art: Africa found in eastern and southern Africa and were the work of the San, sometimes called the Bushmen, who still populate parts of southern Africa Their ancient paintings are found in caves and areas sheltered by tall rocks The ancient San had a rich assortment of mineral pigments: white, black, red ocher, blue, yellow, and green Their paintings seem to have been mostly for ritual purposes, especially for coming-of-age rituals for youngsters in early puberty The youngsters would be shown illustrations of their history, religious beliefs, and duties, and they would be told what behavior was expected of them as men or as women The paintings often feature depictions of the eland, a large antelope, which was held sacred by the San Outstanding examples of ancient San art are found in caves in Namibia, where the oldest paintings are found, and in Zimbabwe and South Africa In Namibia paintings probably accumulated over thousands of years, with styles varying from full-bodied depictions of people to impossibly thin, knobby characterizations Both men and women and boys and girls are represented They carry spears and bows and are usually unclad but sometimes wear belts and possibly loincloths The modern African passion for body ornaments seems to date back to these earliest paintings, because portrayals of people wearing body paint, bangles on the arms, and bracelets are common The figures sometimes wear masks In paintings found in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the elands are huge, dwarfing the human figures The humans vary in form from stick figures to broad-chested men and wide-hipped women More recent rock paintings, perhaps from the early years of the Christian era, show a profusion of plants as well as humans and animals Often the paintings are high off the ground—too high for a San adult to reach—but archaeologists not know what the San used to help them reach so high Rock etchings and paintings of abstract designs, perhaps dating from 5590 to 2280 b.c.e., are found in Malawi and Zambia, but they not appear to be San paintings and at present archaeologists have no idea who created them There are ancient rock paintings of people and wildlife in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa south of the Sahara, but the cultures that painted them have yet to be identified The best-known rock art in Africa probably is found in the Sahara, dating from 8000 to 3000 b.c.e The art is found throughout the Sahara, from the west coast to the Nile River It seems as though no large rock was left untouched by the ancient artists, and more than 40,000 etchings and paintings have been found The art can be divided into periods based on style, subject matter, and carbon dating: Hunter Period (pre-6122 b.c.e.), Roundhead Period (6122–5095 b.c.e.), Herdsmen Period (5095–2780 b.c.e.), Horse Period (2780–600 b.c.e.), Camel Period (600 b.c.e and later) Some datings put the end of the Herdsmen Period and the start of the Horse Period at 1500 b.c.e Many people are captivated by the Saharan rock etchings and paintings because they depict a Saharan environ- 89 ment that is very different from today’s ever-growing desert The painters lived in a Sahara that had many rivers and streams and much rain and was therefore lush with life Animals flourished The paintings show both dark-skinned and light-skinned people, often mixing together Mineral pigments, charcoal, and burned bone were used to create such colors as white, black, red, yellow, purple, and green The paintings show rituals, community activities, hunting, wars, and dancing People usually are portrayed realistically, although during the Roundhead Period figures with circular or oval heads were common; they may have been wearing a kind of headdress that held hair in a net, or they may have been wearing masks By about 6500 b.c.e the wet era of the Saharan regions had peaked and thereafter declined Lush wetlands became grasslands By 3000 b.c.e the Saharan peoples were being forced out of their lands by desertification, and the Egyptians fought fierce wars against peoples from the west called Libyans, who were seeking to occupy the farmlands of Egypt It is unclear how much the rock art of the Sahara influenced African art south of the Sahara The spiral image common in African art appeared in the Sahara in about 6000 b.c.e and may have spread from there The spiral usually consists of a dark line twisting out from a central point It also shows up in jewelry as wound wires Sometimes, especially when carved or represented in ceramics, its outward end is given the head of a snake In some African cultures the spiral signifies eternal life When worn as a pendant, it can represent the wish for a long life for the wearer It also may represent the eternal existence of the soul when included in burial objects Many of the problems in tracing influences of the early Saharan artists stem from the climate of Africa and its cultural history Outside of the Sahara and some areas in the south, Africa is wet Most African art has been rendered in wood, but in tropical Africa wooden objects rot in fewer than 50 years; some African cultures have made it a regular part of their lives to replace wooden objects every few decades Moreover, few ancient Africans had written languages, and for the few that did have writing, the writing has not yet been interpreted In addition, many African cultures have migrated often during the past 5,000 years, and only recently have anthropologists started reconstructing the paths of those migrations Given Africans’ ancient passion for jewelry, it would be reasonable to assume that gold, which does not corrupt like most other metals, would preserve some of the history of their art But Africans have a long tradition of melting old gold jewelry to make new gold jewelry, and many of the gold artifacts left in graves have been looted Thus historians not have a consistent record of art objects to trace the development of cultural art traditions; there is little written record describing the art that no longer exists; and when ancient African art objects are found, the people living near the objects are not necessarily the culture that made them and have little