Art and Architecture in the Ancient World: West and South Africa

Rock art: South African

The earliest known art in Africa was found in a cave located in the Huns Mountains of Namibia in southern Africa. In the cave known as Apollo II, archaeologists unearthed seven small pieces of stone, each no more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) long, on which images of animals were painted. Using radiocarbon dating, scientists have estimated that these small, stylized artworks were created between 25,000 and 23,000 b.c.e. The paintings of animals reflect the early Africans’ dependence on animals to provide food, bones to make tools, and skins for clothing. Paintings on rock are typically subject to greater deterioration than are engravings on rock; therefore, early rock paintings, particularly of the early date of the Apollo II examples, are exceptionally rare.

South of the Zambezi River, other early artworks are found on rock-shelter walls located in areas as widespread as Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, indicating that the rock art tradition was introduced into these areas by the migrating groups of nomadic hunters and gatherers such as the San peoples (formerly known as Bushmen). The artists used sharpened bone implements and animal-hair brushes to apply the black, white, and red pigments. These early paintings depict animals and humans, subjects of interest to the San hunters and gatherers. The earliest of these rock-shelter wall paintings has been dated to 2500 b.c.e.

Rock art: The Sahara region

Bubaline period

The oldest-known examples of African rock wall engravings in the Sahara region are those located in the Tassili-n-Ajjer and Fezzan regions, the earliest of which may date to 8000 b.c.e., at which point in time the Sahara was not yet a desert. This period is named for the now extinct buffalo, the Bubalus antiquus. In addition to the Bubalus antiquus, rock engravings from this period depict the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ostrich, elephant, and giraffe. The animals are depicted in a detailed and naturalistic manner. Unique to the Bubaline period is the very large scale of some of the engravings. Human figures are depicted up to 11 feet (3.3 meters) tall and one rhinoceros is more than 26 feet (7.9 meters) long. The presence of extinct Bubalus antiquus in the artworks, plus the fact that the humans carry clubs and axes, lead archaeologists to assign a very early date to the Bubaline period. For most of the Bubaline period, humans appear to have led a hunting and gathering existence, following herds of wild game and collecting plants, seeds, and berries along the way. Art may have been a means to cope with the challenging environment by calling on spirits for assistance or favor.

Cattle period

The line between stylistic periods in art is never clear-cut, and typically there is a period of overlap or transition between two periods. Toward the end of the Bubalus period, the Sahara began to dry up, and in art, domesticated cattle began to be depicted alongside the Bubalus antiquus. When, at last, the Bubalus antiquus ceased to appear in rock art, sometime about 5000 b.c.e., the Cattle period is said to have begun. During this period, rock engravings were replaced by rock paintings in which cattle were depicted alongside the earlier repertoire of wild animals. Human figures during this period were depicted using the newer technology of bows and arrows. Cattle period renderings are more generalized, less naturalistic, and much smaller in scale, typically no more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) high. The domestication of cattle was one step away from hunting and gathering and toward the development of a pastoral lifestyle.

Horse period

The tendency toward increasing abstractionism, generalization, and smaller scale continued during the Horse period, commencing about 1500 b.c.e. The Horse period is divided into three subperiods, each based on the horse and its use by humans. The Chariot subperiod, as its name implies, is the period in which the horse-drawn chariot was introduced. Rock paintings depict single-shaft chariots drawn by two horses and driven by triangular-shaped human figures. The humans were armed with shields, spears, and daggers. Both the chariot and the weaponry show contact with Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps through trade or warfare. Elephants appear in several Chariot subperiod paintings, as do domesticated cattle and dogs. During the Horseman subperiod, humans are shown riding on horseback as well as driving in chariots. The ability to ride horses would have permitted greater mobility over rugged terrain than riding in chariots. The small triangular human forms are adorned with elaborate feathered headdresses, perhaps indicative of their status within their group. In the Horse and Camel subperiod, increasingly cruder and smaller scale paintings show camels alongside horses.

Camel period

The last of the Sahara prehistoric rock art periods, which started about 600 b.c.e., is known as the Camel period because of the predominance of the camel in the rock paintings. As the Sahara became dryer, the camel became the animal of choice for those who stayed in the region. The other groups who migrated southward took their artistic traditions to regions from Senegal to Nigeria and eventually into southern Africa. Saharan rock paintings during the early Camel period depict tiny humans, often no more than stick drawings several inches high, carrying spears. It appears that the spiritual role of rock art lessened as humans gained greater control over their environment.

Sculpture: South African

At the beginning of the first millennium c.e., agrarian peoples from the north moved southward into San territories, bringing new technologies of agriculture, pottery, and ironworking into southern Africa. At Lydenburg in the Transvaal, archaeologists discovered seven sculpted terra-cotta human heads buried in a pit. Created sometime between 500 and 700 c.e., these hollow heads are between 9 and 15 inches (23 and 38 centimeters) high and were formed by adding separate clay features that were then blended into an abstract human face. The faces were adorned with ridges, perhaps representing ritual scarification. Decorative notched herringbone patterns about the necks may represent beaded collars. Because the terra-cotta heads were found buried in a pit, archaeologists speculate that the heads were brought out only on ceremonial occasions, then reburied for protection.

Sculpture: West African

About the same time as the Camel period of wall painting in the Sahara region, a new sculptural tradition was developing near the village of Nok in Nigeria, West Africa. Radiocarbon dates for Nigerian sites place the Nok culture between 500 b.c.e. and 200 c.e. The sculptural medium of choice for the Nok was terra-cotta (baked or fired clay). Creating a sculpture from clay is an additive, modeling process, in which the sculptor adds clay and then models the forms. Woodcarving, on the other hand, is a reductive, carving technique, in which the sculptor cuts away the material, revealing the final form. The flat, abstracted areas of the Nok terra-cotta figures appear more like carved wood than modeled clay, thereby leading art historians to believe that Nok terra-cotta sculptures were based on an earlier and a contemporary woodcarving tradition. Because none of the perishable early wood sculptures remain, the Nok terra-cotta sculptures are the only extant evidence of the early wood sculpture tradition in Africa.

Nok sculptures depict large human heads in a stylized form, with the face composed of hollow pupils set into bow-shaped eyes placed above a protruding nose and mouth. These large heads dominate their smaller proportioned bodies, whose long torsos are supported by short, sturdy legs. Although Nok sculptures have seldom been found intact, it is estimated that the typical size of a sculpted human figure was about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, with the head making up one-quarter to one-third of the entire height of the figure. The anatomical forms are rendered in broad, generalized, cylindrical shapes, articulated with strings of beads, bracelets, anklets, and elaborately arranged hair. The high degree of body ornamentation may indicate that the figures represent kings or priests, indicative of a highly stratified society. Some archaeologists believe the figures represent deceased ancestors, whom the living believed could help or harm them from the afterlife. Human forms in Nok art were represented in an abstract manner, whereas animals were represented naturalistically. The Nok sculptors may, like their later counterparts, have purposefully refrained from rendering humans in too lifelike a manner for fear of capturing human spirits or offending human ancestors. Alongside the Nok terra-cottas, archaeologists have found examples of pottery and ironwork indicating that these arts were present at this early date in Nigeria. Many of the Nok stylistic traits were assimilated by their successors, the Ife, during the late first millennium c.e.

Bibliography

Perani, Judith, and Fred T. Smith. The Visual Arts of Africa: Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Reader, John. Africa: A Biography of a Continent. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Willett, Frank. African Art: An Introduction. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.