There is also considerable potential for the megamidden to have carried symbolic meaning to the builders. At least one scholar (Angelbeck) has argued that the huge mounds had a monumental purpose: that the huge shell heaps represent the same range of functions that other works of monumental architecture do, as public works and communication of power or territorial ownership.
In addition, examples of rock art possibly associated with the megamidden period are known from Elands Bay and Steenbokfontein caves. Steenbokfontein Cave is a rockshelter in a prominent sandstone outcrop overlooking reefs and beaches of Eland's Bay. Rock paintings cover the walls of the cave, and are mostly handprints and human figures, painted in red. Two images are of fat-tailed sheep, an antelope and some other shapes too faded to identify. Domesticated fat-tailed sheep are believed to have appeared in the region circa 2000 years ago, at the end of the megamidden period.
Buried Rock Art
During the excavations in the 1990s, ten matching rock slabs were discovered buried within Layer 4a at Steenbokfontein cave, about 20-50 centimeters (~8-20 inches) below the surface, in a layer c14 dated (on shell) to ~3510-3640 RCYBP. When pieced together, two of the slabs were found to have been painted with seven images of human beings.
The human figures are painted in red, with some white details; they are mostly represented by legs and hips, although one appears to have been dressed in a white cloak or kaross. All of the slabs are covered with an unevenly spread film of red. These images stylistically belong to the western Cape style of rock art.
Based on the stratigraphic location of the rock fall, the paintings on the slab must have been completed before 3,600 years ago, when they fell and were buried in the cave.
Sources
A bibliography has been collected for this project.
