ACADEMIA Letters

A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave

Compositions In The Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe
Joern Stoevring, Roskilde University

1. The famous and leading rock art scholar the Abbé Henri Breuil publishes in 1949
an article in the South African Archaeological Bulletin Some Foreigners in the Frescoes on
Rocks in Southern Africa (1). The Abbé had the year before visited the Dengeni and Zaka
caves, Masvingo, Zimbabwe (in the article called Impey’s Cave and Shambala). He identifies
the humans in the images (at the basis of looks) as foreigners (to Zimbabwe) and proposes
a Semitic origin. His views did not stand alone amongst scholars at that time and in that
cultural-political post-war context. Today it is the general consensus that the local San hunter
and gatherers on the contrary develop their belief system related to the local context (2).
2. The Abbé reach a radical misinterpretation primarily due to the absence of a framework
on the San belief system derived from the Zimbabwean caves. In our book on the Chikupo
Cave, Masembura (3) we identified a structure behind the cave wall consisting of different
layers:
• a lower part that consist of an “under” world – where “scary” beings roam.

• a middle area with of an action area for humans and animals. In this herd animals and
humans move in their social group

• a top layer with the highest levels of spirituality

• the beings at each layer reflect the dual character of reality in a spirit world and a “nor-
mal” world.
Our intention here is to critically assess the applicability of this structure on a
different cave (Dengeni) and – if possible – to refine the concept of a structure
behind the grand cave compositions.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

1
 3. The panorama view of Dengeni Cave is reproduced below.

Photo 1. The Dengeni Cave (2021). Pictured Samual Samayanga. Own photo ref. Note 1

Below is the middle section of the above, which made the Abbé designate the images as
foreign to the San tradition.
The Abbé found a resemblance to Semitic images in this and the nearby Zaka cave. That
observation pales in the light of a systematic description as follows: The section contains a
bottom double line of antelopes. The second line has elements of orange while the first line
contains blue. They were painted at different periods but each follows the structure of the
other. Regarding the relation between humans and animals: The animals mimick a line of
running humans. When the humans stop for a conversation, the animals turn towards each
other. It can also be interpreted vice versa so that the humans mimick the animal behaviour.
Antelopes of unknown types with rings around their neck jump over the borderline. The
borderline is composed of two lines of animals and white “light”.
A group of women are dancing to the right. One is sitting on the beam of “light”. “The
light” crosses or slices through that person, showing that the borderline is “real”.
To the extreme right is found this large figure. Small humans are bending forward and

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

2
 Photo 2. Middle section of wall painting, DengeniCave. 2021. Own photo

supported with sticks. They approach his right arm that is reaching out to them. The figure
has no feet, but the humans return – now walking – starting from the end of his leg. Though
the figure contains no precise sex organs, the size of the shoulders suggests a male. At present,
the figure contains no head. Even use of Dstretch and extreme blow-up of high pic images do
not reveal traces of a head. This absence might then have been intentional from the start. The
figure is extremely large compared to the humans trying to contact the arms. He is positioned
to the left of a large vertical crack in the wall. Color is applied to the crack as if it is erupting
from inside the granite.
The boundaries of the field or the edge of the top layer are composed of one line of animals
in red and a white line of “light”. The lines start to the left and stretch to the right. The form
might allude to the shape of a giant rhino. It presents an overall upper structure for the entire
composition. A different line of animals presents a lower edge – but the lower boundary
is today blurred and cannot be reconstructed even using advanced photography imagining
software.
There are only two groups that manage to transcend the upper line. One is a group of

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

3
Photo 3. Figure to the extreme right. Dengeni Cave. Own photo. 2021. Augmented with
Dstrech Imagining software.

seven spirit animals (antelopes with a ring around the neck) that jumps the line. The other
is humans crawling with sticks towards the arm of the contours of the very large human and
from his legs, they walk back. In the middle of the entire composition in photo 1 can be seen
a large concentric circle with an outer yellow ring. The compact large size could allude to a
sun/moon. There are some stylistic similarities to the concentric circles around the neck of
the antelopes in Photo 2. This type of animal description is only further found at the nearby
Zaka Wall. There, they are also positioned at the upper right boundary of the composition.
4. What sets this composition apart is, that:

• there is a marked boundary line to the material activity sphere that is composed of
humans and antelopes

• the spirit animals, containing a concentric line around the neck, manage to jump over the
boundary. The concentric circles resemble a larger circle to the left giving associations
to the moon or the sun.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

4
 • Humans in trance connect with the large spirit human and are put back from his leg

• At the large crack to the right, paint has been used as if it is erupting from the deep rock
The entire cave wall can be understood (with a loose inspiration from Bourdieu, 2018
reference 4) as “a field”. By “a field” we understand a structured social space depicted on
the wall. The layers are constituted by the beings. The spatial concept contains spiritual
beings allocated higher up from an activity segment, where both animals and humans act in
separate groups. In comparison with the spatial concept of the Chikupo cave – the lower
level of the underground cannot be verified. In Chikupo are painted two heads or faces on the
humans, which is not the case here. A major difference is the structure of the human – animal
relationship. Chikupo is operated with large spirit animals to whom the humans relate. In
Dengeni, the humans relate to and interact with the very large human figure. The animals and
humans mimick each other in social behavior, activity and in the presentation of a route from
the normal activity to the spiritual level (here located higher up the wall and to the right).
The themes of the composition are not to contest wealth, women, nor domination and
power. At least not domination and power in the traditional political science tradition but
possibly in a special dimension of human and animal realization of the route from normal to
the spiritual. Special attention is put to the upper boundary of this field of social relations.
The lesson is that the normal world has its boundaries, which can be transcended only by
spiritual animals and/or through a metamorphosis with the large human form. That figure has
a disparity in size so great to the normal depictions of spirit humans – that he could appear
even as a demi-god. On the relation between animals and humans: there is a specific absence
of the essence of the normal relation which is the kill. What is depicted is an idealized image
of respective social behavior at the activity level with a perspective of a way out and solution
at the spiritual level, which would bring meaning to their lives.
The spatial concept operated with a space not only stretching vertically and horizontally
but also with a third dimension deep inside the rock (due to the paint on the vertical crack). In
front can be seen how the stones are arranged in a circle –indicating the circle and the trance
dance as the central rite. For the viewer, the composition provides identification points, risks,
opportunities and solutions. The physical space in front thus provides a fourth integrated
dimension for the field. All the dimensions taken together signify their spatial concept at that
time and at Dengeni.
The further usefulnes of a spatial concept for analysis of Zimbabwean caves shall next be
investigated at Mucheka Cave, Murehwa, Zimbabwe.
Finally, however, we have to present two qualifications to this discussion:

(I). The analysis is only valid for the post-Humid Period until the arrival of the

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

5
 Early Bantu. Our earlier stratification of the San material demonstrates three
different periods with different san traditions:

• The Ancient San from the Ice Age to the Humid Period
• The San from the End of the Humid Period until the arrival of the Early
Bantu
• The Late San from the arrival of the Early Bantu until their demise

The applicability of this analysis thus is limited to the middle period (see Ref. 2 for a
justification).

(II). In the other grand caves can easily be identified several compositions painted
on top of each other. The key question then is whether the end composition should
be deconstructed and interpreted singularly as stand-alone or as accumulated,
taking the former presentations into account. Here, for simplicity and to discuss
our analytical points – we choose the wall of Dengeni, since the superimpositions
are limited, and they can be seen to be cumulative. Further, because the global
character cannot be disputed.

The applicability of the discussion above is limited before attention is given to these issues.

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.

6
References
1. Vol. 4, No. 14 (Jun., 1949), pp. 39-50 (12 pages) Published By: South African Archaeo-
logical Society.

2. Garlake, P. 1995. The Hunter’s Vision: The Prehistoric Rock Art of Zimbabwe. London:
British Museum Press.

3. Stovring, J. 2021 New Approach to Cave Art in Zimbabwe. Glimpses into the Mentality
History of the Ancient San from 10000 PM to 600 AD. IBOOK

4. Bourdieu, Pierre 2018 Social Space and the Genesis of Appropriated Physical Space

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Vol 42 Issue 1 p 106 - 114

NOTE

1. All the images had to be reduced in order to be reproduced in this contribution. They
are all high pic in original and can be obtained with contact to the author at simba-
harare@gmail.com

Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Joern Stoevring, simbaharare@gmail.com

Citation: Stoevring, J. (2022). A Discussion Of The Spatial Concept Behind San Cave Compositions In The
Post Humid Period in Zimbabwe. Academia Letters, Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4667.