Introduction to Joseph Orpen’s Contribution to the Interpretation of San Rock Art
Joseph Millerd Orpen’s 1873 engagement with a San informant known as Qing remains one of the earliest and most significant recorded efforts to interpret San rock art through indigenous knowledge systems. Orpen, a colonial magistrate and explorer, documented Qing’s explanations of rock paintings in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains and published his findings in 1874. His observations differed from earlier Eurocentric readings of the art as simplistic or decorative, instead highlighting the paintings’ symbolic and spiritual significance.
A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen
Orpen’s account, A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen (1874), is based on Qing’s interpretations of paintings in several highland rock shelters. Qing explained that many of the figures in the art, especially those depicting human-animal hybrids and contorted postures, represented shamans in trance. These ritual specialists entered altered states of consciousness through dance, during which they experienced death-like transformations and journeys to spiritual realms. The figures in the paintings were visual representations of these experiences.
Central to these interpretations was the role of the eland, an animal of profound ritual importance in San cosmology. Qing explained that the eland was linked to potency, rain-making, and healing—key shaman concerns. Orpen recorded that scenes of dying eland or trance-dancers often signified spiritual events rather than literal hunts. This understanding laid the groundwork for later theories about the metaphorical nature of San art.
Orpen’s sketches
In addition to Qing’s verbal explanations, Orpen produced several sketches of the paintings. Some of his most important sketches include:
- Melikane Shelter: Depicting therianthropes—half-human, half-animal figures—interpreted by Qing as shamans transforming during trance.
Source: Orpen and Research Gate
- Sehonghong Shelter: Showing figures in postures associated with dancing and ritual.
Source: Orpen and Research Gate
- Upper Mangolong Shelter: Featuring eland and other sacred animals, linked to rainmaking and spiritual potency.
Source: Orpen, Lewis-Williams and Research Gate
The sketches depict therianthropic figures, trance dancers, and eland imagery, and although they are not highly detailed, they remain crucial early records of the artworks. Seven later watercolour copies, created by Orpen between 1877 and 1879, are preserved and digitised by the National Museum of the Free State.
Orpen’s documentation was highly influential for subsequent researchers. Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, pioneers of San language and mythology documentation, frequently referenced Orpen’s account. The themes he recorded—trance, transformation, the spiritual role of the eland—recur throughout the extensive narratives collected by Bleek and Lloyd from |Xam San speakers in the Cape Colony. Orpen’s work effectively anticipated and informed the interpretative frameworks later used by scholars such as Patricia Vinnicombe and David Lewis-Williams.
Today, Orpen’s brief collaboration with Qing is regarded as a cornerstone in the history of San studies. It demonstrated the necessity of indigenous interpretation in understanding cultural heritage and challenged the view of San art as merely decorative or literal. By recording Qing’s insights and attempting to preserve them visually, Orpen pioneered to studying one of Africa’s most complex and enduring artistic traditions.
References
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Orpen, J.M. (1874). A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen. Cape Monthly Magazine, 9(49), 1–13.
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Lewis-Williams, D. (1981). Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meanings in Southern San Rock Paintings. Academic Press.
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Vinnicombe, P. (1976). People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of Their Life and Thought. University of Natal Press.
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Bleek, W.H.I., & Lloyd, L.C. (1911). Specimens of Bushman Folklore. George Allen & Co.
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ResearchGate: Orpen’s Sketches
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National Museum of the Free State: Orpen Watercolours