Figure 3 - uploaded by Martin Kristoffer Hykkerud
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The Williston district in Northern Cape, offers an exciting and new contribution to the rich world of rock art in South Africa. The paintings found here are solely geometric finger paintings, with a variety of different images and motifs. There are possible connections between these paintings and the initiation ceremonies of the Khoekhoen, once pej...
Citations
... Thus, use of ethnographic analogy in bridging arguments inevitably would inform any interpretive quest at Wonderwerk Cave. Just as inevitably (in a move that may be of great import but always to be undertaken with particular circumspection), analogy may recursively influence decisions at the Bformal methods^level, for instance, in defining content-as may already be apparent in Malan's (1941) and Hykkerud's (2006) recognition of a category called Baprons^(see below). ...
... subsequent interpretation of the paintings in question, as referencing specifically the initiation ceremonies of Khoekhoen pastoralists, hinges to a decisive degree on the eventual assumption (conceivably correct but precarious) that these particular images do indeed represent aprons. They double up, in his scheme, as within-group social markers and as ritual symbols (Hykkerud 2006, p. 51, citing Eastwood 2003. In a related rationalization, certain comb-like geometrics are suggested to possibly represent beaded headbands, another ethnographically informed class, taken to lend further support to a hypothesized Khoekhoen ritual context for the art (Hykkerud 2006, p. 53). ...
Seen by all who visit Wonderwerk Cave, the rock paintings that adorn its walls have attracted less attention than many other aspects of the site. The paper gives a brief account of their history and significance and of factors that have constrained their study. Graffiti damage and restoration added layers through which researchers would need to delve in order to understand them archaeologically. Pointing to directions for future work, the paper concludes with discussion on a currently debated category of southern African rock art, the “non-entoptic” geometric rock art tradition, to which the Wonderwerk Cave rock paintings would belong. A shift in theoretical focus is advocated for comprehending local contingencies in the formation of rock art “traditions” rather than simply assuming the prior existence of such constructs.
