The Way We Were: Rock Art in the Khomas Region of Namibia

Abstract

The smouldering embers of an older civilization, an integral part of the “evolutionary epic”, to paraphrase Edward O. Wilson1], is very much alive in the rock art of the Khomas Region and beyond, even if the original artists are no more. Research into rock art shows that the region has more than 320 known rock art sites – clearly there are many others still to be discovered. My active research into the rock art of the region started more than a decade ago. Since then, I have visited and recorded rock art in 55 sites at various farms. Most of these sites have hitherto been un-documented and un-researched. The purpose of this article is to highlight four rock art sites visited and recorded by the author at two farms in the region. To my knowledge, three of the four sites have not previously been recorded or researched. These have also not been included in the comprehensive survey of the late Dr Ernst Rudolf Scherz, published in 1986, or in the more recent admirable guide book by Prof. Peter Breunig (2014) on the archaeology of Namibia. The sites have been selected for the quality of the art and the wider significance of the paintings in cosmological and ethnographic terms. The article concludes by locating the paintings within a wider body of southern African rock art literature.