ABSTRACT
Driekopseiland, one of South Africa's most extraordinary and renowned rock engraving sites, has puzzled researchers for more than a century. Recent PIXE analysis of pottery samples suggests that here and elsewhere in the Northern Cape, pottery assemblages and other aspects of material culture are by no means a straightforward reflection of social entities such as ethnic or even techno-economic groupings. In his review of the 'non-representational' engravings and finger paintings of the Northern Cape, Fock suggested that some of the kinds of images might "indicate water or rain or have some connection with puberty ceremonies". Twentieth-century accounts of puberty rites in the Northern Cape are an indication of how elements in the rituals transcended time, tribe and ethnicity. Suggestive statements by Hoff's informants in the Northern Cape in the 20th century indicated the water snake as a 'doctor', echoing Hahn's earlier record of snake 'sorcerers' in Namibia.
