The Dihlabeng region showcases various rock art traditions besides the San Rock art. Within our region, one can find paintings from the Korana (1840’s), Khoi-khoi (100-1500 AC), as well as more recent paintings and engravings created depicting Basotho herd boys. Additionally, engravings from the Anglo Boer War period (1899-1902) are often discovered alongside San rock paintings.
In some instances, the Korana have covered existing San rock art with their own depictions, while the Khoi-Khoi typically left finger or hand-prints as their mark.
Interpreting San rock art proves challenging due to the assimilation or even extermination of the people by other groups, particularly during the period from 1800 to the early 1900s. In the early days of rock art research, it was commonly believed that these paintings depicted the daily activities of the Bushmen, such as the animals they hunted, or were merely created for aesthetic purposes.
Patricia Vinnicombe proposed a correlation between San rock art and their mythology, suggesting that interpretation should be connected with past ethnographies. On the other hand, Prof David Lewis-Williams put forth a shamanistic approach, suggesting that the paintings conveyed the experiences of shamans during trance dances, as indicated by the unusual phenomena depicted in the rock art, known as entoptics.
Most of the rock art sites in the Dihlabeng District are located on private land, making them inaccessible to the general public. However, there are fortunately a few sites in the vicinity of Clarens that can be visited and viewed.
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