Autor: Prof. Augustin F. C. Holl

Thanks to Harald Pager’s (1993) sustained effort, most of the rock art stations in Brandberg, Namibia, were visited and carefully recorded. The collection of rock art from Brandberg published by the Heinrich Barth Institute of the University of Cologne is an unparalleled working tool. Building on previous attempts to explain and interpret the paintings from Snake Rock shelter, this paper revisits these and peels the different layers of images, motifs, and compositions represented. There are numerous superimpositions; the initial ones are predominantly a ‘black and white’ painting tradition. The images in ‘color tradition’ are painted on top of the previous ones, sometimes with a clear intent to obliterate them. The long and sinuous red motif in the East section of the painting is the representation of a river. Humans, animals, trees, rivers, dug-outs, are choreographed in a meaningful and contested landscape. It is that complex web of ideas displayed on Snake rock shelter’s wall that is explored in this paper.

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