Twyfelfontein

Twyfelfontein, site of rock paintings and engravings as well as archaeological remains in northwest Namibia. Locally known as /Ui-//aes (“place among rocks”), the site has one of the largest collections of rock engravings, known as petroglyphs, in Africa; more than 2,000 paintings and engravings have been counted. The rock art primarily depicts animals such as rhinoceroses, zebras, and giraffes, and, to a lesser extent, human figures. Artifacts found at the site have been dated to the late Neolithic Period (New Stone Age). The site was declared a national monument in 1952 and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.

Location and description

Twyfelfontein means “doubtful fountain” in Afrikaans and refers to a local spring. The local name of /Ui-//aes was given by the Damara people, who settled the area before their forced relocation under colonial rule. Twyfelfontein is located in the historical region of Damaraland in northwest Namibia, about 55 miles (90 km) west of the nearest town, Khorixas.

The region receives less than 6 inches (150 mm) of annual rainfall and is in a transition zone between savanna and semidesert. The presence of a spring likely made it a gathering ground for people in the arid region and thus a site for ritual activity. The rock art is found on 235 separate surfaces on boulders along a west-facing slope of Namibia’s long escarpment. The core of the site is about 124 acres (50 hectares) in area and is surrounded by a buffer zone of about 22,240 acres (9,000 hectares) to protect the site against encroachment.

Rock art

A variety of techniques have been used to create the engravings at Twyfelfontein, indicating multiple generations added to the artwork over time. The two primary methods used were pecking at the rock surface with harder rocks or stone hammers, which accounts for a majority of the petroglyphs, and polishing and grinding the rock surface with small hard rocks. Most of the engravings show animals, typically in profile, giraffes accounting for 40 percent of all petroglyphs. Rhinoceros, zebra, oryx, ostrich, and cattle images also appear in abundance, but human figures are few in number. The animal images have been thought to possibly represent their role in rituals or depict a ritual transformation of humans into animals. One of the site’s most famous engravings, of a dancing kudu that is visibly pregnant, was likely a reference to rituals performed by women. Engravings have also been seen in eight sites outside of Twyfelfontein’s core area, but these have been damaged over time.

The rock paintings of Twyfelfontein can be found in six rock shelters and, contrary to the engravings, are dominated by imagery of human figures drawn using red ochre and depicted in a variety of stances. Three of the shelters have been excavated and studied and have revealed stone artifacts and tools dating from about 5,850 bp to about 370 bp.

History of the site

The imagery in the rock art suggest that they were created by hunter-gatherers, particularly the San, who lived in the area until Damara pastoralists arrived about 1000 ce. The arrival of a German colonial government in the 19th century led many Indigenous populations to move, or be displaced, from the area. This, combined with an 1897 rinderpest epidemic that decimated the pastoralists’ herds of animals, reduced the area’s population.

In the 1940s, the South African colonial government that then administered the area (then known as South West Africa) granted the land that includes Twyfelfontein to a settler named David Levin and his family. The name Twyfelfontein, meaning “doubtful fountain,” was inspired by Levin, who doubted the capacity of the natural spring at the site. He saw the engravings and showed them to Ernst Rudolf Scherz, a German immigrant to South West Africa who had developed an interest in rock art. The Levins moved out in the mid-1960s to accommodate government plans for the land to be assigned to Damara farmers.

Before the Levins had moved, the core area had been designated a national monument in 1952, owing to efforts led by Scherz. The new status was not accompanied by site management, however, and unregulated tourism led to vandalism, theft, and damage to the artwork.

Conservation and protection efforts

Though the site was declared a nature preserve in 1986, concerted government efforts to protect the site were undertaken only after Namibia’s independence in 1990, which culminated in its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007. There were some missteps along the way, though. One example is the construction of the Twyfelfontein Country Lodge in the buffer zone and subsequent guest traffic after its opening in 2000, which has caused damage to some of the artwork.

In addition to being designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, Twyfelfontein is also protected under the 2004 National Heritage Act of Namibia and is managed by the National Heritage Council. Efforts have been made to regulate tourist traffic to the area and empower locals to be part of the conservation process while not losing out on the benefits of tourism.

Twyfelfontein is one of several sites alongside Matopo Hills in Zimbabwe, uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park in South Africa, the Kondoa sites in Tanzania, the Chongoni Rock-Art Area in Malawi, and Tsodilo in Botswana that collectively make up all rock art sites in Southern Africa.