Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½

Start main page content

The northern parts of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, are home to some of the richest rock art in this part of Africa, and indeed, the world. Rock paintings there evidence the complex beliefs and practices of hunter-gatherers and the changes which precipitated in the context of inter-group contact. Much of the formative research on southern African rock art was undertaken in this region.

This long-running research project aims to investigate the rock art and associated archaeology of the northern Eastern Cape Province. The local archaeological record spans some 29 000 years and preserves material evidence of precolonial hunter-gatherers, their cross-cultural engagements with incoming herders and farmers, and socio-cultural processes in the colonial period.

The good preservation of the art in the project area and its diversity in terms of how the paintings were made and what was painted create an ideal situation for investigating changes and continuities across space and through time. The primary focus of the project is on the hunter-gatherer rock art of the region, but also includes their contact with incoming peoples.

For updates on the project and news of new publications, follow the Rock Art Research Institute on .

Project staff

Professor , Principal investigator
Dr , Co-investigator

Publications, theses and dissertations

Publications

2025

Guillemard, I. 2025. Lithic knapping strategies during the late Holocene: new analyses from Buterix 1, Eastern Cape, South Africa. 68: 105437.

Witelson, D. 2025. Did fossils of tusked Dicynodonts inspire a San rock painting? 42(2):1–6.

2023

Witelson, D. M. 2023. Theatres of Imagery: A Performance Theory Approach to Rock Art Research. Oxford: BAR Publishing.

Witelson, D. M. 2023. Revisiting the South African unicorn: rock art, natural history and colonial misunderstandings of indigenous realities. 33(4):619–636.

Witelson, D. M. 2023. The meaning and function of southern African San rock art and beyond. Expression 39:56–75.

2022

Mallen, L. R. and Pearce, D. G. 2022. Nodes of interaction: Changing rock paintings in the Eastern Cape mountains of South Africa. In Clack, T. and Brittain, M. (eds) :44–61. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pearce, D. G. 2022. Interpreting unusual imagery: A rare rock art depiction of a bushbuck in the southeastern mountains, South Africa. 57(2):239–251.

Witelson, D. M. 2022. A reappraisal of Walter Battiss’s relative sequence for rock paintings in the Stormberg, Eastern Cape. 35:71–102.

2020

De la Peña, P, and Witelson, D. M. 2020. ‘Project Piedemonte’: Between the Maloti-Drakensberg and the Great Escarpment in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. 94(376):e20, 1–9.

Mullen, A. 2020. Dateless substance: White pigments in the rock art of southern Africa. 23:69–73.

Snow, L. 2020. Poisoned, potent, painted: Arrows as indexes of personhood. In Wingfield, C., Giblin, J. and King, R. (eds) :31–39. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Witelson, D. 2020. Le contexte performatif de l’art rupestre San. 23:64–68.

2019

Witelson, D. M. 2019. . Oxford: Archaeopress.

2018

King, R., Pearce, D., Bonneau, A. and Mallen, L. 2018. Changing lifeways in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, southern Africa: Towards a history of innovation and belief in the late Second Millennium AD. 21(1):82–88.

Witelson, D. M. 2018. Frogs or people: Dorothea Bleek and a genealogy of ideas in rock art research. 53(2):185–208.

2017

Bonneau, A., Pearce, D., Mitchell, P., Staff, R., Arthur, C., Mallen, L., Brock, F. and Higham, T. 2017. The earliest directly dated rock paintings from southern Africa: New AMS radiocarbon dates. 91:322–333.

Bonneau, A., Staff, R., Higham, T., Brock, F., Pearce, D. and Mitchell, P. 2017. Successfully dating rock art in southern Africa using improved sampling methods and new characterization and pretreatment protocols. 59(3):659–677.

Laue, G. 2017. McAll’s Cave: Characterising the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek Mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. 30:145–183.

2016

Hœrlé, S., Pearce, D. G., Bertrand, L., Sandt, C. and Menu, M. 2016. Imaging the layered fabric of paints from Nomansland rock art (South Africa). 58:182–199.

Laue, G. 2016. Towards concepts of territoriality in southern African pre-colonial rock art: New insights from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. In  Gutierrez, M. et Honoré, E. (dir.) , 15 au 17 Janvier 2014, Université Paris 1, Centre Panthéon et Musée du Quai Branly:263–274. Nanterre: Editions l’Harmattan.

2014

Pearce, D. G. 2014. Understanding hunter-gatherer rock art in southern Africa. 31(3):11–13.

2012

Bonneau, A., Pearce, D. G. and Pollard, A. M. 2012. A multi-technique characterization and provenance study of the pigments used in San rock art, South Africa. 39:287–294.

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2012. Framed idiosyncrasy: Method and evidence in the interpretation of San rock art. 67:75–87.

2011

Bonneau, A., Brock, F., Higham, T., Pearce, D. G. and Pollard, A. M. 2011. An improved pretreatment protocol for radiocarbon dating black pigments in San rock art. 53(3):419–428.

Pearce, D. G. and George, L. 2011. An unusual case of overpainting in an Eastern Cape rock art site. 66:173–177.

2010

Pearce, D. G. 2010. Conservation and management of collapsing rock paintings: Three sites in Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. 65:96–103.

2009

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2009. Constructing spiritual panoramas: Order and chaos in southern African San rock art panels. 21:41–61.

2008

Lewis-Williams, J. D. and Pearce, D. G. 2008. From generalities to specifics in San rock art. 104(11/12):428–430.

2002

Pearce, D. G. 2002. Changing men, changing eland: Sequences in the rock paintings of Maclear District, Eastern Cape, South Africa. 28:129–138.

Theses and dissertations

2026

Katz, F. 2026. Running through the Berg: an analytical study of San rock art running figures. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

Munro, H. F. 2026. Contact and cattle: understanding rock art representations in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, Maclear District, South Africa. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2023

Bagley, K. 2023. A comparison of the frequency of depictions of black wildebeest in the Drakensberg and Stormberg regions. Unpublished Honours report, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

Oster, S. M. 2023. . Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2022

Witelson, D. M. 2022. Rock art and performance in the Stormberg, South Africa. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2021

Snow, L. M. 2021. : Arrows as an index of San personhood. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2019

Laue, G. 2019. in the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek mountains, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2018

Mullen, A. 2018. in the rock art of the south-eastern Mountains. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

Witelson, D. M. 2018. : Differences and similarities between painted sites on a southern Drakensberg ridge in the Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2015

Mullen, A. 2015. Laying lives: An object-centred approach to sequence and symbolism at RSA TYN2. Unpublished Honours report, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

2013

George, L. 2013. : Body symbolism in San rock art of the north Eastern Cape, South Africa. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.

Funding and support

Over the years this research has been supported by a number of sources. The project is most recently supported by the South African National Research Foundation, the French Institute in Southern Africa and Mrs Susan Ward.

We are grateful to the numerous landowners and communities who have allowed us access to their properties and sites to undertake this research.

Share