100th century BCE
Namibia
Apollo 11 shelter in Namibia preserves painted slabs on portable pieces of stone, regarded in the passage as the earliest rock paintings known from southern Africa. Associated charcoal results place the paintings between 27,500 and 25,000 BP. The find provides evidence for symbolic expression in southern Africa before the Later Stone Age and expands the chronology of early visual representation on the continent.
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The Story
The Apollo 11 shelter in Namibia yielded painted slabs on portable pieces of stone. The passage presents these objects as the earliest rock paintings in southern Africa, while emphasizing that they were made on portable stone rather than on the walls of a shelter. Their context places them within a sequence that also contains an early Later Stone Age layer.
The painted slabs came from a layer beneath one containing the early Later Stone Age, dated in the passage to about 19,000–20,000 BP. Three results from associated charcoal place the paintings unquestionably between 27,500 and 25,000 BP. This association provides the chronological basis for treating the slabs as an early manifestation of symbolic expression.
Apollo 11 is situated within a wider discussion of symbolic behavior, including pigment use and other possible aesthetic practices. The painted stones therefore matter not only as isolated artworks, but also as evidence that visual expression formed part of the behavioral repertoire of southern African populations well before the Later Stone Age.
100th century BCE
Namibia
Apollo 11 shelter in Namibia preserves painted slabs on portable pieces of stone, regarded in the passage as the earliest rock paintings known from southern Africa. Associated charcoal results place the paintings between 27,500 and 25,000 BP. The find provides evidence for symbolic expression in southern Africa before the Later Stone Age and expands the chronology of early visual representation on the continent.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Apollo 11 shelter in Namibia yielded painted slabs on portable pieces of stone. The passage presents these objects as the earliest rock paintings in southern Africa, while emphasizing that they were made on portable stone rather than on the walls of a shelter. Their context places them within a sequence that also contains an early Later Stone Age layer.
The painted slabs came from a layer beneath one containing the early Later Stone Age, dated in the passage to about 19,000–20,000 BP. Three results from associated charcoal place the paintings unquestionably between 27,500 and 25,000 BP. This association provides the chronological basis for treating the slabs as an early manifestation of symbolic expression.
Apollo 11 is situated within a wider discussion of symbolic behavior, including pigment use and other possible aesthetic practices. The painted stones therefore matter not only as isolated artworks, but also as evidence that visual expression formed part of the behavioral repertoire of southern African populations well before the Later Stone Age.