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South Africa is well know to be the cradle of human origins, with some of the oldest ever fossils found not far from here, close to Johannesburg, dating back 2.5 millions years ago.
It is also the original home of the “Bushmen” an ancient hunter gatherer people, whose caves were preserved tools and decorated implements over eighty thousand years old.
what
These represent the very first stirrings of human intelligence, artistic expression, symbolic imagination and spiritual aspirations.They left behind enigmatic rock art paintings in various sites around South Africa.
They painted scenes of their hunting exploits, but also some intriguing and bizarre depictions of therionthropes (half-human half animal figures), trance dancing shamans and curious geometric patterns.
what
The hunted many kinds of buck, but the mighty and majestic Eland, captured their imagination, and became a recurring motif in their roack art sanctuaries, as a sacred and divine creature or being.
Watching the death of this great beast somehow extended their minds into the afterlife and then during their trance dancing, their shaman would ‘journey’ to the gods and be given a dance, to share with the people.