Rock art boost for Namibia
2005-04-12 11:31
Windhoek - German archaeologists have given about 2 000 copies of rock art paintings, including the renowned White Lady of the Brandberg Mountain, to Namibia to help preserve the ancient art.
Experts from the University of Cologne launched a research project in 1963 to record the rock art by copying the drawings onto foils including the so-called White Lady, a figure in white leggings carrying a lotus flower that is said to be 2 000 years old.
"The documentation in the form of copies of these unique pieces of ancient art in Namibia will now find their place at the National Archives of Namibia, their natural home," said University of Cologne rector Tassilo Kupper at the opening of an international rock art conference in Windhoek on Monday.
"I hope that these foils will create further interest in Namibian rock art and serve as a good basis to support archaeology in Namibia," Kupper said.
The University of Cologne through its Heinrich-Barth Institute for early history has been conducting archaeological and ethnological studies in Namibia for over 70 years and in 1963 started the field research project to record ancient rock art in the country, mainly in the Brandberg mountain in northwest Namibia.
The cave on the Brandberg is covered with hundreds of drawings including the figure of the "White Lady" discovered in 1917.
Experts have been intrigued by this unusual figure, which deviates from the usual ochre-coloured African rock art.
Austrian-South African architect Harald Pager was fascinated by the ancient rock art in Namibia and spent between 1977 and 1985 in the Brandberg recording them by copying, drawing and photographing 45 000 figures and scenes of about 900 rock art sites.
French Roman Catholic priest and archaeologist Abbe Breuil in a first ever publication on the "White Lady of the Brandberg" wrote in 1955 that its origins could be traced back to the island of Crete.
About 50 experts from Namibia, Germany, South Africa, Tanzania and Norway are attending the three-day conference on rock art in Southern Africa.