Unmasking Uganda’s rock artists

Nyero Site in Kumi District. The Ugandan government has moved to document heritage sites for conservation. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

A five-year study has concluded that the paintings at Uganda’s rock art sites were done by settled human groups and not early hunter-gatherers as it has long been believed.

The findings also show that there is a connection between Bushmen societies of southern and Central Africa and groups that conceived the rock paintings.

The researchers noted that it is difficult to interpret the different signs because the human groups who drew them have disappeared.

The findings are contained in a new book titled Uganda Rock Art Sites: A Vanishing Heritage of Lake Victoria Region published by the National Museum of Uganda and edited by Prof Barbara Turchetta and Jackline Nyiracyiza.

“According to our C-14 investigations on pigments at Nyero and Kakoro sites, different paintings of the Uganda side of Lake Victoria region date between 5,000 and 1,600 years BP, being on a line with Wiltonian and Magosian like industries in the late Stone Age period described by archeologists that offered us evidence of settled human groups rather than hunter-gatherers nomadic groups,” Prof Turchetta said.

Prof Turchetta adds that “cultural documentation of sites and interpretation of design patterns,” which excavations at Magosi (north of Moroto) showed evidence of a Magosian culture older than the one found in the Horn of Africa and Kenya.[...] theeastafrican.co.ke

Related news (October 4 2014): Honouring Uganda’s rock art in writing

State minister for Karamoja Affairs Barbra Oundo and the author, Prof Barbara Turchetta, during the launch of the book at the Uganda Museum last month. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA