Abstract
IN a paper before the Rhodesia Scientific Association, Mr. L. Cripps has again directed attention to the rock-shelter paintings of Southern Rhodesia (Proc. Rhodesia Sci. Assoc.., 39 ; 1942). There is still much to be done, and soon, if these paintings are to be preserved, or at least properly studied before their almost inevitable destruction follows on the more intensive opening up of the country. Incidentally, Mr. Cripps mentions the well-known site in the N'danga-Victoria district, whore the so-called Egyptian figures occur. Dr. Impey, who first described the site, likened them to certain predynastic Egyptian paintings, and this equation is now assumed by a number of prehistorians. Attention might be directed, however, to some rock-shelter paintings from Ido in the Fezzan district south of Tripoli, North Africa, where very similar painted figures occur. They are reproduced (Plate Ixxxi) in Leo Frobenius's recent publication “Ekade Ektob, die Felsbilder Fezzans”, 1937. Perhaps for the present it would be wiser to equate the N'danga paintings with counterparts in North Africa rather than to suggest that they owe their origin to predynastic Egyptians penetrating as immigrants southwards to Rhodesia.
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Rock Paintings in Southern Rhodesia. Nature 151, 472 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151472d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151472d0