David Lewis-Williams - Deciphering Ancient Minds

Pl. 1 A line of eland antelope moves past low cliffs with painted rock shelters and up into the San spiritual hinterland that lies beyond the high peaks.

Pl. 2 In the 18th and 19th centuries travellers and explorers, such as the artist Thomas Baines, came across the impoverished remnants of San groups.

Pl. 3 Today, San groups living on the fringes of more complex economies still practise the trance, or healing, dance. As the women clap the rhythm, the feet of the dancing men make a rut in the sand.

Pl. 4 In the Drakensberg mountains large rock shelters beneath sandstone cliffs were occupied by the San, and they made their paintings there.

Pl. 5 On a rock in the shelter shown in the San painted a multitude of eland. Why did they think it necessary to depict so many eland?

6 In this dance clapping women stand on either side of dancing men who bend forward and support their weight on dancing sticks.

Pl. 7 A painting of a circular trance dance. The curved line may represent the dance rut or a hut in which there is a sick person and three clapping women. The pointing finger indicates the shooting of supernatural potency.

Pl. 8 The eland was believed to have more supernatural potency than any other animal. The San painted it in various ways. It is here represented in lateral view. (see also ).

Pl. 9 The eland was believed to have more supernatural potency than any other animal. The San painted it in various ways. In this painting, it is depicted in lateral view. (see also ).

Pl. 10 The eland was believed to have more supernatural potency than any other animal. The San painted it in various ways: here with its head turned to look backward.

Pl. 11 The eland was believed to have more supernatural potency than any other animal. In this painting, the San have represented it lying down.

12 Transformation is a theme in San rock art. Flying creatures are common. In this painting, a figure with a white face has emanations from the back of its neck. Its arms have white feathers.

13 Transformation is a theme in San rock art. Flying creatures are common. The swift-person in this image has a forked tail and complex wavy lines in its body.

14 Joseph Orpens article A glimpse into the mythology of the Maluti Bushmen, published in 1874, illustrated four groups of San rock art images. The Sehonghong rain-capture scene [see ] is in the top right corner of the fold-out.

15 The high Drakensberg over which Orpens expedition climbed in 1873.

16 One of George Stows 1870s copies of rain-animals (see also ). It was through these copies that the Bleek family first learned of San beliefs about rain-making.