On the relationship between sound, acoustics, and San rock art: An archaeoacoustic study at twenty-seven sites in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains (South Africa)

Abstract

• First systematic archaeoacoustic study of San rock art sites in the Maloti-Drakensberg. • The relationship between sound, acoustics and San rock art is circumstantial. • San’s ontological beliefs may have guided the choice of shelters to be painted. Over the past two decades, scholars have proposed the existence of a strong relationship between sound, acoustics, and the production of San rock art in certain places. However, this intriguing hypothesis had never been tested through the systematic application of a rigorous method to a substantial sample of sites. In this paper, we present an unprecedented archaeoacoustic study conducted at 27 shelters with San paintings located in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains (South Africa). The results obtained through the use of the impulse response (IR) method indicate that such a relationship should not be considered a pattern, but a circumstantial occurrence identified only in specific parts of the South African territory. Drawing on these data, we suggest that in our study area, the choice of sites to be painted may have been predominantly influenced by ontological beliefs concerning how the San perceived the shelters and the surrounding landscape.