around this time in Europe. Also in contrast with U5, a weak signal of a recent population expansion in the last 5,000 years was observed in North Africa, pointing to a moderate impact of the late Neolithic on the local population size of the southern Mediterranean coast.” ref

“Background: The archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking center stage. Debates have focused on population transitions between the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian industry and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb, as well as between the late Pleistocene and Holocene.” ref

“Results: Improved resolution of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup U6 phylogeny, by the screening of 39 new complete sequences, has enabled us to infer a signal of moderate population expansion using Bayesian coalescent methods. To ascertain the time for this expansion, we applied both a mutation rate accounting for purifying selection and one with an internal calibration based on four approximate archaeological dates: the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East.” ref

“Conclusions: A Bayesian skyline plot placed the main expansion in the time frame of the Late Pleistocene, around 20,000 years ago, and spatial smoothing techniques suggested that the most probable geographic region for this demographic event was to the west of North Africa. A comparison with U6’s European sister clade, U5, revealed a stronger population expansion at around this time in Europe. Also in contrast with U5, a weak signal of a recent population expansion in the last 5,000 years was observed in North Africa, pointing to a moderate impact of the late Neolithic on the local population size of the southern Mediterranean coast.” ref

Background

“Despite much recent research, the archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking center-stage. Key issues concern the identity of the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic (or Middle Stone Age) Aterian industry (the age of which has recently risen dramatically from ~40,000-20,000 years ago to ≥115,000-40,000 years ago), and whether or not there was continuity between these and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb.” ref

“This question has become more urgent with the discovery that the Aterian is associated in Northwest Africa with a very early appearance of evidence for behavioral modernity, such as perforated Nassarius shell beads, use of ochre and bone tools, and long-distance exchange networks – preceding those of southern Africa and making it likely that the Aterian was carried by anatomically modern (rather than archaic) humans. The fate of the populations using this industry, and their possible connection with others in Africa and with the group who dispersed out of Africa ~60 ka to populate the rest of the world, has naturally become a question of great interest. Further debates have focused on the question of population replacement in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The earliest Upper Palaeolithic industry in North Africa is the Dabban, limited to Cyrenaïca (a likely glacial refuge area) and most likely dating from ~36,000-50,000 to ~20,000 years ago]. Its similarities to Near Eastern Early.” ref

Upper Palaeolithic industries have suggested an origin

Abstract Background: 

“The archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking center-stage. Debates have focused on population transitions between the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian industry and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb, as well as between the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Results: Improved resolution of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup U6 phylogeny, by the screening of39 new complete sequences, has enabled us to infer a signal of moderate population expansion using Bayesiancoalescent methods. To ascertain the time for this expansion, we applied both a mutation rate accounting for purifying selection and one with an internal calibration based on four approximate archaeological dates: the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East. Conclusions: A Bayesian skyline plot placed the main expansion in the time frame of the Late Pleistocene, around 20,000 years ago, and spatial smoothing techniques suggested that the most probable geographic region for this demographic event was to the west of North Africa. A comparison with U6’s European sister clade, U5, revealed a stronger population expansion at around this time in Europe. ” ref

“Also in contrast with U5, a weak signal of a recent population expansion in the last 5,000 years was observed in North Africa, pointing to a moderate impact of the late Neolithic on the local population size of the southern Mediterranean coast.BackgroundDespite much recent research, the archaeology of NorthAfrica remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking center stage. Key issues concern the identity of the bearers of the MiddlePalaeolithic (or Middle Stone Age) Aterian industry (the age of which has recently risen dramatically from ~40-20,000 years ago (ka) to ≥115-40,000 years ago), and whether or not there was continuity between these and the late upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb. This question has become more urgent with the discovery that the Aterian is associated in Northwest Africa with a very early appearance of evidence for behavioral modernity, such as perforated Nassarius shell beads, use of ochre, and bone tools, and long-distance exchange networks – preceding those of southern Africa and making it likely that the Aterian was carried by anatomically modern (rather than archaic) humans.” ref

“The fate of the populations using this industry, and their possible connection with others in Africa and with the group who dispersed out of Africa ~60 ka to populate the rest of the world, has naturally become a question of great interest. Further debates have focused on the question of population replacement in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The earliest Upper Palaeolithic industry in North Africais the Dabban, limited to Cyrenaïca (a likely glacial refuge area) and most likely dating from ~36,000-50,000 to ~20,000 years ago. Its similarities to Near Eastern EarlyUpper Palaeolithic industries have suggested an origin in the Levant [5], rather than locally in the Aterian, and similar blade industries have been found further south by 30,000 years ago. The Dabban was replaced by the EasternOranian (or Eastern Iberomaurusian) in Cyrenaïca possi-blyasearlyas~18,000 years ago, by which time the Upper Palaeolithic had extended eastwards for the first time a long the coastal belt of the Maghreb, with the Ibero-maurusian (or Oranian), the origins of which are similarly controversial, especially as it appears earliest in the northwest. It began at the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM), ~22,000-20,000 years ago, with a period of intensification in the Late Glacial ~15,000-13,000 years ago, although recent work sug-gests a possible underlying industry as early as ~26,000 years ago.” ref

“Similar debates concerning continuity versus repla-cement surround discussion of the widespread Epi-Palaeolithic Capsian industries, which saw expansion southwards from eastern Algeria into an increasinglyhumid Sahara in the early Holocene and sometimesassociated with more gracile Mediterranean skeletalremains, and the subsequent emergence of the Neolithic. The phylogeographic analysis of human mitochondrialDNA (mtDNA) has the potential to address questionssuch as these. In particular, the mtDNA haplogroupU6 has a unique and highly distinctive distributionamongst human mitochondrial DNA lineages. It isfound primarily in North Africa and the Canary Islands(albeit with secondary dispersals into Iberia and EastAfrica), with its highest frequency amongst AlgerianBerbers (28%), and it has therefore been proposed to belinked to the ancestors of the indigenous Berber-speak-ing populations of North Africa. Macaulay et al. described U6 and its sister clade U5 as having evolved from a common ancestor in the Near East, approximately 50,000 years ago; while U5 spread along the northern Mediterranean coast with the European Early UpperPalaeolithic, U6 dispersed along the southern coast, as far as Cyrenaïca, alongside the Dabban industry, ~40,000-50,000 years ago, with a further expansion into Northwest Africa with the Iberomaurusian culture, ~22,000 years ago.” ref

“On this view, U6evolved en route or within North Africa (as U5 evolved within Europe), the presence of occasional derivedU6 lineages in the Near East would signal more recentgene flow from North Africa. These early studies were based only on informationfrom hypervariable region I (HV-I) in the mtDNA con-trol region and a small number of diagnostic RFLPs inthe coding region, assayed in samples from severalpopulations of North Africa and Iberia. In most of theseregions, U6 frequencies are ~10% or less, and evenappear absent from some Berber communities in Tuni-sia. The major sub-haplogroup U6a (characterized by control-region transitions from the ancestor ofhaplogroup U at nucleotide positions 16172, 16219 and16278) is highly dispersed, occurring throughout NorthAfrica (and at low levels in the Near East and Iberia),and a further nested subclade, U6a1 (characterized byan additional transition at position 16189), follows asimilar distribution.By contrast, U6b (characterized by variants at 16172-16219-16311) has a more limited range to the northwestof North Africa, the north of the Iberian Peninsula and,as a nested derivative (U6b1, characterized by a transi-tion at position 16163), in the Canary Islands.” ref

“In particular, the U6b1 lineage in the Canary Islands has been considered a founder lineage for the colonization of this archipelago by the Guanches (culturally very similar to Northwest Africans), ~2,000-3,000 yeara ago, a conclusion supported by studies of ancient DNA. Hence its arrival suggests itself as a potentially useful calibration point for the mtDNA molecular clock, although the archaeological evidence for the colonization time is rather insubstantial]. In fact, the absence of U6b1lineages anywhere outside of the Canary Islands (the few exceptions detected in Spain and in the Americas being most readily explained as recent migrants from there), and the failure to detect immediate ancestors in NorthAfrica, seem to point to the emergence of this clade within the Canary Islands – although probably soon after their colonization, as it is observed across several islands. Maca-Meyer et al. performed the first study of complete U6 mtDNA sequences (with 14 samples), defining a new U6 sub-haplogroup, U6c (characterized by the HV-I transition motif 16169-16172-16189), which was even more geographically restricted than U6b – limited to the west of North Africa and, as a derivative (U6c1, with an additional 16129 substitution), in the Canary archipelago.” ref

“Using coding-region age estimates as maximum limits for radiation times, they proposedthat the proto-U6 spread from the Near East to NorthAfrica ~30 ka, alongside the Iberomaurusian industry,with U6a reflecting an African re-expansion from the Maghreb eastwards in Palaeolithic times, and U6a1 afurther reverse movement from East Africa back to theMaghreb, possibly coinciding with the probable Afroa-siatic linguistic expansion. The clades U6b and U6c,restricted to West Africa, had more localized expan-sions; they argued that U6b reached Iberia at the timeof the diffusion of the Capsian culture in North Africa.However, a larger study by Olivieri et al. was closer to the earlier interpretation of Macaulay et al..They confirmed the origin of U6, or at least that of itsimmediate ancestor, in southwest Asia, with an ancientintroduction (alongside haplogroup M1, and the Dabbanindustry) to North Africa via the Levant, possibly duringthe Greenland Interstadial 12, from ~44,000-48,000years ago.” ref

“They reaffirmed that the various U6 sub-groups originated in the southern Mediterranean area, dispersing subsequently to East Africa. Coalescence time estimates for U6 and its subclades have varied considerably amongst these studies. Yet these are critical for studies of prehistoric dispersals since reliable estimates can bracket the timing of demo-graphically significant events. For example, a regionally-specific clade may have arisen from a migration event on the edge in the tree leading to that clade, and if the diversification has then arisen in situ rather than prior to the presumed founder event, the estimate of the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) can provide a minimum bound on the age of the migration event (motivating the “founder analysis”[24]). However, success rests on a number of requirements, principally that the phylogeny can be well-estimated and the molecular clock that converts genetic differences into time-depth is well-calibrated.” ref 

“Considerable progress has recently been made on both of these fronts by more sophisticated analyses of the richer data source provided by mtDNA complete sequences. With respect to the molecular clock, there are many factors leading to uncertainty. There is the wide variation in positional mutation rates and violations of the independence of mutations at different positions. Obvious regions are the paired stems of rRNAs and tRNAs, which some authors remove from the ana-lysis, but there are other locations in the mtDNA molecule that can also present a secondary structure related with a functional role. There is the problem of multiple hits and saturation, leading to the curious observation that the total proportion of control-region polymorphisms in the African branches of the tree is lower than in the non-African ones. Selection is also an important issue, with a higher frequency of replacement substitutions in the younger branches of the human mtDNA phylogeny compared to the more internal branches. Kivisild et al. advocated the use of only synonymous diversity for estimation of the TMRCA, which is problematic for age estimations in young lineages, while Soares et al. implemented a correction for the purifying selection effect on the mutation rate estimated for the entire molecule. The choice of calibration points is also an important issue. Traditionally, an outgroup is used, where the split time with the human lineage can be assigned in some way.” ref

“For humans, the closest one is that corresponding to the human-chimpanzee split, for which the fossil evidence is controversial and which is in a time frame very distant from the TMRCA of the mtDNA of Homosapiens, rendering the application of a strict clock problematic. One recent analysis additionally used the chronometric ages of the available Neanderthalsequences as calibration points. A strategy of multiple calibration points in conjunction with relaxed-clock methods, where the rate is allowed to vary among branches in the tree is appealing, but this has been hard to implement in the human tree because of the unavailability of secure multiple calibration points. Bandeltet al. advocate that calibrated radiocarbon dates in favourable pioneer-settlement situations with a well-defined founder mtDNA scenario and a rich archaeological record could be used for calibration purposes, but consensus for both radiocarbon dates and founder mtDNA lineages are far from being achieved in most known settlement situations.” ref

“Endicott and Ho applied an internal calibration to the human mtDNA tree by specifying priors on the ages of three nodes in the tree associated with demographic signals: the entry into Australia and New Guinea by establishing a minimum of 400,000 years ago a for haplogroup P; and the post-Last Glacial Maximum expansion of haplogroups H1 and H3 (unfortunately suggested as 18,000 years ago). This internal calibration was performed using a Bayesian approach with the software BEAST, and resulted in a substitution rate1.4 times higher than that resulting from the human-chimpanzee calibration. BEAST also, however, allows a reconstruction of effective population size through time, by using the Bayesian skyline plot, based on a coalescent model analyzed by Markov Chain Monte-Carlo sampling. BSPs do not require a pre-specified parametric growth model as do other methods and, although designed for use with population data, they have also been used to attempt parameter estimation from haplogroup data with some apparent success.” ref

“Here, we analyze an additional 39 complete U6 gen-omes, from the full range of the U6 geographic distribution, including the Near East, Iberia, and the Canary Islands. This has enabled us to construct a phylogenetic tree including 89 U6 genomes in total, and to re-evaluate the demographic history of the haplogroup, and its role in North African prehistory, in the light of the recent developments in the calibration of mutation rates. A comparison tree was inferred for 141 U5sequences from the literature, allowing us to test the use of four alternative internal calibration points (the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East) against the recently developed complete genome clock with a correction for purifying selection.” ref

Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations

Relationships among North Africans

“The general view is that Eurasians mostly descend from a single group of humans that dispersed outside of sub-Saharan Africa around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Present-day North Africans share a majority of their ancestry with present-day Near Easterners, but not with sub-Saharan Africans. To investigate this conundrum, Van de Loosdrecht et al. sequenced high-quality DNA obtained from bone samples of seven individuals from Taforalt in eastern Morocco dating from the Later Stone Age, about 15,000 years ago. The Taforalt individuals were found to be most closely related to populations from the Near East (Natufians), with a third of their ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. No evidence was found for introgression with western Europeans, despite attribution to the Iberomaurusian culture. None of the present-day or ancient Holocene African groups are a good proxy for the sub-Saharan genetic component.” ref

Abstract

“North Africa is a key region for understanding human history, but the genetic history of its people is largely unknown. We present genomic data from seven 15,000-year-old modern humans, attributed to the Iberomaurusian culture, from Morocco. We find a genetic affinity with early Holocene Near Easterners, best represented by Levantine Natufians, suggesting a pre-agricultural connection between Africa and the Near East. We do not find evidence for gene flow from Paleolithic Europeans to Late Pleistocene North Africans. The Taforalt individuals derive one-third of their ancestry from sub-Saharan Africans, best approximated by a mixture of genetic components preserved in present-day West and East Africans. Thus, we provide direct evidence for genetic interactions between modern humans across Africa and Eurasia in the Pleistocene.” ref

“Under typical conditions (i.e., aside from intermittent greening periods), the Sahara desert poses an ecogeographic barrier for human migration between North and sub-Saharan Africa (1). Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the most deeply divergent genetic lineages among present-day humans (2), and the general view is that all Eurasians mostly descend from a single group of humans that dispersed outside of sub-Saharan Africa around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. This group likely represented only a small fraction of the genetic diversity within Africa, most closely related to a Holocene East African group (4). Present-day North Africans share a majority of their ancestry with present-day Near Easterners but not with sub-Saharan Africans (5). Thus, from a genetic perspective, present-day North Africa is largely a part of Eurasia. However, the temporal depth of this genetic connection between the Near East and North Africa is poorly understood and has been estimated only indirectly from present-day mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation.” ref

“Owing to challenging conditions for DNA preservation, relatively few ancient genomes have been recovered from Africa. Genome-wide data from 23 individuals have been reported from South and East Africa, with the oldest dating back to 8100 years ago. In North Africa, a genomic study of Egyptian mummies from the around 3,000-2,000 years ago showed that the genetic connection between the Near East and North Africa was established by that time However, the genetic affinity of North African populations at a greater time depth has remained unknown.” ref

“Here we present genome-wide data from seven individuals, directly dated between 15,100 and 13,900 calibrated years ago, from Grotte des Pigeons near Taforalt in eastern Morocco. These genomic data provide a critical reference point to help explain the deep genetic history of North Africa and the broader Middle East. The Taforalt individuals are associated with the Later Stone Age Iberomaurusian culture, whose origin is debated. These individuals may have descended either directly from the manufacturers of the preceding Middle Stone Age technologies (Aterian or local West African bladelet technologies) or from an exogenous population with ties to the Upper Paleolithic technocomplexes of the Near East or Southern Europe.” ref

Spatiotemporal locations of the Taforalt and other ancient genomes.

“(A and B) Geographic locations of representative ancient genomes from West Eurasia and Africa included in our analysis. The Pleistocene Taforalt site is denoted by a red circle. (C) The date range of each ancient group is marked by black bars, representing the range of 95% confidence intervals of radiocarbon dates across all dated individuals. Group labels are taken from previous studies reporting each ancient genome. N, Neolithic; WHG, Western European hunter-gatherers; EHG, Eastern European hunter-gatherers; CHG, Caucasus hunter-gatherers.” ref

“For nine Taforalt individuals, we created double-indexed single-stranded DNA libraries) for next-generation sequencing of DNA isolated from petrous bones. We then used in-solution capture probes to enrich libraries for the whole mitochondrial genome and ~1,240,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the nuclear genome. The DNA fragments obtained from seven individuals, six genetic males and one female, had postmortem degradation characteristics typical of ancient DNA. We reconstructed the mitochondrial genomes of all seven individuals (102× to 1701× coverage, unmerged libraries; table S4) while maintaining a low level of contamination from the DNA of modern humans.” ref

“For the nuclear data analysis, in which ancient DNA is more susceptible to contamination than in mitochondrial analyses, we analyzed five individuals (four males and one female) on the basis of coverage and negligible modern human contamination for males (1.7 to 2.5%). For each individual, we randomly chose a single base per site as a haploid genotype. We intersected our new data with data from a panel of worldwide present-day populations, genotyped on the Affymetrix Human Origins array for ~600,000 markers, as well as ancient genomic data covering Europe, the Near East, and sub-Saharan Africa. The final data set includes 593,124 intersecting autosomal SNPs with 183,041 to 544,232 SNP positions covered for each of the five individuals. For group-based analyses involving other ancient individuals, we adopted the population labels from the original studies. We found an overall high genetic relatedness between the Taforalt individuals, suggesting a strong population bottleneck.” ref

“We analyzed the genetic affinities of the Taforalt individuals by performing principal components analysis and model-based clustering of worldwide data. When projected onto the top principal components of African and west Eurasian populations, the Taforalt individuals form a distinct cluster in an intermediate position between present-day North Africans [e.g., Amazighes (Berbers), Mozabites, and Saharawis] and East Africans (e.g., Afars, Oromos, and Somalis). Consistently, we find that all males with sufficient nuclear DNA preservation carry Y haplogroup E1b1b1a1 (M-78).” ref

“This haplogroup occurs most frequently in present-day North and East African populations. The closely related E1b1b1b (M-123) haplogroup has been reported for Epipaleolithic Natufians and Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levantines (Levant_N). Unsupervised genetic clustering also suggests a connection of Taforalt to the Near East. The three major components that make up the Taforalt genomes are maximized in early Holocene Levantines, East African hunter-gatherer Hadza from north-central Tanzania, and West Africans. In contrast, present-day North Africans have smaller sub-Saharan African components with minimal Hadza-related contribution.” ref

Summary of the genetic profile of the Taforalt individuals.

“(A) The top two principal components (PCs) calculated from present-day African, Near Eastern, and Southern European individuals from 72 populations. The Taforalt individuals are projected thereon (red inverted triangles), and selected present-day populations are denoted by various colored symbols. ADMIXTURE analysis results of chosen African and Middle Eastern populations (K = 10). Ancient individuals are labeled in red. Major ancestry components in Taforalt individuals are maximized in early Holocene Levantines (green), West Africans (purple), and East African Hadza (brown). The ancestry component prevalent in pre-Neolithic Europeans (beige) is absent in Taforalt.” ref

“We calculated outgroup f3 statistics of the form f3(Taforalt, X; Mbuti) across worldwide ancient and present-day test populations. Consistent with previous analyses, we find that ancient Near Eastern populations, especially Epipaleolithic Natufians and early Neolithic Levantines, show the highest outgroup f3 values with Taforalt. This is confirmed by f4 symmetry statistics of the form f4(Chimpanzee, Taforalt; NE1, NE2) that measure a relative affinity of a pair of Near Eastern (NE) groups to Taforalt. A positive value indicates that NE2 is closer than NE1 to Taforalt. We consistently find positive f4 values when the NE2 group is Natufian or Levant_N and the NE1 group is representative of other populations [z score = 2.2 to 11.0 standard error. Congruent to the outgtoup-f3 results, the Natufian population shows higher affinity to Taforalt than does the Levant_N group.” ref

“This indicates that the early Holocene Levantine populations, overlapping with or postdating our Taforalt individuals by up to 6000 years, are most closely related to the Taforalt group, among Near Eastern populations. Next, we evaluated whether the Taforalt individuals have sub-Saharan African ancestry by calculating f4(Chimpanzee, X; Natufian, Taforalt). We observe significant positive f4 values for all sub-Saharan African groups and significant negative values for all Eurasian populations, supporting a substantial contribution from sub-Saharan Africa. West Africans, such as Mende and Yoruba, most strongly pull out the sub-Saharan African ancestry in Taforalt.” ref

Geographic distribution of the genetic affinity of the Taforalt group with worldwide populations.

“(A) Mean shared genetic drift with the Taforalt group, as measured by outgroup f3 statistics in the form f3 (Taforalt, X; Mbuti). Warm colors denote populations genetically close to Taforalt. Early Holocene Levantine groups (Natufians and Neolithic Levantines) show the highest affinity with Taforalt. Extra genetic affinity with the Taforalt group in comparison to Natufians, as measured by statistics in the form (Chimpanzee, X; Natufian, Taforalt). Large diamonds and squares represent the 10 most positive and negative f4 values, respectively. Sub-Saharan Africans show high positive values, with West African Yoruba and Mende having the highest values, supporting the presence of sub-Saharan African ancestry in Taforalt individuals. In contrast, all Eurasian populations are genetically closer to Natufians than to the Taforalt group.” ref

“We investigated whether two first-hand proxies, Natufians and West Africans, are sufficient to explain the Taforalt gene pool or whether a more complex admixture model is required. We thus tested whether Natufians could be a sufficient proxy for the Eurasian ancestry in Taforalt without explicit modeling of its African ancestry (fig. S18). This line of investigation was inspired by proposed archaeological connections between the Iberomaurusian and Upper Paleolithic cultures in Southern Europe, either via the Strait of Gibraltar or Sicily. If this connection is true, both the Upper Paleolithic European and Natufian ancestries will be required to explain the Taforalt gene pool.” ref

“For our admixture modeling with the program qpAdm, we chose outgroups that can distinguish sub-Saharan African, Natufian, and Paleolithic European ancestries but are blind to differences between sub-Saharan African lineages. A two-way admixture model, comprising Natufian and sub-Saharan African populations, does not significantly deviate from our data, with 63.5% Natufian and 36.5% sub-Saharan African ancestry, on average. Adding Paleolithic European lineages as a third source only marginally increased the model fit. Consistently, by using the qpGraph package, we find that a mixture of Natufian and Yoruba reasonably fits the Taforalt gene pool. Adding gene flow from Paleolithic Europeans does not improve the model fit and provides an ancestry contribution estimate of 0%. We thus find no evidence of gene flow from Paleolithic Europeans into Taforalt within the resolution of our data.” ref

We further characterized the sub-Saharan African–related ancestry in the Taforalt individuals by using f4 statistics in the form f4 (Chimpanzee, African; Yoruba/Mende, Natufian). We find that Yoruba or Mende and Natufians are symmetrically related to two deeply divergent outgroups, an ancient South African group from 2000 years ago (SouthAfrica) and Mbuti Pygmy, respectively. Because f4 statistics are linear under admixture, we expect the Taforalt population not to be any closer to these outgroups than Yoruba or Natufians if the two-way admixture model is correct.” ref

“However, we find instead that the Taforalt group is significantly closer to both outgroups (SouthAfrica and Mbuti) than any combination of Yoruba and Natufians. A similar pattern is observed for the East African outgroups Dinka, Mota, and Hadza. These results can only be explained by Taforalt harboring an ancestry that contains additional affinity with South, East, and Central African outgroups. None of the present-day or ancient Holocene African groups serve as a good proxy for this unknown ancestry, because adding them as the third source is still insufficient to match the model to the Taforalt gene pool. However, we can exclude any branch in human genetic diversity more basal than the deepest known one represented by SouthAfrica as the source of this signal: it would result in a negative affinity to SouthAfrica, not a positive one as we find. Both an unknown archaic hominin and the recently proposed deep West African lineage belong to this category and therefore cannot explain the Taforalt gene pool.” ref

Relative genetic affinity of representative sub-Saharan African groups to a mixture of Yoruba and Natufians in comparison to the Taforalt group.

“We measured f4 statistics in the form f4(Chimpanzee, African; Yoruba+Natufian, Taforalt) by using (A) SouthAfrica, (B) Mbuti, and (C) Hadza as the African group. The f4 statistics were calculated for the proportions of Natufian-related ancestry ranging from 0 to 100% in increments of 1%. The blue rectangle marks a plausible range of Natufian ancestry proportion, estimated by our qpAdm modeling [0.637 ± (2 × 0.069)]. Gray solid and dotted lines represent ±1 and −3 SE ranges, respectively. SEs were calculated by 5-centimorgan block jackknife method.” ref

“Mitochondrial consensus sequences of the Taforalt individuals belong to the U6a (six individuals) and M1b (one individual) haplogroups, which are mostly confined to present-day populations in North and East Africa. U6 and M1 have been proposed as markers for autochthonous Maghreb ancestry, which might have been originally introduced into this region by a back-to-Africa migration from West Asia. The occurrence of both haplogroups in the Taforalt individuals proves their pre-Holocene presence in the Maghreb. We used the BEAST v1.8.1 package to analyze the seven ancient Taforalt individuals in combination with four Upper Paleolithic European mtDNA genomes and present-day individuals belonging to U6 and M1.” ref

“By using a human mtDNA mutation rate inferred from tip calibration of ancient mtDNA genomes, we obtained divergence estimates for U6 at 37,000 years ago (40,000 to 34,000 years ago for 95% highest posterior density, HPD) and M1 at 24,000 years ago (95% HPD: 29,000 to 20,000 years ago). Our estimated dates are considerably more recent than those of a study using present-day data only 45,000 years ago for U6 and 37,000 years ago for M1 but are similar to those of Pennarun et al.. Moreover, we observed an asynchronous increase in the effective population size for U6 and M, which suggests that the demographic histories of these North and East African haplogroups do not coincide and might have been influenced by multiple expansions in the Late Pleistocene. Notably, the diversification of haplogroups U6a and M1 found for Taforalt is dated to ~24,000 years ago, which is close in time to the earliest known appearance of the Iberomaurusian culture in Northwest Africa [25,845 to 25,270 years ago at Tamar Hat].” ref

“The relationships of the Iberomaurusian culture with those of the preceding Middle Stone Age, including the local backed bladelet technologies in Northeast Africa, and the Epigravettian in Southern Europe have been questioned (13). The genetic profile of Taforalt suggests substantial Natufian-related and sub-Saharan African–related ancestries (63.5 and 36.5%, respectively) but not additional ancestry from Epigravettian or other Upper Paleolithic European populations. Therefore, we provide genomic evidence for a Late Pleistocene connection between North Africa and the Near East, predating the Neolithic transition by at least four millennia, while rejecting the hypothesis of a potential Epigravettian gene flow from Southern Europe into northern Africa, within the resolution of our data. Archaeogenetic studies on additional Iberomaurusian sites will be critical to evaluate the representativeness of Taforalt for the Iberomaurusian gene pool. We speculate that the Natufian-related ancestral population may have been widespread across North Africa and the Near East, associated with microlithic-backed bladelet technologies that started to spread out in this area by at least 25,000 years ago and references therein]. However, given the absence of ancient genomic data from a similar time frame for this broader area, the epicenter of expansion, if any, for this ancestral population remains unknown.” ref

“Although the oldest Iberomaurusian microlithic bladelet technologies are found earlier in the Maghreb than their equivalents in northeastern Africa (Cyrenaica) and the earliest Natufian in the Levant, the complex sub-Saharan ancestry in Taforalt makes our individuals an unlikely proxy for the ancestral population of later Natufians who do not harbor sub-Saharan ancestry. An epicenter in the Maghreb is plausible only if the sub-Saharan African admixture into Taforalt either postdated the expansion into the Levant or was a locally confined phenomenon. Alternatively, placing the epicenter in Cyrenaica or the Levant requires an additional explanation for the observed archaeological chronology.” ref

Namibia

“Namibia officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations.” ref

“The driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.” ref

“In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910. In 1884 the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. It developed farming and infrastructure. Between 1904 and 1908 it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people. German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces. In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. As Mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying apartheid to what was then known as South West Africa.” ref

“In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but South Africa maintained de facto rule. In 1973 the UN recognised the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people; the party is dominated by the Ovambo, who are a large plurality in the territory. Following continued guerrilla warfare, South Africa installed an interim administration in Namibia in 1985. Namibia obtained full independence from South Africa in 1990. However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994.” ref

“Namibia has a population of 2.55 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small. The large, arid Namib Desert from which the country derived its name has resulted in Namibia being overall one of the least densely populated countries in the world.” ref

The Rock Art of Namibia Gallery: LINK

AFRICAN ROCK ART AND PAINTING

“San Thomas river rock art was a common form of expression among ancient peoples. It has been found on every continent except Antarctica. Africa has more rock art sites than any other continent and these sites are widely distributed across the continent. Rock art has been in numerous sites in the Sahara (See Below) and in southern Africa in the Kalahari and Drakenburg mountains of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.” ref

“The oldest known—in Namibia in southern Africa—is are estimated to be around 27,000 years old but maybe as old as 40,000 years old. By contrast, the oldest rock art in Europe is about 30,000 years old. In Australia, some works maybe 75,000 years old but the jury is still out on this date. There are thousands—probably tens of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands—of rock art sites. Many lie undiscovered because they are situated in remote areas of the Sahara or in other places rarely visited or not visited at all by humans. The art has endured sun, sand, and occasional thunderstorms.” ref

“According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Rock paintings and engravings are Africa’s oldest continuously practiced art form. Depictions of elegant human figures, richly hued animals, and figures combining human and animal features—called therianthropes and associated with shamanism—continue to inspire admiration for their sophistication, energy, and direct, powerful forms. The apparent universality of these images is deceptive; content and style range widely over the African continent. Nevertheless, African rock art can be divided into three broad geographical zones—southern, central, and northern. The art of each of these zones is distinctive and easily recognizable, even to an untrained eye.” ref

“Not all rock art in these three zones is prehistoric; in some areas these arts flourished into the late nineteenth century, while in other areas rock art continues to be made today. In the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, a number of rock paintings depict clashes between San (Bushmen) people and European colonists mounted on horses and armed with rifles. Many of the Drakensberg works use subtle polychrome shading that gives their subjects a hint of three-dimensional presence. The product of many authors, time periods, and cultures, the flowing naturalism and lively sense of movement of the best rock art attests to the conviction of masterful hands and trained eyes.” ref

Southern African Rock Art and Bushman hunting

“Rock art by hunter-gatherers, herders, and/or later farming communities occurs in almost all countries in Africa. There is, however, a distinctive set of Southern African traditions, with regional and temporal variation, in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho.” ref

“Archeologist Janette Deacon wrote: “Many individual sites and images – both paintings and engravings – are masterpieces of human creative genius that illustrate a combination of sophisticated ideas and beliefs, exquisite and unusual detail, extraordinary imagination, and artistic mastery of the chosen media. Collectively, over a period of nearly thirty millennia in the subcontinent, the artists recorded significant interchanges of human values – particularly with respect to religious and ritual practices – that cannot be recovered from stone artifacts and other inanimate remains.” ref

“There is excellent ethnographic information available from indigenous people in certain key areas that has assisted in the understanding and authentic interpretation of the meaning and motivation of the art – a feature that is missing in many other regions of the world. Paintings and engravings of successive traditions have been done at selected places and areas over a long time period and the integrity of this relationship is still intact, incrementally adding to the tangible and intangible significance and power of these places and the landscape; and The shamanistic inspiration for much of the art demonstrates the time depth and nature of the human quest for supernatural power in this part of the world.” ref

“Geoffrey Blundell of the University of the Witwatersrand wrote: “This zone stretches from the South African Cape to the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia formed by the Zambezi River. The rock painting of this region is characterized by exquisitely minute detail and complex techniques of shading. Engravings are also found in this zone, generally on boulders and rocks in the interior plateau of southern Africa, while paintings are found in the mountainous regions that fringe the plateau. There are only a few places where paintings and engravings are found in the same shelter. Aboriginal San hunter-gatherers made most of these paintings and engravings. [Source: Geoffrey Blundell, Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org, October 2001″ ref

“While the rock art of southern Africa is different from that of the central and northern zones, it is not homogenous. There is, for example, great diversity between the art of the Matopo Hills in Zimbabwe, the Brandberg in Namibia, and the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa. Nevertheless, scholars have suggested that a great deal of San art throughout southern Africa may be explicitly and implicitly linked to San shamanic religion. Principally, a great deal of San art depicts their central most important ritual, the healing or trance dance, and the complex somatic experiences of dancers.” ref

“In addition to San rock art, there are also rock paintings and engravings made by closely related Khoi pastoralists. These people acquired domestic stock through close interaction with Bantu-speaking people some 2,000 years or more ago. Although there is some evidence that they also made engravings, Bantu-speakers’ rock art is characterized by finger painting in a thick, white pigment. Often found superimposed over San or Khoi paintings, this art is implicated in initiation rituals and in political protest and is not a shamanistic art.” ref

Southern African Rock Art Sites

“A summary of rock art databases in Southern African countries indicates that there are at least 14 000 sites on record, but that many more exist than have been formally recorded. There are probably well in excess of 50,000 sites in the region as a whole, with a conservative estimate of more than two million individual images.” ref

“The main sites are: 1) Kondoa-Irangi District in Tanzania (hunter-gatherer paintings with unusual technique and content); 2) Dedza-Chongoni District in Malawi (agriculturist paintings with good ethnographic detail); 3) Manica Province in Mozambique (well-preserved hunter-gatherer paintings); 4) Kasama District in Zambia (well-preserved hunter-gatherer and agriculturist paintings with good ethnographic detail); 5) Matopos National Park in Zimbabwe (high quality, well preserved, detailed hunter-gatherer paintings in natural landscape); 6) Tsodilo in Botswana (large number of well preserved herder paintings in natural landscape); 7) Brandberg in Namibia (large number of high-quality, well-preserved hunter-gatherer rock paintings in natural landscape); 8) Twyfelfontein in Namibia (large number of high-quality, well-preserved hunter-gatherer rock engravings in natural landscape); 9) uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa (large number of high-quality, detailed and well-preserved hunter-gatherer rock paintings in natural landscape); 10) Xam Heartland in South Africa (cultural landscape with excellent ethnographic records and high quality rock hunter-gatherer engravings).” ref

“With the exception of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa, Tsodilo in Botswana, and the Brandberg in Namibia, few areas have been thoroughly searched and recorded. The densest known concentrations of rock art occur in parts of Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe The lowest numbers of recorded sites are in Angola, Malawi, and Mozambique.” ref

“The region has both rock engravings (petroglyphs) and rock paintings (pictographs). There are no reliable records to indicate the relative percentage of paintings to engravings, but painting sites are probably in the majority. In general, both paintings and engravings have similar themes and images, but the engravings tend to include less detail and fewer human figures.” ref

“The distribution of the two techniques is largely governed by geology. Engravings occur out in the open and are usually, but not exclusively, associated with igneous rocks such as dolerite. Such rock formations tend not to form shelters or caves. Rock paintings, on the other hand, are most common in areas where there are caves or rock shelters in outcrops of granite and in sedimentary rocks formations of limestone, sandstone, and quartzite. It is rare, but not unknown, to find both rock paintings and engravings together at the same site.” ref

“In several cases in hunter-gatherer, herder, and agriculturist traditions, there is ethnographic evidence that rock art has been used to enhance the power and significance of particular places in the landscape. The paintings or engravings were placed there because it was a rainmaking or initiation site, adding intangible value to the place. In a few cases, such as Kasama (Zambia) and the /Xam heartland in South Africa, there are ethnographic records that explain the significance of the place. Good examples are Tsodilo (Botswana), the Matopos (Zimbabwe), the Brandberg (Namibia), and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, and the /Xam Heartland (South Africa).” ref

Traditions and Styles of Southern African Rock Art Sites

“San Rock Art in CederbergIn broad terms, there are three rock-art traditions in the region with distinctive styles and content that are largely the result of differences in the cosmology and beliefs of Stone Age hunter-gatherers, of Stone Age herders, and of Iron Age agriculturists. Within these traditions, and often cross-cutting them, there are further differences in the techniques used to paint and engrave.” ref

“Paintings: As elsewhere in the world, the most common pigment used for rock paintings is red ochre, with some paintings in maroon, yellow, black, and white. There is some ethnographic evidence that the pigment was mixed with a variety of binders such as blood, egg, fat, and plant juices, but the exact recipes are not known.” ref

The techniques applied in the majority of paintings can be summarized as follows:

1. “Fine-line paintings, almost exclusively the work of hunter-gatherers, in red or yellow ochre, white clay, or black charcoal or manganese oxide, done with a brush or other fine instrument, using techniques such as the following: A) Outline of the image with a single line (rare everywhere); B) Outline of the image with the interior filled with lines of the same color (characteristic of Tanzania, with some examples elsewhere); C) Monochrome image with the color blocked in (most common almost everywhere); D) Outline in one color with the image filled in with another slightly different color; E) ichrome, in which two blocks of color are used in the same image; F) Polychrome in which three or more colors are used in the same image (most common in Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Lesotho); G) Shaded polychrome in which several colors blend into each other to create depth and shading (most common in Lesotho and the Drakensberg region of South Africa); H) Handprints and finger-dots.” ref

2. “Paintings are done with a finger or very broad brush or applicator, most often by herders and agriculturists, often bold and highly stylized designs that include domesticated animals, in: A) Monochrome red, white, or black (yellow rare); 2) Bichrome (rare); 3) Handprints, both plain and decorated.” ref

3) “Engravings: Rock engravings in all traditions were made most commonly by removing the weathered outer surface of rocks such as dolerite to create a color contrast with the underlying unweathered rock. This could be achieved by using another harder rock such as quartz or chalcedony. The weathered surface was either scraped away over the whole area of the image, or the image was outlined in a single line, or the weathered rock was pecked out in a chopping motion. Some engravings show extraordinary artistic skill with careful details of skin folds, eyes and posture delicately portrayed. Engravings are also found on rocks where there is little or no color contrast but where a large flat expanse is exposed, for example on ancient glacial pavements in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. So-called cupules and grooves, sometimes in regular patterns, have been made in relatively soft rock types where the color contrast between the surface and underlying rock has been less important than the granularity of the rock. Many of these were probably not ‘art’, although they may have had a ritual use.” ref

Dating of Southern African Rock Art Sites

“Khoekhoen rock art NamibiaThe engravings and paintings on the rocks of Southern Africa dates back at least 27,500 years and persisted in some areas until the 20th century CE. The oldest date is the average calculated from fifteen radiocarbon dates on charcoal from an occupation layer in Apollo 11 cave in southern Namibia. Seven small painted slabs, on rock that was not derived from the cave wall or floor, were recovered during two excavations in 1969 and 1972. The next oldest date is from the Matopos in Zimbabwe, where a spall that had flaked off the painted wall in the Cave of Bees was found incorporated in the deposit in the floor. Charcoal from the relevant layer was dated to about 10,500 years ago, giving a minimum age for the original painting.” ref

“The oldest dated rock engravings in the region come from Wonderwerk Cave in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Five small slabs with clearly identifiable fine-line rock engravings of animals and non-representational geometric patterns, and another six with lines that may have been part of engravings, were found in different layers. Associated charcoal dated the oldest to about 8,200 B.C. and the youngest to about 2000 years ago. Cation ratio dates on rock engravings from open sites in South Africa also gave preliminary results of between 10,000 and 2000 years. Relative dating of the weathered crust on engraved surfaces on a small sample of South African rock engravings suggests that the fine-line style is the oldest, and that the pecked and scraped engravings were done more recently.” ref

“Geometric zigzag patterns, combined to make diamond shapes and engraved on two small pieces of hard ochre, have been found in a cave at Blombos on the southern coast of South Africa; associated with the Middle Stone Age artifacts. A layer of dune sand overlying the deposit has been dated at 77,000 years ago by optical luminescence. Although the find is claimed by some to be the earliest art the archaeologists who excavated the site argue only that people at that time were capable of abstract thought and design. Similar designs are found on bone artifacts and ostrich eggshell dating within the last 18 000 years, but are not common in either rock paintings or rock engravings.” ref

“Most of the art was done by hunter-gatherers whose traditions persisted in south-eastern South Africa until the CE 19th century. In some countries, such as Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique, where there are no reports of hunter-gatherer style paintings that include domesticated animals or images of the colonial era, the hunter-gatherer art is estimated to be older than CE 1000.

“Within the last 2000 years, herders and Iron Age agriculturist people entered the region from the north and added to the corpus of rock art with different styles and content. The oldest art in these traditions is generally thought to be less than 1500 years old and the most recent paintings and engravings were done in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In some areas in South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi, agriculturist art was still being practised for initiation rituals in the late twentieth century.” ref

Ethnography of the Southern African Rock Art Sites

“There is a wealth of ethnographic information from the 19th and 20th centuries that can and has been used successfully to interpret many of the metaphors and symbols in hunter-gatherer and later agriculturist art dating back hundreds and even thousands of years. This information gives an unparalleled insight into the meaning and context of rock art. An understanding of altered states of consciousness, and its role in shamanism and rock art as developed by researchers David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson. has, in turn, helped to identify the source of some of the metaphors found in the Palaeolithic rock art in western Europe. With the exception of Australia and North America, very few rock-art regions elsewhere have such detailed sources for interpretation.” ref

“San rock art NamibiaThe ethnographic records provides considerable evidence in Southern Africa that hunter-gatherer rock paintings and rock engravings were part of religious practices for rain-making, healing, and other shamanistic activities such as out-of-body travel and the control of game animals. These practices involved altered states of consciousness that enabled medicine people or shamans to access supernatural power through certain animals or through ancestral spirits. The wide distribution of this rock-art tradition, from South Africa to Tanzania, provides evidence for a broad high-level similarity in the cosmology of Southern African hunter-gatherer peoples. There are nevertheless important regional differences in the way that shamanistic experiences were perceived and used and in the metaphors that were transferred to the art.” ref

“For example, the beliefs of the /Xam San that were recorded in the 1870s led to an understanding in the 1970s of the reason why the eland was the animal most commonly depicted in the rock art in the south-eastern region in South Africa. The work of anthropologists and psychologists amongst 20th century San in Botswana and Namibia enabled some of the /Xam records to be interpreted and better understood. By combining the information from these diverse sources, Vinnicombe concluded that the eland was the pivot around which the social organization and beliefs of the Drakensberg San revolved. Lewis-Williams described how the eland played a key role in boys’ and girls’ initiation, and its role in healing and rainmaking because it was believed that associating with the eland could bring the medicine-person or shaman closer to god and supernatural power. Shamans in trance would feel as though they were transformed into eland, as is clear in many paintings of therianthropes with human and eland body parts that are combined in one image. In other areas such as Zimbabwe and Namibia, however, the eland is less common than animals such as the kudu and the giraffe. This suggests regional variation in the ritual significance of particular animals.” ref

“There is relatively little ethnography that has been applicable to herder rock art, and indeed there is only circumstantial evidence that the schematic and highly stylized art with a wider range of geometric patterns, best represented at Tsodilo (Botswana), was done by early herders. This art is attributed to herders because it includes domesticated animals, and because in places where it occurs with the earlier tradition it tends to be superimposed on what is clearly hunter-gatherer art. Herder art is also found above and below hunter-gatherer art. A good example is the Limpopo Valley, where there was a brief period of interaction between the two groups in the 1st millennium CE.” ref

“Agriculturist rock-art displays some general similarities within the region and is quite distinct from the hunter-gatherer art in several respects. It tends to be bolder, less detailed, more schematic, and with a smaller range of colors and subject matter. In some areas, the paintings are called ‘late whites’ because where superimposition occurs they are always on top and they are done in white paint with a finger rather than a brush. Local traditions and ethnographic records in Zambia and Malawi indicate some of this art was part of secret male and female initiation practices and of rituals such as rainmaking. The meaning of the designs is known only to the initiated.” ref

Content of Southern African Rock Art Sites

“The content of the rock art varies within the region, but there are several themes that are sufficiently widespread to indicate broad, high-level geographical and temporal continuity within the Southern African hunter-gatherer, herder, and agriculturist belief systems over the period in which rock paintings and rock engravings were done. The most significant similarities are the persistent occurrence of illustrations of and metaphors for altered states of consciousness or trance experience, particularly in the art of the hunter-gatherers. These experiences are evident in the postures in which people are illustrated, the consistent selection of certain animals in preference to others, and in the presence and incorporation of geometric patterns that depict entoptic phenomena ‘seen’ during trance.” ref

“In hunter-gatherer art, people are shown in postures such as bending from the waist, lying down horizontally, or with contorted limbs. Additional details such as bleeding from the nose or a red line that sometimes has white dots emanating from the back of the neck or the feet may be seen, as well as the transformation of people into animals and animals into people. Processions of dancing people or groups of clapping women record the dances that helped shamans go into trance. Healers, shown touching sick people to draw out the arrows of sickness, may be associated with arrows, they may have animal heads, or may be sweating or bleeding from the nose. Rainmakers may be shown in close contact with large rain animals such as elephant, hippo, or eland, or with huge animals that are not identifiable to species. People in deep trance may be shown collapsing as if dead, or swimming underwater with fish or fish tails, or flying, with or without wings.” ref

“Images of transformed medicine-people with animal heads and other features (therianthropes) are especially detailed in paintings in the Drakensberg (South Africa and Lesotho), in Zimbabwe, and in the Brandberg (Namibia). Animals may also be shown with human hind legs. Therianthropes occur in parts of Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania, but are not as common as they are in the other Southern African countries.” ref

“Differences in the content of the art can be seen in the posture and dress of the people who are illustrated. For example, paintings of people in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania have dramatic hairstyles that are not seen so often in the art further south. In contrast, there are many more paintings in the south of people wearing cloaks, some of which are elaborately decorated.” ref

“As noted above, there are variations in the frequency of certain animals depicted in the rock paintings and engravings of the region. These variations are not a mirror of the distribution of fauna, but an indication of the animals that the artists and their society regarded as significant in their religious and ritual practices. The eland predominates in the south-east, the eland and elephant in the south-west, the rhino is prominent in some areas, while in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Tanzania the kudu and giraffe reign supreme.” ref

“In some parts of South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi the rock art is dominated by agriculturist paintings depicting symbols significant during initiation ceremonies and ritual practices. A stylized image of the crocodile or lizard is most common in some areas where it is a symbol of power, while in others domesticated cattle are more prevalent. Agriculturist art also records activities associated with colonial times such as trains, motor vehicles, aircraft, wagons, horses, camels, and other forms of transport.” ref

“Schematic designs illustrating entoptic phenomena with dots, zigzags, grids, wavy lines, nested u-shapes, concentric circles, sunbursts, and vortices are widespread and occur in all rock-art traditions, not only in Southern Africa but elsewhere in the world as well. In Southern Africa they are more common in rock engravings than in paintings, but are nevertheless seen in paintings throughout the region. In the hunter-gatherer tradition, they are subtly integrated into the fine-line paintings and engravings; in the herder art they are often more common than images of people or animals; and in the agriculturist art they may be combined with other stylized designs. The presence of these entoptic patterns in all three traditions emphasizes their connection with altered states of consciousness and, therefore, the link between the art and trance experience that persisted in various forms over a long period of time and through major changes in economy and beliefs.” ref

Bushman Art

“Bushmen paintings can be found throughout most of southern Africa and as far north as Tanzania. The highest concentration of them is in South Africa, where many are located near the top of high escarpments, places Bushmen have traditionally scanned the horizon for game. Most of them are painted on the walls of rock shelters under a protective overhang which also served as the Bushmen’s home. The painting themselves are similar to shelter paintings and rock art found in the Sahara and North Africa as well as famous Stone-Age painting in Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain.” ref

“The Bushmen are people who have lived as hunters and gatherers until recent times. In his 1874 treatise on Bushmen mythology, Dr. W. H. Bleek wrote, “This fact of Bushman paintings illustrating Bushman mythology…gives at once to Bushman art a higher character and teaches us to look upon it as products not as mere daubings of figures for idle pastime, but as truly artistic conception of the ideas which most deeply moved the Bushman mind and filled it with religious feeling.” ref

“The Bushmen used paint brushes made from the tails and manes of the black wildebeest. The horns of antelopes were used as paint pots. Pointed pieces of bone were used to make fine details. Most of the paintings were done in red, and yellow. Red and brown pigments appear to have been concocted from a finely ground and possibly roasted iron oxide mixed with a binder like animal fat, milk, urine, blood, or honey. White was made from zinc, and black from manganese or charcoal. The paint penetrated the sandstone shelter surfaces, which is one of the main reasons why the painting have held up all these years. The iron oxide is thought to have some from nodules of sandstone that can be pried out of rock and split open like melons.” ref

“As to the age of the Bushmen paintings, some anthropologists say that because they were exposed to the air (unlike the European paintings which were often found in nearly sealed off caves) the colors were unlikely to last more than a 1,000 years. Most are probably between 300 and 800 years old. Some of them show Bantu and their cattle. Others depict European soldiers with guns and horses that were painted between 1820 and 1870.” ref

“Tourists who visit the cliff-hanging Bushmen shelters often complain about the wearying climbs and wonder why they bothered. After watching a small duiker climb effortlessly among the rocks scholar Berry Malan told Friendly “To the Bushman the climb was no harder than to the duiker. He was used to it from infancy.” ref

Bushman Art Subjects

“Bushmen paintings portrayed themselves, their enemies, but most of all they depicted the animals they hunted for food— rhebok, eland, springbok, and hartebeest— and the animals they were often in contact with—elephants, giraffes, leopards, lions, snakes, and birds. Some paintings were drawn with life-size proportions but more often than not they consisted of tiny inch-high figures.” ref

“Most paintings by bushmen were of large animals and hunting scenes, and many of them are reminiscent of the prehistoric cave paintings found in France and Spain. Some depict animals with unusual colorations. No one is sure why Bushmen often drew animals using the wrong colors. “Perhaps the Bushmen was limited as to available pigments,” wrote Alfred Friendly of the Washington Post, “Often, however, he had a most variegated palette. One Bushman slain in [Lesotho] about 1866, and the last known painter of his band, was found to have ten small pots of animal horn slung around his belt. Each pot contained a different color.” ref

“Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, who spent a great deal of time studying Bushmen, once gave the Bushmen some paper and paints. At first only the children would draw, but later the adults joined in, and everyone was laughing and having a good time. Many of their animals and figures resembled those found in cave painting. The only difference was that some of them looked like they were seen from above.” ref

Bushman Art Human Figures

“The Bushmen drew more human figures than their Stone Age counterparts in France and Spain, but their figures never had faces or individualized forms. The Stone Age paintings in France and Spain are generally more dramatic and sophisticated.” ref

“The sex and hairstyles of the human figures depicted in Bushman paintings is clearly defined and many have patterns which are believed to have magical, religious, or ceremonial purposes. Present-day bushmen have forgotten how to make the painting and interpret them.” ref

“The Bushmen paintings depict figures playing reed flutes, escaping from ambushing leopards and dressed in knee-length cloaks. A figure in one cave had hooves instead of feet. In another they had heads and skins of buffalo. Anthropologists speculate these images might carry a religious message.” ref

Purpose of the Bushman Paintings

“Bushmen artists frequently drew over paintings that were already there. Some shelters have pictures with overlays, three or four deep. Some anthropologists suggest that for Bushmen artists “the act of painting was sometimes more important than the result.” ref

“Archeologists theorize that paintings had magical significance, and have argued that a depiction of a subject might put a curse on that subject. The Bushmen’s Bantu enemies were easily recognized; they were painted big and black (the Bushmen painted themselves little and red) and they often carried clubs and shields, and had apelike faces.” ref

“His paintings, ” wrote South African writer Laurens van Van der Post, ” show him clearly to be illuminated with spirit; the lamp may have been antique, but the oil is authentic and timeless, the flame was well and tenderly lit. Indeed, his capacity for love shows up like fire on a hill at night. He, alone of all the races in Africa, was so much of its earth and innermost being that he tried constantly to glorify it by adorning its stones and decorating its rocks with paintings. We other races went through Africa like locusts devouring and stripping the land for what we could get out of it. The Bushman was there solely because he belonged to it.” ref

Game Pass

“Geoffrey Blundell of the University of the Witwatersrand wrote: “High in a secluded valley in the Drakensberg Mountains is the spectacular site of Game Pass. Here, on the walls of a narrow sandstone shelter, are painted a great many images of eland (the largest of all antelopes). For a shelter so open to the elements, the paintings are miraculously well preserved and in some places the brush marks can still be seen. Situated among the many images of eland are smaller human figures in running postures. This site, however, is most famous for a cluster of images tucked away on one side of the shelter. It was extensive analysis of these images that first led scholars to the realization that the art was a system of metaphors closely associated with San shamanistic religion. [Source: Geoffrey Blundell, Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org, October 2001″ ref

“This cluster of images is comprised of an eland with closely associated anthropomorphic figures. The eland’s head is lowered, turned toward the viewer with staring hollow eyes. Its one front leg bends under its weight, while its two back legs are crossed over as it stumbles, and the hair on its neck and dewlap is erect. This sort of behavior is characteristic of eland when they have been wounded by one of the poisoned arrows that the San use to hunt. They stumble about, their heads sway loosely from side to side, they sweat profusely and even bleed from the mouth and nose, and the hair along their neck and back stands erect. This image, then, is of an eland in its final death throes.” ref

“Behind the eland, a human figure holds the tail of the animal; this figure’s legs are also crossed, mimicking those of the eland’s back legs. This human figure’s legs continue all the way underneath the rock shelf, and close inspection reveals that the figure does not have feet but antelope hooves. Next to this figure are two more in similar pigment. The first is of a human figure bending forward with one arm stretched out behind its back. It apparently has no head—although the pigment may have worn away—and a short skin-cloak, known as a kaross, falls from the chest. Just above and to the right of this figure is one with an animal head, wearing a full kaross. To the right, in an orange pigment, is another human figure with an arm behind its back. This figure too, like the one clutching the eland’s tail, has antelope hooves instead of feet and its hairs are erect like those on the eland itself. The arms-back posture—adopted by contemporary San at dances in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia and Botswana when they ask God to infuse them with supernatural energy—is frequently depicted in San art. Bending forward is closely related to the arms-back position and is adopted by dancers when the supernatural energy begins to “boil” in their stomachs. These three human-animal figures suggest a close association between the dying eland and the ecstatic experience of dancers.” ref

“Indeed, in the Kalahari, the San often like to perform a trance dance around or near the carcass of a freshly killed eland in order to harness supernatural energy (known as n/om) from the animal. When they have harnessed this energy, they enter an altered state of consciousness in which they stumble about, sweat profusely, and the hair on their bodies stands on end. So closely are the experiences of trance and the death of eland in their physical manifestation that the San talk about trance as “the death that kills us all.” They speak of their experience metaphorically; for them, there is no difference between death and trance.” ref

“The link between the dying eland and the human figure clutching its tail in this cluster of images is a graphic metaphor—an allusion to the close parallels between death and trance. Once this metaphor was identified at this site, a new vista opened up for scholars, and many other religious metaphors and symbols were identified in San art. It is for this reason that the site is often referred to as the Rosetta Stone of southern African rock art.” ref

Coldstream Stone

“According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “This small polychrome stone, found buried with a human skeleton near the Lottering River in the southern part of the Western Cape province of South Africa, is famous not only for its great age but also its beautiful and unusually well-preserved imagery. Three figures with white faces and vibrantly elongated ocher bodies stride across this round stone’s surface. [Source: Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” ref

“Documentations of South African Khoisan religious and trance practices recorded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been used to interpret not only more recent rock art but also rock paintings and engravings thousands of years old. Southern African rock paintings and engravings often combine geometric forms with images of humans and animals, in what some scholars have argued represents hallucinatory trance imagery. Although the Coldstream Stone itself does not contain references to animals or geometric patterns, some scholars have interpreted it in terms of Khoisan trance practices because of the nasal hemorrhaging of some of the figures.” ref

Apollo 11 (27,500–25,500 years ago) and Wonderwerk (10,000 years ago) Cave Stones

“According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The earliest history of rock painting and engraving arts in Africa is uncertain. Increasing archaeological research in Africa demonstrates that many sites remain to be discovered. In addition, artworks on exposed rock walls are vulnerable to damaging weather and harsh climates, and although many do survive, only tentative steps have been made toward direct dating techniques. [Source: Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org, October 2000,” ref

“Much more easily datable are painted and engraved rocks that have been buried deliberately, or that have fallen off the wall and become submerged in soil. Radio-carbon dating provides an estimate of when these rocks were buried, although it is still not possible to determine how old the images were before burial.” ref

“The seven slabs of rock with traces of animal figures that were found in the Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns Mountains of southwestern Namibia have been dated with unusual precision for ancient rock art. Originally brought to the site from elsewhere, the stones were painted in charcoal, ocher, and white. Until recently, the Apollo 11 stones were the oldest known artwork of any kind from the African continent. More recent discoveries of incised ocher date back almost as far as 100,000 B.C., making Africa home to the oldest images in the world.” ref

“Incised stones found at the Wonderwerk Cave in the Northern Cape province of South Africa suggest that rock engraving has also had a long history on the continent. The stones, engraved with geometric line designs and representations of animals, have been dated to circa 8200 B.C. and are among the earliest recorded African stone engravings.” ref

Central African Rock Art

“Geoffrey Blundell of the University of the Witwatersrand wrote: “Of the three zones, the art of Central Africa is the least studied and least well understood. This zone stretches from the Zambezi River to below the Sahara Desert. The art differs significantly from that to the south and to the north in that images of animals and human beings do not predominate. Instead, the art is principally comprised of finger-painted, monochromatic geometric images. Because of the finger-painted geometric images, some scholars are investigating the link between the central zone and the Khoi art of the southern zone. [Source: Geoffrey Blundell, Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org, October 2001,” ref

“There is one anomaly in the central zone—the art of the Kondoa region in central Tanzania. Although very faded with age, the art in this region is not finger painted but, like the fine-line southern African images, is also brush painted. In subject matter and style, it is more closely related to southern African San painting—and, in particular, that of Zimbabwe—than to any of the images in the central zone. It is believed that this enigmatic body of art is closely related to the Hadza and Sandawe people who, until recently, were still involved in hunting and gathering.” ref

Tsodilo

“The Tsodilo Hills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves. 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. UNESCO estimates there are over 4500 rock paintings at the site. The site consists of a few main hills known as the Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill.” ref

“There are four chief hills. The highest is 1,400 metres AMSL, one of the highest points in Botswana. The four hills are commonly described as the “Male” (the highest), “Female”, “Child”, plus an unnamed knoll. They are about 40 km from Shakawe and can be reached via a good graded dirt road.” ref

“There is a managed campsite between the two largest hills, with showers and toilets. 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 small museum and an airstrip near the campsite.” ref

“People have used the Tsodilo Hills for painting and ritual for thousands of years. UNESCO estimates that the hills contain 500 individual sites representing thousands of years of human habitation. The hills’ rock art has been linked to the local hunter-gatherers. 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. There is evidence that Bantu peoples were responsible for some of the artworks at the hills. Some of the paintings have been dated to be as early as 24,000 years ago.” ref

Rhino Cave

“Rhino Cave is located at the North end of the Female Hill and has two main walls where paintings are located. The white rhino painting (for which the cave is named) is located on the north wall, and is split by another painting of a red giraffe. Excavations of the cave floor turned up many lithic materials. This cave lacks ostrich eggshell, bone artifacts, pottery or iron, but there were a few mongongo shell fragments found in Later Stone Age layers.” ref

“Charcoal found during excavations has been dated to the African Iron Age, the Later Stone Age (LSA), and the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Mostly stone artifacts from the LSA were made from local materials such as quartz and jasper. MSA artifacts from the cave are mostly prepared projectile points. The points are typically found in various stages of production, some abandoned and some finished.” ref

“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. Around the rhino and the giraffe are various paintings, mostly in red, of geometrics. On the opposite wall, the cave is host to grooves and depressions that have been ground into the rock. They may have been created using hammer stones or grindstones from the LSA period, which have been found at Tsodilo.” ref

White Paintings

“The white-colored rock art at Tsodilo is associated with Bantu peoples. Many of the white paintings are located in the aptly named White Paintings Rock Shelter, located on the Male Hill. (There are red paintings in this shelter, as well.) The white paintings depict animals, both domestic and wild, as well as human-like figures. The human figures are usually painted with their hands on their hips. 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.” ref

“Dates are taken from charcoal, ostrich eggshell, bone samples, and the deposits ranged from the MSA to LSA. (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.) LSA layers included hammer stones and grindstones, along with bone artifacts and mircolithics. Pottery sherds, ostrich eggshell beads, and mongongo shells were also uncovered. MSA deposits included stone blades as well as other lithic tools.” ref

Red Paintings

“The Tsodilo Hills have a myriad of red rock art; it can be found all over the site. In Rhino Cave, some of the red paintings seem to be older than the white rhino. Red paintings here, and around Tsodilo, are attributed to the San people.” ref

Depression Rock Shelter Site

“Located on the northwest side of the Female Hill, this site gets its name from the depressions that have been ground into the shelter walls. Accompanying these marks are red paintings of what appear to be cattle, as well as geometrics. The rock shelter site, dated from charcoal samples, had its earliest occupation at least 30,000 years ago. Excavations dug up LSA stone tools and Iron Age artifacts. Pottery found in the deepest layers was dated to the first century, and is affiliated with the oldest stone artifacts found in this area. Mongongo nutshells were also uncovered in the various deposits, including the deepest layers, which makes them the oldest mongongo nuts ever found in archaeological context.” ref

Metallurgy

“The Tsodilo Hills are made up of a number of archaeological sites. Two of these sites, known as Divuyu and Nqoma, have evidence of Early Iron Age metal artifacts Excavated from the two sites contained fragments of jewelry and metal tools, all made from iron and/or copper. Jewelry pieces were from bangles, beads, chains, earrings, rings, and pendants, while tools included chisels, projectiles, and arrowheads, and even blades. These two sites share similar fabrication technology, but have different styles of metalworking. Slag and tuyères seem to indicate that Divuyu and Nqoma may have been iron smelting areas, making them one of the few Early Iron Age sites in southern Africa with evidence of metalworking.” ref

Cultural significance

“These hills are of great cultural and spiritual significance to the San peoples of the Kalahari. They believe the hills are a resting place for the spirits of the deceased and that these spirits will cause misfortune and bad luck if anyone hunts or causes death near the hills. Tsodilo is also an object of debate regarding how the San once lived.” ref

Oral Traditions

“Many local peoples around the Tsodilo Hills have stories of times past that deal with the many painted caves and rock shelters at the site. Oral traditions often tell of the Zhu people, a local San group, using rock shelters for protection from the elements or as ritual areas.” ref

“One tale claims that hunters would come into the rock shelters to contact ancestors if a hunt was unsuccessful. They would then ask for a good hunt the next time they went out. In thanks, when the hunt was successful, the people would return to the shelter and cook for their ancestors. In some of these alleged campsites, there is little to no evidence of fire remains. Still, there are areas where rituals, such as rain-making prayers, are performed. Older people in the area can still remember using some rock shelters as campsites when they were children. The Whites Paintings rock shelter may have been used as a camp during the rainy season as early as 70 – 80 years ago.” ref

“The local San people believe Tsodilo is the birthplace of all life, art there made by the descendants of the first people. Tsodilo’s geography, trails, and grooves in the earth are known as the trails and footprints of the first animals, making their way to the first watering hole). A natural water spring at Tsodilo, near the Female Hill, is used as both a water collection site and a ritual site. It is seen as sacred, and used by countless peoples to cleanse, heal, and protect.” ref

The claim of the earliest known ritual (which I agree)

“In 2006 the site known as Rhino Cave became prominent in the media when Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo stated that 70,000-year-old artifacts and a rock resembling a python’s head representing the first known human rituals had been discovered. She also backed her interpretation of the site as a place of ritual based on other animals portrayed: “In the cave, we find only the San people’s three most important animals: the python, the elephant, and the giraffe. Since then some of the archaeologists involved in the original investigations of the site in 1995 and 1996 have challenged these interpretations. They point out that the indentations (known by archaeologists as cupules) described by Coulson do not necessarily all date to the same period and that “many of the depressions are very fresh while others are covered by a heavy patina.” Other sites nearby (over 20) also have depressions and do not represent animals. The Middle Stone Age radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating for this site does not support the 70,000-year figure, suggesting much more recent dates.” ref

“Discussing the painting, the archaeologists say that the painting described as an elephant is actually a rhino, that the red painting of a giraffe is no older than 400 AD and that the white painting of the rhino is more recent, and that experts in rock art believe the red and white paintings are by different groups. They refer to Coulson’s interpretation as a projection of modern beliefs onto the past and call Coulson’s interpretation a composite story that is “flat-out misleading”. They respond to Coulson’s statement that these are the only paintings in the cave by saying that she has ignored red geometric paintings found on the cave wall.” ref

“They also discuss the burned Middle Stone Age points, saying that there is nothing unusual in using nonlocal materials. They dismiss the claim that no ordinary tools were found at the site, noting that the many scrapers that are found are ordinary tools and that there is evidence of tool making at the site. Discussing the ‘secret chamber’, they point to the lack of evidence for San shamans using chambers in caves or for this one to have been used in such a way.” ref

I. INTRODUCTION ROCK ART by hunter-gatherers, herders, and/or later farming communities

“ROCK ART by hunter-gatherers, herders, and/or later farming communities occurs in almost all countries in Africa. There is, however, a distinctive set of Southern African traditions, with regional and temporal variation, in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho. In essence, Southern African rock-art traditions record experiences related to the belief systems and rituals of the indigenous people of the region.” ref

Sites representative of these traditions are worthy of consideration for inclusion on the World Heritage List for the following reasons:

· “Many individual sites and images – both paintings and engravings – are masterpieces of human creative genius that illustrate a combination of sophisticated ideas and beliefs, exquisite and unusual detail, extraordinary imagination, and artistic mastery of the chosen media;

· Collectively, over a period of nearly thirty millennia in the subcontinent, the artists recorded significant interchanges of human values – particularly with respect to religious and ritual practices – that cannot be recovered from stone artifacts and other inanimate remains;

· There is excellent ethnographic information available from indigenous people in certain key areas that has assisted in the understanding and authentic interpretation of the meaning and motivation of the art – a feature that is missing in many other regions of the world;

· Paintings and engravings of successive traditions have been done at selected places and areas over a long time period and the integrity of this relationship is still intact, incrementally adding to the tangible and intangible significance and power of these places and the landscape; and

· The shamanistic inspiration for much of the art demonstrates the time depth and nature of the human quest for supernatural power in this part of the world.” ref

“Recognizing the importance of their rock art, cultural heritage conservation authorities in Southern African countries, coordinated informally through the Southern African Rock Art Project (SARAP), have collaborated since 1996 in identifying and nominating a representative sample of rock art in the region for the World Heritage List. As part of this co-operative program, training courses and workshops have been held to assist the responsible heritage institutions to draft nominations, draw up management plans, and train the staff responsible for the management of the sites.” ref

“This report is the result of consultation at SARAP meetings in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with representatives from most of the Southern African countries. Of the countries that attended the meetings, Lesotho has not yet signed the World Heritage Convention. Swaziland was invited but did not send a delegate, and is in any case not yet a signatory to the Convention. Angola attended only one meeting, in 1998, and although invitations were sent to attend subsequent meetings, no reply was received.” ref

“There are sufficient contrasts between areas of high concentration of rock art to warrant the nomination of a series of sites for World Heritage listing. Initially, it was hoped to present all the sites together as a single serial nomination to the World Heritage Committee. Practical problems have developed, however, and each State Party is responsible for submitting their nomination(s) when they are ready to do so. At the time of writing, the rock art of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (South Africa) and of Tsodilo (Botswana) have been inscribed, and nominations by Malawi (Dedza-Chongoni), Tanzania (Kondoa- Irangi), Zimbabwe (the Matopos), Zambia (Kasama), and Namibia (Twyfelfontein) are in various stages of preparation.” ref

“Ultimately, the selected rock-art sites will represent the range of variation in the region and symbolically re-connect the artistic heritage of Southern Africans for the first time since the colonial era. We present here an overview of the rock art in the region and propose criteria for the evaluation of nominations of Southern African rock- art sites for the World Heritage List.” ref

OVERVIEW

Distribution

“A SUMMARY OF ROCK ART databases in Southern African countries indicates that there are at least 14,000 sites on record, but that many more exist than have been formally recorded. There are probably well in excess of 50,000 sites in the region as a whole, with a conservative estimate of more than two million individual images. With the exception of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa, Tsodilo in Botswana, and the Brandberg in Namibia, few areas have been thoroughly searched and recorded. The densest known concentrations of rock art occur in parts of Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe The lowest numbers of recorded sites are in Angola, Malawi, and Mozambique.” ref

“The region has both rock engravings (petroglyphs) and rock paintings (pictographs). There are no reliable records to indicate the relative percentage of paintings to engravings, but painting sites are probably in the majority. In general, both paintings and engravings have similar themes and images, but the engravings tend to include less detail and fewer human figures.” ref

“The distribution of the two techniques is largely governed by geology. Engravings occur out in the open and are usually, but not exclusively, associated with igneous rocks such as dolerite. Such rock formations tend not to form shelters or caves. Rock paintings, on the other hand, are most common in areas where there are caves or rock shelters in outcrops of granite and in sedimentary rocks formations of limestone, sandstone, and quartzite. It is rare, but not unknown, to find both rock paintings and engravings together at the same site.” ref

Traditions and styles

“IN BROAD TERMS, there are three rock-art traditions in the region with distinctive styles and content that are largely the result of differences in the cosmology and beliefs of Stone Age hunter-gatherers, of Stone Age herders, and of Iron Age agriculturists. Within these traditions, and often cross-cutting them, there are further differences in the techniques used to paint and engrave.” ref

Paintings

“As elsewhere in the world, the most common pigment used for rock paintings is red ochre, with some paintings in maroon, yellow, black, and white. There is some ethnographic evidence that the pigment was mixed with a variety of binders such as blood, egg, fat, and plant juices, but the exact recipes are not known.” ref

The techniques applied in the majority of paintings can be summarized as follows:

a. Fine-line paintings, almost exclusively the work of hunter-gatherers, in red or yellow ochre, white clay, or black charcoal or manganese oxide, done with a brush or other fine instrument, using techniques such as the following:

o Outline of the image with a single line (rare everywhere);

o Outline of the image with the interior filled with lines of the same color (characteristic of Tanzania, with some examples elsewhere);

o Monochrome image with the color-blocked in (most common almost everywhere);

o Outline in one color with the image filled in with another slightly different color;

o Bichrome, in which two blocks of color are used in the same image;

o Polychrome in which three or more colors are used in the same image (most common in Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Lesotho);

o Shaded polychrome in which several colors blend into each other to create depth and shading (most common in Lesotho and the Drakensberg region of South Africa);

o Handprints and finger-dots

b. Paintings done with a finger or very broad brush or applicator, most often by herders and agriculturists, often bold and highly stylized designs that include domesticated animals, in:

o Monochrome red, white, or black (yellow rare);

o Bichrome (rare);

o Handprints, both plain and decorated.

Engravings

“Rock engravings in all traditions were made most commonly by removing the weathered outer surface of rocks such as dolerite to create a color contrast with the underlying unweathered rock. This could be achieved by using another harder rock such as quartz or chalcedony. The weathered surface was either scraped away over the whole area of the image, or the image was outlined in a single line, or the weathered rock was pecked out in a chopping motion. Some engravings show extraordinary artistic skill with careful details of skin folds, eyes and posture delicately portrayed. Engravings are also found on rocks where there is little or no color contrast but where a large flat expanse is exposed, for example on ancient glacial pavements in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. So-called cupules and grooves, sometimes in regular patterns, have been made in relatively soft rock types where the color contrast between the surface and underlying rock has been less important than the granularity of the rock. Many of these were probably not ‘art’, although they may have had a ritual use.” ref

“THE CREATIVE SPIRIT that inspired the engravings and paintings on the rocks of Southern Africa dates back at least 27,500 years and persisted in some areas until the 20th century CE. The oldest date is the average calculated from fifteen radiocarbon dates on charcoal from an occupation layer in Apollo 11 cave in southern Namibia. Seven small painted slabs, on rock that was not derived from the cave wall or floor, were recovered during two excavations in 1969 and 1972. The next oldest date is from the Matopos in Zimbabwe, where a spall that had flaked off the painted wall in the Cave of Bees was found incorporated in the deposit in the floor. Charcoal from the relevant layer was dated to about 10,500 years ago, giving a minimum age for the original painting.” ref

“The oldest dated rock engravings in the region come from Wonderwerk Cave in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Five small slabs with clearly identifiable fine-line rock engravings of animals and non-representational geometric patterns, and another six with lines that may have been part of engravings, were found in different layers. Associated charcoal dated the oldest to about 10,200 years ago and the youngest to about 2000 years ago. Cation ratio dates on rock engravings from open sites in South Africa also gave preliminary results of between 10,000 and 2000 years ago. Relative dating of the weathered crust on engraved surfaces on a small sample of South African rock engravings suggests that the fine- line style is the oldest, and that the pecked and scraped engravings were done more recently.” ref

“Geometric zigzag patterns, combined to make diamond shapes and engraved on two small pieces of hard ochre, have been found in a cave at Blombos on the southern coast of South Africa; associated with Middle Stone Age artifacts. A layer of dune sand overlying the deposit has been dated at 77,000 years ago by optical luminescence. Although the find is claimed by some to be the earliest art the archaeologists who excavated the site argue only that people at that time were capable of abstract thought and design. Similar designs are found on bone artifacts and ostrich eggshell dating within the last 18 000 years, but are not common in either rock paintings or rock engravings.” ref

“Most of the art was done by hunter-gatherers whose traditions persisted in south-eastern South Africa until the 19th century CE. In some countries, such as Tanzania (Anati 1986), Malawi, and Mozambique, where there are no reports of hunter-gatherer style paintings that include domesticated animals or images of the colonial era, the hunter-gatherer art is estimated to be older than CE 1000.” ref

“Within the last 2000 years, herders and Iron Age agriculturist people entered the region from the north and added to the corpus of rock art with different styles and content. The oldest art in these traditions is generally thought to be less than 1500 years old and the most recent paintings and engravings were done in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In some areas in South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi, agriculturist art was still being practiced for initiation rituals in the late twentieth century.” ref

Ethnography

“THERE IS A WEALTH of ethnographic information from the 19th and 20th centuries that can and has been used successfully to interpret many of the metaphors and symbols in hunter-gatherer and later agriculturist art dating back hundreds and even thousands of years. This information gives an unparalleled insight into the meaning and context of rock art. An understanding of altered states of consciousness, and its role in shamanism and rock art as developed by researchers David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson, has, in turn, helped to identify the source of some of the metaphors found in the Palaeolithic rock art in western Europe. With the exception of Australia and North America, very few rock-art regions elsewhere have such detailed sources for interpretation.” ref

“The ethnographic records provide considerable evidence in Southern Africa that hunter-gatherer rock paintings and rock engravings were part of religious practices for rain-making, healing, and other shamanistic activities such as out-of-body travel and the control of game animals. These practices involved altered states of consciousness that enabled medicine people or shamans to access supernatural power through certain animals or through ancestral spirits. The wide distribution of this rock-art tradition, from South Africa to Tanzania, provides evidence for a broad high-level similarity in the cosmology of Southern African hunter-gatherer peoples. There are nevertheless important regional differences in the way that shamanistic experiences were perceived and used and in the metaphors that were transferred to the art.” ref

“For example, the beliefs of the /Xam San that were recorded in the 1870s led to an understanding in the 1970s of the reason why the eland was the animal most commonly depicted in the rock art in the south-eastern region in South Africa. The work of anthropologists and psychologists amongst 20th century San in Botswana and Namibia enabled some of the /Xam records to be interpreted and better understood. By combining the information from these diverse sources, Vinnicombe concluded that the eland was the pivot around which the social organization and beliefs of the Drakensberg San revolved. Lewis-Williams described how the eland played a key role in boys’ and girls’ initiation, and its role in healing and rainmaking because it was believed that associating with the eland could bring the medicine-person or shaman closer to god and supernatural power. Shamans in trance would feel as though they were transformed into eland, as is clear in many paintings of therianthropes with human and eland body parts that are combined in one image. In other areas such as Zimbabwe and Namibia, however, the eland is less common than animals such as the kudu and the giraffe. This suggests regional variation in the ritual significance of particular animals.” ref

“There is relatively little ethnography that has been applicable to herder rock art, and indeed there is only circumstantial evidence that the schematic and highly stylized art with a wider range of geometric patterns, best represented at Tsodilo (Botswana), was done by early herders. This art is attributed to herders because it includes domesticated animals, and because in places where it occurs with the earlier tradition it tends to be superimposed on what is clearly hunter-gatherer art. Herder art is also found above and below hunter-gatherer art. A good example is the Limpopo Valley, where there was a brief period of interaction between the two groups in the 1st millennium CE.

“Agriculturist rock-art displays some general similarities within the region and is quite distinct from the hunter-gatherer art in several respects. It tends to be bolder, less detailed, more schematic, and with a smaller range of colors and subject matter. In some areas, the paintings are called ‘late whites’ because where superimposition occurs they are always on top and they are done in white paint with a finger rather than a brush. Local traditions and ethnographic records in Zambia and Malawi indicate some of this art was part of secret male and female initiation practices and of rituals such as rainmaking. The meaning of the designs is known only to the initiated.” ref

“THE CONTENT of the rock art varies within the region, but there are several themes that are sufficiently widespread to indicate broad, high-level geographical and temporal continuity within the Southern African hunter-gatherer, herder, and agriculturist belief systems over the period in which rock paintings and rock engravings were done. The most significant similarities are the persistent occurrence of illustrations of and metaphors for altered states of consciousness or trance experience, particularly in the art of the hunter-gatherers. These experiences are evident in the postures in which people are illustrated, the consistent selection of certain animals in preference to others, and in the presence and incorporation of geometric patterns that depict entoptic phenomena ‘seen’ during trance.” ref

“In hunter-gatherer art, people are shown in postures such as bending from the waist, lying down horizontally, or with contorted limbs. Additional details such as bleeding from the nose or a red line that sometimes has white dots emanating from the back of the neck or the feet may be seen, as well as the transformation of people into animals and animals into people. Processions of dancing people or groups of clapping women record the dances that helped shamans go into trance. Healers, shown touching sick people to draw out the arrows of sickness, may be associated with arrows, they may have animal heads, or maybe sweating or bleeding from the nose. Rainmakers may be shown in close contact with large rain animals such as elephant, hippo, or eland, or with huge animals that are not identifiable to species. People in deep trance may be shown collapsing as if dead, or swimming underwater with fish or fish tails, or flying, with or without wings.” ref

“Images of transformed medicine-people with animal heads and other features (therianthropes) are especially detailed in paintings in the Drakensberg (South Africa and Lesotho), in Zimbabwe, and in the Brandberg (Namibia). Animals may also be shown with human hind legs. Therianthropes occur in parts of Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania, but are not as common as they are in the other Southern African countries.” ref

“Differences in the content of the art can be seen in the posture and dress of the people who are illustrated. For example, paintings of people in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania have dramatic hairstyles that are not seen so often in the art further south. In contrast, there are many more paintings in the south of people wearing cloaks, some of which are elaborately decorated.” ref

“As noted above, there are variations in the frequency of certain animals depicted in the rock paintings and engravings of the region. These variations are not a mirror of the distribution of fauna, but an indication of the animals that the artists and their society regarded as significant in their religious and ritual practices. The eland predominates in the south-east, the eland and elephant in the south-west, the rhino is prominent in some areas, while in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Tanzania the kudu and giraffe reign supreme.” ref

“In some parts of South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi the rock art is dominated by agriculturist paintings depicting symbols significant during initiation ceremonies and ritual practices. A stylized image of the crocodile or lizard is most common in some areas where it is a symbol of power, while in others domesticated cattle are more prevalent. Agriculturist art also records activities associated with colonial times such as trains, motor vehicles, aircraft, wagons, horses, camels, and other forms of transport.” ref

“Schematic designs illustrating entoptic phenomena with dots, zigzags, grids, wavy lines, nested u-shapes, concentric circles, sunbursts, and vortices are widespread and occur in all rock-art traditions, not only in Southern Africa but elsewhere in the world as well. In Southern Africa, they are more common in rock engravings than in paintings, but are nevertheless seen in paintings throughout the region. In the hunter-gatherer tradition, they are subtly integrated into the fine-line paintings and engravings; in the herder art they are often more common than images of people or animals; and in the agriculturist art they may be combined with other stylized designs. The presence of these entoptic patterns in all three traditions emphasizes their connection with altered states of consciousness and, therefore, the link between the art and trance experience that persisted in various forms over a long period of time and through major changes in economy and beliefs.” ref

Landscape setting

“IN SEVERAL CASES in hunter-gatherer, herder, and agriculturist traditions, there is ethnographic evidence that rock art has been used to enhance the power and significance of particular places in the landscape. The paintings or engravings were placed there because it was a rainmaking or initiation site, adding intangible value to the place. In a few cases, such as Kasama (Zambia) and the /Xam heartland in South Africa, there are ethnographic records that explain the significance of the place. Some of the rock-art site nominations to the World Heritage list will be proposed as cultural landscapes or as mixed cultural and natural sites so as to emphasize this relationship between culture and nature that has not been affected unduly by economic or agricultural development. The integrity of the art within the natural landscape has therefore been retained. Good examples are Tsodilo (Botswana), the Matopos (Zimbabwe), the Brandberg (Namibia), and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and the /Xam Heartland (South Africa).” ref

“In assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of protective measures and management mechanisms at rock-art sites, it is important to ensure that at least one trained rock-art conservation specialist is on the permanent staff of the organization responsible for the management of the site. As several sites to be nominated are within nature reserves or parks, the management personnel are trained only in nature conservation. This training is inadequate for the long-term monitoring, conservation, and management of rock art.” ref

“Interpretive displays and publications explaining the meaning and significance of the rock art and how to behave at the site must be available if the site is open to the public. The nomination must confirm that descendant communities of the original artists have been consulted regarding the meaning and motivation behind the art. If such communities have been identified, they must be included in the decision-making for, and management of, the site.” ref

Specific criteria for Southern African rock-art sites

“IN EVALUATING NOMINATIONS of rock-art sites in Southern Africa for World Heritage listing, the following criteria could be applied.” ref

Representivity

“The site may:

· be representative of a defined or definable tradition of rock paintings or rock engravings in the Southern African region, in that it includes many of the characteristics of that tradition;

· have outstanding examples of a painting or engraving style, technique, or method; and/or

· have the only (or some of the few) examples known of a rare tradition, style, technique, or method.

Quality of rock art

“The rock art may:

· include images of outstanding technical quality;

· have superb examples of artistic skill and detail;

· have excellent examples of graphic design and composition;

· be exceptionally well preserved; and/or

· have several panels of paintings or engravings that clearly depict unusual themes or images.” ref

Setting, size of area, and density of rock-art sites

“The area that is nominated should:

· be large enough to display outstanding examples of rock art in an environmental setting that is as close as possible to that which existed at the time the paintings or engravings were done;

· retain much of its original ambiance;

· be definable in terms of its outstanding environmental or cultural characteristics; and/or

· include at least 50 rock-art sites, OR, if only a few sites are nominated, should include well over 100 individual images.” ref

Association between rock art, ethnography, oral history, and/or ritual practices

“A concerted effort should have been made to:

· document interpretations of the rock art by conducting oral history surveys amongst indigenous local communities and/or ancestral communities and undertaking a thorough search of relevant ethnographic and anthropological sources;

· identify recurrent images in the rock art and establish their significance in current, recent, or ancient practices; and

· liaise with local communities when developing the conservation management and tourist management plans.” ref

“A representative sample of excellent rock art sites has been identified by representatives of official heritage organizations in Southern Africa for nomination to the World Heritage List. More may be added later, but for the time being they serve to highlight the artistic quality, technical range, sophisticated cosmology and beliefs, detailed ethnography, landscape setting, and universal significance of the rock art of the region. Criteria for the evaluation of Southern African rock-art sites that may be nominated for the World Heritage List have been suggested, based on the exceptional qualities of the art in the region.” ref

“From north to south, the rock-art sites identified by SARAP members as suitable for nomination to the World Heritage list are summarized in Table 1. Angola, Swaziland, and Lesotho have yet to select sites. As far as we are aware, all those in the Table have been placed on the tentative lists by the countries concerned. The list includes both rock engravings and paintings in the hunter-gatherer, herder, and agriculturist traditions, with a variety of techniques, content, and settings.” ref

Summary of rock-art sites in Southern Africa for possible nomination to the World Heritage List

Regional
Significance

Tanzania: kondoa-Irangi District

“Hunter-gatherer Paintings with unusual technique and content.” ref

Malawi: Dedza-Chongoni District

“Agriculturist Paintings with good ethnographic detail.” ref

Mozambique: Manica Province

“Well preserved Hunter-gatherer paintings.” ref

Zambia: Kasama District

“Well preserved Hunter-gatherer and agriculturist paintings with good ethnographic detail.” ref

Zimbabwe: Matopos National Park

“High-quality, well-preserved Hunter-gatherer rock in the natural landscape.” ref

Botswana: Tsodilo

“A large number of well preserved Hunter-gatherer rock paintings in the natural landscape.” ref

Namibia: Brandberg

“A large number of high quality well preserved Hunter-gatherer rock paintings in the natural landscape.” ref

Twyfelfontein

“A large number of high-quality well preserved Hunter-gatherer rock engravings in the natural landscape.” ref

South Africa: uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park

“A large number of high-quality, detailed, and well-preserved rock paintings in the natural landscape. Hunter-gatherer Cultural landscape with excellent ethnographic records and high-quality rock engravings, Detailed survey, and management plan required.” ref

Kondoa Rock-Art Sites

“The Kondoa Irangi Rock Paintings are a series of ancient paintings on rockshelter walls in central Tanzania. The paintings are located approximately nine kilometers east of the main highway (T5) from Dodoma to Babati, about 20 km north of Kondoa town, in Kondoa District of Dodoma Region, Tanzania. The boundaries of the site are marked by concrete posts. The landscape of this area is characterized by large piled granite boulders that make up the western rim of the Maasai steppe and form rock shelters facing away from prevailing winds. These rock shelters often have flat surfaces due to rifting, and these surfaces are where the paintings are found, protected from weathering.” ref

“These paintings are still part of a living tradition of creation and use by both Sandawe in their simbó healing ceremonies, and by Maasai people in ritual feasting. The persisting significance and use of the rock shelters and their art suggests that there has been a cultural continuity between the various ethnic and linguistic groups of people who have resided in the area over time. About 1970, Sandawe men were still making rock paintings. Ten Raa inquired into their reasons for doing so. He classified these reasons as magical (depicting the animal that the painter intended to kill), casual, and sacrificial (on specific clan-spirit hills and depicting rain-making and healing ceremonies).” ref

“The paintings depict elongated people, animals, and hunting scenes. Older paintings of the ‘Naturalistic tradition’ are generally red and associated with hunter-gatherers, not only in Kondoa but also throughout the Singida, Mara, Arusha, and Manyara regions of Tanzania. The ‘naturalistic tradition’ paintings are frequently superimposed by a more recent ‘late white’ style, often depicting cattle, that has been attributed to Bantu farmers and thought to post-date the Bantu expansion into the area. ‘White and red’ paintings have been attributed to Cushitic and Nilotic pastoralists. Except for the paintings whose creation is recorded in recent times, there is no direct dating evidence. Bwasiri and Smith point out that the rain-making ceremonies of the Sandawe are of Bantu origin, derived from a long history of cultural contact with Bantu and other peoples, and they suggest caution in using recent ethnographic evidence to interpret the history of the art.” ref

“The Kisese II rock shelter, in the Kondoa area, has art of the ‘naturalistic tradition’ on the walls, and evidence of occupation on the floors dated to more than 40,000 years ago. “Africa’s rock art is the common heritage of all Africans, but it is more than that. It is the common heritage of humanity.” –President Nelson Mandela” ref

Sites

“There are many individual sites within the UNESCO World Heritage boundaries. Estimates for the number of decorated rock shelters in the region range between 150 and 450. The following are some of the most important, notable, or otherwise well-excavated.” ref

Kisese II Rockshelter

“The Kisese II Rockshelter is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site located in the Kondoa region of Tanzania. The site contains transitional assemblages from the Middle to Later Stone Age. The rockshelter has preserved diverse paintings, beads, lithics, pottery, and other artifacts. It is studied for its insight into the major social transitions that were taking place during the late Pleistocene and Holocene eras. The site was also used for the burial of seven Holocene individuals. There are not very many well-dated sites that span this transitionary period, so Kisese II excavations have been very informative. A significant number of ostrich eggshell beads were used for radiocarbon dating of the site, the oldest of which dates to 46,000–42,000 years ago.” ref

“The Kisese II Rockshelter began to be excavated by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1935, and Raymond Inskeep expanded the excavation trench in 1956. Inskeep uncovered the large collection of ostrich eggshell (OES) beads that allowed for later radiocarbon dating of the site, in addition to almost 6,000 lithic artifacts in situ. The stratigraphic nature of the depositions were also studied by both Inskeep and the Leakeys in an attempt to date the site.” ref

“The lithic artifacts at Kisese II range from flakes to cores, mostly made of local quartz-based stone, and mostly made by using the Levallois method or the LSA microlith method. The site supports the idea that some MSA technologies, such as this method of making stone tools, persisted well into the LSA. Tryon et al proposed that the transitionary period may have been a minimum of five to ten thousand years.” ref

Mungomi wa Kolo (Kolo 1 site)

“Mungomi wa Kolo is the local title for the site known as Kolo 1. The art in this rockshelter is mostly composed of fine-line red ochre drawings depicting various people and animals.” ref

The Paintings

Nash’s discoveries?

“In 1929, T. A. M. Nash published an overview of some red ochre paintings he discovered near Kondoa-Irangi. Nash recognized the granite shelters to be an ideal place for rock art and consequently scoured the hill-side for drawings- proving himself correct after about ten minutes. One of the paintings depicts a human figure holding a stick and an elephant. Nash commented on the peaceful posture of the human, doubting that the drawing was intended to depict a hunting scene. Other paintings portray giraffes, a possible rhinoceros fragment, a humanoid figure composed of concentric circles in the head and continuous lines from the top of the head to the rest of the body, and some other figures whose intended depictions were unclear.” ref

Ethics in archaeology

“Due to the spiritual significance that many of these rock shelters hold to the contemporary inhabitants in the area, great care must be taken when excavating these sites. According to the UNESCO World Heritage papers 13, the local agro-pastoral Irangi people still use some of these sites for ritual healing purposes. Some of these ritual practices are said to threaten the integrity of the paintings, such as the practice of throwing melted animal fat. The Tanzanian government has yet to recognize the local belief systems, so there exists a friction regarding the management and conservation of the sites. This is not an isolated problem; decolonization of African archaeology as a whole is an ongoing project.” ref

Rock Art in the Brandberg National Monument Area

“The rock art in the Brandberg National Monument Area of Namibia is an incredible sight to behold. The astounding detail in these refined petroglyphs easily rival those of the paintings in Machete, South Africa. The Brandberg is a massive granite monolith located in Damaraland, and is Namibia’s highest mountain. The Brandberg National Monument Area covers about 450 square kilometers, and is rich in biodiversity. If you keep a watchful eye, you might spot one of my favourite animals here, typically hiding in the rocky hills. Behold, the mighty hyrax: Isn’t he adorable? Granted, “mighty” might not be a good descriptor for these little critters. It’s hard to believe that their closest relative is the elephant! I don’t see a lot of resemblance myself, except maybe their little padded toes. Otherwise, they kind of resemble a cross between a koala and a gopher. I love these weird, playful little creatures. There were also a ton of lizards scurrying around. They’re tricky to photograph since they don’t sit still for long, but the colours on some of them were really impressive: The Brandberg has a high concentration of prehistoric rock art.” ref

“In fact, there are about 900 sites featuring over 43,000 paintings and engravings! Not much is known about who painted this rock art, but the most common theory is that bushmen painted them about 2,000 years ago. The most famous of these paintings is the “White Lady”, found in the Maack Shelter area. Here it is, in the center of this group of paintings. The White Lady appears to be holding a bow in one hand an a goblet in the other: A German topographer and explorer named Reinhard Maack re-discovered the White Lady painting in 1918. Originally he referred to this figure as a warrior in his notes. However, once the French anthropologist Henri Breuil read Maack’s notes years later, he saw similarities to this painting and those found in Crete, and gave the painting the moniker of the White Lady. His theory that there may have been contact between the bushmen and Mediterranean visitors was later discredited. Today, experts generally agree that the painting of the White Lady is actually that of a male hunter or shaman. Unfortunately, the colors in the paintings have lost much of their vibrancy due to tourists throwing water on the rock wall to enhance the contrasts for their photos.” ref

“It’s now a protected heritage site, and bags/bottles aren’t allowed at the far end of the trail. But the White Lady isn’t the only impressive rock art painting here. Look at the striping detail on the animal here (a zebra, wildebeest or perhaps an antelope?): A painting depicting what looks to be a herd of cows, including a calf: A close-up of one of the human figures, with intricate decorative detail. Often the white dots of paint were used to indicate droplets of sweat on a medicine man as he danced during one of his rituals: Some of the paintings may go as far back as 5,000 years. These are monochromatic, using shades of red and brown. The polychromatic paintings, such as that of the White Lady, are more recent, around 2,000 years old. There’s a lot to explore in the Brandberg, and it’s definitely a worthwhile excursion. The rock art is just one draw, as the unique landscape is also enjoyable in its own right. The National Heritage Council of Namibia (NHC) introduced regulations for hiking Brandberg Mountain. Hiking requires special permission via a permit through the NHC. However, to just view the rock paintings such as the White Lady, office staff on site will assist you and no special permits are required.” ref

Rock Paintings in Southern Africa: LINK

Areas of rock art concentration and GCI activity in Southern Africa: LINK

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey 

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“These ideas are my speculations from the evidence.”

I am still researching the “god‘s origins” all over the world. So you know, it is very complicated but I am smart and willing to look, DEEP, if necessary, which going very deep does seem to be needed here, when trying to actually understand the evolution of gods and goddesses. I am sure of a few things and less sure of others, but even in stuff I am not fully grasping I still am slowly figuring it out, to explain it to others. But as I research more I am understanding things a little better, though I am still working on understanding it all or something close and thus always figuring out more. 

Sky Father/Sky God?

“Egyptian: (Nut) Sky Mother and (Geb) Earth Father” (Egypt is different but similar)

Turkic/Mongolic: (Tengri/Tenger Etseg) Sky Father and (Eje/Gazar Eej) Earth Mother *Transeurasian*

Hawaiian: (Wākea) Sky Father and (Papahānaumoku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*

New Zealand/ Māori: (Ranginui) Sky Father and (Papatūānuku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*

Proto-Indo-European: (Dyḗus/Dyḗus ph₂tḗr) Sky Father and (Dʰéǵʰōm/Pleth₂wih₁) Earth Mother

Indo-Aryan: (Dyaus Pita) Sky Father and (Prithvi Mata) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Italic: (Jupiter) Sky Father and (Juno) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Etruscan: (Tinia) Sky Father and (Uni) Sky Mother *Tyrsenian/Italy Pre–Indo-European*

Hellenic/Greek: (Zeus) Sky Father and (Hera) Sky Mother who started as an “Earth Goddess” *Indo-European*

Nordic: (Dagr) Sky Father and (Nótt) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Slavic: (Perun) Sky Father and (Mokosh) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Illyrian: (Deipaturos) Sky Father and (Messapic Damatura’s “earth-mother” maybe) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Albanian: (Zojz) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*

Baltic: (Perkūnas) Sky Father and (Saulė) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Germanic: (Týr) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*

Colombian-Muisca: (Bochica) Sky Father and (Huythaca) Sky Mother *Chibchan*

Aztec: (Quetzalcoatl) Sky Father and (Xochiquetzal) Sky Mother *Uto-Aztecan*

Incan: (Viracocha) Sky Father and (Mama Runtucaya) Sky Mother *Quechuan*

China: (Tian/Shangdi) Sky Father and (Dì) Earth Mother *Sino-Tibetan*

Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian: (An/Anu) Sky Father and (Ki) Earth Mother

Finnish: (Ukko) Sky Father and (Akka) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*

Sami: (Horagalles) Sky Father and (Ravdna) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*

Puebloan-Zuni: (Ápoyan Ta’chu) Sky Father and (Áwitelin Tsíta) Earth Mother

Puebloan-Hopi: (Tawa) Sky Father and (Kokyangwuti/Spider Woman/Grandmother) Earth Mother *Uto-Aztecan*

Puebloan-Navajo: (Tsohanoai) Sky Father and (Estsanatlehi) Earth Mother *Na-Dene*

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Sky Father/Sky Mother “High Gods” or similar gods/goddesses of the sky more loosely connected, seeming arcane mythology across the earth seen in Siberia, China, Europe, Native Americans/First Nations People and Mesopotamia, etc.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com