The White Lady
Encyclopedia
The White Lady is a rock painting
, located on a panel, also depicting other art
work, on a small rock overhang, deep
within Brandberg Mountain
. The giant granite
monolith
located in Damaraland
and called 'The Brandberg' is Namibia
's highest mountain
.
The painting has long been an archaeological
dilemma, and several different hypotheses have been put forth on its origins, authorship and dating. It is now usually accepted to be a bushmen
painting, dating back at least 2000 years ago.
The "White Lady" archaeological site is located close to the road from Khorixas
to Hentie's Bay, in the area of Uis
, on the Brandberg
massif. The Brandberg itself hosts over 1.000 bushmen paintings, scattered around in rock shelters and caves. The "White Lady Group" is found in a cave known as "Maack Shelter" and portrays several human figures as well as oryx
es, on a rock panel measuring about 5.5 m x 1.5 m. The "White Lady" is the most detailed human figure in the group, and measures about 39.5 cm x 29 cm. To reach The White Lady it is necessary to hike for about 45-60 minutes over rough terrain, along the gorge of the - normally - dry Tsisab river.
It is usually assumed that the painting shows some sort of ritual dance, and that the "White Lady" is actually a medicine man
. She has white legs and arms, which may suggest that his body was painted or that he was wearing some sort of decorative attachments on his legs and arms. He holds a bow
in one hand and perhaps a goblet in the other. Because of the bow and the oryxes, the painting has also been interpreted as a hunting scene. Apart from the shaman/lady, the other human figures have less detail, and are mostly completely black or completely white. One of the oryxes has human legs. The painting was probably made of ochre
, charcoal
, manganese
, hematite
, with blood serum
, egg white
and casein
used as binding agents.
The painting has undergone severe damage since it was first "discovered" in the early 20th century. For a few decades, tourists
used to pour water on the painting to make the colors more clearly visible in their pictures, thus causing the painting to fade quickly. The site is now a protected heritage site of Namibia, and visiting is only permitted with official guides. Bags and bottles are NOT allowed at the far end of the trail, for a better protection of the paintings.
Thanks to many tourists protests, the metal wire netting has been replaced by only 2 metal bars, for a much better view.
The White Lady was first discovered in 1918 by German
explorer and topographer Reinhard Maack as he was surveying the Brandberg. Maack was impressed by the main figure of the painting, which he described as "a warrior". In his notes, he wrote that "the Egyptian-Mediterranean style of all the figures is surprising". He made several hand-drawn copies of the painting, which were later published in Europe
.
In 1929, Maack's notes came into the hands of the well-known french anthropologist Henri Breuil
while he was visiting Cape Town
. Breuil noted analogies between the White Lady and paintings of athletes found in Knossos
(Crete
), and suggested that the Brandberg might have been visited by a group of travelers coming from the Mediterranean area. It was Breuil who first referred to the painting as "the white lady". In 1945 Breuil could finally visit the White Lady site, and published his theories on the Mediterranean origin of the painting first in South Africa
and then in Europe
.
Breuil's arguments were influential of several later hypotheses concerning the painting, some of which suggested that it could actually be Phoenicia
n in origin.
In the second half of the 20th century, most theories on Mediterranean influences on the ancient history of subsaharan Africa (like those about Great Zimbabwe
being "non-African" in origin) were gradually dismissed. Accordingly, modern studies on the White Lady are usually based on the simpler assumption that it is a bushman painting just like the thousands other painted figures of the Brandberg. Damaraland is actually very rich in bushman rock art sites, including for example Twyfelfontein
.
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
, located on a panel, also depicting other art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
work, on a small rock overhang, deep
Deep
-In film and television:* The Deep , a 1970 unfinished film directed by Orson Welles* The Deep , a 1977 film directed by Peter Yates, based on the novel by Peter Benchley...
within Brandberg Mountain
Brandberg Mountain
The Brandberg , is Namibia's highest mountain.-Location and Extent:Brandberg Mountain is located in Damaraland, in the northwestern Namib Desert, near the coast, and covers an area of approximately 650 km²...
. The giant granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
monolith
Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...
located in Damaraland
Damaraland
Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south....
and called 'The Brandberg' is Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
's highest mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
.
The painting has long been an archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
dilemma, and several different hypotheses have been put forth on its origins, authorship and dating. It is now usually accepted to be a bushmen
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
painting, dating back at least 2000 years ago.
Location and description
Khorixas
Khorixas is a town of 6,000 inhabitants in southern Kunene Region, Namibia. It was previously the capital of the Damaraland bantustan prior to Namibia's independence. It is located in Khorixas Constituency. Most of the inhabitants are from the Damara ethnic group...
to Hentie's Bay, in the area of Uis
Uis
Uis is a village located in Erongo Region, Namibia. It belongs to the Dâures electoral constituency. Located in the former Damaraland, it is known for the local mineral wealth. The settlement has approximately 3,600 inhabitants and owns of land....
, on the Brandberg
Brandberg
Brandberg may refer to:*Brandberg, Austria, a municipality in the district of Schwaz in Tyrol*the former name of Dâures Constituency in the Erongo region of Namibia*the Brandberg Mountain in Namibia...
massif. The Brandberg itself hosts over 1.000 bushmen paintings, scattered around in rock shelters and caves. The "White Lady Group" is found in a cave known as "Maack Shelter" and portrays several human figures as well as oryx
Oryx
Oryx is one of four large antelope species of the genus Oryx. Three of the species are native to arid parts of Africa, with a fourth native to the Arabian Peninsula. Their pelage is pale with contrasing dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long horns are almost straight...
es, on a rock panel measuring about 5.5 m x 1.5 m. The "White Lady" is the most detailed human figure in the group, and measures about 39.5 cm x 29 cm. To reach The White Lady it is necessary to hike for about 45-60 minutes over rough terrain, along the gorge of the - normally - dry Tsisab river.
It is usually assumed that the painting shows some sort of ritual dance, and that the "White Lady" is actually a medicine man
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
. She has white legs and arms, which may suggest that his body was painted or that he was wearing some sort of decorative attachments on his legs and arms. He holds a bow
Bow (weapon)
The bow and arrow is a projectile weapon system that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.-Description:A bow is a flexible arc that shoots aerodynamic projectiles by means of elastic energy. Essentially, the bow is a form of spring powered by a string or cord...
in one hand and perhaps a goblet in the other. Because of the bow and the oryxes, the painting has also been interpreted as a hunting scene. Apart from the shaman/lady, the other human figures have less detail, and are mostly completely black or completely white. One of the oryxes has human legs. The painting was probably made of ochre
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
, charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
, manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
, hematite
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...
, with blood serum
Blood serum
In blood, the serum is the component that is neither a blood cell nor a clotting factor; it is the blood plasma with the fibrinogens removed...
, egg white
Egg white
Egg white is the common name for the clear liquid contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms around either fertilized or unfertilized egg yolks...
and casein
Casein
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....
used as binding agents.
The painting has undergone severe damage since it was first "discovered" in the early 20th century. For a few decades, tourists
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
used to pour water on the painting to make the colors more clearly visible in their pictures, thus causing the painting to fade quickly. The site is now a protected heritage site of Namibia, and visiting is only permitted with official guides. Bags and bottles are NOT allowed at the far end of the trail, for a better protection of the paintings.
Thanks to many tourists protests, the metal wire netting has been replaced by only 2 metal bars, for a much better view.
Finding and interpretation controversy
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
explorer and topographer Reinhard Maack as he was surveying the Brandberg. Maack was impressed by the main figure of the painting, which he described as "a warrior". In his notes, he wrote that "the Egyptian-Mediterranean style of all the figures is surprising". He made several hand-drawn copies of the painting, which were later published in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
In 1929, Maack's notes came into the hands of the well-known french anthropologist Henri Breuil
Henri Breuil
Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil , often referred to as Abbé Breuil, was a French Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist...
while he was visiting Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. Breuil noted analogies between the White Lady and paintings of athletes found in Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
(Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
), and suggested that the Brandberg might have been visited by a group of travelers coming from the Mediterranean area. It was Breuil who first referred to the painting as "the white lady". In 1945 Breuil could finally visit the White Lady site, and published his theories on the Mediterranean origin of the painting first in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and then in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Breuil's arguments were influential of several later hypotheses concerning the painting, some of which suggested that it could actually be Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n in origin.
In the second half of the 20th century, most theories on Mediterranean influences on the ancient history of subsaharan Africa (like those about Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which existed from 1100 to 1450 C.E. during the country’s Late Iron Age. The monument, which first began to be constructed in the 11th century and which continued to be built until the 14th century, spanned an...
being "non-African" in origin) were gradually dismissed. Accordingly, modern studies on the White Lady are usually based on the simpler assumption that it is a bushman painting just like the thousands other painted figures of the Brandberg. Damaraland is actually very rich in bushman rock art sites, including for example Twyfelfontein
Twyfelfontein
Twyfelfontein , officially known as ǀUi-ǁAis , is a site of ancient rock engravings in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia...
.