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A Painted Rock Shelter on Mt Elgon, Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Richard Wright
Richard Wright
Affiliation:
Royal National Parks of Kenya
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Extract

In March 1960 Mrs D. R. Tweedie discovered a painted rock shelter at 8,000 feet in the forests of Mt Elgon, about 15 miles west-north-west of Kitale, Kenya. The site is of particular interest because it is the first recorded instance of representational rock art in Kenya with any claim to antiquity.

The writer visited the site during September 1960 to copy the paintings. Tracings were made on cellophane stuck to the rock with sellotape. Glass ink was used as suggested by Dr L. S. B. Leakey, but in the more awkward copying positions a chinagraph pencil gave accurate lines more easily. With a warm pencil no pressure on the rock was needed to produce an outline. A photographic record was also made on colour film with flashbulbs.

The paintings have been preserved from weathering by a deep, dry overhang, and trees growing immediately in front of the shelter. They are also preserved from vandalism by the extreme difficulty of finding the site without guidance. Most of the paintings form a frieze at the left-hand side of the shelter, which is the best protected region.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 27 , December 1961 , pp. 28 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1961

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References

page 28 note 1 Leakey, L. S. B., ‘Techniques of Recording Prehistoric Art’, Proc. Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory (1955), p. 304Google Scholar.

page 28 note 2 At Tweedie's Shelter most of the paintings are perpetually in the shade. In such instances, colour photographs by daylight are apt to give distorted colours due to variations in the colour temperature. Flashbulbs have a constant colour temperature and thus give consistently accurate colours on colour film. Furthermore, by using an extension lead on the flash gun an angle of lighting can be chosen which will show the paintings at their clearest. Provided the flash is held sufficiently close to the subject no account need be taken of the contribution from daylight in estimating the exposure. The distance should be adjusted so that an exposure for flash can be used which is at least three stops less than the exposure would be for the prevailing daylight alone. If, for example, the exposure for daylight were 1/25 at f.5.6, then the flash must be close enough to allow an exposure of 1/25 at f.16.

page 32 note 1 Breuil, H., ‘Peintures Rupestres Préhistoriques du Harrar’, L'Anthropologie, XLIV (1934), pp. 476–7Google Scholar.

page 33 note 1 Dr L. S. B. Leakey, verbal communication.

page 33 note 2 Cf. the ‘late white’ styles of the Kondoa district in Tanganyika. Tanganyika Notes and Records, no. 29, pl. ix, fig. 8.

page 33 note 3 Reproductions in Leakey, L. S. B. (1936), Stone Age Africa, Oxford University Press. Tanganyika Notes and Records, no. 29Google Scholar.

page 33 note 4 Clark, J. D. (1954), The Prehistoric Cultures of the Horn of Africa, Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar. See also Cole, S. (1954), The Prehistory of East Africa, Penguin BooksGoogle Scholar.

page 33 note 5 Clark, ibid., fig. 34., p. 296.

page 33 note 6 Id., ibid., p. 297 and fig. 35.

page 34 note 1 Clark, J. D. (1954), The Prehistoric Cultures of the Horn of Africa, Cambridge University Press, p. 300 and pl. 52, fig. 1Google Scholar.

page 34 note 2 Moysey, F. (1935), East Africa and Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc., XII, pp. 211–18Google Scholar.

page 34 note 3 Clark, J. D. (1954), The Prehistoric Cultures of the Horn of Africa, Cambridge University Press, p. 314Google Scholar.