Sebaayeni Cave paintings

Blog entries, Locations

Sebaayeni Cave

In the Ndedema Gorge and River, part of the Cathedral Peak area of the Drakensberg, some 17 shelters have been identified with Bushmen paintings – San people paintings, really. Sebaayeni Cave is the most important site, with over a thousand individual images. Unfortunately, the photos are not very good, a combination of youthful incompetence in 1991 and the deterioration of the slides before I had the chance to scan them. But these do give you an idea of what to expect, except that being there yourself beats any pictures.

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412000

Zeni rockface

Not far away is the Zeni rockface, with more paintings, although less varied than the Sebaayeni Cave.

Other caves nearby are Main Cave and Battle Cave.

lovely little a young giraffe, at the Zeni rockface near the Sebaayeni Cave (giraffe 8 cm high)
a panel in Sebaayeni Cave, with female dancers and orange-white eland (left to right approx. 50 cm)
a battle scene, perhaps? or hunting, with the rhebuck on the left (top to bottom approx. 50 cm)
a group of dancers, in a trance (top to bottom approx. 70 cm)
several figures and rhebuck (left to right approx. 30 cm)
a battle scene, people fighting? (top to bottom approx. 20 cm)

the next series of photos are of the main panel of the cave, and several details – all but invisible from a distance.

the main panel in Sebaayeni Cave (left to right approx. 550 cm)
detail of the left side of the panel, group of dancers (left to right approx. 75 cm)
detail of the previous picture, three dancers with remarkeble hats (top to bottom approx. 30 cm)
and another detail of the main panel, two shamanistic figures (top to bottom approx. 40 cm)
the elands under the dancers of the main panel, being hunted (left to right approx. 65 cm)
two more eland, right top of the main panel, maybe walking in a stream? (left to right approx. 45 cm)
another detail of the main panel, two dancers and an eland (top to bottom approx. 55 cm)
three delicate figurines, armed with bow and arrow, and two eland, with another person superimposed on one of them (top to bottom approx. 30 cm)
the right side of the main panel, more animals and people (top to bottom approx. 85 cm)

Below some of the images from the Zeni rockface, more monochromatic, and less varied, but equally finely executed – note the detail in the people, and the rhebuck, and not to forget the giraffe at the top of this entry!

overview of the panel at the Zeni rockface, note the orange eland on the top, and another, red one, upside down in the left lower corner (left to right approx. 55 cm)
the domestic scene of the main panel (left to right approx. 30 cm)
and the rhebuck of the main panel (top to bottom approx. 25 cm)
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