New Year passed, and the winter does not end. Tired? Then let's fast forward to the hottest continent - Africa, and plunge into its history a little.

Traditional art occupies a very important place in African culture. Most celebrations and rituals, along with dancing, singing and storytelling, are not complete without vivid visual images. Art objects can be weapons or insignia, prestige, and also have religious significance. The art of the peoples of Africa is diverse: these are sculptures, paintings, "fetishes", masks, figurines and decorations.

The central place still belongs to sculpture, which is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of the African people. The vast majority of sculptures are made of wood, but there are works made of metal, stone, terracotta, ivory, as well as quite exotic creations made of beads and beads, and even molded from simple earth! Archaeologists have discovered ancient sculptures throughout the African continent, but their largest concentration is in its central and western parts.

Rock art, on the other hand, is most common in the south and east. It is believed that the authorship of most of these drawings belongs to the Bushmen ("people of the steppe"). Bushmen drawings were created by shamans and served as part of religious rituals.

Colorful masks and fetishes are objects designed to scare away evil spirits, witches and ghosts. They were also used as talismans, bringing good luck and protecting from misfortune.

Main features

The art of Africa has very characteristic features by which it can always be distinguished from the art of other continents. First, in the center of the image is almost always a human figure. Secondly, African masters rarely strive for realism, more often they resort to simplification of forms and abstraction. Thirdly, distorted, hypertrophied proportions are often used to emphasize movement and dynamics.

African art themes

All the art of the peoples of Africa can be divided into three broad themes. The first of them is a kind of symbiosis of the Forest and the Settlement. Members of the tribes wear special masks and outfits, paying tribute to this duality: for example, the masculine principle is presented in the form of an elephant, the strongest animal, and the feminine, on the contrary, in a well-groomed, as far as possible from the “natural” image, representing civilization and contrasting with the wild, unbridled masculine .

The second theme is the relationship between the sexes. Art in Africa has often been used (and is used) as a kind of "therapy" that allows family problems to dissolve and evaporate.

The third big theme is the problem of controlling natural and supernatural forces in order to achieve what you want.

Each region of the continent has its own style in art. In the western region, it is customary to pay tribute to great ancestors and make symbolic sacrifices, which greatly affects the overall picture of local art objects. In Central Africa, art is more applied, and original earthen architecture, embroidery, jewelry and leather products, and intricate hairstyles are common here. But no matter what African craftsmen create, their work is always bright and cheerful, because it is designed to sing of life!

Nowadays, African motifs are very popular all over the world. Many souvenir shops can offer African-style goods that people are happy to buy into their homes and decorate their interiors with them. Do you have something African at home?

Cup from Ledce (Czech Republic). Clay. Culture of bell-shaped goblets. Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age).

Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Their accumulations are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, on the territory of the former USSR - in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Neolithic rock art is similar to Mesolithic, but the subject matter becomes more varied.

"Hunters". Rock painting. Neolithic (?). Southern Rhodesia.

For about three hundred years, the attention of scientists was riveted to the rock, known as the "Tomsk Pisanitsa".
"Pisanitsy" refers to images painted with mineral paint or carved on the smooth surface of a wall in Siberia.
Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote:
“The prison (Verkhnetomsky prison) did not reach the edges of the Tom, a stone is large and high, and animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similarities are written on it ...”
Real scientific interest in this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by decree of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of the Tomsk petroglyphs published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy of the Tomsk inscription, but conveyed only the most general outlines of the rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that they can be seen drawings that have not survived to this day.

For hunters, deer and elk were the main source of livelihood. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the "master of the taiga" along with the bear.
The image of the elk plays the main role in the Tomsk petroglyphs: the figures are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal's body are absolutely correctly conveyed: its long massive body, a hump on its back, a heavy large head, a characteristic protrusion on the forehead, a swollen upper lip, bulging nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
In some drawings, transverse stripes are shown on the neck and body of moose.

On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, on the territory of Algeria, in a mountainous area called Tassili-Ajer, bare rocks rise in rows. Now this region is dried up by the desert wind, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, earlier in the Sahara meadows were green ...

Rock painting of the Bushmen. Neolithic.
- Sharpness and accuracy of drawing, grace and grace.
- A harmonious combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
- The swiftness of gestures, movements.

The small plastic of the Neolithic acquires, as well as painting, new subjects.

"Man Playing the Lute". Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.

The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, also penetrated small plastic arts.

Schematic representation of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisart. Department of the Marne. France.

Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.

conclusions

Mesolithic and Neolithic rock art
It is not always possible to draw a precise line between them.
But this art is very different from the typically Paleolithic:
- Realism, accurately fixing the image of the beast as a target, as a cherished goal, is replaced by a broader view of the world, the image of multi-figured compositions.
- There is a desire for harmonic generalization, stylization and, most importantly, for the transfer of movement, for dynamism.
- In the Paleolithic there was a monumentality and inviolability of the image. Here - liveliness, free fantasy.
- In the images of a person, a desire for grace appears (for example, if we compare the Paleolithic "Venuses" and the Mesolithic image of a woman collecting honey, or Neolithic Bushman dancers).

Small plastic:
- There are new stories.
- Greater craftsmanship and mastery of craft, material.

Achievements

Paleolithic
- Lower Paleolithic
> > fire taming, stone tools
- Middle Paleolithic
> > out of Africa
- Upper Paleolithic
> > sling

Mesolithic
- microliths, bow, canoe

Neolithic
- Early Neolithic
> > agriculture, animal husbandry
- Late Neolithic
> > ceramics

Eneolithic (Copper Age)
- metallurgy, horse, wheel

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with an improvement in the processing of metals such as copper and tin obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them.
The Bronze Age succeeded the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but different cultures are different.
Art is becoming more diverse, spreading geographically.

Bronze was much easier to work than stone and could be molded and polished. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, all kinds of household items were made, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted mostly of circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Particular attention was paid to jewelry - they were large in size and immediately caught the eye.

The real Louvre in the Kalahari Desert is called the ancient murals preserved in Botsavan. Some historians claim that the drawings in the mountains of Tsodilo, consisting of four hills, were created over 100 thousand years. In these places, more than 4.5 thousand images have been preserved on an area of ​​10 square kilometers.

Three hills have their own name: Man, Woman and Child. Bushmen say about the fourth nameless hill that it is a woman abandoned by a man. Most of the drawings were found on the female hill, but the rest of the mountains are also rich in images. The most famous place is the Lawrence Panel.

In total, scientists have discovered about 400 places.

There are drawings made in red and white paint. Red paint was prepared from iron oxide, rubbing it into a fine dust. In the white paint, the examination revealed particles of bird droppings, silicate and zinc. The white paintings are younger, depicting humans and domesticated goats. The discovery of a drawing of a whale on a male rock was shocking, because the Bushmen are not a sea people.

There are attempts to convey the three-dimensionality of the world, starting with silhouette drawings. Gradually, over the years, the lines become clearer, fine details are drawn in more detail. Now it is impossible to say for what purpose the ancient artists put on stone, people, incomprehensible signs. Perhaps these are messages to other hunters, perhaps symbols of some beliefs or memories of past times when there was water and a lot of game in these places.

At the foot of Tsodilo, in a small village, tribes still live, whose ancient ancestors belong to the drawings on the rocks. Modern kungs even now believe that they were inscribed by the gods. People consider places of rock art to be sacred and do not approach without reverent awe.

They get to the Tsodilo area by jeeps or a small plane. Near the mountains there is a campground and an airstrip.

Tsodilo rock art: video

The stone python cave in the Tsodilo Mountains is considered the oldest cult place on the planet. The ancient Bushmen believed that a huge python created their world. Naturally, they took for a deity a stone likeness of the head and body of a snake in a cave. The head of the statue is 2 meters high and 6 meters wide. The back of the python is painted with drawings repeating the skin of a snake, long-necked giraffes, incomprehensible signs.

Behind the stone idol, a small room was discovered. Perhaps the priests were hiding there, imitating the whispers of the gods. Indeed, in translation into our language, the rocks are called the Whispering rocks of the Kalahari. All these facts suggest that the artists were the priests themselves. For example, behind the beliefs of the Bushmen, the neck of a giraffe is a ladder to the sky, along which rain descends. The image of giraffes could be a request for rain, a sacred message from the gods for the ancient Bushmen.

Tsodilo: photo

3 - Features of the art of the Bushmen

The South African Bushmen, "the unfortunate children of the present," as Fritsch called them, in spite of their lighter complexion, are in no way superior to the Australians, but differ from them both in body color and in some other features.

The national weapon of this "most determined, one-sided and dexterous hunting tribe we know of" (Ratzel) is the bow and arrow, which the Australians lack.

Jewelry in the Bushmen tribes.

Jewelry, among which already colored glass beads, as well as iron arrowheads, play their role, Bushmen receive from dark-skinned neighbors who have reached a higher level of development. Instead of scarring patterns that would not stand out against their fair skin, they use a real tattoo, but they make only insignificant strokes and stripes that never form real patterns. The construction of huts is even more difficult for the Bushmen than for the Australians; they usually live in caves and under rock canopies, in the mountains, there is no need to talk about their geometric images, since decorative art hardly exists among them at all.

Drawings and rock carvings among the Bushmen

But for all that, it is among the Bushmen that we see the most striking examples of the representation of animals, which we generally find among prehistoric and primitive peoples. Their drawings and paintings on the rocks surpass those of Australia in size, variety and craftsmanship.

The art of stone carving of the Bushmen tribes.

“Not a single tribe of South Africa, up to the interior of Central Africa,” said Golub, “had reached such an art of working stone as the Bushmen showed. The Bushman dispersed his boredom by carving on stone, producing it with stone tools; using the same tools , he decorated his extremely unpretentious dwellings, proved his artistic abilities and created monuments for himself that will last longer than what other local tribes have done. In some places where the Bushmen now live or formerly lived, at every step there are images made by them on blocks of roadside rocks, at the entrances to caves, on steep cliff walls, and such points decorated with images extend approximately from the Cape of Good Hope through the entire Cape Colony. far beyond the Orange River. As in Australia, these images are illuminated with red and yellowish ocher colors, to which are added black and white; the drawings are executed on a light background of a rock or are hollowed out in contours on a dark rock with a stone harder than they are. Most often there are single figures of African animals, such as ostriches, elephants, giraffes, rhinos and various types of antelopes, as well as domestic bulls and, in modern times, horses and dogs. People are also depicted, and the figures of Bushmen, Kaffirs and whites retain their characteristic features. Images of animals are found in thousands, one next to the other. One and the same animal the artist, as if for the sake of exercise, reproduces an uncountable number of times, and the images are arranged in rows; sometimes, when it comes to scenes of hunting, fighting, military campaigns and expeditions for prey, people and animals are mixed in the same picture. The most famous image published by Andrey, which was copied by the French missionary Dieterlen in a cave, located two kilometers from the missionary station of Hermon (Fig. 39): Bushmen stole their herds of bulls from Kaffirs; the herd is driven to the left, the kaffirs, armed with spears and shields, rush after the robbers, who turn around and shower their long-legged enemies with a cloud of arrows. How clearly expressed here is the difference between the tall, dark-skinned Kaffirs and the stocky, light-skinned Bushmen! How well and truly the running cattle is drawn! How beautifully and vividly the whole incident is presented! But there is just as little perspective removal and distribution of light and shadows here as in the drawings of the Australians. With regard to all other images of this kind, copied or brought to Europe, we must say that the reports of Hutchinson and Buettner about the existence of perspective images among the Bushmen are based on a misunderstanding. Individual animals, drawn in the form of silhouettes, appear completely in profile. To be convinced of this, those drawings that, thanks to Golub, entered the Vienna Court Museum and the Karlsruhe collection, are enough.

The African Bushmen are the most ancient representatives of the human race. And this is not an assumption at all, but a scientifically proven fact. Who are these ancient people?

The Bushmen are a group of hunting tribes in South Africa. Now these are the remains of a large ancient African population. Bushmen are notable for their short stature, wide cheekbones, narrow slit eyes and much swollen eyelids. It is difficult to determine the true color of their skin, because in the Kalahari they are not allowed to waste water on washing. But you can see that they are much lighter than their neighbors. Their skin tone is slightly yellowish, which is more typical for South Asians.

Young bushwomen are considered the most beautiful among the female population of Africa. But as soon as they reach puberty and become mothers, these beauties are simply unrecognizable. Bushmen women have overdeveloped hips and buttocks, and their belly is constantly swollen. This is a consequence of malnutrition. To distinguish a pregnant Bushwoman from other women of the tribe, she is smeared with ashes or ocher. By appearance this is very difficult to do. Bushmen men already by the age of 35 become like octogenarians, due to the fact that their skin sags and the body is covered with deep wrinkles.

Life in the Kalahari is very harsh, but even here there are laws and regulations. The most important wealth in the desert is water. There are old people in the tribe who know how to find water. In the place that they indicate, the representatives of the tribe either dig wells or bring water out with the help of plant stems. Each Bushman tribe has a secret well, which is carefully filled with stones or covered with sand. During the dry season, the Bushmen dig a hole at the bottom of a dried-up well, take a stem of a plant, suck water through it, taking it into their mouths, and then spit it out into the shell of an ostrich egg.
Bushmen don't know what private property is. All animals and plants growing on their territory are considered common. Therefore, they hunt both wild animals and farm cows. For this they were very often punished and destroyed by entire tribes. Nobody wants such neighbors.

Among the Bushmen tribes, shamanism is very popular. They do not have leaders, but there are elders and healers who not only cure diseases, but also communicate with spirits. Bushmen are very afraid of the dead, and firmly believe in the afterlife. They pray to the sun, moon, stars. But they do not ask for health or happiness, but for success in hunting.

Bushman tribes speak Khoisan languages ​​which are very difficult for Europeans to pronounce. A characteristic feature of these languages ​​is clicking consonants. The representatives of the tribe speak among themselves very quietly. This is a long-standing habit of hunters - so as not to scare the game.

Now the Bushmen are not engaged in painting, they are great in dance, music, pantomime and legends. But there is confirmed evidence that a hundred years ago they were engaged in drawing. Rock paintings depicting people and various animals are still found in the caves: buffaloes, gazelles, birds, ostriches, antelopes, crocodiles. There are also unusual fairy-tale characters here: monkey people, eared snakes, people with a crocodile face. There is an entire open-air gallery in the desert that presents these amazing drawings by unknown artists.

Cave drawings.

Interesting videos about the life of the Bushmen.

Ritual of the Bushmen tribe. Part 1.

Location: South Africa, Namibia. Shamanic ritual rite of healing of the Bushmen tribe.

Bushmen extract tree honey