When did San people start painting rock art?
Khoisan rock painting from South Africa
San people have been living in southern Africa since there first were human beings anywhere, maybe about 100,000 years ago. There are more than 14,000 of these paintings in South Africa. Nobody knows when San artists first started making rock art. They are still doing it today.
But we do know about when the San people first got pushed into the Kalahari Desert. That was about 400 AD. So the San rock art from other places in south Africa must be from before 400 AD, and the San rock art from the Kalahari must be from after 400 AD.
San Rock Art – people doing a sacred dance
What do San paintings show?
There were different styles of drawing in different parts of Africa, and different kinds of animals were painted in different places too.
(Compare these paintings to the painted walls of Stone Age houses in West Asia, and to early Egyptian art, and to rock paintings in North America.)
A rock painting project
More about African art
Native American rock art
European rock art
Bibliography and further reading:
