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Subject (person)

Peter Genge

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Peter Genge Collection

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School of Social Sciences

Photograph and slide

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Ephemera

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Document

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2028 D1 002 (Pomongwe)

Description

DescriptionA large and well known cave. It is open to the public and has a site museum and interpetation centre.

Peter Garlake, in his 1987 book, The Painted Caves, described the site as follows: "It was one of the first sites reported in the Matobo area. Pomongwe was excavated in 1960-1962, 1979 [and it has been excavated since Garlake wrote - in the 2020s]. The top 50cm of ash yielded Late Stone Age Khami material. It is later than about 6500 BC. Deposits with a preponderance of stone scrapers dated to about 7500 BC. were named Pomongwe Industry after this cave. In both Khami and Pomongwe deposits there were slivers of painted granite that had fallen from the cave walls. They have been dated to between 2000 BC. and 7500 BC. Tshangula deposits, in which the development of the Late Stone Age technology could be traced, dated to 9000 to 14000 BC. There was little trace of human activity between 20 000 and 35 000 years ago. Earlier than this, over 3m of Middle Stone Age material had accumulated.

The paintings have been almost entirely destroyed by a covering of oil and glycerine, applied in the 1920s, in a misguided attempt to preserve them. On the left of the cave, the dark neck and head outline of a giraffe remains, as well as the torso of a hunched figure and a pattern of parallel lines. On the left of the cave are the remains of three giraffe, a zebra in a light pigment and a fourth giraffe in red. The most interesting painting is a large elephant in outline. Lower down is a possible snake. The right side of the cave has the remains of a fifth giraffe. Under it is a crude finger painting of a sunburst. There are also the remains of at least two ovoid designs and a woman with an enlarged stomach and lines from chest and arms. On the extreme right are several bichrome buck."

Location information

Category of placeArchaeological siteSub-category of placeRock art siteexcavated siteZimbabwe National MonumentLocation^[1]Alternate form of geographic coordinatesUTM (Clarke 1880): 577 274 PHUTM: 35K 657700 7727400Is part of placeMatobo National ParkMatobo District (Zimbabwe)Matabeleland South Province (Zimbabwe)Zimbabwe

Connections

Subject (person)Peter GengeSubject (topic)rock paintingBambatapotterystone ageexcavationRelated collectionPeter Genge Collection

Item information

ContributorSchool of Social SciencesIdentifier2028 D1 002GUSI: DA 002OLD BYO: 05Source of informationCooke 1960COOKE 1963 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL BULLETIN 18(71)COOKE 1975 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL BULLETIN 30COOKE 1975 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL BULLETIN 35(13) 25-2?WALKER 1980 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL BULLETIN 35(13) 19-24

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UWA Collected

2028 D1 002 (Pomongwe)

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA