Rock art found in South Africa, and painted two centuries ago, represents how the San people imagined extinct animals that they found in fossil form.
This early rendering of these fossils could relate to the lost cultural belief of rain ceremonies and the realm of the dead.
“It’s a combination of what they could see in reality and what they imagined,” says Julien Benoit, a paleontologist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa as he relates in a study published recently in PLOS ONE.
The Mythical Rock Art Discovered
Benoit first saw a painting by the San people of a creature that appeared semi-mythical in a book dating to the 1910s. Benoit tracked down the farm in South Africa where it was described — the same family still owned the farm — called La Belle France and was pointed in the right direction to find the actual rock art in person.
While it was difficult to access, he found it without too much searching. “It was quite a nice moment for me, because I didn’t think I’d find it so easily,” Benoit says.
The art was quite faded compared to the photos dating to the early 20th century. But they depicted what he’d seen — an almost walrus- or serpent-like creature with two large tusks protruding downwards from its head.
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What was the Mythical Creature?
The farm where the rock art was found lies in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, which is well-known for the abundant fossils preserved there. Walruses didn’t live anywhere near this area, even millions of years ago. But one fossil with large tusks is found quite commonly in the Karoo — the dicynodont.
Dicynodonts were therapsids — a large group of animals that mammals also descended from. Dicynodonts weren’t mammals, but some dicynodonts were like hippos, while others were more like wild pigs. There were dozens of described species, some rat-like in size and others as big as elephants.
In the area around the rock art, dicynodonts like the pigmy hippo sized Kannemeyeria or the diminutive Lystrosaurus were the most common, and both had tusks. Dicynodonts were common until they went extinct around 250 million years ago — eons before humans ever evolved.
While dicynodonts and humans never overlapped on the planet, dicynodont fossils have been found everywhere in the Karoo. Benoit even found some fossils in a nearby rock outcropping when he visited the rock art.
“It really all came together when I was there. You find the art, you find the fossils,” Benoit says.
The San people who lived in the area surely came across these fossils, which were quite common on the landscape, Benoit says.
Read More: South African Rock Art Appears to Draw Upon Extinct Creatures
The San People’s Interpretation of the Dicynodont
It’s difficult to date the rock art at La Belle France, but Benoit says the drawing itself gives some clues. Other depictions on the same rock facing near the dicynodont show Zulu and Tswana warriors together.
The only time this was known to happen in history was during the Mfecane — a big war that occurred in the 1820s. If these warriors were painted the same time as the tusked creature, that would mean it likely wasn’t older than the 1820s. Since most San had left the area by 1835 and were completely gone by the 1850s, that means the painting couldn’t be later than that time, Benoit says.
The fact that the art was much more faded when Benoit saw it with his own eyes compared to the photo taken a century ago also means it couldn’t be too old. “It’s deteriorating very quickly,” he says, adding that in several more decades there might not be much left of this art.
Before they left that area of the Karoo, the San had little contact with outsiders, and Western science had likely made no inroads. This is all to say that the art likely represents the San interpreting fossils in their own way.
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Why Did the San Depict Paint the Dicynodont?
If the rock art at La Belle France really is a dicynodont, it isn’t portrayed anatomically correct, other than the head. Instead, Benoit believes it was depicted as a rain animal — an important type of mythological figure for the San.
According to ethnographic accounts, the San people who lived in this area believed that the realm of the dead was an aquatic place. As a result, in dry periods, San shamans would conduct a rain dance for hours or even days at a time, until they entered a trance state. According to the myths, the shaman would enter the realm of the dead to capture an imaginary rain animal and bring it back. This would herald the start of rain in times of need.
In other San rock art, rain animals are depicted as snakes, hippos, crocodiles, and other aquatic creatures, Benoit says. Benoit believes that the rock art at La Belle France depicts someone’s interpretation of a dicynodont rendered as a rain animal, with an elongated body more appropriate for something aquatic.
The fact that the depiction of a dicynodont may predate Western descriptions of this group of animals, or at least parallel it, helps to bring paleontology closer to home when Benoit teaches students in South Africa.
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Article Sources
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Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science writer. An expat Albertan, he contributes to a number of science publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai, and others.
