The ribbon-like lines drawn by human fingers across the then-wet clay at Altamira about 15,000 years ago may well have given birth to the world of artistic expression. In Europe, creativity through painting and marking clay or rock probably reached its peak in the famous cave galleries of Alpero, Font-de-Gaume, Laussel and Lascaux about 14,000 years ago. Then it died out. However, thanks to the deft digits and imaginative minds of the early hunter-gatherer (San) people and their Bushman descendants, rock art lived on well into the 19th century in southern Africa.

The paintings in the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia may well be as old as those at Altamira, while radiocarbon dating of some examples of rock art in South Africa has placed them over 19,000 years back in time. Unfortunately most of these ancient works have been obliterated by weathering and later over-painting. But there are still plenty of more recent works remaining in sites throughout Africa. In fact there are literally tens of thousands of permanent exhibitions (showing up to 5 million individual works in total) open every day. However, much of the best in southern Africa is on private property and not easily accessible.

Monumental animals dominate the cave paintings of Europe but in Africa's galleries elephant, rhino, hippo and other large beasts are seldom depicted more than one or two metres high. They are also accorded equality, in both number of portraits and in status, with man. The early San inhabitants seem to have regarded themselves as equal participants in and an integral part of the environment. They also appear to have recognised that their survival depended upon their fellow creatures. Their artists even created hybrids of men and animals and gave certain recognisable behavioural characteristics of each to the other in their artwork.

There are, however, a number of questions about the meaning of some of their artistic creations. Why did they place large, strongly coloured images of giraffe so prominently in certain galleries, even in areas where the animal was not common? Why is the kudu so frequently featured in southern African shelters? What is the meaning of the oblique appendages that ascend from some animals? Is there a spiritual significance to the abstract lines, circles and patterns within which certain creatures are entrapped? We'll probably never be certain of the answers because although some studies were undertaken, many early European settlers were less inclined to debate such matters with the Bushmen than they were to exterminate them.

Whatever the reason, the early San artists painted large numbers of a variety of creatures, including reptiles, birds and fish, but these, in total, were far outnumbered by mammals - particularly antelope, their favoured prey. It has been suggested that ancestral South African Bushmen believed the eland to have greater potency than other animals and, therefore, sought to capture and retain its power. That it has been painted and etched so often and in so many different poses and locations is taken as a reflection of the people's deeply significant relationship with it. Among Zimbabwean clans the kudu appears to have been accorded similar status.

Many other species of animal are arrayed in shelters throughout southern Africa - in the forbidding Erongo Mountains in Namibia, for example. Here a frieze depicts the running-down of a buck by wild dogs, each dog painted with a different, character-capturing attitude. It wasn't wild dogs, however, but lion that were the ancestral Bushmen's main competitor for venison - a possible explanation for their being shown mainly in what seem to be man-beast confrontations.

As in the bush, snakes are not commonly seen on rock walls. However when they were painted they were shown either fully stretched, in complicated convolutions, slithering sensuously or simply coiled. Very rarely are the fangs extended, despite their being a source of lethal venom for the Bushman's arrow.

The biggest snakes on display are probably the five-metre serpents at Gulubahwe in Zimbabwe's Matobo Hills and at Snake Rock on top of the Brandberg in Namibia. Likewise birds are not generally frequent subjects but, unsurprisingly, it's the ostrich you're most likely to find. For the curious, Aliwal North in South Africa is a must. Here the stalking of a group of smug crows by a salivating jackal is a dramatic delight. So too are the nightjars in Lesotho. Equally rare and surprising are fish in certain locations, possibly indicating the trance state (as feeling like being underwater). For example,you'll find a cave of them in the Matobo Hills, a large school of them in Zimbabwe's Belingwe district and a whale-like creature on a rock in Botswana's Tsodilo Hills.

Some of the later works show domestic cattle and sheep that belonged to the Hottentot (Khoi) and early Bantu arrivals. Cattle also appear at five sites in Zimbabwe and in the Tsodilo Hills (where there are at least 125 images of them). However, the few scenes of Bushmen on horseback and using dogs for hunting are mainly confined to the Cape and Drakensberg areas. At Stompiesfontein (Kouebokkeveld) mules are shown pulling wagons, accompanied by armed men on horseback and women wearing long skirts and bonnets. However, at most sites, human figures are seen alone with essential characteristics of gesture and action pronounced. Often bodies are elongated, to denote people in a trance. Most humans, particularly males, appear naked but some are shown wearing small aprons, capes, knee- and full-length karosses (blanket-like animal-skin garments), body paint and ostrich-shell ornaments.

Male themes generally dominate numerically. Fairly often they appear in what seem to be hunting parties, quivers on their shoulders and bows and spears in hand, wide-striding in pursuit of prey. Sometimes there are antelope-masked stalkers and figures full of tension at the moment of releasing an arrow. You might also find humans apparently setting traps or snares, or harpooning fish. In some cases men are shouldering carry-bags or drums, climbing ladders or crossing rope bridges. Occasionally you may even come across a war party, such as the famous hostile clash that decorates the aptly named Battle Cave in the Drakensberg. Whether any of these depict an actual event or have a more symbolic or spiritual connotation is an intriguing question.

Most women are pictured carrying digging sticks or involved in activities such as gathering victuals, grinding grain and the preparation of meals. Scenes of courtship, impending motherhood, infidelity and family life around the campfire can also be found, but few are as intimately personal as that of one patient soul receiving an enema through an antelope horn. Some experts however suggest that these are not portraits of everyday life but statements about the division of labour between the sexes. Why children are so seldom illustrated is not obvious.

Then there are the therianthropes - part human, part beast - possibly based on the ancient Bushman's belief that there was no clear distinction between animals and themselves. They often appear erect but sometimes on all fours. Among them are crocodile men (Harare), mouse-headed mortals (Molteno, in South Africa), trussed figures with hooves and a creature with tusks and an eland's head (Lesotho). It's not always easy to separate these beings from alites, the arms-back flying beings, or from zoomorphic creatures such as animal-headed snakes that appear periodically. The symbolic and religious nature of Bushman life is ever-present and their art attempts to express their deepest spiritual beliefs.

Another individual not always easy to identify is the Shaman, the man who combined the functions and abilities of priest, doctor and psychologist to the group. He acted through a self-induced state of trance during which he conjured up spirits, experienced catatonic fits and psychic phenomena, and employed telepathy, clairvoyance and other mysterious techniques. In his unconscious trance state, the Shaman evoked N!um, the central spiritual force of the Bushmen, to deflect or cure evil. While doing so, he would temporarily detach his soul from his body and journey into the world beyond. There he might, for example, negotiate with the mistress of the animals to acquire a mental image of a successful hunt. On his return, he would represent this to his group with such conviction that when they set out the hunters were sure of success.

There are a number of experts who hold that many, if not all, of the carvings and paintings were executed by Shamans while recovering from the trance and that they depict spiritual images and activities experienced in it. They cite illustrations of Shamans and antelope undergoing trance-induced nosebleeds; animals exhibiting supernatural forms or powers; portraits of buck-headed (Sha)men possessing attributes of the revered eland; and pose symbolism, recurring postures, symbolic positions and associations of possible religious significance. Certainly many works have mystical or spiritual connotations.

Whoever carved or painted the rock art, and for whatever reason, the creative process demands admiration. This is due not just for its artistic merit but also for the skills in using techniques and materials that have endured over aeons. Perhaps most surprising is the extent to which the paint colours seem to have lasted. A few have disappeared and others have certainly faded, but many shelters are still vibrant with life. Often where two or more colours were used strong contrasts were created, not necessarily in naturalistic hues. Shading was sometimes deployed, apparently to enhance tonality, shape or perspective, but possibly to serve some spiritual purpose.

Paint pigments were derived from a variety of sources, principally ferric, haematite and limonite oxides. These were often extracted from ancient mines and produced the range of red, brown and yellow ochres so characteristic of bushman paintings. Black and some dark browns probably came from specularite, manganese dioxide, charcoal or burnt bone ash. White, the most ephemeral colour, was possibly sourced from titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, silica, china clay, gypsum, or bird droppings. Manganese and reonlite may have been used to produce some purples. It seems that there was no source for green or blue pigments, though occasionally a bluish-grey, almost mauve, hue was created, possibly by mixing.

Pigments, already crushed and ground, were carried in capped horns or skin bags. At the site, they were mixed with binding agents to make a paste. Such agents could have included saps from plants such as the Euphorbia or Asclepis Gibba bush, blood from freshly slaughtered animals, milk, water, saliva, honey, beeswax and eggs - presumably ostrich.

Archaeological findings suggest that a flat stone, a shoulder blade bone or a tortoise shell would have been used as a palette, though the versatile ostrich eggshell could have made a good mixing bowl. In applying the paint, fingers and handprints (with the pad below the thumb used as a painting sponge) were certainly employed. However, for fine drawing and stippling, small reeds and ostrich or porcupine quills would have been used, either directly or as a handle for grasses, feathers or hair.

It seems that Bushmen were fairly careful in selecting painting sites, for these were perceived as a doorway to the supernatural world beneath the ground, and the art a means of contact with it. Most sites are angled away from prevailing winds and to capture the light. Sometimes the actual orientation appears to be correlated with contents. For example, in the Matobo Hills large game animals occur more frequently in north-facing shelters while humans are more numerous in those opening to the east or west. Certain themes also seem to be located in certain parts of shelters. Giraffes, for example, tend to be placed centrally whereas humans are often grouped nearer the edges. Other themes include pairings of eland or kudu with hunters, birds with plants, women with small animals.

Generally the rock surfaces were porous enough to absorb pigment yet smooth enough to work on. In some cases they were rubbed down and primed as a preparation for painting. However, because most paintings were in subspheroid caves or shallow overhangs subject to the elements, weathering and exfoliation took their toll. Most works seen today are probably less than 3-4000 years old, and certainly no more than 8000.

Analysis of techniques suggests that in some cases figures were probably sketched in charcoal or ochre crayon before painting, while under-painting was occasionally used as a deliberate technique. Painting was largely from memory, and errors and paint spills were very rare, though occasional smudgy patches suggest that a solvent could have been used to remove pigment before it had set. It is possible to see pieces of retouching in the form of small changes or additions, but whether this is for correction or something more significant is unknown. Over-painting (as distinct from superimposition) was used as a deliberate technique for enhancing depth, whereas later generations sometimes painted over existing illustrations in order to (super)impose themselves or their subjects on a situation.

All Bushman paintings have enigmatic features which can only be understood within the culture and spirituality of their creators. Some, like a maze painted in eastern Zimbabwe, may be a decorative motif, or a representational symbol or figure - but representative of what? Equally elusive non-representational patterns have been found in South Africa, Namibia and Zambia. Also puzzling, though apparently more representational, are the spoor in the Hwange area in Zimbabwe and the ringed moon at Twyfelfontein in Namibia. There are also what appear to be depictions of Halley's Comet in the Orange Free State and in Zambia. The latter is in a different style but also with a heavenly body and a brilliant tail.

Possibly less puzzling are the pectrographs or rock carvings which were sometimes, as at Chifubwe in Zambia, also painted. These were usually created by incising or by pecking. Fine-line engravings were cut with a sharp flake of hard stone, whereas two stones used as a hammer and chisel were employed in pecking. This involved chipping away the patena or dark outer skin of the rock to expose the lighter layer beneath. Sometimes the process was aided by an acidic substance such as fresh bird droppings. Most carvings are of single images and are made with remarkable confidence. Many of the ancient engravings in southern Africa were touched up in later times by the pecking-out method.

Article compiled by Dave Rix with generous assistance from Alec Campbell and David Coulson. See pages 34, 92 and 102.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Nineteen: Spring 2002. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)