BUSHMEN PAINTINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 29

BUSHMEN PAINTINGS

PICTURE OF ARAB FOUND IMPORTANT DISCOVERY Recently discovered rock paintings et Marandellas, in Rhodesia, entirely different in character from any others previously found in the colony, and which, in his opinion, might have an Important effect upon the modern conception of ancient Rhodesia, are described by Professor Lidia Cipriani, Professor of Ethnology of the Royal University of Florence. The outstanding feature of these rock paintings, discovered quite by •ccident by Professor Cipriani in the eastern Marandellas district, is that there are two paintings, one superimposed on the other. The first of these shows quite distinctly the figure of an Arab, in typical Arab dress, but on top of this another picture has been painted of bushmen fighting Bantus, which, of course, was painted at a later date. Professor Cipriani is not yet in a position to make known any conclusions that he has so far drawn from his discovery, but, as he says, the Bushmen must have seen the Arab to be able, to draw him, and therefore he thinks that in many other places in Rhodesia there must be similar rock paintings as yet undiscovered, showing figures of Arabs. He says that a great help to scientists coming to Rhodesia would be a map, showing the various spots in which Bushmen paintings had been found. If further paintings depicting Arabs were found, and such a map were made. It would be possible to follow the Arab line of march through Rhodesia. In regard to the ruins of Southern Rhodesia, Professor Cipriani, who has not yet visited Zimbabwe, said: “My present impression is that in all these ruins in Southern Rhodesia there is nothing to do with foreign people. I believe, contrary to the opinions of many scientists, that these ruins are the work of some people of Africa.” Professor Cipriani is a member of n scientific expedition sent out to South Africa under the auspices of his University with the object of conducting ethnological and ethnographical researches. The other members of the expedition, which is now at Salisbury, are Commander A. Gatti and Signor Del Grande, a correspondent of many European and American newspapers. The object of the expedition does hot, however, lie so much in the direction of rock paintings as in that cf the study of physical ethnology—the study of Bushmen remains and the customs of the natives.