Rain snakes’ from the Senqu River
New light on Qing's commentary on San rock art from Sehonghong, Lesotho
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11618060 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Challi (0000-0002-9137-2680, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Sam Challis (,), Jeremy C Hollmann (0000-0002-7009-6744, University of the Witwatersrand), Jeremy Hollmann (,), M Mcgranaghan (0000-0001-5112-372X, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 331-354 |
| Publication date | 2013-07-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Azania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0067270x.2013.797135 |
| OpenAlex | W2090591225 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 20 |
| References cited | 44 |
Previously unpublished rock art in Lesotho, southern Africa, is believed to explain the words of Qing — the San (Bushman) man who gave interpretations of paintings in the vicinity. Published in 1874, his testimony, when closely read and compared with other sources, has since become the single most important source for the decipherment of rock art in the sub-continent. One seemingly incomprehensible phrase, though, concerning the famous rain-making depiction at Sehonghong Shelter, Lesotho, has worried scholars for some time. Here, we make a connection that sets Qing's words within the context of the other rock art sites, and the greater cosmology, that he knew. Far from being too young, uninitiated or unfamiliar with the mythology and religion, as this painted site — Rain Snake Shelter — shows, Qing was more than conversant with San cosmology and ritual practice. His testimony is therefore more reliable than was hitherto granted
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology · Decipherment · Depiction · Literature · Mythology · Painting · Rock art · Rock shelter · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Classics · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Dead ahead
‘Appetite comes with eating’
Sounds and sound thinking in |xam-ka !au
The fauna from Ratho Kroonkop, a rain-control site in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, Limpopo Province, South Africa
High and mighty
Fluidities of personhood in the idioms of the Maloti-Drakensberg, past and present, and their use in incorporating contextual ethnographies in southern African rock art research
Indigenising the gun – rock art depictions of firearms in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Outlaws, Anxiety, and Disorder in Southern Africa
Icons and archives
A survey of social ecologies in the freshwater biomes of highland Lesotho and the adjacent Eastern Cape, South Africa
The Doring River bullroarers rock painting
The Matatiele Archaeology and Rock Art (Mara) Program Excavations
The Rock Arts of Metolong
Acoustic Measurements and Digital Image Processing Suggest a Link Between Sound Rituals and Sacred Sites in Northern Finland
Continuity and Transition from the Early to Mid-Holocene at the Foothills of the Drakensberg
The devil’s in the detail
Frogs or people
Things of the outside teach me
Cattle, raiding and disorder in Southern African history
The Impact of Contact and Colonization on Indigenous Worldviews, Rock Art, and the History of Southern Africa
People of the Eland
Images of power
Women like meat
Boiling energy
The Archaeology of Southern Africa
Believing and seeing
Fishing in the rain
Southern African San Rock Painting as Social Intervention
Interaction between South-Eastern San and Southern Nguni and Sotho Communities c.1400 to c.1880
Beliefs and Customs of the |Xam Bushmen
Ethnographic Evidence Relating to 'Trance' and 'Shamans' among Northern and Southern Bushmen
Revisiting the Robberg
The Myth of Ritual Origins? Ethnography, Mythology and Interpretation of San Rock Art
Rock-Painting Sites in the Upper Senqu Valley, Lesotho
Melikane and Upper Mangolong Revisited
Sehonghong
The Water Bull of the /Xam
Rock-Painting Sites in the Mkhomazana Valley, Natal Drakensberg
Through the Veil
Believing and Seeing. Symbolic Meanings in Southern San Rock Paintings
The Water Snake of the Khoekhoen and /Xam
A Cosmos in Stone. Interpreting Religion and Society through Rock Art
The Syntax and Function of the Giant's Castle Rock-Paintings
Dancing with Two Sticks
Art of the Rocks of Southern Africa
Beliefs and Customs of the |Xam Bushmen
The late Quaternary of the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa
Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern africa
Art on the Rocks of Southern Africa
Led by the nose
San Spirituality Roots, Expressions, and Social Consequences
The Eland's people
The impact of the horse on the AmaTola ‘bushmen
Foragers on the Frontiers
The late Quaternary landscape at Sehonghong in the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa
Creolisation on the Nineteenth-century Frontiers of Southern Africa
The power of a place in understanding southern San rock engravings
Ethnography and Iconography
Myths, Making, and Consciousness
Symbiotic Interaction Between Black Farmers and South-Eastern San
The rain bull of the South African Bushmen
| Unique citing works | 20 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |