Driekopseiland: Rock engravings

A site of knowledge: Driekopseiland

South Africa has a large number of historical rock-engraving sites, where South Africa’s original inhabitants carved human and animal depictions into rock faces. Driekopseiland is a rock-engraving site which lies south-west of Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The site is situated on the glaciated pavement riverbanks of the Riet River and consists of over 3500 engraved motifs, 90 percent of which are non-representational, meaning that the images are not easily interpretable or recognizable shapes.  Archaeologists have found it difficult to date the engravings, although there is a regional pattern of geometric engravings in the Karoo. Engraving sites in the Klipfontein area, lower Vaal River and Modder River all exhibit geometric motifs. The geometric motifs at Driekopseiland, however, outnumber that of any other site in the region.

Who were the engravers?

Many have hypothesized the cultural identity of the engravers. A number of the site’s researchers have claimed that the San are responsible for the engraving while others believe that the engravings were done by a the Khoekhoe. (Blundell, Chippindale and Smith, 2010:37)

What did they engrave?

The site is made up of two clusters of engravings; a greater upstream east cluster and smaller downstream west cluster.  These differ thematically, with the east cluster consisting of 2004 engravings, 99% of which are geometric motifs, and the west cluster consisting of 1543 engravings of which just under 75% are geometric motifs. There are 325 animal depictions and 19 human depictions found on the west end, while few animal motifs and one human figure can be found on the east end. Archeologists have identified the figurative depictions (human and animal shapes) present at Driekopseiland as being older than the geometric motifs.

The geometric and repetitive nature of the engravings has giving rise to the understanding that the motifs at the site are a form of writing or script, and early researchers at the site have gone as far as to call the motives an ‘alphabet’. The engravings, with the exception of a few, are generally a few centimeters in size and do not physically connect with one another. Each symbol/ motif thus appears to hold individual meaning and significance.

Speculating on the Origins and Meaning of the Engravings

The Riet River was formerly known as the Gama-!ab, an !Ora word which means muddy. The placement the engravings at the glaciated pavement riverbanks of Gama-!ab appears to be deliberate, and the placement is often argued to have been significant to the interpretation of the engravings. The engravings at the site are periodically submerged by the river’s rising water, and thus the ability to see the engraved motifs is largely dependent on the water level of the river. 

The Botswana, Korana, Griekwa and Nama communities, who occupy areas surrounding the site, all hold oral traditions that associate rivers with a mystical snake.  In a range of Nama and Griekwa stories the ‘Water Snake’ is said to control the water of the river. Other stories identify the water snake as the river itself.

Archaeologist David Morris has written extensively about Driekopseiland; he has argued that the interpretation of the motifs at the site lies in the contexts of time and place. In Snake and Veil: The rock engravings of Driekopseiland, Northern Cape, South Africa, Morris identifies the exposed blue grey glaciated andesite on which the geometric motifs are engraved as !Khwa, the /Xam word which personifies ‘rain/water’, in the form of a Great Water snake (Morris, 2010). He elaborated on how appeasing !Khwa was believed to be crucial for the provision of water, a particularly relevant concern as the Riet River is prone to drying up. Thus, the bulk of the motifs at the site were produced during these times when the river was low or at risk of drying, according to Morris. 

Morris also suggests that the engravings are the residue of a ritual sequence; there are strong links between the water snake and female puberty in the oral histories of a large number of Northern Karoo cultural groups. In Nama the same root-word is used for ‘blood,’ ‘snake,’ ‘rain’, the colour red, and ‘waterhole.’

The snake is present as metaphor and symbol in a range of South African cultural groups.  In AmaZulu and AmaXhosa oral tradition, the Inkhanyamba is an enormous flesh-eating snake-eel. It is said to travel by means of a tornado when searching for a mate and is blamed for vicious storms during the summer rainy season.  

Driekopseiland has inspired a range of writings and artworks, and a number of prominent visual artists such as Walter Battiss and Willem Boshoff have also looked to the site for creative inspiration.