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The wounded roan: a contribution to the relation of hunting and trance in southern African rock art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

J. Francis Thackeray
J. Francis Thackeray*
Affiliation:
Transvaal Museum, Northern Flagship Institution, P.O. Box 413, Pretoria 0001, South Africa (Email: [email protected] and [email protected])
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Abstract

A 1934 photograph of a man dressed in an animal skin and a painting of three figures in a cave at Melikane, Lesotho led to a new hypothesis about the role of the roan antelope in both the economy and beliefs of early Africa. The author shows that not only art, but language too, may reach back to a time when the need for food first began to find expression in ritual.

Keywords

rock artPalaeolithic artSan arttrancehuntingAfrican archaeologyroan antelopesorghum cereal
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 303 , March 2005 , pp. 5 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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